VILLAIN: The Philosophical Betrayal Of Mirror’s Edge Catalyst
The long awaited sequel to Mirror’s Edge replaces an authoritarian corporatocracy with direct governance by corporations.
For those of you who aren’t familiar with Mirror’s Edge, here’s a recap: The concept was simple. Back in 2008 a bunch of video game programmers collaborated with an architect to bring us a look into an authoritarian corporatocracy set in a fictional futuristic city where the people are oppressed and information is a hot commodity. The city is a beautiful landscape of high-rises and apartment blocks, and you are a parkour master who traverses this landscape to deliver valuable information to paying clients. The whole game kicks off when a candidate for mayor (who is implied to be a libertarian) is assassinated and you are pinned as the murderer.
More than any other artistic property, this was the single video game/film that got me thinking in terms of human liberty, instead of the terms of statism (which revolves around how you want others to live). You can imagine my surprise at the philosophy of the sequel…
Cut to 2016 and the long awaited sequel to Mirror’s Edge; Mirror’s Edge Catalyst has finally been released.
Much to my relief this new take on the franchise completely reworked the world/story/characters so as to be politically correct. Whereas before the message was somewhat libertarian (Corporate propaganda and Authoritarian Statist messages were abound in the first game, and you were fighting against it using your mad parkour skills) – This time around your fighting for la revolution against ‘the Conglomerate’, a cartel of corporations that control everything, force everyone to consume their products, and promote consumerism.
Your still a parkour master, but this time your not fighting for freedom… your just sort of fighting.
The game’s story is pretty weak, so I won’t get into it. Rather, in the process of playing the game I’ve found something rather unexpected…
Underneath the subways and drainage systems of the city can be found the remnants of an evil government called Omni-Stat. I’ll give you the short version: Long ago there was this massive communist state that waged war and spied on it’s citizens ect. It collapsed, and in it’s wake the main benefactors and barons of that government, (who were realistic communists in that they were corrupt) controlled large swaths of Omni-Stat’s resources, and came to form the beginning of ‘The Conglomerate’.
This may sound confusing so I’ll simplify it: the game makers knew they needed to change the game formula to be politically correct so that the game would sell, yet they didn’t want to abandon the initial conflict of liberty vs tyranny entirely, so they embedded a rather realistic fact deep within the game, effectively nullifying the politically correct message that was the game’s main selling point.
AND THAT is why my faith in humanity was not destroyed by this game. (And by the way you should play it because it’s super fun.)
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