Another Earth Day has come and gone, and we sure did make a mess of things celebrating, right guys?! And now that we are living in a post-Earth Day world, what’s more topical to reflect on than my top 5 favorite Post-Apocalyptic game worlds!
HALF-LIFE 2/PORTAL
Usually, a game will put you right smack dab in the middle of ravaged world and make you put the pieces together of how it got that way. In Half-Life 2, the only difference is, the now devastated and conquered world you are dropped in is the world you helped destroy in the first game! Half-Life 2 is considered one of the greatest games of all time, and holds up amazingly well to this day. The greatest achievement of the series, though, is the spin-off game that came from it, Portal. Full of physics, song, and homicidal AIs, it’s a game sure to leave you wanting to weaponize lemons.
THE WALKING DEAD
Yes, this is a comic and TV show as well, but you’re merely a spectator in the drama that is Rick and his merry band of men…or maybe they’re better compared to The Insane Clown Posse. The game, however, makes the world personal. You play as new characters to the WD universe, and while it’s a scripted game, you have to make LITERAL choices over who lives and dies. Even the smallest choices, like eating a candy bar or not, can be all the difference between the lives of your friends and a total bloodbath! It will make you think hard the next time you're torn between holding a fart in or not.
DEAD SPACE
Technically this isn’t a world in a planetary sense as much as it is a whole galaxy. The thing I love about this universe is that civilization’s downfall is brought about by religious zealots. Even better still, the main character is driven through these frightening scenarios through his obsession with a girl who really has got to his head! (A pun you’d get if you play the game) This is a great game if you were a big fan of Resident Evil in its hay day, except twice as scary as that game ever was. The best part of this game the button that’s dedicated to stomping the ground, which is as equally effective for eliminating Necromorphs as it is therapeutic after the feeling of horror some fights will give you.
DARKSIDERS
Speaking of religion, this world is based off of biblical mythology, but not in an annoying way! You play War, one of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse (and Death in the sequal), and you’ve been framed for Pre-Meditated Seventh Seal Breaking, you have to mow down demons and angels, ala God of War, to find how deep down the rabbit hole goes. This tried so hard to be a AAA title for THQ, but unfortunately the game flew under a lot of people’s radars and THQ ended up closing shop, the rights sold elsewhere. Which means, when the third game gets around to being released, it’ll technically be a post-THQ-apocalypse post-apocalyptic game. How meta.
CHRONO TRIGGER
Greatest game ever, or greatest game ever? A group of time travelling adventurers attempt to revert the apocalyptic future they’ve witnessed by destroying the being who is sapping the Earth’s power. I always thought, though, that this game was about how apocalypse was a point of view. The world of the Reptites is wiped away in an instant. The land of Zeal is destroyed and magic is no more. Even Gaspar knows that, at some point, everything, including time, ends. As the gamer, we only care about what the heroes themselves want. Of if you don’t want to get that deep OMG THIS GAME IS AMAZING HURRRRRRRRRR.
-And maybe just one more as an honorable mention-
FINAL FANTASY XIV – A REALM REBORN
I only played this a little bit recently, but it’s a big step up from what it was when it was first released. They completely rebuilt this game and re-released it as a game that takes place after the first version of the world was completely destroyed and rebuilt. Leave it to Squeenix to make even their game relaunches fucking dramatic.
Also, the Carbuncle summon you can do is SOOO CUTE! AHMAHGERD!
