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Last night, The Game Awards 2021 showcased the best of the best from this year’s video game industry, as well as fresh announcements for upcoming games we can expect in 2022. But what interested us the most is just how many of these current winners and upcoming favorites are apocalyptic sci-fi.

Created and presented by long-time host Geoff Keighley, The Game Awards 2021 returned to an in-person ceremony after it was forced to be broadcast virtually for last year during the pandemic. Although the spread of COVID is back on an upswing, Keighley decided to go ahead with the traditional format at Los Angeles’ Microsoft Theater because he “really missed the energy of people accepting their awards live and the reactions”.

Of the 26 main award categories, we saw apocalyptic sci-fi in just about every one of them. There was certainly a strong domination by the sci-fi genre in general, but it was refreshing to see so many extending out to apocalyptic as well.

Here are a list of the ones that stood out to us the most:

Game of the Year Nominee: Resident Evil Village
Best Score and Music Nominee: Cyberpunk 2077
Best Audio Design Nominee: Resident Evil Village
Best Performance WINNER: Maggie Robertson as Lady Dimitrescu – Resident Evil Village
Best VR/AR Game WINNER: Resident Evil 4
Best Action Game Nominee: Back 4 Blood
Best Action/Adventure Game Nominee: Resident Evil Village
Best Role Playing Game Nominee: Cyberpunk 2077 and Scarlett Nexus
Best Multiplayer Game Nominee: Back 4 Blood
Best Debut Indie Game Nominee: Sable
Most Anticipated Game Nominee: Horizon Forbidden West
Best Players’ Voice WINNER: Halo Infinite
Best Players’ Voice Nominee: Resident Evil Village

In addition to these winners and nominees, there were also a number of apocalyptic sci-fi games announced at the show. These include: ARC Raiders, Dune: Spice Wars, The Expanse: A Telltale Series, Planet of Lana, and the trailer for Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands (previously announced spin-off of Borderlands).

Another take-away from this year’s awards is the fact that there are a lot of games on this list about looping back through time. Deathloop, Loop Hero, 12 Minutes, and Returnal are all heavily focused on gameplay that allows you to rewind time a bit when you want to try a part of the game again. Sure, that’s not a new concept, but it’s interesting to see so many games in these awards with that mechanic.

And, of course, there was the presentation of the Matrix Awakens trailer from none other than Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss. The upcoming Unreal 5 “tech demo” can be pre-loaded now for the Xbox Series X/S and the PS5 to tie in with the upcoming movie, The Matrix Resurrections.

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Shawn

Shawn has been infatuated with the post-apocalyptic genre since he wore out his horribly American-dubbed VHS of the original Mad Max as a child. Shawn is the former Editor-in-Chief at Massively.com, creator of the Aftermath post-apocalyptic immersion event, and author of "AI For All," a guide to navigating this strange new world of artificial intelligence.
He currently resides on top of a mountain in the middle of nowhere with his wife and four children.

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