In addition to the similar games listed above, which have been linked to this game specifically in the database, you may find games with a similar theme to Death Stranding in the following lists:
These games offer worlds you explore in unusual ways. Maybe it’s hard to put one foot in front of the other, or maybe you get a chance to climb and jump athletically. These games put you in touch what it’s like to move more easily or more difficulty than real life.
Video games are usually non-stop. They invite us onto a ride that takes us to all sorts of places. They invite us to continually engage and interact with the worlds they create. However, some games create space for us to pause the action, sit, and take in the environments they have created.
We have other lists of games that players use to gain a sense of calm or meditative state. The games in this are those that include the chance to get your character to actually stop and meditate themselves.
This can be a specific meditate option, like in
Sable, or the ability to get your character to sit and listen when you stop moving, this is a powerful way to get a taste of how meditation in real life can help us come back to ourselves and in so doing, rediscover the world around us.
Games like
Kena depict the breath slowing and draw attention to the sights and sounds of the natural world. Then there is
Journey that allow us to sit when we stop moving or
Flower that encourages us to slow our pace with scenes of where we have just been. Then there is
Sky Children of the Light where you need to go to special locations to meditate.
Even violent or desolate games can offer powerful moments of stillness. Stopping in
Death Stranding or
Ghost of Tsushima means you can simply sit and relax. In
Assassin's Creed Odyssey, Origins and Valhalla you can use meditation to see the sun to quickly shift across the sky. In
The Witcher 3 you can stop and meditate to restore your health and pass time.
Or there are
hidden moments of meditation in games like
Uncharted The Lost Legacy where Chloe will work through her Yoga poses on top of a tower.
Spiritfarer is similar, you have to find a snake named Summer and complete their quests to be invited to meditate with them.
There are also games that offer
Photo modes that don't specifically depict the feature as meditation. It offers a chance to pause, take in the action and the world as you pan the camera, frame an image or adjust the depth of field.
Finally there are games like
Animal Crossing,
Conan Exiles, that don't offer specific meditation but let you sit on benches, stare out to see, or watch the sun rise.
The PlayStation 5 DualSense controller added new features over the PlayStation 4 DualShock controller. It added a higher-quality microphone, a larger more sensitive touchpad, longer battery and more robust USB C charger cable. That last one is a welcome addition as DualShock controllers charge cables often wore out over time.
In addition to these improvements it added two new features:
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Haptic Feedback - Detailed vibration and movement from within the controller to extend immersion of the game to your hands: the pattering of rain or a blast of energy.
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Adaptive Triggers - The triggers on the controller can be made harder or softer to press by the game. This offers a nuanced way to feel more in the game, while also to provide more information about aiming.
The games in this list all use these Haptic Feedback and Adaptive Triggers functionality.
Video games where you adventure into a harsh setting, try your hardest to survive and slowly develop your abilities but then inevitably die are often called Rogue-likes. This is because one of the first games that offered this style of play was called Rogue.
These are interesting games for families, not only because their difficult nature leads to shorter sessions, but also because they foster perseverance and coping with losing. After dying you are sent back to some sort of central village where you can choose upgrades for your next attempt. The incentive to play again once you have been killed is usually that you start with some more equipment or skills.
In this way, by belligerence and a slowly learned understanding of how the game world works and how best to survive, you incrementally get a bit further each time you play. Here are some really good roguelike games for families:
Games that embed a sense of hope by playing them. Sometimes a hopeful story, sometimes a hopeful interaction, and sometimes just an uplifting aesthetic to spend time in. These are games that leave you with an uplifted spirit, maybe not immediately (like
Horizon Zero Dawn) but by the time you have finished them.
There is something innocent and childlike in play, and video games each have a slice of that in different ways. Sometimes simple and sometimes complex, games can help us return to the hope we had as children, or call us on to the wisdom and perspective of older years.
The Game Awards highlight the best video games each year. It's an award produced and hosted by Geoff Keighley. Games are selected by video game news organizations who then vote on the games to choose the winners in each of the categories.
While many games include characters to interact with, some are specifically designed to make relationships a central element. Whether this is during the rounds of a puzzle game amidst a zombie outbreak or as we race cars around a circuit, they can offer a unique way to think deeply about how we relate to each other and to the games people play.
In contrast to films or books, characters and relationships in video games need to be discovered by the player. Some of my favourite relational moments in games happen amidst other action. Often these other actions – whether shooting, puzzle-solving, or fetching and carrying – serve to underline the difficult, awkward and snatched nature of interpersonal interactions.
Eggplant: The Secret Lives of Games, is a podcast that offers a candid conversation with game creators that dives deep into the art, craft, and process of making games. It's an amazing insight into the mind of people who understand and highlight how game/play mechanics can do unexpected, magical and surprising things.
This is the list of games they have picked as their Game of the Year 2018-2021. These awards also include board games, escape rooms and game-like TV series. We have included video games here, where we have them on the database. (And in many cases have added video games to the database after listening to the show.)
It's hosted by:
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Nick Suttner, an independent game writer/designer/consultant, who has worked on games like Celeste, Bloodroots, and Carto.
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Andy Nealen, a game creator and scholar, artist and music maker, architect and structural engineer, and professor of cinematic arts and computer science at USC.
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Sarah Elmaleh, actor, consultant and event organizer with a passion for collaborative creation - both as a seasoned performer and as an advocate for best practices in the games industry.
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Zach Gage, who makes deep games that are easy to get into, like Really Bad Chess and SpellTower.
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Douglas Wilson, who is a co-owner of Die Gute Fabrik, a games studio based in Copenhagen, Denmark. He has worked on Johann Sebastian Joust, Sportsfriends, and Mutazione.
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Laura E. Hall, is an an artist, writer, puzzle-maker, immersive environment and narrative designer focusing on the playful intersections of arts, culture, and technology, especially in gaming.
The team is usually joined by Laura E. Hall for the game of the year episodes. She is an artist, writer, puzzle-maker, immersive environment and narrative designer who focuses on the playful intersections of arts, culture, and technology, especially in gaming.
Video games create worlds and then invite us to play in them. These worlds are sometimes nothing like our own. Others, however, look to recreate life-like spaces, or take the real world and bend it in interesting directions.
Weather is a big part of the experience of a video game. It can create a particular mood, a sense of changing time, or can be used to change the mechanics of your interactions.
Whether it’s a simple puzzle grid, a battlefield or a universe of planets to visit, all games create virtual spaces in which to play. Some of these are simply the background to a campaign - the game’s unfolding drama, missions or challenge. But others invite you to invest in the worlds they create, move in, tend to and inhabit in fantastical ways.
The games in this section invite you to spend time in spaces that have a sense of place, life and character. Worlds that hold history and lore in their landscapes, flora, fauna and inhabitants; environments that respond to your presence and invite you to restore them to their former glory.
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