Two gaming titles that gave us a window into the future.
Pictured Above: Left-to-right, Wrench (Shawn Biachoo), Marcus Holloway (Ruffin Prentiss), Sitara (Tasya Teles), Josh (Johnathan Dubsky) and Ray “T-Bone” (John Tench) in Dedsec HQ, Watchdogs 2, 2016, Ubisoft
*Spoilers for the following games: Watchdogs 2 and Detroit Become Human*
Over the last 30 years, Video Games have become more and more apart of our everyday lives. As technology has developed, titles of greater ambition have been developed. Cinematic storytelling, open-worlds and freedom of choice have given audiences endless hours of emotional and fantastical experiences. Though every once in a while, something different occurs. something that goes beyond the connection from audience to character, but decides to paint an image that is a perfect replication of our own reality. Or rather, the reality we were yet to discover.
A Blurred Line:
Watchdogs 2, Ubisoft’s 2016 hacker-simulator takes us into the belly of San Francisco and puts players into the shoes of Marcus Holloway, a young man seeking to expose corruption by working alongside the vigilante-esq group know as ‘Dedsec’. Going against billion dollar companies, rogue AI’s, and a system attempting to quietly dominate the city, CTOS.
Throughout the progression of the game you unlock skills to further your arsenal of digital weaponry. The core gameplay component of holding your left trigger to see anyone with a digital devices basic biography, is really interesting, though the reality is far from it. One of the abilities you unlock is to wire tap money from the accounts of these people. The others are to distract or destroy the phone, call the police, or most frighteningly, place a false bounty for the criminal underworld to exploit. If the latter option is chosen, an unlucky NPC will face there demise.
With the recent surge in Artificial intelligence, this is something that our world is not far away from. With tools that can generate images in a second, this can be a wonderful thing, but also a dangerous tool when put in the wrong hands. The brilliance of this gameplay mechanic, is that it offers a deeper warning, while allowing a story to play out. whether Ubisoft intended for that deeper is irrelevant, because they perfectly communicated without a single word.
Pictured Above: Marcus Holloway walking near the bay of San Francisco, E3 2016 Demo of Watchdogs 2
Tools like the hijacker skill allow Marcus to unlock any sort of automobile without raising the alarm. In-game, the characters phone is used, in reality, a tool like a relay amplifier or flipper zero’s are used. As care defer more away from analogue operation, more doors are opened for such opportunities of those set on a act of larceny. Particularly in recent times when these devices that have existed for a while, have become affordable to the general populace, costing a $100 or less[1].
The main narrative of the game has certain parallels to the way our world played out to. In a digital age, data is bound to be used and sold in ways out of our control, sometimes from those we trusted with it initially. Profit over people is the crux of the games antagonists. In the game, CTOS is found of to be exploiting user data and manipulating certain operations with the data they have collected. Recent times in our world have shared something similar. It is alleged by former head of data security at ‘Meta’, Mark Zuckerberg’s empire combined of Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, customer data was being stored, explored and moved around with free reign behind closed doors. Further claims state that thousands of accounts were being hacked or overthrown, with the company choosing to instead increasing user growth[2].
A Branching Narrative – A Pending Form:
Pictured Above: Bryan Deckhart as Connor, Detroit become human, 2018, Quantic Dream.
Detroit Become Human is one of the finest works in modern gaming. An emotionally powerful, deeply cinematic narrative that still provokes my mind to this day. Detroit launched in 2018, developed by Quantic Dream and Published by Sony as an initial PlayStation exclusive. Since that point, over 15 Million copies have been sold, a massive success for all involved [3]. Set in the year 2038, The main plot explores what happens when Androids become “Deviants” and begin displaying more humanlike behaviour, as we play as three protagonists with different purposes and different experiences. Connor (Brian Deckhart), is design to work alongside law enforcement, Marcus (Jesse Williams) Serves as a carer/butler to a wealthy artist, and Kara (Valorie Curry) is a housemaid for a little girl living in an abusive home. These varied experiences are thought provoking and is presented is such an authentic way that as a player I wasn’t always sure what to do next, but the game has a branching system that allows for many different outcomes, some good, some not.
It is a title about humanity, divide, unity, and most relevant to this conversation, evolving technology. Focusing on an uprising androids, presented in human appearance and design, this story forces us to question what it means to be human. The rise of androids was once science fiction, though is now apart of the world we live in, seemingly without question. A particular display in China was put on that highlighted robotic entities performing acrobatics and martial arts. This is alarming[4]. While impressive, this does cause worry about possible application in the future.
While games like Detroit show us compassion, they also show us the violence of power unrestrained. Particularly when mass production arises. Films as early as the terminator have been warning this for decades. these machines being created may cause many good things to come, but they exist with the door open to either being hacked, or surpassing our necessity. Slicing into reality sharply, the redundancy of humankind is explored thoroughly.
Over the last 5 years, the rapid development of digital technology has been astounding. But it’s affects on the job market has been ruthless. Millions of people are expected to be displaced from there livelihoods in the years ahead. Optimistically, this can create other avenues of employment, such as maintenance and testing, as humans have overcome being replaced by technology before even if on smaller scales. Time will tell[5]. Detroit explores this well and a lot of the initial conflicts between player characters and NPCs come from this very debate.
It begs the questions; Why would we make something so optimized that it lets ourselves be so lazy, that we forget how to live? Will we be able to make life alongside these platforms work and thrive, or will our paths debilitate one another?
Nick Roberts – March 2026
[1] Sato, K, March 2024, Flipper Zero and similar devices have potential to hack car and home security systems, police say, ABC NEWS, https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-03-31/queensland-police-warn-flipper-zero-device-car-home-theft/103642672
[2] Guardian staff and agencies, September 2025, Ex-WhatsApp cybersecurity executive says Meta endangered billions of users in new suit, The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/sep/08/meta-user-data-lawsuit-whatsapp
[3] Quantic Dream Staff, January 2026, QUANTIC DREAM’s Post, LinkedIn, https://www.linkedin.com/posts/quantic-dream_we-are-proud-to-announce-that-detroit-become-activity-7415059736594812929-6PG-?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAAoO_OkB-VfPR7dhiZ-PZ-9sf_EfWliEy1k
[4] Yang, M, February 2026, China’s dancing robots: how worried should we be?, The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/feb/18/china-dancing-humanoid-robots-festival-show
[5] Hyatt, D, March 2026, How AI Could Destroy 4 Million Jobs Per Year—And Not Kill The Labor Market, Investopedia, https://www.investopedia.com/how-ai-could-destroy-4-million-jobs-per-year-and-not-kill-the-labor-market-11916348
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