A good sci-fi movie is not an easy feat to produce. With the limited runtime of a film, you have to decide what to put in and what to leave out in order to tell a good, self-contained story that doesn't rely solely on two more movies. In a series, this is a bit easier to do, since you have multiple episodes that can last up to an hour to develop side arcs and characters while introducing bits and pieces of lore at a convenient pace.
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That said, no medium does it better than video games. Well, arguably, sci-fi books are up there, but the added audiovisual and interactive layer in games is what sets them apart, and at many times, even above movies. At best, they are interactive stories where players get to decide the outcome, and there are hundreds of hours of lore to be crammed in and discovered through exploration and NPC dialogue alone. Here are the sci-fi games that give the worldbuilding in movies a run for their money.
The Fallout Series
Patrolling The Mojave Wasteland Almost Makes You Wish For A Nuclear Winter
The apocalypse has always fascinated humanity, and few franchises have portrayed a possible, post-war future as well as Fallout. The whimsical, atompunk aesthetic is its trademark, from the retro posters of Nuka Girl to the music you can listen to on the radio as the Courier, Lone Wanderer, or Sole Survivor. It's both dark and humorous, with incredibly tragic stories and locations, all relying on Bethesda's signature environmental storytelling. Everyone's familiar with the horrible tales behind characters like Cait and Fawkes, or the awful, morally questionable actions of Caesar's Legion and the Gunners.
The wasteland is brimming with these warring factions, each quirky, cruel, or believing themselves to be the good guys, fighting against survival and power over the remnants of civilization. And then there's the wilderness: Ghouls (some feral, some not), Deathclaws, Radscorpions, Radroaches, and more. It's a very complete, immersive experience that has been a wonder to see translated into a series format with Amazon's Fallout. Even then, there's so much detail and more to be shown, given how rich the world and the lore of Fallout is, from how the super mutants were created to the fate of certain Vaults.
Dead Space Series
The Terrifying And Gorgeous World Of Isaac Clarke
Survival horror games are all about atmosphere, and if there's one game that really nailed this, then it's Dead Space, and its two sequels (and the remake). It would be pretty difficult to translate the terror of actually playing through a game like Dead Space on the big screen, with how it plays with darkness and how intricate its textures and aesthetics are. It's sci-fi survival horror at its finest with a classic starting point of responding to a distress signal (Alien, anyone?), all witnessed over the shoulder of Isaac Clarke.
The first two games take place in more confined locations, while the third widens the scope to a planet. Either way, the sense of claustrophobia is retained all throughout as you take down the downright nightmarish Necromorphs and uncover the mysteries behind them—we'll keep things spoiler-free. In classic survival horror style, the story is told through cryptic and dark audiologs, and a hefty dose of bloodstained environmental storytelling.
Mass Effect Trilogy
A Truly Cinematic Sci-fi Universe
If there's one video game franchise that feels like a straight-up movie, it's Mass Effect. It's a relatively simple plot, but the way it's delivered, and the depth of the companions and crew members you meet as the heroic (or anti-heroic, depending on whether you go for Renegade or Paragon) Commander Shepard, bring the whole world to life in a way that's hard to find in games these days.
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The most impressive aspect is the fact that Mass Effect isn't an open-world game, yet it still manages to impress with each location you visit during your quests. The Citadel, even in the first game that is definitely showing its age, feels real and vibrant with its futuristic vistas. The different species and their unique lore, and how you can affect them during your playthrough (like the Genophage), are all proof of a masterclass in worldbuilding. It's a sci-fi world full of tropes we're all familiar with, but they're delivered so well and brilliantly that it's hard not to fall in love with Mass Effect's universe.
BioShock Series
From The Bottom Of The Ocean To The Top Of The Clouds
The first BioShock is a favorite among many for its incredible underwater setting: Rapture, a city governed by Andrew Ryan's ambitious, capitalist vision, brought to heel by greed and struggle for power. We get to enjoy Rapture in two separate games, and though there are some highlights in BioShock 2, the first one is where we really get to visit some of the most iconic, well-designed locations of the city beneath the waves: Fort Frolic, with its insane leader and freaky moving statues comes to mind, as well as Arcadia, the source of the city's oxygen. Each stage in BioShock isn't just there to entertain; it serves a purpose in explaining how the city functioned, while explaining the lore. In Medical Pavilion, for example, we learn about how and why the Splicers look the way they do through audio logs.
Then there's BioShock Infinite, which takes us upward: Columbia, the city in the clouds, Comstock's vision. The dystopian levels of patriotic religion and politics on display create an insidious setting with a deceptively charming and lavish appearance. Huge statues, colonial architecture, and clearly some inspiration from steampunk settings that keep the whole city afloat. One of the coolest details is the abundance of sky-line rails that can be traveled using Sky-Hooks. And then there are the automated patriots that patrol the streets, that give homage to American history. Every little detail truly counts here, with a vastly different aesthetic from Rapture that went for more of a 1940s style.
System Shock Series
You're In SHODAN's World Now
It wouldn't be right to talk about BioShock without bringing up the System Shock series, a franchise that received a remake not long ago, and which I desperately hope will make a modern return at some point. System Shock is an immersive sim, but it's arguably also a survival horror game. Its story is almost exclusively experienced and told through audiologs and the environment.
It's not a "big" world by any means, as you're mostly confined to a space station or to a spaceship later on in the sequel, but the way everything is so undeniably handcrafted and themed around SHODAN's total desire for control, from evil automatons to mutated creatures, is downright perfection. The sound design, the wacky gadgets, and the iconic music from the original first game all served to create a game world that would likely only work as it is as an interactive, immersive sim experience.
STALKER Series
A Darker Nuclear Wasteland That Doesn't Care If You Live Or Die
Going a few steps further into grim and dark than Fallout, the STALKER franchise has excelled throughout the years in bringing to life in virtual format a very real place in the world: the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. If you've ever seen footage or photos of the Zone in real life, you have an idea of what it looks like, from abandoned buildings to overgrown, irradiated forests. The STALKER games magnificently translate it into a game format by adding in more fantastical elements of worldbuilding, like mutated creatures, anomalies, and, of course, warring factions and rival stalkers.
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There's no handholding in these games. Their brutality is felt through how other characters respond to you, either by opening fire on sight and sniping you from hundreds of meters away, or by welcoming you in as a friend. The world is hostile and unwelcoming, and with no skill trees, the only progression is the lessons you have to learn by directly interacting with the world, exploring, and discovering more. That's also how STALKER games build up their lore: environmental storytelling, sparse dialogue, and the Zone living and breathing around you, uncaring of whether you survive or not. Although the newest game has some jankiness to it, it's one of the most atmospheric experiences thanks to its next-level sound design that's real enough to encourage gameplay without any UI.
Horizon Series
The Beautiful Clash Of Tribes And High Tech
Another take on the end of the world, the Horizon games deserve their spot here simply for creating a setting that's both incredibly unique but also surprisingly deep. It's best not to rush through these games, because the world's lore is peppered all throughout the many side quests and the classic environmental storytelling. Granted, a lot of the juicy bits are hidden behind the data points, similarly to Cyberpunk 2077, where some of the most fascinating lore details are within data shards, so get your reading glasses on if you want all the details.
Both games show a world utterly ravaged by technological advancement, which led to the Faro Plague and almost complete destruction of Earth. Without spoiling too much, what you see in Zero Dawn is what remains, a sort of return to a tribal society rather than a high-tech reality like the one seen in the Fallout games. The characters, Aloy's quips and comments, and the vibrant locations where tribal aesthetics clash with a dead, hypermodern tech-world weave into a brilliantly cohesive package.
Cyberpunk 2077
Mike Pondsmith's Hypercapitalist Dystopia Comes To Life
The neonlit, violent, and grim world of Cyberpunk 2077 is one that begs to be put on the big screen. In fact, its success was already confirmed with the Edgerunners series on Netflix, and with a season 2 on the way, fans of Mike Pondsmith's world will get to dive into it once more. The game itself, though, does it the best, taking from the original TTRPG and delivering a very complete, immersive experience. Night City is absolutely beautiful and disgusting, full of chromed-up inhabitants in flashy outfits driving futuristic cars, casual violence, blaring night lights, and advertisements for everything from drugs to braindances to fake meat.
It's loud, it's offensive, and it's a suffocating, exciting, and seedy hypercapitalist hellscape where hope has come to die. The environmental storytelling is powerful here, and the characters that mercenary V meets along the way further serve to deliver lore about the world. For instance, through Judy, we learn about Laguna Bend, and Panam gives us a glance into the life of the Aldecaldos inhabiting the deserted outskirts of the vibrant city. In all honesty, it's one of my favorite settings in gaming, and the fact that so many characters refer to the city as an entity of its own that will "win" or consume you in Cyberpunk 2077 proves the world is its true, unbeatable final boss.
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