10 Intense Video Game Thrillers That Will Melt Your Brain

1. Spec-Ops: The Line

For the top spot, a game that remains one of the most underrated of them all. Overlooked thanks to 2K's art department marketing it like any other third-person shooter, whilst Spec-Ops does retain a Gears of War combat system, it's heart is something else entirely.

Written by Walt Williams, The Line is a gut-punchingly resonant dissection of a soldier's mind, both during and after combat. By virtue of being a game, you're put in one particularly gruesome situation that completely breaks main-man, Martin Walker.

From here, Spec-Ops explores the "role" of the soldier; where responsibility lies when things go wrong, and how that impacts those who fall back on duty to live with the consequences.

Its basic premise is the retrieval of an AWOL commander, John Konrad - a character we get shown in a number of different lights, mostly to service how Walker "needs" him to be, so he can retain his sanity.

All roads lead to a showdown that results in multiple endings, depending on your own opinions on all the aforementioned questions I've mentioned. Spec-Ops: The Line is one of the most important war games ever made, and an essential playthrough for any action fan who wants to look past the bullets.