History Main / ApocalypseNot

* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'':

* In ''TabletopGame/{{Rifts}}'', Earth has been ruined by the apocalyptic return of magic; yet the world seems stuffed to the rafters with powerful, advanced cultures wielding incredible technologies or magics. This has to do with the RuleOfCool, the FantasyKitchenSink and the fact that AllMythsAreTrue.
** Technologically, perhaps, but with few exceptions, most places culturally are barely out of the "Me big man with gun! Me boss!" stage. And it only got more brutal as new splatbooks came out.

* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'' introduces players to a Hyrule ravaged by the Calamity a century ago. In the game's present, there are already a few settlements that are either untouched by the Calamity (e.g. Kakariko Village, Hateno Village), or have recovered. You can even help put together a new town.

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* ''Literature/WhenAngelsWept'': The story deals with the build-up and aftermath of the Cuban Missile Crisis going hot. However, civilization survives and reconstruction takes place not long afterward, and many nations escape nuclear destruction entirely. Even cities like Chicago, which took several direct hits, are rebuilt and repopulated. The United States, which received multiple strikes and lost tens of millions of people, is back on its feet within 15 years.

* Arguably, ''VideoGame/AdvanceWars: Days of Ruin/Dark Conflict'' goes like this halfway through. The beginning of the game implies worldwide destruction, with few survivors and no hope. However, we later see functioning cities, functional industry and many soldiers on our way, implying there isn't such a shortage of people after all. It's mostly GameplayAndStorySegregation though, since the cutscenes still give the apocalyptic feel.
* ''VideoGame/TheSims 2'' SelfImposedChallenge "The Apocalypse Challenge" actually has this as its goal: your starting sim has survived a nuclear meltdown that wipes out Sim City, and must establish a dynasty that rebuilds civilization. This is represented by the player following a harsh set of gameplay restrictions for the neighborhood, a few of which are removed every time a sim from the family reaches the top of a career path.

* ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'': The series' premise is that humanity is nearly extinct thanks to the man-eating Titans, save for those who managed to seek refuge inside the walled kingdom that serves as the series' setting. [[spoiler: It's eventually revealed that humanity is in fact not extinct beyond the walls, and that the people inside the walls are members of a race detested by the rest of the world for their potential to turn into Titans. Their confinement inside the walls is part of an AncientConspiracy to isolate them from the rest of the world and slowly kill them off.]]

* ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'': The series' premise is that humanity is nearly extinct thanks to the man-eating Titans, save for those who managed to seek refuge inside the walled kingdom that serves as the series' setting. [[spoiler: It's eventually revealed that humanity is in fact not extinct beyond the walls, and that the people inside the walls are members of a race detested by the rest of the world for their potential to turn into Titans. Their confinement inside the walls is part of an AncientConspiracy to isolate them from the rest of the world.]]

* ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'': At the start of the series, we are told that humanity is nearly extinct thanks to the man-eating Titans, save for those who managed to seek refuge inside the walled kingdom that serves as the series' setting. [[spoiler: It's eventually revealed that humanity is in fact not extinct beyond the walls, and that the people inside the walls are members of a race detested by the rest of the world for their potential to turn into Titans, and who are kept inside the walls is part of an AncientConspiracy to isolate them from the rest of the world while potentially killing them off slowly.]]

* ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'': At the start of the series, we are told that humanity is nearly extinct thanks to the man-eating Titans, save for those who managed to seek refuge inside the walled kingdom that serves as the series' setting. [[spoiler: It's eventually revealed that humanity is in fact not extinct beyond the walls, and that the people inside the walls are members of a race detested by the rest of the world for their potential to turn into Titans, and that their isolation inside of the walls is part of an AncientConspiracy to segregate them from the rest of the world while potentially killing them off slowly.]]

** ''VideoGame/Fallout76'' has the least apocalyptic-looking setting of the series to date, taking place in the Appalachia mountains of West Virginia. As opposed to other games, the mountainous forests of this region are virtually untouched by the Great War. Towns are abandoned, but their infrastructure is intact (there's even a nuclear power plant still standing!). This extends to the eponymous Vault 76, which is one of the few "control vaults" that were not designed for use in Vault-Tec's social experiments: it was built to serve the explicit purpose sheltering people from nuclear war and open after twenty-five years to resettle the region. That said, it also gives players the ability to ''fire'' nukes, permanently damaging an area of the map for that server.

* Happens a few times in the ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}}'' series:
** The world of Draenor was already on its way to become a completely barren planet when it exploded at the end of ''VideoGame/WarcraftII: Beyond the Dark Portal''. The largest of its chunks went on to become the FloatingContinent called "Outland" stuck in the [[HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace Twisting Nether]]. ''In VideoGame/WarcraftIII'', Outland is a barren wasteland and an easy target for demons and other interdimensional threats. But in ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft: The Burning Crusade'', several regions of Outland apparently survived relatively untouched. Nagrand is particularly noticeable as lush GhibliHills full of life.

*** Despite the intact infrastructure, however, the Commonwealth is still a relatively Downplayed example as much of Boston are still empty ruins populated by raiders, super mutants and other ne'er-do-wells. Despite environmentally being ApocalypseNot, order and society in Boston gradually collapsed in the weeks following the nuclear exchange, and most survivors of the riots and civil strife migrated to the surrounding countryside. It should also be noted that [[BigBad the Institute]] constantly monitors the Commonwealth and actively prevents attempts at forming any regional government [[KillEmAll by force.]] [[spoiler: If the Minutemen succeed in defeating the Institute and the [[TheFundamentalist Brotherhood]], it is implied that they will eventually form a new government on par with the NCR, bringing it closer to this trope.]]

* The DMZ that divides North and South Korea. Due to mines and the armistice boundary, wildlife and plantlife thrives in the area, including some species that are highly endangered or extinct in the rest of the Korean Peninsula. There are no hunters, only UN observers and the few people allowed to live in selected areas, though only for anything light enough to not set off one of the many landmines in it. Every so often a deer gets too heavy and sets one off.

* ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}'' Pandora is a complicated example. In ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands 2}}'' the planet is arguably ''[[UpToEleven more]]'' of an environmental disaster area, featuring even more dangerous bandits, a mutated human subspecies, and 2-3 times the amount of deadly creatures. However, in the first game, most of the CrapsackWorld-iness came from the fact that the planet was a backwater's backwater's backwater, with only few (if any) attention from outside the planet. By the beginning of Borderlands 2, however, it's made clear that five interplanetary and even intergalactic megacorporations have (or had) holdings and major settlements on it, one of which even has an ongoing business selling wood, and the world actually has some semblance of normal life there besides survival. And the rest of the human population in the Borderlands world ''knows'' about Pandora by now. Although, it's debatable whether or not the increased attention from the various {{Mega Corp}}s has actually ''improved'' life on Pandora at all or just [[CrapsackWorld made it worse.]]