The human spirit commands that we hope for humanity to rise up from the ashes after everything has gone to heck. Whether by our own hand or an unpredictable force, we think just as much about how easily everything we’ve built up can come tumbling down, and how we can build it back up again. What’s a better way to experience that, than by having an open world? There’s no right or wrong path- just easier and harder. And oh boy, can things get hard when you’re left scrambling for resources as things the end of the world couldn’t kill bear down on you. Here’s Gameranx’s picks for the best open world post apocalyptic games to play in 2022.
#13 The Last of Us: Part I
- Developer: Naughty Dog
- Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment
- Platforms: PS5
- Release: September 2, 2022
It was one thing when The Last of Us came out on PS3. It was immediately dubbed a masterpiece, and fans enjoyed the title from start to finish. Then it got the remastered treatment and then a sequel. When The Last of Us: Part I was announced, people were a bit confused, given how many times the first title was re-released.
Those fears aside, Naughty Dog put maximum effort into the game so that it would be everything fans needed it to be. First, it was a visual overall of a grand order. They also improved elements of the game, from the gameplay to the sound design and more.
The results speak for themselves, as the title is still a masterpiece.
#12 Dying Light 2 Stay Human
- Publisher: Techland
- Developer: Techland
- Platform: PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One Xbox Series X|S
- Released: 2022
As a little extra, we want to start our list with a more recent release. Zombie plague that’s wiped out most life on earth? Check. One of the last cities being surrounded by giant walls? Check. Looting, crafting, and upgrading weapons? Check. So, what makes Dying Light 2 Stay Human stand out? Parkour around the city to run rings around your foes and freely explore to find loot, and make careful decisions that could aid one of the cities three factions- for better or worse. Just keep out of dark places or on the rooftops at night, or risk delving deep into the zombies’ hives to find antidotes to keep you from turning into one of them.
#11 Horizon Zero Dawn
- Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment
- Developer: Guerrilla
- Platform: PC, PlayStation 4
- Released: 2017
One of the more colorful entries on our list, nature seems to have reclaimed most of the world after humanity up and vanished. While they did leave behind robotic animals and dinosaurs, Aloy can override their programming, and loot their metallic bodies for crafting supplies. Dealing with mechanical and human foes alike, Aloy will slowly come to learn what happened to the human race.
#10 Horizon Zero Forbidden West
- Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment
- Developer: Guerrilla
- Platform: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5
- Released: 2022
Aloy has discovered what happened to the human race, but her adventure is far from over. Storms, a blight, and new machines are wrecking her home, so Aloy ventures to the titular west to find out why. The tribes of these lands use the machines to their advantage, forcing the player to rely more on traps, ambushes, and cunning. On PlayStation 5, they can also enjoy haptic feedback, 3D spatial audio, enhanced lighting, performance mode, and more.
#9 Fallout 4
- Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
- Developer: Bethesda Game Studios
- Platform: PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
- Released: 2015
You can’t talk about post-apocalypse and not talk about Fallout. Taking the classic RPG, and using their elements in a 3D open world with action-packed combat, players witness the murder of their spouse and kidnapping of their son before being sent to cryosleep and waking up in 2287. Set across former Boston and New England- or The Commonwealth- players must fend off mutant animals, crazed bandits, and The Institute and their mysterious quest to replace regular folks with nigh-indistinguishable Synths. Gather materials, help out or kill folks in side-quests, roll your stats, and show the wasteland what you can do!
#8 Mad Max
- Publisher: Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
- Developer: Avalanche Studios
- Platform: PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Mac, Linux
- Released: 2015
While many had dismissed it as a tie-in with the film Mad Max: Fury Road, the 2015 game is its own beast, and has made a mild resurgence as players revist it. The game is somewhat connected as Max is confronted by the War Boys, now led by Immortan Joe’s son. The gang steals Max’ car and leaves him for dead, spelling their ultimate demise. Upgrade your new car, side with various factions to chip away at the War Boys’ influence, get your hands dirty in Arkham-style free flow combat, race, and choose when to use fuel for your car, or to blow stuff up.
#7 Biomutant
- Publisher: THQ Nordic
- Developer: Experiment 101
- Platform: PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S
- Released: 2022
Another entry that should have been more warmly received, Biomutant shows that you don’t have to have humans after the end of the world to tell a post-apocalyptic story. As the Tree of Life is dying from a plague, and the various tribes in the open world cannot work together, the fate of this new world is in your hands- or rather paws. Design your own fuzzy little creature, where nearly every party of its build can affect how you play. Heavier creatures can take more damage, while smaller ones can jump higher and move faster. You change its genetic code as you play, to unlock new abilities to beat back mutated foes, or move around. Along with your kung-fu skills and crafting, gear up correctly to handle toxic and red-hot areas, create vehicles, and decide if the tribes must be united, or devastated.
#6 Death Stranding
- Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment
- Developer: Kojima Productions
- Platform: PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5
- Released: 2019
Hideo Kojima came out swinging after he was allegedly driven out of Konami, and while his style of storytelling can be divisive, you’ll certainly find nothing else quite like this on the list. The titular Death Stranding was an event that devastated the US with invisible creatures thought to come from the afterlife. If the “Beached Things” eat a living person, they create nuclear-level explosions, along with Timefall rain that rapidly ages what it touches. Not only is humanity driven into scattered colonies, but all infrastructure is devastated as well, leaving the BRIDGES corporation to deliver goods. “Post-apocalyptic delivery man” sounds like a concept you’d find from an indie game, but Kojima builds upon it with multiple weird and wonderful ideas. Bandits that try to steal your cargo so they can make the delivery, being killed by BTs scarring the landscape permanently, creating temporary structures and supplies for other players online, and the Director’s Cut adding a Racetrack, Firing Range, and more weapons.
#5 Days Gone
- Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment
- Developer: Bend Studio
- Platform: PC, PlayStation 4
- Release Date: 2019
As the game’s director still begs and hopes for a sequel, see what fans loved about the original. After- yet another- viral outbreak devastates the world with zombies, biker Deacon St. John roams Oregon, now looking for his wife. Along with hordes of zombies- which rapidly evolve into different forms that maneuver over the terrain like a flood- Deacon will have to deal with the Ripper cultists. He handles in a way only a biker can, a far departure from some of the mopier post-apocalyptic protagonists. Establish outposts, keep your hog tuned up, upgrade it, and take on the world with pure all-American grit.
#4 Stray
- Publisher: Annapurna Interactive
- Developer: BlueTwelve Studio
- Platform: PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5
- Release Date: 2022
A stray cat tumbles into the depths of a walled city, where its only occupants are robots, and giant mutant bacteria. You start with only your claws, climbing, and aloof cat attitude to get you through the somewhat open world. However, you soon make fast friends with drone B-12 to help protect you, solve puzzles, and translate for the robotic denizens. While trying to scramble back up to find your fellow cats, you may just uncover what happened to the humans who used to live in the city. Right after you’re done getting petted by NPCs, and knocking small objects off ledges.
#3 Metro Exodus
- Publisher: Deep Silver
- Developer: 4A Games
- Platform: PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Mac, Linux, Google Stadia, Amazon Luna
- Release Date: 2019
The other granddaddy in post-apocalyptic video games, the Metro series is set in the tunnels deep beneath the Moscow Metro system. Recurring protagonist Artyom has grown tired of the various factions utter failure to unite and work together, driving him to prove there are survivors, and therefore a way to survive, on the nuclear-blasted surface. To his surprise, he sees a singular train running above ground. Lead the Spartan Rangers across a frozen Russian sandbox, craft gear to take down human and mutated foes, and make careful decisions that could affect the lives of all Russia’s survivors.
#2 Shin Megami Tensei V
- Publisher: Sega
- Developer: Atlus
- Platform: Nintendo Switch
- Release Date: 2021
Another entry you might find surprising to be here, but counts nonetheless. An average Japanese highschool student falls into an alternate version of Tokyo- decimated by a war between angels, demons, and other monsters all vying for power in the absence of God. Shortly after they are fused with some form of deity to become the Nahobino- a mighty abomination. Soon after they are drafted into Bethel- an international group desperate to stop the war between demons and angels spilling out into the human world. This JRPG uses the Press Turn system, which means characters get another go if they hit a foe’s weakness. This can lead you into getting stomped, or you becoming a force of nature, with your own army of demons, angels, myths, monsters, and gods overrunning your foes. Hire more demons by negotiating with them in battle- or extort them for money and rare items. Fuse them together to make new demons, and inherit and gain skills to make them, or you, able to handle any situation.
#1 NieR: Automata
- Publisher: Square Enix
- Developer: PlatinumGames
- Platform: PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
- Release Date: 2017
One of the absolute must-play games of the last decade, the complex narrative weaved across the NieR and Drakengard series come to a thrilling conclusion, though it is by no means a barrier to entry. 11945 sees humanity having been driven to the moon, while their Androids, or YoRHa, fight off invading robot aliens. And that’s about as simple as the story gets. Slice through an epic story with multiple paths from different character’s perspectives, use multiple weapons in fast action combat, and learn so much more than just the fate of the human race. Glory to Mankind!
