From Nowhere: Utopian and Dystopian Visions of our - Chris J. Young

82. Half-Life II. Valve Corporation; Sierra Entertainment, 2004.
in Half-Life, scientists at the Black Mesa Research Facility, including the protagonist Dr. Gordon
Freeman, have caused an interdimensional instability that consequently created a portal in space
and time that allowed aliens from an alternate dimension, known as the Vortigaunts to invade.
Although Freeman was able to close the portal at the end of Half-Life, the events of the game drew
the attention of aliens from an oppressive multidimensional empire known as the Combine. Set
twenty years after the events of Half-Life, the sequel presents an alternative dystopian history of
earth, in which the Combine who had invaded some time earlier are harvesting resources from the
planet, including the human race itself. To maintain control over their new colony, the Combine
implements a brutal police state of Civil Protection officers and Overwatch soldiers, recruiting
and biologically assimilating humans and other species, like the Vortigaunts, into their ranks.
Meanwhile an underground Lambda Resistance of former humans and Vortigaunts now working
together, perceives Freeman as the saviour who will lead them to defeat the Combine. Although
set in a fictional counter-history, Half-Life and Half-Life II highlight the consequences of scientific
experimentation conducted without foresight or ethics. The games present the severe repercussions
of such unmonitored actions that result in the conquest and potential assimilation of humans.
From a private collection
83. Bioshock. 2K Games, 2007.
Bioshock takes place in a fictional underwater city called Rapture in 1960. Following the Second
World War, the allied countries pool their resources to fund a centre for scientific experimentation
operating beyond the ethical restrictions of their respective societies. in the pursuit of knowledge
without borders, scientists in Rapture create a stem-cell biotechnology called ADAM that could alter
the DNA of humans, investing them with extraordinary powers, such as the ability to manipulate
fire, electricity, and telekinesis. The city descends into chaos and a dystopian state of anarchy
when different factions band together and splice their genes with ADAM to wage war against one
another for control of Rapture. The game raises ethical concerns over stem cell research and genetic
engineering, as well as scientific experimentation in general.
From a private collection
From Nowhere: Utopian and Dystopian Visions of our Past, Present, and Future 89