At the Hay Festival in Wales, Meta (aka Facebook) used a gag order to force a whistleblower to stay completely silent, an act that might end up bringing even more attention to this case. While life-like androids, cybernetic weapons, and flying cars don’t exist yet, (mega)corporations certainly do, and they arguably rule the world. We entered a cyberpunk age without any of the cool sci-fi stuff. Well, I guess AI exists, although “cool” might not be the right way to describe that.
Like novels and movies before them, video games regularly take shots at evil corporations and their attempts to censor free speech, allowing players to live out the dream of rebelling against these overwhelming forces. Rather than real-life courtrooms or panels, these open-world games let you truly stick it to the man.
Who’s That Character?
Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.
Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.
Easy (7.5s)Medium (5.0s)Hard (2.5s)Permadeath (2.5s)
1
Watch Dogs 2
Take Down Me… I Mean Blume
Out of all these games, Watch Dogs 2 features the most “current” corporation, with Blume being reminiscent of real-life organizations like Meta. Using ctOS 2.0, the corpo not only listens to your calls, but also data-mines human behavior. With the collected information, the algorithms shape society AND an individual’s existence, deciding who gets healthcare, who should be flagged down by cops, and whose voice doesn’t need to be heard.
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Marcus, the protagonist, fell victim to this purposefully corrupt system, inspiring him to join an activist group in an attempt to wrest control away from Blume and back into the hands of the people. Like the corporation, you weaponize data, using the flow of information to reveal the ugly beast hidden beneath Blume’s cold sheen of corporate nonsense. You also get to create all sorts of mayhem across San Francisco, but you will mostly be working towards starting a digital revolution.
2
Cyberpunk 2077
Welcome To Night City, No Soul Required
Anything with “Cyberpunk” in the title speaks to the evils of mega-corps, and CD Projekt Red’s masterpiece dives deep into this staple theme of the genre. Like Blade Runner and Akira, Cyberpunk 2077 presents a neon-drenched megacity defined by unchecked corporate capitalism. In this universe, corps are basically nations with sovereignty and immunity. They own the police, the media, and shape people’s thoughts through intense marketing and even literally through cybernetic implants. You play as V, a directionless criminal who accepts a job to steal a chip from the most powerful corporation in C2077… long story short, he becomes haunted by a long-dead punk-rocker known for his anti-corporate “terrorist” attacks.
Cyberpunk 2077 grants players the freedom to influence V’s journey quite a bit, allowing them to decide if they want to go down the full rebel route. Regardless of the choices made, V needs to carefully navigate a world owned by corporate boards, fighting back against a system with the power to erase him at a moment’s notice.
3
Mirror’s Edge Catalyst
Run Against The Enemy
Somewhat forgotten and rather flawed, Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst didn’t quite survive the transition to open-world design in one piece. That said, the EA game isn’t terrible by any stretch of the imagination, and I would recommend it to fans of the first entry. Set in a sleek city wiped of personality, Catalyst presents a world where most humans sold their freedom in exchange for comfort, hooking their minds to the grid and making themselves easy prey for the corporate families who rule this totalitarian utopia (known collectively as the Conglomerate).
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As Faith, you run through a massive red and white urban jungle, parkouring your way across rooftops carrying sensitive information and illegal goods, all the while trying to avoid Krugersec’s army of corporate henchmen. Initially, Faith isn’t overly concerned with the bigger picture, but that changes when she learns about the Conglomerate’s mind-control tech, which will completely rob humans of their last shred of free will. Run, jump, fight, and expose.
4
Red Faction: Guerrilla
The Most Literal Rage Against The Machine Game
Are the other games a bit too subtle for you? Do you want to literally tear a corporation apart? Well, then you will love Red Faction: Guerrilla and its total environmental destruction. The Earth Defense Force essentially rules Mars, completely controlling the narrative by using manipulative marketing videos that present the colony as really productive. In truth, the EDF consistently sends miners to their death, working them to the bone and then burning their remains to leave nothing behind. Speak up, and you might just disappear.
Rather than corporate espionage or stealth missions, Red Faction: Guerrilla hands you a sledgehammer and tells you to tear everything down. With an infrastructure this broken, the only solution is to burn everything and rebuild on its ashes, and nobody said the process couldn’t be a lot of fun. Red Faction: Guerrilla‘s gameplay loop might be simplistic, but it is incredibly cathartic.
5
Homefront: The Revolution
A Corporate Invasion
OK, I know “epic” oversells Homefront: The Revolution, but it fits this topic so well that an omission would feel like an oversight. Also, I played a few hours recently, and found it to be an almost-OK Far Cry-lite open-world shooter.
Disclaimer: I’m a sucker for C-tier games from yesteryear, so I was probably a bit too forgiving of Homefront: The Revolution. Honestly, it’s quite an ugly game, and I mean the content and story.
In an alternate universe where North Korea is the most powerful nation, the country uses APEX Corporation’s widespread technology to shut down America, making it defenseless to an invasion that quickly achieves full civilian compliance. Except for Watch Dogs 2, Homefront: The Revolution‘s corporate hell might be the closest to real-life actualization, at least the part where everyone could be vulnerable due to their dependency on devices like smartphones and tablets.
Set in Philadelphia, you portray a rebel who’s part of a unit trying to kickstart a revolution, a process that involves storming corporate zones and shooting every enemy you come across. Rather than single-handedly taking out APEX, the goal is to galvanize the public into action, fueling them to tear down the walls that keep them prisoners.
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