Everybody has their own preference when it comes to the best post-apocalypse games, but I have to say that if viewed a little more immersively, the acclaimed world of Death Stranding 2 would absolutely suck to exist in if it were real life: mooching around in bunkers and constantly reminding yourself to feed your goldfish, lest it explode and kill everybody for miles around. If not that, you’re stumbling around the wasteland with a box of second-hand DVDs, trying to avoid belligerent spectres.
But that doesn’t mean it’s not fun to play, tackling bandits before high-tailing it away with the medicine you stole off them, and after having wandered through quiet hellscapes for forty hours, I’m rather in a mood to keep things gloomy. Well, I say gloomy, but the greatest post-apocalyptic games still definitely vary in tone. There’s an argument to be made that Breath of the Wild and Wind Waker are both games set after the collapse of civilization, adorable as they are. Meanwhile, Horizon: Zero Dawn has an optimistic “things can bounce back” mindset about Armageddon, as long as you’re willing to shank a titanium t-rex every now and then.
Regardless, these are the five post-apocalyptic games that I’ll always hold up as the apex of end-times, whether taking place just before, during, or after those darkest of days. If you’re in the mood to relax on the rubble and warm yourself by the embers of a dying civilization, these games will offer you a glorious end indeed.
5. Outer Wilds
Developer: Mobius Digital
Platform(s): PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch
Outer Wilds isn’t just about the end of a world, but the end of dozens of them, even if they’re each only about a mile across. A gorgeous and brilliantly clever game about exploring a tiny solar system, the whole thing is given spice by a time loop that triggers every 22 minutes when the sun goes supernova and wipes out everything, throwing you back to the beginning again. The actual cause of both the supernova and time loop isn’t explained at first, part of the mystery you have to discover, and what makes the game so utterly brilliant is that you don’t carry anything tangible over between the loops – only whatever information you’ve organically discovered along the way.
The looming alien horrors that inhabit certain worlds won’t be beaten with any special gun you’ve unlocked; you simply have to learn the special blind spots they have that allow you to navigate around them, and which you could’ve been doing since the very first loop. Ultimately, it’s a brilliant science-fiction odyssey that manages to be cute, scary, sad, funny, thrilling, and thought-provoking all in one go – and it allows you to listen to banjo music and roast marshmallows on alien worlds. Who could object?
4. Fallout: New Vegas
Developer: Obsidian Entertainment
Platform(s): PC, PS4, Xbox One, PS3, Xbox 360
The first of the “well, obviously” entries, Fallout: New Vegas is largely considered to be the best Fallout game in modern times, and the true successor to original games. Teased by the Fallout TV show, New Vegas covers the titular gambling town and surrounding wasteland, now run by a series of colorful factions and warlords, none so iconic as the Oz-like “Mr. House,” played by the late, great René Auberjonois.
New Vegas does away with the binary good/bad morality that Fallout 3 had before and embraces a greyer, more nuanced, and complex tone. It’s a game where all sides, even the most monstrous, have coherent philosophies and can rationalise their behaviour. That means it’s up to you to hear their arguments and consider who deserves the mysterious macguffin that Chandler from Friends tries to kill you over in the game’s intro… Or you can fight old ladies armed with rolling pins and wash down your cockroach lunch with toilet water. There’s really something for everybody, even if our Fallout New Vegas review objected to that last bit.
3. Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare
Developer: Rockstar
Platform(s): PC, PS4, Xbox One, PS3, Xbox 360, Nintendo Switch
Canon? Probably not. Awesome? Most definitely. A spin-off saga of John Marston set during the third act of Red Dead Redemption 1, Undead Nightmare is a pulpy, post-apocalyptic zombie game where you hold off hordes of corpses with six shooters, before moseying off to find all your old friends in the hopes of stopping this strange curse that’s plaguing the Wild West.
There’s a lot to love about Undead Nightmare, but speaking personally, I’ll always have a soft spot for the four “Horseman’s Horses” (War, Pestilence, Famine, and Death) that act as secret rewards around the map… Oh, and the extra-secret rainbow-generating unicorn that you can catch and mount up as well. The zombies definitely won’t be expecting that one.
2. I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream
Developer: The Dreamer’s Guild
Platform(s): PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, iOS, Android
A 1995 point-and-click adventure game adapting one of the most bleakly misanthropic short stories in all of science fiction, I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream tells the tale of five people – the last five people – being physically and psychologically tormented by AM, the sadistic supercomputer that killed the rest of humanity. Trapped in AM’s terrifying playgrounds, you play as each of the five humans one by one and have to outwit the monstrous machine in the hope of some sort of mistake.
I’ll be honest, it’s AM itself that’s the real star here. Voiced by the author of the original book, Harlan Ellison (who always insisted on voicing AM in any adaptation), the faceless computer ends up as one of the most compelling and terrifying villains in all of science fiction, with one monologue in particular that’s become iconic in literary and video game circles.
1. Dark Souls
Developer: FromSoftware
Platform(s): PC, PS4, Xbox One, PS3, Xbox 360, Nintendo Switch
The other “well, obviously” option on this list. Dark Souls is pure fantasy apocalypse, driven less by some villainous necromancer or tyrant king, and more by… well, entropy. It’s a fascinating and compelling look at a world that’s dying down not because of some evil spell, but more just like it’s naturally burned itself out, coming to the end of its regular lifespan, albeit one that you’re unfortunate enough to witness yourself.
But that doesn’t mean we can’t still stab demons to death and sling lightning at dragons. If you were one of the many folks who found themselves drawn into the world of Soulsborne games with Elden Ring, now you get a chance to see a big part of that game’s lineage. Sure, Demon’s Souls was before that, but Dark Souls is arguably where the formula came together and what convinced the wider world of its potential, as reflected in our glowing Dark Souls 1 review from… Great Gwyn, was it really fourteen years ago?!
Feeling inclined towards more bleak works of art? Find out the best FromSoftware games to see how Dark Souls ranks, or check out more games like Fallout to see where you can go after New Vegas!
