Most philosophical videogames?

[StaceyPowers]

What are the most philosophical videogames you’ve played?

[killamch89]

1. Metal Gear Series
2. Spec Ops: The Line
3. Deus Ex Series
4. Pneuma: Breathe Of Life

[Patrik]

Inside, the game has lot of deep meanings that aren't easy to understand, there are lot of theories behind the main story of the game, but there are no official ones coming from the devs themselves

[Empire]

Dark Souls seems to carry a lot of themes from Heidegger's Contributions, his lectures on Nietzsche and Nietzsche's Will to Power, especially the ideas of a eternal recurrence, fading flames and oblivion, although because both game and writer here are pretty difficult, that would be a tougher sell. I might expand on these ideas in a video at some point, if I find the time.

If you want some philosophical games, I'd recommend the YouTube channel Errant Signal, who does more in-depth analysis' at games, especially more thought-provoking indie ones that might escape your radar otherwise.

[The Blackangel]

I would say there's a lot of philosophy in RDR2. The constant struggle between right and wrong that Arthur feels leads to an intense inner turmoil within him. He's leading the only life he has ever known, and loyal to a fault. But he questions it within himself as to whether he's doing the right thing or not. He knows he's surviving by committing crimes. But he wonders if there's another life. And if he could live that life while remaining loyal. Or even live that life at all. He wonders where he would be if Dutch hadn't found him as a child. He wonders where he would be if Mary's family had accepted him.

Basically, he just wonders where he would be if things were different. And it tears him up inside, because that's something he can never know.

[Withywarlock]

Tropico 4 was quite philosophical, come to think of it. While the game doesn't particularly favour any one political or social ideology, parodying them all, Tropico does show you how the road to Hell is paved with good intentions. I eventually stopped caring about more costly green energy and free, high quality housing for all, devoting more to military budgeting, exports and expecting greater production from my citizens. And though it is just a video game, I can easily understand how someone in a position like El Presidente's can have the best laid plans only to be undermined by the numerous factions and voting blocs they have to contend with and satisfy.

Another game is Tyranny, which is the first game I played that did evil competently. The pitch is "in the war for good and evil, evil is winning", and you're on the side of evil. Except it's not evil, it's order taken to its logical conclusion against basic freedoms and rights. In typical Obsidian fashion it goes into no plan of action surviving contact with the enemy, internal politicking, regulations and so many other things. It's very much like another game I'd like to mention, but is more political than philosophical, which is Fallout: New Vegas, where every faction has inherent flaws that prevent them from gaining anything but pyrrhic victories.

And finally, off the top of my head, World of Warcraft. No thanks to Blizzard trying to make every line of dialogue a soundbite, but there's some really good nuggets of debate to be found in the subject of honour, judgement, the food chain and what we don't know about what we don't know. Currently I'm trying to figure out who the mysterious Arbiter character is, and what gives them the right to decide which souls go to 'Heaven' and which ones go to the Hellish Maw? If they pre-date the Titans, the 'gods' of the Warcraft universe then.... what were they an arbiter of? I'd like to say time will tell but I've long given up hope that Blizzard will satisfyingly tie up any loose ends.

[killamch89]

On 3/26/2021 at 5:21 PM, Withywarlock said:

Tropico 4 was quite philosophical, come to think of it. While the game doesn't particularly favour any one political or social ideology, parodying them all, Tropico does show you how the road to Hell is paved with good intentions.

Spec Ops: The Line does show the fallacy of Walker who in a desperate attempt to "save" Konrad, killed the refugees he was supposed to save along with a ton of other innocent people. When he finds Konrad's decomposed body and realizes that he was the cause of everything in Dubai, the first thing Walker says is " I never meant to hurt anyone." By the end of the game, you realize that Walker is broken man and will have to live with what he did for the rest of his life.

[DylanC]

Off the top of my head, Spec Ops The Line, INSIDE, Bioshock and Silent Hill 2 are some of the most philosophical, heady and thought-provoking games I've ever played.

[killamch89]

7 hours ago, DylanC said:

Off the top of my head, Spec Ops The Line, INSIDE, Bioshock and Silent Hill 2 are some of the most philosophical, heady and thought-provoking games I've ever played.

I totally forgot about Inside - behind its somewhat cartoony appearance is a rather deep story. I haven't played any of the Bioshock games yet but Bioshock Infinite is always mentioned whenever the topic of philosophical games arise.

[DylanC]

On 4/1/2021 at 12:14 AM, killamch89 said:

I totally forgot about Inside - behind its somewhat cartoony appearance is a rather deep story. I haven't played any of the Bioshock games yet but Bioshock Infinite is always mentioned whenever the topic of philosophical games arise.

Inside’s story is brilliant because it’s very “Show Don’t Tell”. Meaning there’s very little narrative exposition. It’s mostly environmental storytelling where you have to put the jigsaw pieces together yourself. Much like Bioshock, really. (You should definitely check out Bioshock at some point, dude!)

[killamch89]

On 4/2/2021 at 2:25 AM, DylanC said:

Inside’s story is brilliant because it’s very “Show Don’t Tell”. Meaning there’s very little narrative exposition. It’s mostly environmental storytelling where you have to put the jigsaw pieces together yourself. Much like Bioshock, really. (You should definitely check out Bioshock at some point, dude!)

I'll definitely check it out because I always love when a game decides to implement some kind of philosophy into its design instead of the generic point/click/shoot mechanic with no meaningful story behind it.

[StaceyPowers]

On 3/30/2021 at 7:32 PM, killamch89 said:

By the end of the game, you realize that Walker is broken man and will have to live with what he did for the rest of his life.

Did you also save Walker? I couldn't bring myself to kill him 😕 Er, well, I think he has been dead since the helicopter crash, so I guess I couldn't bring myself to bring him oblivion. I feel like existing with what he did will be incredibly hard, but maybe he can help others work through trauma or something. Such hard-won self-awareness--I had to have hope he could use it for good somehow.

[Heatman]

On 3/31/2021 at 5:05 PM, DylanC said:

Off the top of my head, Spec Ops The Line, INSIDE, Bioshock and Silent Hill 2 are some of the most philosophical, heady and thought-provoking games I've ever played.

Seriously, there are so many philosophy attached to BioShock games genre. Some of them are;

BioShock – Individualism /Objectivism

BioShock 2 – Utilitarianism /Collectivism Philosophy.