Refined craft in service of a non-Tulpa goal, huh? I think the core of Firewatch is its story; if you take it out, I don’t think there’s a project left.
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there’s so much that can or can not be included under the realm of “walking simulator” that it’s hard to draw a line sometimes. walking sims are a really surprisingly interesting and deep genre though! even if you’re only just including first-person 3d games as walking sims, which i am here.
that said i am really interested in walking sims as a genre unto themselves and from the ones i’ve played, i often don’t line up with the consensus choices on what are the worthwhile ones to play. “prestige” ones that i expected to enjoy but did not enjoy very much, for example, are: Edith Finch, Dear Esther, Obra Dinn (it’s not technically one though).
one “prestige” walking sim i didn’t expect to like nearly as much as i did is Firewatch. that’s def one of the best of the “prestige” walking sims i’ve played. i haven’t played Devotion but i have played Detention so i imagine that one is good as well.
as far as artsier ones - Oikospiel (i think it counts?), NORTH, The Space Between, Paratopic, Crypt Worlds (cheating a bit since i did sound fx/music for this one), The Norwood Suite/Off-Peak series, PAGAN: Autogeny, All Our Asias, several increpare things
off-beat ones i like but your mileage may vary: tripgate (gamejolt game), Smile For Me, Sylvio (maybe not technically one), Sanguine Sanctum, Kona, Sludge Life is okay and free on the Epic store. probably several itch.io things i can’t remember now
“lot going on there” in an interesting way: Where The Bees Make Money, Soul Axiom, This Strange Realm of Mine, Only If
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seconding Oikospiel, Devotion, Soma, Norwood Suite
also 10 Beautiful Postcards probably counts (there are first-person segments even!), even though Observer is kinda hokey in parts I’m fond of it overall, and The Under Presents is a much more interesting presentation of the same ideas from Tacoma and Obra Dinn if you have a VR setup
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QWOP
…
…
…Fine.
Of the ones not mentioned I enjoyed The Indifferent Wonder of an Edible Place a good deal.
I just finished playing Oikospiel Book I which is… occasionally a walking sim? It seems to inconsistently choose to be first or third person, regardless it is avant-garde so if you want one of those it would qualify.
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I remember enjoying Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture when I got it for free back in my PS+ days. It helped that I spent time in a part of England that looked very similar to the game the same year I played it.
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i liked what i was able to play of Virtual Virtual Reality which is by the same LA studio who does interesting VR stuff as The Under Presents, so i second those.
out of curiosity, are there any ancient adventure games that cross the line into this genre territory
this game was a huge inspiration to my high school self. constantly amazed by the game dev involvement of many of the forum users.
I think there are a lot of indie platformers that fall into walking simulator segments.
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Myst Uru kind of plays like a walking simulator, especially if you turn on first person POV. Playing it today, the original game has noticeable walking sim energy (exploring empty spaces, finding notes, collecting papers to exit the level), but you’ll REALLY feel it if you play some of the non-puzzle-oriented fan levels.
Also, it’s online, so, like, you can run into other people while you’re doing your walking simulation. What a weird game.
Amerzone’s puzzles are incredibly slight. It’s mostly just clicking through pre-rendered images.
The Manhole by Cyan is a kids game, but it’s literally just interacting with a world there’s no puzzles, or even an ending.
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Gone Home is still the peak of the form. It cannot be overstated enough how much the ability to interact with every single object is hugely important to the way the game plays and has been ignored by all the prestige walking sims made since, even the same developers’ own Tacoma, which is merely ok - too gameified, with not enough room to breathe.
What Remains of Edith Finch is a few interesting formal experiments that add up to nothing.
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is usually overlooked but I found it to be a pretty compelling mystery story with some truly uncanny elements. Very weird to see a team of traditional FPS designers giving a whirl at a totally narrative-based form. I think it’s very compellingly weird next to the Oscar-grab quality of Edith Finch.
Firewatch is mostly a good experience and well worth playing if you’re making an investigation into the walking sim format but it completely deflates by giving up at its climax and letting the whole central mystery collapse into a big cliche shrug. The very end is good, though, and sort of perks it back up a bit.
SOMA is the next best effort after Gone Home imo. I guess if you’re a real sf-head its concepts won’t be mindblowing or anything but I think it does a great job at making you inhabit your kind of dumb ass dude character and experiencing HIM getting his mind blown. Really really great “abandoned station” aesthetic that I adore.
Observer is drop-dead gorgeous and they got Rutger fucking Hauer to voice the main character but everything else about it is a giant lame waste of time.
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idk, does the Zettai Zetsumei a.k.a SOS The Final Rescue/RAW DANGER/Disaster Report-series count here?
Because you are doing a hell of a lot of walking there, while The World ends.
And you meet weird people.
And collect bagpacks.
And costumes/dresses.
Kinda rad that this series has survived the decades, tbh!
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I don’t know if What Remains of Edith Finch counts but I love games that do little design vignettes. It told the story of a family in a way that prods you to become the family (specifically through actions that lead to death) rather than merely infer and read about them a la Gone Home. Gone Home is still the best of the ‘classic’ bunch but I remember feeling at the time that it wasn’t so different from an adventure game.
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Devotion is fine. I didn’t find it so original or so scary, but I really loved the aesthetics.
Is The Under Presents only playable with a VR setup? I don’t have one, otherwise I would consider that too.
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By the way, I am playing The Return of Obra Dinn. Love the aesthetics… but it’s a bit boring perhaps?
I thought the plot was hokey and the dialogue trite b-tier BBC drama but reflecting back on the level design: wow it’s not great. environmental design was great but nothing in the game made me think about landscaping and vistas and drawing the eye as Dear Esther
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It’s a shame I don’t have Photoshop here because in the spirit of :
here is the walking simulator alignment chart
INTERACTIVITY
- Interactivity Purist: The player can for the most part only move and open objects without altering the game world significantly
- Interactivity Neutral: Contextual options like activating levers are important to the game, and inventory management can be available. The game may have small puzzles
- Interactivity Rebel: A higher range of interactivity options are available, like aiming + shooting or resource management
CHALLENGE
- Challenge Purist: The game follows a linear game path from beginning to end and there are no fail states
- Challenge Neutral: The ability to freely explore the game world is given to the player and there are no fail states
- Challenge Rebel: The game has fail states
EXAMPLES
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Hardline traditionalist : What remains of Edith Finch is a walking simulator
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Interactivity purist, Challenge neutral: LSD: Dream Simulator is a walking simulator
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Interactivity purist, Challenge rebel: The Stanley Parable is a walking simulator
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Interactivity neutral, Challenge purist: Tacoma is a walking simulator
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True neutral: Firewatch is a walking simulator
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Interactivity neutral, Challenge rebel: SOMA is a walking simulator
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Interactivity rebel, Challenge purist: The Unfinished Swan is a walking simulator
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Interactivity rebel, Challenge neutral: Paradise Killer is a walking simulator
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Radical anarchy: Death Stranding is a walking simulator
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Nothing in life makes me feel like a normie quite as much as people on this forum dismissing Edith Finch as Oscar bait, because I loved it so much I showed it to my wife who also played through it and also loved it and all
But it’s fair criticism
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I’m gonna find time for Death Stranding eventually
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I understand the perspective but it really felt like game that cared about its design and achieved its goals. It even manages humour through gameplay which is extremely hard to do well
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