'Walking simulator' is a common insult that gets thrown whenever Death Stranding, and its sequel, are criticized. This description is extremely reductive to tꦬhe game, as it has tons more to offer than simply walking along a trail. Some games can fit better into that walking simulator box, but simply because they don’t offer any type of action or combat, doesn’t mean they don’t make up in other ways.

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168澳洲幸运5开奖𝓰网: The Best Story-Driven Video Gameꦅs

If you're really into good storytelling in your video games, then these story-driv💃en games with excellent plots will be right up your alley.

These walking simulators are some of the most creative ways that developers tell a story. It’s not just about the walk, i⭕t’s the destination.

10 Soma

Soma - A Close-up Of The WAU Inside The Isolation Labs With Tentacle Cords Being Plugged Into It.
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168澳洲幸运5开奖网: SOMA
Released
September 15, 2015

WHERE TO PLAY

DIGITAL

ESRB
t
Developer(s)
Frictional G🥀ames🦩
Publisher(s)
🔥 𝐆 Frictional Games
Engine
hpl engine ไ
Platform(s)
PS4, Xbox One, PC
OpenCritic Rating
Strong
How Long To Beat
10 Hours
X|S Optimized
No
File Size Xbox Series
ꦰ 16 GB (November 2023) ♋
Metascore
84

Soma might wear the mask of a walking simu🍬lator, but beneath its slo꧙w-burn pacing lies one of the most existentially terrifying sci-fi narratives in gaming. It trades jump scares for psychological dread, making every corridor of Pathos-II feel like a space to think long and hard about your mortality.

Sure, you won’t be gunning down monsters left and right—but that𝓡’s the point. Like Amnesia’s constant barrage of fear, Soma want𒐪s you to sit with the horror, not run from it.

9 Firewatch

Lookout tower in Firewatch.
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168澳洲幸运5开奖网: Firewatch
Adventure
Systems
Released
February 9, 2016

WHERE TO PLAY

SUBSCRIPTION
DIGITAL
PHYSICAL

ESRB
🔜 M𒈔 For Mature 17+ due to Suggestive Themes, Nudity, Drug and Alcohol Reference, Strong Language
Developer(s)
🐻 Campo Santo ൩
Publisher(s)
ꦺ Campo Santo, Panic
Engine
Unity
Platform(s)
PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One
OpenCritic Rating
Strong
How Long To Beat
4 Hours
X|S Optimized
No
File Size Xbox Series
3 GB (November 2023) ♏

Firewatch is one of the calmest types of walking simulators out there. You don’t need combat or chaos to feel the tension that is presented by the game. The vast acres of🌃 the Wyoming forest will make you feel alone and introspect꧙ive.

Not only does the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:atmosphere in the game make you feel at peace, yet in so much distress, but the conversations between Henry and Delilah do not help 𒉰most of the time. Firewatch is one to make you feel things.

8 What Remains Of Edith Finch ꦫ ꦚ

The Finch House can be seen through the trees in What Remains of Edith Finch.
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168澳洲幸运5开奖网: What Remains of Edith Finch
Released
April 25, 2017

WHERE TO PLAY

DIGITAL
PHYSICAL

ESRB
T For Teen due to Violence, Blood, Drug Reference, Language ♚
Developer(s)
♈ Giant Sparrow ꦍ
Engine
Unreal Eﷺngine 4
OpenCritic Rating
Mighty
How Long To Beat
2 Hours
PS Plus Availability
Extra & Premium ൲

While What Remains Of Edith Finch is an experieꦬnce that you can finish in about two hours, it’ll stick with you for a while. Traversing through the Finch house is outright heartbreaking as you unravel the mystery of the tragedies that befell the family.

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168澳洲幸运5开奖网: The Best PS4 Survival Games

The survival horror 🃏genre has exploded over the last decade. Here are some of the best available to play right now on PS4.

1

It’s dark and poetic–something many games are not brave enough to do–and can pull♉ a reaction out of its players that is so visceral, you’ll think you were playing a fast-paced action shooter when you complete the haunting🐠 and magical vignettes.

7 Abzu

A diver swimming with tropical fish in Abzu.
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168澳洲幸运5开奖网: Abzu
Adventure
Systems
Released
August 2, 2016

WHERE TO PLAY

DIGITAL
PHYSICAL

ESRB
E For Everyone Due To Mild Fantasy Violence ✤ 🥃
Developer(s)
🍃 Giant Squid
Engine
𒈔 Unreal Engine 4 🧜
Platform(s)
PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One
OpenCritic Rating
Strong
How Long To Beat
2 Hours

It may be cheating to add Abzu to this list, since you never actually walk in the game, but this experience ticks all the boxes that a walking simulator is meant to be. The story in Abzu is not told through d๊ialogue, but rather, a beautiful eye-candy ocean-scape that will make you ponder mortality and how things aren’t permanent.

Th👍e ocean is a beautiful and incredible thing, and its resiliency against everything that mankind has done to it is perfectly encapsulated in this gorgeous and sm🔯all package.

6 Tacoma

£D surveillance hologram in Tacoma
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Tacoma
Adventure
Systems
Released
August 2, 2017

WHERE TO PLAY

DIGITAL

ESRB
M For Mature 17+ due to Sexual Themes, Strong Language 🦂
Developer(s)
💎 ✱ Fullbright
Publisher(s)
🦩 Fullbright ♒
Platform(s)
PC, PS4, Xbox One
OpenCritic Rating
Strong
How Long To Beat
3 Hours
PS Plus Availability
N/A

If Death Strand꧙ing is a game about the connections we humans make with each other, then Tacoma is another game that expertly explores the topic. There is no b🃏etter way to relish in those lost connections than being placed in a deserted space station.

Tacoma wasn’t a☂s well-received as The Fullbright Company’s previous project, Gone Home, but it is something fans of the genre need to play. Especially if you’re looking for something in the genre that is a bit of a departure☂ from the norm.

5 Gone Home

A scene from Gone Home, showing Sam's bedroom with a locker up close.
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168澳洲幸运5开奖网: Gone Home
Released
August 15, 2013

WHERE TO PLAY

DIGITAL
PHYSICAL

ESRB
m
Developer(s)
Fullbrig💯ht 🔯
Publisher(s)
Fullbright ꦰ
Engine
Unity
Platform(s)
PC, Xbox One, PS4, Switch, iOS, Linux
OpenCritic Rating
Mighty
How Long To Beat
2 Hours

A lot of people outside the gaming w♍orld will take a looಌk at a new video game and will immediately think to themselves, “Wow, that looks like a movie!”, but what about the games that feel like a movie?

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Time to peruse Steam for that next singlﷺe-player exp💮erience - or just check here, where we'll give you the best to play.

Gone Home is one of those experiences. It’s not overtly magical🥂 or sci-fi, but rather a simple story about a family going through a couple of trials and tribulations, and it’s up to you to figure out what happened and where the family went.

4 Return Of The Obra Dinn 🏅

The inspector from Return of the Obra Dinn approaching a skeleton while holding the Memento Mortem.
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168澳洲幸运5开奖网: Return of the Obra Dinn
Adventure
Puzzle
Horror
Systems
Released
October 18, 2018

WHERE TO PLAY

DIGITAL

ESRB
Mature 17+ // Blood, Intense Violence, Language, Partial Nudity ♛
Developer(s)
🌸 ♔ Lucas Pope
Publisher(s)
3909
Engine
Unity
Number of Players
1
Steam Deck Compatibility
Verified
OpenCritic Rating
Mighty
How Long To Beat
8 hours
How Long To Beat (Completionist Runs)
♓ 10.5 hours
File Size Xbox Series
2.02 GB
Publisher
3909

One of the most unique-looking walki✃ng simulators is Return Of The Obra Dinn, a period piece and a magical realism story. Not only is the way that you figure out how the crew of the Obra Dinn disappeared with the help of the Memento Mortem a far more interactive way to explore the story, but the aesthetic and low-bitrate look of the game makes it stand out above the rest.

The mystery of the haunted Obra Dinn ship is a great way to kill a couple of hours, as if you read a short story by a long-lost relative of Herman💮 Melville.

3 Amnesia: The Dark Descent ꧒

A first-person view of a monster walking towards Daniel in Amnesia: The Dark Descent.
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Amnesia The Dark Descent
Horror
Puzzle
Systems
Released
September 9, 2010

WHERE TO PLAY

DIGITAL

ESRB
m
Engine
🐓 🐓 hpl engine, hpl engine 2
Franchise
Amnesia
Developer
Frictional Games ⛦
Publisher
Frictional Games 𝓰

Even though Amnesia is, by definition, a survival-horror game, the leaps tꦅhat the game took to reshape the genre graciously give it a spot with the rest of the walking simulators. The game offers tons ᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚof ways to avoid the decrepit creatures that are constantly hunting you, but being surrounded by darkness is the real final boss.

Amnesia’s lack of combatꦆ has forever changed 🦩the way that developers look at games, even those outside of the horror genre. Without this game, most of the others would probably not exist.

2 Moutꦬhwashing ꦏ

Incapacitated Curly staring at Jimmy in Mouthwashing.
mouthwashing-tag-page-cover-art.jpg
168澳洲幸运5开奖网: Mouthwashing
Released
September 26, 2024

WHERE TO PLAY

DIGITAL

Developer(s)
ꩲ Wrong Organ 🐈
Publisher(s)
✤ 𝓡 Critical Reflex
Engine
Unity
Number of Players
1
Steam Deck Compatibility
Verified
Platform(s)
PC
OpenCritic Rating
Mighty
How Long To Beat
2.5 Hours

One of the young guns in the list, Mouthwashing, uses different techniques to create a narrative so compelling and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:outright disgusting that I’m glad the game is only a couple of hours long Mouthwashing is not for the faint of heart, as 🔯it touches upon some dark and t🍸wisted topics.

The game offers a nostalgic, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:low-poly aesthetic that, combined with its non-linear storytelling, will leave you confused and a bit nauseous when you stumble across the atrocities that people will do when pushed to the edg🌊e of despair.

1 The Stanley Parable ♔

Art Ending from The Stanley Parable, with Stanley playing The Baby Game.
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Your Rating

168澳洲幸运5开奖网: The Stanley Parable
Adventure
Systems
Top Critic Avg: 90/100 Critics Rec: 100%
Released
October 17, 2013
ESRB
E10+ For Everyone 10+ due to Fantasy Vi𒅌olence, Mild Blood, Mild Language, Tobacco Reference
Developer(s)
ꦿ Galact🎃ic Cafe
Publisher(s)
Galacti✃c Cafe🐈
Engine
unity, source

WHERE TO PLAY

DIGITAL

Platform(s)
PC
How Long To Beat
2 Hours
PS Plus Availability
N/A
Metascore
89

Every game has an end goal: a monster to defeat, a room to escape. The Stanley Parable takes this concept, turns i🐻t on its head, and then throws a bunch of office supplies at it. The game is narrated all the way through. The narrator guides you through every single one of your actions and even reacts when you don’t follow their directions.

Rather than telling a compelling story�ꦍ� like most of the other games on this list, The Stanley Parable is more of an avant-garde project that pits the player against the game itself.

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Animal Cr🀅ossing isn't the only chill and r𓆉elaxing game you can play on your Nintendo Switch.