The 15 Greatest Dystopian Video Game Narratives

Crumbling utopias, corporate-ruled megacities and frozen wastelands where every choice cuts deep, bleak worlds built around stories you can't shake. Cast your vote!

1

Detroit: Become Human

Quantic Dream's branching narrative about androids seeking freedom in near-future Detroit.

1000pts

2

Metro Exodus

A 2019 survival shooter across a nuclear-ravaged post-apocalyptic Russia.

957pts

3

BioShock

A 2007 shooter set in the collapsed underwater objectivist utopia of Rapture.

933pts

4

Fallout: New Vegas

Obsidian's 2010 RPG of faction warfare in the post-nuclear Mojave Wasteland.

907pts

5

NieR: Automata

PlatinumGames's philosophical tale of androids in a machine-overrun future Earth.

837pts

6

Cyberpunk 2077

CD Projekt Red's open-world dive into corporate-ruled Night City.

837pts

7

Spec Ops: The Line

A 2012 shooter whose dark narrative deconstructs war in a ruined Dubai.

837pts

8

Half-Life 2

Valve's 2004 classic set in City 17 under the oppressive alien Combine regime.

706pts

9

Horizon Zero Dawn

Guerrilla's open-world story of tribal humanity in a post-collapse machine world.

706pts

10

Frostpunk

11 bit studios's survival city-builder in a frozen, authoritarian apocalypse.

706pts

11

Disco Elysium

ZA/UM's narrative RPG set in the decaying, politically fractured city of Revachol.

621pts

12

We Happy Few

A narrative game set in a drug-fueled, forcibly cheerful retro-dystopian England.

621pts

13

Deus Ex: Human Revolution

A 2011 cyberpunk RPG of corporate control and human augmentation in 2027.

621pts

14

The Last of Us

Naughty Dog's bleak post-pandemic survival story of Joel and Ellie.

518pts

15

Papers, Please

Lucas Pope's acclaimed indie about a border officer in the dystopian state of Arstotzka.

518pts