Rupert Breheny (117) on 3/23/2016 10:03 AM · Permalink · Report

Conditioned as we are by most games to think of ourselves the hero, pause for a moment to consider things might not be so simple in the land of The Sentinel.

To the Ayn Randists out there this may certainly be taken as the rise to power of a plucky underdog, outsmarting the toxic gaze of omnipresent big-government.

As the relentless sentry sweeps his panopticon view across the landscape, the amassed capital of the protagonist-built rocks and robots are absorbed and redistributed as trees across the map. No break with the norms are tolerated, no exceptionalism goes unpunished in the dominion of the Sentinel on-high.

If you are fleet-of-foot and can amass enough energy, then you too can reach those lofty heights where you may thrown down your oppressor and free the land before taking leave for the next level – mission accomplished, the hero is triumphant.

But think for a moment about what you leave behind. What was once a forested landscape of treelined slopes and shaded valleys, is now a bleak place, devoid of life or interest. Every last stick has been absorbed and repurposed into a crumbling monument to greed and selfishness. A towering edifice of stone topped with a golden statue of "you the hero", the new Sentinel, presiding over the lifeless desert you had thought to liberate. Congratulations, game over, you win but you can't take it with you.

Ode to capitalism or a lament on the Tragedy of the Commons – you decide.