Religion is as inescapable in videogames as it is in real life, whether you believe in it or not. Whether its presence only extends to brief mentions of gods or it is as blatant as the Stormcloaks vs Imperial conflict in Skyrim, many plots hinge on religion. Belief determines who you can play, what you can do and even if you end up learning anything from the game at all.

The sheer diversity in religion is something that has been explored over the years in video games, such as in Diablo 3 in which you choose to play a character from Barbarian, Crusader, Demon Hunter, Monk, Witch Doctor or Wizard and travel through a world where the protagonist must defeat the demons of hell. Many of the character types have biblical meanings themselves which the player can exploit in the forms of special fighting styles and powers as they battle through hordes of forsaken monsters to save the heavens from doom and the human race from extinction. Many of the demons that the protagonist is confronted with throughout the game are references to religious texts such as Mephisto and Baal and (obviously) Diablo, all of which can be interpreted in the game as mentions of the archetypal Devil himself. The Diablo trilogy is a game that has used religion to an extent not achieved by many games before.

Assassin’s Creed is a game which takes an interesting angle on religion. The Assassins, and the game itself, are cynical of classic religions, especially their own form of Christianity and its historically self-righteous morals, though some of its characters have Islamic heritage such as Altair from the very first game. Throughout the whole series there are depictions of colonists invading North America, segments of society attempting to wipe out the religion held by the indigenous populace, and religious sects dotted around the cities where orators spout the words of God to intent audiences below. Religion in most of the Assassin’s Creed series takes on a political force where the cities go through major transformations. However, despite this cynicism the strangely spiritual tone the game ends up with mustn’t be forgotten, for which I must deem Assassin’s Creed a game concerned with agnostic philosophy.

A last very important mention in the discussion on religious influence in video games is BioShock Infinite. The game nurtures a bold religious statement from the get-go and unravels the deep-rooted problems of Christianity in Columbia’s society. Booker Dewitt, the protagonist, is a man who turns up in a city in the clouds to save a girl Elizabeth from the clutches of an evil prophet. This may seem simple as a plot at first but looking at the characters more closely, Booker appears to be the symbol of the American Christian man wracked with sins from his past, yet his only repentance is indulging in more violence. Can a game get more anthropologically religious than this? I doubt it. The statement runs deep and can be interpreted in more ways than what I suggested above. Booker is finally baptised — and simultaneously drowned — at the end of the game, symbolising the washing away of his guilt. But was this ‘baptism’ a plunge into repentance or in fact just the drowning of a problematic man? After all, he is thrown into a world which is tearing itself apart on the profound level of quantum physics going haywire. This certainly gives off the impression that Booker’s dream of repentance has fallen to pieces before him.

 

Sasha Hodes

 

Featured image from appfilm.co.uk.