Got a big video dump from Far Cry 5 today. I say "dump" in a good way. These videos look at, let's just say, what the weather has been like in Big Sky Country Montana. "The Last Best Place," as one of the state's unofficial mottos goes, has been invaded by some wing nut religious fanatics. But the locals? The locals ain't havin' it.
The "First Details" video (above) features Dan Hay, the gravely voiced executive producer of Far Cry 5. He talks about his slightly strange vision of having some folks being behind him in some bar somewhere in rural America, the conversation talking about the crazy, local, dangerous rumors going around town, and having those rumors be true. Hay wants to know if those rumors could be true (or something like that), and if Far Cry could make those rumors come to life.
So then we have the Official Announce trailer (above). You can hear Joseph Seed, "The Father," narrating, "Something is coming. You can feel it, can't you?" And this is how all the trouble began for the folks up in Fall's End, Hope County, Montana. There's a religious leader stating that The End Is Nigh, whipping the normally okay folks of Fall's End up into a fervor, baptizing everyone into this new religious order whether they want to or not. That's not exactly what I'd call religious freedom. then you hear the steady plunking of a guitar, starting up a verse of "This Land is Your Land," but with a philosophical bent toward the idea that this is, in fact, my land.
So now, we've got "The Resistance: Mary May" (above). She's the first of three resistance leaders in Far Cry 5. What you'll notice about all three of them is that they've had friends, family, and loved ones taken from them by this invasive religious cult. Mary May took over her dad's bar when he was murdered by the cult. Now she's turning the tavern into a Molotov cocktail manufacturing plant. If the cult wants some baptism by fire, Mary May is gonna bring it.
Then there's Pastor Jerome Jeffries (above), also of the resistance. Like I said, everyone in the resistance has already had a lot—if not everything—taken from them by the cult. Pastor Jerome Jeffries had his own flock scattered. The regular Fall's End church had been targeted by the cult, and now there's only wreckage where folks used to simply come on a Sunday morning to sings some hymns. But the pastor ain't havin' it either. He may still be donning the armor of God, but he's also got a flak jacket and a shotgun. The time for turning the other cheek is over.
Finally, we've got Nick Rye (above). He's got his family on his mind, but he also just became the de facto Air Force of the resistance movement. He didn't ask for this either. But he's not going to raise his unborn child in an oppressive, un-American socio-politico-religio landscape. In fact, he's got a minigun mounted to his pontoonplane that explains at 2,000 rounds per minute how Nick Rye is going to get Hope County back to the way it used to be.
I personally don't know if Far Cry 5 is going to be the best sounding board for these very real issues of extremism in America. In fact, after I saw the key art from Wednesday, I wasn't sure I wanted to have anything further to do with these themes. I happen to live in southern Oregon, just a few hours' drive away from last year's occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge by armed militants. Far Cry 5 is casting various shades of that headline. I also happen to serve on the security detail at my local church, ensuring nobody gets weird—and trust me, some people get weird. Plus I grew up in small-town White America, where some people flew full-sized Confederate flags from their pickup trucks with rifles mounted in the rear window. A lot of this imagery is hitting a little too close to home for me. It makes me nervous. Some people turn to Amnesia or P.T. for their horror. Not me. Religious fanatics in a very real Americana-baked countryside is my Resident Evil. So, we'll see where Far Cry 5 takes its very Far Cry formula with this one. I'm already scared.
