You have Valentine’s Day, Christmas or even New Year’s Eve – almost every big holiday is focused on your loved ones, especially while being a couple. But what about single people?
There is going to be plenty of dudes and dudettes who will want to have a good time on their own. Don’t worry, folks, we got you covered! No, while we can’t get you a partner sadly, here’s a quick round-up of several games that should help you ward off the lonely mood and all the “OH NOEZ!!! ME SO LONLY!!!” thoughts and feels.
Here are some great games for lonely people, as well as those folks who prefer playing video games alone.
Portal & Portal 2
| Release: | 2011-04-18 |
| Genre: | Adventure |
| Developer: | Valve |
The first Portal game is a true classic, a real gem in the puzzle category. Remember the Gravity Gun from Half-Life 2 and all the fun you had with it? Well, Portal is basically a game based on a very similar gimmick, that is the Portal Gun.
You can use it to create, well, portals to manipulate objects, traverse difficult terrain and solve all sorts of puzzles you encounter along the way. Gamers and reviewers have found this game to be incredibly well-made and so it has become a revered addition to the video game canon.
Why is this one a “loneliness game”? It’s simple: your character, a silent (well, it’s Valve, so what did you expect?) protagonist named Chell is alone in the test chambers. Well, almost alone, as she is accompanied by the voice of GLaDOS (short for Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System) which monitors and guides the player, deriding and taunting them along the way.
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Myst
| Release: | 2021-08-26 |
| Genre: | Graphic adventure, puzzle |
| Developer: | Cyan |
This one is a complete re-imagining of an adventure classic from the 90s, built from ground up and equipped with VR capabilities. A surprise hit from 1993, the original Myst took the player to a fantasy world hidden within a book.
The goal of the game was to explore the Ages – or worlds described by the books scattered across the Myst Island – and solve various puzzles to uncover the secrets of this strange universe. There are several endings to the story, based on your choices during the game.
The latest Myst remake features 3D environments recreated using Unreal Engine 4 that you can freely roam and randomized puzzles, so that each playthrough packs some surprises for you and feels like a fresh, even if familiar, experience. Definitely a great choice for those who love adventure games and prefer working alone.
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Firewatch
| Release: | 2016-02-10 |
| Genre: | Indie |
| Developer: | Campo Santo |
Firewatch is surely an interesting addition to the “walking simulator” canon. If you’re unfamiliar with the term, it’s basically a sub-genre of sorts of adventure games where the main focus is on the narrative and simple exploration rather than puzzles to solve.
Campo Santo’s production puts you in the shoes of Henry, a new fire lookout in Shoshone National Forest, Wyoming. He took up his job after his wife developed early-onset dementia. His supervisor is Delilah, an experienced lookout that he only contacts through his walkie-talkie.
Your first task in the game is to investigate who’s illegally playing with the fireworks. However, things go weird after that, with people disappearing, your tower getting ransacked and some shadowy figure lurks in the distance, with its intentions unknown, but probably malicious. Firewatch is a multi-layered mystery that you slowly unfold as you progress in the game. It’s also a perfect loner experience: you barely encounter any characters, you mostly talk to others through the above-mentioned walkie-talkie, slowly explore oneiric outdoors… If you are a fan of walking simulators, better yet, “lonely games,” Firewatch is a must have.
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System Shock 2
| Release: | 1999-08-11 |
| Genre: | RPG |
| Developer: | Irrational Games |
If you think GLaDOS was malicious, wait till you get to meet SHODAN! The famously villainous AI, she’s a megalomaniac entity with a god complex. She hates humans, sees us as no better than bugs to be squashed, and speaks in a famously distorted voice. System Shock 2 is all about putting an end to her existence before she does that to yours.
The game is a mixture of a first-person survival horror with action role-playing elements. You can choose your character class, which determines your starting skills, develop new abilities and learn psionic powers in addition to utilizing a wide variety of weapons to deal with your enemies. Since it’s a cyberpunk game, you can expect lots of hacking and battling futuristic foes. Organic adversaries are susceptible to a certain type of ammo, mechanical ones, on the other hand, have other weaknesses that you need to exploit.
To this day System Shock 2 is a unique experience where each playthrough can be totally fresh. If you love clever first-person shooters, role-playing games, cyberpunk/science fiction and techno-horrors, this game is a perfect pick for you.
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Alan Wake
| Release: | 2012-02-16 |
| Genre: | Adventure |
| Developer: | Remedy Entertainment |
A mixture of an action game and psychological thriller, Alan Wake puts you in the shoes of the titular protagonist, a best-selling crime fiction author suffering from writer’s block. So, he goes on vacation with his wife, as advised by his agent, to a small town by the name of Bright Falls, Washington. But when the married couple gets there, things go really awry…
At night, Alan has to fend off the Taken: humans, animals and items possessed by some sort of a dark force. To defeat them, he needs to uses any sources of light available – flashlights, flares, car headlights and so on – to destroy a “shield” of darkness that shrouds the Taken and then defeat them using conventional firearms. But the enemies you encounter can be far from conventional. A possessed bulldozer? Thanks, but no thanks!
If you ever wanted a good Stephen King-style video game, Alan Wake might be totally it.
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So, are you a loner in need of some really, really good “loneliness games”? Be sure to check out our picks, you ought to love them. See for yourself and have fun!