Philosophically interesting games

[AlonzoTG]

Hey, I wanted to plug a few video games for either touching on philosophical concepts or being thought-provoking. 

 

Deus Ex: Human Revolutions,   Focus on the side-quests, does a fairly good job of illustrating social issues raised by the rise of transhumanism. The more recent "Mankind Divided" falls a bit short in my opinion but I'd tend to say is worth it. In terms of gameplay, it is possible to complete Human Revolutions without killing anyone except a handful of boss characters. Mankind Divided can be completed without killing anyone at all. 

The Talos Principle, a puzzle game, lots of ponderables both on and off the main line of the game. 

 

 

[ofd]

I have really enjoyed the Bioshock series and Final Fantasy Tactis. The latter is more sophisticated than most what you hear about philosophies in schools or universities.

 

[AlonzoTG]

I played through Final Fantasy Tactics, I think I made the game much harder for myself because I neglected the thief class because it felt unclean. My main memory of it is characters returning from exciting-sounding side-adventures to the dull grind of the main quest and endless leveling at Sweggy Woods, always reporting on having a good feeling. =P 

[SnapSlav]

Good "moral choice" games are a huge recommendation from me. Contrary to what many publishers would insist, simply advertising "tough choices" is NOT the same thing as a tough choice. Todd Howard insisted that it would be a difficult choice to weigh your options when choosing to drink contaminated water or to not in Fallout 3, but the reality is there were no heavy consequences in that game, and zero tough choices. It insisted it was a morality driven game, but it was just childish interpretations of hard choices, not actual hard choices.

Bioshock is a good recommendation, not because the "choices" you have are particularly compelling, but because the game does a damn fine job of blending ludonarrative elements with the story. Your ability to choose to spare or kill the Little Sisters isn't a really tough choice, and if they'd spent more time building up the two characters who advocated for opposite choices (The good guy advocating kill, the "Nazi scientist" advocating save, who do you believe?) then maybe the choice would have been tough or compelling. But it's the fact that the story plays on the role of free will that makes the opportunity given to the player so compelling. Not only are you directed by glowing objects telling you what to interact with, giant floating compass markers telling you where to go, and a voice on the radio instructing you what you've got to do, the game's story LITERALLY hinges on the point that you had no free will the entire time... except where the Little Sisters are concerned. So since this was your one and only act that was entirely up to you to choose, it makes the choice actually quite poignant. It's a brilliant indictment of games as a whole, that advertise how "open" they are when in reality they're just really big railroads, rather than small ones.

I don't really see the problems that Stefan alludes to when he dismisses the game, because I found it to be an insightful introductory to Objectivism, not a scathing criticism at all. It's a brilliant thinker's game, and the more you think about it, the deeper it gets. It's a real shame, then, that the two sequels did everything in their power to completely negate all the good ideas that came of Bioshock. I'd highly recommend the first game, and advise to avoid the following two.

My favorite games are ones that have fantastic writing that makes me doubt my choices constantly. Namely the (good) Fallout games: 1, 2, Tactics, and New Vegas. I've recently started playing Wasteland 2 and so far in I'd say it also deserves a mention. When you're given an opportunity to make a choice in THESE Fallout games, it's not some cartoonishly simple view of morality. The villains have very good reasons for doing what they're doing, and when you face off against the end-game adversaries, you find very human people trying to do good things, and you realize that doing good by your standards is going to ask to do bad... by your own standards. You're not presented a simplistic, "Do I save a bunch of innocents, or do I torture them and laugh like a nefarious villain?" Instead, you're given a real conundrum, such as, "Do I shut off this damaged reactor and stop the contamination of these crops, or do I transfer power over to the survivors so they can escape, dooming the crops?" In either choice there are winners and losers, and it's up to you to decide your own justification for why you should pick one or the other. The game won't judge you either way. It'll just present the opportunity to you, and let you make your own decisions.

Unfortunately, Fallout and Fallout 2 haven't aged terribly well (better than some, but not ideal), so I can understand some people having a tough time enjoying them. But if you can get past the outdated interface and the old graphics, they are amazing games to play. Tons of fun, and very thought-provoking. But it should go without saying, DO NOT play FO3 or FO4 and expect the rest of the series to even REMOTELY resemble those atrocities... If you don't want to think too hard, and you enjoy pointless, mindless catharsis, then by all means, play them. But if you like your games treating you like independent-thinking individuals and respecting your moral agency, then skip over Todd Howard's abominations. Play the originals, and New Vegas. They warrant your attention.

[Siegfried von Walheim]

Ogre Battle: Person of Lordly Caliber (made in 1999 I think for the N64); Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together (made for the SNES, PS1, and some other contemporary systems in 1995 and 2000); Valkyrie Profile (1998 or 2000--forget the year of release--for the PS1); and pretty much every Harvest Moon and Romance of the Three Kingdoms/Nobunaga's Ambition game. And Persona. Pretty much 1-5 (especially 3 and 4) are all solid psychological and philosophical games. Metal Gear Solid (I only played V: Phantom Pain but I think the others might also be deep). 

Ogre Battle was a game I played quite a bit growing up, and although it takes place in a world themed somewhat around the Balkans and the interference of foreign powers in dictating the life of the region, it is a very Japanese game thematically. While playing the game, the player is tasked with taking towns, winning battles, and eventually overthrowing the vassal-state of the Holy Lodis Empire in the name of independence and civil liberty. One very subtle thing about the game is it's "Chaos Gauge", which essentially measures whether the player is a heartless warmonger or anyway-the-wind-blows-type and deaf to the very subtle existence of this hidden mechanic (which is only revealed at the ending). Basically to be good is to stand up against the mob mentality of the Revolutionary Army and to focus on liberating the towns by sending men of a similar character and culture to them (represented by an alignment gauge which measures "Law-Neutral-Chaotic" on a spectrum--with the first essentially being conformist with the last being rebellious, with both good and bad traits to both) as compared to sending anyone and ignoring the resistance and conflicts between the army and the populace.

It also touches more abstract themes like the corrupting of the soul via war and power or vanity, as well as more earthly themes like hierarchical systems based on birth or race as well as more practical themes like foreign empires who believe themselves incorruptible and just colonizing and meddling politically with weaker nations, as well as the cynicism of those who have lived through these machinations contrasted with the heroism of those willing to stop it. 

Tactics Ogre is similarly themed but with a greater focus on personal choice affecting the storyline. It is premised on the ethnic conflict of three very similar races ("Walsta", "Gargastani", and "Bacrumese"--loosely based on the Serbs, Bosniaks, and Croats) and how that war is continued and sustained by two foreign superpowers: the Holy Lodis Empire (the same one in the previously mentioned game--the events taking place around the same time) and the Kingdom of Zenobia (which was the Kingdom re-founded by the player in the very original and less philosophically interesting but still fun Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen). The Lodis Empire and Zenobia both claim a desire to end the war but appear to have very selfish and cynical reasons for not simply storming in and taking charge (which they easily could) or getting the F out (since they're not helping anyway). Also themed is the strength of those with religious (clearly Christian but not obviously stated) idealism against the cynicism of "realism", and the idea that to sacrifice one's morals to achieve an end never actually works out and always backfires. 

As the young Leader of the Walsta Liberation Army, under the Duke Ronway, you might be tasked with committing war crimes in the name of "the ideal" and "peace"... And of course, committing those crimes will backfire. While standing up will almost certainly mean a temporary excommunication from one's own ethnic group. Right and wrong is clear to those with Christian (which is the correct ethics to hold for victory in the game's story) but hard for those without them (which makes the game a very fun and interesting moral challenge that is unlikely to be won the first time). 

Not to mention the many endings based around whether you the player can successfully unite the 3 races, eject the foreign powers, and manage to keep them from killing each or assassinating you after doing so. 

Valkyrie Profile is themed around recruiting fallen warriors for the army of Asgard in the endless war against the Vanir up until the End of the World (Ragnorok). Seemingly simple at first--recruit fallen warriors, explore dungeons and exorcise evil spirits--it becomes very deep once you realize that your whole identity is shaped by the will of Odin and his clan for the sake of his own power and glory over mankind (Midgard). Actually freeing yourself from your fate as a de facto slave of Odin, and that you were actually once a mortal woman, is something hinted at by the opening cutscene and some remarks the end of the game, but is otherwise easily missed on a first playthrough. 

Not to mention each recruited fallen warrior has his/her own backstory which often has moral conundrums of their own; like a mercenary who enjoys battle but also wishes to provide for his weak and sickly brother; a samurai who is committed to fighting evil and curing his sister's blindness but fails to recognize his own weakness and selfishness; a soldier who blindly fights for his warlord until eventually he refuses to fight against the father of a peasant he killed shamelessly; a mage who experiments on the dead to further his own magical power; a mermaid who loves a sailor even; a university student who is a bit too adventurous... 

Quite a lot in one.

Harvest Moon simply involves building up a farm and a family, but I find it to be a very spiritually and morally satisfying game since it involves grit and planning as well as empathy and care (for both the cute livestock as well as the fellow villagers). 

Romance of the Three Kingdoms (1-13, though I recommend 8,10,13, and 4 the most) and Nobunaga's Ambition all involve a dramatic retelling of history in which the player plays the role of either a warlord or a vassal on a quest to unite the country, however the dramatic interactions and religious-moral themes between the more famous characters is certainly quite deep and satisfying--especially playing them as a kid growing up.

The Persona series is essentially a psychological thriller series with lots of fun RPG elements. 3-5 involve being a high schooler (in Japan of course) with varying conditions; 3 involves being a lonely orphan meeting some rather colorful characters and their own interesting backgrounds; 4 involves being a city kid moving in with his country uncle policeman, who is sadly a widower, and also the father of a little and lonely girl; 5 involves being falsely accused of assault and having a bad criminal rep (as a result of trying to save a woman from rape by a politician) and going through a high school year as an outcast (compared to being somewhat popular in 4 and anything from non-entity to Romeo in 3). 

They all involve characters of varying backgrounds helping each other overcome a vital character flaw and defeat a big immoral bad (which itself is themed on whatever the game is themed; from cynicism and depression (3); isolation and anxiety (4); or unjust authority (5). can't say much about the older games since I haven't played them yet) and grow themselves. Overall I'd say they're all interesting games with good moral lessons for kids (except 5 in some areas).