Futuristic settings have been a part of video games ever since the release of Spacewar in 1962. However, many games with futuristic settings tend to be a bit coy about when exactly they take place. For example, the events of the original Megaman games take place in ‘20XX,’ with the last two digits of the year left up to the player's interpretation.
However, these games found a specific, futuristic-enough sounding century, and went with it. These titles, often of belonging to the sci-fi genre, all features lore and stories that take place in the 24th Century.
7 Plants Vs. Zombies 2
It may be a bit much to say that Plants Vs Zombies 2 has ‘lore,’ but regardless, the game does take place at least partly in the 24th century. The protagonist uses a time machine called Penny to retrieve their neighbor’s taco, which the villainous Dr Zomboss wants to foil in order to stop a paradox.
As such, there are multiple settings where the player can protect their lawn from the undead. They could go to the Paleolithic era, Ancient Egypt, the Middle Ages, the Wild West, and two different future levels. One of these future levels is in the 24th Century.
6 Star Gladiator
Surprisingly enough, this was Capcom’s first in-house 3D fighter, having only published Battle Arena Toshinden 2 and the Street Fighter EX series. It’s set in the 2350s, when humanity has reached across the stars and formed a Federation to extend friendly connections with alien races.
It sounds somewhat familiar, except they all get together to beat each other up to stop the evil Dr Bilstein in a fighter that plays somewhat close to Soulcalibur. Both it and its sequel Plasma Sword have become cult classics, with its protagonist Hayato appearing in Marvel Vs Capcom 2. Like other underrated Capcom fighters, fans are calling out for a re-release.
5 Star Trek: Voyager-Elite Force
Star Trek is also famous for its friendly Federation dealing with all sorts in their mission to explore strange new worlds and civilizations. The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager all take place in the 24th Century, as do their tie-in video games. Still, seeing the Voyager crew fight each other hand-to-hand would be a bit off (that’s more a TOS thing).
Thus, Raven Software and Aspyr Media placed Voyager’s Hazard Team into a first-person shooter to deal with Etherians, Vohrsoth, and some twists and turns along the way. It’s a pretty good shooter too, coming out to critical and financial acclaim back in 2000. The game can still be played too via GoG.com, alongside its less impressive sequel Elite Force II.
4 The Journeyman Project Series
Presto Studios’ The Journeyman Project games also had the Earth uniting as one people on one planet. Though it took a series of nuclear wars to get there. But it’s enough for them to join the Symbiotry of Peaceful Beings alongside other civilizations in space. Then, to cap things off, they create time travel technology through the titular Journeyman Project.
The trilogy of games (plus a remake of the first game) involve agents for the Temporal Space Agency (TSA) dealing with one crisis or another involving different villains trying to upset the timeline by changing Earth’s fate. They’re a very 1990s interpretation of the future, and a very 90s first-person adventure game series. Nonetheless, they were quite the hit for PC players back in the day, and a highlight for the Mac at the time as well.
3 Killzone Series
Pretty utopias are cute, but things aren’t always that sweet. Killzone’s world involves war, corruption, mutations, and other less than fuzzy things, as the human colony planets Vekta and Helghan fight over who gets to conquer the other.
The Killzone games got off to a shaky start, with the first game suffering from visual glitches, AI issues, and odd controls. Nonetheless, Guerilla Games stuck with their shooter, producing the better-received Killzone 2 and 3. They were successful enough for series’ villain Colonel Radec to be a playable character in PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale. However, the series has grown quiet since the subdued reception for Killzone: Shadow Fall. Whether fans will see that grim Helghast armor again is up in the air.
2 Unreal Tournament Series
The games see humanity fight off the Skaarj aliens in ‘legalized murder’ tournaments in the mid-2300s. The mining corporations thought it was a good way for their workers to get their aggression out instead of downing tools and revolting. Then, it ended up being a better money-earner than mining, and popular for players looking to score that ‘M-M-M-MULTI-KILL!’.
This famous shooter might be more well-known for its namesake graphics engine nowadays. There hasn’t been a new Unreal Tournament game since the 2014 reboot, made on Unreal Engine 4. Yet, there’s already an Unreal Engine 5 for developers to work with. Nonetheless, the famous shooter has gone from strength to strength across its run since 1998. Maybe it'll get strong again someday.
1 TimeSplitters Series
This list started with a time-travel game, so it might as well end with one. Free Radical Design’s TimeSplitters series is a fondly remembered series, often regarded as the true successors to the original Goldeneye 007 and Perfect Dark games. This is largely because they were developed by most of those games’ original dev team members. There have been multiple attempts to revive the series with a 4th game or re-release, all to no avail...until now.
Publishers Deep Silver have confirmed a new entry is finally in the works. Until it's released, players will have to make do with the original trilogy, where humanity defends their timeline from timesplitting aliens. The first two games involve jaunts to the 2300s, alongside levels set in the Victorian era, 1920s, 1960s, and the ridiculous future year of 2019. That was a strange time to be in.