Games That Mess With Your Mind

ViolentLee

ViolentLee

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Eternal Darkness is legendary for its ability to screw with the player's mind -- making them think their save file is corrupt, or having the player-character's head fall off.
Then there's Metal Gear Solid's Psycho Mantis battle -- with gaming's coolest boss reading your memory card, pretending to shut off your TV, etc.

I'm looking for other games that mess with the player in interesting ways. Anybody else have any good examples?
 
I wish I did. not to many games are really smart out there that do this. At least i dont know of any. Id like to hear some suggestions also.
 
Games, to me, aren't scary or capable of messing with the mind. Might just be me, but it's a damn video game...that is it. No scary scenes that make me jump. No eerie noises that give me chills. Just like movies - I know the crap is fake.
 
[quote name='crushtopher']Games, to me, aren't scary or capable of messing with the mind. Might just be me, but it's a damn video game...that is it. No scary scenes that make me jump. No eerie noises that give me chills. Just like movies - I know the crap is fake.[/QUOTE]
If I was a therapist, I'd say something about how you might be afraid of letting yourself suspend disbelief enough to be immersed in something. But I'm a gamer, so I'll just say you should check out Eternal Darkness. Even someone as hardcore and tough as you may enjoy the surprise of some of the tricks it uses.
 
Two Worlds 360 messed with my mind. I kept thinking it was playable at 1 FPS or less. I swore that even though I couldn't see what was happening in those other frames I could still play the game and have fun with it. It took me a few days before I realized how much time I was wasting staring at a slide show that I had little impact on.
 
^^ So I've heard, but I didn't really play long enough to see anything out of the ordinary. Could you give a few examples without being too spoilery?
 
[quote name='ViolentLee']^^ So I've heard, but I didn't really play long enough to see anything out of the ordinary. Could you give a few examples without being too spoilery?[/QUOTE]


Seeing silhouettes on the wall and looking behind you but nothing is there

Banging on the walls

Screams in the distance

Shit pops out at you (through the walls or drops from the cieling)

Creepy music

Certain things that look dead aren't always dead

etc
 
[quote name='ViolentLee']If I was a therapist, I'd say something about how you might be afraid of letting yourself suspend disbelief enough to be immersed in something. But I'm a gamer, so I'll just say you should check out Eternal Darkness. Even someone as hardcore and tough as you may enjoy the surprise of some of the tricks it uses.[/QUOTE]

You're right, you're not a therapist. Which means you don't have a clue what you're talking about and your attempt to sound intelligent and educated was weak. Also...Eternal Darkness had no surprises.
 
[quote name='Maklershed']Seeing silhouettes on the wall and looking behind you but nothing is there

Banging on the walls

Screams in the distance

Shit pops out at you (through the walls or drops from the cieling)

Creepy music

Certain things that look dead aren't always dead

etc[/QUOTE]
Very cool. I may have to boot that game back up and play through it. Kind of got lost in the holiday shuffle for me -- likely shelved in favor of Fallout 3.

[quote name='crushtopher']You're right, you're not a therapist. Which means you don't have a clue what you're talking about and your attempt to sound intelligent and educated was weak. Also...Eternal Darkness had no surprises.[/QUOTE]
Again you prove far too cool and superior to mess with. You couldn't possibly just be some angst-filled boy bolstering his ego by trying appear bad-ass and trolling on an internet message board. Thanks again for a worthwhile post that totally stayed on topic. We all believe that you have played and mastered Eternal Darkness like the G you are, and weren't once affected by anything the game did. In fact, video games are afraid of YOU. So are bears and The Iraq. I will step far away from you and just marvel at your awesomeness from afar.
 
The Chzo series by Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw do this (yes, the Zero Punctuation dood). They are adventure/point-and-click style games with horror themes. You can get them free from his site. The order is 5 Days a Stranger, 7 Days a Skeptic, Trilby's Notes, and 6 Days a Sacrifice. Pretty good for an amateur, with the third one being my favorite.

Another free game is Eversion. It's a platformer in the same vein of a Sega Master System 8bit cutesy sidescroller, but there's more to the game.

An older adventure game called Shivers would probably count, as would its sequel.

Another old adventure game that stars Christopher Walken - and therefore fully awesome - is Ripper, which is a futuristic cybernetic take on the Jack the Ripper mythos. You're a detective tracking down a cyber killer, who loves to rip his victims to shreds while they are still alive. Uses full motion video for full-on Walken goodness.

All the token horror series - Silent Hill, Fatal Frame, etc. Resident Evil to a small extent. Clocktower series. Laura Bow from back in the day. I haven't played some of the other horror games like Haunting Ground to know if it counts.

The old FPS game "Clive Barker's Undying" was supposed to do this sort of thing.

Braid could be argued as doing this, depending on how invested in the story you want to be.

Potentially the Ico/Shadow of Colossus series, again depending on how invested you become.

Killer 7? I haven't personally played it. And with that note, the Flower, Sun and Rain game on the DS (also from Suda 51).

I'm pretty sure there was a Sherlock Holmes game recently that was more survival horror/Cthulu themed that would count. Come to think of it, I'm sure there's a Cthulu game or two that would count.

I'm sure there's more I'm not thinking about right now.
 
1st time I got a phone call (in-game) playing No More Hero's kind of messed with my head. Not scary mind you, but pretty damn cool.
 
Original Resident Evil for PS1.

I had no idea a game could be 'scary'.

It was recommended by a friend who told me to play at night with no lights on.

I played it alone, at nigh,t with no lights on.

It scared the shit out of me. I've never been scared to progress in a game before. I was afraid of each new door I came across.

I've played most survival horror games since then and nothing will ever compare to that original experience.
 
[quote name='Strell']
Killer 7? I haven't personally played it. And with that note, the Flower, Sun and Rain game on the DS (also from Suda 51).[/QUOTE]
What? Strell hasn't played a game with a large cult following?
 
I've played my share of survival horror games, but mind-screws are a little different than scares. It's more distorting one's perspective to deliver something unexpected. Like I said, besides Eternal Darkness and the Psycho Mantis fight, I've never seen anything like it.

Next to Metroidvania (here's hoping Shadow Complex rules), the screw-with-the-player mechanic is the most under-used in gaming.

[quote name='Strell']The Chzo series by Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw do this (yes, the Zero Punctuation dood). They are adventure/point-and-click style games with horror themes. You can get them free from his site. The order is 5 Days a Stranger, 7 Days a Skeptic, Trilby's Notes, and 6 Days a Sacrifice. Pretty good for an amateur, with the third one being my favorite.

I'm pretty sure there was a Sherlock Holmes game recently that was more survival horror/Cthulu themed that would count. Come to think of it, I'm sure there's a Cthulu game or two that would count.
[/QUOTE]

I've been meaning to check out Yahtzee's games. I check his reviews religiously, and not just because I've written 2 articles for The Escapist.

Call of Cthulhu looked sweet from the trailer, and I just picked it up from the Hollywood Video $5 used game sale. Haven't played it yet, though.

And there's this freeware, browser-based Super Mario derivative that messes with anyone familiar with Super Mario: http://www.geocities.jp/z_gundam_tanosii/home/applet/Main.html
 
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