Gaming as a hobby should be inclusive and accepting of everyone, but individual games have made a name for themselves as being proud of the fact they’re not to everyone’s taste. We’re here to celebrate those weird little curios for what they are, so here are our favourite games that aren’t for everyone.
Deadly Premonition
Perhaps the definition of that Joker meme, Deadly Premonition essentially succeeded in spite of its own idiosyncratic nature, as its weird art direction, nonsensical story and questionable character choices all became part of the game’s charm. The influence of David Lynch’s Twin Peaks was evident from the moment that Deadly Premonition was announced, but even the most devout Lynch lover would admit that Swery’s bonkers mystery makes Lost Highway look a little like Scary Movie 2.
Still, the game managed to retain a cult following of players who found something to love within this ambitious, sprawling mess of an open world horror game that lets you roleplay as a Discord mod. It even spawned a sequel, though fans of the original like to imagine that game never happened at this point.
Set in a fictional Washington town, players control FBI Agent York as he seeks to find the identity of the Raincoat Killer, a murderer responsible for the death of someone in the town. As York converses with the locals, weirding them all out because he keeps talking to an unseen presence referred to as “Zach”, he stumbles upon conspiracies surrounding the history of the town, some supernatural shenanigans and even the mysteries surrounding his own past. It’s all ridiculous, but in a fun, fight a kaiju redneck kinda way, while the town itself runs on a daily schedule that requires players to be in certain places at the right time to advance the plot, speak to certain locals or complete side quests.
The actual gameplay and combat leaves a lot to be desired, but if you’re looking for something a little bit different, Deadly Premonition is worth a look. Shame that second game really rained on the parade though.
Rain World
A 2D platformer isn’t what you’d immediately think of as the vessel for a survival game, so on that basis alone, Rain World is a unique gem of a game.
As a cute and adorable slugcat, you’ve been separated from your family by a terrifying flood, and you now find yourself amid the ruins of an ancient civilization. The good news is that these ruins can offer you some protection from the dangerous torrential downpours that threaten to drown everything in sight, but the bad news is that pretty much every other animal on the food chain had the same idea, and they’re itching to turn you into their next meal. It’s you versus an ecosystem determined to destroy you, and we’re not going to lie, the ecosystem is probably going to win. Imagine Tokyo Jungle but you don’t even have pomeranian powers to call upon.
While the DLC expansion Downpour includes a host of additions that make the game much more accommodating to both newcomers and those who aren’t well versed in hardcore survival games, such as actual tutorialized hints, a map system and collectible tracker (which can be disabled if you still want to feel brutalised), the original version of Rain World is a tough and punishing experience. Hell, even with the optional extras mentioned above, Rain World is no cakewalk, as players are required to use stealth and wits to get the best of their would-be predators, instead of just fighting anything that moves. That’s a one way trip to the game over screen, friend.
Of course, not everyone likes their games to be this difficult, or even quite as obtuse as this, but for those who love punishment, Rain World is one of the best.
Dwarf Fortress
The Sims is meant to be considered one of the more intricate and engaging life simulation games on the market, but The Sims is playing in the sandpit compared to the Sahara Desert that is Dwarf Fortress. Especially cos EA would probably charge you per gram of sand.
While The Sims lets you control the whims and overall fate of a family, Dwarf Fortress gives you control over an entire dwarven civilization, with each individual dwarf having their own wants, desires, fears, skills and so on. For the most part, Dwarf Fortress is a simulation game in the most ridiculous sense possible, as you’re at the helm of a melting pot filled with the most combustible elements imaginable. Sooner or later, something is going to explode in a huge way, and you’re going to be there laughing the entire time.
Words can’t do justice to how deep and expansive the level of simulation that Dwarf Fortress offers, meaning that this game can be quite intimidating for newcomers. Not surprising really, since some version of Dwarf Fortress has been actively worked on for over 20 years at this point, with the game’s developers even remarking that they’re nowhere even close to being done.
Dwarf Fortress really rose to prominence when it finally came to Steam in 2023, showing everyone the glory of watching dwarven civilizations crumble from within. While the developers did go to big lengths to add more tutorials and improve the onboarding experience for new players, some people are simply going to be paralyzed by the level of power offered in Dwarf Fortress. Just remember: nobody tosses off a dwarf or whatever. Or maybe they do? There’s probably a mod for it.
Pathologic/Pathologic 2
It’s somewhat sad that Dark Souls or the Soulslike genre as a whole has become the byword for games that are really entertaining to masochists, when Pathologic is literally standing right there, daring you to even try and not get ganked 5 minutes into it.
Like films, games are supposed to be fun, but there are also films that are designed to be thoughtful, provocative and just a little bit depressing. Sometimes I like to stick The Road on when I am feeling just a bit too happy for my own good. Pathologic and its pseudo-sequel, Pathologic 2, fall into the latter category, producing the same emotional beatdown as binge watching The Road, Martyrs and anything with James Corden in it. What we’re saying is that Pathologic isn’t for everyone, and it’s definitely not for people who use gaming to try and escape from the horrors of the world, though about three quarters of the reviews on Steam read like “made me wish for the death of all things, 10/10.”
So, what’s it about?
Pathologic allows players to pick from one of three characters, each given the task of keeping a set amount of the town’s population alive for 12 days as a plague ravages the area. Actually pulling that off requires plenty of coordination and luck, as food and medicine prices keep skyrocketing due to the ongoing disaster. You’ll have to make decisions where morality doesn’t come into question; despair is everywhere and everyone needs help, but there’s only so much you can do.
While the original Pathologic has more playable characters, Pathologic 2 is a remake/sequel of sorts, expanding the story of one character while adding new elements to the presentation, town and overall worldbuilding, but it’s still a fairly obtuse game that’s designed to teach you through failure. Either way, both profit off your misery, so if you’re in the market for some depression, all aboard the pain bus.
Desert Bus
Predating the wave of simulator games like Train Sim World, Euro Truck Simulator and Your Dad Getting In His Car For a 20 Year Long Trip to the Shop Simulator, Desert Bus would have been a huge hit with freaks like us if it launched today.
To be fair, it’s still a huge hit anyway, though not through any work of the original developers. Desert Bus was one of six mini-games that would have been included on Penn & Teller’s Smoke And Mirrors, the magician duo’s first foray into the world of video games. The gimmick of Smoke And Mirrors was to essentially trick players, whether through some digital magic tricks that required input from one player to trick another, two competitive games that would allow one of the players to stack the deck in one side’s favor without other players knowing, and the beat ‘em up Smoke And Mirrors, where Lou Reed would instakill players if they tried the Impossible difficulty. I thought we all agreed to praise the sun, now we’re eating it?
The developer, Absolute Entertainment, would go bust before the game could be fully released, but review copies had already been sent out, and 10 years after Smoke And Mirrors’ supposed release, the full game was uploaded online, with Desert Bus becoming the breakaway hit.
We probably don’t have to explain it, but Desert Bus lets you drive the 8 hour journey from Tucson, Arizona to Las Vegas, with just a few bits of vegetation to see during the journey. Oh, and the bus constantly veers slightly to the right. It’s basically the original rage game, and Desert Bus would spawn a good number of homages and spiritual successors, while its legacy has truly been defined by the Desert Bus For Hope charity stream.
The Indigo Parallel
Ordinarily we’d put a game like LSD: Dream Simulator in this list, but we’ve spoken about it so much it feels like we’re in a recurring dream. We need a bit of a comedown, if you catch our meaning, so we’re talking about a spiritual successor instead in the form of The Indigo Parallel. It’s– oh, it’s actually weirder than LSD. I’m going to lie down.
An immersive narrative experience more than an actual game, The Indigo Parallel dumps players into various dreamscapes, some of which seem kind of logical and understandable like cities, factories and underground mines, but then there’s whatever the hell is going on with all these faces. Self-described as a cross between the surreal nature of LSD and the narrative experience of games like The Stanley Parable, The Indigo Parallel is a strange journey. A journey to where? We’re not entirely sure to be honest, but it’s going to stick in your memory no matter what.
What makes The Indigo Parallel such an interesting and unique experience compared to LSD is that the levels are defined and even altered by the choices you make within the game, including branching pathways and entirely hidden features. Of course, that means you’re going to have to deal with lots more weird and creepy eyes looking at you in some kind of nightmare fuel dimension, so maybe don’t play this game if you’re deep in your own LSD trip. I honestly wouldn’t even try this after an especially citric satsuma, to be honest. That’s how you end up with some kind of permanent mental damage, like me.
I think being eaten by a cannibal gang would be better than watching Ashley Young every week, honestly.
Kenshi
There’ve been many games over the years that have tried to sell the “fantasy” of surviving in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, that fantasy being “grab the biggest gun and then win,” but Kenshi is arguably much more realistic in its depiction of life after calamity. In short, it sucks, making Kenshi one of the most unpredictable and unforgiving games players can buy.
It’s brutally difficult, especially in the early goings, demanding a lot in the way of time and patience from the player. Expect to die quite or lose your limbs frequently, but once you get rolling and you’ve found a squad of homies to have your back (quite literally when you have no limbs), the game becomes a lot more fun, as Kenshi’s world and the way different features interact with each other start becoming more accessible to the player.
An open world game without a linear narrative to follow, you’re instead dumped into a world filled with different zones and factions, and depending on either your actions or the game’s own whims, factions will rise and fall, taking over cities or even forming their own towns in different areas. Skills are leveled up by performing them constantly, whether it’s combat, theft, negotiation and more, and the game makes a point of letting the player know they’re not some special, chosen hero sent from the heavens to rescue everyone.
In just one stroke of bad luck, you could lose everything and end up sold as a slave to toil away as a miner, but at least you will always have a friend to watch your back.
Death Stranding
While Hideo Kojima has managed to find his way into the mainstream as basically everyone’s favourite uncle who brings a new girl to Christmas dinner every year, it’s hard to really say his games are for everyone. The gameplay is excellent, but if you don’t have the stomach for 30 minute long plus cutscenes and overly long diatribes about how the cardboard in a cardboard cox works, MGS isn’t going to be your kind of series.
However, since leaving Konami, Kojima committed himself to creating perhaps one of the most divisive games in recent memory with Death Stranding. A walking simulator in the realest sense of the term, Death Stranding basically puts you in the shoes of the most extreme delivery driver in gaming history. Paperboy has nothing on a digital Norman Reedus dodging weird shadow ghouls, playing nightcrawlers, dealing with spiders, and whatever else is happening in Death Stranding.
Trying to explain the full plot and themes at play within Death Stranding would take way too much time, but the core premise sees you trying to link together a fractured version of the US through a series of supply chain and delivery routes, creating bridges and infrastructure to do so. You also need to dodge those ghouls, Kevin Costner having a mad one, and a super spooky Mads Mikkelsen, though calling Mads spooky is like calling the sun bright.
Kojima Productions did release a Director’s Cut version for PS5, which added more features to appeal to the more casual gamer, like improved combat and a bit more in the way of action, but the idea of a AAA delivery game still isn’t going to appeal to everyone everywhere. It’s really like that Whiplash clip about matching the tempo, but instead of getting gaslit by J. Jonah Jameson, you’re guilted into doing every possible gig for everyone, including Conan O’Brien, by your dying mother. Tough break.
For those who it clicks with though, they consider Death Stranding to be a modern classic.
An Airport For Aliens Currently Run By Dogs
If you could describe Strange Scaffold’s game library in one word, “diverse” wouldn’t even begin to cover it. A “human-centric” indie team, Strange Scaffold have been earning a reputation for creating imaginative and, frankly, weird games that fill a niche you didn’t even know needed filling. While some of their more recent efforts, like the Max Payne homage El Paso, Elsewhere, an absolute whipper of a game by the way, or their super fast FPS revenge thriller I Am Your Beast are shooting for a wider market, they’ve also developed games like Clickolding, where a strange man in a hotel room demands that you keep clicking, or Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator, a game that would win the Ronseal award for “Doing What It Says On The Tin” if it wasn’t for another game: An Airport For Aliens Currently Run By Dogs.
An adventure game/walking simulator in what many would consider to be the pejorative sense of the word, you’re basically exploring different airports across the galaxy, trying to maintain a relationship with your partner during her busy work life. Oh, and all the airports are populated with flat images of various dogs. No 3D models for the dogs, because that would be too sensical, as An Airport For Aliens Currently Being Run By Dogs is the sort of madcap fever dream that you’re either going to find hilarious or cringey.
There’s no middle ground, honestly, but if you’re in the mood for something that doesn’t take itself too seriously, or you’re curious to learn more about the enigma that is Chad Shakespeare, this is the game for you.
Cho Aniki
Have you ever played shoot ‘em up games like Gradius, Raiden or Ikaruga and thought to yourself “I really think this genre needs more oiled up, half naked muscle men”? Of course you have, we all have those thoughts.
They come to us in the bath.
The Cho Aniki series is the manifestation of those thoughts, earning itself a reputation as being one of the most homoerotic games ever made. The series never saw a release outside of Japan, aside from a Wii Virtual Console release of the first game, but garnered cult acclaim nonetheless for its wacky visuals, weird humor and–well, the gameplay is fine at least. Nothing special. Those who played Langrisser may be familiar with Cho Aniki as well though, as the characters make an appearance in a hidden level.
Cho Aniki started out on the SNES with hand-drawn anime-like visuals, but the series arguably hit its zenith of big dudes doing big dude things with the PS1 release, which used digitized sprites in a similar method to the likes of Mortal Kombat and others. Getting people to pose and stitching photos together is easier than building new character models from scratch, apparently. The results look like SEGA’s Fantasy Zone stepped into the teleporter from The Fly with a WWE show, maybe Great Balls of Fire, creating something that’ll linger in your memory no matter how much you try to forget. This is about as “not for everyone” as it gets, but I’m still happy that it exists.
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