The Post-Apocalyptic Aesthetic
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- čas přidán 6. 09. 2024
- So why are we so obsessed with post-apocalyptia and how do the aesthetics play a part in it? Join me in this video essay as I journey through the worlds of post-apocalyptic video games…
Patreon: / eurothug4000
Thumbnail by HotCyder:
/ hotcyderable
A huge thank you to Jacob Geller and HeavyEyed for supplying their voices! Be sure to check out their channels here:
/ yacobg42
/ @heavyeyed
A big thanks to Corrupted Save for help with the script, artbook scans and HZD footage:
/ @corruptedsave
Video inspired by the fantastic work by Mark Minkjan and Simone Pizzagalli:
Mark Minkjan failedarchitec...
Simone Pizzagalli
modi-operandi.b...
I also highly recommend reading these fantastic pieces that take a look into the real life ruins that surround us and how they’re replicated in games:
www.eurogamer....
www.eurogamer....
Links for the urbex creators and COD 4 Bloc vs Real Life Pripyat video mentioned:
The Proper People (Urbex)
• Exploring the Abandone...
• Exploring an Abandoned...
Shiey (Urbex)
• ILLEGAL FREEDOM: Journ...
Call of Duty 4 Chernobyl / Pripyat Game vs Real Life Comparison
• Call of Duty 4 Chernob...
OTHER SOURCES
www.bbc.com/cul...
www.aesdes.org...
failedarchitec...
www.bbc.com/cul...
www.google.co....
www.nationaltr...
www.cnbc.com/2...
• DYING LIGHT 2 Official...
• Chernobyl Becomes Hot ...
www.pexels.com...
MUSIC USED
TLOU OST - The Last of Us (You and Me) - Gustavo Santaolalla
Death Stranding OST - The Timefall - Ludvig Forssell
Rule of Rose OST - Backbiting - Yutaka Minobe
Death Stranding OST - Chiralium - Ludvig Forssell
Solo Cello Passion - Doug Maxwell, Media Right Productions
Metro Exodus OST - Lacrimosa - Oleksii Omelchuk
Silent Hill 3 OST - Never Forgive Me, Never Forget Me
TLOU OST - Vanishing Grace - Gustavo Santaolalla
Death Stranding OST - Heartman - Ludvig Forssell
Resident Evil 0 OST - Save Room Theme - Seiko Kobuchi
GAME FOOTAGE USED
Resident Evil 3 Remake, The Last of Us, The Last of Us Part 2, Horizon Zero Dawn, NieR:Automata, Metro Exodus, Dying Light, Death Stranding, Dying Light 2, Mad Max, Days Gone, Fallout 76, The Walking Dead, Chernobylite
ART MENTIONED/SHOWN
View of the Grande Galerie in Ruins (1796) - Hubert Robert
The New Zealander (1872) - Gustave Doré
A Bird’s-eye view of the Bank of England (1830) - Joseph Michael Gandy
Tintern Abbey: The Crossing and Chancel, Looking towards the East Window (1794) - Joseph Mallord William Turner
Stormy Coast Scene after a Shipwreck - Horace Vernet
Valley of Aosta: Snowstorm, Avalanche, and Thunderstorm (1837) - Joseph Mallord William Turner
Evening: Landscape with an Aqueduct (1818) - Théodore Gericault
The Falls of the Rhine at Schaffhausen (1841) - Joseph Mallord William Turner
Part of why I love Breath of the Wild is its exploration of a medieval post-apocalyptic setting. So much post-apocalyptic fiction falls back on having to rebuild society from the ground up in a world where technology is far too complex for any single group to understand and construct, where things from the old world are more capable than the new, so there's this beautiful purity to the idea of an apocalypse where nothing was *really* lost. Homes had to be moved, families grieved, but the blank slate was able to be filled in again within a generation. A positive chance to start again and build something better.
I think it was Matt Colville that made an interesting point Re: Fantasy. He said that pretty much all fantasy worlds are post apocalyptic. I mean think about it, much of the fantasy aesthetic is about going to lost civilizations, re-claiming the Dwarven strongholds, uncovering ancient treasures. No one would go on these grand adventures if the +5 holy sword could be made by anyone alive. Much of fantasy assumes the existence of a previous, more technologically (magically) advanced civilization from whence these treasures and ruins come from.
Do Post-Apocalypses wherein humanity has returned to a mostly Stone Age existence with some Bronze Age societies scattered throughout count as this?
@@jadefae Hi, just saw this. I think a lot of this comes from the origins of fantasy as a genre - creating new fairy tales in the style of ones we associate tightly with the medieval era, which believed super thoroughly that they were in an era of decline. Europeans at the time existed within the ruins of empires without the kind of historical knowledge to really understand what they were, people living in Rome understood that it once used to be great but the specifics of the decline were lost to time. This idea that the future would be more technologically advanced and positive is largely a recent one, for a very long time it was just assumed that they were on the downslope of civilization.
German boi here, this is actually the first time i hear "Ruinenlust" and im gonna use this Word so much now. Great Video !
The thing I love about the post apocalypse is how humanity changes. It’s like a reset button. New ideologies, wars, factions, and religions. The end is just a new beginning
I have a half-written script on this that I need to change now.
(anyway, great vid)
omg don't change it!! I'm excited to see your take on it!
@@eurothug4000 the bigger issue is that for that script to work, it involved me visiting a bunch of rundown places, which is less of an option right now than it was when I first thought I had a great idea lol
Ahh damn that would've been so good! Still, I'm sure it's going to come out amazing without that included!
@@razbuten I really hope you can make that video when this is over. Urban exploration is amazing ^^
I love it when my favorite youtubers comment on each other's videos
2:00 "and who doesn't want to feel competent" now that felt personal
Because of the internet and memes every time i see the word aesthetic my brain automatically reads it as
*A E S T H E T I C*
Great video btw
(This Comment got hearted I accidentally edited it out smh)
TOUGH LUCK I HEARTED IT AGAIN
@@eurothug4000 *Not all heroes wear capes*
Jacob Geller is, by far, my favorite content creator here on CZcams, and I'm so glad to see that other people also do these kinds of videos. It helps break that argument that games are just... games.
Games are philosophy, sociology, art, history, anthropology. This medium is probably the most expansive that well ever have, and I'm happy to see that people realize that.
I just found your channel and it was probably the best thing that happened to me this week.
Amazing video about one of my favorite tropes AND feeling ever. Those being post-apocalyptic stuff and ruinenlust!
Congrats and thank you for this piece if art!
I always wanted to write an apocalyptic medieval dark fantasy overcome with plague, demons and other such forces of unrestrained nature. While the world I envision is different from any of the examples talked about in this video, this video still inspired and reminded me of my half-baked notes. Maybe when I finally get around to converting my notes into a real story, I'll probably be back to watch this video again.
Any update?
Oh wow so cool to see Jacob Geller at 13:10, the video essays you both make are exceptional and it's so exciting to see collaboration between you both, even if it's just a voiceover. Massive props for this video, it's really thought-provoking, beautiful and haunting, kind of like the apocalypses we seem to be stuck in
Thank you so much!! I was really stoked to have Jacob do some voice over for this one :)
Great video! I actually recently played through the entirety of Telltale's Walking Dead series and that (and your video) reminded me a lot of why I love post-apocalyptic worlds. On an aesthetic level, seeing ruined buildings, knowing what they used to be used for, and adapting them into something new for a new society is a fascinating idea. And even the visual concept of decay speaks to how people change after an apocalypse. People don't care about maintaining the visual and aesthetic state of buildings and objects anymore because they're too busy trying to survive.
mentioning that people seeing thing normal as beautiful reminds of Carl being shot and thinking more of the deer he saw than the violence that took his eye
Damn that Pizzagalli guy sounds like a hungover kiwi it's kinda wild
can’t believe he had 17 beers the night before
As a german, I have NEVER heard the word Ruinenlust - and I am 0% surprised that it exists, haha. Same origin as Wanderlust, I can imagine, stemming from an old-german way of describing any enthusiastic hobby with Lust - which in modern times means either only low-key positive association with a topic or sexual arousal, by the way!
13:52 you do such a good job explaining that feeling of hiding from security and exploring. The other day I asked my dad, “is it weird that I think about trespassing?” But u perfectly summed up that feeling in just a few seconds... you continue to amaze me.
I love how deep into this subject you dug. Fantastic insight, fantastic delivery. Great video mate.
thank you so so much! I really appreciate it :)
Maybe interesting for you: In the Aesthetics of Immanuel Kant and later Friedrich Schiller this kind of beauty is called Das Erhabene (The Sublime). It's the kind of Aesthetic where humans realize how small they are when perceiving something they can't rationally grasp. Kant gives sea storms, huge mountains etc. as an example. I think nature overwhelming civilization plays a huge part for that in postapocalyptic games.
I'm fascinated by how many scenes in Last of Us you show in this that I, having played both games over and over again, have never seen before. So much great stuff that I missed, you have a great eye!
You analyse games the way a brilliant and passionate English teacher would analyse a book, and I can't get enough of it.
10/10 video essay. i've always wondered what is it about post-apocalypse settings that makes me love them so much. on the one hand, i always knew i had a thing for the 'city reclaimed by nature' aesthetic, but i couldn't figure out all the other factors that played into it. i hadn't realize that a lot of what makes it so attractive to me is how peaceful the post-apocalypse can be. that in the middle of all the chaos and destruction there is still beauty. your analysis and insight was so spot on, i think you absolutely nailed it and makes me now appreciate this genre in a new light. thanks for the great work!
Yet, another topic that feels just right. Just one constructive suggestion for you, Maria. For the way you speak, shows that you’re a quick thinker and need to say things fast. A little bit of pausing between dialogues would come perfectly so we can analyze what you just said. Keep it going with this awesome videos.
I actually edit down my voice over because I make a lot of mistakes while talking! Thank you for your feedback though, it’s hard for me to tell these things so now that I know, I will include more pauses and better pacing in the future :) I really appreciate the advice, thank you!
This is a bloody great video. Eloquent points made about one of the most important aspect about post-apoc, the world and how it reflects back on the player.
I can appreciate all of the editing that I can tell went into this one as well, serves as a good break from editing my own video on a heavy post-apoc game.
Again, great video.
Thank you so so much! ☺️ I really appreciate it!
I love this. I enjoy everything about post-apocalyptic imagery and storytelling. Great work!
Urrghhh this kind of aesthetic is so satisfying and a therapy for me😩💕
oh my thank you eyepatch wolf for the recommendation, this video is superlative!
you described perfectly what i love about post apocalyptic genre in one video, plus you treats basically all my favorite videogames in 16 minutes, yeah i like post apocalyptic maybe too much.
you earned a subscriber, when i have time im going to watch that massive video on Death stranding ✌🏻
I love how you combine philosophy, and art history with games in your essays... Really elevates your content compared to many other game essayists'. Awesome work and I'm so happy I discovered your channel!
I found your channel through Jacob Geller, and I love both of your guys' content so much! After I devoured literally all of Jacob's videos, I was so happy to find your channel! This video was awesome, I definitely wanna look into some of those articles you mentioned!
Thank you!! I love Jacob’s work so so much 😭 I was so happy he did some voiceover for this vid!
Another Great Vid!
I also really like how distant post-apocalyptic games(Nier, Horizon: ZD, ect...) Gives the creators such a huge playground to play with. Human Iconography is weird and most of it requires a lot of cultural context, so when you divorce the characters from that context it's always super interesting to see how they interpret things that the player instinctively knows, and how that can intentionally create a disconnect between their expectations. It's such a powerful tool for worldbuilding and literary theming, and can either let you be either really creative or convey a message to the player without them even knowing!
the writing on your videos are absolutely fantastic. especially on this one. I hope to see more and may you be ever more successful on your channel.
Skyrim, some Hitman blood money mission like Christmas one are so beautiful I stop and admire the scenery, cozy feeling.
Your death stranding video remains the best analysis i have seen . This video also doesn't dissappoint
my story is about a young teen who wakes up from who knows long in cryo sleep, after a nuclear war, after everyone had given up on earth and had left earth or left to underground bunkers never to be open, now in the ruins of the city of Mayfield he is alone, no life except for a few stray plants that survived the nuclear winter
I'm an English teacher and for my senior English class, the students are studying the post apocalyptic novel of 'Station Eleven' by Emily St. John Mandel. This is a great video and resource that beautifully captures the fascination with the post apocalyptic and why we as humans are so drawn to it. Thank you!
We should always cherish the most important moments and people we have in our lives as long as we're alive.
I'm not religious but I also think that their is a christian parallel to be drawn. The rapture, the book of revelations, all of those things are seen as a cleansing. A point where all the evil souls are punished and the good ones are saved. So I think that perhaps some of the appeal of the post apocalyptic aesthetic comes from the idea that "If I'm still here, I must be one of the good ones, I was saved. And I get to see the new world formed after the flood."
Great video! I loved every second.
i am very impressed with your video! :) - i GM and develop a post apocalyptic pen and paper game since years and i strive to create many of the moments you describe. Especially the creation and reaction of societys/factions is absolute fascinating for me, you gave me some new ideas and i try to focus a little bit more on descriptions of the micro history my players would encounter everywhere! thank you a lot
I am literally obessed with post apocalysm.
I am also a game developer and I cant make a game without a post-apocalyptic world.
Beautiful video with beautiful background music
"Oh man, this is going deep into architecture and space, reminds me of videos from... oh, right, there he is"
Always good to see these bits of cross-polinization, specially when every flower in this metaphor is so very, very awesome.
your voice is so beautiful and comforting
amazing video and topic friendo the dark beauty of ruins is always such a fascinating thing to see walking a empty space of what was once occupied truly is a experience and you captured all the intrigue one could have with this topic awesome job!
thank you so much!! glad you enjoyed it!!
Such a calming voice for a calming video
thank you!! :)
this was a very oddly specific video that i was looking for lol thankyou !!
What a great video! Loved the reference to The Proper People. Some of the buildings they have explored have really made me gain a newfound respect for how accurate The Last of Us landscapes can be.
Dude I'm so glad you promoted yourself on Twitter, instant subscribe 💜
Really interesting! I didn't know about Horizon's design aesthetic before, but it's one of my favorite games and it makes me appreciate the game even more
Really great video!
Glad you like it! Thank you! :)
me too,,, the landscapes,,, there's something special about it,,, that's why I am so in love with world of walkers m/v series
so underrated this is frigging beautiful art and video im taking this and using this whenever I need to find inspiration for a drawing in a post apocalyptic settings
Used this for my coursework and I love it
Beautiful video essay!
just want to say, the level of quality and effort in these videos is amazing
ill definitely be back to watch more
This is an excellent video. You put words to something I couldn't describe about why I love settings like this so much. Think I'm going to make Ruinenlust part of my regular vocabulary. 😂
Another amazing video! Great work as always!
Thank you so much!
It fits as a master degree thesis!
I've been watching your vids all night. Seriously fantastic stuff, you've more than earned my subscription.
This video was fucking awesome it deserves more views
Best video I have ever seen on this subject! Love it!!! I'm actually so passionate about this!!
I don't recall ever subscribing to you, but i'm glad i did! great content!
I love the way you put this together. Good job.
Brilliant video! I've actually gotten into watching a lot of urbex in the last several months, it's both fascinating and incredibly sad to see what has happened to a lot of incredible places when catastrophe, capitalism, etc. cause buildings and locations to be completely abandoned.
Great vid, i find myself a big fan of post-apocalyptic worlds too, especially in games
Incredible take on the topic! Love it! Although I think one big factor is "-How do we justify the lack of NPCs and why are you fighting monsters alone? -uuh.. Everybody's dead! Big catastrophe a while ago!"
Fantastic video!
Your videos are fantastic. I'm a new fan. Very well put together, worded better than most video game review sites, and just filled with hearth. Keep it up!
I did my dissertation on the fetishization of ruins by urban explorers and photographers in comparison to Arcdian painters of the 18th century and never once thought about video games on this topic, thank you for the new perspective, I would love to know more!
That's awesome!! I linked a couple good articles in the description that I really enjoyed, they're worth a read! :)
@@eurothug4000 I'll have a look, do you have a discord or something for people to discuss theses topics?
unfortunately not :( but maybe one day!
GGGREEAAT content! Love it, you deserve way more views/subs.. it's weird and frustrating how CZcams works. Found you from Heavy Eyed's video "How We Talk About Games"
Thank you so much! :) Glad you enjoyed the vid!
Beautiful video.
Heyyyy! You showed The Proper People! I love their videos. I love the whole abandoned aesthetic for some reason. I urbex video's and only recently realized how much fun it is to get the same feeling by playing a game. I only watched someone else play The Last of Us, and I loved the visuals, but I didn't get to play it myself. I'm not really sure I like zombie games though. The idea of zombies just kinda puts me off.
I really liked Tomb Raider and Rise of the Tomb Raider, but their ruins, while graphically amazing, just didn't feel quite right a lot of the time. They are often designed too much like a game level. When I explore an abandoned tomb or level in tomb raider, I often find a set of unrealistically complicated puzzles, or strategically placed piles of rocks and ammunition. Instead of letting my imagination run wild and trying to imagine what the building used to look like or what it was used for, I often just found buildings that were designed only for interesting puzzles or for cover against the incoming enemies; with a really nice abandoned "skin" put on top.
My favorite game so far that let me explore beautiful abandonment, was actually Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. I was not expecting it when I bought the game. It is a science fiction, fantasy, action game; but there are a lot of abandoned ruins in the game. Some people might not appreciate it because it is harder to relate to an abandoned star destroyer when space ships like that are not real, but I found that it combined so many things that I love, that I can't even describe it all. I love immersing myself in a fictional world that feels real, good and vast world building, exploration, fantasy, mystical discoveries, abandoned beauty, urbex, science fiction, and trying to satisfy that curiosity of when you find something abandoned and wonder what it was for and how it used to work, who built it, and what people were like when living there.
The very first planet you get to explore in Jedi: Fallen Order has relics and buildings from some ancient civilization, but then explorers have come and gone setting up their own places to live while studying the even older ruins. There are several layers of abandonment to explore and wonder about. And it isn't just nice background for gameplay, it is actually very important to the game as you have to figure out what the ancient temple is for by using the clues left behind by the more recent explorers. And since this is science fiction with advanced technology, there are a lot more things that hold up to the weather. It was fun to find abandoned places that still have scraps and bits of power still going through them.
(note: I don't think there are any spoilers, but if you want to discover everything without any idea what you will find, maybe don't read this paragraph) My most favorite planet in the game was one that had an ancient temple (actually they all kinda have ancient temple ruins, its kinda the main objective) anyways, on the surface, the world had a small village with a small spaceport nearby, but recently, the empire forced everyone to leave. So the village is empty. It was really eerie to wander around this somewhat primitive village with no signs of decay. Then there was the ancient ruins, that the empire had started to connect to a modern research facility while they tried to extract anything valuable from the ruins. The difference between these environments was very stark and jarring. Then there was also a battleship from the clone wars that had crashed down on the planet. This was my favorite place to explore.
The game also has little bits of memories left through the force that give the player clues to what people were feeling and doing in these abandoned places. Have you played Jedi: Fallen Order? I'd like to hear someone else's thoughts on this. Especially since most people only focus on the gameplay and story.
Great video, I enjoyed it a lot, I love discussions surrounding the Post apocalypse
This is really good video. Good job, man.
thank you!
Nice vid, I'd love you to add Disaster Report and Enslaved into the convo in later ones !
‘Ruinenlust’ sounds about right
Dios, como me gusta este canal.
that rule of rose song clicked w/ me immediently haha i just played that game a few weeks ago.
you deserve a lot more subs
This was fucking brilliant that's an easy sub right there
Horizon still has my favorite post-apocalyptic world, it looks so beautiful
Still not as good as Aloy's hair physics though
Totally off topic, but the Rule of Rose OST was not lost on me. Love the video!
First time I've seen one of your vids. Very well written! You've earned another follower.
Wish there were more stories showing the development of societies and civilisations across the centuries and millennia after the Apocalypse. Like, am I the only one who loves it when post-apocalyptic peoples end up developing into the whole “Spear-carrying/buck-naked except for loincloths/body paint on bare chests and legs” look? What do you think it is about that look that’s so iconic and appealing?
I know exactly what you mean. Fallout New Vegas and Horizon Zero Dawn are probably the best examples of this setting and they both had some of the same writers behind them.
@@baneofbanes A good name for the period immediately after the Cataclysm (my personal term for an apocalyptic disaster that destroys global civilisation) is the Decivilisation Process (think The Simplification in “A Canticle for Leibowitz”). This refers to how, after the cities are burned down or flooded and the suburbs have succumbed to tornados and/or wildfires when humans transition away from our modern technological lifestyle and begin to forget our former society as we start to become what we were in the Palaeolithic Age: nature-worshipping, nearly naked foragers* who scavenge for food and resources in the ruins of a world over which we once ruled.
*First our shoes and socks wear away and we become barefoot once again. Then our shorts decay away until being bare-chested is once again the norm for our species. And then even our pants become obsolete as most humans deal with newly nomadic lifestyles by returning to wearing nothing but loincloths and occasionally what used to be underwear but is now just ‘clothing’.
13:10 that voice! Woo!!!!!
Amazing video. Can't wait for your take on the last of us part 2
If someone asked me "are video games art?" I would show them this video.
always love your videos
Love your videos! great stuff!
Never knew that there was a word for my obsession lol.
Hey Euro, I'm confident you'd say D. Stranding > Last of Us, but, I sort of wonder what aspect of apocalyptia appeals to you to go in that direction
Hey! It’s hard for me to compare them in regards to their post-apocalyptic aspects since they explore different stages of civilisation’s decay, I think they’re both exceptional in that regard! I personally prefer Death Stranding’s gameplay though because I find it really therapeutic to walk across the emptier landscapes, I think because the ‘loneliness’ of post-apocalyptia is my favourite part :)
I'm a simple man. I see a new video by eurothug4000, I click on it.
nice introduction，i am a big fan of post-apocalyptic🎉，you let me know more about it!
Great video!
Excellent video essay. I’d be very curios to hear your take on post-apocalyptic societies, if you ever plan to do a video about this!
Great video. Hope you get more views!
what an incredible video, congratulations
great video, thanks :3
All of your videos are fantastic !
Days gone was a great game. Saw you put a clip of it in there.
I was sure I was hearing Rule of Rose music in the background. Thought I was going crazy as I had just rewatched an hour long Rule of Rose dissection video lol
Hell yeah love Jacob
Exceptional work. Subscribed.
Thanks and welcome! :)
Great video
My favourite post apocalyptic story had to the be the road by cormarc McCarthy no zombies none of that nonsense more grounded in reality with human beings resorting to cannibalism to survive which is realstic and far more terrifying than flesh eating monsters more so is the fact that farmers are gone people with the knowledge on how to grow food no longer exist the crops are barren in the film adaptation which is pretty good