The game is set in an island nation called Yara. Yara is very clearly meant to be a stand-in for Cuba. The reserve history of Yara goes something like this. Yara underwent a war of liberation. I don't remember if they explicitly say that it was to overthrow Yanqui colonialism but it seems to be implied. This is similar to what happened in Cuba. But from here, the world veers into the realm of alternate timelines.
This war of liberation results in someone called Anton Castillo becoming the sole dictator of Yara. Yara is under American blockade (like Cuba). Yara has developed a drug that stops cancer cells from metastasising. Cuba has also made some progress against cancer coincidentally. Thia drug is Yara's chief export. The problem is that it is produced by using a poisonous fertiliser on tobacco plantations. (Cuba is also heavily reliant on its tobacco export.) So Anton Castillo's regime forces the poor to work on the fields despite the deleterious effects of this poisonous fertilizer. They also perform brutal human experimentation on the underpriviliged. Yara sells this drug to everyone except the US because the US has embargoed them.
So you play as a guerilla who is a member of a liberation movement trying to overthrow Castillo. You are supposed to form a coalition with other guerilla groups to achieve this end. There isn't much ideology to these movements. Sometimes they talk about the important of free elections but that's it.
My question is... why? Why do all this? Why not just let me liberate Yara from Yanquis and their stooges which would be far less confusing?
Far Cry 3 still had the "white saviour" problem all these games have. At their core they are just "White guy goes into one of those ~~shithole~~ countries and fixes their problems for them, because they can't do it themselves." Fun games, very problematic messaging.
And yeah, the animal enemies rub me the wrong way too. Mainly with their behaviour. Animals aren't hyper aggressive and don't just attack people in droves without any fear of death. It's easiest to program an enemy to just run straight at the player, but real animals don't do that. One of my pet peeves with a lot of game animal enemies.
not to mention that fc 3 and 4 are orientalist af
Some fc4 enemies even wore PLA uniforms lol, very subtle indeed.
didn't remembered that, i will check that later
Do you mean the Royal Guard? They do speak Cantonese and wear PLA-esque uniforms, but isn’t that explained in game that that’s because they are mercenaries and gangsters that the Big Bad hired from Hong Kong?
fc4 did have the saviour single handedly overthrowing bad Asian dictator thing but ending up turning the place into an even worse theocraty or narco state though lol.