We’re all human. At least if you’re reading this and understanding it, it can be fairly accurately assumed that you’re human. But don’t you ever get tired of it? Being a human all the time, seeing humans all the time? Surely in your fiction, you should be able to escape this human reality. It is fiction, after all.
Well thankfully, video games are an incredibly expansive industry. They account for just about every thought you could conceive of, and put to into play. You want to be a bird? There are oh so many choices. What about something more abstract, a simple shape? Just as easy to find. So if you want to play as something truly unsual, check out these entries for some great ideas.
Cats and dogs are the default when it comes to animal-centered games. They are incredibly humanised as it is, so it feels like a logical jump to become one. Birds are the next safe jump, removing some of the human element, but still quite culturally tangible to most people. And so it’s not exactly shocking that actually, there are quite a few games where you play as birds. Aviary Attorney is simply one of the more unique examples.
If you’ve played and loved the Ace Attorney games, then Aviary Attorney is the next step. Set in an alternative version of 1800s France where everyone is an animal, the game has you play as Jayjay Falcon as he solves cases, with the way you do so even influencing the course of the plot. It also looks astoundingly gorgeous, being much more than just simple animal puns.
While often mistaken, you do not play as a bird in Hatoful Boyfriend. You are actually the only human amongst a world full of birds!
Birds are all well and good, but they are still as lovable creatures for the most part. What about something truly bloodthirsty? Maneater has you covered in that regard, letting you parade through the seas (and above it, at times) as a fierocious shark. You come from humble origins, all the way up to something that is worthy of the title megalodon.
Really, Jaws gave sharks a terible reputation. They are territorial, but wouldn’t you be if someone invaded your home? Maneater lets you, the shark, finally take the fight back to humans. No more fearing for your life just so someone mcan make soup out of your fins. No, become the strongest shark you can be, getting every larger as you fight your way up the ecosystem and take down humanity. Or at least the beach-dwelling ones.
Spore sought to, with good intent, simulate the process of evolution in a rather accurate manner. It didn’t, mind you, but the intent is very much there, and informs how the game progresses. In Spore, you pick a little amoeba at the very beginning of the game, playing as this species as it evovles to become a space-faring civilisation.
Except most people don’t get that far. Once you get your land legs, literally, you are given an immense amount of freedom to customise your species. Grow wings, extra legs, no legs, many mouths, eyes, and so much more. These things can be truly hideous, and they don’t really have to be humanoid at all. Really, do your best to make them entirely unrecognisable.
So a slight caveat here. You don’t actually play as the eponymous creature in Seaman, but care for it as it grows. However, seeing as it is the focal point and only creature in the game, it feels like a fair inclusion. Seaman is all about caring for Seaman as it grows through various stage sof life. A bit like a tamagotchi, but a whole bunch ruder.
Seaman came with a microphone attachment, and so you were intended to speak with it, telling it your birthday, and it telling you back random facts. He could also die if you left him for too long, as the game progresses in real-time, even when the console is off. But if you really think the world needs something like Seaman with its aquatic body and humanoid head, go ahead and let him live. Thrive, even.
Plagues are not a very cool thing, it would be fair to say. Mismanagement of them can lead to rather catastrophic situations, as we have seen many times in life. Even in more recent times. And with games like Plague Inc, you’d think that would serve as a great foundation for plague prevention. Turns out, it’s not quite that simple.
Of course, this mismanagement is a boon for the plague itself, which you play as in Plague Inc. From the earliest stages of choosing how you kill, you evolve to determine the methods in which you spread, how contagious you are, and the lethality once infected. It’s all a bit morbid, but if it isn’t fun to paint the world red. Just catch the colder regions first.
Thomas Was Alone is a rather sad sounding title, and not one that immediately betrays what the game is about, or who you play as. Or in this circumstance, what. You see, Thomas Was Alone is a puzzle-platformer and has you playing as various different coloured shapes, all in different forms.
As these shapes, you must work together to advance, eventually allowing you to escape into humanity. However, being shapes, you do not actually speak. Thankfully, the narrator plays this role for them, offering up the thoughts of each shape and how they feel. Who would have thought a rectangle couldmake you feel so emotional?
In most horror games, you’re on the backfoot. Far from the power fantasy of other games, you have to be careful and fend for yourself against overwhelming, terrifying odds. Carrion is not that. Carrion is, by its own admission, reverse horror. You are the monster, and everyone has to defend themselves against you.
And they don’t do a very good job. Played in a side-scrolling perspective, Carrion has you play as a red, amorphous creature of no definitive shape as you work your way out of the facility in which you are kept. You can be defeated, but you’re stronger. They wouldn’t have kept you contained if you weren’t a threat. So tear a bloody path through the facilty and show the world just how red it can be.
Donut County is a delightful little title with a delicious sounding name that is partially emblematic of what the game actually is. No, you’re not a donut. Rather, you’re more like the hole in a traditional donut. OK, you’re literally a hole. Donut County is about gobbling up literally everything you can in each of its levels, with you, the hole, growing larger with each item consumed.
There’s not much more you can say that that. You play as a seemingly endless hole, and that hole gets wider with each item you eat. This does make it a bit of a puzzle game in the sense that you need to prioritise what you eat to make your hole big enough to fit everything into it. Just like a donut.
It’s in the title, really. In I am Bread, you are bread. The goal of I Am Bread is tobecome toast. There’s really not much more to offer here. As long as you don’t get too wet or dirty by time you reach the end of the level, you will remain wonderfully edible, and will become a delicious slice of toast.
There’s not much tactics or deep strategy to I Am Bread other than struggling with the controls. As a slice of white bread from a larger store-bought pan, you are rather wobbly and far from sturdy like a freshly-baked loaf. Such is the faith of commercialised breads. At least becoming toast will make you a tad more tasty.
If what you play as in Everything was not answered in the main heading, the sub-heading, the name of the game, and this first sentence, let us make it quite clear right now. In Everything, you can play as Everything. Yes, that does include humans and the more commonly accepted cats and dogs, but also so much more.
you may play as the petals of a flower. The stars in the sky. The smallest electron, the largest gas giant. Oh they all move in a wonderfully clunky fashion, but one can assume it would be rather difficult to fully animate, well, everything. So if you really want to play as something non-human, Everything should have it for you.
