[Playing…] FAR CRY 5

In 1926 Franz Kafka published one of the novels that unabashedly granted him a place in literary immortality; This mysterious book titled -The Castle- has tired interpretations of all kinds in the intellectual circles of the world; one of the most satisfactory in my opinion comes, like all great reformist interpretations, from the criticism of some anonymous person driven by his “modern” knowledge. Not without the possibility of being false, this position when reading the novel promotes a parallelism between The Castle and The Eden taking as a starting point their similarities, their impenetrability, their mystery. This anonymous comparison seems to me to be a meaningful eccentricity; it takes an ancient element as it was for El Castillo and compares it with another much older element such as Eden, achieving a contrast that indicates the progress of its historical era. It was no longer a group of Angels guarding a garden, now it was rock walls, walls that have the same effect as the Angels; hide the knowledge of life from men.

It seems that these ways of reading have allowed throughout history abstractions that generate new signifiers of things and an exploration of their deepest categories. The 21st century has been the cradle of a variety of abstractions previously unthinkable. Narrative, to give an example, finds new ways of meaning in the new media where it operates. One of these media that acquires narrative weight as the hours go by is the video game: this new art that it constantly re-signifies itself and re-signs us as people and in turn it also affects each of the elements that make it up under almost Darwinist principles.

These new ways of meaning occur in a metamorphosis of which we cannot distinguish the exact moment in which it occurs. If not, ask Ubisoft, interview them and demonstrate what the exact moment was and the certified influences that guided their creative path as demiurges. They will never know and this is where I want to go. Game Far Cry 5 and I can notice that It is the result of this entire process of metamorphosis that supports the environment in its evolution. It is the result of experimenting with the use of narrative concepts from the past with the interactive model of our present discourse and possibilities. Nobody saw him born, he just arrived and shows us the progress of our history.

For those who read El Castillo I will ask you: How does K distance himself from our representative in Far Cry? It's simple: nothing, but this Ubisoft K is its opposite. Kafka's character: K, is guided by chance one night to the grounds of the Castle, defenseless he takes refuge in a hotel where circumstances lead him to be a surveyor who works for the owners of the castle - who represent power in the area and keep access to the structure to a select few. In the novel K does not know who he works for or what his functions are, he has assigned assistants but does not know what tasks to entrust to them, he has curiosity and the will to know but his attitude transcends submission to us before the great Other that he imposes.

Ubisoft's K in Far Cry guides us to hope county, a place that symbolically occupies the land that borders this new abstraction of the Kafkaesque Castle and points to where our story advances. The K of our time, equally lost, allows us, unlike Kafka, the confrontation with the desires of the other that alienate us from a reality constituted by their way of imposing power. Here the chosen one chooses himself, he no longer follows the streets of the labyrinth but has total freedom to move on a map of three domains of power. The assigned assistants went from being workers to exercising their freedoms against the cult that is imposed and up to four can be taken to fight. Likewise, the missions have an individuality that somehow knows how to connect without fitting together completely... Far Cry 5 is a cry for modernity, it is a shot that reminds us that we are no longer tied by ideologies or great castles, this renewal of the Kafkaesque vision takes us from passive beings to giving us our place in the activation of our own ideas as human beings with full discursive rights.

We see this Joseph Seed acting as an envoy from God, he is the protector of the gates of Eden - another nod to Kafka, since he is the guardian of the gates of the law. He is a man who gives positions and functions to others that he cannot completely alienate. Trust. Pray. Obey. Eden's Gate work as a symbol that must be transgressed, the message is very clear: transgress the gates of Eden, enter the castle even if it means demolishing it.

Ubisoft teaches the younger audience what a detailed reading of the Castle was looking for in its time. Far Cry 5 is about not submitting to this influence of the Other, but if this happens you must fight and the K of Far Cry will protect you. allows you to fight in all imaginable ways: The deployment of aircraft completes the list of vehicles necessary to cover sea, sky and land. The number of weapons available is enormous and its uses with average curiosity and ingenuity can lead to memorable confrontations. The game is not perfect, it is true, but it fulfills its purpose of being an isolated piece of the world with a message that transcends them.

I remember that in the third installment V. Montenegro defined madness as the incessant pathological repetition and until now I thought about this pathology in the Ubisoft company. They repeated and repeated the formula but this rewriting of the script always offered different details. A plus point is the release of fantastic subjects such as Jason Brody or an Ajay Ghale cannot be K and without K the Kafkaesque work is just monotony...

While I play Far Cry 5 I look at the others, those characters who are only there to present me with a challenge and I can notice a generic design which it seems to me was not taken advantage of. They missed the opportunity to include powerful narratives with its replaceable elements and although this is not always the case, it is what stands out the most. I remember that on some occasions you can hear an ingenious dialogue or the complaint of a psychopath who is prohibited from exercising his sexuality and this must have been magnified not only with the art of the settings but in the way you count the inanimate objects without contradicting the speakers. I think I speak for everyone when I highlight that Ubisoft hace la labor de entristecer sus perfecciones, Far Cry 5 posee más potencial del que fue explotado. Solo resta ver la fauna salvaje y los detalles para darse cuenta de sus grandes logros tecnológicos que conlleva, su calidad gráfica está al borde de los cánones y son elementos que pienso ya no se deberían comentar por evitar otra repetición incesante de calidades graficas… O sea, se ve muy bien.

A grandes pasos solo se admiran huellas superficiales. No he explorado todas las posibilidades del modo Arcade pero promete algunas horas adicionales de juego. Por otra parte las atalayas de las entregas anteriores fueron removidas and the mapa es enteramente libre no mucho tiempo después de iniciar nuestro recorrido por los terrenos del castillo. Debo destacar la presencia de 4 jefes que conforman una familia: Jacob, Faith, John y Joseph. En los primeros tres veo características que fueron necesarias, cada uno tiene la sombra de su propio Far Cry y fue buena ejecución utilizarlos todos juntos y así evitar más del Ubisoft amante de Kafka antiguo.

A través de sus últimas entregas, la franquicia ha pasado a ser idéntica… y esto es un punto en contra. Es cierto, considero esta obra como excelente y cargada de la novedad de la integración moderna de las artes, pero la mayoría de elementos que integra o no lo termina de ejercitar hasta el borde o los desperdicia. El juego tiene un mal manejo de su abanico de posibilidades. La jugabilidad es excelente, pero su integración con los demás aspectos que le dan vida al juego careció de engranajes adecuados. Mas no por esto satanizaría el resultado, me parece que este juego permite pensarlo desde tantas ópticas que este comentario mío puede servir de piedra angular para explorar otras posibilidades. Mis felicidades al estudio, parece que con mucha resistencia aprenden de sus errores, puedo ver en Far Cry 5 la coyuntura que pide a gritos transgredirse. Como jugador, invito a todos a participar de esta experiencia a luchar por sus ideales y no someterse a la influencia que el otro impone. Sean fieles a su deseo y exploren sus posibilidades, hoy el mundo lo necesita.

Confía. Reza. Obedece. ¡No!

Transgrede. Enfrenta. No hagas caso. Al fin solo perdura la rebeldía.