A Survivor's Guide to the Gaming Apocalypse

It's 2012, and according to some interpretations of the ancient Mayan calendar that means we're screwed.

But how will the world end? Video games offer no shortage of ideas, from boring ol' nuclear holocaust, to the thrill of a zombie infestation. Here are 20 game-ways we're all gonna die.

It's not the first video game set in a post-apocalyptic world, but action RPG Wasteland is the most notable early example. In Wasteland a nuclear war between America and the USSR has left much of the world a 'wasteland.' The game takes place in the Southwest United States and you're put in charge of a group of Desert Rangers (what's left of the army) as they are called upon to investigate a series of disturbances in the desert, check up on survivors and recruit new members to the team. Along the way, you'll need to battle hideous Uzi wielding mutants. One interesting thing about Wasteland was the fact it was a persistent world – gamers were encouraged to copy the game and play from the copied discs as all changes, including a team member's death, were permanent.



It's 2099 -- the game's developers were sensible enough to pick a date so far in the future that no-one who played the original would be likely to see it. A second ice age has descended on the planet. The whole world has got a bit chilly, and is now completely covered with snow. The culprit is a meteorite landing in Burma and covering the planet in 'diamond dust,' leading to a major drop in the world's ambient temperature. Those in the northern areas froze to death and the more temperate zones have become overcrowded, as people migrate to where it's warmest. The game is set on Midwinter, a newly formed island that was created by volcanic activity and settled by refugees. Two factions fight for control, the Free Villages Police Force and General Masters' army. One of the very first sandbox games, Midwinter had a map size of 160,000 square miles and was widely considered to be ahead of its time. It makes us feel cold just thinking about it.



A point and click adventure set in what's left of Australia, in this game the world ended due to some kind of nuclear fallout or devastating pollution – the game is sketchy on the actual details. The poor are forced to live in the upper, polluted levels while the rich enjoy the luxury of pollution free living quarters underground. At some point in the past there was a Euro-American war, and now Australia is controlled by a super computer obsessed with bureaucracy. We play as Rob Foster, who was brought up by a tribe of bandits in the outback after a helicopter crash killed his parents. One day, security agents from the metropolis Union City come looking for Rob, and take him away. One of the best things about the game was its wicked sense of humour, proving that even if it's the end of the world, at least we can still have a laugh.




Long before Fallout 3 or Fallout: New Vegas, RPG Fallout was released in 1997. In it, the world ended after a worldwide war over the last remaining stores of oil. The war continues for five years between 2052 and 2077 until somebody decides to wheel out the nuclear weaponry. No-one knows who fired on who first, but in less than two hours most of the world is in ruins and a radioactive wasteland.

The game is set about a hundred years later, where humanity's remaining inhabitants survive in underground shelters called 'Vaults.' Our hero lives in the appropriately named Vault 13 and one day is sent outside to find parts for the water recycling unit. Along the way he'll also have to deal with The Master, a super mutant that is determined to destroy humanity by evolving us all into mutants like him because humanity "brought nuclear death to us all" and thinks that to avoid bickering among different creatures "we need one race." Unfortunately, mutants turn out to be sterile, so that wasn't such a great plan after all. Life carries on as before.



In action role-playing game Deus Ex, a plague called the 'Grey Death' (a fatal autoimmune disease) afflicts humanity. There is no cure, only a drug called Ambrosia, which halts the process but needs to be regularly administered. There's not enough supply of Ambrosia to meet demand. The result is that only those deemed to be important to the world are allowed access – in reality this means the rich. When the unwashed masses realize they're all going to die, they're understandably not too happy about it. Riots occur worldwide and several terrorist organizations come into being, fighting for the common man by blowing things up and killing rich people.



One of the strangest scenarios ever conceived in video games, Digital Devil Saga is set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland called the Junkyard. Six rival gangs fight to the death for the chance of being the last gang standing, to claim the prize of being able to ascend to 'nirvana.'

The Embryon tribe are the 'orange' gang and each member of the gang has a powerful demon form they can change into, and they must devour their enemies to survive. But is the junkyard really all that's left of the world? What is nirvana exactly? How does eating other people mean they're worthy of it? And why does it never stop raining?




Following on from the events of the first game, where scientists at the Black Mesa Research Facility accidentally caused an inter-dimensional instability (oops), in the second game, this rift has drawn the Earth to the attention of a species called the Combine. The Combine decide since they're here they may as well invade and a war rages for all of seven hours before humanity is defeated. A police state is implemented by the aliens and a suppression field is placed around the planet which effectively makes humanity sterile as long as it's in place. As thus, people grow older until no children remain, meaning that we will eventually become extinct. In the meantime, however, at least plane journeys will be considerably more pleasant.



In first-person shooter Resistance, in 1950 we were invaded by the Chimera, who, embarrassingly, conquered the planet without too much trouble. They capture humans to help build up their armies and turn them into super soldiers with orders to quash any humans still fighting. The Americans and the British finally put aside their differences and work together on a secret weapon that they hope can be used against the Chimera – an alien species called Angels. However, it turns out that Angels are actually just a different type of Chimera and it all goes horribly wrong. Time for a rethink in the sequel.



Rapture, the underwater city where BioShock is set, was meant to be utopia, a place where scientists and intellectuals could live free from the tedious interference of religion and governments. The idea was that far more scientific and cultural progress could be made away from those pesky little things like ethics. What could possibly go wrong?

After the discovery of ADAM, a substance that alters the user's DNA and gives them superhuman powers, a kind of class system soon springs up between those who have the powers and those who do not. This ends in an all-out war, with those who use ADAM going mad and roaming the smouldering remains of Rapture attacking survivors. Probably not exactly what Ayn Rand, whose philosophies the game's dystopian future was based on, had intended.




In an alternate universe, although the Chernobyl disaster was initially successfully contained, a second explosion occurred in 2006. Strange things started to happen in the exclusion zone, with bizarre mutations occurring in fauna, flora and...the laws of physics. Some people who were working at the nuclear power plant when the second disaster occurred also wander the site, now hideously mutated.

Various anomalies are present in the exclusion zone, including some that give electric shocks and some that crush anything that enters. To ensure safety while walking around, it's advisable to throw things ahead of you and make sure they land on the ground as expected.

Several years after the disaster, people who call themselves Stalkers enter the zone to scavenge and explore in this creepy, atmospheric FPS modelled on the real remains of Chernobyl and nearby town Pripyat.