While the story line was engaging, the graphics can be challenging for someone with a tendency toward motion sickness. The concept of a police state after a disastrous event has been illustrated numerous times in literature and movies. In many ways, the idea that technology will eventually create a situation in which human nature will become so repressed that the individual will obviously be faced with this oppression has been expressed as long as technology has been developing (most pointedly since the 1950's). I think Half Life 2 is a natural response to the feeling of oppression in a closed society. Science fiction has also been a popular form that has expressed these emotions. The closed world that Half Life 2 creates around the player exemplifies physical claustrophobia to express the confines a developing world imposes on those that live there. (A great book on these ideas is Closed World). I also think that violence is inherent in expressing the desire to break out of this system.
Comments (1)
Can you give some examples of literature and movies with the post-disaster police state? 1984? Others?
It's interesting to look at Half Life 2 as a response to repression, and perhaps as McLuhan argues, a way to cope with it?
Posted by Andy Cox | September 25, 2007 11:53 PM
Posted on September 25, 2007 23:53