Collapsed Minds: Eco-Criticism Through Dilemmatic Situations in Minds Beneath Us

Minds Beneath Us (BearBone Studio, 2024) is a Taiwanese indie video game that adopts the narrative and aesthetic principles of cyberpunk within a Taipei-inspired setting. The game immerses the player in a technologically advanced yet dehumanised fictional world on the brink of societal collapse, presenting a critical dystopia in which humans have become the ultimate resources to be exploited once natural ones are depleted. This chapter aims to analyse the dystopian world of BearBone Studio’s video game from both an ecocritical and a ludonarrative perspective. The latter approach is motivated by the moral dilemmas the player faces, which lack optimal solutions and generate a persistent sense of uncertainty. What is particularly compelling about Minds Beneath Us’ ethical design is how, despite its scripted and seemingly restrictive framework, ethical and ecological reflection prevails, allowing a dystopian world to resonate deeply with the player.