LOS ANGELES—I leaned back in a hotel-suite chair and took in a bonkers video-game pitch from an Ubisoft producer while folding and unfolding the tiny American flag I’d been given moments before. The 13-year-old Far Cry gaming series returns once more in February 2018, and, at least conceptually, this might be its most intense entry yet. While Far Cry games traditionally drop players into exotic, international locales with only a gun and a prayer, this year’s entry, Far Cry 5, lands in the U-S-of-A.

Specifically, the open, rural wilds of Montana. Your mission: invade a militarized cult’s massive compound and take down its gun-toting, Jesus-invoking leader.

In another time and place, I might have looked at this pitch and thought about the bygone ’90s era of David Koresh and Ted Kaczynski—some distant, fuzzy memory that is finally ready for an over-the-top virtual run-and-gun video game. But Ubisoft has picked a heated time to double down on something we rarely see in the gaming world: Americans fighting Americans over the concept of what “America” is. The promotional-swag flag in my hand kept reminding me that this Far Cry, no matter how it plays, certainly won’t feel far away this time.