Playing as a female protagonist in Far Cry 5 feels completely out of place (very slight spoilers in text).

Before I start out, let me make it clear that this post is primarily about tonal dissonance and quality of writing of Far Cry 5 specifically. This is mostly an observation I found incredibly pervasive and striking in my time with Far Cry 5, namely that the game offers the choice between playing a male or female protagonist but the writing – in so many ways – is quite obviously written for a male character. Making the choice to play as female leaves you with the intense feeling that the game was not created for this perspective, much more than in any other game I’ve played.Despite being male, I usually prefer to play female characters when given the choice. For many reasons, among those being that tt‘s usually the road less taken which makes my playthrough always feel a bit more “special.” So, having bought Far Cry 5 without knowing too much about it, I was quite surprised that you were given a choice between a male and female character in the first place – Far Cry 3 and 4 were distincly “male” games which both catered to and criticised the typical male power fantasies. Far Cry 5, it turns out, is no different. But that’s not the main reason I regret playing as a female character. In my entire gaming career, Far Cry 5 is by far the worst game I’ve seen when it comes to even recognising your choice.In lieu of a name, other characters (both male and female) call you “man,” “bro,” “son of a bitch,” “dude” etc. In one scene, one character starts with the awkward statement apropos of nothing he “doesn’t want to assume genders” or anything but that he calls all people “dude or “man” – which would be a somewhat okay copout if he wouldn’t also call you “amigo” and other female companion “girl” without blinking twice. The same person also talks about how he wants to throw a party with you and invite (paraphrasing) “tons of hot chicks.” Female characters swoon over your heroics and male characters reference how they’re not half the person you are. And I’m not playing with subtitles, but I could swear that some enemies and even some important secondary characters refer to me as “he” and “him.”Most egrigiously, I thought, was that in a scene in which your character is interrogated, their shirt is being ripped apart to expose (presumably) the chest. If you were to play a male character, the way the scene plays out would not be extraordinary. Playing a woman, this scene feels incredibely disjointed and out-of-place in a way that was definitely not intended for reasons I can’t even put into words.You play a silent protagonist, but everytime my character grunts, screams or is visible I am reminded by this profound sense of dissonance that pervades my experience of playing Far Cry 5. It’s like my character doesn’t belong into the world she saves and influences so thoroughly. The way other characters interact with me, the way they look at me and the way they refer to me does not match the person I am playing as.Far Cry 3 in particular consciously created a dissonance between the player and the character that started out with the very basics of his being, primarily his “broness.” That was fine because it was clearly intended. The dissonance in Far Cry 5 is simply, for lack of a better word, awkward. via /r/Games https://ift.tt/2IgMWkq