It might seem like I’m making a big deal out of a small lapse in logic here, but I’m harping on about this for a reason. Far Cry 3 indulges in many dual prejudices, simultaneously fetishising and denigrating parts of Asia and parts of the world viewed by westerners as foreign or “exotic” in general. This is the first of those dualities- south-east Asia as a hedonistic utopia where all of your base instincts are catered to, but also a dark and dangerous place waiting to swallow up any poor innocent white people who stray too far from the light. There isn’t a shred of self-awareness about this, no indication that coming to a foreign country to have sex with prostitutes (most likely worse off financially than our trust-fund heroes) is in any way exploitative, and we get the impression that treating Rook Island as their personal tropical theme park was only a bad idea because it happened to be full of pirates.

Worse, the basic plot of Far Cry 3 indulges in the same hideous fantasy as games like the latest Call of Juarez and films like Taken- the portrayal of human trafficking as the phenomenon of westerners (invariably white westerners) being sold into sexual slavery by scary brown/foreign people. Often there’s an element of US martyr complex in there as well, as the villains take particular delight in tormenting poor innocent Americans. Far Cry 3 follows this trope to a T. We see other captives in the background and it’s implied people who aren’t white are being victimized by the pirates every bit as badly but nope, they don’t matter. White people from Californ-i-a are in trouble, so everyone else can just go fuck themselves I guess.

Let’s move onto the original inhabitants of the Island, the Rakyat. Here we come to the second of those dualities I mentioned, the glorification of other cultures (again, particularly those considered “exotic”) as being simpler and more down to Earth than the decadent West, a place where our hero can cast off the problems holding him or her back to become the person they were always meant to be. Probably the most recognizable form of this in the real world is the whole weeaboo phenomenon, people, usually young people, who watch a little anime or practice martial arts and then go a little too far with the GLORIOUS NIPPON DESU bullshit. It’s embarrassing to watch because these people are only engaging with the culture on the most superficial level, creating a fantasy version of the country that probably won’t survive contact with reality. In fiction the big example that should come to mind is Avatar, wherein our marine protagonist finds his life’s purpose in a thinly veiled metaphor for Native American culture, even going so far as to switch species at the end of the movie.

Now the duality here is that while the adopted culture may be held up as preferable to the culture the protagonist comes from, maybe even inherently superior, it can never be allowed to dominate the hero in any way. The main character will never have to accept aspects of his (it’s usually a he) new home that he might find distasteful, nor will he ever have any of his own beliefs or cultural preconceptions challenged. And of course, the hero will inevitably rise to an important and respected position in this new-found home, if not becoming its leader or even saviour. In order to achieve this the adopted culture is kept as bland and vague as possible, usually some sort of basic notion of a noble warrior culture that can be easily slotted into the hero’s pre-existing mindset with no trouble. Far Cry 3 goes a step further by simply not giving the Rakyat any culture at all. They’re a lazy blend of Micronesian, Maori and Hawaiian visual tropes with Australian accents for God only knows what reason. The extant of their culture is a lot of guff about “the path” and “finding the center” and how “power comes from the jungle”, with a simplistic creation myth and some vague animism being the extent of their religion. We know missionaries came to the islands and we see Rakyat mourning loved ones in front of graves with crosses on them- are some of the Rakyat Christian? Is there a blend of homegrown and imported religion going on, such as you frequently see in areas colonized by Europeans? Is their society divided on religious grounds in any way? No idea. Apparently the developers weren’t interested in those kinds of questions. The Rakyat might as well be cardboard cut-outs with INSERT EXOTIC NATIVES HERE stamped on the front.

(It’s worth noting that when the game was initially announced the civilians being terrorized appeared to just be generic Asian people without the whole tribal warrior culture thing going on, which makes me assume that this whole aspect of the game was not initially planned to be included; I sincerely wish it had stayed that way.)

As if that wasn’t bad enough, the game insists on adding a big ol’ helping of racism to the mix. The first Rakyat-owned settlement we see at the start of the game (and initially the only pirate-free region of the map) is Amanaki village, a friendly little place where Rakyat have open-air barbecues and dance all night to funky jungle music. The whole thing is way, way too close for comfort to American depictions of Africans as happy-go-lucky watermelon eating simpletons. Later we go to the other extreme with Badtown (really), a shanty town full of prostitutes and strung-out junkies loitering the filth-encrusted streets. Because that’s not a stereotype or anything. This part particularly reminded me of negative views some white Australians have of Aboriginal people. Apparently Ubisoft was doing some sort of world tour of racism when they made this game. At least they never denigrate mainland Asia. Oh wait, the only Thai people in the flashbacks to Bangkok are prostitutes and violent pimps. Well, let’s see….. Inuit? There are no Inuit stereotypes in the game, right? I guess that will have to wait for Far Cry 4: Path of The Narwhal.

Now that we’ve established that the developers of this game are racist as all get out, let’s turn to our hero, James Bond Jason Bourne Jason Brody. I

While we’re talking about the game’s few female characters, I should mention that far Cry 3, in my limited view anyway, avoids any out and out misogyny, mostly by virtue of not featuring very many women. Citra is blatent masturbation fodder, but that’s so par for the course in video games it’s hard to get worked up over any one example all that much. In fact Jason’s two female friends- the escapee I mentioned previously and his long-suffering girlfriend- are probably the most likable characters in the game, level-headed and mature to the point that I would much rather have been playing as one of them than our Goku-haired hero up there. But I guess we couldn’t have that, since adult women don’t play video games and all. Gotta pander to the teen boy crowd that makes up 100% of the game-buying demographic.

Forty-seven percent of all players are women, and women over 18 years of age are one of the industry’s fastest growing demographics.
Today, adult women represent a greater portion of the game-playing population (30 percent) than boys age 17 or younger (18 percent)

Oh wait.

Having plumbed the deaths of racism, what other bigoted water could Ubisoft steer the good ship Far Cry 3 into? How about homophobia? Yeah, there’s a gay character in Far Cry 3. He locks one of Jason’s friends in his basement and rapes him repeatedly. It’s both the game’s most utterly repellent moment and also by far the most grimdark aspect of the plot, and it comes directly after a ludicrous fetch quest in which you spend an hour or so using a magic Chinese compass to find an ancient stone dagger. Which the rapist dude wants, in exchange for your friend’s freedom.

You use a magic compass to find an ancient dagger for a rapist. A gay rapist who wears short shorts and who has a giant tattoo of a deer and a flaming heart on his chest. Because he’s named Buck.

This is an actual thing that happens in Far Cry 3.

How about a side order of jingoism? As part of the game’s revolving door of forgettable sidekicks you at one point find yourself working for a paranoid CIA agent under deep cover in Badtown (LAWL). It turns out the game’s wiki-like handbook of people, places, weapons etc you encounter in the game is being written by him, and it’s chock full of disparaging non-humour about refugees and immigrants, in between hi-larious jokes about the author’s ex-wife. That shit is still funny, right? There’s no irony to any of this, no hint that we’re supposed to disagree with Mr. Aviator Sunglasses and his American essentialism. It’s literally just MEXICAN BORDER FENCES AM I RITE, as though there’s something inherently funny about illegal immigration and the people who do it.

There’s more. I could talk about how the game ham-fistedly tries to point out what a raging douchebag Jason is while still uncritically engaging in testosterone fueled male wish fulfillment fantasy. But this is starting to run long, and I think it’s time to ask the pertinent question- why? Why put out something this racist, jingoistic and homophobic? What could Ubisoft Montreal possibly have been thinking?