They Pull at Your Hearts, Split Your Sides Open, Scar You For Life and Fill You With Hate; Video Games That Really Are Emotional Roller Coaster Rides
There are just some games that are so well written, and delivered in such a way that you are suddenly a part of the story. They force you to become emotionally involved with the characters and their stories. Their story becomes your story. You are no longer sitting at home but are transported into their world, living their lives.
Every decision they make becomes yours, every failure, every triumph, every death is not just theirs but yours. These are the games that allow the player to share in the characters ups and downs. You are able to laugh, cry, hate, and love alongside them. These are the games that evoke emotion. They make you roll on the floor with laughter, jump for joy, grab tissues and, punch pillows.
These are 10 of the best video games that take you on that roller coaster.
10) Limbo
A Film Noire, video game where you play as a young boy searching for his younger sister on the plane between life and death. It is a hauntingly beautiful tale. It’s simple and quiet. It is in the stillness of the game where you feel a sense of dread and impending loss. There are no words in this game, no talking just silence. And maybe that’s the scariest thing of all.
This 2D puzzle platform game takes you through the edge of hell and the monsters that reside there.
Solving mechanical puzzles, escaping monstrous creatures, and running away from dark shadowy figures brings you closer and closer to your sister. However, this simultaneously brings the player closer and closer to the ‘other side’. The haunting music and the sound of this game create a somber atmosphere.
There are no cut scenes in this game, making this game feel like one continuous level. Once you get to the end and the screen abruptly changes to black like an episode of the TV show Lost, all you feel is a deep well of emptiness inside.
9) One Chance
The world is on the brink of total destruction. In six days, every single living cell will be dead. You play a scientist, John Pilgrim, who just found the cure for cancer. What you do with your last 6 days is up to you. Players choose between trying to save the world or spend their final days with family.
John Pilgrim goes to work instead of spending time with his family
It’s a side scroller with one simple message- you have ONE CHANCE. The developers made a game where players literally have one chance to play this game and one life to get it right. Once you play one chance you can’t go back. If you try to go back to the website – your ending appears on the screen. Going back, deleting your cookies and trying again won’t work either. If you have a chance to play this game remember, YOU ONLY HAVE ONE CHANCE.
8) Spec Ops The Line
Spec Ops The Line is a 3rd person shooter that follows Captain Martin Walker and his Elite Delta Crew through their harrowing rescue mission through Dubai. Their mission is to find and rescue Colonel Konrad and his missing battalion after receiving their distress signal. The city of Dubai is no longer the thriving beautiful city it once was. It has become overwhelmed by the ruthless desert and ravaged by sandstorms.
Spec Ops The Line a 3rd person shooter that brings the horrors or war to your PC
As you comb the desert with Captain Martin Walker and his Delta Crew, adversity hides around every corner. Throughout the game you face the unimaginable horrors and decisions that come with war. You feel the weight of your decisions and its effects on others. Unlike so many other war games, you truly feel remorse for killing the enemy.
The act of killing mindlessly in a carefree way does not apply here. It’s gritty, hard hitting and leaves you with the emotional baggage of war. After you play Spec Ops The Line, you are no longer a PC gamer sitting at home, but a hardened war vet struggling with PTSD.
7) Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
Two Brothers is a story of two sons who embark on a journey to save their father on the brink of death. The only thing that can save him is the ‘Water of Life’
Players control brothers Naia and Naiee in this 3rd person point of view, puzzle platformer game. The brothers must work together to accomplish their seemingly impossible task of finding the ‘Water of Life’. With each brother having different strengths and weaknesses players must switch between both brothers to complete tasks. Naia the older brother is the stronger of the two, while Naiee is the small and nimble brother.
The world is immense, the cinematography: breathtaking. The puzzles are challenging but straightforward. Switching between the characters and following them through their journey allows you to form a brotherly bond with them.
Naia and younger brother Naiee searching for the Tree of Life
6) Asemblance
Assemblance Game Trailer
Nila Studio’s debut game is a psychological horror game akin to the likes of an episode of The X-Files or The Twilight Zone. It’s weird, confusing, and very underrated. You wake up alone, stuck in a Virtual Reality experiment where you can relive your memories. The problem: you have no idea who you are, or what actually happened. You have no way of knowing what is fact and what is fiction. Guided by Artificial Intelligence you make your way through your memories, slowly piecing together your forgotten past.
Asemblance breaks the 4th wall to ask you how you feel
Asemblance forces players to question reality
Asemblance is a game where you spend most of your time walking around, reading notes, and listening to voice-recordings. Now, that might sound like a pretty boring game but I am here to tell you it’s not. The concept is simple yes, but that is what makes it brilliant. The more time you spend in your memories trying to find the truth the more confusing it gets. The closer you get to your backstory and the truth the more you realize you might not want to know. And come to the realization that maybe ignorance really is bliss.
5) To The Moon
To The Moon Game Trailer
To The Moon is an RPG style game without the fighting. The goal of the game is to help fulfill Johnny Wyles’ dying wish to go to the moon. The Sigmund corp. has developed a way to implant artificial memories into those who are on their deathbeds thus allowing patients to fulfill lifelong dreams.
Dr. Eva Rosalene and Dr. Neil Watts talk to Johnny Wyles about his lifelong wish
To The Moon, let’s you fulfill a dying man’s last wish. Johnny Wyles just wants to go to the moon, though he doesn’t remember why. In order for you to grant Johnny’s wish you must go through his life backwards using mementos from his past. When you find out why, you will want nothing more than to grant his wish. This game looks like Pokémon and plays like a point and click adventure game.
To The Moon Voted 2011’s best indie RPG game
4) Wolf Among Us
What if fairy tales lived alongside us? Telltale games, answers this question with this episodic, murder-mystery game. You play as Bigby Wolf, as he investigates a series of murders in Fabletown.
Bigby Wolf the protagonist of The Wolf Among Us
If you like episodic adventure games with a dark premise, The Wolf Among Us is a must play. The Big Bad Wolf and all the other fairytale characters of our childhood now live in Fabletown. Bigby ‘The Big Bad’ Wolf is the sheriff and it is up to him to solve a series of fairy tale character murders.
The problem is all the people of Fabletown still don’t trust Bigby. They lie, cheat and hide their discretions from Bigby. How Bigby solves his problems is up to you. The choice is in your hands and so are the consequences; who lives and who dies is up to you. Who Bigby trusts and who he condemns is your choice, your decision.
Bigby vs The Woodsman
3) Life Is Strange
If you have ever wanted the ability to rewind time this is the game for you. Life is Strange centers around a young girl named Max who suddenly discovers she has the power to rewind time. But, like all things super, with great power comes great responsibility.
In this 5 part episodic game series, your choices and decisions directly affect the outcome. Players are given the ability to rewind time. This power allows you to actively change the past. A true do-over button. For some that might be cool, but for Max, this is both a great gift and a terrible burden.
Every decision you make creates a butterfly effect. This game truly gives you the experience of having a cool superpower and the moral dilemmas that come with it. True to life, every action creates an equal and opposite reaction. To rewind, or not rewind, that is the question. That choice is yours.
The in-game decisions players make change the outcome of the story
2) Telltale's The Game of Thrones
Telltale’s the Game of Thrones Season 1 thrusts you into the world of Westeros without a map or compass.
This game takes place in the same timeline as the TV show as well as George R.R. Martin’s book series A Song of Ice and Fire. You play as several members of The House Forrester, who are loyal bannermen to the Stark Family and Gared Tuttle a squire loyal to House Forrester. After The Red Wedding, loyalty to House Stark is dangerous choosing your alliances wisely is a must. In order for your family and your house to survive you must play the game of thrones.
And we all know, that when you play the game of thrones you either win or you die. Whether you win or die in this point and click adventure game is entirely up to you. It’s based solely on your decisions, your choices, your alliances and the enemies you make. So tread carefully. No choice is easy and every action matters. Westeros is a dangerous place and winning the game of thrones is nearly impossible.
The Iron Throne was constructed by Aegon I Targaryen, the first king of the Seven Kingdoms. Aegon the Conqueror had the throne made from the swords surrendered by his enemies. It is supposed to have taken a thousand blades to make, heated in the breath of Balerion the Black Dread.
Mira Forrester meets with Cersei Lannister
1) Telltale Games The Walking Dead Season 1
The Walking Dead Season 1 follows protagonist Lee Everett as he protects the young innocent Clementine from the horrors of the zombie apocalypse.
This game takes place in the same timeline as both The Walking Dead comics and the TV series. You play as Lee Everett who before the apocalypse was a university professor convicted of murder. When Lee finds a young girl named Clementine and rescues her, they become bonded for life. You then spend the rest of the game trying to survive and keep Clementine alive.
Just like Rick Grimes, you meet other survivors and form your own zombie apocalypse family. Choices matter in this game. Some decisions are pretty easy others are particularly difficult. These choices cause a ripple effect that directly determines the ending of your story. People live and die based on your decisions in this game and sometimes that can be truly heartbreaking.
Lee protects Clementine from a horde of walkers
We’ve reached the end of the ten most emotional video games list. Did they make you laugh or cry? Fill you with hate or love? Let us know in the comment section below. Check out these articles for more PC game lists.
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