Top 5 Great Video Games you need to experience
When people talk about video games, they think it as an entertaining and relaxing activity. While one might enjoy blasting enemies on yet another FPS map for hours, it's the emotional moments that truly makes a game memorable.
When people talk about video games, they think it as an entertaining and relaxing activity. While one might enjoy blasting enemies on yet another FPS map for hours, it's the emotional moments that truly makes a game memorable.
Over the last dozen or so years, more and more games have gone beyond just another time sink. Video game story telling has come such ways that most of these games on this list can even be enjoyed as a movie.
Below are what I believe to be the top 5 emotional games in recent history that should definitely get some more exposure. Honourable Mentions (pictured above in order from top to bottom): Limbo, Walking Dead, Shadow of the Colossus
Below are what I believe to be the top 5 emotional games in recent history that should definitely get some more exposure. Honourable Mentions (pictured above in order from top to bottom): Limbo, Walking Dead, Shadow of the Colossus
5. Gone Home
Gone Home starts off exactly as what the title says. You are 21 year old Kaitlin Greenbriar, coming home after spending a year abroad in Europe. At first when you enter the house it feels cold and emotionless, even unsettling. But as you explore further in, you start to discover and piece together the events that transpired during the time you were gone, which this house starts to feel more so of a home. Gone Home is a game best taken slowly, as each object is just another piece of the puzzle. The items littered about really gives you an insight on happened without actually showing you. Enjoy the small notes, papers, phone messages, or even mixed tapes littered about, and prepare yourself when you finally get to the end of this hauntingly beautiful tale. Play this if: You enjoy working in order to put together a story. Human connections through different mediums.
4. Heavy Rain
When Quantic Dream unveiled Heavy Rain, they were hoping to reshape the gaming industry. An interactive drama game, Heavy Rain is probably nothing like you've ever played before. Heavy Rain takes place over several days in an unnamed city during October 2011. You play as several different characters involved with the mystery of the "Origami Killer". Each of the character has an extensive background, which is told if you choose to explore it. They are each deep, realistic, and not just another cookie cutter version of each other. You start off getting introduced to each of the characters: Ethan Mars, whos son is missing and feared to be the latest victim of the Origami killer. Joining him in the story are also private investigator Scott Shelby, FBI criminal profiler Norman Jayden, and insomniac Madison Paige. The game offers the player a series of choices as each chapter progresses. These choices often comes back later on in the game as the story unfolds. It also explores several different themes for each of the character. The game builds on each of these themes and characters, and it sucks you in until the end. Play this if: You enjoyed extensive characters with deep backgrounds. Also if you enjoy film noir thrillers. Play On: PS3
3. Silent Hill 2
When it comes to "horror" games. Capcom's Resident Evil is usually thought of first with it's quick action zombie shooting game play, it's plot however, is found usually lacking. Enter Silent Hill, which takes it in a completely different approach, sure it still has it's "OMG KILL IT NOW" moments, but the game gives you the jeebies on a completely different level. The game introduces James Sunderland, who goes back to Silent Hill after a letter from his wife tells him to meet him at their "Special Spot". Problem is, his wife's been dead for several years. The town is suspiciously empty, and the living things you do meet are either soulless creatures who are trying to bite off your head, or several unique yet slightly off characters who bears a strange resemblance to someone James knows... The game has the same awkward controls as any survival horror game during it's time. But the game truly excels with the atmosphere and symbolism littered all throughout the town. As the game progresses, you start to wonder who the real antagonist of the game is. Play this if: You're sick of playing the same zombie head blowing experience, and if you enjoy peeing in your pajamas. Play On: PS2 originally, but thankfully an HD remaster version has come out on the PC, PS3 and XBOX360.
2. The Last of Us
No other game made more of a splash in 2013 than The Last of Us. Naughty Dog's anticipated survival horror game was everything it advertised. As 2014 goes on, I personally can see no other game top what this did last year. The game starts off with what has got to be the best opening scene in all of gaming. You play as Joel, a hardened smuggler, has been living in a quarantined Boston, after an outbreak of an infection almost 20 years ago wiping out most of humanity. His path crosses one with Ellie, a gritty 14 year old girl who knows nothing of the world before. The world is a bleaker place now, everyone needs to kill to survive, morals are thrown out to stay alive, everyone wonders how much worse tomorrow will be. The game play is spectacular, it combines survival horror with RPG and FPS elements. The music and voice acting are also top notch, as well as the graphics really makes the game pop out. The story explores humanity and the what-ifs when our race's survival is at stake. You'll soak up every single last bit the game has to offer, even including the small side conversations between Ellie and Joel on topics such as comics. The whole adventure takes you on a journey that will leave you emotionally drained and satisfyingly complete at the same time. The Last of Us is a the complete package. This game belongs as one of the top games period. You are missing out if you have not experience this masterpiece. Play this if you enjoy: The TV series The Walking Dead, as it explores quite a similar themes. Play On: PS3, remastered is on the PS4
1. To the Moon
And finally the game that inspired this entire list. Freebird Games' To The Moon is a hidden gem. Anybody's who's gone through can basically tell you just how long they were sobbing by the end. Sigmund Corp. is a company that uses a technology to embed artificial memories. Since the memories conflict with the patient's real memories, it's more or less used as a wish fulfillment service. Employees Dr. Eva Rosalene and Dr. Neil Watts one night travel to a dying Johnny Wyles to grant his wish to go to the moon. As they journey through Johnny's memory in order to implant this wish, they go through his life and probably video gaming's most beautiful romance between him and his wife River. To the Moon is not known for it's game play, nor it's graphics, but rather for it's spectacular music which really accents the plot. I once found myself staying in this particular part of the game just so I could hear the soundtrack loop over and over again.
Source: Imgur
Source: Imgur