As I watched the press conferences at E3, I noticed something that set two of the games apart from the rest. As they were easily two of the most anticipated games, I began to wonder if they may become trendsetters. I'm talking about The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Horizon: Zero Dawn. Another possible example is ReCore, but I'll get to that in a minute.
Both games represent a shift in what types of games are the most anticipated. For years, first person shooters have been the games garnering all the attention at press conferences, and rightly so. With soaring budgets poured into the latest graphics technology, shooters have been quite impressive with each iteration. I seem to remember a time when the most anticipated games were third person action/adventures (I'm being generous and adding stealth and shooters to this genre), such as Tomb Raider, Metal Gear Solid, Grand Theft Auto 3, Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. I was curious if we are beginning to see the pendulum swing back in the direction of action/adventure from traditional shooters? Perhaps, and I may be completely wrong on that. But there was something else I noticed which I was hoping the community at Giant Bomb could help me with.
At last year's E3 (2015), many of the game critics related how they were at a private demonstration for Horizon: Zero Dawn in which the development team described the setting as the post-post-apocalypse. The game takes place in a time far removed from the technological crescendo and subsequent collapse of a society in our future. The inhabitants of the world lead what appear to be relatively primitive lifestyles, compared to our current standards, and yet they have pieces of technology that are beyond our current abilities. The setting melds sword and sorcery with sci-fi, possibly without the sorcery aspect. The main character, and presumably others, struggle to survive in a world in which they are competing against animalistic robots far in advance of our current technology, while simultaneously using weapons and tools that, like the animal robots, are the last remnants of a long dead world, a cresting wave that left a high water mark for society for barely anyone to see or understand centuries or perhaps millennia later.
The overwhelming consensus after E3 was that Nintendo blew everyone away with their upcoming game The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. This game also shows elements of this post-post-apocalyptic vision for its setting. In the opening sequence, Link awakens in what appears to be some sort of chamber designed to keep him in stasis or suspended animation for untold amounts of time. As he emerges, he finds himself leaving a cave that had glowing glyphs and angular architecture, implying design from an advanced intelligence, human, elf, or otherwise. As he traverses the great plateau, he passes by hulking octopus-like robots, but they have lost the battle against time, they are now rusted, inanimate, and have moss and vines growing over them. We see later in the demo as well as in a previous E3 trailer that link will have to face these robotic enemies at some point. These robots are replete with similar glowing glyphs as to the ones seen in the cave in the beginning. I like the idea of seeing a world that is low fantasy in nature but is in fact taking place in an arguably science fiction setting, the idea that the world will inevitably revert back to a medieval state after the great collapse.
While both games settings intrigued me, I began to wonder: Are there other games that take place in the post-post-apocalypse?
Sure, we have seen games like Fallout, Metro, Wasteland and Mad Max, but these games seem to take place in a time that is still close enough to the event so that characters still generally use the technology of the previous era such as guns, cars, etc.
In Horizon and Zelda, it seems like the advanced technology that remains from the lost age are not only rare but almost magical in their abilities, reminiscent of magical items in traditional role playing games.
So will we see other publishers start to develop more games in the nascent post-post-apocalypse genre? And are there other games that already exist in similar settings?
JRPGs have done every setting imaginable, so I would not be surprised if they have already done it a hundred times, but are there other genres that have? Action/Adventure games perhaps?
ReCore could fall into the PPA (post-post-apocalypse) genre, but I feel like the main character uses items almost exclusively from the current or prior period. It seems less Horizon and more Mad Max if you know what I mean.
I can't think of other games in this (new?) genre, can anyone else?
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