I'm thinking we should create a list of all the PA games out there. After that we could assess the situation. Start reviewing them and create a steam curator where we recommend the games that gets favourable reviews. The list should be sortable by year and genre. RPG:s are prioritised. A good place to start is here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Post-apocalyptic_video_games We could also have a special category for apocalyptic games. Most zombie games would go in there. Start posting some games and I will update the list.
underrail age of decadence s.t.a.l.k.e.r (technically) RAGE Primordia (IIRC) nuclear throne arx fatalis bioshock bioshock 2 dead rising (whole series depends on whether you think the isolated event counts as post-apocalyptic or not, might just be an apocalyptic event) dead rising 2 dead rising 3 dead rising 4 death road to canada wasteland 1 wasteland 2 wasteland 3 mad max resident evil 2 resident evil 3 resident evil outbreak resident evil outbreak file #2 this war of mine (it's just a war game but still) dead state darkwood neo scavenger What makes the list though? Do currently apocalyptic games count? If they are post-apocalyptic then does post-post-apocalyptic count? How advanced can the post-apocalypse society get or how far can the event be removed from present time before it stops being post-apocalyptic? What about isolated societies such as space stations that had entire thriving societies living on them and suffer an even that is practically apocalyptic? How wide scale does something have to be to be apocalyptic? The world? Because what if the "world" is just a space station? What about a game that is very post-apocalyptic but it only shows a portion of the world that has undergone this transformation with the implication that the rest of the world is gonna suffer the same fate so this is representative of what everything will be like further on?
I remember years ago having a chat with some of the moderators here about expanding NMA into hosting forums for PA media in general during the Fallout drought but nothing really came of it. Well another good list to check for PA games is Mobygames; https://www.mobygames.com/genre/sheet/post-apocalyptic/ It also includes games with non nuclear armaggedon/apocalypse such as post alien invasion, magical apocalypse, monster apocalypse, natural disaster apocalypse. Some older titles I remember; Alien Earth Bad Blood - Chris Roberts from Wing Commander now Star Citizen fame worked on this\ Edit: made a stupid mistake, Atom RPG and Atom RPG Turdograd are recent/still in development RPGs. I was making a list of old PA games on Moby games when I decided to just link the site itself and somehow by mistake added these two games. One of those moments I really feel upset for not double checking my posts.
There are too many too count. A couple of years ago, i wrote monthly articles about newly released indie post-apocalyptic games. Those kind games were released all the time. And that doesn't include AAA and older games. Making one ultimate list would be one hell lot of time and the reader would be most likely lost. On the other hand, making a list of tested, loved and recommended games would help a lot the community. Also, it would be better to separate in several categories, and notably give the zombie their own category, as there are so many of them, and are often very generic.
Zombies is so big that it is a genre of its own so it being post-apocalyptic feels pointless to me. It just muddies the water. Bloats any list it gets put on. Fantasy PA (Age Of Decadence, Arx Fatalis) Sci-Fi PA (Underrail) Contemporary PA (Mad Max, Fallout) Those are some easy broad categories based on setting.
As I wrote zombie games are most often apocalyptic and not post-apocalyptic. We should of course single out the PA games that are of most relevance for this site when we make our review list. I would also like to do some retro reviews of older games for this site.
I give you Roadkill. Developed by Terminal Reality and published by Midway, it is a mish mash of Mad Max, Twisted Metal and Grand Theft Auto. Not particularly a great game nor bad. Perfectly passable game for 2003. especially if you were into the whole car combat genre at time. So in this setting instead of it being a Post Apocalypse caused by a nuclear war this one went apocalypse virus when the Rot came in and culled like 85% of the population of the planet so society has completely collapsed while the infrastructure is still around but in a state of disrepair and decay. So now you drive around post apocalypse Arizona(Now with it's own volcano and view of the pacific ocean) doing jobs for British Clowns, Army Remnants and Pro-Football players while rag dolling Mexican cowboys who get caught in your wheel well when you run them over sometimes all the while Judas Priest blasts on the radio, or the one radio station with the imposter Rush Limbaugh blaming the democrats for letting the world go to shit and causing the virus to ruin his golf game because it rotted his knee cap off and his solution to solve the housing crises is to build homes out of all the dead bodies laying everywhere.
It's because people don't have the time/are too lazy. Anyone making suggestions has to consider they are the one that needs to do it. This thing is self sustaining. Waiting on Hass or me to do something is well.... https://nma-fallout.com/forums/50-rpgs-per-hour.51/ I tried to do something. Something pretty small comparatively speaking.