Dystopias are basically societies that go through a lot of suffering, injustice, and corruption. They are the opposite of utopias and have been central in many stories from movies like The Lobster to famous books like 1984 and shows like Black Mirror. They are also central to the story of many video games.

A lot of the most famous video games out there explore fictional dystopias. A few big examples are Bioshock, Alternate Earth in Wolfenstein, and Artotska in Papers, Please. Bioshock takes place in the past of alternate history — a narrative mechanic that many dystopian future stories employ. There are a lot of games that look into the future and show us what kinds of horrors could be in store for our society.

Updated January 20, 2024 by Zackary Wiggs: As the years go by, more and more dystopian settings appear in games. It makes sense; dystopian futures bring forth worries about where our own world may end up if the morals and parables of the games are ignored. Whether it's the incredibly deadly and fascist future of Warhammer 40k, or the technologically advanced surveillance state of Detroit: Become Human, dystopian futures are worlds that are scary but interesting to explore.

17 Detroit: Become Human

You'd Think Androids Would Make Life Easier

This narrative adventure game is set in 2036, which is a time when robotic technology has come a long way. Highly advanced androids are available for purchase to be used as servants or to do various types of manual labor.

As a result, many people have lost their jobs to these mechanical beings. But the game isn't really about their strife — it's about the difficult lives of the robots. A growing number of them have started to become more self-aware and have grown tired of the constant abuse they receive. So, whether you're human or android, you don't want to live in this future.

16 Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns Of The Patriots

Dystopia Meets Patriotism

Technically, this game isn't set in the future anymore, as the events take place in 2014. Yet, the title came out in 2008, so it was trying to portray a dystopian future. Thankfully, their vision of the future hasn't exactly come to pass, as the world of Metal Gear Solid 4 is about war. Most battles aren't about moral disagreements or differing ideologies. People fight because warfare is extremely profitable in MGS4.

To make matters worse, the soldiers are barely human anymore. The nanomachines inside their bodies not only make them stronger but also keeps their emotions in check. Therefore, they're almost heartless killing machines. And the entire system is controlled by a series of AIs. The protagonist Old Snake has to deal with all of this as he finds himself sneaking around several battlefields.

15 SOMA

Biological Experimentation Under The Sea

Living in the year 2104 means there's been a lot of technological advances, but at what cost? Well, on the underwater research station PATHOS-II, you get to find that out first hand. SOMA is a horror game that feels unlike any other.

Much of that comes from the setting itself: it's dark, cramped, and full of biological experimentation that you can only find when the limits of science are pushed by dystopian society. It's not for the faint of heart, but it is well worth your time.

14 Final Fantasy 7

Financial Disparity Of The Future

Much of Final Fantasy 7 takes place in a city called Midgar. It's a place with significant wealth distribution problems as the people in the slums are struggling, while those who work for the Shinra Electric Company are incredibly rich.

The reason for this is that Shinra has control over the city. And not only do they hoard the wealth, but they suck the life out of Midgar to feed their multiple power reactors. As a result, the once beautiful countryside has been turned into a dingy wasteland. Thankfully, one of your main goals in the game is to make these villains pay.

13 The Shadowrun Series

Fantasy, Meets Scifi, Meets Unstable Societies

Most dystopian stories are grounded in the science fiction genre. What makes Shadowrun special is that it intermixes sci-fi and fantasy. There are cybernetics, but there is also magic.

While those elements may sound like a dream come true though, Shadowrun is known for its undoubtedly dystopian setting. People's lives are ruled by mega-corporations, crime syndicates, and individuals who are just plain wealthy.

12 The Deus Ex Series

A World On The Brink

Set in the year 2052, Deus Ex is a classic example of a dystopia. Nearly every dystopian trope exists. There is a critical division between the rich and poor, a dangerous pandemic whittling the population while there is a vaccine shortage, worldwide riots, and terrorist organizations that see opportunity in the chaos.

On top of all this, many real-world conspiracy theories turn out to be true in the world of Deus Ex. The Illuminati, Men in Black, aliens, and black helicopters are all touched on.

11 The Killzone Series

Attrition In Space

2357 may seem like a year that's pretty far off, but if the story of the Killzone series is to be believed, it isn't one that you should feel bad about missing out on. Sure there's interplanetary travel, but there sure is a lot of war on the newly settled planets too.

Highly xenophobic, the Helghast have moved from their own planet and sought to rule the galaxy with their own ideals, and that doesn't leave much room for people who aren't like them. It's a dystopian future where war means survival for your own way of life.

10 The Fallout Series

An Apocalyptic Future

A common trend in dystopian fiction is that the dystopia rose out of a semi-apocalypse. That is the case for the Fallout series. There are settlements struggling to survive each day, but there are also organizations, individuals, and factions with a ton of power.

This includes the Institute, the Enclave, the Brotherhood of Steel, Ceasar's Legion, Mr. House, and plenty of raiders and gangs. They will kill anyone in the way of their agenda for more power.

9 Freedom Wars

Freedom In A Sense

This JRPG is set in the year 102014. The majority of mankind is imprisoned in underground city-states called Panopticons. The Panopticons are constantly fighting one another due to a lack of resources and the surface world is in ruins. Along with all that, the laws within the Panopticons are pretty severe.

The people are always under surveillance. Those that do wrong have their basic rights taken away and can only gain them back through labor.

8 The Red Faction Series

Not Even Mars Is Safe

The first game of this series takes place on Mars in the year 2075. In the first game, the protagonist comes to Mars to seek a better life than on Earth only to find out that corporations are abusing the workers. On top of that, there is a plague.

The second and third game shows that Earth is no better with nanotechnology falling into the wrong hands. The planet's natural resources are dwindling and the global economy is collapsing.

7 The Metro Series

Politics After The Apocalypse

The first game of this series was based on the novel of the same name, Metro 2033. Nuclear war in Moscow has made many live in the metro tunnels. There are radical ideologies at war, constant threats from bandits, and tons of mutated creatures running amok.

Much else that is dystopian about the series is in spoiler territory. Players see many communities that are suffering or on the brink of destruction just because their leaders prioritized military strength over survival.

6 Cyberpunk 2077

Body Mods And Constant Danger

Cyberpunk stories and dystopian elements go together like macaroni and cheese. Cyberpunk 2077 is no exception. In fact, it may show the mix better than any other game in the genre. All is controlled by corporations with no laws in place or effective enough to stop them.

Many people are homeless and addicted to cosmetics. There is constant danger, so everyone open carries their firearms, but that only makes sense with the constant threat of corpos and cyberpsychos that could be around any corner.

5 Enslaved: Odyssey to the West

Dystopic Robots Everywhere

As some may already discover from the title, this game is a very loose adaptation of the Chinese novel Journey to the West. The setting is 150 years into the future after a global war wiped most of humanity off the map.

Only some humans remain and the robots built for the global war continue to kill everything they deem hostile. Like the Metro series, the rest of what makes this game dystopian is in the spoiler realm.

4 The Crackdown Series

A Police State Of The Future

It may not be what you think about when you first load into the Crackdown games, you'll probably too focused on the various gangs and the cool new superpowers your character has, but the futuristic Pacific City is definitely dystopian.

The gangs are definitely part of the problem there, that much organized crime makes the city quite unstable and dangerous. The other half of the dystopian setting is the Agency itself. They seem far too keen on biological manipulation to make super soldiers (who, by the way, are practically above the law themselves) to stop the gang problem. It's not a city you'd want to live in, for sure.

3 Homefront

A Revolution In The Making

Set in the year 2027, Homefront has a pretty rich alternate history to make the world a dystopian nightmare. Basically, the United States' financial system collapsed and it is at war with Korea, an epidemic kills millions of people, and the USA's electrical infrastructure has been shut down by Korea with an EMP.

That is just a small taste of the state of the world in Homefront. It actually got some controversy due to its depiction of Korean global relations. The game has been heavily censored in some countries.

2 Remember Me

Paris Has Never Been So Grim

Taking place in the year 2084, this game is set in a futuristic Paris. As for what makes it dystopian, brain implants are sold by a corporation that allows people to basically upload their memories to a network or delete them as they see fit. What could go wrong, right?

Of course, this resulted in mass surveillance by the corporation as well as humans getting addicted to the implant.

1 The Warhammer 40,000 Series

There Is Only War

There are plenty of games showing off the universe of Warhammer 40,000, but they all have a heavy focus on the dystopian lives of those in the Imperium of Man in common. It truly is a universe filled only with war.

There are no good guys in this universe, even the Imperium has been morphed into a pseudo-religious fascist empire that runs on death and xenophobia. It's far from the ideal future to find yourself living in.