The underwater Randian dystopia of the first game, for all its decline into madness, felt like a living thing.

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Conservative polemicists suggest that Mr Obama, by stepping in to rescue the banks and industrial behemoths such as General Motors, is ushering in the collectivist dystopia that Rand gave warning against.

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All the same, the juxtaposition of brutality and improbable chivalry, in a dystopia built on the foundations of "Blade Runner, " "Brazil" and even "Naked City, " is a vision that's hard to dismiss.

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The gold standard was dystopia.

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Dunwall is a steampunk dystopia built on the back of whale fat which powers everything, ruled over by paranoid tyrants eager to hunt down heretics and rebels and innocents alike.

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The Gotham of Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight is actually Chicago, and for the residents of the Windy City, having their city chosen to depict urban dystopia is just another thing to be proud of.

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Anybody who criticizes the current system therefore is a know-nothing who wants to create some sort of libertarian dystopia featuring banking panics and economic chaos.

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