10 Video Games With Little Hope For Humanity
6. Shadow Of The Colossus
As beautiful as it is, Shadow of the Colossus is also an ultimately depressing game about human nature and our attitude towards "the other."
The game is of course centered around Wander, who in order to revive his incapacitated love Mono, agrees to slay 16 mythical beasts - known as "Colossi" - for a mysterious entity named Dormin.
Neither Wander nor the player seems to much question this task even though the majority of the Colossi don't attack until aggravated, because it's a video game and killing is just part of the deal, right?
Ultimately it's revealed that the Colossi were holding the evil Dormin's soul at bay, and in killing them you've freed him. But beyond that, why is the life of Mono more valuable than that of the 16 Colossi?
This speaks to the notion of human exceptionalism or anthropocentrism, that humanity views itself as the most intelligent and worthwhile species in the universe, and we have the right to claim dominion, violently if need be, over all others.
This can be scaled down to consider the darker prejudices with which many view their fellow man still today, where anything outside of the "norm" is seen as an other to be viewed with suspicion and even treated violently.
As enlightened as we might think we are, Shadow of the Colossus is an unconventional metaphor for humanity's historic and continuing distaste for anyone or anything that looks or acts differently.