The setting might be a couple states removed, but its geological splendor and prevailing political sentiments are familiar enough to evoke my own backwoods nostalgia. The plot of Far Cry 5 centers on a group of hyper-violent doomsday cultists who take over a fictional Montana county. I establish my redneck bona fides here to explain why this game had the effect it did. Growing up, I swam in creeks, split firewood, pulled ticks and burs off the dogs, and always kept an eye out for prowling mountain lions. For as long as I can remember, many of the people there have harbored ambitions to secede from the rest of California and form their own state. It’s red-state Trump territory that has long been sidelined by the broader liberalism of California’s coastal cities. The closest real town is Redding, a sprawling hodgepodge of suburbs, strip malls, and freeways. You had to drive 25 miles just to get gas. Our only community buildings were a post office and two bars. The backdrop of my formative years was a tiny gold rush town a couple hundred miles north of San Francisco.
But before my move to the big city, I spent most of my life in rural California.
