‘Walking simulator’ is a common insult that gets thrown whenever Death Stranding, and its sequel, are criticized. This description is extremely reductive to the 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.
These walking simulators are some of the most creative ways that developers tell a story. It’s not just about the walk, it’s the destination.
Soma might wear the mask of a walking simulator, but beneath its slow-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 that’s the point. Like Amnesia’s constant barrage of fear, Soma wants you to sit with the horror, not run from it.
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 introspective.
Not only does theatmosphere in the gamemake you feel at peace, yet in so much distress, but the conversations between Henry and Delilah do not help most of the time. Firewatch is one to make you feel things.
While What Remains Of Edith Finch is an experience 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.
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.
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 dialogue, but rather, a beautiful eye-candy ocean-scape that will make you ponder mortality and how things aren’t permanent.
The 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 small package.
If Death Stranding 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 better way to relish in those lost connections than being placed in a deserted space station.
Tacoma wasn’t as 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.
A lot of people outside the gaming world will take a look 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?
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.
One of the most unique-looking walking 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.
Even though Amnesia is, by definition, a survival-horror game, the leaps that the game took to reshape the genre graciously give it a spot with the rest of the walking simulators. The game offers tons of 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 combat 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.
One of the young guns in the list, Mouthwashing, uses different techniques to create a narrative so compelling andoutright disgustingthat 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 twisted topics.
The game offers a nostalgic,low-polyaesthetic 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 edge of despair.
Every game has an end goal: a monster to defeat, a room to escape. The Stanley Parable takes this concept, turns it 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 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.
