Sometimes a video game can push the genre forward to new heights, making outsiders look at the medium in different ways. A lot of video games are chaotic carnage, like the Grand Theft Auto series, which is perfectly fine, but every once in a while, there has to be a game that reshapes everything and makes players think.
Best RPGs Where Exploration Is Exhausting
Exploring a game's world is usually a fun thing to do, but this isn't always the case. Here are some great RPGs where exploration can be very tiring.
The following are all great examples of thought-provoking video games that are perhaps too mentally exhausting to play back-to-back. It would create too much mental stress, or it would be even weirder to play a happy game like Astro Bot after. Instead, a break from video games, however long, may be needed to process the following. There will be no spoilers.
12 Minutes
Til Midnight
12 Minutes
- Released
- August 19, 2021
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- M For Mature 17+ due to Blood and Gore, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Violence
- Genre(s)
- Adventure
12 Minutes starts normally with an unnamed husband and wife enjoying dinner together before a cop bursts in demanding the wife come with her, and then all goes black with the husband waking up with the night anew.
This is a time loop game wherein players have to figure out how to stop themselves and their wives from dying or being prosecuted by this cop. The game actively conceals information from players to mask the solution, and it requires a considerable amount of trial and error to get it right. By the end, the truth will cause players to reconsider the context in a new light, and it isn’t pleasant by any means.
BioShock Infinite
A Grim End For Booker
BioShock Infinite
- Released
- March 26, 2013
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Irrational Games
- Genre(s)
- Shooter
BioShock Infinite, on the surface, is a fast-paced shooter with some of the coolest set pieces of the 2010s. Between using powers like fire to light enemies up or grinding on rails to blast enemies with assault rifles, there is never a dull moment.
Behind the scenes is a darker story than simply starring a private investigator sent in to a cloudy utopian kingdom in the sky to rescue a girl. It’s another game where the ending will leave players perplexed and racing to forum message boards trying to piece it all together, while also coping with how their story ends with Booker, the detective.
It Takes Two
Marriage Is Complicated
It Takes Two
- Released
- March 26, 2021
WHERE TO PLAY
It Takes Two is a unique co-op only experience wherein two parents about to get divorced are turned into dolls by their kid. A magical book tells them they need to work together to solve this curse, and through random gameplay events, the two go on a bonding adventure. They will play old arcade games, ride frogs through the forest, and there’s even some shooting action.
The diverse set of gameplay types is astounding and fun while it lasts, but the game also takes a hard look at the reality of relationships. Even if things end smoothly, it can be stressful hearing the couple bicker, or the gameplay scenarios may even have players frustrated at each other.
The Last Of Us Part 2
Play That Guitar
The Last of Us Part 2
- Released
- June 19, 2020
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Naughty Dog
- Platform(s)
- PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5
The Last of Us Part 2 is one of the darkest games that PlayStation fans will ever play. Starting with Ellie, players will go on a trip to Seattle, seeking revenge for the one who took everything away from her. The reactions from the enemies she faces are too realistic, as they will often beg for their lives.
Great JRPGs That Are Also Exhausting To Finish
These JRPGs are great games, but you may feel exhausted after investing enough time into them to roll credits.
Beyond that, the gameplay is absolutely brutal, with the gore and the injuries Ellie will incur during her campaign. By the end, she will be left with less than what she started, leaving on a cliffhanger that can make players sick to their stomachs and question the very nature of revenge.
Life Is Strange
A Sacrificial State
Life is Strange
- Released
- January 30, 2015
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Dontnod Entertainment
- Genre(s)
- Adventure
- Platform(s)
- Android, iOS, Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Life is Strange begins with a student, Max, returning to her hometown after moving away. Upon going into the bathroom, she witnesses her old friend, Chloe, being murdered, but then she sees a photo and realizes she can travel back in time.
Each episode is more taxing than the last as players have to make split-second decisions about what to do, which will affect the story. While the idea of going back in time to save an old friend seems easy, it’s not. There are bigger forces at play, and players will have to make the grimmest decision in the final episode.
Red Dead Redemption 2
The Life Of A Cowboy
Red Dead Redemption 2
- Released
- October 26, 2018
WHERE TO PLAY
Red Dead Redemption 2 is one of the best Westerns ever made, with a big open-world prairie to explore with tons of activities to pursue. Players can decide to make Arthur, the protagonist, an evil gunslinger, or they can make him change his ways.
Either way, his epic is not something players would call a happy one, as Arthur constantly has to wrestle with following orders or being a decent human being in a changing world that is leaving criminals like him in the past. No matter where players end with Arthur, they will have to contemplate ideas of sadness, regret, melancholy, and facing death time after time.
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
The Hand Tax
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
- Released
- March 22, 2019
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- From Software
- Genre(s)
- Action RPG
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice does not have an unsettling story like the others, but it does have brutal gameplay that will test the very patience of players. Unlike most of FromSoftware’s other games, this is not a Soulslike. Players can upgrade their character and find him new equipment, but they cannot grind for EXP and level him up.
Instead, this is a more visceral action game where attacking comes ahead of defense. Players actively have to get good at counters, dodges, and making the first move, and if they manage to beat it, they will assuredly be exhausted in both mind and body.
Silent Hill f
Once Again With Gusto
Silent Hill f
- Released
- September 25, 2025
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Partial Nudity
- Genre(s)
- Survival Horror, Action
Silent Hill f is the one game not set in Silent Hill, as it instead takes place in 1960s Japan in a tiny village called Ebisugaoka. Hinako, the heroine, will have to work together with her friends to outpace a plant-like disease growing around town. They will also fall asleep occasionally and enter another dimension, and go through shrine trials with a fox man.
Best Open-World Games To Play Over A Long Time
Sit down and take your time in these open-world games for weeks or months on end, as there is so much great content to experience.
The game actively does not tell players what is going on, so it’s up to them to piece things together with notes and context clues. That said, not everything can be deduced the first time around, and each subsequent playthrough will reveal more. Going through some of these scenes the first time can be hard, let alone several.
Tunic
A Meta Zelda
Tunic
- Released
- March 16, 2022
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Andrew Shouldice
- Genre(s)
- Adventure
- Platform(s)
- PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S
Tunic looks like an ordinary top-down Zelda clone starring a fox instead of a young elf boy, but it’s so much more than that. If players do go through it as an action-adventure game, they will end unsatisfied.
The bigger picture requires deciphering the in-game manuals that players can find and piece together, which have secret messages in a foreign language contained within. Tunic is a meta game, and not one that is easy to solve alone. While not impossible, players will have their eyeballs glued to every nook and cranny of the map, praying for a clue or otherwise going online to try and get some answers.
Until Dawn
Won’t You Spare Me Over Til Another Year?
Until Dawn
- Released
- October 4, 2024
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Ballistic Moon
- Genre(s)
- Horror
- Platform(s)
- PC, PlayStation 5
Until Dawn is a thrilling adventure game set deep in the snowy mountains, where a bunch of college buddies are gathering for the first time in years. What starts as a fun vacation turns into a fight for their lives as a killer is on the loose.
Players can control multiple characters with limited interactions in the environment to get through each segment. Dialogue choices and Quick Time Events can lead characters to make it out safely, getting injured, or worse, dying. With grizzly deaths haunting players, Until Dawn can be a hard one to walk away from.
10 Games That Feel Shorter Than They Actually Are
With well-paced action and storytelling, these epics will feel surprisingly breezy despite their true running time.