Nine Games That Make You Think About Life

Is This Real Life, or Is It Just Fantasy?

Video games are no strangers to using real-life events to create compelling stories. However, they do not always stop at simple irrelevant references and instead base their entire plot, characters, and scenarios on reality. The bridge between real life and reality appears to be getting smaller with each game released. I was playing at an online casino the other night, and when I woke in the morning, I could have sworn I had been to a casino the night before.

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For many of us, video games provide a way to escape reality and immerse ourselves in the beautifully crafted fictional stories that await us. Sometimes the most compelling stories are inspired by real-life events rather than created by imagination. As a result, developers frequently focus on real-life historical events and put their own spin on them to create video games that provide an unparalleled learning experience. Here are nine of the best games that will have you thinking: is this real life or is it just fantasy?

L.A. Noire – L.A. Noire follows the story of detective Cole Phelps in 1947 Los Angeles. The chaotic year in Los Angeles was one of the most violent in U.S. history, and it didn’t help that the horrors of World War II were knocking on everyone’s door. The player must investigate and resolve multiple murder crime scenes, including true-life cases.

Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 – We could write an entire article about WWII-themed video games. Games in the Call of Duty, Company of Heroes, and Medal of Honor series are all based on real WWII battles, but the Brothers in Arms series went to great lengths to ensure historical accuracy. For example, the first game in the series, Road to Hill 30, was based on the true story of the 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment of the famed 101st Airborne Division, which dropped behind German lines on D-Day.

Papers, Please – Papers, Please has a good heart, but that doesn’t make it easy to swallow or enjoyable to play. The game casts the player as a border official charged with granting or denying potential immigrants entry into a fictitious country ruled by a repressive regime. The menial tasks required of the player become increasingly complex as the game progresses, while the amount of time allotted decreases. The overall sensation of playing Papers, Please is one of intense exhaustion caused by the game’s relentless tone and the reality that regimes like the one depicted in the game are depressingly accurately portrayed.

Silent Hill – Of course, the events of the Silent Hill games are pure fantasy. On the other hand, the town in Silent Hill is based on a real town, Centralia, which had to be evacuated due to a never-ending burning coal mine. Silent Hill is based in West Virginia, while Centralia is located in Philadelphia. Similarly, Centralia had to be sealed off from the outside world, and only residents who were tenacious enough to resist evacuation have remained there to this day.

The Sims – Naming your game after the genre it belongs to is bold but original. The 2000 title had a significant impact on future games. This microscopic view of SimCity allowed players to control and influence their Sims’ lives, from the actions they could force them to take to the home furnishings they provided. Most of what the game did at the time was novel, even if it appears archaic now.

Valiant Hearts: The Great War – The First World War has been one of the most underrepresented war conflicts in history in video games. On the other hand, Ubisoft made an effort to tell the story of the conflict in an emotionally moving way with its fantastic indie game Valiant Hearts. Even though we encountered many real-life events, we experienced the conflict through the eyes of various fictional characters.

Operation Thunderbolt – The plot of Taito’s sequel to coin-op classic Operation Wolf, Operation Thunderbolt, revolves around two Green Berets with unlikely heroic names – Roy Adams and Hardy Jones – liberating hostages from a hijacked plane in north Africa. Though that may sound like a standard game nowadays, it is based on a true story.

Assassin’s Creed III – Assassin’s Creed III was released by Ubisoft in 2012 as the fifth major installment in the Assassin’s Creed series. The series has always focused on significant historical events and featured iconic figures. Assassin’s Creed III takes place during the American Revolution and depicts many important events in American history.

Kholat – Real-life mysteries are far scarier than fictional ones, especially when they go unsolved for decades. Based on the infamous Dyatlov Pass Incident, IMGN.PRO’s snowy survival-horror game Kholat follows a protagonist as he retraces the steps of a group of young Russian hikers who died under mysterious circumstances in February 1959.