(As for the dichotomy of hell versus tech, let's just say that per System Shock, the original Unreal, The Matrix, Terminator, Aliens, C.S. Lewis, the entire 20th century's worth of government atrocities, etc., sterile sunless rooms full of computers and bizarre experiments are a lot more evocative of literal Hell for me than red mountains full of angry fire- and ghost-type Pokémon (which, don't get me wrong, certainly has its own appeal).)
This is all based on the few glimpses we see in the trailer so I can be totally off base about all of it.Nems wrote:If you don't mind going into further detail, I'm genuinely curious and want to know more as to how this possible premise/plot/story is that.Matt wrote:Bringing down a paganized "Heaven" like that isn't even edgy, just vaguely subliminally quasi-Protestant.
Those glimpses show a lot of blue-white ornate cathedral-esque decor, of the sort that we typically associate with paladins and Lawful Good/Lawful Neutral stuff... at best.
At worst, it's the whitwashed-tomb decaying stifling ancient order of the sort in a Phillip Pullman book. Everything communicates a strong sense of hierarchy, purity and symmetry and static balance.
In the meantime there isn't really anything clearly Christian other than a cross on top of the building - as long as you don't count a distorted Christianity with the sympathetic loving God parts filed off.
All the visuals communicate a duality: blue and red, order and chaos, angels and demons. Even just thinking about the meta of it I can't shake off the feeling that this "Heaven" is really created as an anti-Hell, opposed to it and thus equivalent to it.
The placement of this heaven stuff in the narrative feels like a big setup for the old "you've been fighting these little bad guys and now it's time to fight the real Big Bad that's been pulling the strings this whole time" trope. I'm almost half expecting that the next game's going to have the doomguy join forces with the demons to rescue them from their past wrongs and free them from the evil forces of heaven or something.
The bearded guy on the throne - whoever he is - looks like a fantasy Viking type, and there's nothing resembling a cross anywhere there. The narration implies strongly that this is at least the guy on the throne in the heavens, whatever that might mean. It might be a guy on a throne in heaven, the leader of the rebel faction, or it could be a bad-guy "God" from Pullman or the Gnostics etc. - we just can't tell from this.
The only hints as to the motivations of this "heaven" are the references to wrath and penance. We don't know why and from what. It's an invisible, angry thing from on high demanding suffering from its putative subjects.
In light of all this, consider this completely arbitrary, grossly incomplete list of bits and pieces from Western culture:
- Pullman, as above
- Dan Brown (if anyone remembers him, but he was huge back in the day)
- Everyone who's read Paradise Lost and thought the Devil was the hero, whether in intent or effect
- Your typical Evangelical Christian's reaction to the use of statuary and institutional clerical hierarchies in Christian worship
- The guy in white from the second Matrix movie
- Westboro Baptist Church
- Chocolates and cars branded with references to devils, temptation, the seven sins, etc.
- Glorification of the notion of angels leaving heaven for ~true love~
- Pride Month (and the accompanying references to the other six deadly sins especially the ones made in jest)
- Old churches, Latin chanting and someone saying the Our Father quietly in the dark - used as tropes for creating a creepy horror-movie vibe
- This song by a very successful music group who are also kinda involved in video games
- The "God and Satan Are Both Jerks" and "Church Militant" entries in TV Tropes
- The entire Modern narrative about the printing press as a means of democratizing liberation of individuals from the capricious tyranny of the Church
EDIT: And on that note...
: oh_no :Apeirogon wrote:Or even worse, since instead of good old shoot em all mechanics you forced to...watch fatality cutscene to receive medikit/ammo.
Shit, now that you put it that way I can't help but think of those mobile games that explicitly have you watch ads in exchange for ingame bonuses... and now I'm wondering what all this is intended to... advertise...