6 Futuristic Sci-Fi Games Set Before 2022

Futuristic science-fiction settings can be a fun and appealing concept for both developers and gamers alike. The possibilities of what could be done with flying cars, laser guns, and artificial intelligence are limitless. Since most admirable sci-fi technology doesn't exist in our current time, the easy solution for most developers would be to simply set the game in the far distant future.

However, this isn't always the case. Sometimes, developers choose to set their games in the near future, meaning it wouldn't be long until the game's predicted "future" becomes the past. Other times, developers deliberately choose to set their games in the present or even the past, yet still leaving room for plenty of appealing sci-fi elements that will likely never exist.

6 Half-Life 2

While both Half-Life games delve into science-fiction elements, it's the sequel that really begins to embrace the genre. The original game is generally seen as being set in the year of its release, which would place it at around 1998. Half-Life 2 is meant to take place roughly 20 years later, which would place it at around 2018, 4 years before the year 2022.

As both a dystopian government and an apocalyptic landscape, Valve certainly didn't paint the most optimistic portrait of 2018. Along with mostly dangerous interdimensional creatures running around, the world of Half-Life 2 is also infested with the Combine and fictional technologies ranging from teleportation devices to Gordon Freeman's physics-defying gravity gun. If Half-Life 3 ever finally begins production, it wouldn't be surprising if Valve had anything new in store for players to explore in their alternate 2018.

5 BioShock

While many futuristic science-fiction narratives will choose to set themselves in some sort of future, BioShock makes the conscious decision to set itself in the past. Andrew Ryan's vision of Rapture, complete with bathyspheres, plasmids, and Big Daddies, all came to fruition through the 1950s, with the titular game itself being set in the year 1960.

Despite its historical setting, the world of Rapture looks far different from our current present, and will likely remain that way for some time. The other-worldly underwater setting already makes Rapture look like a setting millions of years into the future, with the city itself filled with numerous technological advancements such as mind-control genetics and life-saving Vita-Chambers.

4 Control

Remedy Entertainment's unique sci-fi-action game combines a bizarre setting and psychotic powers, all in a present-day location. Set in October of 2019, the game takes place in the inconspicuous Federal Bureau of Control building sitting unassumingly on a street in New York City. Inside lies the Oldest House, an interdimensional gateway that appears to almost have a mind of its own.

The world of Control feels like reality gone awry. Apart from the ever-present Oldest House, the building is also home to several "Objects of Power" and other "Altered Items" that contain a mysterious connection to the game's depiction of the Astral Plane. Protagonist Jesse Faden wields unimaginable powers, though is also given a number of unique weapons whose existence doesn't seem possible in our own world.

3 Portal

Portal 2 may take place in an undisclosed year in the far distant future, but the original was seemingly set far closer to our own time. While a specific year is never explicitly stated in the game, most fans concur that the game is set around the year 2010, especially since references to Black Mesa place Portal and Half-Life in the same universe.

For a 2010 setting, Aperture Laboratories has enough futuristic tools to give Black Mesa a run for its money. Of course, there's the ever-popular portal, which the entire game is centered around. But that's to say nothing of the robotic turrents, personality cores, and the humorous and terrifying villain GLaDOS, all of which don't really exist in our current time, for better or for worse.

2 BioShock Infinite

bioshock infinite columbia on the ground wallpaper

Much like BioShock before it, BioShock Infinite is a rare sci-fi setting that's set in the past. Only this time, it's set even further back than the original game. While BioShock's Rapture existed in the 1950s and 60s, BioShock Infinite's Columbia existed in the year 1912.

It may be the year 1912, but that doesn't stop Columbia from having a host of seemingly impossible technologies. Songbird itself is probably the most noteworthy example, a technological wonder built by Fink Industries designed to keep Elizabeth locked in her tower at all costs. Though other seemingly impossible elements exist in Columbia, including the complex science able to keep an entire city afloat thousands of miles above the earth.

1 Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

Beginning in 1964, the Metal Gear Solid franchise has a long and complicated alternate timeline spanning multiple decades. It never reached quite further, however, than Guns of the Patriots, chronologically the final installment in the series. While some Metal Gear Solid games chose to set themselves in the past, Guns of the Patriots was set in the then-future year of 2014.

The game's famous opening line states that "war has changed", though it seems that the world at large has changed as well. War is fought by PMCs and soldiers controlled through nanotechnology. Snake is assisted by the small Metal Gear Mk. II, and through much of the beginning of the game is hunted by the bizarre-looking "Gekko" machines. Like much of Hideo Kojima's works, Guns of the Patriots is strange and engrossing sci-fi, all set before our own time.

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