Top 10 Brain Exploding Games (Topic)

Video games, like any other form of art, are capable of evoking powerful emotions, be it surprise, fear, hate, sympathy, or even shock. But at the same time, few developers manage to reach out to the very hearts of players and surprise with unexpected gameplay or plot findings, leaving them in a silent stupor to follow the events on the monitor. Such games are aerobatics, and today we will tell you about the top 10 games that blow your mind with unexpected creativity and bold decisions of the developers. About 10 games that you will hardly be able to forget even in ten years.

10. Braid

The amazing Braid platformer by Jonathan Blow could count on hitting the top in just one approach to the gameplay. After all, 7 worlds that pose hundreds of non-trivial tasks with time management mechanics, if they do not blow up your brain, they will definitely come close to this goal. Perhaps, after Braid, hardly another game will be able to open something new in the gameplay with time manipulation.

But what is most surprising about Braid is the ending of the game. All 10 hours of passing the Braid scenario for an inattentive player may sound like another cheap analogue of a cliched plot about saving a princess from the clutches of a monster in another distant castle. But in Braid, the main character does not have a funny Italian accent and luxurious mustache, he is not Mario, he is not one of the good guys at all. He is the main antagonist, the very monster from which the princess tried to escape.

After solving the most difficult puzzles and challenges, did you want to feel like a hero? Come back to earth, not all people are waiting for your "salvation".

9. SOMA

SOMA is clearly not one of those projects that occupy high positions in the top of the best games. Let's say even more: as a horror, the last project of Frictional Games at the moment does not frighten at all, but as a quest does not stand up to criticism due to the primitiveness of the tasks assigned to the player. But even so, SOMA tenaciously keeps a philosophical sci-fi storyline in front of the screen, the unexpected twists of which are comparable only to a hammer blow on the head.

At SOMA, the developers decided to explore the topic of human personality through the prism of artificial intelligence and answer many of the questions relevant to science fiction. Where is the border between the human mind and an AI that is aware of itself, feels and has fully formed memories? Is it possible to recreate a person's personality on a computer by copying each neuron in his brain? And finally - what is a person?

The questions are new and here it is not even the answers themselves that are important, but the way they are put and believe me, experiencing with the main character his movement between different copies of his own consciousness is one of the most impressive gaming journeys of the last five years.

8. What Remains of Edith Finch

Before starting What Remains of Edith Finch, the developers clearly set themselves the goal of making the game as original as possible, surprising it in every aspect. The main character is a pregnant girl, the theme of the game is an ironic look at human death. There is not even any basic gameplay mechanics (except, perhaps, walking and collecting notes on the territory of the estate) - before us is a collection of mini-games, each of which has different gameplay and allows you to experience unique situations in the original visual style.

How do you like, for example, a story about the violent death of a budding Hollywood star, executed in the style of 50s comics? Or a few last moments from the eyes of a baby who, inadvertently, drowns in a home bathroom, which seems to him like an ocean, where soft toys come to life lead a funny round dance at the bottom? At least from an artistic point of view, What Remains of Edith Finch is real art and it doesn't matter that it can take an hour and a half to rush through the game.

7. Outer Wilds

Another small project, Outer Wilds, continues the top 10 brain-blowing games. The creation of Mobius Digital is in many ways reminiscent of What Remains of Edith Finch - a minimum of meaningless fillers for stretching the passage and a maximum saturation of moments full of creativity at every minute of time. Time in the Outer Wilds is generally an infinitely valuable resource, because in essence we have a game analogue of Groundhog Day - every 22 minutes in the game's universe, a supernova explosion occurs, rebooting the tiny space system in Outer Wilds.

An unusual game concept only emphasizes the originality of the game, which, with its own intimacy, allows you to feel an explorer of cosmic worlds an order of magnitude better than the large-scale No Man's Sky. Each planet in the Outer Wilds is a small piece of art and, like the tiny scenes from What Remains of Edith Finch, the planets offer unique gameplay and unusual visuals.

One planet, for example, collapses with every new minute, giant storms rage on another cosmic body, lifting huge pieces of land into the sky. The game Outer Wilds surprises from the first to the last minute and this is its main advantage.

6. Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty

How Hideo Kojima is a genius, especially in light of the release of the controversial Death Stranding, is a question worthy of a separate discussion. But what even the most inveterate haters of the Japanese game designer will probably agree with is that Hideo is a genius troll. A living example of this is Metal Gear Solid 2, which by the mere fact of the unexpected substitution of the main character from Solid Snake to the effeminate Raiden infuriated the fans of the first MGS. But these are just flowers, a real brain explosion awaits players in the final of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty.

The last third of MGS 2 resembles a bad dream, increasing the degree of madness with each passing minute. Here is our comrade Colonel, who for some reason carries incoherent nonsense to strange music and invites the gamer to turn off the game ... What? But the provocations will not end there and a little later the game simulates the screen of death by writing Mission Failed with grammatical errors. This is the case when we are not playing Hideo Kojima's games, but Kojima is playing with us.

5. Inside

Strange, cruel and mysterious - a few words will be enough to describe Inside, but even a short essay is hardly enough to fully understand the developers' idea. Drawing gloomy images of a dystopian city, the developers throw up one question after another, without forgetting to subject the protagonist to more and more cruel tests. And if you were sure that you can accurately predict the ending of Inside, then the developers have something to surprise you.

By a fatal accident, our hero becomes part of a screeching, groaning and frightened biomass from a group of people woven into a single whole. We, perhaps, have seen a lot of disgusting creatures in games, but so that, and even in the form of a playable character, and not another boss, is unlikely. It is not even the plot twist itself or the phenomenal elaboration of the animation that explodes the brain here, but the fact that you involuntarily imbued with sympathy for this creature.

4. Undertale

Undertale is one of those games that is advised to play in case of attacks of "gaming impotence", when gaming has ceased to please as before. In addition, we will recommend Undertale for those gamers who like to judge games by the cover, because with an unassuming eight-minute appearance, Toby Fox's project has managed to become a real phenomenon in the gaming industry. The main reason for the success, it seems to us, is the originality oozing from every detail of the game and the destruction of the usual cliches for video games.

Undertale is primarily an RPG, so most of the tasks can be solved in at least two ways: go the pacifist path, or vice versa, cutting out all living things, playing the role of Chikatilo. Any of the options is correct, the game does not engage in moralizing, but it will definitely take into account absolutely your every decision, playing with familiar game cliches with enviable regularity and destroying the 4th wall in the best traditions of Kojima.

3. Disco Elysium

The game, which begins with a dialogue of the protagonist with his own "ancient reptile brain" and limbic system, and then invites him to wake up in his underpants, look for boots in a drunken delirium and talk with a tie, it just cannot be "another good RPG ". Disco Elysium is a unique precedent and the first in twenty years a worthy response to Planescape Torment in the RPG genre.

Everything that you could love the legendary project of Chris Avellone for is fully in Disco Elysium Torment - philosophical reasoning, thousands of lines of first-class written text and dozens, even hundreds of non-standard situations (and their solutions) that you are unlikely to find anywhere - or else in the gaming industry. Disco Elysium is about the ability to communicate with inner demons, about the ability to lick the rest of the booze from the bar, or about the discourse on the work of Sartre. Disco Elysium is all about going out of bounds and is therefore ranked third in our top 10 games.

2. Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem

The horror genre can be more than just a theater of severed limbs and boring jumping screamers. Real, cult horror games use more subtle tricks to scare the player, forcing you to squeeze into a chair and even at one moment doubt what is reality and what is a video game. Playing on expectations and unconventional solutions is fertile ground for creating original and truly frightening horror movies, one of which is the cult Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem.

The main feature of the game is the system of morality, because of which the mind of the main character begins to draw frightening images and in the most unexpected way destroy the fourth wall. Lost limb visions, visual illusions and ugly full-screen silhouettes are the most innocuous things the game has to offer. In severe cases, Eternal Darkness will try to delete your saves, change the sound or simulate the blue screen of death. And the latter, as we know, is worse than any screamer.

1. The Stanley Parable

Imagine that you are the main character of a small performance, you have a certain scenario, you must follow it, and at the same time your every act in a calm voice comments the Narrator. In essence, a typical linear game looms before us, only with the addition of a voiceover. This is exactly what The Stanley Parable may seem at first, with the exception of one important detail: the ability to deviate from a given scenario, act contrary to the Storyteller and thereby get into funny and non-standard situations.

The Stanley Parable sneers at game and not only cliches in every possible way and can be regarded as an intricate attraction (for nothing, the developers practically did not provide gameplay as such) or a deep statement on the topic of making independent decisions in the modern world. Whichever side you approach The Stanley Parable, Galactic Cafe remains an original product, which we raise to the first place in our top 10 games and in every way we recommend to those who have long ceased to be genuinely surprised by video games.

See also the top 100 best games of all time (part 3)

The Topic of Article: Top 10 Brain Exploding Games.
Author: Jake Pinkman