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The Same Old Genres 2: Apocalypse When?

This is the second in a series of weekly articles in which I attempt to give a short history of the various genres which computer gamers, and publishers, are most fond of, and why we seem to see these genres more than anything new and innovative. To read the first in this series, The Realms Of Fantasy, click the link. This week: The Post-Apocalyptic.

As with fantasy, post-apocalyptica has its literary precursors. H.G. Wells touched on the subject in his Things to Come and The Time Machine, and the idea of an apocalypse in which humanity is judged and the final battle between good and evil takes place has been a theme in religious literature for millenia. Only recently has an idea of a self-inflicted apocalypse come to the fore. The idea of humanity destroying itself has been around ever since nuclear weapons were unleashed upon the world at the end of WWII and recently other forms of apocalypse ranging from plague to vengeful AI have developed to reflect the concerns of more modern times. Movies as well have fed our love of apocalyptic catastrophe from 50′s b-movies right up to today, even the 70′s when film tended to drift towards gritty real-life drama we had Logans Run. In the 80s we got Mad Max (nuclear) and The Terminator (nuclear/AI) to fuel our apocalyptic imaginations, while the 90′s gave us Independence Day (Alien Invasion) and The Matrix (AI). More recently we have seen environmental catastrophe (The Day After Tomorrow) and comet/asteroid strikes (Deep Impact, Armageddon). The worry that our position on this planet is a tenuous one is a fear which influences a lot of our culture and has done for centuries. That games should reflect this fear should come as no surprise.

There are theme’s which are more prevalent in post-apocalyptic games than in other genres, where fantasy has its virtuous heroes and space opera (see next week), its struggle against controlling evil empires, post-apocalyptic games deal with humanity’s pride, greed and the brevity of life. In the majority of cases the apocalypse is brought about by one of the former, pride in humanity’s power over nature or greed for natural resources. Another theme common in the genre is the regression of civilization to a more primitive state, the technology available before the downfall ceasing to work due to either lack of infrastructure or expertise. Usually in these cases technology becomes like the magic of the fantasy genre, the reserve of experts whose knowledge may indeed be greater than those around them but which is still incomplete.

Post-apocalyptic games are different from fantasy and more traditional science fiction titles in that the enemy is not as clearly defined. If there is a race which can be clearly identified as being the bad guys they are different in that they may have once been human and the environment or consequences of the apocalypse have turned them into something else. It may even be that they are still human and are fighting for survival just as you are. Another aspect of the genre is that the environment is often portrayed as another enemy. In the nuclear apocalypse scenario particularly, radioactive areas will require you to use special equipment in order for you to enter them. The overarching theme in post apocalytic games is generally a battle for survival, against the environment, against former humans, and in some cases against the remaining humans.

I talked in the previous article about the neverending struggle between good and evil, in the post apocalyptic genre it seems that most of the time evil has already won. This gives many games a fairly bleak outlook which the player has to rail against to redeem humanity after the folly which resulted in the catastrophe. Unlike fantasy and space opera, in post-apocalyptic games there tend to be no outside forces against which the player has to fight, the enemies are embodiments of the darker aspects of human nature, made obviously so by the fact that it is humanities fault that the apocalypse happened in the first place. This makes post-apocalyptic game, especially the RPG’s, a more introspective and reflective genre, forcing us to face what is worst about ourselves. They are an attempt to make humanity better by showing us what could happen if we give in to our greed, pride, and fear, more often than not with mutants.

Next Week: The Show Ain’t Over Till The Alien Sings