vendredi 26 mai 2017

Far Cry 5 Will Almost Certainly Be Divisive


Watch out, David Letterman: Far Cry is coming to Big Sky Country.

Far Cry 5 is almost certainly going to get talked about by the mainstream news media. Whether that idea excites you, annoys you, or something else is up to you. But Far Cry is going places that no big-budget, AAA-level game has gone in recent times, if ever.

You play a sheriff’s deputy caught up in a war between the US Marshal Service and Hope County’s resident cult leader, Joseph – a man who believes he’s been chosen to protect his followers from a government collapse he believes to be imminent – and his family: brothers Jacob and John and their half-sister, Faith. You won’t be alone, of course. Joining you in the battle for Hope County’s soul are potential allies like Pastor Jerome, whose church has come under fire by Joseph’s group; Mary May, whose father was killed by the cult; and Nick Rye, a pilot and soon-to-be father who wants to follow in the footsteps of his father and grandfather, who both fought for the US.

It’s Far Cry 5’s subtext of “us versus them” and Americans shooting other Americans in defiance (or defense) of the US government that seems bound to spark partisan-fueled conversation on social media, regardless of the gameplay quality – although creative director Dan Hay disagrees.

“It's not a story that's supposed to teach you about something specific about politics,” he told me. “I think that it's strong enough and it stands on its own that when you go in and you play it, and you have the experience of somebody who's just echoing the sentiment that right now, the world is a little bit off.”

I asked Hay if he was worried about the game being politicized because of that “us vs. them” mentality:

“The key for us is to make sure that when we build our world, we populate it with characters that have their own views,” he explained. “And those views compete. You go out into the world, and even when you think about the conversation between [two characters in the beginning of the game]...you're listening to this and you're like 'Who's right? Who is the person you should follow in this? Who's right?' And the answer is, It's not clear. [Ed. note: We don’t know yet if you’ll be able to make these kinds of moral decisions during the course of the game.] The world is sometimes messy and sometimes bumpy and filled with opinions. And if we do it right, we will build a world that has the same thing.”

My first brief glimpse suggested that Far Cry 5 is doing enough in the gameplay department to get its due attention on merit alone. I didn’t get to see much of the actual game running during Hay’s passionate pre-E3 Judges’ Week presentation; it was more tell than show for now, at least until E3. But what I did see was exactly what I’d want to see from a new-gen Far Cry: a vast rural sprawl that is equally gorgeous and enormous. Semi trucks, sports cars, tractors, and planes – all drivable. Abnormal weapons like pitchforks and picks (put to predictably gruesome use in the gameplay snippets I saw). And my favorite new feature so far: dogs. Yes, you can now get a canine pet to help you survive the wilds, and your pup can not only attack, but he can even pick up weapons off of dead bodies and bring them to you. WHO’S A GOOD M16-RETRIEVING BOY?

Ultimately, maybe Far Cry 5’s theme bothers you. Maybe it doesn’t. Maybe in these politically charged times you don’t want your escapist entertainment to remind you of real-world issues. Maybe you don’t care. Either way, Far Cry 5 is almost certainly going to get a reaction out of you. And isn’t that what the last couple numbered Far Cry games have been building towards?

Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s Executive Editor of Previews and Xbox Guru-in-Chief. Follow him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan, catch him on Unlocked, and drop-ship him Taylor Ham sandwiches from New Jersey whenever possible.

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