Despite being over seven decades ago, there continues to be an overwhelming intrigue with the 1950s. Lots of important cultural events happened within the decade, particularly in the United States, including the start of the Cold War and a fascination with aliens due to increased UFO sightings. People across the world continue to look back at the decade with intrigue, leading to it often bleed into today’s media through film and television.
There’s also an affinity for the decade within the gaming industry. Games like Fallout take inspiration from the era in its alternate atompunk setting and the paranoia of communism, and newer games like Atomic Heart also highlight this aesthetic on the other side of the Atlantic. But plenty of other games take place in the 1950s, with some focusing on niche subjects for the time, like organized crime and supernatural horror.
5 Destroy All Humans!
Destroy All Humans! has captivated players since 2005, when the franchise’s first game debuted to major success. Set in 1959 in the United States, Destroy All Humans! parodies the fascination (and paranoia) of extraterrestrials at the time, as well as monster movies like Invasion of the Body Snatchers and It! The Terror From Beyond Space.
The unique selling point of Destroy All Humans! sees players take on the role of the alien as they harvest DNA from humans through abductions and experiments. While rooted in the culture of the time, the military has advanced weaponry at its disposal to protect itself from the invading alien race. There are four games in the Destroy All Humans! franchise, with a remake of the original game in 2020, followed by a remake of the second game in 2022. Destroy All Humans! 2: Reprobed is set in the 1960s and takes place in England, Russia, and the United States.
4 Jazzpunk
Released in 2014, Jazzpunk takes place in an alternate reality set in the 1950s, when the Empire of Japan took over the United States. Now known as Japanada, Jazzpunk takes place in an alternate cold war era that draws its inspiration from spoof comedy films, cyberpunk, and film noir.
Playing as Polyblank, a silent protagonist and secret agent, gamers are given missions by the director of a secret espionage agency to recover valuable and vital data from strange places through puzzle-solving tasks. Players can take on these missions in an open-world environment with no set path, where they’ll come across strange missions as they explore an alternate 1950s.
And while it takes place within the ‘50s, Jazzpunk’s co-creator Luis Hernandez told Spritezeit there is a “myriad of references in 1940s wireless culture, ‘50s modernism, ‘70s phreak culture, ‘80s hacker culture [and] ‘90s net culture” to “cohesively assemble these into a functioning, albeit surreal alternate reality.”
3 The Inpatient
A prequel to Until Dawn, the survival horror of The Inpatient occurs six decades before the events of the first game take place. Set in 1952 within Blackwood Sanatorium, players of Until Dawn will be very familiar with the location, as it’s the abandoned facility that Mike explores to find an abducted Jessica. While inside, he finds information about a cave-in on Blackwood Mountain in the ‘50s, where a group of miners was trapped. In The Inpatient, players take on the role of one of those miners.
This particular miner has a case of amnesia, with the aim of the game to help them remember what happened and how they ended up in the sanatorium. Decision-making is once again crucial in this game, with whatever the player decides influencing the plot’s outcome.
2 Mafia 2
The standalone sequel to 2002’s Mafia, Mafia II follows Vito Scaletta from 1945 to 1951. Vito is a Sicillian-American mobster who becomes embroiled in a battle between the Mafia families of the fictional Empire Bay as they attempt to take control of the city. All the while, Vito is also faced with trying to pay back debts to his father.
While Mafia II only partially takes place in the 1950s, players can feel the vibe that the decade would bring – particularly with organized crime that occurred in the decade. In real life, 24 crime families were operating within the United States. In New York City, which Empire Bay is partly based on, there were five prominent families in operation: Gambino, Genovese, Lucchese, Colombo, and Bonanno.
1 Resistance: Fall Of Man & Resistance 2
Starting in 1951, Resistance: Fall of Man and Resistance 2 takes place in an alternate history where an alien race known as the Chimera invades earth. The games follow Nathan Hale, a sergeant in the human resistance forces. In Resistance: Fall of Man, Nathan and his squad attempt to prevent the aliens from invading the United Kingdom. As they make their way through the population, the aliens infect humans with advanced technology creating horrific creatures in the process.
Resistance 2 takes place a couple of years later, this time in the United States in 1953. After the events of the first game, Hale has been infected with the Chimera virus. He can keep the infection at bay with treatment while fighting the oncoming invasion. The plot involves the increasingly dire invasion of the Chimera and Hale’s worsening condition.