Despite recently stating Far Cry 6 will not be making a political statement, an open letter has been posted by Ubisoft opening with the line “Our story is political.”
The letter comes from Far Cry 6 narrative director Navid Khavari, who recently hosted the gameplay reveal for the game a few days back. It mentions the various conversations the game will attempt to have through its open-world shooting gameplay. Khavari also discusses what inspired the team to write this particular story, which includes the current issues in Cuba.
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Khavari details his approach in creating a diverse team who personally know the history and culture of the regions that inspired Far Cry 6‘s fictional Caribbean setting of Yara. This also includes the perspectives of those who fought in the late 1950s and early 1960s that were garnered through conversations and research the team had conducted.
Here is the full letter from Khavari as posted by Ubisoft:
“Our story is political.
A story about a modern revolution must be. There are hard, relevant discussions in Far Cry 6 about the conditions that lead to the rise of fascism in a nation, the costs of imperialism, forced labor, the need for free-and-fair elections, LGBTQ+ rights, and more within the context of Yara, a fictional island in the Caribbean. My goal was to empower our team to be fearless in the story we were telling, and we worked incredibly hard to do this over the last five years. We also tried to be very careful about how we approached our inspirations, which include Cuba, but also other countries around the world that have experienced political revolutions in their histories.
In our approach we made sure to seek creators and collaborators for our team who can speak personally to the history and cultures of the regions we were inspired by. We also brought on experts and consultants to examine the game story multiple times over the course of the project to make sure it was being told with sensitivity. It is not for me to decide if we succeeded, but I can say we absolutely tried.
The conversations and research done on the perspectives of those who fought revolutions in the late 1950s, early 1960s, and beyond are absolutely reflected in our story and characters. But if anyone is seeking a simplified, binary political statement specifically on the current political climate in Cuba, they won’t find it. I am from a family that has endured the consequences of revolution. I have debated revolution over the dinner table my entire life. I can only speak for myself, but it is a complex subject that should never be boiled down to one quote.
What players will find is a story that’s point-of-view attempts to capture the political complexity of a modern, present-day revolution within a fictional context. We have attempted to tell a story with action, adventure, and heart, but that also isn’t afraid to ask hard questions. Far Cry is a brand that in its DNA seeks to have mature, complex themes balanced with levity and humor. One doesn’t exist without the other, and we have attempted to achieve this balance with care. My only hope is that we are willing to let the story speak for itself first before forming hard opinions on its political reflections.
Thank you for reading.”
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After the Far Cry 6 gameplay reveal, an interview with Khavari from online video game publication TheGamer indicated that the game is inherently political but is not some sort of commentary on Cuba specifically.
“But we also fell in love with the culture and the people we met,” says Khavari in reference to the actual guerilla fighters they interviewed for Far Cry 6. “When we came out of that, it wasn’t that we felt we had to do Cuba, we realized it’s a complicated island and our game doesn’t want to make a political statement about what’s happening in Cuba specifically.”
Far Cry 6 will launch on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Google Stadia, and PC on October 7.