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Since this style of architecture remains popular today, it’s no wonder that modern media would draw influence from it — including video games. Several video games owe a debt to Art Deco for influencing their worlds and their stories, whether they’re noir stories or first-person shooters.
8Grim Fandango
Released in 1998, Tim Schafer’sGrim Fandangois a story about the afterlife, drawing influence from classic noir stories and Aztec culture. You step into the bony shoes of Manny Calavera, a ‘travel agent’ who gets caught up in a web of undead crime, corruption, and romance.
While Grim Fandango’s world draws heavily from Aztec design, the film noir style of the game also adds a rich layer of Art Deco. Many locations are decorated in lush Art Deco flourishes, ranging from nightclubs to express trains. The afterlife may be a shady place in Grim Fandango, but it sure is a beautiful one.
7Fallout
When you think ofFallout, you don’t exactly think of shining, beautiful skyscrapers so much as you think aboutgiant underground vaults, nuclear bombs, and humanity’s eternal struggle to rise above savagery. But, beneath the grime and the ashes, the world of Fallout shows its Art Deco roots, especially in the remains of Washington D.C. in Fallout 3.
The reason for this unique Art Deco-style approach to the wasteland lies within Fallout’s Pre-War culture. In this timeline, the world adopted a retro-futurist mindset, where streamlined nuclear-powered cars, sleek automated skyscrapers, and elaborate mechanical servants were the norm. It is this combination of retro-futurism, Art Deco, and 2000s post-apocalyptic grime that makes Fallout’s world a fascinating one.
6The Outer Worlds
Developed by Obsidian Entertainment,The Outer Worldstells the story of a future where mega-corporations are both God and government, faster-than-light starships are commonplace, and humanity is expanding to the farthest reaches of our solar system and beyond.
5Civilization 5
While you may frequently associate Art Deco with turn-based strategy games,Civilization 5is a unique case. The UI, options, and menu of the game are heavily influenced by Art Deco, featuring blocky, stylized letters, geometric pillars, and golden flourishing.
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But why such a unique style for the Civilization series? According to an interview withGameInformer, art director Dorian Newcomb explains that the design was inspired by a combination of New York City’s own Art Deco architecture and LucasArts games — most notably, the aforementioned Grim Fandango.
4Prey
Published by Bethesda Softworks and developed by Arkane Austin, 2017’sPreyputs you onboard the space station Talos 1, which is infested with hostile, psychic aliens. Although survival is the name of the game when it comes to Prey, that doesn’t mean that the world around still holds some beauty to it.
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Many parts of the Talos 1 section are decorated in a lavish Art Deco style, ranging from the offices of the corporate elite to experimental greenhouses. Much like the Fallout series, Prey’s aesthetic choices lend themselves to its backstory, where the United States and the Soviet Union took diverging paths in technology during the Space Race.
3L.A. Noire
Launched in 2011, Rockstar’sL.A. Noireputs you in the role of Detective Cole Phelps, your classic hard-boiled and grizzled detective tasked with cleaning up the streets of 1940s Los Angeles. It’s a game of action, of interrogation, of crime, and of decadence.
2Close To The Sun
Storm in a Teacup’s Close to the Sun takes place in an alternative version of 1897, where a sort of technological Cold War is occurring between inventors Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla. You play as Rose Archer, searching for her missing sister onboard the gargantuan sea cruiser “Helios.”
The sprawling ship is loaded with Art Deco influences, whether it’s the internal railway system, the maze-like hallways and tunnels that line the ship, or the beautifully gilded Tesla tower. Gold, brass, and steel dominate the Helios, giving the seemingly desolate ship a haunting yet magnificent quality. When you’re not solving puzzles, it’s easy to get lost in the lush details of your surroundings.
1BioShock 1 - 2
BioShock’s city of Rapture most likely needs no introduction. Built by industrialist Andrew Ryan in the late 1940s, the underwater colony was meant to serve as a hidden utopia for humanity’s elite to avoid the supposed end of the world. Unfortunately, a civil war and rampant abuse of the genetic wonder drug ADAM turned Rapture into a crumbling, twisted ruin of its former self.
Yet, whether you’re playing as Jack or Subject Delta, traces of the city’s past glory still shine through underneath the wreckage. From the neon-soaked halls of Fort Frolic, the French Quarter-inspired balconies of Siren Alley, or the lonely Lighthouse in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, you will find yourself lost in the melancholic and terrifying halls of Andrew Ryan’s sunken dream.
