Every science fiction game has a different approach to accuracy, whether it’s Mass Effect‘s complex empirical lore or Cyberpunk 2077‘s elevation of real, present-day issues. The issue of accuracy in science fiction is a prickly one. The two elements it’s made up of - hard, demonstrable science and fanciful, speculative fiction - seem inherently opposed to one another. As a result, different works of sci-fi have different approaches to balancing the two halves, with some using reality as a jumping-off point for fantastical concepts, while others seem to conjure pseudoscientific ideas from thin air.
Both approaches certainly have their merits, but there’s something to be said for realism in science fiction. It can be educational and challenging, teaching its audience about empirical science while demanding that they interrogate the world around them. It requires the persistent willingness to get bogged down in the technical details of natural phenomena, and the creative courage to expand on them. For the eternally curious, here are some of the most realistic science fiction games worth marveling at.
The Last of Us is an imaginative, deeply human zombie game series that happens to be based on a real parasitic fungus. Ophiocordyceps unilateralis is commonly called the zombie ant fungus for its ability to take over certain insects’ behavior. Once it’s taken root, the fungus compels an infected ant to move to a more hospitable environment for fungal growth, at which point it spreads its spores. It can’t affect humans in reality, but in The Last of Us and its sequel, it turns people into bloodthirsty zombies. It’s the perfect example of using real science as a basis for a fictional story, but other games take this even further.
Cyberpunk 2077 includes one of the most immersive depictions of a realistic, near-future megacity. Environmental pollution from combustible fuel has run rampant, creating a deadly new type of extreme weather called Inversion Smog. Wearable tech, which Cyberpunk calls Cyberware, is universal; smartphones have effectively been replaced with neural implants, which many people can’t imagine living without. Advertising and consumerism pervade every aspect of daily life, and megacorporations have as much sway as government agencies. Cyberpunk provides a bleak view of a realistic future, one in which some of the biggest issues facing society today are taken to every possible extreme.
Mass Effect begins in the late 22nd century, when humanity has discovered the secret to faster-than-light travel and set out to explore the stars. However, the game doesn’t simply drop that fact on the audience and move on. Mass Effect takes the time to explain how interstellar travel works: in short, it’s the result of mass negation. This is based on the actual concept of negative mass in theoretical physics, a hypothesis proposed to explain the existence of dark matter in space.
2023-12-02 20:00:05
Source from screenrant.com
rnrn