Over the past few years, Ubisoft has done an incredible job at promoting a more diverse lineup of characters. Players have had the option to choose between a male or female character in many of their games. While a gender selection is not unusual, having a fully scripted and voice acted campaign for both genders is less common and is a great win for diversity.
Farcry 6 is the most recent game in the franchise and with this comes one of the most diverse lineups of characters in the franchise so far. Nisa Gunduz delivered an incredible performance as female Dani along with several other female leaders of the rebellion to build a strong female presence that felt well balanced.
But What About The Villains?
Giancarlo Esposito is a fantastic actor who has the ability to turn from friendly and understanding to a twisted psychopath in a heartbeat. Without knowing a single thing about the antagonist in Farcry 6, you know you are in for a fairly dark and exciting story with him portraying the main villain.
His performance as Anton Castillo was as stellar as you would expect and having played the game, it is hard to think of anyone else to fill the role as well as he did. Which makes “what if” scenarios quite difficult to imagine for this game in particular.
Since Farcry 3, the lineup of villains has been absolutely insane. Each villain has been as dark and twisted in the last but in different ways. If you look at all of the previous villains showing up in the season pass, there is a noticeable trend.
All of the villains have been men. This is not a critique of these villains as they are all memorable psychopaths. It is just surprising that the franchise has promoted diversity so well but has yet to release a feature game with a female villain.
This is quite surprising when you consider there are gay and even trans characters in Farcry 6. How come they have yet to introduce a female villain in one of the main games?
Female Antagonists Have Been Just As Twisted
When it comes to female antagonists, the first one that comes to my mind is Frau Engel. One scene in Wolfenstein 2 still stands out to me as being one of the most messed up things I have ever seen in a game. Frau Engel beheads a woman you love before proceeding to dance the decapitated head in front of you and give you kisses. All while she laughs and jokes, clearly finding fun and humour in the situation.
Irene Engel has to be one of the cruelest and dark villains….I won’t say in the franchise because Hitler was a villain in multiple Wolfenstein games, but damn she is one twisted individual. You will despise her the moment her pompous ass appears on screen.
Casting a female lead in a video game really does not come with a compromise so long as the writing is good. This has been proven multiple times with games like Farcry, Assassins Creed, Last of Us (despite the basement dwellers and their cries of “politics” say) and Horizon Zero Dawn.
Many of the reviews for Farcry 6 have critiqued the game for doing nothing new and needing a revolution of its own. Perhaps it is time to diversify the villains as well as the gameplay!