Forums > Game Talk > Psychological games

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Jony Shahar (1829) on 10/15/2014 12:47 PM · edited · Permalink · Report

Hello gaming friends :-)

Can anyone please recommend psychological (thriller or otherwise) adventure games?

The games can deviate from the adventure genre, but action-based games (which would then turn more into horror) are not what I'm looking for. For example: as much as I love "Alone in the Dark" its not what I'm seeking.

Gabriel Knight is a game I adore, but it already leans more towards occult and less what I'm searching for.

"Limbo" and "Among the Sleep" are more action-based, but would be good recommendations anyway because they really touch some darker aspects.

A perfect description of the game style I'm seeking is: "Sanitaium"

"I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream" also comes close in some ways.

"Cosmology of Kyoto" is a very interesting one as well, though an odd ball.

I'm researching the 7 deadly sins and creating a course/retreat based on this kind of self-investigatory psychology based work. Of course literature is full of good material to use, but as a gamer I'd also like to suggest extra "homework" to some people that have this gaming-tendency such as myself. Just so you get the general idea behind where I'm going with this search.

I am aware of a couple very old text-based games with little-to-none graphics that would fit the description, but they are no longer viable for this day & age to suggest as "special homework" in a course :-) So some kind of proper graphics are in order.

Any suggestions appreciated. Thank you.

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Patrick Bregger (298879) on 10/15/2014 2:58 PM · Permalink · Report

Overclocked: A History of Violence.

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vedder (70685) on 10/15/2014 3:10 PM · Permalink · Report

Amnesia, and perhaps more so its sequel A Machine for Pigs which has less action elements in it.

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Indra was here (20756) on 10/15/2014 4:33 PM · Permalink · Report

Any buggy game to me is by default a psychological game. :p Vaguely remember some fakked up hentai games that messes with your head (no, not sexual-related content). Maybe Oleg remembers.

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CalaisianMindthief (8172) on 10/15/2014 5:19 PM · Permalink · Report

Overclocked is indeed the closest to what you're looking for, but do check out Gray Matter, The Black Mirror series (3 games), The Lost Crow: A Ghost-Hunting Adventure, Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened and other darker Sherlock Holmes games. Gray Matter is pure thriller, but the others have a little horror in them.

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Sciere (927149) on 10/15/2014 5:32 PM · edited · Permalink · Report

Debatable: The Path ("wolves" or temptations during various phases of a girl's/woman's life) and Dear Esther

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Victor Vance (18089) on 10/15/2014 6:33 PM · Permalink · Report

The game D comes to my mind ( http://www.mobygames.com/game/d ). I haven´t played it yet so I can´t really tell you anything apart that it is a horror themed game set in an Asylum.

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Jony Shahar (1829) on 10/15/2014 7:14 PM · Permalink · Report

Some good suggestions! Some games I never heard of. I'm already on it :-) Thank you.

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Indra was here (20756) on 10/15/2014 7:22 PM · Permalink · Report

Oh, by the way, do we have a psychological game group or sub-genre somewhere, why don't we have it (pros and cons), and if it were to be defined, what exactly is a psychological game anyways (for fear of misinterpretation)?

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Jony Shahar (1829) on 10/15/2014 7:42 PM · edited · Permalink · Report

Good point.

Psychology is too "big", it would include everything :-)

Specifically I'm looking for the darker aspects, but I think that is what people that would look for psychological games would do anyway. Most people don't go to see a psychologies if they're fully happy do they?

Emotions, behavior and personality (and personality disorders)... "issues".

Confusion and clarity. Definitions of crazy, sanity, insanity and reality. Good and Bad, or Good and Evil. Lies and Truth.

The 7 sins: Gluttony, Sloth, Greed, Envy, Wrath, Pride, Lust. And with the define addition of Fear when it comes to gaming. Big time fear.

A gem that gets you deeply thinking, and moreso... feeling. But a combination is the key. If you're just afraid because it gets you jumping from your chair, i.e first person horrors, then at "worst" it'll give you a nightmare or two and you're forget about it.

But if it "gets" to you. Gets your thinking about your life. Even makes you question some elements of your psyche, re-examine some beliefs that you were conditioned to by the surroundings you grew up in... Mix that with emotions, and its a psychological game for me.

Example. Many games bring up the element of "Greed" inside us. You want to horde those resources. You get greedy for gold, land, and power. You want more and more. But then you stop playing and you don't care, it was just a couple hours to pass the time. But if the game was more than just a strategic whatever, if it was... let me think of an actual example here... Lets say Dune 1, had loads of additional elements that Dune 2 didn't. In Dune 2 you're greedy for Spice. Its the ultimate material manifestation of wealth and power, but in Dune 1 you had elements of anger, rebellion, deceit and corruption vs truth and justice, etc...

When we take such a conflict oriented game, and we put it in a darker settings, then it gets our mental and emotional aspects going.

But its also a matter of finding games that don't deal with too much random and unrelated stuff that take you away from the emotion and the deeper thinking. When the creators try to put too much in one package, it ends up being all over the place.

Sanitarium was so cool for me because it kept pushing, it didn't stray as an adventure.

A game like "Among the Sleep" would for sure stand strong as a psychological game for me. Even though its "only" a fear-based first person pov, it takes you back to that uncertainty of the child, your childhood for that matter. You can't help but feel an older kind of fear, that maybe you haven't touched in many years. It doesn't have a lot of words, or text. But that introduction of 'your' mother holding 'you' as a baby, saying the soothing words, and then those things happen... It really works. That's answers a definition of a psychological game right there.

Maybe Dear Esther would qualify as well? The sheer strength of the feelings of solitude that it can bring is successful enough as it is. That alone gets your thinking already (pun intended). But it would only work in a larger less specific category of psychology.

If there's a "Meditative / Zen" theme (which I love that there is), then there should definitely be some kind of psychological category as well. Psychological thriller to start with?

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Indra was here (20756) on 10/15/2014 8:45 PM · Permalink · Report

Whoa. That's a lot of variables.

I guess the issues surrounding what a psychological game would the identification of a psychological game without the aspect of horror and what difference that would be to a meditative/zen game or a philosophical game. Well, other than a Protagonist: Psychologist game or a Rorschach test. :p

Plus with the horror element, it's somewhat too subjective to deem a game psychological, as we're talking about the mental capacity of the player to relate to whether or not the issue is controversial, unless explicitly expressed by the developer that it is indeed psychological...though they tend to mean either horror or thriller when they say that.

So yeah, I have no idea what a psychological game without either the element of horror or thriller would be like.

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Game Guesser (28) on 10/16/2014 1:46 AM · Permalink · Report

Seven deadly sins? What about Of Light and Darkness? It's not really horror, though, and probably not very psychological either...

I think the biggest thing you're looking for is games that...well, look inwards, not outwards. While stuff like Darkseed, Scratches, Phantasmagoria 2, Pathologic and such all tend to exploit (and sometimes explore) common 'psychological' themes of paranoia, dread, loss of control, detachment from reality and so on, they still tend to fit a basic mold of heroically (or desperately) confronting and defeating an external force. While the games you named could be thought of as the same thing, they are far more about the examination of internal struggles and darknesses, the faults that lie within the player character (or player) instead of the problems that come from elsewhere.

I've heard good things about The Dark Eye, although it's less game and more multimedia experience.

also, if you can accept one exception to not having action games, then you really need to check out Silent Hill 2 (no familiarity with the first game required). The deeper aspects of it can take a bit to kick in, but I really feel it fits what you're looking for.

I know there are more examples, but it takes a bit of time to bring to mind the horror adventure titles I know of, then pick out the ones that are suited to your purposes. There's a lot of indie games I barely know anything about, too. If I come up with any good ones, I'll let you know.

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GTramp (81965) on 10/16/2014 2:21 AM · edited · Permalink · Report

I agree with all you're saying, Game Guesser. Silent Hill 2 is definitely THE game for anyone into psychology.

Also speaking about looking inwards - I'd recommend Dark Souls. This game can affect the player in some peculiar ways while being an action-oriented RPG. Very dark and moody at that.

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Jony Shahar (1829) on 10/16/2014 7:56 PM · Permalink · Report

Thanks. I got a lot of games to play now :-) I'm sure at least a couple will really fit what I'm looking for. Appreciated.