Far Cry 6 Women – Is Ubisoft being too Woke?

Ubisoft recently released its open-world first person shooter Far Cry 6 to the masses, garnering some good scores across the board. We gave it a very respectable 8.5/10 in our review. However, having finished the main story, we felt there was an underlying feeling that Ubisoft was perhaps trying too-hard to present the ever powerful (and equal to their male counterpart) female gaming character? Read the transcript, or watch the video which showcases the women characters in Far Cry 6.

During the game’s prologue, gamers are free to choose either a male or female Dani Rojas character whose backstory is ex-military. There’s nothing out-of-the-ordinary about that, in fact we welcome having this choice especially as Ubisoft go all out in recording separate dialogue for the male and female characters in their games.

As players progress through the Far Cry 6 story, they encounter various male and female characters, and yet aside from your weapons making side-kick Juan, half of the main mission givers are kick-ass female characters. Again, there’s nothing wrong with this per se, but it feels like Ubisoft are deliberately pushing a not needed gender narrative here with the abundance of leading ladies dishing out missions and joining the player in battle on occasion. We strongly believe, that in these times, and with so many games presenting a strong female lead since the early days of Lara Croft, the forcing of strong female leads in games is not really necessary. It feels like pandering to a mindset which believes women are unrepresented and misrepresented in video games. Where positive leads should be used rather than those who are sexualized to readdress the balance.

In Far Cry 6, there is no intention to sexualize any of the characters (aside from a few shirtless men) it’s quite the opposite here. We can fully agree with this approach given there are numerous games that make no bones about sexualizing their characters. However, in Far Cry 6 the female characters are reduced to looking similar and playing the same way as their male counterparts, and as a player we are supposed to just accept that tossing realism aside in the process. We have often argued (outside of Far Cry 6), that when developers make their female characters offer the same traits as their male counterparts, the distinction between male and female begins to blur. Women tend to become men with female skins, rather than offering their own take on being a gaming character. That’s characters who all follow the same personality traits. Tough-as-nails, handy with a weapon, strong as an ox with a mouth to make your mother blush. We don’t think all gaming characters should act in a specific way, or all the same, but should try to offer something fresh against well-established gaming tropes, especially against ideas established over the last 30 years. It would be a breath of fresh air. Imagine female characters offering more methodical and well thought out means than the same brash approaches men use to accomplish tasks. Female characters could expand on subterfuge, stealth, luring, distractions, impersonations, pitting enemies against each other, thinking outside the box etc. Rather than picking up the same rifles and just letting rip. Sadly developers take the easy option to suggest women are equal to men purely when it comes to physical approaches only.

Female characters in video games in our current times is an opportunity for developers to offer something new for gaming, whilst still remaining positive and strong leads. Far Cry 6 isn’t the game to offer that though. A shame, because we think the open-world gameplay in these types of games would suit having a new set of skills and means to accomplish goals that don’t necessarily rely on the tried-and-trusted, as an alternative additional option for players. Some people might suggest, well why should females be any different from male characters which is fair enough, but on the flip side, why can’t they offer something new as well? Equality in video games might seem like progression, and in many ways it is, but gaming characters haven’t really evolved much in action games like this which is a crying shame. Far Cry 7 then, although we suspect Ubisoft will opt for the series first female main villain, that’s outside any spin-off games like Far Cry New Dawn which had those terrible twins.

Written by: Rob Cram

Rob Cram has hundreds of video game reviews, thousands of articles under his belt with years of experience in gaming and tech. He aims to remain fair and free from publisher/developer influence. With his extensive knowledge, feels his gaming opinions are valid and worth sharing. Agreement with his views are entirely optional. He might have a bias towards cyberpunk.