History ApocalypticLog / VideoGames

--> "I doubt I will ever be found, yet I leave you this, scrawled in the malodorous half-light, whilst my tormentor shuffles below, my fellow prisoners keen and squeal in the gloam, and where I wait for the knocking upon my cage that signifies it is, finally, my turn to make that dark journey into the interior."

* The ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' series is packed with these:

* The game ''VideoGame/{{Implosion}}'' has you landing on Earth 20 years after an alien invasion has destroyed everything, and your hack drone is gathering more info by tapping into the remnants of local messaging systems. Since the messages are somewhat random, you collect not only the history of the alien invasion, but also engineering status reports, interoffice memos, and the results of a company betting pool. Messages that aren't part of the storyline tend to be {{ShoutOut}}s, written by people like "Stephen Jobbes" (Head of I.T.), "Albert Weinstein" (Head of R&D), and some lowly researcher named "Nikola Telsar".

* ''VideoGame/LisaThePainfulRPG'' has a diary found in the Nice Homes behind a Joy Mutant. There, a scientist rants about a "Doctor Yado" and how he was happy that Yado's project ended in failure, claiming that such experiment had no value to the army. Also, something about polkadots. In the last pages, scientist wishes he could see his wife one last time... to bash her skull in, before trailing into incoherency. No a real guess who was the mutant fought to have access to the diary.

---> ''Cannot be stopped... cannot be stopped...''

--->'''Scientist:''' [[spoiler:But a dead god can still dream!]]

* ''Videogame/{{Observo}}'': There are notes strewn throughout the hotel directed at the employees, as well as little memos.

* ''VideoGame/{{Outlast}}'' and [[VideoGame/OutlastII it's sequel]] go all out with this. Not only do you learn much of the backstory through documents detailing the lead up to the disaster, but your character has a camcorder and journal that you use to make your own Apocalyptic Log as the game unfolds.

** The original ''VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue'' (and their {{Videogame Remake}}s ''[=FireRed=]'' and ''[=LeafGreen=]'') feature logs throughout the abandoned, Pokémon-overrun Cinnabar Mansion detailing the discovery of Mew, and its giving birth to Mewtwo. The last entry obliquely notes Mewtwo's "vicious tendencies".

* ''[VideoGame/SpookysJumpscareMansion Spooky's Jump Scare Mansion]'' has several examples of this, from victims to [=GL=] Lab personnel [[BadBoss Spooky let die]]. However, the most prominent is the "romantic", a poor fellow so desperate to drink he ''drank ink'', only to die anyway.

** ''VideoGame/SystemShock 2'' in particular, contains an audio log which follows this trope word-for-word, where a scientist tries to focus on conveying useful information about [[BigBad The Many]], even as he is being devoured. In ''VideoGame/SystemShock 2'', the logs each come with a little icon of the speaker's head and face, not moving, probably just there to show players what they looked like. One, Anatoli Korenchkin, is infected by the Many early on, as the logs show. At one point he leaves a log full of him speaking in a warped voice about the glory of the Many; the icon, rather than his face, shows a mass of unfacelike tissue, vaguely like a jellyfish. At a later date he sends the player character an e-mail which contains the same icon.

* ''Videogame/{{Transistor}}'' features an ongoing log, with Red being able to read news reports from a reporter covering the slow [[AssimilationPlot processing of Cloudbank]]. [[spoiler: By the end of the game, the reporter is standing with the last surviving citizens of Cloudbank, and Red can read her final news report just before she and the others are processed.]]

* ''{{VideoGame/Outlast}}'' and [[VideoGame/OutlastII it's sequel]] go all out with this. Not only do you learn much of the backstory through documents detailing the lead up to the disaster, but your character has a camcorder and journal that you use to make your own Apocalyptic Log as the game unfolds.

* Parodied in ''Videogame/SouthParkTheStickOfTruth'', where during the spaceship section of the game you can come across audio logs from a hobo who notes that he keeps coming across audio logs from other people, each more "boring and irrelevant" than the last and wonders why everyone (including him) is taking their time to make these rather than focus on escaping. Predictably, the final log ends abruptly after [[spoiler:the hobo finds some green goo, turning him into a {{Nazi Zombie|s}}. The last we hear is him spouting Nazi propaganda in German]].

* In ''Videogame/AlienLegacy'', you are the captain of a colony ship sent from Earth (which, by that point, has likely been destroyed by a vicious alien race), arriving at its intended system only to find out that another colony ship got there first (it was sent later but had a faster engine). However, instead of thriving colonies, you find nothing but ruins and messages. Besides surviving and establishing colonies of your own, the main task of the game is to discover the fate of the original colonists. And yes, by the end, the messages get more ominous and vague, even suggesting that those same vicious aliens have found you.
* Used for a BaitAndSwitch in the ''Franchise/{{Alien}}'' game trailer for ''Videogame/AliensDarkDescent'' which has a Colonial Marine apparently doing a [[InterrogationFlashback post-mission debriefing]]. The end of the trailer reveals the two figures seated across the table from him are corpses, he's dictating into a tape recorder [[ThatWasTheLastEntry and he's about to be killed by the xenomorphs]].

* In the original ''Videogame/{{Alone in the Dark|1992}}'', Jeremy Hartwood's diary is a chronicle of [[HauntedHouse Derceto's]] increasing doom. One of the first things you find is the suicide letter of Jeremy Hartwood. It is literally written just after he has unwittingly released [[SealedEvilInACan the evil of the mansion]] and hears the footsteps of the newly awakened [[EldritchAbomination abominations]] closing in.

** ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands 2}}'' has a number of these. In particular, one mission involves collecting the notes of an adventurer named Taggart, an old pal of Sir Hammerlock's. It appears Taggart went missing after he set off to study Stalkers. As you collect his notes, you discover that for a while, Taggart had fun punching Stalkers and learned quite a bit about their behavior, until a big one he calls "Henry" (after his mother) stole a special mother's day present. An incensed Taggart vows revenge, and in his next log [[spoiler:he is dying, having had his hands eaten by Henry. Henry comes back to finish the job as Taggart screams for his beloved mother.]] The game also establishes that Tannis makes a hobby of recording her insane ravings, scattering them across the lands and hiring people to get them back for her.

* ''VideoGame/DeusEx''

** In the original ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 1}}'' the most notable is [[EvilutionaryBiologist The Master's]].
** ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'':

** ''VideoGame/{{Halo 3}}'' includes a series of hidden Terminals which contain reports, memos, and recordings made by the Forerunners chronicling their war with the Flood.

** ''Halo CE Anniversary'' also had terminals added, telling the backstory of Alpha Halo's Monitor 343 Guilty Spark through his own words and detailing how he gradually [[GoneMadFromTheIsolation went mad during his 100,000 years of isolation]] (and giving a little preview for ''VideoGame/{{Halo 4}}'').
** ''VideoGame/{{Halo 4}}''[='s=] terminals primarily tell the story of [[spoiler:the Didact]]'s fall into madness from the perspective of the Domain, an ancient information repository [[spoiler:which, according to the expanded universe, happens to be a sapient UnreliableNarrator]].

* ''VideoGame/{{Killer7}}'' has as its second-to-last level a high school in Seattle dotted with old style tape-recordings containing the details of a detective's investigation of the murderer and assassin Emir Parkreiner. The tapes become increasingly disturbing, as the facts presented seem bizarre and contradictory (much to the exasperation of the detective). The final tape ends with him mentioning in shock that Emir is standing ''right in front of him'', with his final words cut off by a gunshot.

* ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic''

* ''Videogame/{{Minecraft}}'' has music disks, which can be played by crafting a Jukebox and putting them in. Most of them are just fun little tunes, ranging from silly (C418-Chirp) to creepy (C418-13). However, a damaged, black disk labeled "C418-11" plays the sound of footsteps and heavy breathing, accompanied by creepy ambience. While the person recording it never talks, it's easy to hear what happened to them. They stop running as the ambience dies, panting and coughing as they catch their breath. Paper can be heard rustling before the ambience kicks back in. The person starts and breaks into a sprint before an animalistic howl sounds and the recording cuts out.

* ''VideoGame/SecondSight''

* Parodied in ''Videogame/SouthParkTheStickOfTruth'', where during the spaceship section of the game you can come across audio logs from a hobo who notes that he keeps coming across audio logs from other people, each more "boring and irrelevant" than the last and wonders why everyone (including him) is taking their time to make these rather than focus on escaping. Predictably, the final log ends abruptly after [[spoiler:the hobo finds some green goo, turning him into a [[NaziZombies Nazi Zombie]]. The last we hear is him spouting Nazi propaganda in German]].

* ''[[VideoGame/SpookysJumpscareMansion Spooky's Jump Scare Mansion]]'' has several examples of this, from victims to [=GL=] Lab personnel [[BadBoss Spooky let die]]. However, the most prominent is the "romantic", a poor fellow so desperate to drink he ''drank ink'', only to die anyway.

* ''VideoGame/StarcraftII''

** You find quite a few of these through the course of ''VideoGame/SystemShock'''s SpiritualSuccessor ''VideoGame/{{BioShock|1}}'', regarding both the destruction of the UnderwaterCity in a civil war and personal tragedies. For example, Dr. Steinman's logs detail how, thanks to [[PsychoSerum ADAM]] abuse, he went from an ambitious plastic surgeon to a deranged, self-proclaimed "[[MadArtist Surgery's Picasso]]" whose motto was "Aesthetics are a moral imperative." And it gets the bonus points too. In one log, Dr. Suchong, a man the player has been given some ''very'' good reasons to hate, is reporting that the plasmid he designed intended to force the Big Daddies to bond with Little Sisters and protect them, violently for preference, is more or less a failure. At the same time, a Little Sister can be heard in the background, trying to get his attention. Fed up with her bugging him, Suchong slaps her, and then a Big Daddy's whalecry can be heard. Guess what happens next. [[spoiler:You find it on a body stuck to a desk by a [[LightningBruiser Bouncer]]'s [[ThisIsADrill drill]]. [[NiceJobFixingItVillain Gee, how could that have happened?]]]] ''VideoGame/{{BioShock|1}}'' maintained this trend for the most part; the few people the player makes direct face-to-face contact with don't live long after the meeting, with the exception of the eerie Little Sisters and Dr. Tenenbaum. (''Videogame/BioShock2'' also shows those tape recorders are very resistant, given they are even found in an area that was flooded prior to the player's actions)

* In the 2013 reboot of ''[[VideoGame/TombRaider2013 Tomb Raider]]'', the history of the island Yamatai, on which Lara is stranded, is mostly told through a whole collection of documents, which range from the personal diaries of a court priestess two thousand years ago to the last words of an unfortunate WWII-soldier.

* In the remake of ''VideoGame/FireEmblemGaiden'', the post game allows you to explore the ruins of Thabes that were first see in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemShadowDragonAndTheBladeOfLight''. While the destruction of the civilisation isn't recorded (and was actually the reason why the games final boss was banished to Valentia in the first place), the ruins record the actions of an alchemist named Forneus from both his own perspective and that of the Thabean senate. The senate record how he was obsessed with resurrecting the dead and the creation of... [[NothingIsScarier something]]. When they sent messengers and later soldiers to stop him none returned, so they sealed both him and his experiments in the ruins your now exploring. Go deeper and you find Forneus' research notes, first on how he was able to raise the dead and later create life. He feeds the creature his blood, and his final note is mad rambling as the creature invades his mind. The Creation is the games superboss... [[spoiler: [[OhCrap and it's a six winged, six eyed Fell Dragon]]. This isn't just a ruin, it's the birthplace of [[VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening Grima]]!]]

* In ''VideoGame/PotionPermit'', you can find research logs scattered in the overworld detailing the accident that destroyed Moonbury's environment, causing the residents to be distrustful of modern medicine.

* ''{{VideoGame/Paranormal}}'' has you making a video diary of the bizarre haunting your character is experiencing. [[spoiler:There are multiple ways for the log to end, all of which involve you dying; the GoldenEnding, however, has [[TakingYouWithMe you take the ghost down with you]].]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Persona 3}}'': The tape left by Yukari's father, and the Old Documents found in Tartarus. Interestingly, the writer of the Old Documents ''survived'' -- according to the last one, [[spoiler:she now runs the Antique Store in Paulownia Mall]].

* Some of the Blackboxes in ''VideoGame/{{Prototype 2}}'' are records of KickTheDog moments. The others are these.

-->"[[{{LetsPlay/Boatmurdered}} Engraved on the wall is an exceptionally designed image by a dwarf and a frog demon by 'Emperor Sankis' Gatinbomrek. The frog demon is striking down the dwarf]]."