World broken beyond repair

Sometimes developers make something really cool with world building in their games. I'm talking about games in which the whole world is ruined beyond repair. Inhibitors are seemingly live their last days, the air feels dead and only ruined structures remind of once grand civilization. In other words, I like when games show you not the apocalypse, but what comes after. And I believe no other game does it better than Soul Reaver 1.
Soul Reaver is an indirect sequel to Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain. Nosgoth, the world in which events take place, is a more or less standard medieval dark fantasy world with kings, wizards and vampires. Nosgoth exists in balance and harmony thanks to the circle of nine powerful wizards called guardians, each representing some power of nature, be is time, mind or balance.
Blood Omen tells a story of Kain, who's set on a quest to murder all the Guardians to cure the circle corruption, but when it comes to the final victim - Kain himself, he refuses the sacrifice and thus doom the world to crumble under his vampiric empire.

One of the main themes of Soul Reaver is decay. Throughout Nosgoth we encounter different subspicies of vampires which are decaying, the grand landmarks of the past which are decaying, the human race is decaying and even the Nosgoth itself slowly decays.
Events take place some 2000 years after Kain's last decision in the Blood Omen, in what appears to be a rotten corpse of once blossoming world. The apocalypse has already happened here living no hope to anyone.
People are reduced to mere cattle, living their last days in small stronghold. As a consequence of an ancient war, long lost by humans, the whole remaining population occupies a small stronghold, secretly ran by vampires. The only reason these people were spared is because vampires need to feed. Throughout Nosgoth Kain built furnaces to cover the sunlight with smoke. Human architecture, abbeys, strongholds and cathedrals are either in ruins or occupied by vampires.

The Necropolis conveys the signs of decay most obviously. These are the grounds of Kain's latest lieutenant Melchiah. He received the smallest portion of Kain's soul and thus began to rot almost early. Over the years he replaced his own rotten skin with that of humans, which in the end transformed him into a hideous abomination that consists of roughly sewed parts of corpses. His hunger for blood was replaced with hunger for flesh, but he is no longer able to consume it, so his servants build an enormous grinder to help him devour his victims.
His descendants, who litter the area, resemble zombies rather than vampires. Their flesh rots, uncovering bones and muscles.
Somewhere in Necropolis you can find a giant scull statue. It used to be the retreat of Nupraptor, the mind guardian of Blood Omen era and Kain's first victim among the guardians. Now it is a mere reminder of what once was, almost completely reduced to dust.

Another location conveys the same feeling in a slightly silent way. Silenced Cathedral is the domain of Zephon, older brother of Melchiah. Zephon evolved into a giant spider-like creature, so big he can't even leave the chamber that he occupies. His only duty is to feast on people and lay eggs. Likewise, his descendants are evolved into something that resembles insects.
Upon arriving to Silenced Cathedral, you could notice that most walls are covered with web. At that point it becomes apparent what makes this cathedral silenced. During the aforementioned war this structure was built by humans as a humongous weapon to destroy vampires in all of Nosgoth. This weapons uses sound of specific pitch, deadly for vampires. But failed to be used and is now inhabited by the very creatures it was built to destroy. Another theme of Soul Reaver is irony.

Drowned Abbey another example of structure built against vampire plague was now inhabited by them. Abbey was surrounded by lakes, which was suppose to make a retreat away from vampires. But it ultimately fell and was overtaken by Turel, the third lieutenant of Kain, and later drowned.
The Abbey is now inhabited by clan Rahab. All the other clans are weak against water, but Rahab overcame this weakness. Burning his flesh with water and healing over and over made him immune to it. All of his descendants appear to be something entirely new. No longer vampire, though still hungry for blood.

The last location conveying decay is the Ruined City of Dumahim. Upon arriving you'll soon realize that it's empty. These were the territories of the last of the Kain's lieutenants Dumah. Dumah was once a proud warrior, yet his pride was his ultimate downfall. Unable to foresee an attack by humans, their whole clan was ruined and the city abandoned. Only corpses and scavengers inhabit this place now.
Dumah is the least grotesque of Kain's lieutenants, yet his retreat is the most broken of all. From first sight you can tell this place is a shadow of is former self. Lost and abandoned. The herald of what's to come in all of Nosgoth.

There were some other locations in game similar to that, yet not much is known about them. For example, in your travels you could stumble upon a giant lighthouse surrounded by rocky mountains. This lighthouse has been ruined for a long time and is inhabited by vagrant turelims, searching for food.
It is a cool location, but it got me thinking, what a lighthouse doing in a middle of mountains? Sure, there are ponds of water nearby, but not nearly enough for a real ship. And it's location makes it hard to even use as an actual lighthouse as most light is blocked by rocky peaks of mountains.
The lighthouse striped of its purpose is known in the game as The Light Gliph Altar. Apparently is was used some time ago to provide light to Kain's kingdom, to compensate the lack of sunlight. But was ultimately broken and left there as a sad reminder.

Another small but cool place is an abandoned ship found in caves before the Drowned Abbey. There's no information on this ship anywhere. Nobody knows what's it doing there. It might have been used by Rahab's clan before they overcame their weakness to water. The ship itself is even built to resemble an angler fish. And you know what else resembles angler fish? Rahab and his descendants.
The ship reminds me of Lovecraft's tales. Perhaps it was built by humans to resemble rahabim and was supposed to be used to cleanse the Drowned Abbey of vampires. But as it is not empty, it's not hard to guess what happened to those brave warriors.

The point I was trying to make is that the land of Nosgoth is decaying under Kain Empire's rule and it seems there's no way to restore it. Even if Kain is killed and the balance is restored, it might already be too late for this world's redemption. With or without vampires, humans live their last centuries and the Nosgoth is reduced to wasteland, striped of all hope.
No other game in my eyes could portray a depressing world as effectively as Soul Reaver did. It also helps that we as players know what this place looked like before the rule of vampires. Games like Dark Souls only hint that their world have functioned as an actual kingdom, but their attempts at world building fall flat due to gameplay over-weighting the world-building.
The world of Dark Souls feels like a living myth of Greek gods, rather then a functioning society. It is designed to seem larger than life, but once you stop and think how on earth did people live there, suspension of disbelieve is broken.
In Soul Reaver on the other hand, not only do we know how people lived here before everything gone to hell, Raziel and Elder God constantly narrate how each location lost its purpose and how it used to be in old times.
The world of Nosgoth is the most realistic apocalypse in all of gaming despite being set in universe where vampires and wizards exist.