What are the most effective apocalypse video games on PC? There’s one thing in regards to the finish of the world that sounds extra attractive than it in all probability ought to. No legislation, no order, and seemingly no penalties successfully flip the world right into a wild social gathering. If anarchy isn’t your cup of tea, you may discover chaotic new frontiers, digging by way of the bombed-out ruins of a wiped-out civilization for provides. Both manner, we’ve scavenged by way of heaps of apocalypse video games to seek out the most effective ones.
Whether or not it’s a zombie apocalypse, a robotic rebellion, or nuclear fallout, the post-apocalypse is ripe for narrative experimentation in all types of media – and the most effective PC video games can take full benefit of the setting by letting you determine what sort of Wastelander you need to be. Will you deliver justice? Domination? Salvation? Whichever it’s, this record of the most effective apocalypse video games presents the whole lot from horror video games and heartache to sandbox video games and tactical fight.
Listed here are the most effective apocalypse video games on PC in 2024:
Days Gone
Whereas there are actually some missteps with Days Gone that can’t be simply forgotten, the cringy dialogue being essentially the most egregious of the lot, Bend Studio’s open-world action-adventure recreation efficiently captures the sensation of hopelessness in a post-apocalyptic world. Step contained in the footwear of Deacon St. John, a bounty hunter attempting to make his manner in a post-pandemic America, outfitted with nothing however his motorbike and a few weapons.
You would possibly bear in mind when Days Gone initially launched again in 2019 to middling evaluations, however the devs tried to handle a few of the main gripes earlier than bringing the sport to PC in 2021. That includes new recreation plus, survival, and problem mode, there’s extra content material right here than ever earlier than. Give our Days Gone evaluate a learn to see why we awarded this recreation a wonderful rating of 8/10.
Horizon Forbidden West
The Horizon sequence’ post-apocalypse credentials is probably not instantly evident, however that is humanity surviving at its most inventive. Horizon is an accessible open-world journey recreation that sees you, Aloy, overcome her mysterious and humble beginnings to (hopefully) play her half in saving the world from one other disastrous finish.
It seems to be nice, it performs very effectively, and also you’ll spend many an hour, identical to we did, hungrily exploring the large map. Oh, did we point out the robotic dinosaurs? We didn’t? You must in all probability get on that, then. Try our Horizon Forbidden West evaluate if you wish to know extra.
DayZ
Initially an ARMA mod, DayZ is an open-world survival recreation that throws you right into a world decimated by a zombie apocalypse. It’s brutal, slow-paced, and completely fascinating. You need to scrape and scrounge for even the simplest of survival instruments, with meals and water at a premium – to not point out the hordes of zombies who would very very like to tear your limb from limb.
If these odds don’t sound too nice, there’s additionally the human contingent on each map. With proximity chat, you may create friendships, momentary alliances, and mortal enemies. Regardless of being a decade outdated, Dayz not too long ago reached a Steam file of almost 70,000 customers, and thus, it’s extra well-liked than ever, cementing its place as the most effective zombie video games ever.
Fallout sequence
Regardless of its retro-futuristic world and artwork type, the Fallout sequence has completed loads to form our collective thought of what a post-apocalyptic United States might appear like. The unique isometric video games provide fascinating adventures, the hybrid turn-based/real-time fight due to its VATS mechanics, and limitless role-playing alternatives however are maybe a bit dated visually for all however essentially the most devoted followers. Nonetheless, they comprise lots of lore that’s effectively value exploring in each its cities and the various Vault-Tec vaults. You’ll additionally meet many memorable characters, together with some who seem in later video games.
The leap to 3D (and the switch to Bethesda’s Gamebryo engine) thrust Fallout’s aesthetic and world into the limelight. From Pip-Boys and energy armor to the insidious Vault-Tec company conducting social experiments throughout its lots of of shelters, Bethesda Softworks took the world of these isometric RPG video games and introduced it to life with creativeness, element, and character to spare.
The principle storylines within the Bethesda video games are not often the highlights. As an alternative, it’s the bevy of strange facet quests that preserve you hooked, feeding you extra particulars in regards to the world or tasking you with making powerful selections so that you’re all the time left feeling equal components savior and scourge of the Wasteland. It’s onerous to really separate most of the Fallout video games, however our private picks are Fallout 4 fort if you wish to fiddle with the modding neighborhood’s greatest Fallout 4 mods or Fallout: New Vegas in order for you the most effective total expertise.
Wasteland 3
Having turn out to be the de facto religious successor to the aforementioned isometric Fallout titles of yore, the Wasteland franchise feels just like the Fallout recreation many followers thought would by no means come after Bethesda assumed stewardship of the sequence, which is a curious accident contemplating the unique 1988 Wasteland was a key inspiration for Fallout’s designers.
Whereas Fallout has embraced totally first-person 3D design, inXile’s personal modernization retains the top-down view, with the sequence sticking to roots primarily based on turn-based technique video games. Wasteland 3 is the most recent entry and presents lurid characters, a deep RPG system, and a fascinating fight set in an unhinged apocalypse. If you wish to know extra about why we expect that is the most effective within the sequence but, take a look at our Wasteland 3 evaluate.
Flip-based fight with doubtlessly game-altering penalties could make Wasteland a tricky problem for these new to the style, however in inheriting a lot of the core DNA from its forebear, Wasteland 3 presents densely detailed environments stuffed with tales of life earlier than the bombs fell.
Mad Max
Video games primarily based on motion pictures are not often greater than satisfactory, not to mention good, and whereas Mad Max wasn’t ‘recreation of the yr’ materials again in 2015 (when it had the misfortune of launching alongside Metallic Gear Strong 5: The Phantom Ache), it’s garnered a cult following within the years since, due to its spectacular surroundings, white-knuckle automobile fight, and chilling sense of loneliness.
Regardless of launching in the identical yr, the sport doesn’t comply with Fury Street’s plotline. As an alternative, Mad Max presents the participant with the Ubisoft open-world video games template of actions to finish, from liberating outposts to looking down bounty targets. The place it differs is in vehicular fight, which kinds a surprisingly massive part of the general recreation.
Upgrading Max’s automobile – the Magnum Opus – is paramount to success, as many battles revolve round firing from the automobile and tearing parts off of enemy automobiles. The automobile is an RPG system in itself, and every customization possibility presents each constructive and damaging traits – which makes the improve tree really feel like a see-saw of min-maxing and hard selections. Roaming across the huge, sandy wasteland of Mad Max in your rigorously modded homicide wagon is what apocalypse video games are all about.
They Are Billions
Set in a steampunk post-apocalypse, They Are Billions is a strategic colony sim the place you’re charged with defending the final vestige of humanity in opposition to an contaminated horde that grows bigger each passing day. You begin off with just a few models defending an agricultural outpost and shortly set up a walled metropolis with elaborate outer defenses that steer the undead horde by way of as many traps and turrets as you may squeeze in.
Let only one contaminated into your metropolis, and also you’ll watch in horror because the settlement turns in a matter of seconds. In case you’re in search of technique video games with a critical sense of dread, then They Are Billions is for you.
Rage 2
Bear in mind the unique Rage? Many gained’t, with the sport providing some gorgeous visuals however feeling nondescript in all different elements.
id Software program clearly felt that the sequence had extra to present and partnered with Simply Trigger developer Avalanche Studios to supply a really totally different post-apocalypse FPS recreation for the sequel. For one, Rage 2’s world is filled with punk-rock vibes, the place spiky hairstyles are as widespread as machine weapons, after which there’s the truth that you get mutant-bashing superpowers.
Rage 2’s open world won’t function as many facet quests and distractions as a Fallout recreation, however blasting an enemy off a cliff with a ‘force-push’ transfer or beating a bunch of baddies into the dust with an aerial floor pound is so satisfying it makes up for it. Because of id Software program’s silky clean motion and gunplay, Rage 2 performs extra like a finely-tuned FPS recreation like Doom than an RPG or open-world recreation has any proper to.
Metro Exodus
The most recent in 4A Video games Russian-set doomsday sim, Metro Exodus isn’t a recreation for the faint of coronary heart. The world is a destroy following a nuclear battle, and survivors have been pushed underground by radiation – to not point out some mutant nasties that roam above floor.
In Metro Exodus, you and a band of survivors go away the claustrophobic corridors and tunnels of the titular metro for a cross-continent expedition in the hunt for a greater life. The gray, chilly structure of post-apocalyptic Moscow is substituted for bigger open areas with patches of verdant countryside that distinction with the awful, useless underground of the earlier video games within the sequence. Your end-of-the-world Trans-Siberian journey sees your ragtag band of hopeful survivors flip an outdated steam practice right into a cellular base, stopping off to scavenge provides and gasoline in your journey west.
Metro Exodus’ genius is in the way in which it is aware of when to drag again when to let the participant expertise its open environments, and when to supply fight eventualities which are difficult and assorted. Because of Dmitry Glukhovsky’s haunting Metro novels, the world of Exodus is all the time richly detailed and unsettlingly reasonable.
Overland
Overland is – maybe extra so than different apocalypse video games – an train in futility. As you make your manner throughout its minimalist landscapes, you’ll witness horrors that linger on in your unconscious lengthy after you exit to the desktop.
Simply as you’re trying to find provides, irradiated beasts do the identical. Will you be capable of rescue a brand new social gathering member? What might it value to take action? What if that new companion is an lovely canine? There are not any ensures in Overland, and it’s a greater recreation for it.
Each determination feels prefer it’s made on a knife’s edge, and it’s a really wonderful line between success and failure.
Nier: Automata
Intergalactic machine invaders is actually a contemporary tackle an apocalyptic setting (at the least in gaming), and Nier: Automata throws itself head-first into the madness of that narrative setup. Protagonist 2B is a fight android, one in every of many despatched to wipe out the specter of the machines whereas mankind licks its wounds on the moon.
Fight is trendy and deep, whereas the sport shifts genres from third-person motion, to ‘shmup’, to platformer, and extra – typically inside a single mission. That selection can also be relevant to its endings, of which there are a staggering 26 variations.
All of that is to say nothing of the luxurious soundtrack, the place synths intertwine with mechanical percussion and classical themes to type one of many biggest musical videogame accompaniments of the final decade. All the most effective apocalypses have their very own memorable soundtracks, in any case.
Stalker 2
After a decade of dormancy, GSC Recreation World’s hit survival sequence, Stalker, has returned to the fore. Stalker 2 is a landmark achievement for misery-inducing post-apocalyptic videogames, even when it didn’t have the smoothest launch.
Its chilling model of a Chornobyl ravaged by a second nuclear incident is dripping with environment, and a mixture of radioactive beasts and restricted provides ensures each encounter is tense.
The results of the incident is a metropolis stuffed with monstrosities known as anomalies, with many coming into the treacherous space referred to as The Zone to hunt gadgets, or artifacts, that bestow particular properties upon the consumer.
A incredible piece of survival horror, Stalker 2 is tense, terrifying, and totally good. In PK’s 8/10 Stalker 2 evaluate he calls it “a punishing survival FPS that may be extraordinarily rewarding for individuals who take the time to get snug in its playground.”
Surviving the Aftermath
A metropolis constructing recreation from Paradox Interactive, Surviving the Aftermath duties you with managing a small colony of survivors who’ve managed to endure no matter apocalypse you select in recreation creation – and there are just a few. You begin off with a shanty city of tents, however as you harvest assets and attempt to reforge know-how, you may create a brand new haven on your residents.
What units Surviving the Aftermath other than comparable metropolis builders is you could unlock entry to a world map that requires you to discover and hunt for rarer assets. You too can make contact with different survivor enclaves, in addition to marauding bands of raiders that you simply’ll must defeat to maintain your folks protected.
That ought to be sufficient gaming to maintain you busy till the top of the world, however if you happen to want extra and you want a problem involving selections and management, why not check out a few of the greatest administration video games? And put together for that post-apocalypse scrimping and scavenging with our total greatest free PC video games, as a result of cash gained’t imply something on the finish of the world.
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