Karl Marx’s Favorite Games of 2020

Karl Marx had a lot of ideas on a lot of topics, particularly about the nature of political power, the importance of collective action, the debt any governing body owes to its own citizens.

But more importantly, what did Marx think about video games? In between rounds of hammering away at his notebooks and pounding drinks with his friend Engels, what kind of games is Marx playing, and what would he think of the games that have come out in 2020?

 

10. Watch Dogs: Legion

Developer: Ubisoft Toronto
Publisher: Ubisoft

The latest installment in Ubisoft’s hackers vs. authoritarian regime franchise has an added gimmick that would pique the interest of Karl Marx: there is no single lead character.

Rather, your cell of hacktivist group DedSec is made up of procedurally generated citizens of London, each with their own skills and specialties, which you swap between and expand as you recruit other citizens to your cause. In doing so, the game makes you understand that massive social change comes not from a single hero, but from many working together. “From each according to his ability,” as Marx said, “to each according to his need.”

However, Legion loses considerable points for Ubisoft’s soft-footed inability to admit its games are political and for a failure to deliver on the collective action-aspects of its premise: though you may control scores of diverse characters, they rarely collaborate on missions so much as they pass the baton to one-another. Revolutionary in concept, but sadly lacking in praxis.

 

9. Good Job!

Developer: Paladin Studios
Publisher: Nintendo

Though Marx cut an imposing figure, and his writing isn’t exactly what one would call humorous, he was a known partier and happy to indulge in joking around. Slapstick puzzle game Good Job! would definitely catch Marx’s eye by combining a sense of whimsy with a clear demonstration of capitalism’s inhumanity.

In Good Job!, you must complete common office tasks like hooking up a projector or watering flowers, and the game insists you do these things in the most efficient way possible — capitalism requires maximized profits, after all. To do this, you might have to, say, lift coworkers on a forklift or slingshot a projector across the room, destroying half of your office. Any amount of destruction is justified in the name of efficiency here, in a delightful send up of capitalist thought.

 

8. The Wonderful 101! Remastered

Developer: PlatinumGames
Publisher: PlatinumGames

Now this is what gamers call Collective Action! Instead of controlling one character at a time, The Wonderful 101 has you controlling a hundred and one superheroes all at once as you battle against alien enemies. The recently remastered version on the Switch gives this gem of a Wii U game another chance at finding its audience, just as revolutionary politics sometimes take multiple generations to fully materialize.

While The Wonderful 101 demonstrates a strong example of the power of people working together, it’s likely that Marx would be a little annoyed by the game focusing on extraterrestrial threats instead of these colorful heroes turning their power against institutionalized corruption. Marx didn’t write very much on interstellar encounters though, so it’s impossible to know for sure.

 

7. Final Fantasy VII Remake

Developer: Square Enix
Publisher: Square Enix

Marx would have been a fan of FFVII from its original release in 1997, and he’d like this year’s remake just as much.

In both, you begin the game working with eco-terrorist group Avalanche to strike against evil mega-corporation Shinra, which is draining the planet dry of its life force in the name of profits. The remake doubles down on this angle of the story, making the material concerns more obvious and giving side character Jesse a special section to show the toll working for Shinra has taken on her father’s ailing body.

While the more fantastical elements of the plot, like ancient aliens and magic meteors, might not hold Marx’s interest, Barrett’s passionate pleas for collective revolution and all of the neglected slums of Midgar as a huge metaphor for the need to seize the means of production would keep this game high on Karl’s list.

 

6. Going Under

Developer: Aggro Crab
Publisher: Team17

Similarly to Good Job!, Going Under has a satirical take on the cannibalism of capitalism that would have absolutely gotten Marx’s attention and pre-order money.

In Going Under, you are a new intern at a tech start-up who must crawl through the ruins of previously-failed tech start-ups, salvaging the bones (and fighting the still alive employees) of those who came before. The game’s sense of humor and bright visuals soften the reality it presents, where people don’t think capitalism can fail, only be failed by its workers.

Marx would also feel vindicated by the game’s roguelike elements. Losing a run in the dungeons kicks you back to the start, with little to show for your troubles. Your labor is not your own in Going Under, and you instead must endlessly clock in and head back to work, swinging furniture and caffeinated monsters until revolution comes.

 

5. Streets of Rage 4

Developer: Dotemu, Lizardcube, Guard Crush Games
Publisher: Dotemu

While Marx was by no means an explicitly violent man, he knew that there comes a time in revolution where those in power will not listen to reason, and force must be used to ensure the desired change. He also knew that history repeated itself, and societies functioned on cycles of expansion and decline. Similarly, the Streets of Rage franchise came back this year, after a cycle of inactivity. These are definitely the same sort of thing.

Streets of Rage 4 is a side-scrolling beat ‘em up in which you brawl your way across a city (full of streets that are, as luck would have it, quite enraged) and fight off waves of crooks, cops, and other instruments of your enemies in power. While the game is light on economic theory and material discussions, it’s heavy on the cathartic fulfillment of sticking it to the man, which, while not a direct Marx quote, certainly has the same spirit.

 

4. Dreams

Developer: Media Molecule
Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment

Marx was of course an endless proponent of seizing the means of production, so he’d be delighted by the endless promise of creativity offered by game creation suite Dreams. With game creation power in the hands of the people, who knows what new, grassroots masterpieces we could get? Well, a lot of memes, remakes of existing games, and material not suitable for children, maybe, but after all of that, maybe something else with more substance — and even if a lot of stuff being made in Dreams isn’t the next Breath of the Wild, at least it is being made with sincerity.

The act of creation itself can be revolutionary, after all. People using Dreams aren’t doing it for any capitalist gain, they’re just doing it for the love of the craft. However, Marx would be frustrated that creators don’t own their own creations. This is the problem with asserting radical ideas in a capitalist landscape though, and Dreams is yet another battlefield for creators to seize the means of production, just with more Sonic the Hedgehog characters.

 

3. Crusader Kings III

Developer: Paradox Development Studio
Publisher: Paradox Interactive

Crusader Kings III might seem like an odd choice this far into the list. It is about kings, after all, and specifically kings at war, trying to conquer more people — an extremely anti-Marxist idea. However, just like Marx would enjoy the satirical edge of Good Job! and Going Under, he would view Crusader Kings III as a mechanically stellar example of the corrupting nature of power.

The longer you play CKIII, the more your chosen monarchs will demonstrate just how terrible monarchs are. Characters can, and often have to, marry for political gain, trade children for alliances, execute scores of citizens, assassinate rivals, and even, in some extreme cases, literally eat enemies. It hardly seems likely that players will leave Crusader Kings III with a positive view of monarchy or ruling classes, which is exactly why it ranks so high on Marx’s best of 2020 list.

 

2. Kentucky Route Zero

Developer: Cardboard Computer
Publisher: Annapurna Interactive

“They’ve invented a new kind of debt,” one character says during an interstitial segment in Cardboard Computer’s long-awaited Kentucky Route Zero.

Released in chapters since 2013, Kentucky Route Zero is explicitly about the peril of the working class. For the majority of the point-and-click adventure game, you follow Conway, a trucker attempting to navigate the mysterious Kentucky highway called “The Zero,” and in the process running into all sorts of lovable characters like Shannon Weaver, whose family nearly all died working in a mine, and Ezra, a child who lives in a museum with his brother who’s an eagle.

Every character is struggling to live in the modern world, and all the magical realism in Kentucky Route Zero can’t stand in the face of exploitative bosses and soul-consuming debt. Marx would also enjoy the seven years it took the game to be released — history takes time, and the game’s long development has only proven its own themes right. The economic troubles and anxieties of 2013 sure weren’t resolved by 2020, were they?

 

1. Tonight, We Riot

Developer: Pixel Pushers Union 512
Publisher: Means Interactive

In all of 2020, Tonight, We Riot stands out as an unapologetically anti-capitalist game. That’s not my word, but that of the developers. You control a huge crowd of protesters taking direct action and striking back against your fascist government overseers. Like Watch Dogs, no single character is the hero, and like The Wonderful 101, you control all of your forces at once.

The game is explicit in its intention of exposing our world’s curdling inequality, but it is not without its own stylish flourishes: the game has more kaiju and enemy mechs in it than are likely going to be involved in any real revolution (though if any real life kaiju reading this want to collaborate, let’s talk). Therefore, in its thematic strength, unity of subject and game mechanics, and its inclusion of Loukanikos the Greek riot dog, Tonight We Riot is the clear winner of Karl Marx’s favorite game of 2020.

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