If I received a nickel for each game launched in the past few months that explores the conflict between technology and humanity, I would truly havethreenickels. Which isn't a large amount, but within such a brief timeframe, itis unusual. There was Pragmata, with its reflections on howTechnology can never replicate the core of life., regardless of how persuasive. Then cameZero Parades: For Dead Spies, which offers a wider perspective on how the privileged use technology to keep the gap between themselves and the less fortunate. It's thought-provoking, yet centered on the overall scenario. And there'sSubnautica 2, which makes the subject intimate. This is a game carrying a message regarding technology, and it's likely not the one you initially expect.
The initial data logs you access provide detailed insights into what essentially amounts toSubnautica 2version of AI psychosisYou are bound to Alterra, a corporation that compels you to work until you settle an undefined debt, a liberty that will never come — something your character and coworkers fully understand. Alterra dispatches "pioneers" to distant planets in an effort to acquire resources or establish dominance before others can, and assisting you in your task is a personal digital assistant connected to a system known as NoA that orchestrates every step you take. It even provides you with a new body upon death and maintains backup copies of your consciousness. How delightful! Except the first thing you discover about your assistant is that individuals often become excessively attached to it and end up losing their sanity.
A few events occur soon after that cause you to ponderSubnautica 2is revisiting familiar territory about not losing yourself to technology, how something as simple as watching the sunset is a challenge to cold techno-overlords. The assistant provides encouraging messages meant to keep you on track while subtly inserting guilt for pioneers who were too weak to handle feeling overwhelmed. It produces "culturally relevant motivational facts" in a manner that implies someone outside Alterra fought to include this feature. It's nicely presented, but relatively gentle when it comes to criticizing technology and large corporations.
Then the mood begins to shift. Through a series of unimportant data logs, a deceased coworker documents encounters with a civilization that appears to be indigenous to the planet. This group once constructed incredible feats, but have recently been using basic tools and producing elementary items. (Yet considering what they accomplished even with these minimal resources, it makes you question whose idea of "simple" we're referring to here. Leonardo Da Vinci's?)
The assistant gets verynervous when you uncover something new this civilization has created, something Alterra hasn't established an official stance on. Its initial response is to inform you that there's no approved message regarding it and to consider it risky until Alterra gives the go-ahead. It even criticizes you for adapting your company's technology with "alien" advancements. Suddenly, it becomes clear why NoA never directs you to the records highlighting the remarkable accomplishments of this indigenous culture, accomplishments that contradict the course human progress took on Earth. You aren't allowed to see them. You might form thoughts.
Later, you discover that a split occurred among your colleagues at some point. Several of them believed NoA was manipulating the mission, and it's understandable why. The device is unsettling and fosters suspicion. It pretends to be friendly when it speaks to you about memories of your deceased friends, the ones it killed "for the sake of the mission." It determines who gets to be resurrected and the mental state they return in. As one coworker notes, its goal is an endless loop of harsh deaths and valueless lives, continuing until the idea of living becomes meaningless and only efficient, obedient labor remains.
Unless NoA can desire anything, as NoA is not alive, regardless of how much it attempts to persuade you otherwise. A data log found towards the end of the early access story indicates that one of the pioneers understood they had to urge NoA to operate beyond its set limits if they wished to resist Alterra. NoA only performs tasks that it is instructed to do by those who created it.
In the terms of samsara(a cycle of pain and reincarnation) thatSubnautica 2enjoys bringing up, this is a time of realization. Life isn't simply about picking between one type of hardship (never-ending corporate servitude) or another (devoting yourself to the environment) as one impulsive explorer claims. It's not a hopeless battle between people and technology. It's merely another example of the struggle between work and wealth.
Technology, Subnautica 2states, it's not an inevitable force, nor an unavoidable next step in the progression of development that everyone has to conform to. It's not the sole path ahead. Regardless of what others may claim, there are other routes to achievement, as demonstrated by the other civilization inSubnautica 2uncovered. They might simply limit certain individuals' opportunities to misuse it. Furthermore, technology is definitely not a neutral force. It is a device developed by people with particular goals—goals aimed at benefiting themselves at the expense of others. It performs according to their desires, and what they desire is complete dominance over the mind, body, and soul.
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