Upcoming Post-Apocalyptic Games

Key Takeaways

• Humanity’s fascination with apocalyptic scenarios has led to a popular genre of post-apocalyptic fiction in various mediums.
• Post-apocalyptic settings in video games often explore themes of survival, human nature, and rebuilding societies.
• Upcoming post-apocalyptic games like
  Death Stranding 2
  and
  Metro 4
  are expected to offer unique and immersive experiences in devastated worlds.

An apocalypse, in its simplest definition, is a cataclysmic event that causes mass destruction and upends whatever natural or social order exists. As long as humanity has existed, it has been fascinated by such occurrences. Stories of the world being drowned in a flood persist from Sumeria to early Christianity. Norse mythology envisioned the Nine Realms falling apart at Ragnorak. Aztec mythology has four different apocalypses, with a fifth looming over the horizon. Humanity’s uncanny talent for envisioning its own downfall has given rise to the genre of post-apocalyptic fiction. That is, stories set in a unique world born out of a major catastrophe. From H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine to the popular Fallout series, settings shaped by disaster continue to resonate with audiences.

The mechanism by which the apocalypse happens can vary widely: alien invasions, nuclear war, robot uprising, reanimated feral cadavers, global warming, asteroids, etc. The scale of the disaster can range anywhere from a single localized area to threatening the cosmos itself. But there are some common elements. Many post-apocalyptic stories explore themes of human nature, survival challenges posed by a changed environment, and efforts to rebuild some form of social order. Post-apocalyptic worlds have become quite popular in video games. Games like Half-Life, Fallout, Metro, Death Stranding, and the Horizon series thrive on immersing the player into unfamiliar worlds ravaged by disaster. Fans of post-apocalyptic settings can expect to see more coming in the future.

Updated on October 14, 2024, by John Hitchcock: Post-apocalyptic survival games continue to perform well commercially, with the allure of trying to stay alive in a dangerous new world from the comfort of one’s home being a tantalizing prospect for many gamers. Since the previous update, two of the entries included (Frostpunk 2 and Stellar Blade) have been released, and the Forever Winter is very close to its release date. All three entries have been removed. Furthermore, several games have been announced. Subsequently, new entries have been added to the list.

17 Atomfall

STALKER but in Britain

Atomfall is a curious open-world adventure that seems to be heavily influenced by the Fallout games with its open world, use of “factions” the player can align with, and retro sci-fi aesthetic. But simply calling it “British Fallout” is a bit of an oversimplification. It could also just as easily be called “British STALKER .” The game is inspired by an actual event- the Windscale Disaster of 1957, the first major nuclear disaster and one that came dangerously close to the scale of the more infamous Chernobyl disaster.

Atomfall takes place in an alternate timeline that sees the player exploring an exclusion zone in Northern England, with an emphasis on trying to survive with limited resources while also uncovering secrets about the world. The game also makes full use of its Northern England setting, complete with characters inspired by common sci-fi and English tropes.

16 Chernobylite 2

Reality-Bending in the Exclusion Zone

• Release Date: 2025
• Platforms: PC
• Developer: The Farm 51

Chernobylite was a strange indie title that combined survival, role-playing, and team management in a surreal story about a survivor of the real-life Chernobyl disaster returning to the exclusion zone in search of his missing wife. Despite being restricted by limited resources during development, the game ended up working pretty well and gaining a decent fanbase, leaving open room for The Farm 51 to experiment with a sequel.

Chernobylite 2: Exclusion Zone brings players back to Chernobyl, this time as a customizable stalker in a seamless open world. There is not much information about the plot yet, but the developers have said this one will be closer to their original vision for the first Chernobylite. They are obviously taking advantage of greater production values to do a lot more, including a bigger world with more characters and a more detailed story.

15 Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

A Quest to Stop a Painter From Killing Everyone

This ambitious dark fantasy game features a collapsing world trapped under a very unusual curse. Every year, a mysterious entity known as “the Paintress” paints a number on an obelisk. For some reason, everyone whose age corresponds to the number dies. The numbers progressively get lower each instance, presumably stopping people from reaching each age and eventually wiping out all humanity when it reaches 1.

Why this is happening is anyone’s guess, but the trailers emphasize the toll it has been taking on the world, leaving it in ruins. The plot involves an expedition sent to find and stop the Paintress, something nobody is sure can even be done. It is the latest in a long series of doomed missions that never returned, and even if it is possible it still requires its members to survive an uncharted continent full of danger.

14 Death Stranding 2: On the Beach

Return to One of the Most Bizarre Post-Apocalyptic Worlds

Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding tells the story of a postal worker rebuilding America after a very strange apocalypse. The game quickly gained a reputation for its David Lynch-esque weirdness. Now Kojima’s back with a sequel that has a good chance of out-weirding its predecessor.

The main story once again features Sam Bridges taking on the role of courier while trying to connect human survivors of the Death Stranding, only this time moving outside of America. There is also something about a woman encased in tar, a stop-motion puppet, the uncertain fate of Lou (who may or may not be dead), and a guy who looks like George Miller. This looks like it will be a pretty crazy ride.

13 Gears of War: E-Day

The End is a New Beginning

Gears of War centers on an ongoing war between humans and the underground locust hoard, though as the games progressed it slowly became clear the bigger theme was humanity’s destructive nature dooming it to an apocalypse of its own making. Throughout the games, the endless fighting pushes both sides so hard that just surviving feels like a victory.

But the latest installment is actually a prequel that explores the beginning of the apocalypse. Emergence Day, or E-Day, was the day the Locusts first emerged and began their war against humanity. We get to see a younger Marcus and Dom in the immediate aftermath as humanity struggles to survive long enough to understand the systematic destruction that is happening around them.

12 Judas

A Run-Down Spaceship and a Fight for Humanity’s Future

This ambitious sci-fi shooter from Bioshock creator Ken Levine takes place on Mayflower, a multi-generational spaceship that fled a disaster on Earth, only it didn’t go as planned. Ironically, the one hope for saving humanity is Judas, who also had a hand in causing the Mayflower‘s current predicament.

To have any chance, she needs to navigate the run-down ship, survive against its robots (who once provided services but are now running amok), and work with the “big three”- a trio of AIs with conflicting goals whom Judas can help or hinder. Ken Levine describes the game’s structure as “narrative LEGO,” which places heavy emphasis on player decisions and allows other character characters to react.

11 LEGO Horizon Adventures

Who Said the Apocalypse Can’t Be Fun?

After the success of Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon Forbidden West, it made sense that another game would happen sooner or later. What fans did not expect was to see a whole game centered around recreating its post-apocalyptic world in LEGO form. As strange a decision as it was, the trailers indicated a game that effectively mixes familiar iconography from the games with LEGO’s creative sense of humor. This makes LEGO Horizon Adventures a bit more unusual since it offers a more comedic take on the post-apocalyptic world. Aloy still gets to hunt machines, but she also gets to build wacky villages and host dance parties.

10 Industria 2

A Cold Alternate Berlin

• Platform: PC
• Release Date: TBA
• Developer: Bleakmill

Industria was a short, but memorable game about a woman named Nora who is accidentally teleported into an alternate version of Cold War-era Berlin that has become overrun with automatons. While the game leaves a lot to speculation, it is hinted that her romantic partner (who was also teleported into this world) arrived earlier in the timeline and built a technologically advanced civilization that has since collapsed with destructive consequences.

The game proved popular enough that Bleakmill announced a sequel, Industria 2, which seems to build on the strange world of the first game. In this one, Nora finds herself caught up in the politics of the world and ends up having to deal with the AI that’s controlling everything.

9 Metro 4

Return to Post-Apocalyptic Russia

• Developer: 4A Games
• Expected Platforms: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC
• Release Date: Uncertain

4A Games has been busy with the latest installment of their popular series about post-nuclear Russia. While it is unclear exactly where the fourth game will go, Exodus made a distinct jump from the previous games by leaving the Moscow Subway tunnels to explore the surrounding area. It stands to reason that the next game would want to build on that, maybe even do something crazy like going full open world.

Whatever they do, if the previous games are anything to go on, it will likely be structured as some sort of journey experienced by its protagonist that explores the dualistic nature of humanity. There is also a good chance of encountering some new environments that have been affected by the nuclear war.

8 Metro Awakening VR

Immersive Exploration of a Metro in Nuclear Winter

Metro Exodus marked a departure from the series by moving out of the titular metro to explore other parts of post-nuclear Russia. However, for those fans of Metro 2033 and Last Light who want to spend more time exploring the strange subway world, they can with the upcoming VR title Metro Awakening.

This new title offers an original story about a doctor named Serdar searching the metro for his wife, who also happens to be sick and in desperate need of medication. As in previous games, Serdar will have to navigate various dangers in the subway, including radiation, mutants, and other survivors with their own agendas. Serdar has a few different ways he can address these problems, but lacks the military expertise of Artyom so his ability to engage with enemies is a lot more limited, especially with scarce resources.

7 My Time at Evershine

A WHOLESOME Post-Apocalyptic Adventure?!

Usually, when most people think of a post-apocalyptic setting, they’ll usually think of something really dark. Even if the story ends on an optimistic note, it will usually still portray a harsh world. It can be a great genre for shooters, RTS, management, and RPGs, but one genre most people would not expect to find under the label of “post-apocalyptic” is the cozy game. That didn’t stop Pathea Games from making a cozy post-apocalyptic game anyway.

My Time at Evershine takes place in the aftermath of a nuclear winter, in the middle of a Cold War that’s developed between the Alliance of Free Cities and the Duvos Empire. But the player is a newly-appointed governor tasked with building a settlement and developing relationships with its inhabitants, including eight options for romance. While this might sound like a strange approach to the genre, My Time at Evershine has been hugely successful with its Kickstarter campaign.

6 Retrieval

An Old Subway Where Something Really Bad Happened

• Developer: 333 Studios
• Platform: PC, Playstation, Xbox
• Release Date: TBA

333’s sci-fi horror game follows Hana Losche, a scientist on the distant planet Rhyhalian who finds herself stranded in an abandoned subway system full of dark secrets. There is not a whole lot to go on, but from what has been indicated, something really went wrong in the underground complex.

A big part of the game involves having to survive long enough to get some answers, facing off both against environmental challenges and mutants. The trailers also seem to imply some deeper themes about humanity’s habit of jumping onto major discoveries without fully considering their implications or potential long-term consequences.

5 Rusty Rabbit

Bunny With a Mech

• Developer: Nitroplus
• Platform: PlayStation, PC, Nintendo Switch
• Release Date: 2025

This is an odd one. Rusty Rabbit is a sidescroller set in a post-apocalyptic Earth abandoned by humans, so now it’s ruled by rabbits. Rabbits managed to build a civilization that literally formed a religion around the Peter Rabbit books. Adding to the weirdness is the deliberate invoking of action movie cliches, which can look very bizarre when performed by rabbits.

The story concerns a particular rabbit named Stamp, who goes on a quest to find his missing daughter. That can seem strange enough on its own, but the game has one extra detail up its sleeve- Stamp owns a mech. The wacky adventure sees Stamp driving his mech around different environments and using it to solve problems. The mech starts off with a drill, but as he progresses it can be upgraded to have other tools available.

4 Sand

Battle in the Desert

• Developer: Hologryph, TowerHaus
• Platform: PC, Xbox
• Release Date: TBA

This odd PVP game features an alternate history where the Austro-Hungarian Empire managed to colonize space before World War I could happen. At some point, they managed to colonize a planet called Sophie before things went wrong. Now the world is a lawless desert where scavengers compete for resources and battle with large machines called “tramplers.”

Basically, they’re like large ships on legs, used for traversing the world. These ships need a crew, which means players will have to work together to operate a trampler and collect resources to build new extensions and keep it running. The tough part is players aren’t alone. They will be competing with rival trampler crews (aka other players) leading to very explosive confrontations. It is certainly a creative setup.

3 STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl

New Mysteries Lie in the Exclusion Zone

GSC’s revival of their popular STALKER series brings players back to the Chornobyl Exclusion zone, an environment that has become quite lethal after the infamous disaster of 1986 and, in this timeline, a second disaster that exacerbated the danger. Although the game might not feature an “apocalypse” on the same level as some of the other games on this list, it certainly feels like one.

The abandoned, run-down buildings, high radiation, dangerous mutants, and general lack of social order all give the sense of a world that’s fallen apart. STALKER 2 will hopefully offer a whole new experience of the zone compared to its predecessors.

2 Sword of the Sea

Restore a Lost World In Style

• Developer: Giant Squid Studio
• Platform: PC, PlayStation
• Release Date: TBA

Giant Squid Studios, the indie studio behind Abzu and The Pathless, is back with a post-apocalyptic fantasy skateboarding game. As bizarre as it sounds, it’s an homage to the skateboarding genre, though it also has some fun blurring the lines between skateboarding, surfing, and snowboarding.

Admittedly, details about the plot are a bit vague, but it seems to be set in a place called the “Necropolis,” a once lively but now desolate world. The player controls a character known as “the Wraith” who rides a hoversword through barren deserts on a quest to restore its past life, along the way uncovering secrets of the world’s history.

1 Terminator: Survivors

The Terminator franchise is admittedly a bit weird since it has a tendency to alternate between pre- and post-apocalyptic, with the apocalypse sometimes being averted. In this case, the upcoming Terminator: Survivors focuses on the post-apocalyptic side of things, being set after Judgment Day (the day the machines rose up and began fighting humans), with an emphasis on survival.

As the title implies, players are survivors working alone or in co-op to navigate and survive the post-Skynet world. This is also set before John Connor’s organized resistance, so players also need to deal with competing factions and scarce resources. Of course, this being Terminator, the player also has to contend with evading at least one Terminator, and probably won’t have access to a convenient hydraulic press or vat of molten steel to destroy it with.