Okay hear me out: Mass Effect. It has, just off the top of my head:
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“great man theory” abound. Not just Shepard, but the general concept of Citadel’s spectres as super duper independent agents and more;
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USinization of history and the future. All military and civilian personnel act like yanks. I don’t really remember any representation of other cultures;
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meek “why can’t we be friends” message on top of the aliens being basically just stereotypes (“all quarians are X”);
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obligatory “sexy alien that just happens to look like a human woman with Caucasian facial features and an exotic skin colour”
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Yeah the whole spectre overriding and being above any law thing screams “US being above any and all global laws is fine because we are good guys like Shepard”
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Dumb aliens fighting over nothing, if only they would listen to the enlightened “alliance”
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Two of the big bad human antagonists just happen to be Russian and Chinese lol
And of course being fiction, the unbelievable happens when
spoiler
the alliance takes out the big bad corporation 😲
Exactly!
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-Atrocious Asian representation. (Kasumi the token exotic oriental girl… And Kai Leng… Fucking Kai Leng…)
-Atrocious Black representation in the form of Jacob.
Representation of anything other than State-dep-approved-pro-USA was bad imo. Aliens included
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I remember playing Company of Heroes 2 and realizing how they portray the Soviets as worse than the Nazi Germans though the Nazi Germans in the cutscenes had POA patches. Treating the Soviet commanders as unsympathetic who treat their own soldiers as cannon fodder, backstabbers to allies and so on. Putting in Soviet “atrocities” in text on the load screens. Its greatly disgusting…
I don’t play its campaign after hearing about those. Really, it sound like Relic use the same research team from Enemy at the Gate.
The multiplayer meta also encourage playing Soviet in similar way to how western stereotype portray : trading casualties for victory.
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Penal squad (that for some reason has self-loading rifle) got really powerful satchel charges, but need to be dangerously close to hostile to throw them, meaning they’re sure to die a lot.
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Conscripted squad are even stated in the tooltips to die a lot, and that’s how you supposed to use them, because you can afford to loss a few people in a squad and still remain effective, unlike Grenadier.
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T-34 is the cheapest medium tank in game, but, in one of the worst historical bullshit of the game, can barely penetrate Pz.IV armor, while completely at the mercy of Pz.IV superior protection and firepower. But, hey, you can RAM enemy tank with them, a guarantee vehicle loss, but deal crippling damage to whatever it managed to ram.
And probably more that I forgot.
Now that we talked about it, CoH2 has a notorious issue regarding balance, in that if the game went on long enough, the German get undisputed advantage over any allies nation. I’ve once did calculation, and notice that both German factions would be able to crank out mediums almost a full minutes before Allies factions (It take around 210 fuel for German to deploy their first medium, but at least 245 for allies to do the same), and that assuming the players skip unnecessary fuel usage to start producing medium tanks as soon as possible. I don’t play either US or UK, but as Soviet, you probably would wanted to spend another 70 or so fuel on a light tank or half-track, which set you back another minutes.
This mean that German can deploy their medium sooner than allies, and their medium are superior to their allies counterpart. More than that, unlike Allies, both German factions have access to heavy tanks without needing specialized commander, which can call in even heavier tanks.
It make one wonder if Relic HQ have a life-size statue of mustache man inside or something.
Aren’t Relic Brits? It makes sense for then to screech about USSR. Plus I suspect they just suck at balancing. In Dawn of War, their game about Warhammer 40k, each time a new faction was introduced it was a veritable BEAST and had to be nerfed afterwards
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It’s even more suspicious when you contrast it with how Relic portrayed the German Fascists in the earlier Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts and Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor. It’s shockingly mature and respectful compared to how the developers misportrayed the Soviets. Come to think of it, I don’t remember a part in the campaigns where the player was expected to commit a war crime on behalf of the Axis either. If the devs were simply too scared to handle a sensitive subject like war crimes then that would have made sense, but they made Company of Heroes 2…
Very suspicious indeed.
Wait till you try the “Strategic Mind: Spectre of Communism”, game which have super based animated steam avatars with Stalin, Molotov, Zhukov, Rokossovky, etc.
Just intro made me uninstall.
I dread to ask what’s in the intro?
https://youtu.be/tBQxQxis0Jo?t=278
See for yourself.
Hooo boy. Can’t blame you at all
A YouTube link was detected in your comment. Here are links to the same video on Invidious, which is a YouTube frontend that protects your privacy:
They show the Soviets and using flamethrowers on houses full of Soviet citizens to prevent them from being captured by the Germans. Along with other disgusting propaganda and made up war crimes like NKVD officers executing partisans, MG blocking detachments for ELITE SHOCK TROOPS of all units, and made up stuff like attributing all of the Soviets success to “General Winter”. All of which that I’ve just mentioned is all post war Nazi propaganda.
The game was made by Ukrainians in Canada, many of which had relatives that served in the Ukrainian SS Galician battalion that fled to Canada after the war.
That is fucking disgusting and sad.
if you’re looking for a genre with a large selection of liberal naratives. look no further than the shooter genre. From games like Call of Duty to more obscure titles like “Freedom Fighters” where you fight against a Soviet invasion of New York as a guerilla partisan the genre is drenched in “well achktually communism is when evil and it’s always based to kill them”
Almost every popular shooter that even so much as hints at real-world politics has a strong liberal bias, seeing American “democracy” as the penultimate form of political expression, and taking all of its arguments to heart. The enemies are almost always both foreign and “authoritarian”, to boot.
In games like CoD, Battlefield, etc. the enemies are almost always Russians, and often of the Soviet variety. Even games like the Metro series depict the ideological poles as a “both sides” narrative. The far-right Fourth Reich, literal nazis, are shown to be just as evil and scheming as the “Red Line”, an ML “”“Stalinist”“” faction. (Stalinism in this case following the idea that uncle Joe was a power-hungry tyrant that killed all of his political opponents and personally starved his people for fun)
exterior to shooters, the next genre that tends to have some extremely liberal takes are Real Time Strategy games. Men of War sees the Soviets as an oppressive force, following “soviet waves” propaganda. The Hearts of Iron series is perhaps one of the worst offenders, seeing “Democracy” - being a stand-in for Liberalism - as the one true virtuous ideology. While seeing the “extremes” under a horseshoe theory light. The only real difference between Fascism and Communism in the game is Communism is when hammer and sickle and Fascism is when swastika. Otherwise, the two ideologies function relatively the same, to the point that choosing between them comes down to personal preferences - essentially turning the game into a left or right litmus test. (no surprise the fanbase for the game is littered with Nazis).
If there is one singular game I’d have to say is the most liberal, I don’t believe I could come up with an answer. The entire industry is to its knees in liberalism, to a point that most if not all games have some touches of liberalism in them. And virtually all of the major titles can serve as ideology booklets for pro-capitalist propaganda. The industry is so bad with liberalism that actual Nazi games, such as HP Hogwarts Legacy, still sell well despite online protesting and boycotts.
to more obscure titles like “Freedom Fighters” where you fight against a Soviet invasion of New York as a guerilla partisan the genre is drenched in “well achktually communism is when evil and it’s always based to kill them”
Oh hey, it’s the game that I had the misfortune to play as a kid; that I can’t replay anymore without cringing every few seconds.
to a point that most if not all games have some touches of liberalism in them
Okay, what about Tonight We Riot, Disco Elysium, Workers&Republics: Soviet Republic, and Kremlingames’s games (Ostalgie: The Berlin Wall, China: Mao’s Legacy, Crisis in the Kremlin)?
Every Call of Duty game
Every Western AAA shooter.
Halo? I mean all of Humanity is on the backfoot in a war against a more technologically advanced genocidal Covenant who want to erase humanity for being related to the species they worship. They go from a population of like 50 billion to 200 million
If you read the actual Halo lore outside the games, the Human government prior to the war, for hundreds of years mind you, has been a fascist junta police state that basically exists only to serve the army and navy. During the original Human civil war led by the People’s Front (Communists based on Reach), all communists were exterminated, and the Spartan project, superhuman and mentally broken child soldiers, were designed to hunt down and eradicate any leftist resistance movement that still exists. You even start Halo: Reach on a mission to go hunt down some rebels, as a bunch of communications relays get blown and thats blamed on the communists, as it wasn’t known that the Covenant had already infiltrated Reach.
Hell, during the war the UNSC essentially coups the few vestiges of “democratic” control, and then refuses to give up their control after the war, even after they “return” control back to the civilian government.
Wtf I hate Halo now
So that means that Oni might just be the most based game, if any of you heard about its plot and pre-Microsoft Bungie history. It was based on Ghost In The Shell, made in 2000 by Bungie West and Take-Two/Rockstar, and laid the foundation for Halo and Destiny. Halo came about 10 months after Oni, and its my duty as an Oni stan to tell everyone about this masterpiece that once was set to wipe out Tomb Raider.
Oni is basically set before Halo, atleast as far as Bungie fandom can link. Oni’s World Coalition Government seems to be the fascist junta police state you seem to talk about.
The game’s plot is set in 2032, with toxic polluted inhabitable Earth, governed by a WCG which is totalitarian and protects 80% of leftover habitable land (which is small), while protecting the rest toxic world in the name of wilderness preserves using TCTF police, which is used to oppress any WCG (politicians, policies) critics. Syndicate is TCTF’s enemy that wishes to control humanity by preventing air cleaning plants to function. Konoko is partially cyborged and works under TCTF, and her past is hidden by scientists which she discovers later on. She decides to defeat both TCTF and Syndicate alone, going rogue, to discover the truth behind her past (her father and mother discovered WCG and prohibited toxic area secrets). Konoko manages to save some of humanity from the toxic gas, which is interesting seeing how Halo plot proceeds later.
It is interesting to see how Bungie, originally an independent studio, had a casual company culture, got bought by Microsoft, and then Halo plot became so anti leftist. Microsoft fully assimilated Bungie when the takeover happened immediately after Oni, and Oni itself was affected because its production was hurried and some features like multiplayer and few bosses, cut from released game.
I loved Oni. One of the better TPS games - but had no idea about a possible connection to Halo universe. That’s really interesting.
Halo has elements at least, imo. Protagonist single handedly driving history, the atrocious things the Earth government does (including the creation of Spartans) are basically justified by the alien invasion, various junk like melee weapons being useful in a space age because “muh warrior monk culture”, etc
I’m not even into Halo universe, but afaik it oozes fascism so much they need irrational space religious fundamentalists (aren’t they basically proxy for islamophobia?) as opponent.
Aye, pretty much. Complete with totally-not-Humvees, the usual trope of “future space military is just like present day USMC”, everyone being Anglo, etc
And naming the supersoldier project “Spartan”, with obvious neonazi vibes, i half expected patches with “Molon labe” on them.
Well from what little I know about Halo, prior to the aliens the Earth government mostly waged war against its own people. Suppressing uprisings against shitty conditions and the oppression.
In this context the name makes perfect sense.
What’s the connection between the Covenant and islamophobic views of Islamic states other than they’re religious?
That’s enough, we are talking about Usians here.
Halo 1 released on november 2001, and while 9/11 likely did not had enough time to impact on game development, “islamic terrorism” had been the premier media bad guy in the 90’s after state propaganda ordered easing up on Russia after USSR destruction and China after its opening and seeming liberalisation.
Plenty of people did connected it back then to the spinning up “war on terror”, even if it was unintended, and obvious glorification of US Armed Forces in the game didn’t helped.
Battlefield too lol, the BF4 campaign plays out like a lib/con wet dream
Those are outright conservative.
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Anything from the Call of Duty series. BO1 is especially the case, as it directly relates to the Cold War, misinterprets history, calls Fidel a dictator, yadda yadda. Modern Warfare Series (Not including the most recent one as I don’t have any info) especially has anti-Russian sentiments and pro-US stances on everything, especially considering the infamous “No Russian” mission.
Don’t forget blaming Highway of Death on Russia
They’re probably going to blame pearl harbour on the PRC next lol
Don’t they already blame PRC for something like that? I forget what
I think saying Call of Duty is neoliberal is like saying Hitler had a slight problem with Jewish people.
Call of Duty is outright reactionary. Neoliberalism is also reactionary, but to a theoretically lesser extent.
It’s basically confirmed that the DoD funds it.
Bioshock Infinite is up there with its silly both-sidesism.
World of Warcraft has a quest where orc laborers go on strike (and are very stupid, har har). You throw them a party and designate each worker a different meaningless title, “Assistant Manager”, “Major Assistant Manager” etc. This quells the strike, because the laborers are stupid. I can’t tell if this is a criticism of capitalist chicanery or a “workers are stupid” statement as it’s all played for laughs, but it certainly rubbed me the wrong way.
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- Bioshock 1: opaque critique of objectivism/libertarianism/science-for-profit
- Bioshock 2: critique of… spiritualist collectivism? it’s weird. more like a cult than anything I guess.
- Bioshock Infinite: critique of Amerikan exceptionalism, history, and civil religion. The people fighting against the Amerifascists are indicated to be communist/socialist, and wouldn’t ya know it they’re just as fucked up if not more in some ways! wtf all sides bad?
I may be misremembering specifically Bioshock 2, haven’t played it in a long time and its story was a bit more forgettable than the others imo.
edit: talked with someone else who knows more Bioshock lore than I do, and in Infinite the socialist-themed group, Vox Populi, is actually the vanguard of a fucking slave rebellion in Columbia. So not only is it both sidesing America fetishism and socialism, but equating slave-owners with slave liberators.
Bioshock 2 was boring, I didn’t finish it but to me it seem like they just stuck to the mechanics the the story took a second seat. With all its flaws, though, I think Bioshock got to be a great game not so much because of its achievements as a work of art but of how it helped change the industry to open up to new paths, even if they weren’t the firsts to do this kind of things.
Bioshock’s narrative can be boiled down to the following essential statement: “Not helping people at all is bad, helping people too much is also bad.”
Civilisation is massively liberal, in terms of its approach to history.
EDIT: Noticed Civ generated a fair bit of discussion. Anyone fancy sorting out some kind of scheduled multiplayer match? Could run it through the discord group.
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Notice they pulled Mao and Stalin from Civ 5 onwards? It’s all Tsars and Emperors from that point on.
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Civ III is still my favorite of the series after all these years and not just cause it has Mao and Stalin. Just the most mechanically tight and fun to play game
Weirdly enough III is by far the worst game in the series for me, i like every other one, but couldn’t stand this one.
I grew up playing III but never really understood it I guess until I came back to it more recently as an adult after playing far too much of IV, V and VI. I like III a lot I think because your toolkit is more limited and the efficiency of your play is more important, which is the part of the game I enjoy the most maybe. In the newer ones you have too many options to win and ways to get out of situations, and the AI can’t utilize most game systems very well it seems. The high difficulties in III are a real challenge and the mechanics feel good and logical to me once you get to know them. Maybe also some nostalgia with the soundtrack and graphics.
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Civ I had Stalin and Mao too. Civ II had Lenin for male and Catherine for female.
Communism in the most recent civ game provides bonus for defending against opponents it’s wierdly based somehow since it associates communism with being under siege by imperialist powers
But for the rest it’s truly a mess of “great men” bs
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Yeah you have to unlock them with the civics tree it’s like first you have the antiquity type governments like plutocracy/classical Republic then you have like monarchy/theocracy and idk what and in the modern age you’ve got communism/fascism and “democracy” which could be accurate if it was called “liberalism” instead
Communism in 6 is weirdly (for that franchise) correct though, it puts emphasis on production, which makes it best system since when you have production, everything else is coming automatically. I’m not even switching gov to next tier lol.
The thing about Stalin in Civilization IV, aside from the typical liberal summary in the Civilopedia (barring the surprising mention of the proposed antifa pact with Britain and France), is that his A.I. is set to be belligerent and invasive for no good reason.
I can only assume that the devs had a grossly oversimplified view of the assaults on Finland or the Baltics, because otherwise it is not only annoying, it doesn’t even make sense. Stalin wasn’t an adventurer‐conqueror like Augustus Caesar or Napoleon Bonaparte.
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Sniper Elite
You are a US OSS agent disguised as a German officer during the Battle of Berlin trying to keep the NKVD from stealing the atomic bomb plans from the Nazis. So you are killing both Soviets and Nazis as you sneak around Berlin.
Edit:
Geopolitical Simulator
Its basically just a simulation of neoliberal development and liberal democracy. You can lower food prices, nationalize sectors of the economy, raise wages, make international deals to meet needs, built high speed rail etc BUT your fucking inflation will then explode and international organizations will be up your ass and you CAN’T nationalize banks.
Still its fun to try to make it work. You can play as cool places like the DPRK but its always the classic “dictatorship” line. Similar with China. It’s weird because it seems to say dictatorships are bad but they are way better to play as.
It’s a fun game but honestly sucks if you play as a democracy at all because everything is about pleasing your party and certain interest groups. The way this game is structured its basically impossible to do anything when you have to campaign to be reelected every 4 years.
I’d say it’s a critique of liberalism but it is mostly a fascist one if anything.
Sniper Elite is a good one. I’ve only played the sequels, those took place elsewhere (i.e. fourth was in Italy). And while the gameplay is pretty enjoyable and it’s great to just pop Nazis and watch them run around like headless chickens, the plot is quite liberal, as you’ve pointed out.
The collaboration between the protagonist (and his masters in OSS) and the Mafia is shown to be an unfortunate, but necessary tactic - ignoring the anti-communist nature of it.
Plenty of “great man theory” all around - i.e. there’s a DLC mission where you need to infiltrate some secret facility and it turns out Hitler (or more likely his body double) is visiting. The protag goes “Dang, I can end the war in one swift action!”. Yeah.
Plus the game goes hard to "humanise " the Nazis. When you search the killed soldiers, you can find “letters home”. Some are indeed the kind you’d expect from the Nazis, ala “Haha we killed like twenty partisans today, cool stuff”. Others are “Me so sad dis war suk I want home boohoo” types.
So yeah, excellent choice, comrade
The way this game is structured its basically impossible to do anything when you have to campaign to be reelected every 4 years.
Perfect bourgeoise democracy simulator in that regard.
Every Call of Duty except World at War.
Call of Duty 2 is alright as well. It’s fun and decently realistic, and somehow manages to avoid the horrid anti-communist tropes of the original.
Always had a soft spot for 2, and WoW
I personally found that Modern Warfare (2019) took some inspiration from the “guts” they had back when World at War came out. Sure, it’s still adapted to a Western audience and primarily sucks up to the generic narrative, but it came across as being extremely gritty and realistic in some aspects, especially with regard to who’s “fighting the good fight”.
I felt it really set out a scene for players to think “hey, maybe we aren’t really the inherently good guys after all here in the West” over various cues and I was fairly content with that perception, even though your average player would miss the point completely (which is ironic) and keep on parroting their “oh yeah, spec ops, badass, U.S. Marines take the lead! hoorah!” shenanigans.
Also, even though Modern Warfare 2 (2022) was by comparison a bit worse, the raid scene where the containers (and their origins) are discovered? That also felt pretty impactful, even though, again, most would sadly not bat an eye or be able to figure it out.
Didn’t the 2019 modern warfare blame the Highway of Death on Russia, and portrayed the American occupation of Afghanistan as being committed by the Russians too?
That yes, politically that’s all skewed, but I’d sooner be looking at things like: (off the top of my head)
spoilers?
unsanctioned black ops
torture as means of interrogation
mock execution as means of interrogation
use of banned weapons
police not acting upon upcoming terrorist attack intelligence
Hadir releasing the gas (and you can kind of understand why)
& in 2022, the highlight was pretty big on how PMCs are terrible (although, well, it was specifically just the Shadow Company; coming to the idea that they are generally bad may be harder)
as well as the missiles belonging to the United States, and so on.
It’s not much, but it doesn’t feel like it paints the West in a squeaky clean light like games usually tend to; a game where they wouldn’t do that nowadays would probably be amazing (but sadly not sell very well or even be allowed to launch I’d imagine).
I’m pretty sure any morally dubious positions or actions attributed to the west are only in the game to normalise those positions and actions.
I actually haven’t considered that perspective before but that could also very well be an angle!
The Metro games (based on the books by lib author Dmitry Glukhovsky, a pro-Ukraine Navalny supporter).
Glukhovsky books are heavily promoted in Poland, that made me not want to read them, since it’s always sus when that happen. Apparently, i was correct.
Assassin’s Creed series
How about playing as a Nazi U-Boat captain and engaging in actual war crimes?
https://store.steampowered.com/app/494840/UBOAT/
Ironically, of course. Totally.
I’m not entirely sure what the devs intended but KotOR 2 gave me some both-sides vibes. On one hand I like that they criticize the Jedi as not being infallible. But it seems like Kreia is a self insert character spouting this libertarian nonsense about how beating a homeless man up or giving him money are equally bad. But then at the end I believe Kreia is shown to be wrong and gets got but the game doesn’t question her worldview aside from that one ending as far as I remember. It’s been a while since I played so I’m curious if someone else has strong opinions regarding it.
Jfc Kreia was cringe as hell. One of the reasons I dropped the game, despite liking the first one
I cannot suggest games, but instead ask about Metal Gear Solid. Never played any of the games. What exactly is it?
There are actually a few communists among the creative team behind the last few Metal Gear entries. Though the main brand guy Hideo Kojima is a baizuo.
It doesn’t really do a good job with leftist commentary, mostly just using the aesthetics of marxist criticism without teaching liberals anything. It touches on capitalism and hegemony at a very surface level but doesn’t engage with the topics in meaningful ways.
That being said, there are some hype scenarios, like having a sword fight with the president of the USA after a giant NSA boat crashes into Manhattan, knocking over skyscrapers (off-screen).
If anything, honestly, I’d say Metal Gear as a series mostly glorifies war and nationalism, and kinda whitewashes a lot of atrocities committed by empire as clearly fictional (since in the setting, they are reliant on magic), or as probably fictional (since they happen in a computer game with magic).
The best Metal Gear games are Peace Walker and Rising. They’re the two games where Hideo Kojima had less input. Both from a anti-imperialist, pro-communist, anti-war perspective and from a gameplay perspective. I like them all. Hideo Kojima is a wanker. I like Death Stranding too, but there too, he is a wanker.
I looked at the titles the past few days and generally 1, 2 Sons of Liberty and 3 Snake Eater are most favoured. What is your perception of those?
Solid 1 is smaller in scope. NATO is clearly the ‘bad guys’, but it doesn’t feel too far removed from a 90s Hollywood action film trying to insert some intrigue and edge.
In 3, you are explicitly sent into Soviet territory, working for the CIA. By the end of it, it’s clear the USA are the bad guys overall, but there’s still heavy both-siding in the form of the Soviet commander being a cartoon villain with a million scars on his face who gets off on torturing people. The original contradiction in having your mentor who you respect defect to the soviet union turns out to be her on an undercover mission. The main MacGuffin has the function of downplaying global south exploitation and colonialism’s role in the imperial core’s wealth. It is not anti-imperialist despite taking place during the cold war. It does show Soviet technology as far superior to CIA technology, but I don’t think you should read too much into that.
2 though, I have to praise. Snake (series protagonist) is an eco terrorist who’s enemy is the regime in the USA, and the plot is about propaganda and censorship. Your objective at the end of the game is to sink the NSA’s server farm giant robot boat nuke platform. I think it was ahead of it’s time in predicting where mass surveillance and internet propaganda was heading. The game is from late 2001.
In terms of gameplay. Solid 1 is Pac Man. Solid 2 3 are transformative evolutions of Pac Man, but will likely feel stiff and clunky to a modern player. I enjoy all three.
The Boss’s mission wasn’t really a contradiction though as she was forced to carry it out or the Philosophers would kill her, Snake, and Ocelot. They even kill her husband the Sorrow for collateral, so we know that wasn’t a bluff. Her hand was kind of forced as the ending narration puts it. She despised herself for it, hence why she kept letting Snake go, and was hoping he would kill her in the end (or kill herself and die either way as she would also be killed by the MiG air strike she called).
Also isn’t the Philosophers legacy a literal representation of Western Imperialism and the exploitation of the global South? It was a combination of America’s, the Russian Empire’s, Nationalist China’s, and other imperial countries exorbitant wealth that was under the control of capitalists who de facto ruled the world (Wiseman’s Committee).
While it is comically evil, wouldn’t Volgin’s ideals and actions make sense in the fact that he was meant to be a representation of the Brezhnev faction that would replace Khrushchev? With Brezhnev’s heavy militarization and focus on the arms race above all else?
I guess I would also excuse the no anti-imperialism a little bit as it wasn’t really relevant to the plot for it to show up, though there are little things here and there like China getting a one up on the CIA by using CIA secrets to develop their own hydrogen bomb.
she was forced to carry it out
Sure, but we didn’t see her ideologically attracted to communism. When I say contradiction, I mean from Snake’s (or the liberal player’s) POV at the off-set. Because she never defected. Her arc tells us her mission is evil, but capitalism isn’t. And what does her mission entail? What are the major bad consequences? It’s the Soviets choosing to nuke their own people as a false flag. That’s the part we’re supposed to pity her over primarily, not having to further Empire.
Also isn’t the Philosophers legacy a literal representation of Western Imperialism and the exploitation of the global South? It was a combination of America’s, the Russian Empire’s, Nationalist China’s, and other imperial countries exorbitant wealth that was under the control of capitalists who de facto ruled the world (Wiseman’s Committee).
Yes but it’s not concrete. It’s nebulous conspiracy theory stuff, presented more along the lines of stock market manipulation than clearly transparent exploitation happening through the currently operating above-board channels. Instead of saying the west stole humanity’s progress, it feels like the game is saying China stole the west’s legitimately earned progress. Perhaps it’s just been too long since I played it. I’ve only played through it twice, once when it was new, and once when the 360 port was new.
While it is comically evil, wouldn’t Volgin’s ideals and actions make sense in the fact that he was meant to be a representation of the Brezhnev faction that would replace Khrushchev? With Brezhnev’s heavy militarization and focus on the arms race above all else?
Well maybe, but it’s still what they choose to show us of the Soviet Union. There’s no other Soviet faction or Soviet story. They’re not portrayed especially positively in V.
I agree with your first point insolation, but when the game is factored into the larger Metal Gear Canon and other games, we can clearly see the impact and overreaching effects of the Philosophers and their influence through capitalist systems. Plus while the Boss never actually aligns herself with communism (she is extremely reactionary as she was a devoted CIA agent and probably the best spy to ever live, and assisted in many American operations like the Bay of Pigs) but through her character we see the true reward that being a devoted capitalist and CIA agent get you. It gets you tossed aside and thrown in the trash once you no longer have any value. This acts as a sort of cautionary tale for Snake, as he would have ended up the same way as the Boss if he did not abandon the US and the CIA.
The part on the Philosophers is a bit off though, and I think you’re mixing up the ending of the game with the backstory. The Philosophers came to be after the end of WW1 to attempt to create a world peace though mutual back channel communication, as they were already the wealthiest and most powerful people in their respective Imperialist countries. However because of capitalism their goals quickly became corrupted to the point that they simple exist to increase their own power though forceful of subversive action in other countries (We see the effects of this this happening firsthand in Latin America and the Middle East in other games). This is done through pure exploitation of countries, the military industrial complex, and capitalist manipulation. Plus the Philosopher’s legacy of 100 Billion is basically what was left of the original Philosophers funds as they were splitting and going “bankrupt”, an amount of money that would still be worth over 1 trillion dollars today, so we can imagine that they were incredibly more wealthy at their peak, and even then it would probably be nothing compared to the future Patriots led by Cipher.
But the legacy was stolen from Snake by Eva the Chinese agent, however thats never stated to be a negative, as if Snake managed to hold onto it, it would just fall into the hands of the remnant American Philosophers. So China gaining the legacy is shown as a positive thing as it allowed them to stave off American imperialism and develop China into a modern power.
her character we see the true reward that being a devoted capitalist and CIA agent get you. It gets you tossed aside and thrown in the trash once you no longer have any value.
And the communist scientists get nuked by their own. Perhaps a nihilist reading is more fitting then? The series has never steered away from being performatively edgy.
This acts as a sort of cautionary tale for Snake, as he would have ended up the same way as the Boss if he did not abandon the US and the CIA.
Yeah, and I appreciate some of where Naked went from there. But he does very explicitly come out of it an enlightened centrist. For every scene he gushes over Che or resists empire, there’s one where romanticises war, stresses that they’re not politically driven, or happily sides with anyone that will pay him.
The Philosophers came to be after the end of WW1
By making the money so old, they’re whitewashing it. Was it earned through slavery? Who knows, it’s so old! But you can’t expect us to give it up now?! But this isn’t how liberalism works. All their money is still coming from slavery. I don’t respect this MacGuffin at all.
to attempt to create a world peace though mutual back channel communication, as they were already the wealthiest and most powerful people
Look, they inherently want to do good… It feels like the game is saying “Even when you have the best of intentions, you have to do it the right way”, as opposed to the imperialists, death squads, coup regimes, did not have the best of intentions.
We see the effects of this this happening firsthand in Latin America and the Middle East in other games
Solid 4 beats you over the head with everything else it wants to communicate. But it doesn’t communicate why Latin America is poor.
So China gaining the legacy is shown as a positive thing as it allowed them to stave off American imperialism and develop China into a modern power.
But in reality it was socialism that allowed them to stave off imperialism and develop China into a modern power! Metal Gear attributes all crimes of empire onto magical super villains and all triumphs of democracy and socialism to benevolent benefactors and luck.
The MGS series has a theme of “gene, meme, scene, sense, peace, revenge, race”. I did not know that I missed out all these years on this game series, due to a bad assumption I made about Metal Gear being just an insignificant game, because Metal Slug took over my childhood.
If you’re gonna play Peace Walker, try to have a friend to play it with. It supports up to three friends. I’m not sure if the servers are still up, but the PSP version is local coop so would always work.
People will tell you to start with 3. I don’t personally think 3 is a good starting point. I think all other entry points are better. (Solid 1, Solid 2, Solid 4, Solid V, Ground Zeroes, Peace Walker. There is also Rising Revengence which I mentioned earlier, but it’s a different genre and type of game. The “Metal Gear” games and the games I haven’t listed are poor entry points and poor games).
😢 I no longer have friends who would play or cherish old times. I am a grown up, everybody is a grown up. And in India, people did not play as much of these titles, most of the games they have played are either the very popular flashy AAA garbage titles, or old school NES games. I am one of the fewer Indians who chased this stuff.
You’ll be able to have fun with it on your own too. Many of the larger side-missions benefit greatly from playing it with someone else, but for the main story it’s not as crucial, just because of the types of missions there are. Feel free to share your journey with us if you choose to get started on the series.
Balls to the walls stealth action games with a plot so convoluted and bizarre that neither a short comment like mine nor the thousands of explanations online can do it justice. Ideologically all over the place but pretty fun.
That makes it acceptable then, I can actually play it and put the political mind aside.
Absolutely, it’s an incredibly fun game series from start to finish, and it’s ideological message is firmly on the left. Yes it does get convoluted at times, but it offers an insanely good critique of modern capitalism, western imperialism, state sponsored terror, the CIA, information control, and so much more.
Plus it’s plot, characters, mechanics, and gameplay are top notch which is nice.
Kinda sounds like the film Reds, which is very clearly a leftist movie but still contains some very pro-western and anti-Stalin takes. Still comes down on the side of Marxism.
Movie was so long but worth it fr. The book is good, too (Ten Days That Shook the World, that is, by John Reed). Emma Goldman telling John that she was fleeing Russia after the onset of the revolution because they went muhthoritarian was hilarious, especially when he basically quips back that a revolution is not a dinner party and that she is a coward.
Yea Diane Keatoes character is pretty annoying, she then goes to beg for the USA to help and is basically a Karen. But also Reed was like, ‘hey im American! Freedom!’ Funny old movie
The Last of Us 2
Also Neil Druckmann is an Isr*eli. Look up his inspiration for the game
How come?
The lead (Druckmann) is Israeli and his settler understanding of the Israel-Palestine conflict informs a somewhat major plot point in the game.
Before we talk about that though, the series as a whole is just heavily misanthropic which I guess is common these days for zombie-themed media. This parallels the COVID situation somewhat with how the capitalist response especially in the US was to just let people suffer and normalise the infection while attempts to curb the spread in China, Vietnam, DPRK, etc. were ironically perceived as barbaric authoritarianism. In TLoU world everyone is out to kill everyone else when the non-infected could have hypothetically just lived together like they do in the commune that Joel and Ellie end up in. But people are inherently violent and bloodthirsty so they fight and kill each other because the plot demands it.
TLoU Pt. 2 spoilers
I forget the names but there are two groups in the game. One is the one that Abby belongs to. I think it’s called Washington Liberation Front. They are in perpetual conflict another group. This group is shown to be a bit savage—they imitate animal calls to signal each other when outside and use bows and arrows primarily as opposed to guns—and are a cult fueled by a fanatical devotion to a now martyred holy figure. This conflict is inspired by the Israel-Palestine one.
In the real world, conflicts are wrought about for tangible reasons. Israel is stealing Palestinian land forcing them to mount a violent resistance. Settler liberal minds refuse to or are unable to perceive this. They attribute this conflict to reasons like religious extremism and an imagined innate Muslim opposition to Judaism or a “cycle of violence”, where humans are just shitty creatures who love to hurt other humans because of this cycle.
I don’t have much thoughts on this but that is the gist of the criticism of the game.
