Games that let you take a break from playing

Sometimes a video game can push a genre forward to new heights and make outsiders look at the medium in different ways. Many video games are chaotic carnage, such as Grand Theft Auto series, which is perfectly fine, but every once in a while there has to be a game that reinvents everything and makes players think.

The following are all great examples of thought-provoking video games that are perhaps too mentally draining to play back-to-back. It would create too much mental stress or make it even weirder to play a lucky game like Astro Bot after. Instead, a break from video games, however long, may be needed to process the following. There will be no spoilers.

12 minutes

Until midnight

12 minutes starts normally with the unnamed couple enjoying dinner together before the cop bursts in demanding the wife come with her, then everything goes black when the husband wakes up with the night again.

This is a time loop game where players have to figure out how to prevent themselves and their wives from dying or being chased by this cop. The game actively hides information from players to disguise the solution and requires a significant amount of trial and error to get right. Ultimately, the truth forces players to reevaluate the context in a new light, and that's by no means pleasant.

BioShock Infinite

A grim end for Booker

BioShock Infiniteon the surface, is a fast-paced shooter with some of the coolest scenery of the 1990s. Between using powers like fire to light up enemies or grinding on rails to blast enemies with assault rifles, there's never a dull moment.

There's a darker story behind the scenes than just playing the part of a private detective sent to a cloudy utopian kingdom in the sky to save a girl. It's another game where the ending will leave players confused and flocking to forum boards trying to piece it all together while coming to terms with how their story ends with Booker the detective.

It takes two

Marriage is complicated

It takes two is a unique co-op experience in which two parents about to divorce turn their child into dolls. A magical book tells them they need to work together to solve this curse, and through random game events, the two go on an adventure that brings them together. They will play old arcade games, ride frogs through the forest and there is also a shooter.

The diverse set of game types is stunning and fun while it lasts, but the game also takes a hard look at the reality of relationships. Even if things end smoothly, it can be stressful to hear a couple bicker, or game scenarios can even make players frustrated with each other.

The last of us part 2

Play that guitar

The last of us part 2 is one of the darkest games PlayStation fans will ever play. Starting with Ellie, players go on a trip to Seattle to get revenge on the one who took everything from her. The reactions of the enemies they face are too realistic as they will often beg for their lives.

Other than that, the game is absolutely brutal, with the blood and injuries that Ellie suffers throughout her campaign. By the end, she's left with less than she started with, leaving on a cliffhanger that can leave players stomach-churning and questioning the very nature of revenge.

Life Is Strange

A sacrificed state

Life is strange begins with student Max returning to her hometown after moving away. When he walks into the bathroom, he witnesses the murder of his old friend Chloe, but then sees a photo and realizes he can travel back in time.

Each episode is more challenging than the last, as players have to make split-second decisions about what to do that will affect the story. While the idea of ​​going back in time and saving an old friend seems easy, it's not. Greater forces are at play and players will have to make the cruelest decision in the final episode.

Red Dead Redemption 2

Life of a Cowboy

Red Dead Redemption 2 is one of the best westerns of all time, with a large open-world prairie to explore and plenty of activities to do. Players can choose to make Arthur, the protagonist, an evil gunslinger, or they can make him change his ways.

Either way, his epic isn't something players would call happy, as Arthur must constantly struggle with following orders or being a decent person in a changing world that leaves criminals like him in the past. No matter where players end up with Arthur, they will have to think about sadness, regret, melancholy and face death from time to time.

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

Hand tax

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice it doesn't have a disturbing story like the others, but it has a brutal gameplay that will test the very patience of the players. Unlike most other FromSoftware games, this is not Soulslike. Players can upgrade their character and find him new equipment, but they cannot grind for EXP and level him up.

Instead, it's a more inside action game where he attacks before defending. Players have to actively improve their rankings, dodges, and first move, and if they manage to beat it, they're sure to be exhausted in mind and body.

Silent Hill f

Once again with taste

Silent Hill f is the only game not set in Silent Hill, as it is instead set in 1960s Japan in a small village called Ebisugaoka. The heroine Hinako will have to work together with her friends to overcome a plant disease growing in the city. They also sometimes fall asleep and enter another dimension and walk through the shrines with the fox man.

The game doesn't actively tell players what's going on, so it's up to them to piece things together using notes and context. This means that not everything can be deduced the first time, and each subsequent play will reveal more. Going through some of these scenes for the first time can be difficult, let alone several.

Tunic

The Zelda meta

Tunic looks ordinary from top to bottom Zelda a clone with a fox instead of a young elf boy, but it's much more than that. If players pass it off as an action-adventure, they'll end up unsatisfied.

The bigger picture requires deciphering game manuals that players can find and piece together that contain secret messages in a foreign language. Tunic is a metagame and not easy to solve on your own. While not impossible, players will have their eyeballs glued to every nook and cranny of the map, praying for a clue or otherwise online to try and get some answers.

Until dawn

Won't you spare me another year?

Until dawn is a thrilling adventure game set deep in the snowy mountains, where a bunch of friends from college meet for the first time in years. What starts as a fun vacation turns into a fight for their lives as a killer is on the run.

Players can control multiple characters with limited interactions in the environment to get through each segment. Dialogue choices and Quick Time Events can lead characters to get out safely, get hurt, or worse, die. With the death of a grizzly haunting players, Until Dawn can be hard to leave.