The Best Daddy And The Boy Games

Summary

• Popular apocalypse road trip tropes in gaming often feature unique familial relationships, not just father and son.
• Games like
  The Last Of Us, God Of War,
  and
  A Plague Tale
  exemplify emotional storytelling within this trope.
• Lisa: The Painful
  subverts typical apocalypse dad tropes, highlighting moral ambiguity and unique relationships.

The parental figure and child character on an apocalypse road trip became a popular trope following the release of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road and the subsequent film adaptation three years later. While definitely an overused setup, it has also provided some great gaming narratives and memorable relationships.

Despite the title given to the trope, (often also referred to as, “apocalypse dad”, to describe the parental figure), only some of the games embodying this narrative trope actually feature a father and son relationship specifically. In fact, some of the best are the stories that involve different familial relationships or explore the trope in unusual ways. However, if they all share a commonality, it is their likelihood to exercise the ol’ tear ducts.

8 I Am Alive

Dusty Dad And Missing Family

I Am Alive is a little different, as the protagonist is separated from his family, and finding them is his reason for being in Haventon. However, he soon enough comes across a mother and child in need of protection.

While the game definitely suffers from the symptoms of rushed development to get it out the door, I Am Alive is an ambitious and atmospheric game. It is admirable in its setting of a definitively climate-induced apocalypse, and the only enemies are small groups of humans just as desperate as the protagonist is.

7 The Last Of Us

Angry Dad And Miracle Girl

Possibly the most famed and to-the-letter version of this trope in video games, The Last of Us wears its inspiration from The Road on its sleeve. Naughty Dog’s classic crafts a unique central relationship and boldly tackles the subversive moral questions stemming from it.

Players control Joel on his mission to escort Ellie across apocalyptic America and deliver her to the self-proclaimed freedom fighters who believe she might be a cure for the fungi-initiated zombie apocalypse. Joel and Ellie make for a great pairing, and their encounters with other characters are consistently the adventure’s highlights.

6 God Of War (2018)

Reformed Dad And Sassy Boy

While many loved the stab-first and nary-a-question-later approach that the old Kratos took to solving all of life’s problems in the original God of War games, turning him into a struggling father was definitely one of the 2018 franchise continuation’s best ideas.

Watching a mass murdering mental case desperately trying not to yell at his brazen boy, Atreus, as they cross the mythical Nordic realms on the verge of Ragnarök, all while also making genuine attempts at better life choices, turned out to be the character-focused story the series needed.

5 Clash: Artifacts Of Chaos

Xeno Zeno Dad And Feather Boy

Clash is an interesting example of a game where the lore takes a massive backseat to put the story front and center. The player controls Pseudo, a hermit of Zenozoik, who comes across the Boy, a puffball of black feathers with huge eyes and endless good intentions. Pseudo decides to defend him from the tyrant, Gemini, who wants to use the powers of the boy to cure their sickness.

Any questions this may arouse will not be answered, and yet the story is engaging, the characters grow and change in their time spent together, and, though it’s quite a short game, by the conclusion it feels like a grand and bizarre odyssey has been undertaken.

4 Telltale’s The Walking Dead Season 1

Morality Dad And Adorable Girl

The first season of Telltale’s video game adaptation of The Walking Dead‘s world put players in control of Lee Everett, a man who is narrowly saved from a long prison sentence by the apocalypse. Seeking refuge, Lee finds himself protecting Clementine, a young girl left to survive by herself due to unfortunate circumstances.

It wasn’t just a story about survival that made season 1 so memorable, but the choices made for survival, how these choices would impact the group, and how Clementine would view Lee. The player felt a part of how the relationship developed and, due to how well both characters were written, it was a relationship that players felt easily and deeply invested in.

3 NieR

Determined Dad And Sick Girl

While there are two versions of this game, both featuring either a father-daughter relationship or brother and sister one, both are equally fitting. The game’s opening, where, either as the brother or father character, the player must defend Yonah from shadowy monsters against the backdrop of a desolate snow-covered city. It feels like a knowing nod toward the trope it is investigating.

By purposefully placing the player in a scene they might feel more familiar with before the endless pulling of rugs begins, by the end, the player is approaching the same trope and relationship with a completely altered understanding.

2 Plague Tale: Requiem

Teen Girl Dad And Rat King Boy

Amicia DeRune, a young girl of just 15 tasked with looking after her younger brother during the medieval rat apocalypse, is also the most badass apocalypse dad of them all. Hunted by merciless knights, crossing battlefield wastelands, and fighting off rat tornadoes; her commitment to their survival surmounts all barriers.

A game that is both heartwarming and heart-stopping — and with a very underrated, bombastic, and emotionally charged soundtrack, composed by Oliver Deriviere — A Plague Tale: Requiem is an unforgettable sequel that digs deep into its theme of family and found family, and its importance in surviving the strife and ruin of war.

1 Lisa: The Painful

Questionable Dad And Last Girl

For some, tropes are like rules; they exist to be broken. This very much seems the case with Lisa: The Painful, a story that knowingly employs many tropes and subverts just about all of them. Employing a sort of macho camp aesthetic (think Lord Humongous from Mad Max 2: Road Warrior) Lisa tells the tale of a world where, after a cataclysmic event, there are no women and all that remains is the madness of men.

The story focuses on protagonist Brad, and Buddy, a female child he finds and raises in secret. What follows is a steady breakdown of tropes, expectations, and hope, until all that remains is the unanswerable question of “the right thing,” and whether anybody did it, whatever “it” is.