When times are tough it’s worth remembering that at least we don’t actually live in a video game. Since the very beginning, designers have been imagining the digital demise of the human race, with classics such as Missile Command and Space Invaders pitting players against incalculable odds in seemingly futile battles for survival. But the great thing is, they’re just games, right?
Here then, are some of our favourite apocalyptic scenarios from gaming history, all of them reassuringly fanciful and completely unlikely.
Fallout 3
Survivors of a devastating armageddon emerge from their shelters to discover an almost unrecognisable Washington, populated by war-hungry tribal leaders with no formal political experience.
Resistance: Fall of Man
In an alternative timeline of the 20th century, devious extraterrestrial monsters use advanced technology to spread a rapidly evolving and dehumanising virus. America refuses to recognise the threat until well after Britain becomes a nightmarish society of subdued Chimeran drones.
Final Fantasy VI
Finding themselves in control of a supernaturally enhanced army, a cruel dictator and a nihilistic clown form an unlikely partnership to control and enslave a divided world. Entertaining but fantastical nonsense.
Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon
The world is attacked by giant bio-engineered insects, controlled by a malevolent alien attack force – no doubt days after seasoned pundits assured voters that a successful attack by giant bio-engineered insects was improbable.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl
Inhabitants of a blighted urban wasteland come to believe in the prophesy of the Wish Granter, a fabled monolithic deity promising to solve the problems of their fractured and desperate community. But is the Wish Granter actually a sinister trap, an illusion constructed by a clandestine and shadowy elite? Hmmm.
Gears of War
Civilised human society on the planet Sera is all but destroyed by an army of locust-like aliens that emerge from underground caverns to wreak havok. Somehow, no one spotted this vast, highly committed movement until it was too late.
The Last of Us
A sudden and unexpected contagion turns vast swathes of the population into violent and unreasonable aggressors striking out blindly at a ruined planet. Completely not allegorical in any way.
Destiny
A futuristic Earth is all but annihilated by an unknowable galactic force, aided by opportunistic Alien foot soldiers. Humanity puts its trust in an aloof being named The Traveller, which has been around for many years but ultimately proves ineffectual when it really counts.
