The Descendant



The Descendant is a 2016 indie episodic Point and Click series by Swedish company Gaming Corps AB.

After climate change wrecked the planet, a man-made extinction event wiped humankind off the face of the Earth. Only a few thousand ‘descendants of humanity’ were hand-picked to survive the apocalypse, cryogenically suspended in underground bunkers known as Arks. Centuries passed. The world recovered from the nuclear holocaust, and all the Arks reopened, except one — Ark-01. Taking place across two timelines, in the past you play as Mia, a janitor tasked with keeping the precious descendants housed within Ark-01 alive while the facility continually fails around her, and in the present, you'll play as Donnie, one of the investigators trying to rescue any surviving descendants trapped within, all while discovering a far greater conspiracy buried within the underground Ark complex.

Aside from the similarities to the Fallout series, one the more noteworthy aspects of the game how it takes place over two different time periods, your characters' actions in both having lasting repercussions. Another would be how it incorporates and builds on Telltale Games' formula to create an compelling interactive story.

The first episode was released on 24 March 2016 and can be found here.


 * After the End: The game's "present" is set centuries after a cataclysm wiped out civilization.
 * Crapsack Only by Comparison: Ark-01 in Donnie's time is this, in sharp contrast to the other Arks.
 * Crapsack World:
 * The world in the days before the end is strongly implied to be this, given all the references to chaos, climate change and turmoil.
 * By Donnie's time however, this seems to be averted. Humanity is suggested as being well on track in rebuilding civilization, but something may be going on behind the scenes.
 * Deuteragonist: So far, the game has two: Mia in the "past" and Donnie in the "present."
 * Dude, Where's My Respect?: Donnie is a little peeved about how he and his Janitor predecessors had to look after the Descendants for all those centuries, only for them to wake up and generally act high and mighty. The Descendant who accompanies him, a Senator from the old world, doesn't really help matters given how he still acts like a career politician.
 * Expy: There little denying that the Arks are basically 21st Century versions of the Vaults from Fallout.
 * Just Before the End: Mia's arc in Episode 1 starts off just before the nuclear apocalypse that ended the world as she knew it.
 * Legacy Character: The Janitors passed on their duties to their children, who passed them on to their children, continuing the cycle until well after the Descendants themselves were awakened.
 * Ragnarok Proofing: The Arks are shown as being designed to last. By Donnie's time however, Ark-01 looks considerably worse for wear.
 * Ruins of the Modern Age: The topside vicinity of Ark-01, which is mentioned as being in Alaska, still contains some weathered ruins from the old world.
 * Scavenger World: Averted by Donnie's time, given how the other Arks seem well-equipped and designed for rebuilding society. Donnie is forced into this situation, however simply because of how deep and far Ark-01 is.
 * Sincerest Form of Flattery: The game makes no qualms of basing its mechanics on Telltale Games.
 * Slept Through the Apocalypse: The Descendants managed to wait the centuries out in cold slumber, waking up once conditions topside were safe to lead the rebuilding of civilization.
 * Slobs Versus Snobs: By Donnie's time, it's implied that there are simmering tensions between the titular Descendants (the ones cryogenically frozen) and the Janitors (or rather, the descendants of the Janitors of Mia's time), especially given how the latter had the "duty" of looking after their erstwhile superiors all these generations; Donnie himself is a Janitor.
 * Twenty Minutes Into the Future: Mia's half of the plot is set here.
 * X Meets Y: Fallout meets Point and Click.