12 Video Games That Will Change How You See The World

Helping you understand everything better than reality ever could.

spec ops the line
2K Games

Games can give you the chance to live in worlds you could only imagine, be someone you wish you could be, or do crazy things you would never dare - sometimes all three. Gaming is liberating, simply because it can be the perfect escape from reality.

That is, until game developers start breaking the fourth wall and start messing with our minds...

As graphics become more realistic, gaming engines more substantial and storylines more complex, video games have begun straying from the Hollywood “good vs evil” approach, and are forcing us to see the blurred lines of reality.

We face moral choices and devastating consequences. Permanent death in certain titles makes us react in a 'real' way, rather than the all-guns-blazing, laissez-faire approach we have become accustomed to in survival games. Then, every so often, we get a great big fat philosophical quandary thrown at us and our brains melt out our ears, forever changing us in the process.

Here are 12 games that ask us big questions, changing the way we see the world forever.

12. Hotline Miami

spec ops the line
Dennaton

Hotline Miami sees our mask-wearing, Travis Bickle-inspired anti-heroes travel across the city, shooting, bashing and punching their way through the skulls and flesh of an impressive foray of hideouts, clubs and brothels.

As tougher and more powerful Mafia bosses fall to the might of our katana/MP5/ninja star/[insert favourite weapon here] combo, we eventually find ourselves in front of the cryptic Janitors; the puppeteers behind the phone calls that had been directing our mass-murdering sprees.

Not only do the Janitors deliberately avoid a reasonable explanation as to why we have been a tool for their Mafia-clearance business, preventing any self-justification for our seven hours of Scarface, but they outright tell us that you, not the character, but you, have been crushing brains and stabbing gangsters because you enjoyed it.

The Janitors are even modelled on the developers themselves, just to smash up the final remnants of that fourth wall we thought we were safely hidden behind.

Contributor

Writer, aspiring author, and I won't stop travelling until I've seen it all. Whilst I might take a break now and then to rant about politics or muse over philosophy, I'm not afraid to roll up my sleeves, buckle down, and spend some solid hours gaming!