Hello all,
As we are in a Fallout drought again which might continue for several years until Bethesda will release another game that most likely will not satisfy the desire for an involving post apocalyptic game, how about that we make a list of all games with a Post Apocalyptic theme that have been released so far for people here in case they are looking for a new game to scratch their PA itch?
I am not sure if we should also add what we think about the titles that will be mentioned or what the major review sites think about it, but perhaps a description and some thoughts if the title will appeal or not to everyone or only to certain people could be added.
Not all PA games deal with a world after a nuclear war of course, there is a large variety on the theme. Do include that when you add your entry
Note: note I would like to give Zombie Apocalypse titles their own subgenre as the titles have become much more prevalent than they were years ago.
I think PA in a fantasy setting should also have their own subgenre as they quite different from PA games set after the present or in a more distant future setting.
I will add all entries people give to this list.
1. Bad Blood. A game by Chris Roberts before he worked on the Wing Commander series. Bad Blood is sort of a Gauntlet clone set in an open world full of mutants and some human city (with Mad Max elements). There are some light adventure elements with a text parser for communication but in general it is mostly an action game.
It looks okay for an old VGA game though it is limited by the interface Origin choose for it, the text parser is not always that easily understood, and the adventure is rather short.
Perhaps good for an afternoon for some people
2. Alien Earth. Back when it was released some review writers compared it to Fallout, but I find that an odd choice because other than the perspective there is nothing reminiscent of Fallout in this title.
You don't build your own character or determine name and gender, and improving your character just means his life bar increases and the telepathic defenses and attacks you later learn improve.
This game is an action-adventure title set in a world that is partly nuclear war and partly alien invasion, the player starts in a human preservation after which he moves on to a ruined alien city ruled by alien invaders that are fought by a human resistance.
The goal of the game is to learn more about the player's origins while fighting the alien invaders.
All action is real time and maybe pseudo Diablo esque (I never played that game series though so I am not sure). There are some adventure and puzzle solving elements between the fighting of creatures, mutants, and aliens.
The controls are workable but I would not call them fluent such as the inventory interface, the player can also not run. Graphically it is probably okay but not outstanding.
Perhaps worth a try if you can find it, but not a big loss if you never find this game.
I like the intro though:
(oh, the people who made the SNES Shadowrun game apparently worked on this)
Expanded with TorontRayne's entries
3. Gears of War
4. Mad Max - recently released along with an old NES game. I haven't played it, but from what I have seen it plays like an open world version of Arkham Knight with a Mad Max skin.
5. Metro 2033 - FPS set in an underground post apocalypse in Russia if I remember correctly.
6. NEO Scavenger - A very good roguelike with deep mechanics but simple graphics. The crafting is pretty complex with things like whether you have shoes on determining whether you catch hypothermia or boiling water saving you from getting a stomach bug and dying. Shelters are key as you will freeze to death at night. You can choose to start a fire fro warmth but that may attract wandering humans or worse. There is a story if you choose to pursue it, but it is all hands off. Where you go and what you do is up to you.
7. Nuclear Throne - a damn good roguelike where you choose one out of various mutated creatures with unique skillsets as you make your way through various levels of bullethell combat.
8. Skyshines Bedlam - Was going to review this at one point.
9. Fallen Earth - MMORPG that went F2P a long time ago.
10. Tex Murphy series.
11. I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream
12. Full Throttle
13. S.T.A.L.K.E.R
14. Borderlands
15. Sheltered
16. Terminator series - pretty extensive.
17. Rogue Trip: Vacation 2012 - A spiritual successor to Twisted Metal. It has the standard deatmatch style combat as in Twisted Metal, but there is also a game mechanic where you drop of tourists at various popular spots. It is a criminally underrated classic by my reckoning because it plays even better than Twisted Metal 2.
18. Underrail - The closest thing to Fallout you can get right now. Get your grid paper ready or one of those map programs because you will need it and maybe a cheat engine to speed the walking up. Prepare to get lost in the underground labyrinths that contain all that remains of humanity. Choose your skills wisely because every little choice matters as this is a combat focused game. The story is sufficient, but not on the scale of Fallout.
19. Rifts. The setting is interesting but good god is the rule system shit. (Pen and Paper)
Expanded with Alphons' entry
20. Caravaneer 2. It's flash game, but graphics are nice and game is interesting. Creators took a lot of inspiration from Fallout. You take the role of caravaneer- set new trade routes, connect distant settlements and turn profit. There are story and side quests too.
What I really liked about it is freedom. What you offer( medicine, clothes, pre war artifacts or slaves) to who changes your reputation. You can get locked from quests or whole cities.
Game is simple, but mastering it and building up caravan that suits you is hard sometimes. I recommend it to everyone that needs something refreshing after HELPING SETTLEMENTS.
Zombie Apocalypse
1. The Last of Us - It plays like a cross between Uncharted and The Walking Dead. It is a story driven experience with various stealth/crafting/puzzle mechanics scattered across linear setpiece after another.. There are some multiplayer additions like Deathmatch, but it is fairly half baked. It is definitely worth a look if only to see how far the graphics and story have come in games. It is a bit of a tearjerker.
2. The Walking Dead Telltale games.
3. Dead State - isometric CRPG, but I haven't played it.
4. DayZ - This game needs little introduction, but it started the survival MMO fad and is notoriously buggy.
5. Organ Trail - a zombie apocalypse version of Oregon Trail.
6. State of Decay - Just another zombie apocalypse game, but a pretty good one with a sequel in the works.
7. Left4Dead series
8. Dead Rising - standard zombie apocalypse made by Capcom that has a strict time limit while playing until the later entries in the series. It has a lot of Japanese wackiness like dressing up the character in various stupid outfits while you whack zombies in the head with wiffle ball bats. The firearms selection is limited as most weapons are picked up around the environment. The first game took place in a mall, but later games have strayed slightly from that formula.
Fantasy Apocalypse
1. Mortal Kombat 3 and Armageddon are a little bit, but not in the normal sense.
2. Darksiders
3. Crystalis - underrated NES that plays like Zelda.
4. Grim Dawn - good fantasy ARPG that plays like Diablo.
5. Age of Decadence - Isometric fantasy RPG made by a well known Codex poster. It is fairly short, but the C&C is so complex it warrants numerous plays.
6. Final Fantasy VI - Starts off Steampunk then halfway through the game the world gets destroyed. One of the best entries if not THE best entry in the series. JRPG turnbased at it's finest with old school sprites. Fuck the android remakes.
7. The Legend of Zelda: Windwaker - The world was destroyed by Ganon and covered in water Waterworld style. People loved it or hated it at launch due to the cell shaded art style, but the sailing mechanic in the game is pretty fun. The HD remake on Wii U improved every problem I had with the game by speeding up the boat especially.
Expanded with Mohammed2001's entries
8. Dark Souls series
- In 1, everything is pretty much mad and out to kill you. There is no trace of any civilization. Globally, the world is dying. The DLC has you go to a place tainted by the touch of the Abyss, with a messed up environment.
- In 2, you willingly go to the kingdom of Drangelic in order to find a way to get rid of the curse of the undead, as did many others. The once proud kingdom is now in ruin, most of its soldiers Hollow, and the King is no where to be found. The DLCs for this one have you go to distant realms in search of items rumored to aid you in your task. Like the original game, the realms are also way past their prime.
- In 3, your task is sort of overall similar to 1, but with some differences. The setting has changed; It mostly takes place in the Kingdom of Lothric, although some parts of DS 1 do make a return. This one has more neutral NPCs than DS 1, but the world is still overall hostile. The two DLCs take place in mostly dead areas as well.
I cut out Bloodborne for reasons another poster suggested. The gameplay is perhaps similar to Dark Souls but as they suggested, the setting is technically a dream.
As we are in a Fallout drought again which might continue for several years until Bethesda will release another game that most likely will not satisfy the desire for an involving post apocalyptic game, how about that we make a list of all games with a Post Apocalyptic theme that have been released so far for people here in case they are looking for a new game to scratch their PA itch?
I am not sure if we should also add what we think about the titles that will be mentioned or what the major review sites think about it, but perhaps a description and some thoughts if the title will appeal or not to everyone or only to certain people could be added.
Not all PA games deal with a world after a nuclear war of course, there is a large variety on the theme. Do include that when you add your entry
Note: note I would like to give Zombie Apocalypse titles their own subgenre as the titles have become much more prevalent than they were years ago.
I think PA in a fantasy setting should also have their own subgenre as they quite different from PA games set after the present or in a more distant future setting.
I will add all entries people give to this list.
1. Bad Blood. A game by Chris Roberts before he worked on the Wing Commander series. Bad Blood is sort of a Gauntlet clone set in an open world full of mutants and some human city (with Mad Max elements). There are some light adventure elements with a text parser for communication but in general it is mostly an action game.
It looks okay for an old VGA game though it is limited by the interface Origin choose for it, the text parser is not always that easily understood, and the adventure is rather short.
Perhaps good for an afternoon for some people
2. Alien Earth. Back when it was released some review writers compared it to Fallout, but I find that an odd choice because other than the perspective there is nothing reminiscent of Fallout in this title.
You don't build your own character or determine name and gender, and improving your character just means his life bar increases and the telepathic defenses and attacks you later learn improve.
This game is an action-adventure title set in a world that is partly nuclear war and partly alien invasion, the player starts in a human preservation after which he moves on to a ruined alien city ruled by alien invaders that are fought by a human resistance.
The goal of the game is to learn more about the player's origins while fighting the alien invaders.
All action is real time and maybe pseudo Diablo esque (I never played that game series though so I am not sure). There are some adventure and puzzle solving elements between the fighting of creatures, mutants, and aliens.
The controls are workable but I would not call them fluent such as the inventory interface, the player can also not run. Graphically it is probably okay but not outstanding.
Perhaps worth a try if you can find it, but not a big loss if you never find this game.
I like the intro though:
(oh, the people who made the SNES Shadowrun game apparently worked on this)
Expanded with TorontRayne's entries
3. Gears of War
4. Mad Max - recently released along with an old NES game. I haven't played it, but from what I have seen it plays like an open world version of Arkham Knight with a Mad Max skin.
5. Metro 2033 - FPS set in an underground post apocalypse in Russia if I remember correctly.
6. NEO Scavenger - A very good roguelike with deep mechanics but simple graphics. The crafting is pretty complex with things like whether you have shoes on determining whether you catch hypothermia or boiling water saving you from getting a stomach bug and dying. Shelters are key as you will freeze to death at night. You can choose to start a fire fro warmth but that may attract wandering humans or worse. There is a story if you choose to pursue it, but it is all hands off. Where you go and what you do is up to you.
7. Nuclear Throne - a damn good roguelike where you choose one out of various mutated creatures with unique skillsets as you make your way through various levels of bullethell combat.
8. Skyshines Bedlam - Was going to review this at one point.
9. Fallen Earth - MMORPG that went F2P a long time ago.
10. Tex Murphy series.
11. I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream
12. Full Throttle
13. S.T.A.L.K.E.R
14. Borderlands
15. Sheltered
16. Terminator series - pretty extensive.
17. Rogue Trip: Vacation 2012 - A spiritual successor to Twisted Metal. It has the standard deatmatch style combat as in Twisted Metal, but there is also a game mechanic where you drop of tourists at various popular spots. It is a criminally underrated classic by my reckoning because it plays even better than Twisted Metal 2.
18. Underrail - The closest thing to Fallout you can get right now. Get your grid paper ready or one of those map programs because you will need it and maybe a cheat engine to speed the walking up. Prepare to get lost in the underground labyrinths that contain all that remains of humanity. Choose your skills wisely because every little choice matters as this is a combat focused game. The story is sufficient, but not on the scale of Fallout.
19. Rifts. The setting is interesting but good god is the rule system shit. (Pen and Paper)
Expanded with Alphons' entry
20. Caravaneer 2. It's flash game, but graphics are nice and game is interesting. Creators took a lot of inspiration from Fallout. You take the role of caravaneer- set new trade routes, connect distant settlements and turn profit. There are story and side quests too.
What I really liked about it is freedom. What you offer( medicine, clothes, pre war artifacts or slaves) to who changes your reputation. You can get locked from quests or whole cities.
Game is simple, but mastering it and building up caravan that suits you is hard sometimes. I recommend it to everyone that needs something refreshing after HELPING SETTLEMENTS.
Zombie Apocalypse
1. The Last of Us - It plays like a cross between Uncharted and The Walking Dead. It is a story driven experience with various stealth/crafting/puzzle mechanics scattered across linear setpiece after another.. There are some multiplayer additions like Deathmatch, but it is fairly half baked. It is definitely worth a look if only to see how far the graphics and story have come in games. It is a bit of a tearjerker.
2. The Walking Dead Telltale games.
3. Dead State - isometric CRPG, but I haven't played it.
4. DayZ - This game needs little introduction, but it started the survival MMO fad and is notoriously buggy.
5. Organ Trail - a zombie apocalypse version of Oregon Trail.
6. State of Decay - Just another zombie apocalypse game, but a pretty good one with a sequel in the works.
7. Left4Dead series
8. Dead Rising - standard zombie apocalypse made by Capcom that has a strict time limit while playing until the later entries in the series. It has a lot of Japanese wackiness like dressing up the character in various stupid outfits while you whack zombies in the head with wiffle ball bats. The firearms selection is limited as most weapons are picked up around the environment. The first game took place in a mall, but later games have strayed slightly from that formula.
Fantasy Apocalypse
1. Mortal Kombat 3 and Armageddon are a little bit, but not in the normal sense.
2. Darksiders
3. Crystalis - underrated NES that plays like Zelda.
4. Grim Dawn - good fantasy ARPG that plays like Diablo.
5. Age of Decadence - Isometric fantasy RPG made by a well known Codex poster. It is fairly short, but the C&C is so complex it warrants numerous plays.
6. Final Fantasy VI - Starts off Steampunk then halfway through the game the world gets destroyed. One of the best entries if not THE best entry in the series. JRPG turnbased at it's finest with old school sprites. Fuck the android remakes.
7. The Legend of Zelda: Windwaker - The world was destroyed by Ganon and covered in water Waterworld style. People loved it or hated it at launch due to the cell shaded art style, but the sailing mechanic in the game is pretty fun. The HD remake on Wii U improved every problem I had with the game by speeding up the boat especially.
Expanded with Mohammed2001's entries
8. Dark Souls series
- In 1, everything is pretty much mad and out to kill you. There is no trace of any civilization. Globally, the world is dying. The DLC has you go to a place tainted by the touch of the Abyss, with a messed up environment.
- In 2, you willingly go to the kingdom of Drangelic in order to find a way to get rid of the curse of the undead, as did many others. The once proud kingdom is now in ruin, most of its soldiers Hollow, and the King is no where to be found. The DLCs for this one have you go to distant realms in search of items rumored to aid you in your task. Like the original game, the realms are also way past their prime.
- In 3, your task is sort of overall similar to 1, but with some differences. The setting has changed; It mostly takes place in the Kingdom of Lothric, although some parts of DS 1 do make a return. This one has more neutral NPCs than DS 1, but the world is still overall hostile. The two DLCs take place in mostly dead areas as well.
I cut out Bloodborne for reasons another poster suggested. The gameplay is perhaps similar to Dark Souls but as they suggested, the setting is technically a dream.
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