FAR CRY 6: IT IS USELESS TO RESIST
This essay contains spoilers for Far Cry 6
For all of its bombastic flair, confident swagger, and funhouse style mad-cappery, Far Cry 6 is an anxious game. It is a game which highlights the problems inherent to trying to say something in a mass media format intended to appeal to all audiences. But, when it does decide that it is time to say something real, Far Cry 6 cannot decide what side it is on except for a deeply cynical core belief: Revolutions will never end, because revolutions are pointless. No one who seeks power can be trusted, and those who would depose someone in power are similarly suspect. The only thing which can be trusted in Far Cry 6 is violence, and violence will never let you down.Â
At times both leftist and wildly conservative, Far Cry avoids coming to direct, didactic conclusions about the future of its fictional Latin American island nation, Yara, preferring instead to sit in its profound anxiety regarding the nature of revolution and revolutionary figures. Far Cry 6 offers often contradictory messaging and a bleak, nearly hopeless vision of the future of revolution.
This collection of conflicting ideas is most apparent in the gameâs cast of characters, many of whom primarily express a desire to fight above all other causes.Â
The gameâs protagonist does much to focus the games themes primarily around what it means to be a revolutionary figure. Far Cry 6 is a bombastic, tonally diverse, game full of chaotic energy and hardline idealogues. It often comes as a surprise therefore, that its main character Dani Rojas, flits about her allegiances and beliefs throughout the narrative, resolving her (the game allows you to play a male or female version of the character, but I played through as female) story with little more than a shrug regarding what they thinks should happen next, and a commitment only to continuing to inflict guerrilla style violence regardless of who is in charge.
Dani begins her narrative as a typical reluctant hero. Though they are no stranger to violence, having served for a short time in the hyper-oppressive Yaran military, Dani dreams only of leaving the island as soon as they can with her friend to open a mechanic shop in the US. It is only after her friends are slaughtered in front of her by the nationâs brutal dictator, Anton Castillo, that Dani begins to consider a life as the muscle behind the revolutionary Clara Garcia and her ragtag resistance, Libertad.
Dani is a different style of character than the franchiseâs previous entry, Far Cry 5, in which the player embodies a nameless deputy with no discernable personality beyond what the player imbues themselves. Dani, by contrast is given miles of script, painting a picture of an often standoffish, serious, foul mouthed, and mistrustful individual who becomes a loving, compassionate, and devoted friend when the ice has been broken through. Critically, Dani never offers any beliefs beyond what is immediately in front of her. Dani does not believe in Libertadâs political goals, hell, they are barely even aware of those goals might be. But Dani does believe in Clara Garcia, and in her journey, believes in the strength of several other characters they recruit to the cause.Â
Daniâs allegiance to Clara also hinges on Claraâs own ambivalence about revolution. Clara has many ideas about how things should be run - her propaganda regarding her plans and her grievances with Anton are surprisingly detailed and can be gathered in pamphlets throughout Yara, the gameâs form of environmental storytelling. However, Clara tells Dani that she believes she will likely die before the fight is over, that she will never see the future that she is hoping to create. Dani is swayed ultimately by this promise, âfight for me because I do not want power, because I am honest about not knowing what happens after.âÂ
There are some ways in which Dani is still ultimately a product of how the player would like to embody her. In what is considered a joke ending by many, at any time beyond the gameâs introductory tutorial Island, Dani is free to leave Yara by hopping in any boat or plane and flying beyond the countryâs borders. Doing so will trigger a scene in which Dani is enjoying a cocktail on the beach in Florida, while listening to a news report about the death of Clara Garcia and the end of Libertad. In the open world genre, which emphasizes choice, it is interesting that this game includes the choice to leave the conflict as an explicit win condition for Dani. But it also, potentially reflects Daniâs ongoing ambivalence. Daniâs commitment to Libertad is only as strong as the players.Â
The gameplay is familiar to the Far Cry franchise. Armed with that belief and an assortment of comically violent animals, and an absurdly large arsenal of mega weapons known as Supremos provided by Daniâs mentor and foil, Juan Cortez, Dani begins her rampage across Yara. Framed as recruitment efforts of Yaraâs most influential potential rebels to join the cause of Libertad, Dani is enlisted to kill hundreds, possibly thousands of Yaran soldiers, clearing checkpoints and capturing military bases. These actions, in conjunction with missions specific to each region, endear several important groups to join Libertad and march on Anton Castilloâs stronghold of Esperanza. They also usually result in the death of Antonâs most trusted generals, which Dani carries out specifically with the goal of revenge for atrocities inflicted on Yarans generally as well as her friends.
These victories come at cost, however. By the end of the game, Libertad has won, but Clara Garcia is dead, and Daniâs extensive contributions to Libertad make herthe necessary leader. While Dani has been very successful at recruitment for Libertad, Dani has not actually picked up any significant convictions or beliefs about what should happen next, and abdicates power immediately after winning their revolution. âThey will never hold free electionsâ, Juan Cortez remarks to Dani after they leave control of the country up to her revolutionary allies, a sentiment that Dani readily agrees with.Â
Cortez himself is a deeply ambivalent character, who fully confesses that his only interest is in violence and fighting. Cortez warns Dani constantly that she will end up just like him eventually - a premonition that will indeed come to past although she protests. Cortez and Dani take on some of the dirty work needed for the revolution so their leader, Clara, can keep her hands clean. This includes working with the CIA to overthrow Castillo; a realistic but also shocking acceptance of imperialist help that not even Anton Castillo, the gameâs protagonist, would have stooped to. In the end, Cortez only finds himself at odds with Dani over one issue, namely whether or not Antonâs son, Diego, should be kept alive. Even this is not enough to permanently come between them, however.Â
Daniâs journey represents a strongly held ambivalence that there will ever be a meaningful end to violence. As the gameâs resident poet remarks, âRevolution is over when we all are free.â Such an end will not come at the end of this game, and following its logic, should never have been expected. Dani believes in people, but not people in power - a wholly contradictory stance to take from one who takes power through such profound amounts of force. Dani is a defacto anarchist in many senses, but professes no allegiance to that as a philosophy. Dani has no ideas about what should happen next, and is annoyed with people who do. In the end, all Dani wants to do is keep fighting.Â
Daniâs arc, the change she progresses through the story, is not to come to any sense of beliefs about the future, but rather to become an almost mythic legend of the Yaran people. Far Cry 6 is as much about the invention and concept of folk heroes as it is about revolution - Dani taking on the mantle of another mentor, El Tigre, a âLegend of 67ââ that takes her under his wing. To emphasize this point, through a long but easily achievable quest that connects Dani directly to the indigenous peoples and religions of Yara, Dani is eventually blessed by the gods of Yara and given a panther guardian and the ability to shoot through walls. Compared with Far Cry 5âs Junior Deputy, Dani is essentially a demi-god of death by the gameâs conclusion, her exploits wholly unbelievable except that you have lived through them.Â
Dani allowing herself to take on and love the mantle of folk hero, revolutionary, guerilla, âthe lucky oneâ, is the emotional journey they complete by the gameâs end. But what does that have to do with Yara? Does it even matter, ultimately, what they fight for?Â
Of course, Far Cryâs themes are often not present in the protagonist, but in the antagonists, who after all, tend to take up the majority of space on the cover art. So, let us examine Anton.Â
Anton, played by the excellent Giancarlo Esposito, who was featured heavily in the advertising for the game, is the president of Yara and the son of its previous dictator who was killed by revolutionaries in 1967. That revolution resulted in a short lived democracy. Anton won his election by all accounts honestly, through his wealthy connections of interests, and through his close involvement in the discovery of âViviroâ, a cancer killing chemical that grows naturally in Yaran tobacco leaves, and can be enhanced greatly by the use of a chemical fertilizer that is deeply, immediately poisonous to everyone who handles it. Both Clara Garcia and Dani Rojas say they voted for him, and another revolutionary group, La Moral, is lead by someone who used to work directly with Anton to develop his technological dominance over communications throughout Yara.
After cementing his power, Anton quickly upscaled production of Viviro, which required hard and dangerous labor that would quickly kill anyone who performed it. This required the use of forced labor, which Anton employed extensively throughout Yara. Anton justifies this action by a familiar tactic of strongmen autocrats: he divides his population into true Yarans, who support him and look forward to a modern Yara with power on the world stage, and fake Yarans who seek only animalistic depravity and destruction. Anyone who Anton decides to use as forced labor is of course, retroactively a Fake Yaran who needs to be punished.Â
As mentioned previously, one of the longest quests in the game is also one which seems designed to rebuke Antonâs âtrue yaranâ claim by accepting it; becoming an even truer Yaran. Through the exploration of various caves, Dani helps return three artifacts related to the local gods of native Yaranâs - by doing so Dani unlocks two weapons to their arsenal which transform the games challenges into a breezy jaunt. The gods first bless Dani with a Supremo (super weapons normally made by Juan Cortez), that allows her to shoot through walls with a one shot killing sniper rifle for around 20 seconds a pop, more than enough time to clear an entire army base. Secondly, the gods provide Dani with a phantom panther, a powerful cat that will often clear the base for you before you even get going. By showing deep respect to the cultures and customs of the land, Dani becomes essentially a folk hero demigod; the truest Yaran there could be.Â
While this is an obvious tactic to divide his populace, reinforcing his power, Anton soes in fact divide the world into two types of people. Anton considers himself and his lineage to have a pre-ordained right to rule; in one of his longest speeches to his son, Diego, Anton reveals that he believes his family to be âlionsâ among the âsheepâ of Yara. It is this binary by which Anton is easily able to justify his decisions to enact modern slavery and widespread death on his island in the name of progress. Anton views the people of Yara as he does Viviro - resources to build the future.Â
Further informing Antonâs actions is his deep resentment of colonialism - a concept that the game in particular is very concerned with. The first shot of the intro sequence is of a menacing crocodile eyeing the arrival of spanish conquistadors, deftly introducing the games major concept that Yara is a place of endless, centuries long conflict between oppressors and the oppressed. As in Far Cry 5, what we are presented with is a funhouse mirror version of reality. There, it was a distortion of the populism of Trump, the growth of the evangelical right, and the opioid Epidemic, a stew resulting in a dangerous and mystical cult. Here, the funhouse mirror is turned on Latin American revolutionaries and dictators in Cuba and Venezuela.Â
Anton, like all Yarans, seeks to end this conflict permanently on the side of the oppressor; creating a state of such wealth and prosperity that not even invaders and imperialists will ever threaten it again, let alone revolutionaries from within. In particular, Anton makes it a point to not provide Viviro to Americans, and taunts journalists who question this move by pointing out the inherent hypocrisy of Americans who question his use of slaves. America built its wealth and prosperity on the blood of slaves and conflict, and continues to do so throughout the world; to Anton, this is simply how prosperity is accomplished. Why should Yara be held to higher moral standards? The lions would agree, it is the only the sheep who would have a real problem with this, and who cares about the sheep?Â
One might notice a distinct similarity between Dani and Anton from this description; neither has any real political beliefs or convictions beyond the belief that through violence is the path forward. Like Dani, Anton Castillo is a contradictory figure. Deeply egotistical and self interested, and at the same time, deeply and seemingly selflessly concerned with the fate of Yara as a prosperous, independent nation. He is a student of history and intensely interested in revolution, but convinced that he will never be overthrown after committing countless atrocities throughout the nation. Often, Antonâs characterization seems overstuffed; a mish mash of every popular conception and angle on Fidel Castro. Anton does not represent what such people are really like or what their goals might be; rather, he is the amalgamation of every American idea of what such a person is like, informed by Americaâs own insecurities about themselves and who they are. Why does Anton seek power? Because he believes it is who he *is*. There is no reason beyond that which seems very interesting to him.Â
One of the tragic failures of Far Cry 6 is that the imperialist phone call is coming from inside the house; this is not a story about Latin America. Ultimately this is an expression of US anxieties about itself, transposed on a fictional island where the characters all speak spanish for flavor, and english to be understood.Â
Diego is the son of Anton, first introduced in the gameâs introduction as the direct cause of the very slaughter which inspired Dani to join Libertad. With the help of a servant, Diego begins the game attempting to flee Yara. It is not revealed exactly what spurred his escape, but through his reactions to his fatherâs various atrocities, it is clear that he feels a moral disgust with the happenings in Yara under his fatherâs rule, and a basic unwillingness to continue his fatherâs work.Â
There is some ambiguity to this however. Through various cut scenes, we see Anton begin to have more influence over his sonâs worldview, coaxing him to become more comfortable with murder and applying a sense of entitlement to his position. How much of this success is a true transformation of Diego, and how much of this is a survival tactic is left deliberately uncertain. What is clear by the end of the game, however, is that Anton considers Diegoâs life to only be worthy if Diego can be formed in Anton. This is a fact that Diego is distinctly aware of.Â
Diegoâs mother is a white woman who is the media face of Antonâs propaganda arm. While their relationship continues behind the scenes, the public only has rumors to substantiate Diegoâs parenthood. Why Anton chooses to lie about Diegoâs mother is not spelled out, but it would expose some hypocrisy to Antonâs supposed righteous anger towards the white imperialist world. When she is killed on live television (The result of Daniâs handiwork), Anton and Diego grieve in solemn and angry silence.Â
Dani remains an influence on Diego as well. During a failed assassination attempt on Anton, Dani stumbles across Diego, whom she unthinkingly spares; he in turn helps her escape capture by directing her towards Antonâs garage. A bond is immediately formed between the pair - one which is challenged by all of Daniâs compatriots, who urge her to kill Diego whenever she may next get the chance. This bond is further strengthened when Dani is captured and tortured, and is once again saved by Diegoâs intervention.Â
Daniâs attempts to protect Diego can most effectively be read as one in which she is keeping the last vestiges of her humanity. By not seeing a âCastilloâ in the place of a confused child attempting to survive a dark world, Daniâs soul remains committed to the idea of a better future, though she is unclear about what that might look like. This is contrasted, it must be reiterated, against Daniâs otherwise extremely judicious use of violence throughout the rest of the game.Â
And so it is set up for the perfect catharsis: Two opposing forces, both committed to the use of extreme and unrepentant violence to achieve their ends, attempting to win the heart of a powerful young boy who detests violence and only seeks escape. Who Diego eventually sides with will ultimately decide who will take on the future of Yara.Â
Except, thatâs not what happens. In the last moments before his death, Anton senses that Dani will never be able to protect Diego from her bloodthirsty compatriots, and kills him himself. Diego refers to Dani as âthe lucky oneâ, and passes away in her arms, echoing the last words of her friend, who also died by Antonâs hand. Daniâs extreme efforts to save Diegoâs life despite the total indifference of everyone she is fighting with, suggests that it is his death which radicalizes her to believe that fighting and revolution, as well as her part in it as a guerilla, will never end.
Further details also point to the pointlessness of the Libertad revolution; In a late game revelation, it is revealed that Anton was likely one of the first patients to be treated with Viviro, to treat his leukemia. The treatment, however, has ceased to work, creating a few implications about what might have happened in Yara had Dani and Libertad not intervened at all. Viviro eventually would have been revealed as not the miraculous cure it was purported to be, drastically changing Yaraâs potential importance on the world stage as well as the value of Antonâs moral compromises. Anton would have died regardless, leaving Diego in charge.Â
While it is left intentionally ambiguous as to what kind of leader Diego would have been as a 14 year old presidente, the glimpses we get were provided with suggesting a strong handed but compassionate dictator, with a great deal more internal conflict and moral consideration than his father had. But we will never know; a person like Diego was never going to survive long enough in this world to make it into a better one.Â
For a game that does not wish to take strong political and moral stances, Far Cry 6 occasionally takes for granted several rather conservative ideas. In a late section of the game, Dani encounters a mobster priest named Bebo, who puzzlingly tries to make a distinction between what Dani does and what he does, remarking to Dani, âyou may have killed, but you are not a killerâ, when he is threatened by her.Â
One must laugh at the absurdity of this attempted distinction; it is likely that just on the drive over to this mission, the player as Dani has casually flicked a knife out of her window while driving into the brain of a soldier on the side of the road. Dani does not just kill at a distance or in unscripted ânon-canonâ ways - the first kill they make in this game is with a machete, straight through the gushing throat of a soldado. In the sense that Dani is willing and able to kill at a momentâs notice, never expresses remorse and the killing they are required to perform, often participates in drunken celebrations after significant killing, and ends the story with the commitment to continue killing far into the future, Dani is indeed a profoundly adept and uncompromising killer.Â
So what is meant to be taken from this? In one sense, this is the instinct of the writer to keep a positive spin on the central protagonist, who is on the face, an affable enough person. For example, Dani is also very good with animals and has several animal sidekicks with varying levels of adorableness and ferocity, a classic signal of inherent goodness. A killer? Would a killer have a daschund in a wheelchair named Chorizo?
A Killer might own Chicharron however
The rights of people to commit acts based on âwho they are insideâ is the essence of conservative thinking. We see it portrayed, and indeed critiqued by the gameâs perspective, in Anton, who justifies his right to kill on his status as a Lion among Sheep. Dani, likewise, is given free moral reign to kill thousands in the name of Clara Garcia because she is a Guerilla at worst, and ânot a killerâ at best. A true Yaran can do no wrong, a fake Yaran can only do wrong. A crime is not something which is against the law: A crime is something that a criminal does. Similarly, a war crime is something a war criminal does. Dani is not a war criminal, and therefore, slaughtering thousands of people is not a war crime.
Bebo is of course, not to be taken at his word (heâs a criminal, dangit!!), and his observation is in direct opposition to the gameâs central anxiety. What if there are no good people? What if there are no good systems? What if all revolutions are simply the oppressed trading places with the oppressors in an endless cycle? How does one be moral in such a scenario, except to be a victim of it? Once war and imperialism is brought to your shores, can it ever be fixed - or does the history simply live on, as indigenous to the land as the crocodile? Daniâs brand of anarchism is an expression of this exact hopelessness: My fight will never end.Â
Log on with your friends for the next season of the FoREveR WaR
A bit of optimism. A bit.Â
 The 2021 film âOne Night in Miamiâ explores similar anxieties about revolution, in a much more powerful and thoughtful way than is achieved by Far Cry 6. Malcolm X, Mohammed Ali, Sam Cooke, and Jim Brown share a hotel on the night of Aliâs first heavyweight title victory. The night evolves quickly into impassioned arguments between Malcolm and Cooke about the right way to achieve justice and equality for Black people in America, either through militant revolution or through the systems already in place.Â
 Furious with Malcolm after constant belittling, Cooke leaves the hotel room with Ali. Drinking in their car, Ali tries to explain the value of power to Sam. âPower just means a world where weâre safe to be ourselves. To look like we want. Think like we want. Without having to answer to anybody for it. After all we put in, donât black folks deserve that much?â Here Ali explores a different version of power than one which is defined by compelling others; he speaks of power as a sense of security in oneâs place in the world.Â
This version of power is a starkly different version than the one which is explored throughout much of Far Cry 6. However, there is one character present which is of interest. Paolo de la Vega, a trans man who DJâs for the musical duo âMaximas Matanzasâ with his girlfriend, Talia, is the most reluctant member of Clara Garciaâs revolution. Like Dani, when we meet Paolo, he has a foot already off the island; he is working off a debt to Bebo for a safe trip out for he and his girlfriend. Unlike Dani, he is not so easily swayed by unclear visions of a brighter future.
After helping Paolo pay off his debts to Bebo, he is still unwilling to join Libertad - this is despite Taliaâs insistence that they use their music (and their guns!) to bring down the Castilloâs which have tortured them both. Paoloâs resistance is based on a simple fact: He does not believe that Yara will ever be accepting to trans people, regardless of who is in charge. Paolo never comes around to fully trusting Libertad; it is only his devotion to Talia which keeps him involved through to the end. It is Taliaâs belief that with the power of their music and through revolution that people like Talia and Paolo may have a future on Yara, and Paolo resigns himself to have faith in her.Â
Ultimately, Paolo and Talia understand about power the same thing that Ali does in âOne Night in Miamiâ. Power is about being allowed to be who you are. It is the closest Far Cry 6 will ever come to a real reason to fight, or optimism that things can change for the better.Â
Some have written about Far Cry 6âs lack of a revolutionary purpose as a frustrating mistake, but I do not believe that this is the case. Far Cry is a series about revolutions, shifts of power driven by enigmatic, larger than life leaders who seek to radically rebel. Far Cry 5âs spin on this was counter-revolutionary: the protagonistâs aim is to put down a dangerous and deadly cult whose religious leader has accurately prophesied the coming nuclear war, in favor of the status quo which will cause it. Far Cry 4âs examination was about the methodâs of revolution, and if meaningful steps can be taken to be compassionate and humanitarian amidst the violence necessary to overthrow an oppressive force.Â
Here in 6 however, we see a different kind of anxiety being expressed. Namely: What is the point, of all of this? What good can ever come out of violence? And what kind of âgood peopleâ could ever commit such violence in the first place? Far Cry 6 does not ultimately see a purpose in violent revolution, regardless of how heinous the powers that be are. It also doesnât offer any better ideas.Â
