Art is the greatest and most captivating reflection of reality, although I must admit the symmetry is often so striking it’s almost frightening.
The abstract idea of immersing ourselves in other people’s experiences through lines of code is quite remarkable in itself, but when you add to that the ability of these lines to depict infinite realities, it becomes even more astonishing.
However, I believe the most impressive circumstance occurs when the titles not only depict an event, but also predict it months or even years before it even takes place in our reality.
Some may have been anticipated, others not, but the truth is that these eight games that quietly predicted the future of the real world have such remarkable accuracy that it almost makes me think it’s no coincidence.
8 Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus
Hate As A State Ideology
One might think that a game where history is rewritten, and the Nazis won the last great world war is pure fiction, but real life can disappoint in rather unfortunate ways.
While Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus is not directly relevant to this list, as it presents a shift in state ideologies across the globe that hasn’t formally happened, it is relevant in that it predicted the ease with which entire groups of people are hated and persecuted in various parts of the world.
You don’t see nearly as many people in white robes and hoods as in the game, though, after playing it recently, I couldn’t help but feel that the way the Nazis speak, the press conferences of officials, and the televised addresses of the antagonists‘ leaders are strikingly similar to what we’ve seen in the last couple of years in our reality.
I despise having to include Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus on this list because it demonstrates that the very fundamental hatred it criticizes is more alive than ever. It’s not the most accurate reflection of the whole article, but it’s easy to see the analogy given the current state of affairs.
7 Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon
An Anticipation Of The Russian Invasion Of Georgia
During the early years of the rise of video games depicting modern warfare rather than 20th-century conflicts, the original Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon managed to anticipate (by seven years) the 2008 dispute between Russia and Georgia.
Given the game’s premise is the conflict between Georgian rebel forces and Russian nationalists—a scenario remarkably close to what eventually transpired—saying it predicted it doesn’t seem far-fetched.
Certainly, as the game progresses, it takes a rather different path from real-world events, involving the United States and expanding into more Baltic countries, but it’s enough to demonstrate that Tom Clancy had an almost uncanny ability to foresee international frictions.
Looking back, it may not have been difficult to foresee the armed confrontation that would take place between the two countries, given the geopolitical circumstances surrounding the Caucasus and all former Soviet Union nations, though it’s still a striking curiosity, especially due to the years’ difference.
6 Homefront
Predicting Kim Jong-il’s Fate
Homefront was a game I found incredibly entertaining because it finally felt slightly different from its peers, despite its limitations, mainly because it (somewhat) refreshed the cliché and portrayed a unified Korea as the main villain.
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In the process, the game posits the death of Kim Jong-il just a few months after the North Korean leader’s real-life passing, a highly relevant event for the game’s narrative as it sets the campaign in motion.
I could also point out that it predicts the nuclear tests North Korea eventually conducted in 2013, but considering they carried out several tests over a period of many years, I’d say it’s more of a minor, though still interesting, prediction.
Of course, past console generations saw such a considerable boom in the number of war video games with international conflicts that it’s not so surprising that a couple had to get it right, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say I still find Homefront‘s accuracy intriguing.
5 Hotline Miami
The Cult Of Violence In Video Games Remains
-
- Released
- October 23, 2012
- ESRB
- M For Mature 17+ due to Intense Violence, Blood and Gore, Drug Reference, Strong Language, Crude Humor
- Engine
- gamemaker, phyreengine
- Franchise
- Hotline Miami
- PC Release Date
- October 23, 2012
- Xbox Series X|S Release Date
- October 23, 2023
- PS5 Release Date
- October 23, 2023
- Nintendo Switch Release Date
- August 19, 2019
- How Long To Beat
- 5 Hours
- Metascore
- 87
- PS Plus Availability
- Extra & Premium
While it’s relatively straightforward to talk about video games that have seemingly predicted certain global events, I believe experiences like Hotline Miami warrant a more in-depth analysis.
Dennaton Games’ title doesn’t simply foresee a war or an isolated event; rather, it provides a perfect snapshot of the multidimensional cult of violence emanating from video games, without resorting to the alarmist conspiracy theories of those who use the interactive medium as a scapegoat.
Instead of taking the easy way out and saying that video games make us violent (a claim repeatedly refuted by studies), Hotline Miami goes a step further and judges those who find entertainment in digital violence, forcing us to rethink how we interact with this hobby.
More than 10 years have passed, and there are as many video games based on violence as ever. Obviously, this hasn’t increased any alarming statistics regarding armed violence, but I do find it intriguing how toxic and verbally violent the gaming community has become.
Whether the overabundance of violent games is related to this, I don’t know, but the game remains relevant today because we still enjoy harming others, even if they’re just pixels on a screen.
Memes Are The Core Of Communications
Although Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance was released at a time when rage comics, precursors to modern memes, were already popular, no one can deny that its entire campaign offers an accurate analysis of our current communication landscape.
Monsoon said memes were the DNA of the soul, and while he obviously wasn’t referring to an image of a cow with the text “Pablo”, his statement encapsulates the socially constructed nature of human beings in a context of constant and invasive digitalization.
Furthermore, Senator Armstrong isn’t only one of the best antagonists ever created, but also a very clear amalgamation of the American political class, with its grandiloquence, populism, affinity for wars, and supposed freedoms, with a precision that truly frightens me a little.
I consider Metal Gear Rising‘s ability to predict all of this to stem from the fact that the beginnings of both phenomena occurred within its timeframe, but it’s exceptional that it’s among the few video games capable of putting it so well into words.
3 Deus Ex
Foreshadowing The Attack On The Twin Towers
Having firsthand experience with the franchise and having researched it extensively due to my affection for it, it’s evident that Deus Ex is one of the franchises for which I find the most compelling arguments to describe it as an oracle, given the numerous similarities.
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However, its most famous case is its premonition of the attack on the Twin Towers that took place on September 11, 2001, since the iconic building wasn’t present in the New York of the 2000 title due to a technical limitation.
This might not seem so relevant considering the campaign takes place in 2052, but since the developer chose to use a terrorist attack as the reason they couldn’t depict the World Trade Center, releasing the game a year earlier makes it all the more chilling.
Later, we could talk about the issue of technological autocracy, transhumanism, the growing social inequality resulting from the deepening of class differences, and so on, but it’s not necessary right now to know what is already known: that Deus Ex knew a lot.
2 Death Stranding
An Immediately Predicted Pandemic
Every time Hideo Kojima releases a game, people say he’s crazy for one reason or another, and who didn’t think so when he announced he was going to make Death Stranding, a post-apocalyptic game about making deliveries?
I myself thought my beloved eccentric genius had finally lost his mind, but it took me the first hours in the shoes of Sam Porter Bridges to realize he was still the same magnificent and incomparable director, because it’s incredible how effectively the game depicts the global experience of the COVID pandemic.
The thing is, of course, that he conceived the title years before the event took place, and he left nothing out. Our society’s dependence on essential workers, the complete disconnection between cities, the exclusivity of digital technology for connecting with other humans, the presence of a deadly phenomenon on the outskirts, and so on.
Death Stranding is among the most profound and accurate glimpses the video game industry has offered into our world, and I think it shouldn’t surprise us at all that it comes from the very person who also topped this list.
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If I’ve spent years thinking Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty isn’t just a video game, but one of the most important pieces of art in the modern history of our civilization, imagine what I’ll think of it now that it’s become a reality.
I wouldn’t say anything if it were a game from this decade, but considering it’s a 2001 title that, with almost omnipresent accuracy, anticipated the rise of AI and post-truth as key reference points for life on the internet, it’s impossible not to think it’s something otherworldly.
Think about deepfakes, hoaxes, deliberately unverified information, the decline of critical thinking, constraints on freedom of expression, the growing importance of leaving future generations more than just genes, and other variables essential to understanding our present, and you’re thinking about Metal Gear Solid 2‘s story.
I don’t know how on earth Kojima managed to create the two video games that best and most accurately predicted what our reality would become in the years following their release, though I do know it’s enough to consider him the most distinguished author this industry has ever produced—with all due respect to Hidetaka Miyazaki.
It’s no coincidence this is also the second game featuring Raiden on this list, because he’s the character most vividly developed in the history of the industry to exist in our image and likeness. If all this isn’t peak storytelling, nothing is.
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- Security Camera Installation – indoor/outdoor IP CCTV systems & video analytics
- Access Control Installation – key card, fob, biometric & cloud‑based door entry
- Business Security Systems – integrated alarms, surveillance & access control
- Structured Cabling Services – voice, data & fiber infrastructure for new or existing builds
- Video Monitoring Services – 24/7 remote surveillance and analytics monitoring
Author: 360 Technology Group
