America, it’s not personal.Death Strandingfeels like home, and the 1950s tunes ofFalloutget me right in the feelings every time I hear them. What I mean is, I love yourpost-apocalyptic games…
…but I can’t live on them alone. What happens when things go wrong not in St. Petersburg, Florida, but in the one in the Gulf of Finland?What about tropical paradises, do they too feel like hell when everyone is dead?
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Rock, Flag, and Eagle!
The games on this list were picked because they add a fresh, new perspective to the end of life as we know it. Aftera little trip around the worldwith these, you’ll hopefully be less bored next time you boot up Fallout or the Days Gone remake.
In order to qualify,we are defining post-apocalyptic as anywhere where the region depicted has turned into an inhospitable land, resulting in the death of most of its inhabitants.
Yes, this means that a local apocalypse counts, because life going on as usual in Montana does not really make your life any easier if your area has been turned to glass.
True Norwegian Extraction Shooter
Norway is associated with many things. Fjords, black metal, great fish, and high standards of living.In Vigor, you get all the natural beauty, but none of the comforts.
Despite the success of theARMA franchiseand its mod-turned-titans derivatives likeDayZandPUBG, Czech studio Bohemia Interactive has never quite gotten Vigor to stick.
The game suffered from severe technical issues on launch, and while those have been fixed, it suffers from endemic cheating like most extraction shooters.
Fashioned as a third-person extraction shooter, the game plays like a mix ofEscape From TarkovandHelldivers 2. Vigor does not quite match the experience provided by either of them, but it holds up as a great,free experienceto play with friends.
Dying Like It’s 1986
If you’re reading this list, there’s a decent chance you’ve been itching for something that is basically just Fallout but withoutthe whole Yankee Doodle thing. Atom RPG is exactly that, set in the Soviet Union after World War 3 reduced all global powers to ashes in 1986.
The gameplay in Atom RPG draws a lot of inspiration fromclassic CRPGswhile remaining original enough. You put together your character, then set out to try and survive while also making sure the little that’s left of human life doesn’t go extinct.
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They walked so today’s blockbusters could run.
If you are not too bothered about speedrunning the main story, Atom RPG takes lessons fromProject Zomboid. You can go around andenjoy life, procrastinating, homesteading, and pretending everything is fine while the world around you withers away.
After you’re done, you can then move on to the sequel, Trudograd. Its presentation is a little sleeker than the original Atom RPG, and it has cool features like importing your previous character.
7Frostpunk 2
Ice, Ice, Baby
Frostpunk 2
11 bit studios has attained godlike status in the ‘try not to die before everyone else’ segment, and the Frostpunk series is no different. Set 30 years into a volcanic winter,Frostpunk 2has you rule over New London.
Now, the real London is arguably close enough to the end of the world today, but New London citizens have it even harder now that the weather is one big eternal snowstorm.
The cold is brutal in Frostpunk 2, butthe most intense enemy in this game is the tarnished soul of man. Corny, I know.
Keeping your city alive in an environment clearly unsuited for human life requires sacrifices, some of which they are not willing to make without a little ‘encouragement’. Time to dust off your tyrant gloves, and hope the people don’t kill you before the cold does.
6Escape From Tarkov
Unleash Your Loot Goblin
Escape from Tarkov
Too many shooter enthusiasts havetoxic gaming relationshipsthey cannot quite break free from. For me, that is Escape From Tarkov, a game known for its sweaty playerbase, one too many cheating scandals, andan early access period longer than both world wars.
Escape From Tarkov takes place in the fictional Norvinsk region in northwestern Russia, an area cordoned off from the world after corporate interests triggered a bloody war fought by mercenaries.
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We have cossacks, tanks, and even submarines!
Despite its very obvious shortcomings, Tarkov set the standard for the modern extraction shooter by beingso obtuse and thoroughly unforgiving that it loops back into being kind of fun again.
The most underrated facet of the game is the level design. Anyone who has set for anywhere east of Germany will feel right at home in this decadent eastern European city, with Easter eggs hidden all over the map.
5Dying Light
Fear Of The Dark
Dying Light
There’s something in the water in Poland. While 11 bit and Techland have vastly different approaches to game design, both seem to thrive when painting a picture of death and despair.
Set in the fictional Middle Eastern city of Harran,Dying Lightmixes the horrors of a localizedzombie apocalypsewith the freedom of parkour. It may sound like a weird mix, but it works perfectly.
The unique twist added by Dying Light is thatwhile the infected are a cakewalk to get around during the day, they get their freak on once the sun goes down. Your odds of surviving depend on your skills and how well you prepared while the walking dead were feeling groggy.
Despite coming out over a decade ago, the visuals are still fantastic, whileworking well on older computers.
4Gray Zone Warfare
Soldier of Fortune
Gray Zone Warfare
TheVietnam Warhas been the subject of many popular games over the years, but it has held an unfair thematic monopoly over Southeast Asia.
Gray Zone Warfare bucks that trend by delivering a post-apocalyptic open world vaguely based on Laos. During a civil war on the tropical island of Lamang, an unspecified event turned the heart of the country into a radioactive jungle, isolating the area from the rest of the world.
The civilian population either fled or died, caught in the crossfire between rebel gangs, the Lamang military, and mercenary outfits looking to profit off of the chaos.
Some of the missions got me downright depressed asthey show the direct effects of lawlessness and armed conflict. But hey, nothing like a 2kmhike in the jungleto forget the unspeakable horrors you see there.
Post-Soviet Zombie Bonanza
You have to feel for Chernarus. The former Soviet Republic had barely gotten time to recover from the chaos of the 1990s, and then a virus turned most people into zombies.
DayZhad started as a mod for ARMA 2, but it quickly became the heart of the zombie survival genre. The gameplay loop is deceptively simple: you wash up on the beach as one of the few people immune to the virus.
Your luck ends there, though, and the rest ofthe game is all about staying alive for as long as you can. This means finding food, clothes, shelter, and weapons, all while interacting with up to 60 other players in the same situation.
What I love the most about DayZ isthe absolute sense of freedom. You can live out yourThe Walking Deadfantasies, or just pack up, head into the woods, and live a quiet life hunting and foraging. Well, until some player shoots you from 100 meters away, but that’s life.
2STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl
Meet Me At 100 Rads
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl
The 1986 disaster at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant created a real post-apocalyptic zone around the border of Ukraine and Belarus. In theSTALKERuniverse, this was followed by a second, even deadlier disaster in 2006.
I picked STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl becauseits unmatched dark atmosphere is required reading for survival horror fans, especially if you want to enjoylater entriesto their fullest.
You enter the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone as an amnesiac stalker whose only clue is his last job: kill Strelok. This quest will take you through many twists and turns, but I won’t spoil the surprise for you.
It goes without saying that playing this game in the modern era can be a little grating. Sure, it’s a 2007 title, but it comes withenough Slavjankto blow up another reactor core. The experience more than makes up for it, though — I still feel a shiver down my spine when I hear the sound of the Agroprom underground lamps.
1Metro: Exodus
Metro Exodus
Now, what do you think would happen if we got the same people who did STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl, but mixed them with a fat budget anda talented author?
Although it is the third entry in the Metro series,Metro: Exodusstrays farther from Dmitry Glukhovsky’s books than some of the more outlandishStar Warsexpanded universe works of yore. While straying from a strong source material normally ends in disaster, this time it resulted in one of the best post-apocalyptic games ever made.
The first two games are set strictly in Moscow after a nuclear war turned the world uninhabitable in 2013, butMetro: Exodus takes Artyom across Russia and Kazakhstan in search of answers.
The variety of terrains and cultures you encounter from Moscow to Vladivostok is incredible, but such a long journey also adds plenty of room for manmade horrors and tears on the way.
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