Post-apocalyptic video games

Post-apocalyptic video games are games that take place during a time after a cataclysmic event (a so-called apocalypse) on Earth or a similar world, that has resulted in at least one of the following things: partial or complete societal collapse, significant damage to the planet's ecosystem, or an otherwise massive, potentially irreversible and/or negative shift in the world's status quo, such as to its climate or habitability in general. Common examples of apocalyptic events include a nuclear holocaust, catastrophic climate change, a meteor impact or other such collision with a planet, or a technological singularity event such as a rogue AI.

Tone
The tone of such video games is often one of greed, selfishness, and assuming the worst of everyone else because the people around you are doing exactly that. There is an emphasis on tough choices, and a "The ends justify the means" mentality.

Nuclear Apocalypse
The Fallout series is perhaps one of the best representatives of depicting a world set after a so-called nuclear apocalypse. Nuclear apocalypse almost invariably means that, at some point in a hypothetical near-future, the planet's major political powers exchange nuclear missiles during a time of war (often termed World War III); in the short-term, this causes mass loss of life, regression of technology and medicine, societal breakdown, economic hardship and famines.

The detonation of a nuclear device (and its resulting effects) can be summarised in three main phases:

Phase 1
Phase 1 is the initial detonation of the device. A typical nuclear warhead delivered by an ICBM would cause a ball of plasma hotter than the Sun to form, over two kilometres wide, within the first millisecond of the detonation. This fireball would vaporise anything inside. The detonation would also be accompanied by a blinding flash of light that, if looked at directly, is capable of blinding an individual for several hours. This would then be followed by a thermal pulse that burns practically everything in a roughly thirteen-kilometre radius (approximately 500 km²); if it's combustible, it starts burning, including glass, plastic, fabric, wood, skin and hair.

Phase 2
Phase 2 occurs immediately after Phase 1 and is the stage where most people will realise that something has happened. An electromagnetic pulse travels outward from the detonation and would destroy all electronic devices. This is followed by a shockwave due to the changing air pressure caused by the detonation. The shockwave travels outward from the detonation faster than the speed of sound and causes winds faster than hurricanes and tornadoes. Structures already damaged and on fire from the thermal pulse would be unable to resist a shockwave of this power; it's estimated that for a typical detonation, all buildings within a kilometre of the fireball would be destroyed, with varying levels of destruction the further outward you travel, and also depending on the construction materials used (steel-reinforced concrete can offer partial resistance against a shockwave of this magnitude). As the shockwave travels, it weakens, causing extreme amounts of destruction in an estimated area of 175 km². A mushroom cloud now forms from the remains of the explosion, as it towers over the detonation area. This cloud sucks up dust and other particulates from the ground, and also sweeps in extra air at ground level, providing additional Oxygen to any fires raging at this point; if enough combustible fuel is present, small fires can turn into raging infernos, causing additional damage to structures and further hampering the survival chances of survivors. Even at a distance of twenty-one kilometres, the shockwave is capable of shattering glass and eardrums.

Phase 3
Phase 3 occurs over the next few days or weeks and is exacerbated by the logistical and practical challenges imposed by such a detonation. To emergency services, a nuclear detonation is like every natural disaster rolled into one; help is possible when only one disaster happens, but in a situation like this, rescue may not be possible for several days, or even a couple of weeks due to the complete collapse of infrastructure (such as bridges, runways, train tracks and roads). Within the detonation area, thousands of people will be injured and will require medical assistance, from lacerations to broken bones, to severe burns; due to the likely destruction of dedicated medical service structures (and the likely decimation of medically-trained staff like doctors) like hospitals, emergency services will be overwhelmed at this point, and many people will likely die from their injuries before help arrives. This situation is compounded by a lack of food, running water, electricity, and the ability to communicate effectively with those around you. Rescue attempts may be hampered by radiation from the detonation site, potentially making it too unsafe to perform rescue operations. Even when the hazards from the area diminish, hospitals in surrounding areas, if they survive, would be under-equipped to deal with the number of serious injuries a nuclear detonation would cause.

Dust and other particulates at ground level would be sucked into the mushroom cloud caused by the detonation; this which would fall back to earth as fallout (either in the form of ash or if there is water vapour in the atmosphere, as a black tar-like semi-solid), causing contamination to wildlife and agriculture, as well as causing radiation sickness in survivors, particularly if inhaled; fallout becomes very difficult to avoid due to damage to structures caused by the air and thermal shocks that would initially accompany a nuclear explosion. Over the coming days, many people will die from radiation poisoning; in a situation like this, radiation poisoning is very hard to detect conclusively, because the symptoms of panic and severe stress are almost identical to the symptoms of radiation sickness.

Fires caused by the thermal pulse would burn for days, potentially even weeks due to the complete breakdown of any sort of emergency services response; these would send up tremendous amounts of soot and dust into the atmosphere, which would block out the sun for weeks, potentially months. Falling temperatures would be most acute inland, with a lesser effect applicable to coastal locations. As temperatures drop below freezing, crops yet to be harvested would be destroyed. The oceans would also be affected, as the light being blocked would lead to the destruction or at least the severe impairment of the food chain, as photo-synthesising phytoplankton would not be able to survive without the Sun's light, causing a knock-on effect further down the food chain.

Medium-term
For population centres that survive in the medium-term, living accommodations would be reduced to near-barbaric squalor, with food controlled by a central authority in exchange for reconstruction work; agriculture would become little more than subsistence farming with workers outside now at greater risk from cancers and cataracts caused by increased UV radiation, a side-effect of a depleted ozone layer from the nuclear conflict. Deaths from cancer and radiation-related illnesses would remain at high levels for several years, with children born afterwards now at greater risk of birth defects due to radiation exposure in utero. Punishment for crimes would become severe, as providing food for unproductive criminals would be an unaffordable luxury; this means that, even for minor crimes, capital punishment would apply, which typically means a death sentence, with execution likely to be carried out by the discharge of a firearm.

The education system may also break down, caused by a lack of materials and volunteers; such a shortfall is capable of causing regression in both spoken and written communication for the descendants of survivors. Precious metals and gemstones may see a resurgence in value as paper and coin currency become worthless in the absence of banks; firearms and ammunition would also become valuable commodities due to the lack of manufacturing.

Long-term
In the long-term, as the climate recovers and radiation recedes, population centres might begin to flourish, although this would be heavily dependent on the development of sustainable food supplies; access to coastal oceans might prove an advantage over land-locked communities due to the accessibility of harvesting sea creatures for food. If a large decline in education can be avoided, society would likely see a resurgence of steam power and coal mining; technology that avoided the EMP of nuclear explosions would become highly sought-after and might form the basis for a revival in reverse-engineering and limited manufacturing. Cultural records may become scarce, both in possession of the records themselves and the means to access them, meaning that history might resume being passed down through oral tradition.

Technological Singularity
Enter the Matrix and other video games based on the film The Matrix presents a world in the aftermath of a technological apocalypse; mankind created artificial intelligence, which births an entire race of machines. The machines rebelled, and after the ensuing conflict, ended up enslaving humanity, reducing them to a source of power in retaliation for humans blanketing the sky, preventing the machine race from using solar power.

Zombie Apocalypse
One of the more common subgenres, zombie video games feature a zombie pandemic as the cause of the apocalypse, often caused by the outbreak of a viral or bacterial contagion. The Resident Evil series is one of the more well-known examples of video games that feature this type of apocalypse.

Post-post-apocalyptic
One of the least common examples, this sub-genre shows the world having entered or completed recovery from the apocalyptic event. While not explicitly referenced as such, Star Trek video games show humanity in a post-post-apocalyptic state, commonly referred to as the post-scarcity era.

Examples

 * The Last of Us and The Last of Us Part II
 * Horizon Zero Dawn
 * Fallout series