Worst Post-Apocalyptic Game Worlds To Live In

In all of gaming, some of the most unique and fun settings can be found in post-apocalyptic games, from lush forests hiding hungry monsters to crumbling cities and irradiated wastelands full of roaming mutants. These game worlds offer challenging and spectacular landscapes for players to explore.

But for the characters living in these worlds, life is an everyday struggle. If players were to be transported into the game, the chances of survival would suddenly be very slim. These are lands of many dangers that pose a serious threat to the inhabitants. While not every setting means instant death, most would agree living in these post-apocalyptic worlds would be the absolute worst.

10 FAR: Changing Tides

Flooded Land

• Habitat: Largely Submerged Cities and Towns
• Dangers: Unstable Buildings, Obstacles, Loneliness
• Places of Safety: Players Large Boat

This post-apocalyptic puzzle game depicts a ruined world that has become flooded and empty. In the game, the main character captains a large metal sailboat, in which they explore the world in relative safety. This waterlogged setting may not have the dangers of many other games on this list, but living in this world would be just as tough.

Many of the ruins are unstable and can easily collapse on the unwary. Navigating the waters would mean expertise in sailing, needing quick reactions and deep knowledge. What makes this world truly dangerous is the loneliness of the setting. Few people inhabit the land, making the daily struggle all the more difficult.

9 Horizon Zero Dawn

31st Century United States

• Habitat: Lush Forests, Vast Deserts
• Dangers: Warring Tribes, Large Robotic Animals.
• Places of Safety: Safe Settlements - Meridian, Sunfall, And Mother’s Heart

Set in the 31st century, the world of Horizon Zero Dawn is a bleak vision of the far future. In the setting, the world was destroyed and then regrown by AI. While nature has returned, for the most part, humans live in a tribal state, with technology and knowledge extremely limited.

The true dangers of the world are the ever-present robotic creatures that inhabit the vast landscapes. These range from subdued horse-like robots to giant dinosaur creatures that will attack on-site. Living in this post-apocalyptic future can be a tough existence, with warring factions and bandits lying in wait for the unsuspecting. There are safe cities, though, with many people living simple but long lives.

8 Death Stranding

Post-Apocalyptic America

• Habitat: Rocky Desolate Landscapes
• Dangers: Invisible Creatures (BTs), Bandits.
• Places of Safety: Knot Cites

Following a cataclysmic event, strange ghostly creatures known as Beached Things began to appear in the world. This event caused much of the land to become desolate and barren, with only simple life surviving. Life is only possible in remote settlements known as Knot Cities. With the breakdown of infrastructure, food and medicine are sparse. The only way people can survive now is by relying on Porters, who brave the lands transporting goods to each settlement.

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Surviving in the world of Death Stranding means either hiding within the sealed settlements away from the sun or braving the world and becoming open to the many dangers outside. Although broken and living underground, the world does enjoy a higher level of technology than many other post-apocalyptic settings.

7 Frostpunk

Frozen 19th-Century Britain

• Habitat: Volcanic Winter
• Dangers: Limited Resources, Freezing Temperatures.
• Places of Safety: Player-Built Settlement

Set in an alternate timeline, the city-building sim Frostpunk is set in late 19th-century Britain. After the dual eruptions of Krakatoa and Mount Tampora, global temperatures plummeted, bringing on a new ice age. The game revolves around players successfully building a settlement for people to survive in.

With a global winter ravaging the land, supplies are at an all-time low. The game depicts a grim and frostbitten world where to survive means making tough decisions. These can include making strict laws, regulating supplies, and enforcing order on the population. Living in the world of Frostpunk would be a harsh, hard-working existence where the value of your life is dictated by your usefulness.

6 Days Gone

Post-Apocalyptic Oregon

• Habitat: Lush Forests
• Dangers: Swarms Of Zombies, Bandits
• Places Of Safety: Safe Encampments

This open-world zombie game depicts the lush forests of Oregon after a zombie outbreak. Following drifter Deacon St. John as he navigates the world on his motorbike, Days Gone has moments of natural beauty, which hide the ever-present danger of the undead.

Living in this game world would mean a secluded life in safe settlements. The zombies in the game can swarm uncontrollably, meaning any town wanting to survive must be under constant vigilance. With bandits ready to kill and take everything you have, surviving this world would require a strong mindset and a fully loaded gun.

5 Dying Light

Harran

• Habitat: Large Evacuated City
• Dangers: Gangs, Various Types of Undead
• Places of Safety: Scattered Safe-houses

Living within the zombie-infested city of Harran would mean instant death for the vast majority of people. With only a few safe settlements available to the population, supplies are rare, and space even rarer. People rely on the skill of a few who dare to take on the zombie-infected streets and scavenge for food and medicine.

Avoiding slow-moving zombies is one thing, but the infection has evolved and created other variants of undead, from toad-like creatures that spit toxic sludge to angry hulking monsters. The most dangerous of all comes out at night. Volatiles are near-unkillable creatures that emerge after the sun goes down. Completing a nighttime run means being quick, agile, and skilled at parkour and close combat. In reality, most of us wouldn’t survive very long at all.

4 The Last of Us

Post-Outbreak America

• Habitat: Overgrown Ruined Cities.
• Dangers: Bandits, Unstable Buildings, Various Types of Infected Humans, Authoritarian Government, Cordyceps Infection.
• Places of Safety: Quarantine Zones, Tommy’s Settlement.

The crumbling and overgrown landscape of The Last of Us may not be a post-nuclear wasteland, but it is no less dangerous. The critically acclaimed game introduced the world to the horrors of the Cordyceps fungus, which infects humans, turning them into crazed, violent monsters.

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Entering the wrong area without protection can mean breathing in the dangerous Cordyceps spores. Making too much noise will attract the dreaded Clickers or worse. If the infected don’t kill you, bandits or cannibals may. Most safe settlements mean living under strict authoritarian rule. Only a lucky few manage to find a peaceful existence in this world, with the majority of the population living short, violent lives.

3 Mad Max

The Wasteland

• Habitat: Vast Deserts, Rocky Canyons.
• Dangers: Bandits, Enemy Drivers.
• Places of Safety: Various Scattered Settlements

One of the most iconic post-apocalyptic settings of all time, Mad Max depicts a brutal future where food, water, and fuel are luxuries few enjoy. Bands of roaming bandits are a constant danger, and vast distances ensure travel is long and lonely.

The 2015 game Mad Max follows the titular character as he explores the decimated wasteland, where the environment has dried to become a husk of its former self. Living in the barren deserts of the setting means a constant hustle to survive. Much of the population is ready to shoot each other in the back for what little is left. Living in the world of Mad Max is a violent tribal existence, where few live to old age.

2 Metro 2033

Moscow Metro

• Habitat: Nuclear Winter
• Dangers: Mutated Creatures, Gangs, Radiation, Limited Resources, Supernatural Occurrences.
• Places of Safety: Metro Stations Turned Into Settlements.

The game world of Metro 2033 is a bleak vision of civilization, with much of society living within the relative safety of the Moscow Metro. These scattered settlements are under constant threat from monsters lurking in the dark that can attack at any moment to starvation and sickness.

Overcrowding within the small confines of each station also means resources are limited, and privacy is all but gone. Escaping to the surface means almost immediate death. If not from the creatures roaming the land but from exposure to freezing temperatures or radiation.

1 Fallout 3

Capital Wasteland

• Habitat: Irradiated Wasteland
• Dangers: Mutants, Bandits, Mercenaries, Radiation, Ferocious Animals, Rampaging Robots, Nuclear Bombs.
• Places Of Safety: A Few Friendly Settlements.

For all the fun players can have, exploring the open world of Fallout 3, living in the Capital Wasteland would be no simple task. The game world is filled with dangers that would mean instant death for most people. To live here would mean avoiding gangs of mutants, bandits, and heavily armed soldiers and surviving against creatures such as the Giant Radscorpion or the even dreaded Deathclaw. Almost everything is out to kill everything.

There are few safe areas in the Capital Wasteland, and even within these walls, scheming and in-fighting can lead to a quick death. On top of this, radiation is also a constant danger, from degrading nuclear waste, to freak radiation storms, becoming poisoned is almost a certainty. If all that wasn't tough enough, there is also the possibility that someone sets off a nuclear explosion, decimating whatever safety you thought you had.

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