Having finished Gears of War (GoW) recently and getting ready to try on Fallout 3, I’m confronted by my own predisposition towards dystopian settings. GoW takes place on the fictitious world of Sera, which mirrors Earth very closely. Humans on Sera are technically and culturally very advanced until the Emergencehits, the day the so-called Locustemerge from their underground home to aggressively pursue the destruction of mankind on Sera.
The Locust are an aggressive, subterranean mostly humanoids race, who are technologically advanced, but seem to focus more on crude bionics and energy harnessing weaponry than on armaments and projectile weapons like humans do. They also seem to display a hive-mind – which seems to be a must-have if you want to succeed in a role of an evil race of creatures bent on destroying the human race. They manage to take everyone by surprise and level, well, pretty much everything, driving humanity back to Jacinto Plateau, a mountainous area of Sera where the bedrock is too think for the Locust to burrow through, essentially allowing for a small safe-haven, and a base for reconquering the ravaged world.
And ravaged it is. The game takes place 14 years after Emergence Day. So-called Stranded, humans living and surviving outside the safety of Jacinto Plateau, are notoriously aggressive towards outsiders and wage a near constant battle against the Locust – a fight that intensifies when night falls, as the darkness allows for the Kryll to come out; a severely light-sensitive form of hyper-aggressive, carnivorous bats, under the control of the Locust.
Every resource is scarce, and and everything is destroyed. Corpses still line the streets, as do burn out cars, destroyed buildings and looted shops. Weeds and plants are slowly taking over the broken and littered streets of urban centers, and city utilities like gas-, electricity- and waterlines are leaking and broken, or highly unreliable. To get an idea of the imagery, one only has to look at the screenshots of the game, or look at the concept art in Destroyed Beauty.)
This setting is so incredibly harsh that there’s almost no redeeming qualities. Most of the time, a dystopia still has some sort of structure, an oppressive government, like the one in Children of Men, or Aeon Flux. Shadowrun is a dystopia, but life goes on. Mad Max is a dystopia, and there are definite hints that not everything is a lawless, wasteland hell. But when it comes to GoW, it seems that Sera is just covered with misery and destruction. The hopelessness of finding peace or perhaps some structure really wore me down while playing this game. I like dystopiae, but there has to be something to cling on to, and the idea of the Jacinto Plateau – the GoW version of the Matrix’ Zion, is just not enough. (Or it’s not highlighted enough in the game.)
Anyway, as strange as it might sound, I find the idea of a dystopia appealing. I can’t quite put my finger on why, but it surely has something to do with the idea that, compared to the world we live in now, the mediocrity is removed, at least superficially. The challenge is no longer to make it through a day without dying inside, but more to make it through a day without dying. Having said that, I fully realise that most dystopiae actually rely heavily on the mediocre; the wageslaves, the sheep. So when I think of life in a dystopia, I immediately assume that somehow I’d live outside of the norm, the chances of which are laughably small. I guess that’s my superhero fantasy to think that somehow I’d amount to more if faced with heavy adversity. Perhaps it’s the idea that you can be proud of just being, that being by itself is an accomplishment to be proud of. The survivalist mentality. That Darwinism determines that you either strife to excellence or be scooped out of the gene pool.
One of the appealing elements of an “apocalyptic dystopia,” one where a sudden, surprise event changes the rules forever, is that it acts like a great equaliser. A devastating nuclear war (Fallout, Jericho, Terminator), hostile alien invasion (War of the World, Independence Day, 28 Days Later, Gears of War), or even something climactic that leads to complete social breakdown, like The Day After Tomorrow, does away with many of the priorities we cling to now. It’s less important which stocks you have in your portfolio, than it is to have a Grand Cherokee. It’s less important that you have connections at Dorsia so you can get a friday-night table on short notice, than it is to know people that can build a house, supply you with weapons, or know how to hunt or grow crops. It does away with many of the frivolities that we’ve become obsessed with.
It begs the question how you prepare for something like this. (Or even if you should, but I’m ignoring that one right now.) It will either happen suddenly (viral outbreak, alien invasion, etc.) and then your preparations might be for naught, or it’s going to be a slow social deconstruction, in which case you have plenty of time to prepare and adjust for it. Perhaps we’re already in a downward spiral that will lead us to the brink of social collapse. Perhaps we should start digging holes to create bunkers, stock up on water, canned foods and ammunition. Perhaps the economic breakdown of society, which, arguably, has already started, will be the prelude to our own dystopia. Time for a quick stop at the grocery store to stock up. Mental note; I need tin-foil to protect my brain, in case the aliens come.
[Subject shamelessly stolen from Pistons.]
This is to let you know that I actually skipped reading this post. ;)
Hmph. Be that way.
I didn’t skip it!
I always like to think that aswell. That if push comes to shove I can actually manage myself in the post-apocalyptic times. Maybe its because I got this superiority complex, but I think I’m cold enough to do whatever it takes to survive.