It’s always something really special when you find that game you still remember playing, whether it’s the story, the gameplay, or something else it has going on. There are some games that just really stick with you. So today, I’m going to be sharing some of those games that altered my brain chemistry. I have a lot, and I hope you’re ready.
Until Then
This game literally made me cry. It was so stunningly beautiful in its storytelling, and it definitely altered some things for me. I’m talking about the game called “Until Then,” which is a visual novel in a pixel art style set in the Philippines. It follows the adventures, I guess, of Mark, who is an ordinary teenager pretty much just trying to deal with teenage life following some pretty tragic natural disasters that have happened in the country.
The main story of this game seems ordinary at first, but it actually has a lot of depth to it. There are some pretty heavy themes about things like domestic violence, so definitely check the trigger warnings for this game. You follow this really emotional story, and a lot of the things in the story aren’t anything too weird or unusual. They’re just everyday kind of life things. But it really—I don’t know—with the music, the style, and the dialogue, you just get this really emotional experience.
The way they’ve told the story in this game is done really interestingly, too, because a lot of these shots and things are almost like you’re watching a movie. So you literally almost feel like you’re playing a movie in this game. This game not only has a really interesting and captivating story and an incredible art style, but it also has a bit of an eerie conspiracy, a dystopian kind of feel to it, which you kind of get to at the end of your first story, I suppose. I don’t want to give away too much, but this is a story that you can experience in multiple ways, so definitely keep an eye out for that as you play through, because everything is not what it seems.
I highly, highly recommend it if you’re looking for an emotional, captivating, and really intriguing story.
It’s available now on PlayStation and Steam
Viewfinder
If you’re looking for a game that will make you question your reality, then Viewfinder is a really interesting game that will definitely do that. This one sees you play most of the gameplay in a simulation, and the simulation has actually been damaged. So as you progress through the different levels, things get more and more wacky. You are able to manipulate this simulation by using photos.
Essentially, you have these photos, and you can make it so that whatever is in the photo is what actually happens in the simulation. For example, if you’re holding a photo of a building and you tip it on its side and then press the magic button, it will materialize this building on its side. And you need to get really creative with how you navigate the levels in this one, because you do need to use those photos to be able to make your way through each level, and it can get really, really hard.
This is a game that literally will bend your mind in the best possible way, and definitely altered mine.
It’s available now on PlayStation and Steam
The Past Within
If you want a game that will kind of give you the heebie-jeebies, then The Past Within is a great choice. You do play this one co-op, so you do need a friend to play with—or not a friend, it’s up to you.
You essentially play as one of two characters, and you either play as a person manipulating a 3D cube, or you play as a person interacting with the 2D environment. So you do need to communicate and work together.
There is a lot of puzzle-solving in this one, but the part that really got me was the storyline. There is a lot of mystery and intrigue, and I don’t want to give too much away. But you essentially follow this character who is journeying through all these different kinds of environments to figure out how to unlock this cube, and things get really weird, and they get really interesting, and it really messes with your mind in a good way.
This one is from the Rusty Lake team, and they are known for doing these types of games. So if you’re interested in single-player ones, they do have some other games like Underground Blossom. A lot of the original Cube games are all there as well, and they have a similar type of feel, but The Past Within is one that has stuck with me and is a really great choice for a co-op experience.
Love, Ghostie
Now, to take things in a completely different direction. This game is one of the most wholesome and adorable games I have ever played, and it has really stuck with me since I played it, because it was just so nice to play. This game is Love Ghostie, and it sees you play as a ghost matchmaker.
You basically have this house that you rent out rooms to random people, and you decide it’s going to be great fun to play matchmaker between the residents. So you pair up the different residents and uncover their different love stories. The thing that is incredible about this game is that it is so just cutesy and wholesome.
It’s a very PG romance; it’s not anything else. So it is suitable for older kids to play. And every single couple in this game can be paired together, and they all have these different stories to uncover. It’s just really wholesome, and it leaves you feeling really nice, so it definitely altered my brain in a really nice way.
It’s available now on Steam
Shapez 2
I think something has to be said about games that scratch your brain in the right way. And for me, one of those games is Shapez 2.
This one is a sandbox automation game set in space where you have different shapes that you mine, and then you can manipulate them – so you can cut them, stack them, and color them – and you have different kinds of quests where you need to fulfill different orders of different shapes.
I think the thing that I love the most about this one is that you basically have freedom to do whatever you like. You don’t have to pay for any of the equipment or the conveyor belts or anything like that, so it really gives you freedom to experiment. I think that that is what makes it so fun, because you can really just push the boundaries.
There’s no resource cost, so you’re not worrying about how much this is going to cost to build and doing things in the shortest possible path, because you need to save your resources, so you can really, really dig deep into efficiency and making the coolest-looking automation lines that you can.
It’s a very simple concept of just getting a shape from point A to point B and manipulating it however you need, but as you progress, they do get quite complicated, and you will find yourself making the weirdest shapes possible.
This is a game that’s a lot of fun if you’re someone who likes having their brain scratched in that way.
It’s available now on Steam
raft
I don’t know about you, but there’s something about a survival crafter game that just messes with my brain every single time I go into a new one. It is this whole journey of freaking out, getting used to whatever it is that was freaking me out, and then having something new come in that freaks me out. It’s the whole cycle of progression, and one of those games that did this for me was Raft.
In Raft, you start off on a 2×2 raft that is basically just a bit of floating wood in the ocean, and you need to scavenge your resources from the ocean itself, from all of the debris, or from nearby islands that you pass.
So you start off with nothing, and you have to build up everything that you need. You need to figure out how to cook food and eat food. You need to figure out how to make water safe to drink, and then there is a whole storyline to follow as well.
The thing that I really love about Raft is that you are not stuck with a home base in the typical sense. Your home base moves, so it really changes a lot of the typical survival crafter elements that you have, because if you have a immovable home base, you don’t venture out as much, so you kind of stay close to home. In Raft you move your home rather than venturing out and exploring and I think this gives you a lot more freedom to explore the world.
Add in this weird post-apocalyptic story that literally sees you navigating through acid pits and escaping killer robots and a whole assortment of random things, and this game is definitely one that will stick with you long after you finish playing.
It’s available now on Steam, PlayStation, and Xbox
Green Hell
If you’re after a survival crafter game that does have that home base element, but will still kind of mess with your brain, then Green Hell has to be on your list.
This game will absolutely destroy your brain cells because it is so intense and so incredible.
In this game, you basically wake up in the middle of the Amazon jungle, and you don’t remember what happened. You barely remember who you are, and you have no idea where you are or how to survive.
This game combines really hardcore survival elements, so you will have food, but it’s not just food, you have different macros that you need to hit. So you have things like protein, carbs, fats, and hydration, and you need to make sure you have adequate amounts of each of those different macros, or otherwise you’ll start seeing different effects on your body.
You also have a range of different ways that you can get hurt, so there’s a bunch of different creatures that will injure you if you are not prepared for them. If you do find yourself injured those injuries don’t just go away, or you can’t just use a random bandage – you actually have to go and find certain plants or like mushrooms or different things to be able to cure you. You can also have random ailments like parasites if you drink untreated water, or you can get leeches from going in the water or around water, and a whole bunch of different things that can ail you, so it’s quite realistic in that sense.
Not only does it have that really hardcore gameplay side, but this one has a really interesting and just weird storyline. Essentially, you’re trying to find your wife and where she is because the last thing you remember is coming to the jungle with her.
For some reason, you end up taking this drink that makes you hallucinate, and you have all these weird flashbacks that you have to actually play through. It’s very really interesting, really eerie, and will definitely mess with your mind, that’s for sure.
It’s available now on Steam, PlayStation, and Xbox
Paper Trail
If you want a puzzle game that doesn’t feature typical puzzle mechanics and will probably challenge you while you get used to it, then Paper Trail is absolutely one that I would highly recommend checking out.
This game messes with your mind because you have to literally fold the actual level.
Each of the levels is set on a piece of paper that you are trying to navigate through, and the pathways don’t always exist, so you actually have to fold the world or fold the pages of the level to be able to create different pathways through. Each level page, I suppose, is double-sided and has different things that you can put in place and there are also different hidden things that you can find if you connect the pathways in the right way.
It’s a really interesting spin on puzzle mechanics and it’s also got a really lovely story where you play as a young girl, making her way to university and navigating through the world to be able to get there and remembering her brother and all of these lovely things.
This is a really wholesome story with some really challenging puzzle mechanics that is perfect for someone looking for a different style of puzzle game that will challenge you.
It’s available now on Steam, Switch, PlayStation, Xbox, and via Netflix
SCHiM
If you’re looking for a 3D platformer that will mess with you a bit, then SCHiM is absolutely one that you need to check out. This one doesn’t even look like a platformer at all, but at its core, that’s what the mechanics are.
You play as someone’s shadow who has been detached by accident, and you are pretty much just trying to get back to your human, but you can only do that by jumping through other shadows.
You have to navigate each level by jumping into the different shadows and as you progress, things get even harder – the shadows start to move and there are different night levels that feature light as well that create different shadows.
It’s basically just a game that really challenges what a platformer actually is. There’s a lot of puzzle-solving in there to be able to work out how to navigate through the level, as well as this kind of wholesome story where you’re just trying to find your human again.
There’s no dialogue or anything in this game, so it’s a really interesting way of telling a story, and it’s got a really unique art style as well that is just really interesting to look at.
This is definitely one I would recommend if you love those kind of platforming elements, but want to experience them in a mind-bending way.
It’s available now on Steam, Switch, PlayStation, and Xbox,
A Highland Song
And last but certainly not least, this game I played over a year ago, and the story has still stuck with me.
The game I’m talking about is A Highland Song, and it’s essentially an exploration game, but kind of done in a unique way.
You play as Moira, who is a 15-year-old lass who lives in the Scottish Highlands, and you get a letter from your uncle who says, “Meet me at the sea at Beltane, I want to show you something.”
You have a limited number of days until Beltane, and you basically run away from home, and then you need to navigate through the Highlands.
The Highlands in this game are absolutely stunning. The illustration of them is so beautiful and so breathtaking, so they will absolutely draw you in, but the thing that really sticks with me about this game is the story.
You have these really interesting narrated sequences where you get a kind of view into the lore of the Highlands, a view into Moira’s story, and is just really captivating.
A lot of the gameplay revolves around navigating through the Highlands, which is a 2D environment with layers. You do need to look for secret paths and find hidden maps and things like that to be able to successfully make it through.
Somehow, as a 15-year-old girl, you know how to rock climb really well, and you need to do that to be able to actually navigate through a lot of these passes, and you’ll often be climbing literally to the top of mountains, and you will get the best views from up there too.
There is a survival side to this game, which is pretty much focused on your hunger and your cold levels, so the colder it is, if you don’t have shelter, you’ll find you have lower stamina, but it doesn’t impact the gameplay too much.
It really is the story and the atmosphere that will leave you speechless in this game, and it’s one that I highly recommend.
That is a wrap on some of the games that have literally messed with my mind in the best possible way and are games that I still think about all the time.
I hope you’ve been able to find a game that might just leave an impact on you too.
Until next time, stay caffeinated.
