Video games have been a popular medium for art since its inception. Gamer designers can portray a wide range of stories, themes and designs through their games. Because of this, there are a wide variety of unique games that are entirely different to anything that has been done in video games before, whether that be in terms of story, design or gameplay. Here are some examples of the more interesting and unique video games that have been released.
What Remains of Edith Finch
Released in 2017, this point and click adventure game follows seventeen year old Edith Finch as she ventures back to her childhood home, a huge mansion built overlooking a cliff side that had sat abandoned for over a decade. Edith must investigate a supposive century old curse that had killed off every single one of her family members one after the other for generations to receive closure for the traumas of her childhood.
What Remains of Edith Finch is a very slow paced games that slowly unravels its secrets in a very gradual manner.The player discovers each family members story of life and death by exploring the house and looking through the various windows and peepholes into their bedrooms which have boarded up after their deaths. The player will sometimes have to solve a puzzle or answer a riddle to access each family member’s story, most often triggered by touching some sort of objects or belonging to them. The ending is left fairly ambiguous and allows the player to come to their own conclusion about whether or not the Finch family curse is real or if it just existed in the paranoid minds of the family.
Gorogoa
Gorogoa is a 2017 puzzle game where the player must manipulate images on a two by two grid and explore each image as they stack,place and turn the images to solve various puzzles and piece the story together through the puzzles. The game play of Gorogoa involves leading a young boy as he discovers a strange monster among a post-apocalyptic landscape as they work to rebuild the world around them.
Gorogoa was developed as a passion project by a man named Jason Roberts. The idea started as a graphic novel before being developed into a video game.
Undertale
Undertale is an immensely popular 2015 2D RPG created by indie developer Toby Fox. The game play follows a young boy who has accidentally stumbled across a large secluded region under the surface of the earth known as the Underground that had previously been protected by a magical barrier. The player must find their way back to the surface world while encountering various monsters and creatures, some of which are antagonistic and will engage the player in fights or try to lure them into traps. The game has a combat system that the player can use to fight off malicious monsters. The combat system involves the player navigating through a “bullet hell.’ put forth by their opponent The player also has the option to subdue and pacify opponents instead of killing them.
The choices the player makes in the game, whether it is killing or not killing opponents or exploring different areas of the game’s landscapes, can lead the player to one of many different scenarios. This includes dialog, events and outcomes.
Besides the artwork and character designs, Undertale was almost exclusively developed by one person, including the script and music. The developer, Toby Fox took a lot of inspiration from past games such as Touhou Project.
Cuphead
Cuphead is a 2017 adventure game following a talking coffee mug named Cuphead who is bound in a contract with the Devil after losing a casino game. He is now required to do the Devil’s bidding and must embark on a quest to repossess the souls of runaway debtors, Eventually, Cuphead grows in powers and abilities, he decides to turn on his master and fight for his freedom.
Cuphead’s gameplay involves a two player gameplay option where one player can play as cuphead and the other player can play as Cupheads brother Mughead. Cuphead and Mughead can work together to defeat bosses and run through different levels.
Dead Cells
Inspired by similar horror games such as the Diablo (with the recent addition of IV where players buy Diablo 4 accounts) series Dead Cells is a 2018 adventure game that follows a mysterious creature called the Prisoner. When the player is playing as the Prisoner, they must navigate a disease ridden island in order to overthrow the king of the island.
Over the course of the game, the player will gain supplies such as weapons and treasures through exploration of the world while battliing various creatures and monsters on their way to find and slay the king. The game also features a permadeath system, which cause to the player to lose all items they have acquired throughout the game when their character dies in the game