Summary
For years, Black Mirror has made us question whether embracing technology is a brilliant idea or a fast track to existential horror. For the uninitiated, Black Mirror is an anthology series that explores the dark side of technology, often in ways that make you seriously consider throwing your phone into the nearest body of water. But it doesn’t just stop at technology - it also tackles pressing social issues, exploring how these advancements affect our identities, relationships, and society as a whole.
And what if we told you that some games have already captured that Black Mirror energy? Games that will leave you with heavy moral dilemmas about control and technology, blurring the line between them? These titles could be turned into their own standalone, terrifying episodes.
Okay, this one seems weird at first. But think about it: what if your life was controlled by an unseen force? What if you were aware of your thoughts but had no control over your actions? And what if, at any moment, you could be trapped in a pool with no ladder?
In The Sims 4,an omnipotent figure (you)dictates every move of its digital people - sometimes just to see what happens. Free will is an illusion. And their fate? Entirely in the hands of someone who may or may not be benevolent. If that’s not a Black Mirror episode, what is?
At first glance, Superhot is just astylish FPSwhere time moves only when you do. But beneath the minimal design lies something much darker. It’s an unsettling commentary on control free will, and the illusion of choice. As the game progresses, it becomes clear that you’re not in control - something (or someone) else is pulling the strings.
It’s the kind of unsettling experience that would fit perfectly into a Black Mirror episode. Reality bends, instructions appear from nowhere, and soon, you’re not just playing the game - you’re obeying it. The deeper you go, the less you trust what you’re seeing… until you realize that maybe, just maybe, you were never the one playing at all.
War has always been brutal, but what happens when soldiers are controlled down to their very bodies? In Metal Gear Solid 4, nanomachines regulate everything from pain tolerance to emotions, effectively turning soldiers into puppets of the military-industrial complex.
With AIoverseeing entire war zonesand privatized armies waging endless conflict, the game paints a terrifyingly realistic vision of warfare driven by technology. If Black Mirror forces us to question the dark side of innovation, then Hideo Kojima has long been revealing it.
A world where memories are a commodity, bought, sold, and even altered? Sounds like a familiar Black Mirror episode. Dontnod’s debut game, Remember Me, takes place in a dystopian future where a corporation has turned human memories into a commodity.
People can erase painful memories or modify the past—at a price. But when corporations control memory itself, identity becomes fluid, and reality turns into a fragile construct. Much like Black Mirror, the game forces us to ask: If we can manipulate memories, what’s left of who we really are?
Cybernetic implants that enhance human abilities? Sounds great, until you realize that corporations control who gets them, how they function, and whether they can be shut off remotely.
Like many Black Mirror episodes, Deus Ex: Human Revolution explores the consequences of unchecked technological advancements and the societal divisions they create. In a world where the wealthy can literally upgrade themselves beyond normal humans, the line between man and machine starts to blur. The question is: at what point do we stop being human altogether?
A city where every action is tracked, every conversation recorded, and one hacker can manipulate an entire digital infrastructure?Forget just covering your webcam - this goes way beyond a piece of tape on your camera.
Watch Dogs dives into the dark side of mass surveillance, showing just how fragile digital privacy really is. Predictive algorithms assign threat levels to civilians, and personal data becomes a weapon against the very people it’s meant to protect. It’s an episode of Black Mirror just waiting to happen, except maybe, we are already living it.
Take White Bear’s psychological horror, mix in Nosedive’s dystopian social control, and you get We Happy Few. Set in an alternate-history 1960s, this game features a society kept in line by a drug called ‘Joy’. Citizens pop pills to stay blissfully ignorant of their grim reality.
Refuse to conform, and you are labeled a ‘Downer’ – a fate much worse than simply being unhappy. It’s the perfect Black Mirror setup: a world that seems utopian on the surface but hides something deeply sinister underneath.
SOMA forces us to confront one of the most terrifying questions of all: what if our consciousness could be copied, and we didn’t even realize it? Set in a post-apocalyptic underwater facility, SOMA explores themes of consciousness, identity, and what it truly means to be human.
Scientists have found a way to transfer human minds into machines, but the process isn’t as simple as it seems. Copies of consciousness are created, raising ethical nightmares. Much like Black Mirror, SOMA amplifies that sense of dread and alienation through its narrative, forcing players to question what it really means to be alive.
