Abstract

This chapter examines the depiction of climate catastrophe and the wasting of bodies in Mass Effect and The Last of Us, exploring how neoliberalism persists even as societies collapse. Both game series confront the player with ruined landscapes and wasted bodies, illustrating the entanglement of late-stage capitalism, biopolitics, and environmental collapse. Drawing on theories of neoliberalism, transhumanism, and biopower, the analysis highlights how these games reflect anxieties about the commodification of bodies and the cyclical nature of capitalist destruction and reconstruction.