A free society is a perpetual work in progress - a tenuous dream which can easily backslide into authoritarian repression if the people of don't stick up for their rights and the rights of others. Indie games like Papers, Please and the upcoming adaptation of Animal Farm act as digital parables for the dangers of oppression, portraying totalitarianism in all its grim horror, while challenging players to do the right thing in societies that crush sentiment under their steel-toed boots.

Dystopias, as a literary trope, have been around for as long as oppressive societies have. The modern form of dystopian literature arguably took shape at the dawn of the 20th century as a tool writers and political philosophers could use to critique trends they found alarming. Jack London's The Iron Heel, for instance, critiqued capitalism from a socialist perspective and predicted the rise of a corporation-ruled society that wouldn't feel out of place in Cyberpunk 2077. Aldous Huxley's Brave New World and George Orwell's 1984, on the other hand, predicted the rise of scientifically organized despotisms - one through the use of drugs and subliminal messaging, the other through surveillance and fear.

Related: Alden Ehrenreich's Brave New World Canceled After One Season

In the games listed below, the protagonist isn't a fearless action hero, assassin, or leader of a revolutionary army like in the Far Cry or Wolfenstein first-person shooter franchises. In general, they're simply cogs caught in the machines of their societies, pressured through sinister incentives to toe the party line, keep their head down, and perpetuate the cycle of abuse common to all tyrannies. By deciding whether to take the easy path of conformity or risk dire fates by rebelling, players themselves can get a feel for the terrifying insidiousness of oppressive societies and the mixture of conviction and savviness it takes to try and defy them.

Simulation Games With Totalitarian Settings - Papers, Please

Papers Please Logo

The indie video game Papers, Please, described by its developers as a "Dystopian Document Thriller," is a game about a border inspector with the job of certifying or rejecting the travel papers of the various individuals passing in and out of Arstotzka, a fictional nation modeled after the Eastern Bloc communist dictatorships of the 20th century. The game tugs at the player's heartstrings in several ways: First, it evokes sympathy with the desperate refugees, political dissidents, and fugitives who gather at border crossing, tempting the player to fudge their paperwork and help them dodge the attention of Arstotzka's Ministry of Justice. At the same time, the game also gives the player a family they must keep from starving with their salary; breaking border crossing regulations or being too lenient will lead to citations and the docking of pay. Third, the game tempts players with the benefits of corruption, as criminals and ne'er-do-wells try to offer the border inspector tantalizing bribes.

Simulation Games With Totalitarian Settings - Beholder 2

Beholder 2 Game Screenshot

The first Beholder was a short indie game about a landlord enlisted by at totalitarian dictatorship to spy on the tenants of their apartment building; Beholder 2 builds on this premise of secret police chicanery by putting players in the role of a new recruit to the Ministry of the Great State, the bureaucratic apparatus responsible for the oppression in their society. As with Papers, Please, players are forced to make difficult choices between the paths of loyalty to the state, conscientious dissidence, and corrupt self-advancement, as they navigate the tangled schemes and regulations of their government office, avoid running afoul of the secret police, and investigate a mysterious mind control scheme called Project Heimdall.

Simulation Games With Totalitarian Settings - The Prisoner (1980)

Dystopian Games The Prisoner 1980

One of the earliest and most surreal Dystopian suspense video games ever released, The Prisoner (1980) is an unofficial adaptation of Patrick McGoohan's The Prisoner, a one-season TV series about a recently retired spy, kidnapped and imprisoned in a charmingly oppressive resort community called The Village. In this interactive fiction game, published for the Apple II, a freshly resigned spy is given a randomized, three-number file code and warned never to share it with anyone. Shortly thereafter, the spy character's plane flight is re-routed to an eerily tranquil community called The Island, with charming features such as randomly generated mazes, bars with hallucinogenic drinks, ominous caretakers, libraries where books are burned, and a Recreation Hall haunted by a killer ball creature named Rover. The player beats the game by collecting clues and uncovering a true escape route from the island; the game beats the player by tricking them into revealing their three digit code, using devious tactics ranging from fake escape scenarios to falsified computer code crashes.

Related: What's Coming To Phasmophobia' New Prison Level

Simulation Games With Totalitarian Settings - Animal Farm

Animal Farm Video Game Adaptation

This upcoming game, set to be released on December 10, 2020, is an official adaptation of George Orwell's Animal Farm, a quasi-fairy tale novella about a group of farm animals who overthrow their cruel owners (an allegory of the Russian Revolution) and establish a self-governed farm under the principle that "All Animals Are Equal." The video game builds on Orwell's short parable with civilization management gameplay, as the player tries to run the farm, build new infrastructure, and spread the revolutionary tenants of "Animalism" to other farms. Unlike in the Animal Farm book, players will have the chance to potentially create a farm of equality and freedom for all animals, though the option to make it an oppressive dictatorship dominated by pigs will still very much be present.

Next: Why Animal Crossing's Pumpkin Farming Update Is Huge