Wasted Bodies Against Ruined Landscapes: How Mass Effect and The Last of Us Depict the Death of Humanity, but Not Neoliberalism

Farnsworth, Stephanie (2025) Wasted Bodies Against Ruined Landscapes: How Mass Effect and The Last of Us Depict the Death of Humanity, but Not Neoliberalism. In: Confronting the Climate Crisis: Activism, Technology and Ecoaesthetic. Palgrave Studies in Media and Environmental Communication (PSMEC) . Springer Nature, pp. 255-274. ISBN 978-3-031-89605-7

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Abstract

Official URL: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-8...

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.