You're the type of person who could spend a year on just one game, but a year's becoming too short. You want a game that spans into lifetimes that you can't imagine, maybe a thousand or more — and you want to be able to witness centuries pass by you without turning into dust.
Or you're just a historian who loves witnessing fictional events unfold in video games. Whether you want to shape fictional history or want to just witness it as a bystander, there are many worlds for you to explore with stories that go on for thousands of years.
10 Bayonetta
Timeline: More Than 1,000 years
Not taking into account the other games in the Bayonetta series, it's no surprise the first game would already be taking place on a lengthy timeline full of history between Umbra Witches and Lumen Sages. If Cereza herself is 500 years old, it's clear that the game's world would have to be older.
The First Armaggedon itself occurred at a time before recorded history, meaning that Bayonetta's world has to be ancient. Although it remains to be confirmed, you're not unaware of the Bayonetta Multiverse that exists. Time could be relative in the series, and as revealed in Bayonetta 3, many civilizations in those different worlds were at varying paces.
9 Warframe
Timeline: More Than 1,000 Years
The story is set 1,000 years after the Tenno War, so it fits the bill as a story that's set after a thousand years. But the world of Warframe itself might be older than where official history starts, and it wouldn't be surprising if the game is actually set millenniums into the future.
The starting point itself would be difficult to pinpoint from where you would be counting from. Time references in Warframe have almost always been vague, but even the history of The Orokin Empire and its ability to terraform other planets should be enough evidence that the story takes place in a civilization so advanced and removed from what we currently know.
8 Horizon: Zero Dawn
Timeline: More Than 3,000 Years
Modernity was rejected in the first half of the game, but Horizon: Zero Dawn has a history that was once lost to the Apocalypse. Given the looks of the infrastructure in the game and how a lot hasn't been obliterated to dust just yet and just swallowed by jungles, it's safe to think that it's only been 1,000 years.
But even if you take the official timeline into account, the Faro Plague happened during 2064. The game is currently set somewhere around the year 3040, but if it's a modern tragedy set in an alternate timeline on Earth, then it's safe to say that the world in this game is more than 3,000 years old.
7 Civilization 6
Timeline: 6,000 Years
Civilization 6 mirrors history, but with the added detail of you being the one to manipulate its events. To beat this game and build a civilization that would put each country in real life to shame is a good ego boost that could stoke the hidden politician within you that you didn't know existed until you played this game.
But just like human history, this game takes after a timeline that's similar to recorded history. Our recorded history on earth is 5,000 years, but Civ 6 starts at 4000 AD.
6 Genshin Impact
Timeline: More than 6,000 years
Expect everything from Genshin Impact, including a millenniums-old god casually strolling through the bustling streets of Liyue. The main story of the game occurs 500 years after The Cataclysm, but the older character in the game thus far is 6,000 years old. That's a number that's subject to change, since it's known that Teyvat goes through a cycle after a long period of peace.
There have been many civilizations that have risen and fallen, and outlanders who entered and left the world. Aether and Lumine might even be older than any of these gods and long-life species in Teyvat since the twins were interstellar travelers before their separation, but we'll never know until we reach the final chapters of the story.
5 Europa Universalis
Timeline: 9,999 Years
Civ 6 was too short for you, and you'd like to see a world that's beyond what your lifetime can accommodate. Europa Universalis could be played from Year 2 up to Year 9999, and it's safe to say that you wouldn't be rising from your chair with all the new mechanics you'd want to explore in this mod.
The game itself is limited to 400 years, but with the Extended Timeline modification, Europa Universalis can be played to your heart's content. Please note that this game isn't for baby politicos, but for seasoned strategists since you could be driven into decision-making overload.
4 Warhammer 40,000: Darktide
Timeline: 40,000 Years Into The Future
Warhammer 40,000 have timelines that span over thousands of years ahead, and Warhammer 40,000: Darktide is no exception to this. Its set in the year 40,000 wherein interstellar chaos has become the norm within the Milky Way Galaxy.
You'd think that humans would change after thousands of years of existence and that you'd get ideally terraformed planets and less infighting. The only thing that's changed, though, is that they're finally out of the earth in the presence of gods and alien beings that threaten their existence.
3 Honkai Impact 3rd
Timeline: More than 52,000 Years
Hoyoverse is notorious for two things: creating games that have the biggest mobile file sizes, and writing characters that are millenniums old. Honkai Impact 3rd features a history in which a mysterious force called the Honkai plagues Earth. Whether it's an event, phenomenon, or disease is something that you'll want to explore by playing the game itself.
The only question you probably have is why are characters in this game designed to look like 20-somethings or 30-somethings at most? Maybe that's just how things work for people who live for thousands of years.
2 Nier: Automata
Timeline: 11, 945 AD In The Future
Remember when everybody was just scared of COVID and AI taking their jobs and stealing their art? NieR: Automata depicts an Earth that is plagued with an incurable White Chlorination Syndrome, and sentient robots eventually take over the planet. Humans, on the other hand, are rumored to have gone up to live on the moon.
Plagues and pandemics are nothing new to mankind, but the existence of sentient robots is what makes the equation have a different outcome. Your last expectation of this game was probably a heart-wrenching story about a robot.
1 Stray
Timeline: 6,967,633 Years
You'll be happy to know that orange tabby cats still exist 6,000,000 years later into the future. If you love cats, you've probably already played this game. But even if you don't, moving around as a cat makes Stray's gameplay unique and memorable.
It's also a world that's plagued by robots, machines, and mutant bacteria without humans in sight. But maybe you don't need humans after this many years to know that the world is healing, you just need to see the world through the eyes of a cute cat.