The End is Nigh With These Horror and Apocalypse Games
The Last of Us is back, and if you can’t get enough of that specific variety of stress in your entertainment, these games are for you.
The Last of Us came back just a few days ago, and while I haven’t had a chance to watch yet—I have kids, my TV time is limited—I’m excited to jump back into that world. Mostly. I also have a respectful cautiousness for whatever fresh hell this season has in store for us. And if that exact kind of stress and anxiety is exactly what you want in your fun leisure activities, these games have the apocalypse for you.
Arkham Horror
I know that at least a few people are going to look at this first offering and say, “this has nothing to do with Last of Us!” I’m pretty sure those same people will get a few paragraphs past this point and also say, “It’s not a zombie show!” But I’m not going for perfect one-to-one comparisons, we’re working on vibes.
Something that stuck with me about watching the first season is how ill-prepared I was for that first episode. It took two sittings to get through the whole episode because at some point I had to take a quick day-long panic break. And that exact terror is something that all of the Arkham and Cthulhu games work with so well. Fear and sanity becomes a stat that can be weaponized stats that can be used against players. And that makes a lot of sense, because I have yet to see a single horror movie or show where no character make any bad fear-fueled decisions.
Zombicide
Look, I know it’s not technically a zombie show. But the rules and survival tactics are similar enough. Call the enemies in Zombicide some variety of ‘mushrooms’ and you’re in business. This is a cooperative survival game where players work together to complete missions while avoiding and killing hoards of the undead.
Mutant Year Zero
If you want to play a game with a Last of Us feel, tabletop RPGs may be the way to go. Even if the book isn’t made for your exact world, minor changes, homebrew worldbuilding, and adding your own story is commonplace in TTRPGs. And Mutant Year Zero is a great jumping-off point. The game is set up not just for exploring the mushroomy wasteland, but also for the power struggles and culture of what’s left of civilization.
Other Dust
By the same people who wrote Stars Without Number, Other Dust is another post-apocalyptic game that invites you to explore the world’s remains. Complete with mutants, old war-machines, and struggling human enclaves and tribes, it has everything you’ll need to explore all that’s left. This works as a companion to Stars Without Number, or entirely stand-alone.
Savage Worlds
Savage Worlds is a little more of an open sandbox kind of game where you can play a lot of different games and explore many different worlds. Everything from Lovecraftian horror to classic monsters, to a zombie invasion is included, so you can play whatever high-stakes horror game you’ve dreamt up to punish your players with. But between you and me, somebody is still going to show up with joke characters even if you tell them what the decidedly not jokey game premise is. Ask how I know.
BoLS might make a few bucks on anything you buy from these links. But, be honest, you don’t enjoy randomly browsing online stores. So let us do the annoying part for you. Help us help you.
