Science fiction is a genre apart not just from other video game categories, but from almost every facet of popular culture as it stands today. While puzzlers allow people to flex their cognitive abilities, adventure titles grant players passage to some of the most outrageous narratives they’ll ever experience and fantasy games give Lord of the Rings a run for its money, sci-fi does something many other creative works can – show us a genuine view of what the future might truly turn out to be. For those of you old enough to remember Star Trek, a series that hypothesized now-consumer gadgets like the touch tablet, cellular phone and PDA, just to name a handful, this is what many gamers can look towards when developers and publishers put forth their wildest dreams into the package of a science fiction game. Certainly enough, it may not predict the immediate future, but in ten, twenty or fifty years, we may very well see a few things that could have coincidentally been inspired by games we’re playing today. After all, a little science never hurt anyone. Without further delay we present the top 10 science fiction video games:
10. Singularity: The manipulation of time, unfortunately, is forever going to be out of the grasp of humankind beyond making sure you set your alarm so you can catch the 8:15 to the city. But that’s just right now. The more time we spend dawdling with physics, the greater understanding we’ve been given to our understanding of not just the universe on a macro scale, but as well as the particles that compose ourselves and the world around us on a microscopic scale. The greater understanding, of course, ultimately leads to a manipulation of these forces, which could potentially lead to the alteration of time. While there are various pitfalls to such practices, as clearly demonstrated in the game, the concepts behind a handheld device capable of playing with time in an isolated manner on various scales is nonetheless something I think we can all be happy wondering about.
9. Halo 3: ODST: It’s a scary notion to dwell upon, but the universe is a staggeringly huge place – so much so that few are even capable of understanding it’s current and ever expanding size. Frankly, I could tell you to imagine the largest thing you can think of and you’d still be off by a fairly huge number. This then leads us to the conceptual idea of a first contact scenario. As this can go one of many different ways, the bottom line is it’ll either go good or bad and depending on which, we’ll have to be prepared. That’s where a lot of the concepts presented in ODST come into play. Namely the science fiction equivalent of paratroopers in the form of Orbital Drop Shock Troopers who descend from space via Human Entry Vehicles to fight the enemy and carry the day, most of the time. For all the other intrinsically fascinating scientific concepts presented by the Master Chief, the Spartans of Noble Team and the entirety of the project in and of itself, the humanity of facing down aliens who want nothing more than to stomp out the entire species of mankind is immediately endearing and humanizing in an unusually real way. But the weapons that go into it, despite their primitive use of ballistics in the face of plasma weaponry is still something that can spark debate amongst weapon, science and devout Halo buffs alike.
8. Portal: Valve, from the settings of the Half-Life series in all it’s many forms to the hallowed halls of the Aperture Science Enrichment Center, really know how to make a game that can appeal to the geek inside all of us – add into it the main characters iconic use of a portal gun and it’s proof that there is little science can’t do to get a desire result. Thus, for every puzzle chamber encountered throughout the original through to the ‘real world’ applications of the device during the escape sequence following GlaDOS’ attempt to kill the player – the portal gun, which is an example of physics that is yet to achieve any sort of grounding in reality – is nonetheless something that we can all look forward to in a future where there is something for everyone.
This feature top 10 list continues on the next page, please click below to see our next couple choices for the top 10 science fiction video games.
