Summary
When it comes to creating art, people throughout history have often centered their work around the hopes, fears, and criticisms about aspects of society and culture. This is no different in video games, with many titles serving as cautionary tales for a world where capitalism is left unchecked and greed is allowed to take hold. They take many different shapes, like polluted environments, corporate feudal systems,1984-esque mass surveillance, and perpetual war for resources reaching nuclear levels.
These games can directly or indirectly mirror people’s fears about the world today, where human lives, fair trade, working conditions, and natural environments are often put at risk for profit. Some titles make their intentions clear, calling out greed for the problems of the game world. Others are more subtle, gradually allowing players to uncover the reasoning behind their society’s ills.
Another Crab’s Treasureis a popular indie Soulslike which puts the player in the shoes (or shell) of a hermit crab in the ocean’s depths. This game is not subtle in its commentary. The story kicks off with the protagonist Kril being evicted from his shell after a new government enters the region demanding taxes. The world is littered with trash discarded by humans; glass bottles, plastic forks, fishing nets, tin cans, and more. They function as currency, weapons, armor, and parts of the environments Kril must traverse as he fights for his home.
Another Crab’s Treasurepaints an unfortunate picture of the aftereffects of the continued pollution created by humans, and its direct effects on sea life. The game is environmentally aware, commenting on how capitalism and greed allow for improper waste disposal, andhow it affects individualstrying to survive.
The massively popularFalloutfranchise takes place in a post-nuclear America, where the United States' war against communist China results in a shattered world that’s trying to pick up the pieces. Pre-war America inFalloutshowcased a culture of consumerism, corporate greed, and American exceptionalism to a devastating degree, wherecorporations had controlover the country’s wealth, and the capacity to do large-scale harm to the people and environment.
This can be seen in Vault-Tec, where they used people trying to survive the war as unknowing test subjects for cruel experiments, or West-Tek, which created theFEV (forced evolutionary virus)that created the first super mutants. This kind of experimentation was not unique to corporations, as the US military would create Deathclaws for combat, only for them to escape and wreak havoc on the wasteland.
Much like theFalloutfranchise,Grand Theft Autopaints a satirical picture of corporate greed and American exceptionalism, only this time it hits a lot closer to home thanks to the modern setting. The long-running series doesn’t shy away from presenting corruption, inequality, criminalization of the poor, and violence fueled by greed. It openly critiques gang culture, corporations, government entities, the military, and more.
GTAis a parody of the American Dream. The protagonist is often thrown into a life of crime out of necessity before quickly finding themselves in a wider criminal network that showcases corruption at every level of society. This isn’t unique toGTA, with thedeveloper Rockstaroften calling out societal problems in all their games.
Mirror’s Edgetakes place in a world several years after a failed revolution, where a totalitarian regime has taken control. The city is aclean environment, devoid of color, where the heavily monitored population gives rise to a counterculture of “runners” who often take the role of messengers for people who want to communicate without being watched.
Large-scale private companies such as Kruger Security have unchecked control of the country’s policies and laws. One thing that is stressed in the game, as well as its sequel,Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst, is how people’s freedoms were taken away slowly, with many people accepting the changes as they came.
TheMetal Gearfranchise is famous for itsstealth action gameplay, but it’s also a long-time critique of the military-industrial complex and the dangers of conflict for corporate and financial interests. The player often witnesses multinational private military companies who work for the highest bidder fighting wars for natural resources and land.
Characters like Revolver Ocelot and Liquid Snake become disillusioned with the current state of war for money and reject the status quo. One central theme of the series is the advancement of military technology like the nuclear-equipped Metal Gear REX and genetically enhanced super-soldiers, and what happens when it falls into the hands of people motivated by money and power.
The Halcyon solar system inThe Outer Worldsis afrightening look at a futurewhere late-stage capitalism and corporatism go far beyond Earth’s gravity. The many settlements in the system are controlled by one company or another, all of which are subsidiaries of larger corporations run by a shady board of directors.
The working class is exploited for their labor, receiving barely enough money to survive. They lack human rights or the means to rise above their station. Massive wealth inequality can be seen with pockets of lavish upper-class society dotted across the system, happily reaping the benefits of the workers trying to make it to the next day.
Deus Expresents adystopian cyberpunk futurewhere corporate greed runs rampant, leading to massive wealth inequality and marginalization. Massive biotech conglomerates such as VersaLife and the secretive Illuminati have unchecked control over governments. This allows them to commit countless human rights violations for the sake of technological advancement and profit.
The poor are often pushed to the edge of society, living under terrible living conditions. The firstDeus Exbegins with protagonist JC Denton working for a corporate-controlled police force, before facing the reality of his role in a world steeped in inequality.
The world ofBioshockfeatures capitalism taken to its extremes. It’s centered around a wealthy ruling class building a capitalist utopia beneath the ocean, where the elite could undertake unregulated scientific research to pursue wealth.
The city quickly becomes an authoritarian nightmare, with private companies hoarding resources and exploiting people in their experiments. This leads to a class war with devastating results, and the protagonist is forced tomake choicesnobody should have to make. The game highlights unchecked capitalism’s ties to exploitation, racism, and marginalization.
Cyberpunk 2077is an overt critique of capitalism and its possible outcomes. The open-world title is set in Night City, where corrupt politicians and government services are puppets to massively powerful corporations like Arasaka. The city features massive wealth inequality and moral depravity, where violence is a tool to achieve goals and vices are a huge market.
The story follows mercenaries V and Jackie pursuing Night City’s twisted take on the American Dream before things spin out of control and the dream quickly becomes a nightmare.Cyberpunk 2077features arich loredetailing the events that made Night City what it is, which helps to fully realize the threat that unbridled corporate greed poses to the world.
