You don’t need to invest hours or days to feel the emotional payoff from these brilliant games, where the story takes center stage.
Video games are an incredibly unique art form that is truly unlike any other. Rather than observing a scene or staring at an image, people are actively engaging with it, playing as a character within the world and experiencing all of the pain and hardship firsthand.
For many story-driven games, it can take quite a while for the emotional payoff to be fully realized, but some managed to condense that journey into a much shorter experience that can be fully absorbed in just a few hours. These games feel more like interactive movies, taking players on an emotional roller coaster that explores everything from grief to self-doubt to more abstract ideas surrounding identity and meaning.
Before Your Eyes
Details:
Web-cam integration
Narrative that confronts the fleeting nature of reality and memories
Before Your Eyes is a truly one-of-a-kind video game that takes the concept of life flashing by and makes it the central game mechanic. With a webcam connected, players can blink to make scenes change and objects appear, moving the story forward slowly just by closing their eyes.
From the moment the game begins, it is obvious that there is going to be some pain involved, but nothing can prepare players for the ride it takes them on. Everything from death to regret, to memories themselves, is explored and presented in the most beautiful way, and by the end, tears are almost a guarantee.
That Dragon, Cancer
Details:
Personal experiences made interactive
Based on real events
That Dragon, Cancer is less a traditional game and more an interactive expression of grief. Drawing directly from the developers’ personal experiences, it places players inside moments of fear, hope, and unbearable sadness, with the abstract visuals reinforcing the emotional instability of the characters.
Rather than offering a happy ending or a resolution, it instead leans into the nature of reality, often being cruel and making people feel helpless in their darkest moments. The inability to change outcomes also makes the short runtime feel even more painful, as players would so desperately love to go back and watch things unfold differently, but much like real life, they simply can’t.
As Long As You’re Here
Details:
Heartfelt yet unsettling exploration of dementia
Inevitability makes it all the more painful
As Long As You’re Here started as an even smaller project, but slowly grew into a longer experience that fully captures the essence of what it is like to live with dementia. Told within a single apartment for the most part, players slowly find themselves losing track of their surroundings and feeling less in touch with their thoughts, no matter how hard they try to fight back.
It never strays too far into the absurd and keeps things as grounded as possible, using side characters and the thoughts of the protagonist to guide players on a distressing yet deeply personal journey.
