There's a new demo on Steam that's worth your time if you're tired of every open world game being a power fantasy or a grimdark slog. Future? No Thanks! puts you in the shoes of Harvey Huffstone, a bitter old boomer spending his last day in an ecosocialist paradise he absolutely despises.
It's from Paolo Pedercini, better known as Molleindustria, the same studio behind the satirical Phone Story and Oiligarchy. So yes, it's got a point to make.
Why This Matters
Satire in games is tricky. Too often it's either a preachy lecture or it punches down. Future? No Thanks! manages to jab at both sides—the cranky conservative who can't stand a world that works, and the smug lefty utopia that's a little too pleased with itself.
It's the kind of thing that feels refreshingly rare. As a millennial who's been burned by a dozen "playable essays," I wasn't expecting to actually enjoy the demo.
How Did We Get Here?
Harvey Huffstone has applied for euthanasia under the new universal healthcare system. To prove his desire isn't an impulse buy, he has to complete a bucket list generated by an AI from his personal data. The list includes a cigar, a Coke, and a real steak—all anachronistic in a world where intensive animal agriculture has been abolished.
The demo gives you 30 minutes to wander a world of sentient toilets, cricket burgers, and cannabis vending machines. It runs on modest hardware—I played it on an i5 with integrated graphics, and it was smooth as sleepy 3D visuals can be.
The writing is academically inflected without, I think, being up its own ivory tower. At one point Harvey refers to it all as "utopia" (pejorative), only for a librarian to comment that it's more of a "heterotopia in the Foucaultian sense."
Harvey's response? "There's nothing 'hetero' about any of it." That kind of joke lands because it's earned, not forced.
What's the Bigger Picture?
Pedercini's game is also a quiet jab at open world conventions. You can have Harvey ceremonially gather sticks in the hopes of a hidden reward—a parody of busywork that's become a relic of a more "consumptive" era. The Steam page art even riffs on Grand Theft Auto box covers, which is a knowing nod to the genre's excesses.
It's a reminder that games don't have to be about grinding for loot or defending a fortress. Sometimes they can just be about talking to a librarian about Foucault while you hunt for a beef steak in a world that's moved on.
If you're still using a Steam Deck OLED or a budget GPU, this demo will run without a hitch.
What's Next
The full game is out tomorrow, July 22, and promises about six hours of play across seven non-linear quests. The demo is up now on Steam—go give it a spin. It's a perfect palate cleanser between triple-A releases.
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