There are two walking simulator games of 2013 that I know are high up on certain gamers’ chart rankings and I think a lot of people will agree with me on this one. One being Gone Home and the other being The Stanley Parable. I mean, the Stanley Parable even had a newer game come out recently, so of course we love being told by a narrator what we should do and then go completely off the path.
There are also more that you might’ve heard of as well–I know I have, but I haven’t had a chance to try them out yet, like The Novelist.
Then again people have also played Amnesia a lot.
Basically, 2013 was a pretty good year in terms of highly rated or highly played and talked about games within the walking simulator genre.
- If a game listed isn’t a walking simulator, I apologize
- If a game is not listed when it is a walking simulator, I’m still apologizing
Walking Simulator Games of 2013
9.03m
The media is quick to put figures to death tolls in such disasters, and 9.03m tries to remind people of the individuals behind those figures. 9.03m is set on Baker Beach in San Francisco, where debris from the tsunami has washed ashore in the years following the tsunami. To play, you must find the butterflies.
Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs
The year is 1899
Wealthy industrialist Oswald Mandus awakes in his bed, wracked with fever and haunted by dreams of a dark and hellish engine. Tortured by visions of a disastrous expedition to Mexico, broken on the failing dreams of an industrial utopia, wracked with guilt and tropical disease, he wakes into a nightmare. The house is silent, the ground beneath him shaking at the will of some infernal machine: all he knows is that his children are in grave peril, and it is up to him to save them.
Brothers – A Tale of Two Sons
A man, clinging to life. His two sons, desperate to cure their ailing father, are left with but one option. They must set out upon a journey to find and bring back the “Water of Life” as they come to rely on one another to survive. One must be strong where the other is weak, brave where the other is fearful, they must be… Brothers.
This is one journey you will never forget.
Gone Home
June 7th, 1995. 1:15 AM. You arrive home after a year abroad. You expect your family to greet you, but the house is empty. Something’s not right. Where is everyone? And what’s happened here? Unravel the mystery for yourself in Gone Home, a story exploration game from The Fullbright Company.
Kairo
Enter the lost world of Kairo. Explore vast abandoned monuments. Bring strange and ancient machinery back to life. Slowly uncover the true purpose of Kairo and fulfil a great destiny.Kairo is an atmospheric 3D exploration and puzzle solving game.
Kentucky Route Zero: PC Edition
KENTUCKY ROUTE ZERO is a magical realist adventure game about a secret highway running through the caves beneath Kentucky, and the mysterious folks who travel it.
Master Reboot
Imagine a world where death is no longer final, where precious memories are saved to enjoy forever, where your soul is immortal. Master Reboot is a haunting first-person sci-fi adventure.
The Novelist
The Novelist asks one central question: can you achieve your dreams without pushing away the people you love? The game focuses on Dan Kaplan, a novelist struggling to write the most important book of his career while trying to be the best husband and father he can be.
Outlast
In the remote mountains of Colorado, horrors wait inside Mount Massive Asylum. A long-abandoned home for the mentally ill, recently re-opened by the “research and charity” branch of the transnational Murkoff Corporation, the asylum has been operating in strict secrecy… until now.
Acting on a tip from an anonymous source, independent journalist Miles Upshur breaks into the facility, and what he discovers walks a terrifying line between science and religion, nature and something else entirely. Once inside, his only hope of escape lies with the terrible truth at the heart of Mount Massive.
Outlast is a true survival horror experience which aims to show that the most terrifying monsters of all come from the human mind.
Proteus
Proteus is a game about exploration and immersion in a dream-like island world where the soundtrack to your play is created by your surroundings. Played in first-person, the primary means of interaction is simply your presence in the world and how you observe it.
Shelter
Experience the wild as a mother badger sheltering her cubs from harm. On their journey they get stalked by a bird of prey, encounter perils of the night, river rapids crossings, big forest fires and the looming threat of death by starvation. Food is to be found, but is there enough for everyone?
Slender: The Arrival
You’re on your own. No one to come for you. No one to help you. No one to hear you scream. Slender: The Arrival is the official videogame adaption of Slender Man, developed in collaboration with Eric “Victor Surge” Knudson, creator of the paranormal phenomenon that has been terrifying the curious-minded around the world since its inception, with Mark Hadley and Blue Isle Studios.
The Stanley Parable
The Stanley Parable is a first person exploration game. You will play as Stanley, and you will not play as Stanley. You will follow a story, you will not follow a story. You will have a choice, you will have no choice. The game will end, the game will never end. Contradiction follows contradiction, the rules of how games should work are broken, then broken again. This world was not made for you to understand.
But as you explore, slowly, meaning begins to arise, the paradoxes might start to make sense, perhaps you are powerful after all. The game is not here to fight you; it is inviting you to dance.
