Games For Lonely Souls

[IDMTINP]

Outside, the world blooms pink as the month of love invites lovers and friends to warm each other up with gifts, hugs and kisses!

For some of us, however, it’s just another winter month we’ll spend inside, not cuddling, not holding hands.

Loneliness is a feeling I like to explore, and games are an excellent way to do that!
It’s what I plan to do this Valentine’s, but the problem is I don’t know of enough games that can help me with that.

Some examples I've run into are beautiful adventures like Camp 1, and of course, Shadow of the Colossus. The atmosphere on both games sinks you into a world of isolation, however beautiful it may be.

For you guys, what are some games that explore that feeling? What are some games that remind the player of the feeling of being alone and missing out on whatever else may be going on?

 

[Ícaro Oliveira Santos]

Post automatically merged: Feb 7, 2025

Yume Nikki has a very surreal and incredibly depressing atmosphere and a very strong sense of loneliness.

 

[RedCometHarry]

The Long Dark, maybe?

 

[LiberoVulpes]

Lone Survivor, it follows a man stuck in his apartment building trying to survive monsters, and his own imagination.

Don't Escape 4, follows a lone man living in a devastated world, after an unspecified catastrophe.

I am Alive, its a bit rough around the edges, guess what? It follows a man living in a world devastated, he is trying to find his family, and leave a record that he was alive.

 

[Evaccaneer Doom]

Me saying Shin Megami Tensei can mean two things and both are true

The first being I attract no maidens and the second being "you literally spend most of the games alone in a post apocalyptic world besides the demons that pledge no real loyalty"

 

[Zachery2112]

Milk Inside a Bag of Milk Inside a Bag of Milk is a ten minute experience of a girl handling her grief. I've never played its sequel, "Bag of Milk Outside a Bag of Milk," but I've heard good things about it too.

It is a uniquely isolating experience and one of the best visual novels I've ever played. Granted, it is a very depressing experience, so viewer discretion and all that. But at the same time, I can't help but feel like the game is a work of art with a point to make. It is more than just a psychological horror game. It has a message about how depression affects us and our responses to it.

it costs about a dollar and usually goes on sale anyway. If you have a couple minutes to play, I highly recommend it.

 

[mel]

The static speaks my name and silent hill 2 are my top picks.

 

[Bakuma1997]

LIMBO, ¿what better game for lonely souls than one where the only living beings are for your blood?

 

[RageBurner]

Hm... to me soulslikes are lonely feeling and oppressive most of the time.

 

[jiyuuboyetsvi]

Wandering around aimlessly in Final Fantasy XIV when none of your friends are online. Peak lonelycore

 

[IDMTINP]

View attachment 22440
Milk Inside a Bag of Milk Inside a Bag of Milk is a ten minute experience of a girl handling her grief. I've never played its sequel, "Bag of Milk Outside a Bag of Milk," but I've heard good things about it too.

It is a uniquely isolating experience and one of the best visual novels I've ever played. Granted, it is a very depressing experience, so viewer discretion and all that. But at the same time, I can't help but feel like the game is a work of art with a point to make. It is more than just a psychological horror game. It has a message about how depression affects us and our responses to it.

it costs about a dollar and usually goes on sale anyway. If you have a couple minutes to play, I highly recommend it.

This looks really, really interested, I have never heard of it. I'm adding it to my list. Thank you!

 

[bjork]

The first Metroid was the first game I felt this with. Enemies around, but definitely no friends.

Also if you play it solo, the story in Phantasy Star Online, following Red Ring Rico's story through small bits of text is kind of lonely too.

 

[DunkeyKong]

Castlevania and Metroid games definitely, NES version and the first Castlevania specifically. Even though it can be applied to any games back in the day, those two gave me this feeling in some way. It does make sense though with the settings, who would live inside the castle, cave or planet with the undead and unknown creatures?

Your objective is to kill and exterminate them all, without any help, just you and all of them. Some of these games can make you feel really cool to defeat it all alone…well, maybe not Shadow of the Colossus

 

[MistHunter]

Super Mario Brothers 1.

(I had nightmares with -1 World and some stranges glitches from the game, crazy stuff)

 

[RageBurner]

Super Mario Brothers 1.

(I had nightmares with -1 World and some stranges glitches from the game, crazy stuff)

Don't play Lost Levels, then (the real Super Mario Bros. 2), or the insane difficulty will give you worse nightmares, I'm sure.

 

[MistHunter]

Don't play Lost Levels, then (the real Super Mario Bros. 2), or the insane difficulty will give you worse nightmares, I'm sure.

I played it with All-Stars.
However, I know about trying to get the Extra Worlds 9 & A, B, C, D (in the original).
Quite an authentic feat, of course.

 

[Ian Naxieas]

Alien: Isolation obviously! Isolation is even in the name! It'll totally make you not want to be alone though.

As for a serious answer, Darkwood comes to mind first. You do have some allies, but most the game is spent alone, exploring, foraging for supplies and either fighting or avoiding beasties. Then there's the nights. You're stuck in your shelter, alone and isolated by the darkness that will kill you if you're foolish enough to step outside. You just gotta survive until morning, but all manners of beasties and other strange occurrences make sure you do not have an easy time doing so. Fucking love Darkwood. I've mentioned it before and will continue to do so forever.

I second The Long Dark. You are truly alone and isolated in northern Canada in the middle of a really bad winter. You survive by going from area to area, picking up clothing, supplies and even weapons to fend off the strangely aggressive wolves and bears. Well, you're probably fucked if you run into a bear, but you might get lucky! The cold is your biggest enemy however. Always be on the lookout for shelter and places to start the ever life saving thing known as fire. The atmosphere is wonderful too. As someone who has lived in the upper Midwest and has been through many blizzards, the feeling of being trapped as the wind and snow slams your shelter and makes things creak is perfect.

I've never played it, but I hear wonderful things about Firewatch. You're a dude alone in a fire lookout tower that ventures out to do stuff and your only contact is a lady over your radio. Sorry I didn't make it sound more interesting, but give it a look at least!

The Subnautica games are another good choice. You're alone on an alien planet, doing your best to survive while looking for a way off the planet. Really beautiful and peaceful game... until you go deeper and find some things you do not want to fuck with. Your focus is on staying alive, scavenging supplies and blueprints so you can build up an underwater base. Good shit.

I can't give a strong recommendation to it, but Elite Dangerous might be something to look into if you like space. If you join the base game servers you'll find (and probably be harassed by) other players all the time, but if you go into a private game or go out far enough you'll be entirely alone. I've played the game a few hundred hours and I've spent most of it in deep space, being the first to discover many solar systems. It's a really beautiful game with really great ship controls and atmosphere, but ultimately you'll be grinding for ships and upgrades a hell of a lot and as is usual with procedural generation, everything starts looking very much the same. I've quit playing and I don't exactly regret my time spent in it, but a lot of that time was doing a whole lotta nothing.

Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem is a great game as well. When you play as Alex you're alone in an empty mansion that's dripping with atmosphere and shit starts getting really weird as your sanity dwindles. When you're playing as other characters, you do occasionally encounter other people but you never know who is a normal person and who is a fucking Bonethief. At least personally that makes me feel very alone and isolated, you don't know who or what is out to get you.

Wow, that's a whole lot of words. I can think of a bunch of games to mention, but I am le tired. I shall return and dump more later. With luck some other folks might shoulder some of the burden and recommend games I would. x)

 

[IDMTINP]

Thank you for typing all of that!

Alien: Isolation obviously! Isolation is even in the name! It'll totally make you not want to be alone though.

Played it and some of the scenes where breathtaking. Believe it or not, however, the game did NOT make me feel lonely at all, just in bad company.

As for a serious answer, Darkwood comes to mind first. You do have some allies, but most the game is spent alone, exploring, foraging for supplies and either fighting or avoiding beasties. Then there's the nights. You're stuck in your shelter, alone and isolated by the darkness that will kill you if you're foolish enough to step outside. You just gotta survive until morning, but all manners of beasties and other strange occurrences make sure you do not have an easy time doing so. Fucking love Darkwood. I've mentioned it before and will continue to do so forever.

Darkwood actually looks incredible and I cannot believe it's available for MacOS - What! I will definitely try it out, we'll see if the atmosphere dips me into the loneliness I'm looking for.

I second The Long Dark. You are truly alone and isolated in northern Canada in the middle of a really bad winter. You survive by going from area to area, picking up clothing, supplies and even weapons to fend off the strangely aggressive wolves and bears. Well, you're probably fucked if you run into a bear, but you might get lucky! The cold is your biggest enemy however. Always be on the lookout for shelter and places to start the ever life saving thing known as fire. The atmosphere is wonderful too. As someone who has lived in the upper Midwest and has been through many blizzards, the feeling of being trapped as the wind and snow slams your shelter and makes things creak is perfect.

It can hardly get more lonely than winter survival, though The Long Dark, at first glance, doesn't seem to be what I'm looking for. There's a humble indie survival game called Near Death that really did it for me. There aren't even any enemies. It's just you and the cold and you can go at your own pace. I'll definitely consider TLD however, as its type of isolation may be fitting for when I'm in other specific moods!

You gave me a lot to check out!

 

[Abecero]

A game I can think of, that should fit the "you're alone" category you're looking for, I feel could be Far: Lone Sails, and the sequel Far: Changing Tides.

Tldr, I guess I could describe it as Limbo, but you're on a vehicle, lol.
To elaborate more, you're a lil kiddo in what seems like a world in which everyone just disappeared, is deteriorating and flooding. I think the only semblance of a "plot" is that you're looking for your grandpa, maybe? Or just find anyone, really. To do so, you travel in this big landship thing, you gotta look after it by fueling it up, arranging the sails, doing some manteinance when needed, stuff like that. It's a quite atmospheric game, or guess experience would be more accurate. I did quite enjoy it myself, perhaps you'll like it as well.

 

[igotpsychicpower]

Portal 1 in particular is the one that inspires this feeling of loneliness the most. You're stuck in an abandoned underground scientific complex, solving puzzles without any help, all alone like a lab rat with a general artificial intelligence giving you specific instructions, so on top of that you're devoid of free will. If you're observant and curious, you'll discover some very abstract messages that complement the atmosphere the game aims to convey. The game is a prototype of what Portal 2 would later become also helps to make you feel alone, as the focus is essentially on gameplay, physics and mechanics rather than storytelling. Without spoilers, the character Chell is desperate to escape, unaware of the hostile environment outside. All of which begs the existential question: would you rather stay cloistered in a safe place on your own, or take the risk of getting out into the wild and meeting new people?

 

[Pandaprewmaster325]

I guess RTS can't be suggested since you command a lot of troops and are generally surrounded by soldiers.

Hmmm a game where you are all alone has to be IGI

 

[burntman]

View attachment 22413

Outside, the world blooms pink as the month of love invites lovers and friends to warm each other up with gifts, hugs and kisses!

For some of us, however, it’s just another winter month we’ll spend inside, not cuddling, not holding hands.

Loneliness is a feeling I like to explore, and games are an excellent way to do that!
It’s what I plan to do this Valentine’s, but the problem is I don’t know of enough games that can help me with that.

Some examples I've run into are beautiful adventures like Camp 1, and of course, Shadow of the Colossus. The atmosphere on both games sinks you into a world of isolation, however beautiful it may be.
View attachment 22414View attachment 22415

For you guys, what are some games that explore that feeling? What are some games that remind the player of the feeling of being alone and missing out on whatever else may be going on?

LOL lack of love for dreamcast

 

[Zachery2112]

POLICENAUTS by Hideo Kojima

This is one of the most interesting stories about social isolation I've ever experienced.

This is sort of a spoiler, but it's in the first hour of the game so it's not so bad. You play as Jonathan Ingram. He was one of the founding members of the Policenauts, the law enforcement of the first human space colony. After an accident during a space walk causes him to fly away from the colony, Jonathan's suit puts his body into a suspended sentence to save his life. Decades later, they recover Jonathan and wake him up. For him, it was minutes of separation. For the rest of the universe, it was years.

If you've ever talked long enough with a grandparent, you'll be familiar with how they feel like the world is no longer meant for them. They've aged, the place they grew up in is long gone. Somehow they feel like foreigners in their own home. Policenauts has almost the opposite feel to it. Jonathan didn't change, he never got old. It was the world that aged. He went to sleep and woke up still in love with his wife but that's not how she experienced it. She grieved, moved on, met someone else, remarried, had a daughter, got a new job, moved into a colony. All of this happened without Jonathan even being conscious.

This isolation, the feeling like the world isn't what it used to be, is sort of unique to Policenauts. Jonathan is the new, he's young and excited to help people. Yet none of it really matters anymore. Friends have turned into enemies, lovers into clientele, and standards and traditions have been forgotten. Things have gotten a lot more complicated since he went to sleep and the world isn't willing to give him an explanation.

Policenauts has had a dozen ports and plenty of fan translations. I suggest the Sega Saturn version because it included a documentary, the updated art, and slightly higher quality audio. I know it's not Metal Gear, but I seriously think this game is the best of Hideo Kojima's catalogue. At the very least, in his top 5.

 

[IDMTINP]

This is one of the most interesting stories about social isolation I've ever experienced.

What a fucking great overview of the game, my dude. I have not played it yet but I don't think anyone could've enticed me to play it more than this.

If you've ever talked long enough with a grandparent, you'll be familiar with how they feel like the world is no longer meant for them. They've aged, the place they grew up in is long gone. Somehow they feel like foreigners in their own home.

As a matter of fact, I do this every weekend! I go to a "Death Cafe" in my city were people go to have lively conversation (pun intended) about death. Most people who go are 50+. It's fascinating and I think about those old people every day.

This isolation, the feeling like the world isn't what it used to be, is sort of unique to Policenauts. Jonathan is the new, he's young and excited to help people. Yet none of it really matters anymore. Friends have turned into enemies, lovers into clientele, and standards and traditions have been forgotten. Things have gotten a lot more complicated since he went to sleep and the world isn't willing to give him an explanation.

Omg! This is so radical and up my alley! You have convinced me to check out this game.

 

[Ian Naxieas]

It can hardly get more lonely than winter survival, though The Long Dark, at first glance, doesn't seem to be what I'm looking for. There's a humble indie survival game called Near Death that really did it for me. There aren't even any enemies. It's just you and the cold and you can go at your own pace. I'll definitely consider TLD however, as its type of isolation may be fitting for when I'm in other specific moods!

My knee-jerk reaction was that they're basically the same thing, but thinking about it, they are really very different games. TLD is literal isolation, yes, but you spend too much time fretting about like, everything to really focus on the feeling of being alone. Near Death, from what I can tell, seems less hectic and more about learning and exploring a small, desolate area. It sounds nice to survive without worrying about things like "oops, my water meter is almost empty, better gather some toilet water". I'm a big champion for smaller, more tightly crafted games and Near Death looks like it fits the bill. I know the thread is supposed to give you games to play, but you gave me one as well. ?

I have never played them, but maybe Kona and it's sequel might be something that interests you. I've heard good things about Kona, less good things about the sequel though. Plus, it's more snow! Who doesn't love that white, fluffy stuff? Sorry I don't have anything else to offer. I thought I did, but now I have a clearer understanding about what you're looking for.