The post-apocalypse is a frequent setting in video games, but few examples are as beloved as The Last of Us. A dark but bleakly heartwarming story, The Last of Us is remembered not just for its gameplay, story, and iconic cast of characters, but also for its distinct setting - an abandoned and overrun United States twenty years after a zombie outbreak.

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With its combination of natural landmarks and nature, turning familiar sights into dangerous unknowns, The Last of Us' post-apocalypse stands out. In the vast depths of post-apocalyptic video games, there are few that have as distinctive settings, but some video game apocalypses are as unique as the one seen in The Last of Us.

10 Far Cry: New Dawn Is A Colorful Nuclear Wasteland

The player overlooking Hope County in Far Cry: New Dawn game

The ending to Far Cry 5 sees Joseph Seed's promise of nuclear annihilation come true, as Hope County and the rest of the world are bathed in atomic fire. Far Cry: New Dawn is set just seventeen years after the apocalypse, but avoids the genre cliché of a washed-out, brown, desolate environment.

Instead, the end of the world has seen Hope County become beautiful and vibrant, overrun with colorful plant life. The beautiful scenery creates an odd dissonance with the devastation that led up to it and the horrific violence that makes up most of the game, creating a widely-praised world that stands out from drearier apocalypses.

9 NieR: Automata Is A Futile Reminder Of The World That Was

2B interacting with a machine in the Forest Kingdom in Nier: Automata

The very distant sequel to NieR, NieR: Automata takes place in a world that has undergone several apocalypses, becoming slowly more and more devoid of life. After the devastating events of NieR, the world was subsequently overtaken by aliens, who were in turn wiped out by their own machine servants.

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The result is a world where machines and androids fight over what wreckage remains in the name of the aliens and humanity, both of whom are long-extinct. With distinctive locations like a destroyed city block, a ruined amusement park, and an underground city made of crystals, the game's apocalypse is both familiar and alien.

8 Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII Is A Post-Time Apocalypse

The world of Nova Chrysalia from Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII

Most video game apocalypses simply have the world, or even just a part of it, end. In contrast, the ending to Final Fantasy XIII-2 sees not just the world, not just the universe, but time itself coming to an end, leaving all of reality utterly distorted and without the slightest hope of repair.

Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII is the third game in the sub-series, taking place in the universe after the end of time. With much of the world consumed, the game takes place on a series of islands left floating in chaos, where people never age and no new people are born. Exploring the consequences of time itself vanishing, the apocalypse is unique in its concepts and scale.

7 Fallout Takes A Uniquely-Satirical Stance On The World's Ending

A discarded power armour helmet in the Fallout series

On an aesthetic level, the post-apocalypse of the Fallout series is nothing new, being heavily indebted to the Mad Max films and the Wasteland video games. However, it carves out its own niche with what it uses its setting to do: satirize and affectionately mock American culture.

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Making an obvious anti-nuclear stand in the light of the world's devastation, the series also explores patriotism, the use of symbols, democracy, anti-intellectualism, and more across its disparate post-apocalyptic settings. Taking the time to poke fun at jingoism and other unsavory aspects of American society, the series does something few others manage.

6 Half-Life 2 Is A Dystopian, Alien-Led Post-Apocalypse

Parts of the ruined earth in Half-Life 2 game

After a world-ending threat is narrowly averted in the first Half-Life, its sequel begins with Gordon Freeman taken out of stasis in a very different world. Although the Xen were stopped, in their place the empire known as the Combine overran the Earth, devastating its militaries in just seven hours.

The world of Half-Life 2 is more inhabited and orderly than many post-apocalypses in video games but is no less grim or hellish. With Earth being held in a dystopian death grip by the Combine, who are planning to strip it of any and all-natural resources at the expense of humanity, who are even forbidden from reproducing.

5 The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild Is An Ended Fantasy World

Link overlooking the ruined Hyrule in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Although it is by no means universal, a great many post-apocalyptic video games, including The Last of Us, take place in the ruins of the present-day world. In contrast, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, takes place in the shattered remains of the land of Hyrule, a century after Ganon devastated the world, only held back by Princess Zelda.

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Taking place in a world that was once highly advanced before regressing to a medieval state and ending in terror and destruction, the world of Breath of the Wild mixes magic and machinery. With futuristic technology in a post-apocalypse with all the trappings of a medieval fantasy, the game has a unique and beloved aesthetic.

4 Darksiders Has Religious Concepts And Themes

A fight in a subway station in Darksiders III game

Some of the earliest apocalyptic tales in human history come from religious texts discussing the inevitable end of the world and the wars fought over it in its last days. Many video games have stayed away from this area, but the Darksiders series embraces the religious themes of many apocalyptic stories.

Far from an accurate retelling of any religious prophecies regarding the world's end, the series nonetheless has humanity on the verge of extinction as angels and demons battle for control of the Earth. With the player controlling the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse as they attempt to find a solution, the series stands out for just how religious its stories are.

3 Everybody's Gone To The Rapture Is Haunting In Its Mundanity

The sign for Yaughton in Everybody's Gone to the Rapture.

Even in video game apocalypses set in the real world, there are usually dramatic visual changes to indicate what has happened. Even if the landscape isn't a blasted wreck and the buildings of civilization haven't crumbled to ruin, typically what remains is dark, dank, and often overrun by nature.

However, Everybody's Gone to the Rapture takes place within hours of the apocalyptic event. The town of Yaughton, the ground zero for the mysterious alien pattern that has caused humanity to disappear, looks like a mundane, everyday English village. The only sign that anything is wrong is the complete lack of people, creating an intensely eerie atmosphere.

2 Horizon Zero Dawn Has Beautiful Nature And Robot Dinosaurs

Aloy stalking a Tallneck in Horizon Zero Dawn

Typically, a post-apocalypse is heavily beholden to the world that came before, both visually and culturally. This is less true in Horizon Zero Dawn, a game that takes place thousands of years after replicating machines wiped out humanity. Instead, the previous world is all but forgotten, with new cultures taking its place.

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What causes Horizon Zero Dawn to stand out in particular, however, is its unique aesthetic. Primal, primitive nature stands in sharp contrast to the primary threat in the games: robotic, dinosaur-esque machines that are the descendants of those who wiped out humanity before. The machines are one of the game's selling points and one of its most distinctive parts.

1 Death Stranding Brings Sheer Weirdness To The World's End

Sam walking towards mountains in Death Stranding game

Game director Hideo Kojima is known for his unusual plots and settings, coming up with strange and far-fetched concepts to explore. These are the best on-show in Death Stranding, a game that takes place in a ruined and disconnected United States, where much of the infrastructure has been destroyed and the world outside the cities is unsafe.

Rather than zombies, nukes, or plagues, all common genre tropes, this apocalypse is caused by other things entirely. The emergence of invisible creatures from a parallel world known as "The Beach" caused violent explosions across the world, which in turn caused "timefall," a type of rain that ages and decays whatever it touches. The result is an entirely unlikely and unique backstory for the post-apocalyptic world.

NEXT: The Last Of Us: 10 Most Beloved Characters, Ranked