Summary
Video games are a versatile storytelling medium that is equally as well-known for its high energy and tactical strategies that are prevalent within many games. However, there are many games that provide atmospheric and immersive gameplay without intense gameplay controls.
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One of which is the sub-genre of games known as walking simulators, which do not have any expressed difficult controls and allow the player to experience the game more through the story and occasional puzzle. There are walking simulator games that feature very deep and impactful storylines that combine other genres, even without the added stress of intense gameplay controls.
8Chasing Static
Chasing Static,from developers Headware Games, isa psychological short storywhere the player explores a rural facility in Wales and the truth behind the missing villagers of nearby town Hearth. After experiencing something that he can not explain at a local café in North Wales, Chris Selwood uncovers a long-forgotten facility where he must uncover clues about what the space was used for.
Alongside the mysterious disappearance of townsfolk, the player must use a frequency displacement monitoring device to navigate the area. The exploration and story are unsettling and horrifying as the sonic device leads the player around Hearth which was full of people seemingly moments ago.
7The Excavation Of Hob’s Barrow
The Excavation Of Hob’s Barrowis a folk-driven narrative horror game from Cloak and Dagger Games. Whilst traveling to the Victorian English village of Bewlay, the main character Thomasina receives a letter summoning her to the barrows nearby the village. However, once she arrives, the sender is nowhere to be found.
This game takeselements from English folkloreand intertwines them with horror elements to create a game that uncovers the truth about the barrows and why no one ever ventures into them, at least no one who has lived to talk about it.
6Firewatch
Firewatch,from developers Campo Sampo, is a first-person mysteryset in the forests of Wyomingwhere firewatchman Henry is stationed atop a mountain, all alone. With his walkie-talkie to communicate with his superior, Henry explores the woods when something unusual draws him out of the watchtower.
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This game features park guests and workers who are going through more than what is revealed on the surface, including Henry himself. While exploring the beautiful and eerie wilderness setting, the narrative takes the driver’s seat in this nuanced and spectacular walking sim.
5Before Your Eyes
Before Your Eyes,from Goodbyeworld Games, is an impactful first-person narrative game where the player controls the story with their real-life blinks. With the story beginning after the death of the player, a mythical ferryman walks the player back through their life by experiencing their most important moments again.
Using the player’s webcam to track blinking, the player can control the flow of the story– or simply pass time by with a blink of an eye. However, the ferryman seeks out more about the player’s life and starts to uncover a heartbreaking truth for the player to experience in order to learn the full story of their life.
4Chilla’s Art Parasocial
Parasocial,from Chilla’s Art, is a part of his horror anthology,Parasocial,featuring the story of a Vtuber whose identity was somehow revealed on-stream to her viewers. Subsequently, the live streamer must come to face the reality that her identity is now public information and that there seems to be someone who is trying to become closer to her through stalking tendencies.
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This game features a very real narrative alongside traditional Japanese horror elements, a VHS aesthetic, and psychological terror. The narrative of this gamespotlights a real terrorexperienced by many live streamers today and uncovers the parasocial elements that might threaten them.
3What Remains Of Edith Finch
What Remains Of Edith Finchfollows Edith as she returns to her ancestral home in order to explain why her family has been plagued with bad luck her entire life. Through exploring the colossal Finch home, Edith experiences the lives of her various relatives and their equally entrancing and haunting tales of how each member died.
Each death serves to teach Edith the truth about herself and her family, although there is more to the story than she might realize or care to admit. This game, althoughnot intensely relying on gameplay mechanics, shows an impactful tale about how massive the world is and Edith’s place in it.
2The Beginner’s Guide
The Beginner’s Guide,from Everything Unlimited Ltd. and Davey Wreden, the creator ofThe Stanley Parable, is a narrative video game without any particular gameplay mechanics, goals, or objectives. Instead, this features a narrative experience following someone who is struggling to deal with something that they do not understand.
Despite the straightforward premise of the storyline, the game seeks to explain outlooks on life with the goal ofimpacting the player emotionallywith the experience of the character featured within the game.
1The Longing
From Studio Seufz comesThe Longing,which follows Shade, the lonely last servant of a king who ruled an underground kingdom. Equal parts adventure and idling, this game tests the player’s patienceand behavior with solitudeduring the 400 days it will take the king to re-awaken.
The game counts down the 400 days, even after the player has left the game. Shade has the opportunity to take strolls around the underground caverns and to find secrets and puzzles. However, this game seeks to teach the player how to take their time and what patience means to them in solitude.
