After months of teasing cults and bears and arms-fetching dogs that can be healed by rubbing their tummy, Far Cry 5 arrives tomorrow. To mark the occasion, it has a launch trailer.
Cue southern accents, fantastic moustachery, crossbows and 'splosions. Lots and lots of 'splosions:
In our Far Cry 5 review in progress, Chris praises the fun and chaotic open world this one promises—"if you've played Far Cry 3 or 4, you know what you're in for"—however is less sold on its scripted missions and ambiguous real world-facing perspective.
Spoilers afoot, obviously, but here's Chris' thoughts on the game's lack of political message and social commentary so far as he's observed:
"Look at the headlines. Look who's in charge," one cult boss says, hoping to convince me that bringing about the end of the world is perfectly reasonable because the world is going to end soon anyway. Granted, this is a man who murders, kidnaps, and carves people's sins into their flesh with a knife, then cuts the flesh off and attaches it to the wall with a staple gun. He's got a point, though. The headlines sure are scary.
But apart from a few scattered lines of dialogue from characters here and there, I haven't detected much of a cohesive message or statement about politics or religion or fascism or militias or anything, really, in Far Cry 5, at least not yet. I'm sure it would be a challenge to impart a serious statement in a game containing weaponized super-bears, but it's possible the developers deliberately tried to avoid tackling deeper subjects altogether. Ubisoft didn't have any real message about spying, surveillance, and privacy issues in Watch Dogs, either, which to me felt like a missed opportunity. The same may be the case here.
Far Cry 5 is due tomorrow, March 27.