History SceneryGorn / VideoGames

* In ''WorldInConflict'', most of the campaign and multiplayer battles tend to end with the map you've been fighting over reduced to nothing more than blackened ground, craters, and ruins - artillery is cheap, napalm is fair game, and more than one tactical nuke can be dropped per game. The sky even darkens a little from all the smoke if a battle drags out.

* ''VideoGame/Halo3ODST'' plays this especially strongly during the nighttime segments of prowling the Covenant-occupied New Mombasa. Abandoned cars, destroyed vehicles, and burning buildings are common.

* ''[[SegaSuperstars Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformed]]'': In a span of a three-lap race, the game loves to invoke literal destruction of a stage's landmarks in order to change the track's layout and force racers into different vehicle modes. For example, [[SkiesOfArcadia Rogues Landing]] and [[VideoGame/Sonic3AndKnuckles Sanctuary Falls]] start off rather peaceful, but by the third lap, the respective series' [[BigBad Big Bads]] blow half of the areas off.

* The ruined areas of Haven City in ''Jak3Wastelander''. It's unnerving when you can make out areas you've visited in the previous game now in a state of severe ruin.

* In ''LegendOfLegaia'', this is [[spoiler: Conkram in its current state.]] It's one of the few video game architectures that sends Legaia's level design right into Silent Hill Territory. Between people trapped in walls, guards that open the pathway by [[BodyHorror splitting up the flesh that joins them together,]] helpless citizens screaming incoherently from the unbearable pain they've been experiencing [[FateWorseThanDeath non-stop for over ten years]], and overall oppressive atmosphere, it's a complete nightmare and HellOnEarth. It's one of the most poignant examples of the horrors of the Mist, and a level that can be repulsive to many gamers playing through it.

* ''{{Manhunt}}'' is made of this trope, as the story takes place in a crappy, run-down stand-in for New York City. From the abandoned projects to the empty mall, it's everywhere.

* The ''NightmareNed'' video game features some really scary scenes, as per the name.

* Take a look and compare the differences between the maps [[http://www.zeldadungeon.net/wiki/images/4/4e/Hyrule_Warriors_Stage_Hyrule_Field.jpg Hyrule Field]] and [[http://zeldawiki.org/images/thumb/1/10/HW_Ganon's_Castle_2.png/300px-HW_Ganon's_Castle_2.png Ganon's Tower]] in ''VideoGame/HyruleWarriors''. No wonder the narrator said that every time the Triforce fell into the hands of evil, the land fell into misery.

* ''AmericanMcGeesAlice'' has this in spades. It's hard to single out just one screenshot for comparison, but [[http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_g9A4qUX6pZ0/S9CIIt7pD2I/AAAAAAAAAhc/p1kq_m3rGoI/s1600/American_McGee%27s_Alice.jpg this]] pretty much sums up the mood of the new "Wonderland" created by Alice's unbalanced mind.

* Many of the maps in ''VideoGame/WorldOfTanks'' are the bombed-out remains of cities and towns, all rendered in intricate detail; this is especially true of the HD update, where you can now visit the sand-blasted bleakness of Ghost Town and Sand River, the industrial husks of Widepark and Ensk, or the solemn ruins of Kharkov and Stalingrad.

* In ''VideoGame/TheSilentAge'' the scenery 40 years into the future is designed to depict all sorts of decay and absolute abandonment by any living being, save for the flora. Buildings crumbling, windows broken, skeletons everywhere, rust, dust, dirt and electricity out. The final future destination [[spoiler:over hundreds years into the future]] exhibits all the same signs of decline, only partly turning into eerie jungle.

* ''TheLastOfUs'' features some impressive shots of ruined cities. Boston in particular is a harsh reminder that the world as you knew it is gone.

* The Ruined Zoo in ''SuperSmashBrothers Brawl'': The opening cut scenes depict a run-down, abandoned zoo against a dark murky sky and a lone animal howling in the distance. Once the actual stage begins, however, it's MoodDissonance to the extreme, featuring music such as [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oO70K3W-cPQ this.]]

** The final battle of [[VideoGame/SonicAdventure]] takes place in a flooded Station Square filled with broken buildings and highways.
** ''VideoGame/SonicGenerations'' brings back [[VideoGame/SonicCD Bad Future Stardust Speedway]], [[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006 Crisis City]], and [[VideoGame/SonicAdventure ruined Station Square]] in HD. Bonus points for adding props from Speed Highway (another Sonic Adventure stage featured in the game) to the latter. [[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2 Chemical Plant Zone's]] background also got upgraded from a generic cityscape to a field of smoke-belching factories.

* ''[[SegaSuperstars Sonic and Racing [=All-Stars=] Transformed]]'': In a span of a three-lap race, the game loves to invoke literal destruction of a stage's landmarks in order to change the track's layout and force racers into different vehicle modes. For example, [[SkiesOfArcadia Rogues Landing]] and [[VideoGame/Sonic3AndKnuckles Sanctuary Falls]] start off rather peaceful, but by the third lap, the respective series' [[BigBad Big Bads]] blow half of the areas off.

* ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquer'', boy howdy! By ''Tiberian Sun'', Earth is pretty much a ravaged, drought-ridden wasteland dotted with lovely things like [[ManEatingPlant Tiberian Weeds]] and raging ion storms. Only a scant few pockets of civilization remain on the blighted landscape, and even they are torn with the ongoing no-holds-barred beatdown between NOD and GDI. And then it goes FromBadToWorse in ''Tiberium Wars'', when we see just how xenoformed the Red Zones have become.
* ''CompanyOfHeroes'' featured this, but in a twist, instead of immediately starting off this, you are the one doing the [[WhatTheHellHero destruction]]. Its a sight when you first start off, some french villas, beautiful market squares, and walls. But once the battle actually starts, artillery starts falling, blowing up houses, grenades and mortars start scarring the landscape, and tanks break apart the walls. By the end a battle, the landscape is completely changed, with only an inkling of the past beauty.

* The tutorial of ''GuildWars Prophecies'' ends with the Searing, magical fire raining down on your DoomedHometown. The next few missions take place in the ruins, which are now a burned-out wasteland; this is particularly effective if you remember how beautiful it was during the tutorial. Other uses of Scenery Gorn include ''Nightfall'''s Desolation, a sulfurous desert inhabitable only by the undead and the demonic, and Realm of Torment, the hellish prison of a banished god.
* ''GuildWars2'' has Orr, a former human kingdom that sank beneath the waves for centuries only to rise after being corrupted by a dragon, all the while being infested with the undead. It's littered with the remains of what were beautiful cathedrals and palaces, most of which are encrusted with dead sea life and enormous filmy eyes.

* ''{{Metro 2033}}'' has this when you get out onto the surface, coupled with snow, howling wind, and ruined buildings.

* In ''SplinterCell Conviction'', [[spoiler: Downtown Washington, D.C. after the EMP bombs go off]] with wrecked buildings or vehicles, fires in the streets and various casualties (you even get to see [[spoiler: someone succumb to his wounds before your eyes, with his companion weeping over his body]]) does more to drive in the evil of [[spoiler: Tom Reed]]'s plan than any amount of [[AndThatsTerrible ranting]] could. Similarly, the inside of [[spoiler: the White House]] is also disturbing.

* The [[AbandonedLaboratory Enrichment Center]] in the beginning areas of ''VideoGame/{{Portal 2}}'' definitely fits. It's even eerier when you can easily recognize places from the first ''Portal'' now crumbling and decaying.
* The ruined areas of Haven City in ''Jak3Wastelander''. It's unnerving when you can make out areas you've visited in the previous game now in a state of severe ruin.
* ''{{Manhunt}}'' is made of this trope, as the story takes place in a crappy, run-down stand-in for New York City. From the abandoned projects to the empty mall, it's everywhere.
* One of the first few things to realize in ''InazumaEleven 2'' is that the whole Raimon academy is totally destroyed by aliens. The scene specially pans on the soccer club, which is the heroes' important stronghold in the first game. The school gets better, and more fabulous than ever.
* Some games in ''Franchise/{{Castlevania}}'' series feature this as backgrounds, which include destroyed buildings, flame, and hanged/impaled corpses.
** One particularly notable instance is the first Stage of ''[[VideoGame/CastlevaniaRondoOfBlood Rondo Of Blood]]'', which is the town of Jova from ''[[VideoGame/CastlevaniaIISimonsQuest Simon's Quest]]'', set on fire and invaded by the undead.
* Many "City" stages in ''{{VideoGame/Contra}}'' series are this, usually since you're required to jump from a destroyed building to another while dodging alien rushes and bullets.
* Dowerton Station, unpleasant enough in ''Dark Fall: The Journal'', has graduated to full-on Scenery Gorn in ''Dark Fall: Lost Souls''.
* ''Afterfall: [=InSanity=]'' has some awesome scenery gorn, particularly in the City of Light.
* ''VideoGame/SuperMetroid'' has Old Tourian, the wreckage of the first game's Tourian, as well as the wrecked ship.
** In ''Fusion'', after you destroy Nettori, [[spoiler:Nightmare lays waste to Sector 5, flooding most of the area.]]
* Because of the post-apocalyptic setting for ''VideoGame/FragileDreamsFarewellRuinsOfTheMoon'', expect areas like a deserted amusement park and subway station to be full of this trope.
* ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'': pick a world attacked by Reapers, any world. There's Earth, where you're gunning down Husks not a hundred feet from [[HumongousMecha Reaper Destroyers]] and their foghorns from hell; Palaven, where you watch from orbit as cities are consumed by enormous firestorms; Tuchanka, which is still a desolate planet full of crumbling ruins and baked dirt [[spoiler: although there is still greenery there, and you can do a lot to help]]; Rannoch, which might or might not feature [[spoiler: the remnants of ''the entire quarian Migrant Fleet'' falling from orbit]]; [[spoiler:Thessia, which is in the process of being crushed by the Reapers]]; and [[AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs the Citadel itself]], which is torn up by a Cerberus assault and sports scarred decks, charred walls, and splattered blood for the rest of the game. Suffice to say, the galaxy looks like Hell -- [[JustBeforeTheEnd and it kind of is]].
* This trope is almost the entire point of ''SpaceFuneral''.
* ''Bare Knuckle 3'', a Japanese version of the third ''StreetsOfRage'' game, has this very trope [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JgR7xnWrXg as one of its bad endings.]] [[NightmareFuel No wonder it got bowdlerized in the west...]]
* In Chapter 11 of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'', you visit [[spoiler:Oerba Village, the hometown of Vanille and Fang, and find it a decaying, Cie'th-infested ruin, partially covered in crystal sand]]. It's one of the most powerful scenes in the game.
** UpToEleven in ''VideoGame/LightningReturnsFinalFantasyXIII'' . Near the end of the game, you can see [[spoiler: What amounts to a world spanning tornado ravaging familiar locales from the previous games, including the above-mentioned Oerba]]. Justified considering the [[EndOfTheWorldSpecial very nature of the game.]]



* ''VideoGame/{{Teslagrad}}'' is set in an abandoned [[MageTower mage's tower]], which continues to look gorgeous even as it slowly crumbles and decays.
* ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIV'': Take your pick between the two [[spoiler:alternate versions of Tokyo]]:
** [[spoiler:Blasted Tokyo, a version of Tokyo]] that's been leveled by [[spoiler:the angels]] so badly that the entire place is nothing but desert, massive craters, a [[spoiler:Rainbow Bridge]] just intact enough to let you cross to a plot-important area, and underground shelters. It's so ruined beyond recognition that the game doesn't bother labeling the various districts as you travel through them on the map.
** [[spoiler:Infernal Tokyo, a version of Tokyo]] that's bruised up, on fire in many areas, and full of smoke and rubble, thanks to the constant turf wars by the various Demonoid factions. Unlike the above entry, at least the region is still quite recognizable, but even the Chaos-leaning Walter was initially shocked upon seeing how unstable the place looks.
* The [[NightmareFuel infamous]] final level of ''VideoGame/{{Psychonauts}}'' shows us what happens when two [[JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind mental planes]] collide with one another. In this case, its the mind of the protagonist, who grew up in a circus, and the antagonist, who grew up in a butcher shop. Neither of their childhoods were exactly happy, and what we get is a truly nauseating landscape known only as the "[[BodyHorror Meat]] [[CircusOfFear Circus]]". Despite the notorious DifficultySpike of the place, it needs to be seen to believe.
* ''EpicMickey'', most places are dark and ruined by default thanks to the [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Thinner Disaster]]. Places such as a ruined theme park and a ghost ship are downright nightmarish.
* ''[[SegaSuperstars Sonic and Racing [=All-Stars=] Transformed]]'': In a span of a three-lap race, the game loves to invoke literal destruction of a stage's landmarks in order to change the track's layout and force racers into different vehicle modes. For example, [[SkiesOfArcadia Rogues Landing]] and [[VideoGame/Sonic3AndKnuckles Sanctuary Falls]] start off rather peaceful, but by the third lap, the respective series' [[BigBad Big Bads]] blow half of the areas off.
* Chapter 12 of ''VideoGame/KidIcarusUprising'' takes place on a massive, already war-torn battlefield that becomes even ''more'' derilect when the Goddess of Nature, Viridi, makes her grand entrance by dropping a massive plant-bomb and converting the whole area into a tangled mess of trees, vines, and the occasional piece of building.

* The Ruined Zoo in ''SuperSmashBrothers Brawl'': The opening cut scenes depict a run-down, abandoned zoo against a dark murky sky and a lone animal howling in the distance. Once the actual stage begins, however, it's MoodDissonance to the extreme, featuring music such as [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oO70K3W-cPQ this.]]
** The Mushroomy Kingdom stage is almost this. It is a decayed, abandoned, desolate version of the classic World 1-1 from SuperMarioBros. What it lacks in actual ruins (aside from the blocks and pipes), it makes up for with wasteland and [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u589pvON9nE tragic remixes]].
* The Plaguelands in ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'', as well as most of the other undead areas. The Eastern Plaguelands are particularly decrepit; the sky is a sickly rusty orange, the trees have tumorous growths sticking out of them, there are mutant creatures everywhere, and that's all before you reach [[FromBadToWorse the Plaguewood]]. It all gives a definite impression that the land itself is poisoned and rotting.
** Large parts of Outlands in the ''Burning Crusade'' qualify for this, seeing as the entire continent is what was left after the world Draenor was destroyed.
** After the ''[[EarthShatteringKaboom Cataclysm]]'' expansion, a good percentage of Azeroth's geography now counts as this. Ironically, even as the Barrens have been split in two by a molten fissure and the Badlands scarred by dragonfire, the Western Plaguelands have made a nearly full recovery from the plague of undeath.

* In ''VideoGame/FableII'' the region of Wraithmarsh, complete with Banshees and a plethora of Hollow Men turns out to be the village of Oakvale from the first game which has gone to ruin since a young man [[spoiler:later revealed to be Reaver]] sold it out and it was looted and the inhabitants slain. [[spoiler:For a second time]].
* The introduction to ''VideoGame/{{Fallout| 1}}'' ends with a slow zoom out to reveal the television we have been watching is sitting unattended in a ruined house in a blasted, ruined cityscape.
** ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'' opens with a slow pan back through a rusted, broken-down bus as "I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire" plays... until the camera swings up to reveal the ruins of Washington D.C. The gameplay lives up to this, so that the first thing you see after you eyes adjust from leaving Vault 101 is [[SceneryPorn a scenic overlook of the post-apocalyptic Wasteland]], with the half-skeletal Washington Monument far on the horizon.
*** Some tropers from the D.C. area have commented that the game became less fun when they recognized the blasted ruins of their real-life neighborhoods.
** ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'', while much more civilized than the Capital Wasteland ([[InternalConsistency and for good reason]]), is a good mix of Scenery Gorn and Porn thanks to the rugged vistas of the Mojave and the ruins of the titular metropolis.
*** The DLC locations focus more on the Gorn. The Sierra Madre is one big, blasted resort town blanketed in a toxic Cloud. The Big Empty can be described by your character as looking like it was "tag-teamed by a pair of giant fuckbots." And the Divide is just ''hell'', irradiated ruins flayed by a pitiless windstorm, the only significant sign of activity being the slowly flashing red beacon lights that hover over the scene as if warning passerby away.
* In ''LegendOfLegaia'', this is [[spoiler: Conkram in its current state.]] It's one of the few video game architectures that sends Legaia's level design right into Silent Hill Territory. Between people trapped in walls, guards that open the pathway by [[BodyHorror splitting up the flesh that joins them together,]] helpless citizens screaming incoherently from the unbearable pain they've been experiencing [[FateWorseThanDeath non-stop for over ten years]], and overall oppressive atmosphere, it's a complete nightmare and HellOnEarth. It's one of the most poignant examples of the horrors of the Mist, and a level that can be repulsive to many gamers playing through it.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' begins with this trope: a wretched cyberpunk metropolis of Midgar in birds-eye view... and then you fall into the shoes of terrorists blowing up a scary mad science installation.
** Later, you have to climb a long rope to get up onto the top of the city to raid the Shinra Headquarters. On the way up you're treated to a view of the recently destroyed Sector 7, which really shows you the scale of how big of bastards Shinra are.
** Another scene not that long afterwards (well, relatively; this is an [[RolePlayingGame RPG]] we're talking about) involves ''literal'' gore as well, which also doubles as a CrowningMomentOfAwesome - your party must outrun the Midgar Zolom to proceed, which, at this point in the game, is very strong. Upon escaping it, they prepare to enter the Mythril Mine... [[spoiler:and see the corpse of another Midgar Zolom impaled on a tree, courtesy of Sephiroth]].
* Emblematic of the ''Franchise/SilentHill'' series, which ''at best'' features abandoned, fog-shrouded streets and buildings in varying states of disuse and decay, and often switches to a [[DarkWorld twisted mirror]] characterised by blood, metal gratings, rust, blood, and more blood. Oh, and monsters. Lots of monsters.
* ''Franchise/ResidentEvil''. The old school Playstation series resorted to using static images for scenarios due to their much higher detail, which happened to be good enough to stick for the Gamecube releases.
** ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil3Nemesis'' deserves special mention for its many cutscenes depicting Raccoon City's descent into chaos, culminating in a nuclear strike that obliterates the entire town. It was very impressive CGI at the time, and even today the destruction is [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_F0XgBrcYY glorious to behold]].
* ''FistOfTheNorthStar: Ken's Rage'' has several of its stages take place in decaying post-nuclear-apocalyptic cities.

* ''VideoGame/{{STALKER}}'' actually manages to do a good job of this. You don't expect to see abject ruination on the scale of an all-out nuclear post-apocalypse, but the empty, decaying land and the ugly concrete convey the idea of an eerily unlivable zone picked over by the desperate. Of course, then you find the mutants, zombies, and deadly anomalies -- but aside from all that, just the patina of rust and decrepitude over everything is haunting.
** In the early betas, ''STALKER'' featured even more desolation and destruction; eg. the Dead City with collapsed Soviet-era flats, an old research center in the Dark Valley and more.
** Most of the scenery is directly based on the photos taken by the game designers in the real area surrounding the infamous Chernobyl nuclear plant. Which, in turn, may not be Scenery Gorn to some but a fascinating and perhaps beautiful [[http://www.englishrussia.com/images/chernobyl_pripyat/071.jpg outlook into the future after humanity.]] There have been a few references on the History Channel taking a look at this in their ''Life After Humans'' series.
** The [[UnexpectedGenreChange ghillie sniper missions]] from ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty 4'' evoke a similar atmosphere, albeit without anything more fantastic than arms-trading terrorists and wild hounds.

* In ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare2'', the beginning of "Of Their Own Accord". You come out of the bunker and the trenches, to be presented with [[spoiler: the ruins of the Washington Monument filling your screen, and the National Mall churned up by shellfire and more trenches. Just to ram the point home, the level up to that point has no music, only radio chatter and distant shell-fire. As you come out of the trench, the music starts, and it's [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KqmnMs0KeU a heartbreaking orchestral piece]], perfect to set the tone.]]
* Definitely ''VideoGame/SystemShock 2''. Seeing what happened to the ''Von Braun''...
* ''[[VideoGame/FirstEncounterAssaultRecon F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin]]'' goes out of its way to show you just how horribly devastated post-explosion Fairport is. One of the most powerful moments is when you reach the epicenter of the explosion... or rather, the ''edge'' of the epicenter. Throughout the game, you've been seeing this ''titanic'' rising dust cloud spreading over the sky in the distance, but it isn't until the last hour or so of the game that you actually reach the crater itself, which is so vastly immense that standing at the edge simply boggles the mind.
* ''VideoGame/Halo3ODST'' plays this especially strongly during the nighttime segments of prowling the Covenant-occupied New Mombasa. Abandoned cars, destroyed vehicles, and burning buildings are common.
** ''VideoGame/HaloReach'' takes this UpToEleven, particularly in the level "New Alexandria". Made harsher by SceneryPorn in the first chapters.
** The end section of the third level of ''VideoGame/{{Halo 4}}'' lets you experience Scenery Gorn that's in the process of being made, as you ride a permanently-boosting Ghost through the canyons of Requiem's core level while the landscape all around you is being violently torn apart by a slipspace anomaly overhead, accompanied by Grunts running for their lives, the ground itself seizing and fragmenting beneath you, and "[[SongsInTheKeyOfPanic Escape]]".
* ''VideoGame/{{Resistance}} 2'' shows a shot of San Francisco in flames, being destroyed by Chimera ships, a destroyed Chicago, flooded and filled with corpses as the Chimeran Citadel looms over the city and the abandoned suburban towns of Orick and Twin Falls, made worse by the fact that each town is filled with cocoons, especially the child-sized ones that fill the playgrounds and backyards.
* According to the [[WordOfGod developers' commentary]], this is used together with SceneryPorn to reward the player for surviving certain sections of ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'' and ''VideoGame/Left4Dead''. Some notable scenes include:
** The Citadel in ''Half-Life 2'' and at the end of Episode 1.
** The ruined cityscape after the tunnels in Episode 1.
** The railroad bridge in Episode 2.
** The gas station, the view from the top of Mercy Hospital and the airplane crash in ''Left 4 Dead''.
* Being set in ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'', ''VideoGame/DawnOfWar'', its expansions and sequel, has this trope out the wazoo. Levels of devastation range from "simple" craters and structural damage to piles of bodies and ruined vehicles to the very ground and sky itself mutilated and warped by the influence of [[HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace the Immaterium]].
** ''Dawn of War II: Retribution'' may take the cake. One mission has you deploy to a world only for an Imperial fleet to warp in moments later and prepare the world for [[EarthShatteringKaboom Exterminatus]]. Your objective changes from "Get the BigBad" to "Run like hell to the teleporter beacon." The world has been transformed from a verdant jungle to a burning hellscape, and you race your heroes along the molten rims of craters extending miles into the planet's crust as the ground heaves and screams beneath you. Meanwhile Chaos forces, Tyranids, and Orks are in a frenzy, alternating between running madly and attacking each other in a blind panic. It's both [[ApocalypseWow spectacular]] and [[ThatOneLevel screamingly difficult]].
* In ''VideoGame/MortalKombat9'', the stages set in Earthrealm during the events of ''VideoGame/MortalKombat3'' feature cityscapes being ravaged by the invading forces of Outworld. Debris, smoke, fire, and the occasional giant monster abound.
* In ''WorldInConflict'', most of the campaign and multiplayer battles tend to end with the map you've been fighting over reduced to nothing more than blackened ground, craters, and ruins - artillery is cheap, napalm is fair game, and more than one tactical nuke can be dropped per game. The sky even darkens a little from all the smoke if a battle drags out.
* In ''VideoGame/InFamous'', a good portion of Empire City is in ruins, which makes for a more visually interesting setting than the generic cityscape Empire looked like before the [=RaySphere=] went off. True, [[RealIsBrown it's mostly a boring gray]], but even that serves a purpose as it contrasts nicely with Cole's colorful electricity-based powers.
** The city of New Marais from ''VideoGame/{{inFAMOUS 2}}'' has its own example in Flood Town - a ruined parish, still flooded and in ruin, with scrawled messages all over the buildings as the people who live there try to hold on.
* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'', AfterTheEnd [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt of the World of Balance]] occurs, and right before Celes' awakening, there's a silent camera pan across the new, twilit face of the World of Ruin, driving home the point that nothing will ever be the same anymore.
** And then the ending cinematic indulges in SceneryPorn to show how despite all of the devastation, life (and hope) goes on.
* The ravaged city of Kvatch as well as the entire Oblivion dimension in ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion''.
* The tutorial of ''GuildWars Prophecies'' ends with the Searing, magical fire raining down on your DoomedHometown. The next few missions take place in the ruins, which are now a burned-out wastleland; this is particularly effective if you remember how beautiful it was during the tutorial. Other uses of Scenery Gorn include ''Nightfall'''s Desolation, a sulfurous desert inhabitable only by the undead and the demonic, and Realm of Torment, the hellish prison of a banished god.
* ''GuildWars2'' has Orr, a former human kingdom that sank beneath the waves for centuries only to rise after being corrupted by a dragon, all the while being infested with the undead. It's littered with the remains of what were beautiful cathedrals and palaces, most of which are encrusted with dead sea life and enormous filmy eyes.
** Lion's Arch became this after the Living Story ended. Originally the main city for players and filled with [=NPCs=], it's been reduced to a rubble-filled, scarred wreck with only a scattering of guards to keep out the looters and workers. And that doesn't count the month where it was overrun with enemies, polluted with poison, and on fire.
* The Butcher's room in ''VideoGame/{{Diablo}}'', red with blood and full of human bodies mutilated, impaled and/or hung up on hooks.

* ''VideoGame/{{Prototype}}'' starts you off in a decent-looking version of Manhattan. As TheVirus spreads, the infected areas increase in size -- and these are ''nasty,'' with blood-red skies, fleshy tendrils crawling across the architecture, crows circling overhead, and, at the center of each one, a building covered in giant, throbbing, suppurating ''zits''. ''[[{{Squick}} Ew.]]''
* ''{{Metro 2033}}'' has this when you get out onto the surface, coupled with snow, howling wind, and ruined buildings.
* In ''SplinterCell Conviction'', [[spoiler: Downtown Washington, D.C. after the EMP bombs go off]] with wrecked buildings or vehicles, fires in the streets and various casualties (you even get to see [[spoiler: someone succumb to his wounds before your eyes, with his companion weeping over his body]]) does more to drive in the evil of [[spoiler: Tom Reed]]'s plan than any amount of [[AndThatsTerrible ranting]] could. Similarly, the inside of [[spoiler: the White House]] is also disturbing.
* The ''NightmareNed'' video game features some really scary scenes, as per the name.
* Planet Helghan from ''VideoGame/{{Killzone}} 2''.
* ''AmericanMcGeesAlice'' has this in spades. It's hard to single out just one screenshot for comparison, but [[http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_g9A4qUX6pZ0/S9CIIt7pD2I/AAAAAAAAAhc/p1kq_m3rGoI/s1600/American_McGee%27s_Alice.jpg this]] pretty much sums up the mood of the new "Wonderland" created by Alice's unbalanced mind.
** Its sequel, ''AliceMadnessReturns'' wavers between gorgeous scenery porn (Oriental area) and horrific scenery gorn (the Hatter's Domain) until [[spoiler: Queensland]]. Then gorn rules the day.
* Certain areas of ''VideoGame/StarcraftII'', particularly when the Zerg come calling. Tarsonis, Tyrador, and Aiur are big on crumbling buildings, corpses, infestation, and creep, but none of them to the gleeful extent of [[strike: Mordor]] Char, especially in "The Gates Of Hell".
* Most areas of ''VideoGame/{{Odium}}'', especially the docks in the beginning.
* The [[AbandonedLaboratory Enrichment Center]] in the beginning areas of ''VideoGame/{{Portal 2}}'' definitely fits. It's even eerier when you can easily recognize places from the first ''Portal'' now crumbling and decaying.
* The ruined areas of Haven City in ''Jak3Wastelander''. It's unnerving when you can make out areas you've visited in the previous game now in a state of severe ruin.
* ''{{Manhunt}}'' is made of this trope, as the story takes place in a crappy, run-down stand-in for New York City. From the abandoned projects to the empty mall, it's everywhere.
* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'': When Link emerges from the Temple of Time for the first time as an adult and sees the devastation that Ganondorf's seven-year reign has wrought: The bright, colorful Market with its happy music has been turned to ruins, the carefree villagers replaced by Redead zombies. Likewise, beautiful and majestic Hyrule Castle has been replaced by the onyx coloured Ganon's Castle--hovering over a lake of molten lava, to boot.
** As well, ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker'' has Greatfish Isle, which has been ''ripped to shreds'' by Ganondorf's forces, forcing Jabun to flee and hide out on Outset Island. Considering the rest of the game is mostly SceneryPorn, the sight of what has befallen Greatfish Isle is extremely jarring, likely intentionally so.
* The [[BadFuture bad futures]] in ''SonicCD'' are dystopian worlds corrupted by Dr. Eggman. Sonic can make these futures better if he fixes what Eggman has done wrong in the past.
** [[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006 The 2006 game]] features Crisis City, a desolate, ruined city of the future full of flames and wreckage.
** The final battle of [[VideoGame/SonicAdventure]] takes place in a flooded Station Square filled with broken buildings and highways.
** ''VideoGame/SonicGenerations'' brings back [[VideoGame/SonicCD Bad Future Stardust Speedway]], [[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006 Crisis City]], and [[VideoGame/SonicAdventure ruined Station Square]] in HD. Bonus points for adding props from Speed Highway (another Sonic Adventure stage featured in the game) to the latter. [[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2 Chemical Plant Zone's]] background also got upgraded from a generic cityscape to a field of smoke-belching factories.
** Halfway through the first act of Angel Island Zone in ''Sonic3AndKnuckles'', the jungle the stage takes place in is set on fire. It continues to burn throughout the rest of the stage.
** ''VideoGame/ShadowTheHedgehog'' takes place in the midst of an AlienInvasion, with the very first stage depicting a city being torn asunder. There are quite a few other stages depicting such carnage, as well. [[spoiler:Following certain paths in the game also treats the player to a cutscene of the [[WaveMotionGun Eclipse Cannon]] wiping a city off the face of the earth.]]
* One of the first few things to realize in ''InazumaEleven 2'' is that the whole Raimon academy is totally destroyed by aliens. The scene specially pans on the soccer club, which is the heroes' important stronghold in the first game. The school gets better, and more fabulous than ever.
* Some games in ''Franchise/{{Castlevania}}'' series feature this as backgrounds, which include destroyed buildings, flame, and hanged/impaled corpses.
** One particularly notable instance is the first Stage of ''[[VideoGame/CastlevaniaRondoOfBlood Rondo Of Blood]]'', which is the town of Jova from ''[[VideoGame/CastlevaniaIISimonsQuest Simon's Quest]]'', set on fire and invaded by the undead.
* Many "City" stages in ''{{VideoGame/Contra}}'' series are this, usually since you're required to jump from a destroyed building to another while dodging alien rushes and bullets.

* Dowerton Station, unpleasant enough in ''Dark Fall: The Journal'', has graduated to full-on Scenery Gorn in ''Dark Fall: Lost Souls''.

** The Ship Graveyard much earlier in the game also qualifies - an entire dungeon made up of nothing but wrecked and ruined ships, many of which are submerged.
* ''Afterfall: [=InSanity=]'' has some awesome scenery gorn, particularly in the City of Light.
* ''VideoGame/SuperMetroid'' has Old Tourian, the wreckage of the first game's Tourian, as well as the wrecked ship.
** In ''Fusion'', after you destroy Nettori, [[spoiler:Nightmare lays waste to Sector 5, flooding most of the area.]]
* In ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'', [[AfterTheEnd 2300 AD]] is nothing but ruined buildings and blasted land.
** ''VideoGame/ChronoCross'' gives us the Dead Sea, a city from 1999 AD frozen in the act of being destroyed by Lavos.
* Because of the post-apocalyptic setting for ''VideoGame/FragileDreamsFarewellRuinsOfTheMoon'', expect areas like a deserted amusement park and subway station to be full of this trope.
* ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'': pick a world attacked by Reapers, any world. There's Earth, where you're gunning down Husks not a hundred feet from [[HumongousMecha Reaper Destroyers]] and their foghorns from hell; Palaven, where you watch from orbit as cities are consumed by enormous firestorms; Tuchanka, which is still a desolate planet full of crumbling ruins and baked dirt [[spoiler: although there is still greenery there, and you can do a lot to help]]; Rannoch, which might or might not feature [[spoiler: the remnants of ''the entire quarian Migrant Fleet'' falling from orbit]]; [[spoiler:Thessia, which is in the process of being crushed by the Reapers]]; and [[AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs the Citadel itself]], which is torn up by a Cerberus assault and sports scarred decks, charred walls, and splattered blood for the rest of the game. Suffice to say, the galaxy looks like Hell -- [[JustBeforeTheEnd and it kind of is]].
* ''CompanyOfHeroes'' featured this, but in a twist, instead of immediately starting off this, you are the one doing the [[WhatTheHellHero destruction]]. Its a sight when you first start off, some french villas, beautiful market squares, and walls. But once the battle actually starts, artillery starts falling, blowing up houses, grenades and mortars start scarring the landscape, and tanks break apart the walls. By the end a battle, the landscape is completely changed, with only an inkling of the past beauty.
* This trope is almost the entire point of ''SpaceFuneral''.
* ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquer'', boy howdy! By ''Tiberian Sun'', Earth is pretty much a ravaged, drought-ridden wasteland dotted with lovely things like [[ManEatingPlant Tiberian Weeds]] and raging ion storms. Only a scant few pockets of civilization remain on the blighted landscape, and even they are torn with the ongoing no-holds-barred beatdown between NOD and GDI. And then it goes FromBadToWorse in ''Tiberium Wars'', when we see just how xenoformed the Red Zones have become.
* ''Bare Knuckle 3'', a Japanese version of the third ''StreetsOfRage'' game, has this very trope [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JgR7xnWrXg as one of its bad endings.]] [[NightmareFuel No wonder it got bowdlerized in the west...]]
* In Chapter 11 of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'', you visit [[spoiler:Oerba Village, the hometown of Vanille and Fang, and find it a decaying, Cie'th-infested ruin, partially covered in crystal sand]]. It's one of the most powerful scenes in the game.
** UpToEleven in ''VideoGame/LightningReturnsFinalFantasyXIII'' . Near the end of the game, you can see [[spoiler: What amounts to a world spanning tornado ravaging familiar locales from the previous games, including the above-mentioned Oerba]]. Justified considering the [[EndOfTheWorldSpecial very nature of the game.]]
* Needless to say, the ''VideoGame/{{Emergency}}'' series has lots of this. Peaceful towns will be torn apart by every manner of disaster you can imagine.
* In ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'', the Deep Roads, the tunnels connecting the cities and Thaigs of the Ancient Dwarven Empire, which are now swarming with Darkspawn and corrupted by their taint. The Circle Tower after being overrun with Abominations and Blood Mages, has most of the upper floors covered in an an oozy, fleshy... ''something'', similar to Darkspawn corruption. Ostagar comes across as this in the ''Return of Ostagar DLC'', where the former ruins are littered with the unburied dead from the ill-fated battle, swarming Darkspawn and the crude effigies they've constructed.
** In ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'', the prologue takes place in the Blightlands, the area surrounding Lothering that has become tainted due to being overrun with the Darkspawn horde. Most of the driving plot of Act I features Hawke preparing to join an expedition to an undiscovered part of the Deep Roads, while the ''Legacy DLC'' journeys to another part, which houses an Ancient Grey Warden Prison.
** The Exalted Plains in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition'' is a ruined battlefield in the aftermath of a civil war; the land is scarred by ruined trenches, filled with bodies, both dead and ''undead'', and topped by the banners of the two sides still lazily twisting in the wind, forgotten by the armies as they retreated from the undead attack. To make matters worse, the ambient music (if it can be called that) consists of little more than a combination of a mournful chord and an eerie, low humming sound.
* In ''VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeonExplorers'' you will see a lot of this [[spoiler:during your time in the BadFuture.]] Everything is DeliberatelyMonochrome, the place is literally [[spoiler:frozen in time]]; it's one of the most detailed scenes in the Pokemon series. Naturally, the whole scene has [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56odV-5bSxA sufficiently ominous music]], sometimes even [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJBGOe4di80 haunting]] when the situation calls for it.
** ''Gates To Infinity'' has this [[spoiler: when you're going through the Glacier Palace and fighting the Bittercold]]. The Palace is beautiful and elaborate, but once you know it's the fortress of the enemy, it's suddenly the symbol of an ensuing chaos that will consume all.
* The VideoGame/NancyDrew games will occasionally dabble in this, with many stories taking place in antique buildings in various stages of disrepair. The shining example is ''The Ghost of Thornton Hall.'' The titular hall is an old SouthernGothic mansion that's crumbling down, overrun with ivy, and still amazingly [[http://www.herinteractive.com/games/gth/gth_wallpaper6.jpg beautiful.]]
* Creator/ElephantGames are known for these in their ''Mystery Trackers'' game series as much of the locations that the player visits are abandoned towns and buildings due to either supernatural disasters or man-made disrepair. And in their joint production of ''Fate's Carnival'' for the ''VideoGame/MysteryCaseFiles'' series, their highly detailed rendition of Madame Fate's carnival is scarier than its original design.
* Want to see what a post-apocalyptic, post-sandstorm UsefulNotes/{{Dubai}} looks like? Play ''VideoGame/SpecOpsTheLine'' and feast your eyes!
* VideoGame/OdinSphere has some [[SceneryPorn very beautifully drawn locations.]] And when Armageddon comes you can watch it all burn and crumble away during the FinalBoss battles.
* ''VideoGame/{{Teslagrad}}'' is set in an abandoned [[MageTower mage's tower]], which continues to look gorgeous even as it slowly crumbles and decays.
* ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIV'': Take your pick between the two [[spoiler:alternate versions of Tokyo]]:
** [[spoiler:Blasted Tokyo, a version of Tokyo]] that's been leveled by [[spoiler:the angels]] so badly that the entire place is nothing but desert, massive craters, a [[spoiler:Rainbow Bridge]] just intact enough to let you cross to a plot-important area, and underground shelters. It's so ruined beyond recognition that the game doesn't bother labeling the various districts as you travel through them on the map.
** [[spoiler:Infernal Tokyo, a version of Tokyo]] that's bruised up, on fire in many areas, and full of smoke and rubble, thanks to the constant turf wars by the various Demonoid factions. Unlike the above entry, at least the region is still quite recognizable, but even the Chaos-leaning Walter was initially shocked upon seeing how unstable the place looks.
* The [[NightmareFuel infamous]] final level of ''VideoGame/{{Psychonauts}}'' shows us what happens when two [[JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind mental planes]] collide with one another. In this case, its the mind of the protagonist, who grew up in a circus, and the antagonist, who grew up in a butcher shop. Neither of their childhoods were exactly happy, and what we get is a truly nauseating landscape known only as the "[[BodyHorror Meat]] [[CircusOfFear Circus]]". Despite the notorious DifficultySpike of the place, it needs to be seen to believe.
* ''EpicMickey'', most places are dark and ruined by default thanks to the [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Thinner Disaster]]. Places such as a ruined theme park and a ghost ship are downright nightmarish.
* ''[[SegaSuperstars Sonic and Racing [=All-Stars=] Transformed]]'': In a span of a three-lap race, the game loves to invoke literal destruction of a stage's landmarks in order to change the track's layout and force racers into different vehicle modes. For example, [[SkiesOfArcadia Rogues Landing]] and [[VideoGame/Sonic3AndKnuckles Sanctuary Falls]] start off rather peaceful, but by the third lap, the respective series' [[BigBad Big Bads]] blow half of the areas off.
* Chapter 12 of ''VideoGame/KidIcarusUprising'' takes place on a massive, already war-torn battlefield that becomes even ''more'' derilect when the Goddess of Nature, Viridi, makes her grand entrance by dropping a massive plant-bomb and converting the whole area into a tangled mess of trees, vines, and the occasional piece of building.

* In ''LegendOfLegaia'', this is [[spoiler: Conkram in its current state.]] It's one of the few video game architectures that sends Legaia's level design right into Silent Hill Territory. Between people trapped in walls, guards that open the pathway by [[BodyHorror splitting up the flesh that joins them together,]] helpless citizens screaming incoherently from the unbearable pain they've been experiencing [[FateWorseThanDeath non-stop for over ten years]], and overall oppressive atmosphere, it's a nightmare on Earth. It's one of the most poignant examples of the horrors of the Mist, and a level that can be repulsive to many gamers playing through it.

* In ''ModernWarfare 2'', the beginning of "Of Their Own Accord". You come out of the bunker and the trenches, to be presented with [[spoiler: the ruins of the Washington Monument filling your screen, and the National Mall churned up by shellfire and more trenches. Just to ram the point home, the level up to that point has no music, only radio chatter and distant shell-fire. As you come out of the trench, the music starts, and it's [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KqmnMs0KeU a heartbreaking orchestral piece]], perfect to set the tone.]]