The Most Atmospheric Steampunk Video Games


Steampunk games that feature steam-powered machines and settings in an alternate history of the Wild West or the industrialized British era of the 19th century are rare. Maybe even more than cyberpunk titles.

Although some games have steampunk elements — just think about the retro-futuristic enemies of Torchlight or the atmosphere of Professor Layton. We focused on these adventures — the ones that really dig themselves deep into this sub-genre — for today’s show us.

Skies of Arcadia

Originally released for the DreamCast in 2000, this JRPG focuses on a young pirate in a victorian fantasy world with colossal airships.

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The Chaos Engine

The final boss of Chaos Engine goes by the same name in Bitmap Brothers’ top-down run-and-gun action game from 1993.

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Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends

Rise of Legends, Big Huge Games’ real-time strategy title adds magic and classic fantasy elements to its industrial world.

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Machinarium

The point and click puzzle game, Machinarium has probably the most beautiful scrapheaps in video games history.

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Wild Guns

A real hidden gem of the SNES library, Wild Guns takes place in an alternate, futuristic Wild West with giant, sluggish robots.

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Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura

The duality of magic and industrial revolution form the world of Troika Games’ 2001 RPG classic.

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Final Fantasy VI

With the memorable opera scene and the bossfight with a steam-engine, the industrial era of the 19th century is maxed out in Final Fantasy VI.

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The Gene Machine

The point and click graphical adventure, made by Divide By Zero and released in 1996 is basically Jules Verne: The Game.

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Thief series

With three amazing stealth games and a fourth one coming, featuring a late medieval setting with strange machines, the Thief games don’t really need an introduction.

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Wild ARMs series

The Japanese role-playing series from Media.Vision are already in cult status. Similar to Wild Guns, all the games are set in the Wild West with even more bizarre science fiction elements.

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Progear

CAVE’s horizontal scrolling arcade shooter also has a beautiful steampunk setting, which is pretty uncommon for these type of games.

To name new games with beautiful, steampunk-inspired visuals, Dishonored and Bioshock Infinite prove that even though these games are rare, the genre won’t go away anytime soon.

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Any other steampunk games that gave you chills and not featured on our list? Or do you have great moments from one of these? Make sure to post them in the comments with any kind of visual support!

Sources: AmidstStorm, DeoxySynchro89, FenPhoenix, poa9s, Amanita Design, ArchmageMelek, HardcoreGaming101


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