10 Best Apocalyptic Video Games That DON'T Involve Zombies

Dubbed ‘The Quiet Apocalypse’, The Long Dark looks at the end of the world on the smallest of scales. A first-person survival game, the story mode ‘Wintermute’ has the player assume the role of a pilot struggling to stay alive in the aftermath of a plane crash in the frigid Canadian wilderness, triggered by a massive geomagnetic storm.

The game remains deliberately oblique on the state of the rest of the world, and whether other areas are similarly affected, likely to instil the same sense of the unknown in the player as their character.

The truth is that the wider impact of the apocalypse isn’t relevant, because in The Long Dark, you’re alone, scared, and facing nature at its most harsh and unyielding as your enemy.

All this makes for a deeply atmospheric game, and one that you can essentially play indefinitely, as while the story mode is episodic and features a narrative plot, the game’s pure survival mode doesn’t end unless the player character dies. Good luck out there.