Summary

• Lynch's surreal style has influenced various video games, seen in settings, characters, and storytelling.
• Lynch's legacy emphasized finding meaning and love, a lesson echoed in games inspired by his work.
• Games like Silent Hill, Death Stranding, and Control show strong Lynchian influences in storytelling and aesthetics.

When people think of surrealist television, most of them might jump to David Lynch first. Though one of his earliest works was the ill-fated Dune adap🍨tation, he's since gone on to make many successful films and shꦫows — Mulholland Drive, Blue Velvet, and of course, the famed Twin Peaks.

Lynch is well-known for his style. Unsettling isn't quite the right word, it's something closer to simply odd, but in an inviting way. It's an infectious feel, relying on you to intuit your own meaning. It's enamored many people, and games are no exception. The eclectic cast of🎀 characters, the fantastic slightly unreal settings, and surreal storytelling have been adapted to games many times.

Updated January 22, 2025 by Hilton Webster: With the passing of David Lynch, it's important to remember his legacy for what he wanted it to be - one of infinite, world-altering love. Through the mysticism and oddities, Lynch's works asked us to find our own meaning, and derive love from it. These games took those lessons to heart and echo his ethos in every part of them.

12 Silent Hill 💃

David Lynch is🌠 known for the way he depicts American life, a land of anachronisms and idiosyncrasies. Yet by that very merit, his appeal is international, and it was felt quite distinctly in Japan. The entirety of the Silent Hill series is loaded with Lynch🍌ian inspirations, Twin Peaks one of the most notable.

A single person gets dragged into a town that seems oddly sinister, yet everyone you meet seemingly thinks this is normal, or at least par for the course. Silent Hill 2 puts a deeper emphasis on the people within t༺he town too, letting its denizens speak for the town, yet never removing its own character and surrealism.

Mary🉐 and Maria are also the names of two characters in Lynch's Lost Highway🍸.

11 ♚ 🌌 Death Stranding

There are few directors in gaming who can quite evoke the same feeling that Lynch does, though that's not the point. It's unabashedly following through on an idea that only makes sense to yourself that truly defines his work. And you can't argue that's not wh🉐at Kojima does in Death Stranding most of all.

There is no singular work of Lynch's this is inspired by, with such a high focus on sci-fi. However, it is completely character-led, and the ties between them൲ is the binding thread of the game. Connections are what make us, and we a💟re nothing without them. Pairing that with a story that you need to meet on its own level feels deeply inspired by Lynch,

10 Disco Elysium ﷽

There are very few games like Disco Elysium, and it is undeniably proud of its own subject matter. The game judges you for everything you do, yet gives you the freedom to do it. And fail. Sometimes succeed. Always embarrass yourself. And while the political messaging of the game is incredibly potent (and prescient), it 🅘is in the individual interactions the world really shines.

Disco Elysium's story is a whole constructed by the pieces of the people. It stands ꧑not on its own merits, but by the sheer quality of those telling it. Pair this with literal cryptids and people with so much money reality literally distorts around you, and you have the surrealism that David Lynch lived for.

There is also a skill called Inland Empire, named 🅰directly after the self-same Lynch film.

9 Alan Wake

Remedy Entertainment has a long history, originally gaining fame for their Max Payne game series, one of the earliest instances of Bullet Time in games and a game that would go on to shape games for years to come. But their true crowning achievement was Alan Wake, the story of a writer trying to unravel the mystery of how his 168澳洲🗹幸运5开奖网:current life seems to have already been written.

Like Twin Peaks, the show features an outsider coming to a rural American town only to stumble onto a greater mystery while interacting with the larger-than-life characters. But aside from its rural, wooded setting and similar circumstances, the lead writer Sam Lake has an unfettered adoration for Lynch's works, stating many times that Alan Wake is unshamed of its🥃 Twin Peaks inspirations.

8 Life Is Strange 🥀 ♍

Originally created by Don't Nod, Life is Strange has grown into a larger series with each entry, focusing heavily on th𒆙e more personal, intimate stories between characters. And though they still hold many similarities, it is with the original that the Twin Peaks inspirations can be felt most.

The wooded, secluded town, a rich family seeking to turn it to profit, the myster꧑ious disappearance of a teenage girl, and a vibe veering toward the mystical, Life is Strange has all the leanings of a Lynch-inspired work. Though the developers have never said so themselves, they've made it abundantly clear with the constant parallels and references.

7 ♐ Mizzurna Falls 🎃

Released in December 1998 by the now-defunct Human Entertainment, Mizzurna Falls is a fascinating game, and one that never saw an English release, even to this day. However, great work has been made with regards to fan translations, finally making the game fully plaܫyable in Engl꧒ish. That said, the game was one of the first open-world games ever made, and it took heavy inspiration from Lynch.

Like all good Twin Peaks-ins﷽pired works, it focuses on a small, urban American town and its citizens. The game has a dynamic weather and day-night cycle too, with every citizen having their own schedule. It's all centered around you discovering the mystery behind your disappearing classmates. It's a slightly janky game, but an important milestone in gaming history, and likely one of th🅺e earliest Lynchian games too.

6 Virginia

Virginia is a very different kind of Twin Peaks-inspired game. It's played from 💦first-person, and it features you 💮and your FBI partner hoping to uncover a mystery in the small town of Kingdom, Virginia. The game has no dialogue, instead letting the scenes and character performances speak for themselves.

Unlike many others, it relies on its camerawork to evoke the surrealism 🐻of the world, letting its scenes seamlessly transition rather than painstakingly guiding you to each scene. Its inspiration is a little more varied overall too, and a little less singular than others, though the developers themselves have acknowledged many of .

5 Deadl🦩y Premonition 🌱

When it comes to Lynch- and Twin Peaks-inspired works, few could be crowned as winner over Deadly Premonition. Itself likely inspir🀅ed by Mizzurna Falls, Deadly Premonition features an FB🀅I agent visiting a small American town to conduct an investigation. That's similar enough so far.

It's also an open world, focusing on character interactions throughout the day. However, in many instances it directly recreates scenes and story beats from Twin Peaks, including the over-obsession with coffee. There's even the White Room and Red Room, imitating the White Lodge and Red Room from Twin Peaks. It's honestly close to fan-fiction at stag💫es, and an undeniably unique experience to boot.

4 ๊ Twin Mirror𓆉

Another from Don't Nod,♑ Twin Mirror starts off with a similar premise to Life is Strange: a small American town, the mysterious disappearance of an old friend, and you trying to figure out the mystery. Twin Mir💟ror deviates from here, choosing to forgo any supernatural elements in place of a true mystery.

Aside from the obvi♌ous name comparison and the shared elements from the more overtly Lynch-inspired Life is Strange, Twin Mirror has you playing detective, akin to Dale Cooper, while you make friends with those in town to unravel the mystery. Moments of contemplation are instead spent in your Mind Palace rather than the more surreal Red Room for the respective visions.

3 Control

Another fr💝om Remedy is the hit game Control, renowned for its character performances, art direction, and storytelling. But Remedy and Sam Lake being the way they are, 🉐it is of course inspired by Twin Peaks, and Lynch's body of work as a whole, though it utilizes it in a very different way from Alan Wake.

Control is a game drenched in surrealism and aesthetic wonders. You glide through the areas of the Bureau of Control, vanquishing the Hiss, a lifeform that seems to have come from somewhere. It all revolves around Jesse's hope of finding her brother, though ofꦅ course, it dives deeper. There's a prevailing sense of oddness at every turn, and Remedy professes that much of that came from Lynch's own style.