In today’s article, we’re giving you a full-sized list of over 20 different games all about the post-apocalypse. More specifically, this is a curated list of some of the best Post-Apocalyptic games that you can play, ranging from zombie apocalypses, post-nuclear war apocalypses, robotic uprising apocalypses… well, mostly zombie apocalypses, but still. So let’s not waste any more time in getting to the end of times and hop right into the list! And we’re starting off with…
#27: S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl
(PC/Xbox Series X-S)
While yes, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl hasn’t actually been released at the time of writing this post, we’re still going to be throwing it up here in this article as a sort of ‘honorary mention’ due to just how long people have been waiting for this sequel to an award-winning franchise. After the second massive explosion that took place in the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone in 2006, The Zone has become a dangerous place filled with mutants, warring factions, and deadly anomalies we can’t even begin to wrap our minds around. But where there is danger, there are also artifacts of unbelievable value hiding within The Zone, which has attracted many people called S.T.A.L.K.E.R.s who put their own lives on the line just for the chance to make a fortune. Of course, some others also seek the truth concealed in the heart of Chornobyl.
In Heart of Chornobyl, you’ll play as a lone S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and explore the 64-km² radioactive zone known simply as ‘The Zone’ in seamless open-world gameplay, where you’ll experience a nonlinear that will have you meet a variety of human beings as well as mutated monstrosities that can be talked to, befriended, killed, and of course, that can kill you. The Zone isn’t a place for the weak, so you’ll have to use any of the hundreds of usable weapons across 30-plus weapon options to fight off whatever might want you dead at that particular moment. At the Heart of Chornobyl, you’re the only one in charge of your own destiny, which could end up reshaping the fate of The Zone forever. So long as you can stay alive, anyway.
#26: Fallout Shelter
(PC/PS4/Xbox One/Nintendo Switch/iOS/Android)
The first of a few Fallout games on our list, we’re taking a look at Fallout Shelter, the game that started out on mobile phones before being ported around to PCs and consoles because people just couldn’t get enough of it. In this Fallout, you aren’t the chosen one or someone sent out on a quest to find a missing loved one, instead, you’re the faceless Overseer of your very own Vault-Tec Vault! A much safer line of work, comparatively speaking.
In Fallout Shelter you’ll be tasked with building your own Vault in whatever fashion you’d like, as you get to decide where to place each bedroom, diner, barbershop, and whatever else a good Vault needs to survive. As your Vault grows, so will your population, who you can then send out to collect supplies to help you expand and upgrade your Vault even further. And the more Vault Dwellers you get, the bigger the chance is that you might end up with some familiar faces from across the Fallout games as your new resident! Just be sure you have enough firepower to fight off the many, many Raiders that will attack your Vault while you’re doing everything else.
#25: The Last Spell
(PC/PS4/PS5/Nintendo Switch)
One of the more unique games on our list, The Last Spell takes place in the post-apocalypse of a magical world after the world’s mages accidentally caused The Cataclysm, where detonations of pure magic ravaged the globe and created the armies of bloodthirsty mutants who come in the night to snuff out the last of humanity. Your only hope now is The Last Spell that will banish all magic from the world, but it requires several days of uninterrupted incantation to pull off. This is where you and the strained last heroes of humanity come in, as it falls upon them to fight off the endless hordes of mutants to try and protect those damned mages.
The Last Spell is a tactical RPG that features rogue-lite mechanics where you are tasked with building up a city’s defenses during the day so that you can survive the waves of deadly enemies that will descend upon you during the night. You’ll start the game with a handful of randomly generated heroes that have their own unique stats, which you can take advantage of by placing them in strategic locations along with your buildings to perfectly optimize your defense. If you can survive the night, you’ll unlock tons of new weapons, skills, and other upgrades for your heroes that will help you as the enemies keep coming night after night. Just remember to rebuild your defenses when the morning arrives.
#24: Terminator: Resistance
(PC/PS4/PS5/Xbox One/Xbox Series X-S)
Based in the same world the major motion picture franchise, Terminator: Resistance takes place in a post-apocalyptic near-future created when the military computer artificial intelligence defense network Skynet became self-aware and brought about Judgement Day by initiating a nuclear holocaust. Set 31 years after Judgement Day in a desolate 2028 Los Angeles, you play as Jacob Rivers, a soldier of the human Resistance led by John Conner, as he and fellow Resistance soldiers fight for the future of humanity against Skynet and its army of killing machines.
This is the world that was shown only in brief glimpses during the original Terminator films, a world of death and destruction where humanity struggles to survive at every waking moment, yet continues to fight all the same in the hope of winning this war. As Jacob Rivers, you’ll meet up with plenty of other human survivors as you fight battle after battle against Skynet’s forces, where you have the choice of sneaking through their bases or going in guns blazing and ripping them apart to achieve your goal. The final battle for the fate of mankind is swiftly approaching, and your decisions and actions will play a part in how it all ends. The machines are destined to lose, but at what cost?
#23: The Long Drive
(PC)
One of the smaller games on our list, The Long Drive still gives off an interesting post-apocalypse experience that few other games out there can really match. There’s nothing out here anymore but you and the open road, and the car that will take you on your lonely road trip through this ocean of sand.
There aren’t any invisible walls to bump into, or anything else telling you that you’re going the “wrong” direction, because The Long Drive is a game that primarily focuses on freedom and exploration. The world around you goes on forever, and there are plenty of mysteries to discover as you drive into the sunset. The game is still in early access, which means there’s still plenty of work to be put into the game. But as it currently stands, The Long Drive is an immersive experience about traveling through an infinite wasteland and finding neat things along the way. If that sounds like your kind of game, then The Long Drive is here to hand you the keys to an unexpected adventure.
#22: Dead Island 2
(PC/PS4/PS5/Xbox One/Xbox Series X-S)
The first of many zombie-centric games that we’ll be talking about on this list, the long-awaited Dead Island 2 transforms Los Angeles into the city of HELL-A when a zombie outbreak has laid waste to the entire city, from the lavish Beverly Hills to the promenade of Venice Beach. Grab whatever isn’t nailed down and start carving your way through the zombie horde in your attempt to escape the quarantined city, or just make the most of the apocalypse and have fun as you chop ‘till you drop! Er, wait, that’s a different guy, sorry.
Dead Island 2 lets you choose from six characters at the start of the game, who each come with their own distinct personalities and playstyles that have different strengths and weaknesses regarding certain weapon types. The game doesn’t have a skill tree unlike the original game, instead, it uses a deck-building system that allows you to mix and match different cards to affect your character’s stats, from boosting your health to increasing your skill with blunt weapons, among plenty of other examples. There are plenty of strange characters to meet as you carve your way through this cinematic adventure, and you can share in the experience with up to three other players as well. Whoever thought the apocalypse could be so fun?
#21: Frostpunk 2
(PC/Mac/PS5/Xbox Series X-S)
It’s been 30 years since the globe was covered in the snow of a catastrophic, endless winter, where humanity continues to desperately and defiantly fight for survival. In Frostpunk 2, you become the leader of an ever-growing city that’s kept warm by a massive heat generator at the heart of the city, and it’s your job to keep the steadily growing population of your expanding metropolis not just warm but also address their endless string of needs and demands. Only you can steer this society to the future, but what kind of future that might be is uncertain.
Frostpunk 2 expands on the city-survival gameplay of the original title by shaking up how you build your city. Instead of just individual structures, you’ll now be responsible for building entire city districts dedicated to your population’s specific needs, such as resource-gathering districts for coal and oil, and housing districts where your citizens can live, with plenty of other necessities on top of that. But keeping your city warm and fed isn’t where the hardships end, because as your population slowly grows, they will form their own communities and factions within your city, such as the Overseers faction that keeps the city’s machines running or the Evolver’s faction who desire to replace the weakness of their flesh with machine prosthetics, among others. Each faction has its own ideas for the future and they want their voices to be heard in the Council Hall, meaning you’ll need to choose your alliances wisely, as you never know when your citizens might turn against you.
#20: 60 Seconds! Reatomized
(PC/Mac/PS4/Xbox One/Nintendo Switch/iOS/Android)
Hardworking citizen and family man Ted McDoodle is forced to become the unlucky hero of this story when total nuclear annihilation arrives on his doorstep one unfaithful day. In 60 Seconds! Reatomized, as the name suggests, you have 60 seconds at the start of each game to gather every important item you can fit in your arms from a procedurally generated house, from food and water to useful tools like a map or a radio, on top of your wife and two kids, and to take it all back to your bomb shelter. And then, if you can get all of your supplies and make it back to the shelter before the bombs drop, you’ll have reached the real game: waiting out the nuclear apocalypse inside of a one-room bunker with whatever you managed to grab. How hard could it be?
Reatomized is a remaster of the original 60 Seconds! game that features new updates to the visuals, new ways to play, and new storyline opportunities that include both new locations and a new relationship between Ted and his family. Every day comes with new challenges to overcome, such as deciding who gets food and water, who gets sent out into the wasteland above to search for food and resources, and so on. The only thing worse than fighting off starvation is dealing with the madness that will slowly creep over Ted’s family as they spend day after day waiting for someone to come find them. If they even live long enough to be found, that is.
#19: World War Z
(PC/PS4/PS5/Xbox One/Xbox Series X-S/Nintendo Switch)
The second game on this list that’s based on a hit movie, World War Z is a fast-paced third-person shooter where you and up to three friends will fight your way through endless waves of the undead that always number in the hundreds. From New York City to Moscow, Russia, your fight against the zombie hordes will span the globe in multiple episode missions about humanity’s desperate attempt to outlive the undead.
World War Z shares many similarities with the all-time great horde shooters like the Left 4 Dead duology, while still standing on its own two feet as a uniquely fun entry in the zombie game genre. You’ll be able to play as one of eight unique classes, from the melee-focused Slasher to the self-explanatory Dronemaster, and you’ll be able to level them up and unlock weapon upgrades as you play. You can also take part in the Player vs Player vs Zombies game mode on top of the regular campaign, to put your skills to the test against other players while still cutting through zombies like a hot knife through butter.
#18: Generation Zero
(PC/PS4/Xbox One)
Set in a post-apocalypse near-future version of Sweden, your once peaceful hometown has been overrun by an army of mysterious, deadly machines with only one objective: kill all humans. You play as an ordinary human being in Generation Zero, and ordinary human beings are comparatively far weaker than robots, so you’ll need to learn when to run in guns blazing and when to utilize stealth as you fight a guerrilla war against the machines.
The open-world island setting of Östertörn is heavily based on the Swedish Cold War era where danger lurks wherever you go, which you’ll soon notice as you find yourself exploring old fallout bunkers while searching for supplies. The machines you’ll fight against can range from small drones that are easily destroyed to towering 50-foot-tall monstrosities of war, but if you can manage to defeat them then you’ll be able to scavenge parts from their remains to help upgrade your supplies. From crafting simple things like ammunition to building and upgrading your weapons, and even building entire sprawling bases across the island, you’ll need to grow stronger one way or another if you hope to take back your home, and maybe even discover the truth behind these machines while you’re at it.
#17: They Are Billions
(PC/PS4/Xbox One)
They Are Billions is one of my own favorite titles on this list for a few reasons, one of them being that it gives a new spin to the zombie apocalypse by having it take place in a far-future Steampunk world, where only a few thousand human beings are left alive on the planet thanks to living in a fortress located in a crater the zombies cannot enter. But the leader of this fortress wants to reclaim Earth for humanity, so you set out into a world overrun with the undead to begin building your new Colony. You’ll need to build supportive structures to gather materials and house your population, along with defenses like walls and weapons to fend off the zombie swarms that will inevitably come for your citizens. Lucky for you though, you’re not just here to hide in your base.
The name They Are Billions isn’t just for show, as the playable world is utterly flooded with undead hordes, with each individual zombie being able to roam, listen, and smell the humans of your Colony. But lucky for you, you’ll be able to create an army of your own by hiring and training mercenaries, powerful madmen that each come with their own special skills and personalities, on top of creating a variety of other soldiers who use various steampunk-like weaponry. Whether playing in the campaign or in the endless survival mode, you’ll need to evolve your Colony and the humans within if you even want a chance of reclaiming this world from billions of undead marching to your front door.
#16: Remnant: From the Ashes
(PC/PS4/Xbox One/Nintendo Switch)
After an ancient evil from another dimension was unleashed, the world has been thrown into chaos and humanity is left struggling to survive in a world now filled with nightmarish monsters. But it’s not in humanity’s nature to just lie down and die, so they’ve learned to create technology to open portals to other realms and alternate realities so they can find the root of this evil plaguing their world. With this tech, you and potentially two other survivors will set out to scavenge for useful resources and fight back against the monsters to try and carve out a foothold for mankind to rebuild.
Remnant: From the Ashes is a souls-like RPG that will take you across fantastical, dynamically generated worlds filled with deadly monsters and even deadlier boss battles to overcome so you can earn experience, powerful new items, and upgrade materials. Unlike the Souls games, however, you’ll be able to utilize powerful firearms that range from machine guns to sniper rifles and beyond, which when paired with special abilities like teleportation, you’ll be able to build your idealized monster-killing machine from the ground up.
#15: 7 Days to Die
(PC/Mac/Linux/PS4/PS5/Xbox One/Xbox Series X-S)
With over 18 million copies sold since the game first went into early access in 2013, 7 Days to Die is one of the most well-known zombie survival games to come out of the 2010s. It features a unique blend of the usual open-world survival elements along with tower defense-esc mechanics, and of course, plenty of horror to experience throughout it all.
When playing 7 Days to Die, you can choose either to play in a specific campaign map or create randomly generated maps that can be up to 100 square kilometers in size and can feature any of over 700 unique locations across 5 main biomes. But it’s still the apocalypse out there, so you’ll need to scavenge for supplies if you want to stay fed and if you want to build anything ranging from new gun parts to sprawling custom-built bases filled with anti-zombie traps. You can also play in online multiplayer if you so choose, to add either an element of co-op or an extra layer of danger on top of the zombie horde roaming the wasteland. However you choose to play, 7 Days to Die stands out as one of the most brutally unforgiving open-world survival games out there today.
#14: Once Human
(PC/iOS)
Imagine if you took the SCP Foundation universe and combined it with open-world survival games like DayZ, and you’ve got yourself a basic grasp of what Once Human was all about. The world has been destroyed after the Starfall event, where an alien substance called Stardust has polluted nearly every living thing on the planet, from human beings to animals, and even plants. But lucky for you, you’re a Meta-Human with the ability to control the Stardust to a certain degree, which means that you’ll at least have a small chance of actually surviving in the post-apocalypse.
Like most open-world survival games, Once Human allows you to venture across a ruined world to gather supplies that you can use to build your own base, where you can then create even more useful items and weapon modifications as time goes by. What helps this post-apocalypse survival title stand out, besides being free-to-play, is the unique selection of monsters that you’ll have to fight if you want to survive, which can range from mutated wolves to humans who have gained telekinetic powers, to towering 100-foot-tall monsters. And that’s just for starters! There are several still-human factions to encounter out there as well, which means that you’re never truly alone as you venture to uncover the truth behind the Stardust and what it wants, for better or for worse.
#13: State of Decay 2
(PC/Xbox One/Xbox Series X-S)
While most zombie games out there will have you surviving on your own or playing as some kind of “special” human that has a greater chance at surviving the odds, State of Decay 2 puts more of a quote-unquote “realistic” spin on it by putting you in control of a whole community of survivors instead and having to carefully make decisions about who should go out into the zombie-infested world for much-needed food and supplies. Whether you’re playing through the game’s storyline alone or with a friend in co-op, you’ll soon come face to face with the fact that there are far worse things out there than the average zombie.
In State of Decay 2 you’ll be able to find various locations around the world that you can settle yourselves in, from a large house in a quiet suburban neighborhood to an infested police station in the middle of a small town, among plenty of other discoverable locations. It’s your job to build necessary facilities for your survivors, such as beds or farm plots and defensive structures, so you’ll need to pick a survivor and go out to locate the valuable resources you need to build up your home base. Each survivor is playable and they each come with their own skill trees that can be leveled up to make them even more useful as time goes on, but each survivor is also able to be killed and then turned into just another shambling corpse. But that’s still only the start of your worries. How are you going to handle things when another human faction comes knocking on your door?
#12: Mad Max
(PC/Mac/Linux/PS4/Xbox One)
There aren’t any zombies or far-future robots to worry about here, instead, you’ll need to race for your life as you’re hunted down by madmen in powerful war machines in 2015’s Mad Max. You take control of the titular character Max as he embarks on a journey to reach the storied “Plains of Silence”, where he hopes to find peace from the memories that haunt him. But along the way, he’ll have to rebuild a custom vehicle, the Magnum Opus, if he wants to survive against the numerous raiders roaring across the wasteland in their high-speed death machines. Do you think you have what it takes to show them why you’re the most dangerous man in all the wastes?
Cars are the key to survival in this world, which is why Mad Max allows you to build your own custom vehicle using a variety of car bodies, gasoline, and other parts that you’ll find around the wasteland to continuously improve your vehicle. You’ll encounter plenty of War Boy raiders on your adventures, so you’ll need to learn skills that both help you outmaneuver them in high-speed, high-intensity vehicle battles, and help you pummel the life out of them with your bare hands when you’re exploring on foot. This wasteland isn’t a forgiving place, and you might just have to give into the madness if you hope to make it out alive.
#11: Days Gone
(PC/PS4)
Days Gone puts you into the mud-stained boots of former outlaw biker Deacon St. John, a man who is trying to find a reason to keep going in a world where he is surrounded by death and heartbreak at every turn. From forests and snow plains to desert lava fields, Days Gone takes place across the beautiful Pacific Northwest that has since become a desolate hellscape infested with thousands of undead creatures, whom Deacon calls Freakers, who are looking to tear you limb from limb. Your only constant companion in this apocalypse is your trusty motorcycle, which you’ll ride through a world that’s constantly being changed by not only the weather or the Freaker hordes but also the people living in it.
Days Gone is one of my favorite games on this list for several reasons. Between the brutal combat gameplay that changes depending on whether you’re fighting the undead or rival gangs of human beings, and the ability to explore the remains of a once beautiful section of rural America, I think there’s plenty to to love about Days Gone. Especially the story of our protagonist Deacon and his struggle to deal with depression, betrayal, and regret as he desperately searches for hope after learning that, just maybe, the wife he thought he lost is still alive somewhere. If there’s an “underdog” list for open-world games, then Days Gone is certainly near the top of it, and it’s well worth giving a try. And I didn’t even mention how you can fight up to 500 Freakers at once yet!
#10: This War of Mine
(PC/Mac/Linux/PS4/PS5/Xbox One/Xbox Series X-S/Nintendo Switch/iOS/Android)
This War of Mine isn’t a game about being a super-soldier on the frontlines of a war, or of some kind of super-survivor who makes the apocalypse into his playground. Instead, This War of Mine is a story about the hardships of war from the perspectives of ordinary citizens who find themselves trapped in the ruins of a besieged city whose fight for survival consists of finding enough food and medicine to make it through the night.
When playing the game, you control a small group of ordinary people hiding out inside a ruined building, where during the day you’ll have to work at building new facilities and upgrades to make the place safer as more people, sometimes even children, come to join your base. Snipers watch the street during the day, uncaring if they fire on civilians or not, so you can only go out at night to scavenge the ruins of the city for food, crafting materials, goods to trade with other survivors, and various other items that you sometimes might even have to fight for. You’ll also be faced with difficult choices, ranging from who gets fed or not one day to kicking an individual out into the cold for the safety of the group. Your actions are driven by your conscience, and they will determine just how far you’re willing to go to stay alive.
#9: Fallout 4
(PC/PS4/Xbox One)
When people think of post-apocalypse games in general these days, chances are one of the first franchises they think about is Fallout. So it should come as no surprise that we’re including 2015’s award-winning addition to the series, Fallout 4, on this list. Fallout 4 is the only game in the series so far that puts you right there as the Great War comes to its explosive beginning and end, putting you in control of your character moments before they and their family rush into Vault 111 as the bombs drop. But instead of dying inside the Vault, you’re cryo-frozen for over 200 years, and you wake up to discover your once-peaceful home turned into a savage wasteland full of irradiated monsters, merciless raiders, and news reporters. Y’know, among other things.
Set in Boston, Massachusetts in the year 2277, you’ll set out on an overarching main storyline to find your missing son, Shaun, after he was kidnapped and your spouse was murdered while you were frozen in the Vault. Along the way, you’ll travel to various locations across the Commonwealth Wasteland, each with something interesting and weird to find in them, take on hundreds of quests that will reshape the lives of people all across the wasteland, and maybe even build an entirely new settlement from the ground up while you’re at it. Whether you’re in it for the RPG elements and the storytelling, or if you’re just here to explore the world while shooting anything that looks as you funny with a custom-build laser rifle, Fallout 4 is a post-nuclear apocalypse that will keep you coming back for more time and again.
#8: Project Zomboid
(PC/Mac/Linux)
Simply put, Project Zomboid is the ultimate open-world sandbox zombie experience that you can play today. From exploring a vast map, to building walls and other structures, to creating farms, to fishing, to trapping, and much, much more, if there’s something that you can think would be useful in a survival scenario, chances are that Project Zomboid will let you learn how to use that skill. Of course, the only problem is you need to avoid getting eaten alive by the swarms of undead that are slowly growing in number day by day if you want those skills to actually matter. After you create your custom character and choose a background that affects the skills they start with, you’ll find yourself in Knox Country, Kentucky, a surprisingly close-to-life recreation of the real Kentucky and ground zero for the zombie plague that’s ravaging the globe.
The zombies are slow and use realistic line of sight and hearing mechanics, and they outnumber you a hundred to one, so you’ll need to be very careful about how you choose to take on the undead, as it only takes one bite to end it all. Additionally, character perks swing both ways in Zomboid, meaning that you might need to make your character claustrophobic in order to afford a perk that boosts your stamina, or you could have really good hearing at the cost of being blind. Yes, being blind is a real perk you can choose. But however you build your character and how you choose to explore the zombie apocalypse, Project Zomboid will always remind you one way or another that, no matter what, this is still just the story of how you died.
#7: Metro Exodus
(PC/Mac/Linux/PS4/PS5/Xbox One/Xbox Series X-S)
In the year 2036, it’s been a quarter of a century since the world was devastated by nuclear war, where only a few thousand humans have managed to cling onto existence by hiding in what remains of the Metro underneath the ruins of Moscow. But after all these years of living in the darkness, you take control of Artyom, who has had enough of hiding away and decides to flee the Metro along with a squad of Spartan Rangers in search of a new, better life far in the east.
In Metro Exodus, you’ll get to explore the remnants of Russia in a post-nuclear world as you travel across the continent on the Aurora, a heavily modified steam locomotive that will take you and a handful of other survivors to a better life in the East. The world you’ll explore is both beautiful and incredibly hostile, and you’ll need to rely on your skills and whatever weapons you can get your hands on if you want to defeat the many mutated monstrosities that roam the surface of the planet. In Exodus, you’ll soon find yourself easily immersed in the setting’s terrifying world as you play through a gripping storyline where your decisions will have consequences not just for yourself, but also for the fate of the comrades you’ll grow close with during your journey.
#6: Dying Light 2: Stay Human
(PC/PS4/PS5/Xbox One/Xbox Series X-S/Nintendo Switch)
Set 20 years after the events of the original game, you play as Aiden Caldwell, a wandering Pilgrim who delivers important goods and news to surviving settlements in a world where the zombie virus has won and is slowly choking out humanity. But Aiden’s real mission is to find his younger sister Mia, who he left behind when he escaped the torturous experiments being performed on him by someone called Dr. Waltz. You eventually decide to confront your haunted past when you learn that Mia might still be alive in Villedor, the last city on Earth. That’s not to say that there aren’t plenty of undead to brutalize inside the city walls, of course.
In Dying Light 2: Stay Human, you’re placed inside of a massive open-world city filled with the shambling armies of the undead, and you’re given the means to freely traverse this environment thanks to Aiden’s parkour abilities, allowing you to jump across rooftops, swing across the city with rope, cross vast distances with zip lines, and much more. These skills will also come in handy when you're bashing and slicing your way through groups of zombies, as you can just as easily slice their heads off as you can send them flying off a roof with a soaring dropkick, among plenty of other options. But when the sun goes down, the most dangerous members of the undead horde emerge from hiding, so you’ll need to be extra careful if you want to make it sunrise.
#5: DayZ
(PC/PS4/Xbox One)
Whether or not it’s the most well-known post-apocalypse zombie survival game ever made, DayZ is certainly one of the most hardcore survival games out there, and that’s before you even factor in the zombies themselves. In DayZ you find yourself in the post-Soviet state of Chernarus, a massive 230 km2 hand-crafted environment based on real-world locations, where you’ll need to scavenge the ruins of society if you hope to survive against not only the undead population but also the other human survivors who are fighting for the same scarce resources as you.
Based on the original Arma 2 mod of the same name, DayZ forces you into a brutal and uncaring world where you’ll need to learn how to scavenge, hunt, fish, and whatever else you can think of if you want to remain healthy, fed, and alive for a day longer. There can be up to 60 players in an average DayZ server, meaning that you never know when you could find yourself in the middle of a firefight with people who might want your loot or might just want to hunt you for sport. Whether you decide to team up with others or work as a lone wolf, the world of DayZ won’t pull any punches, meaning you’ll have to fend off hunger, thirst, body temperature, and more if you want to survive another day out here. Just remember to keep an eye out for the hordes of infected while you’re at it.
#4: The Last Of Us Part I
(PC/PS5)
One of gaming’s most well-known post-apocalypse stories to come out of the 2010s, The Last of Us was remastered as The Last of Us Part I after the release of the sequel and was brought onto PC in 2022, giving the game updated graphical effects, character models, and animations. The story of The Last of Us takes place twenty years after an outbreak of a mutated fungus decimated the world, where we join Joel Miller as he’s suddenly thrust into a smuggling job to transport a young girl named Ellie across the country because Ellie is immune to the infection, which could potentially lead to a cure.
The Last of Us is a cinematic journey filled with drama, death, and heartbreak, where you’ll witness Joel and Ellie slowly grow close to one another as they overcome the dangers of the apocalypse together, whether that means taking on groups of the infected in the ruins of America or fighting off dangerous gangs made up of other human survivors. Both of them would rather go on their own at the beginning, but as they travel across America over the course of a year, both Joel and Ellie will come to rely on each other to help one another survive in battle, and overcome perilous obstacles and other puzzles that you might encounter. In short, if you’re looking to get emotionally invested in one of gaming’s most beloved stories, then The Last of Us is an experience not worth missing out on.
#3: Death Stranding
(PC/Mac/PS4/PS5/Xbox Series X-S)
During a cataclysmic event known as the “Death Stranding” pushes the living world and the afterlife closer together than ever before, the United States was ravaged by a phenomenon that causes dead bodies to explode with the force of nuclear bombs, devastating the population and forcing the survivors into isolation across the continent. Years after the Death Stranding, you play as Sam Bridges, a courier who braves the American wasteland to deliver important supplies to America’s isolated population and to reconnect them to the Chiral Network, a sort of super-internet that allows for instant data transfer using the supernatural forces unleashed by the Death Stranding.
In a world created by the legendary Hideo Kojima, Sam must set out to travel from coast to coast in hopes of finding his estranged sister Amelie, and to save what’s left of humanity from impending annihilation. Death Stranding is like few other post-apocalypse settings out there, where the focus isn’t just on surviving a wasteland full of supernatural monsters, but also on reconnecting with your fellow human beings in a shared hope of saving your future. A gaming experience like no other, you truly just have to play Death Stranding if you ever want to truly “get it”.
#2: The Walking Dead
(PC/Mac/PS3/PS4/Xbox 360/Xbox One/Nintendo Switch/iOS/Android)
Set in the same universe as Robert Kirkman’s award-winning comic book series of the same name, Telltale Games’ The Walking Dead is a story told over five episodes where you take control of Lee Everett, a convicted criminal who has been given a horrifying second chance at life when the world around him suddenly becomes overrun by the undead. You and Lee are quickly joined by Clementine, a young girl hiding in her treehouse whose parents are far from home during the outbreak, who Lee quickly decides he must protect as the apocalypse begins around them.
The Walking Dead is all about making the tough, and often heartbreaking decisions necessary to help you and your group survive this apocalypse. You’ll meet plenty of new friends and enemies alike throughout the story, and your decisions and ability to act in the face of danger are all that stand in the way of your favorite character surviving another day and getting eaten alive right in front of you. If you decide to play this story all the way to its conclusion, you’ll be brutally reminded time and again why this game is considered by many to be one of the most emotionally devastating games ever released.
#1: Fallout: New Vegas
(PC/PS3/Xbox 360)
After being forced to dig your own grave before being shot in the head, and miraculously surviving the incident, you set out a new man or woman into the heat-blasted Mojave Wasteland, a place where the right kind of person with the right kind of weaponry can really make a name for themselves. Considered by many to be one of the best post-apocalypse RPGs ever created, Fallout: New Vegas lets you take this post-nuclear version of Sin City by the horns and gives you the freedom to do whatever you feel like.
Not even nuclear fallout could slow the hustle of Vegas, and you’ll soon realize that as you meet a colorful selection of characters while traveling up and down what’s left of the Mojave. It’s up to you to decide how your story plays out, as you can be a hero of the people who helps out where you can in every little town you visit, or you can join up with an army of slavers and fight to subjugate the Wasteland to your will, or you can even take the whole place for yourself, with plenty more to do in between. A war is brewing across the Mojave as various factions fight to take control of the desert oasis that is New Vegas, and there are plenty of ways for you to meet your end as you meet everyone and everything waiting out in the desert. The fate of the entire wasteland is up in the air, and you have the potential to change it forever.
