Legendary games that predicted the bleak future of technology

The future is and will forever be uncertain. There's no way to tell what tomorrow might bring, but it's always fun to speculate and imagine what kind of world we'll live in down the road and what kind of technology we'll have access to. What better way to explore the unknown than through video games? Games have always found themselves looking ahead, whether it's 1,000 years ahead or just a few decades, but it seems like for every good and beautiful universe, there's an equally dark and gloomy universe to follow.

Technology is a fascinating part of our society, and as time has gone on it has become more integrated into our daily lives, much for the better, but some for the worse. While these fictional worlds may just be made-up for now, the chances of them becoming reality grow higher every year, thanks to the development of AI, advances in warfare, and the corporations overseeing it all from above becoming more hungry for power at the expense of our individual freedom.

Deus Ex

Privacy is a premium

• Explores a world governed by private interests.

• Predicts the growing concern about surveillance and digital control.

Deus Ex envisioned a future in which governments, corporations, and intelligence agencies wield enormous power and influence through technological control. The promise of an interconnected network brought convenience and security, but also created unprecedented opportunities for monitoring and control, two things that have only become more common over time.

What makes the game feel remarkably eerie is its focus on who owns the technology rather than the technology itself. Looking at the modern era, it is clear that we care more about those who use our data, especially when it is entrusted to a faceless company. The game's warnings about centralized control are still some of the most well-founded in the industry, and I'd recommend revisiting it now, if only to see a snapshot of a world we may soon be entering.

Nothing is ever as it seems

• Disinformation becomes a weapon.

• The digital world shapes the real one.

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty is known for its discussions of the future of information, released in a time long before the social media revolution. You are positioned in a world where digital networks produce overwhelming amounts of data, making it increasingly difficult to distinguish truth from noise, while opening the door for bad actors to exploit the system.

Its central concern was not censorship but curation, suggesting that future societies would be shaped by algorithms, information gatekeepers, and technologies that determine what people see and believe, rather than their actual material reality. Now, years later, I'm still amazed at how much the game gets right about the modern tech landscape, and how well the debates carry over to today, even if we never see Raiden roll TikTok or update his bios.

Tom Clancy's The Division

Consistency has its weaknesses

• Modern infrastructure depends heavily on interconnected systems.

• Convenience creates new failures.

It was only a few years ago that we faced a global pandemic, and at the same time The division doesn't get everything right, it still paints a pretty good picture of a city in the middle of a crisis. Society and the technology that surrounds it is built on a complex digital infrastructure that unravels rapidly during the outbreak, with supply chains failing and essential services struggling to function as the very support systems are disrupted from within.

Technology itself is not necessarily portrayed as evil; rather, the game highlights how modern life is deeply dependent on these kinds of interconnected networks that can quickly come apart at the seams if targeted in the right way. I've always found the world far more engrossing than most other semi-apocalyptic ones, and I think that while things look pretty bright overall, we're just a few malfunctions away from burning barrels and complete societal failure.

Call Of Duty: Black Ops 2

Wars fought without soldiers

• Military technology is much less dependent on humans.

• Autonomous systems raise questions about accountability.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 centers much of its conflict around drones and automated military systems that looked futuristic in the past, but have now become a regular part of modern warfare. If you had told me that we would see unmanned drones carrying out attacks all over the world in my lifetime, I would have called you crazy, but the rapid development of these technologies has made the fictional world a reality.

The game's darker prediction concerns the delegation of power. As warfare becomes more dependent on machines and remote systems, questions of responsibility arise. In a world where we can push a button and start a war, it is important to ask what happens when war becomes easier to wage, because fewer people are directly exposed to its costs.

Perfectly dark

Knowledge is power

• Megacompanies compete through information dominance.

• Data as a resource.

Perfectly dark takes a few steps forward into a reality where corporations compete with governments with influence, and technology is the true indicator of who is in charge. Much of the conflict revolves around information gathering and controlling access to valuable data, placing you at the center of an alien mission that could very well decide the fate of the world.

Far from your average spy story, I enjoy the game's dedication to cohesion. Despite how complex the galactic disputes can be, there is always a sense of purpose behind each individual task. It may have gotten the year off a bit, due out in 2023, but the concept of huge corporations and entire governments vying for control is about as relevant now as it's ever going to be.

I have no mouth and I have to scream

What a way to go

• The extreme end of AI progress.

• Pushing the boundaries of how far future technology can go.

If there's one game that represents technology gone wrong, this has to be it I have no mouth and I have to scream. In the distant future, where a super-intelligent AI finally takes control, you and four other humans are presented with a life of eternal torture from which there is no escape, orchestrated by an all-powerful and rage-filled computer known as AM.

I, like many others, have always found this piece of fiction to be among the scariest of all time, as there isn't a specific monster or tangible threat at play, just the unwavering hatred of humanity from an emotionless creature that can warp the fabric of its victims' minds. ChatGPT is pretty basic by comparison, but it's hard not to feel a little wary of where it might go.