Summary
I’ve got a thing for media that focuses on grime and decay, especially video games. From hellish sci-fi dystopias to smog-choked Victorian streets, I’m in my element when the world around me is crumbling.
On reading this, you’re either fully on board and already thinking about your favorite dilapidated cityscapes and filth-lined streets, or you think there’s something wrong with me. It’s possible you’re both right.
Video game grime comes in all kinds of flavors, from wading through trash-strewn backstreets illuminated by burning oil drums to the flooded basement of a family home that’s succumbed to the elements. It offers the contrast between the oppressive cleanliness of an authoritarian city complex and the makeshift shelters and graffiti left by those who dare resist.
These environments can be a lot more interesting and evocative than their pristine counterparts. A metro station that no longer functions, a crumbling stretch of freeway that’s stranded in the middle of nowhere, or a disused shopping center that’s seen its last permanent sales event. All of this sends my imagination into overdrive.
These don’t even really have to be accessible areas. They can be set dressing, visible in the background as a way of coloring the world, a supporting role to the main gameplay and narrative. It’s often best to leave the player wondering, guessing, and wanting more.
Perhaps what I’m really addicted to is good environmental storytelling, which is a hallmark of many critically acclaimed titles. The wreckage you encounter while wandering the aftermath of a post-apocalyptic event presents so many opportunities to reference the world’s great undoing, but alsothe smaller human-scale storiesthat might have unfolded in its wake.
Movies can also foment the same sense of intrigue. Films likeTaxi Driver,The Warriors, andDriller Killeruse the backdrop of a 1970s crime-ridden New York City to similar effect. Sci-fi dystopias likeBlade Runner, its 2017 sequel, andTotal Recallare dripping with “high tech low life” cyberpunk themes.
But, while I’ll watch these films every few years and be in my element for a few hours each time, video games offer endless opportunities to explore and experience the world in a far more interactive way.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge the privilege of my position. Grime tourism is a way of dipping my toes into these hellish environments without having to live in them. At the same time, the hyperbolic nature of many games firmly grounds these experiences in the realm of fantasy (for now, at least).
I’ve held my tongue and not mentioned any game titles thus far, but you probably already have a few examples in mind based on my earlier descriptions.
10RoboCop: Rogue City
Rogue Cityis a game that’s truly worthy of theRoboCoplicense (hey, it only took 36 years). While the game is a bit rough around the edges, its world is a perfect representation of Paul Verhoeven’s 1987 sci-fi satire. Old Detroit has fallen into a state of disrepair; desperate citizens roam the streets, while criminals control illicit industries and enforce their own violent rule.
As RoboCop, you’ll spend your time fighting your way through post-industrial decay, analyzing crime scenes, and dismembering anyone who stands in your way with your trusty Auto-9.
9Manhunt
Rockstar’s 2003 “video game nasty”Manhuntsparked a huge amount of controversy when it was first released, on account of its violent content. But the violence is only one-half of what makes the game feel so unhinged. The other is the fictional setting of Carcer City.
Manhunttakes the concept of a city on its knees and turns it up to 11. The river is poisoned to the point of being flammable, while the city is largely abandoned and a shadow of its former self. As the infrastructure of a once-thriving hub crumbles, violent gangs call the city home (and they’re the ones that you, as a player, have to deal with).
8Deus Ex
Theworld ofDeus Exis vast, having spanned real-world cities like New York City, Paris, Hong Kong, Prague, and Dubai. Personally, I was most gripped by the settings of Detroit (again, sorry Detroit) and Hengsha inHuman Revolution. The former’s areas of Highland Park and Derelict Row deliver textbook urban decay, burning barrels, and gang warfare.
Hengsha exemplifies the cyberpunk themes of two worlds separated by wealth and status, from the poverty-stricken ground-level streets of the Daigong district with its capsule hotel and storm drains to Upper Hengsha, an area that is quite literally suspended in the air by a man-made structure known as the Panggu.
7Dishonored
Dishonoredis an immersive sim set in awhalepunkparody of Victorian cities like London and Edinburgh called Dunwall. The world runs on whale oil, a valuable commodity that is used for everything from keeping the lights on to waging war. Victorian influences range from gothic architecture to squalid living conditions, where disease runs rife.
On top of the open-air sewers and ills of a corrupt society, Dunwall is in the midst of a plague epidemic. You’ll be stepping over piles of bound corpses and avoiding swarms of rats as you put mysterious forces to use in a bid to clear your name of a murder you didn’t commit.
6Max Payne
Max Payneis a film noir detective story about a cop who loses everything. You take on the titular role in a bid to avenge your wife’s murder and clear your own name in a city that’s succumbed to rising gang violence and a “nightmare drug” known as Valkyr.
If I had to pick one word to describeMax Payneit’d begritty, from the brooding music to the overplayed voice acting, to the frozen-solid streets of New York City. Clear out mafia-controlled tenement buildings, closed subway stations, and dingy warehouses; with a few nightmare sequences thrown in for good measure.
5Fallout
No list about video game decay could possibly be complete without a mention ofFallout. Really, you can pick your poison here, all of the games are set in the wake of a nuclear war that damaged society beyond repair. That includes the original isometric role-playing games in addition to the Bethesda 3D remakes.
Fallout 3is particularly harrowing, thanks in part to its gray Capital Wasteland setting, whileFallout 4is arguably the best-looking game in the series on account of being one of the newest. Why notget into the mood by watching theFalloutTV show first?
4Condemned: Criminal Origins
Condemned: Criminal Originsis a first-person survival horror released in 2005, so it’s aged a bit in the last 20 years. The game places a heavy emphasis on melee combat and puts you into the shoes of an FBI agent investigating a serial killer. It’s set in the fictional city of Metro, in which random acts of violence are becoming more common.
The game sees you traversing some of the most dreary locations imaginable, from the closed-down Central Metro Station to an abandoned secondary school, to my personal favorite: a derelict department store full of creepy mannequins.
3Vampyr
Set during the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918,Vampyrsees you take on the role of a vampire and physician who wakes up in a mass grave, desperate for blood. From here, you must feed, survive, and thrive in a broken society that’s been ravaged by sickness and war.
The time period, medical themes, and overall lack of hygiene lend a lot to the atmosphere inVampyr. Though the game received mixed reviews at launch, it was later patched with a story mode that allows you to avoid a lot of the combat so it’s worth revisiting if you’d just like to wallow in the pestilence.
2Kingpin: A Life of Crime
Kingpinis a 1999 first-person shooter that’s as foul-mouthed as it is violent. It was notable for its use of “pain skins” for different body segments (which would react to your incoming bullets) and the soundtrack by Cypress Hill. But what really stood out for me was the setting, a crime-infested warehouse world made up of abandoned train yards, factories, and chemical plants.
Kingpinis a Quake II-powered game, so it’s showing its age now. On the upside, the original is still playable on a lot of modern-day systems. The game is also notable for its command system that lets you recruit and control other gangsters. Just avoid theKingpin: Reloaded2023 re-release, which seems to have been abandoned in an unfinished state.
1Half-Life 2
Not only isHalf-Life 2one of the best video games of all time, but it’s also one of the grimiest. The game starts you off in the center of City 17, the invading Combine forces’ capital city. Make your way through neglected backstreets, flee invading forces in derelict apartment buildings, and play with the game’s revolutionary physics engine in rusty playgrounds.
There’s a lot more to the game than City 17, including polluted sewers and canal systems, a highway that runs along a coastline ravaged by sea level decline, an abandoned zombie-infested mining town, and a dilapidated prison.Half-Life 2holds up wonderfully, and it’s worth experiencing for its world-building alone.
Am I weird? Probably. But I’m not alone. If other people didn’t enjoy these settings so much, why are there so many games that use them as a setting?
If you’d rather relax when you have time to play, check outour favorite games to help you unwind.
