The worst video game worlds to live in
The dystopian is certainly among the genres that have benefited most from this mechanism, with its disturbing futures that often turn into nightmares . Between cinema and literature, examples of anti-utopias abound, but the universe of video games is no less in terms of the hypothesis of distressing scenarios.
So let's do a small overview to see together which are the worst worlds video games to live in, or those prospects that you really never want.
Half-Life 2 (2004)
When Half-Life is mentioned, you have to take off your hat, bring your hand on your heart, close your eyes and quietly recite a heartfelt thanks to the patron saint of video games, whoever he is.If the first chapter had the undoubted merit of inserting a solid narrative sector in a genre in which the diktat was above all to "turn off the brain", with Half-Life 2, Valve has moved its limits in a territory previously unexplored, both from the point of view of the settings and the extraordinary management of physics. The oppressive City 17 is still today one of the best and most disturbing examples of dictatorial control represented in a video game, with its forced paths, its impassable fences and its guards ready to beat us without too many compliments.
The city-prison erected by the Combine is a soulless place of Orwellian memory, an eye that never sleeps and constantly watches over Gordon Freeman and the other prisoners, transmitting a constant sense of overwhelm. We are facing a work that has become legendary, also thanks to legendary events such as the theft of the source code a couple of months after its launch on the market which delayed its release by a year; a title that is probably still the best FPS in history today.
And don't try to "no" with your head, look at what I see.
Detroit: Become Human ( 2018)
Kara is one of the androids protagonists of Detroit: Become Human What if the machines began to feel emotions and claim rights by hook or by crook?Despite not having the narrative power of Heavy Rain, Detroit: Become Human stages a very interesting moral dilemma, with the usual structure based on choices and crossroads that has always distinguished David Cage's products. In 2038, androids live in close contact with humans in a "servant and master" relationship, and are so perfected that they are indistinguishable from humans. However, the undoubted benefits are accompanied by dramatic social repercussions, with a large part of the Detroit population losing their jobs precisely because of the greater efficiency of robots. In short, the clash appears inevitable.
Cage's work enjoys making his own those laws of robotics so dear to Asimov, and under the glittering surface of a future home automation, puts the same being on the dock human and its power, tackling issues, unfortunately evergreen, such as slavery, racism and the ghettoization of the different.
A world in which the coffee machine refuses to make us an espresso as soon as we wake up. Brrr better not think about it.
Wolfenstein: The New Order (2014)
Wolfenstein: The New Order tries to imagine a world under complete Nazi rule From Asimov to Philip K. Dick, the goose step is short. The ucronia hypothesized by Bethesda with Wolfenstein: The New Order is in all respects similar to the hell imagined by the brilliant American writer in "The Swastika on the Sun".Thanks to the use of futuristic technologies on the plane war, Germany managed to channel the fate of the Second World War in its favor. Result: a planet Earth crushed by the Nazi yoke; a domain that extends far beyond the old continent and that even reaches the Moon, the consequence of a mad expansionist craving. Our task is to recompose the shreds of what was the Resistance, and try to advance towards a revolt against the regime in order to restore freedom and equality to the world. What do you want it to be?
The narrative structure of The New Order therefore rests on a fear deeply sedimented in the mind of every human being, on a deformation of the past capable of generating one of the scariest scenarios that can be imagine.
Bioshock (2007)
Who wouldn't dream of a city free from all forms of political and religious oppression, and which promises to recognize the value of every single individual? Simple: anyone who has played Bioshock.The dystopia by Irrational Games takes us to Rapture, an underwater city founded by the visionary Andrew Ryan who aims to bring together a select few, preserving them from the narrow powers that stain society on the surface . An idyllic vision that soon implodes, however, giving rise to a whirlwind of violence and merciless struggles for supremacy that turn against its creator. To complicate matters, there are also genetic mutations that have made the inhabitants of this oasis of happiness not really friends with whom to go out to eat a pizza.
With its glaring social distortions, Bioshock is a dissertation on the blind man's obedience to the orders he is given, and a shrewd critique of his megalomaniac fantasies inevitably destined to fail in the worst way.
Fallout 3 (2008)
The desolation that unfolds breathe in Fallout 3 it's overwhelming War, desolation, radiation, bunkers ... I don't know, more ?! In short, with Fallout 3 the Bethesda boys give themselves to the most unbridled optimism, sketching a post-apocalyptic scenario of rare squalor.After nearly extinction due to a nuclear conflict that broke out a couple of centuries earlier , in 2277 a large part of humanity hides in the so-called Vault, hermetic shelters designed to counter the radioactive backlash, where, in theory, no one can go out or enter. Yes, "in theory", because we, regardless of the risks, will have the brilliant idea of leaving in search of a father who has disappeared in unclear circumstances; a journey through devastation, in which a ruined but incredibly inspired scenography reigns supreme.
The atomic danger with its dramatic consequences hover over buildings gutted by the explosions and on what remains of the infrastructures of use common, thus giving life to one of the most ruthless representations of what is perhaps the deepest fear of man from the second post-war period onwards.
Papers, Please (2013)
In Papers , Please bears an important responsibility on us If for a gamer it already appears a nightmare to have to repeat the same actions over and over again in a game, the dystopia proposed by Papers, Please then it is doubly effective.All ' beginning of the 1980s, Arstotzka, a fictitious communist nation in Eastern Europe, is at loggerheads with a neighboring state, a situation that inevitably generates tension and mistrust. In the gray role of an inspector at a border checkpoint, we have the task of checking the documents of all those who intend to enter our motherland. Only this.
A seemingly boring assignment in exchange for a state salary, but which turns out to be anything but flat, placing us in front of the danger of entry into the country by spies, conspirators and criminals, mixed among the authentic wretches. Stay up to date or turn a blind eye? Indulgence towards poor people or rigor at all costs? Lucas Pope's unusual work is a small, at times discouraging, essay on the role of bureaucracy and on the depersonalization of the individual, who is in fact alone and powerless in the presence of institutions.
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The Last of Us (2013)
It's hard to think of the word "dystopia" without letting The Last of Us mind. Since the release of the first chapter in 2013, the masterpiece series Naughty Dog has established itself as an anti-utopian representation par excellence, with a granite narrative structure and a memorable character design.In 2033 the mushroom Cordyceps has effectively decimated the population of the United States who now live in highly militarized guarded quarantine zones: this is the context in which the surly Joel and Ellie face their training trip from Boston to Salt Lake City. The on the road odyssey of the two protagonists is a trial of the certainties of the human soul parched by a pandemic; a path that becomes a metaphor of maturation, of the search for a better future and hope, in a world where not even a little bit seems to be left.
The context from "mors tua vita mea", son of a large-scale crisis caused by a disease, he has often flirted with storytellers and authors: from Stephen King and his colossal "Shadow of the Scorpion" to "Zone One" by Pulitzer Prize Winner Colson Whitehead, through Richard Matheson, to to which we owe "I am legend". Brilliant examples of dystopian literature which, together with Cormac McCarthy's "The Road", share with The Last of Us atmospheres and a sense of discouragement, an inevitable component in any self-respecting nightmare.
Obviously we have left out many others against - videogame utopias and this is where you come in: tell us your favorites in the comments below.
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