Walking Simulator is a type of Adventure video game focuses on gradual discovery and exploration through observation, with the little in the way of action. In these games, the player controls the protagonist from either a first-person viewpoint or a third-person perspective, explore the environment, interact with non-player characters and object to fulfil the requirement of each objective. Some of Walking Simulator games take place in the fantasy setting or sometimes takes place in the fictional world. Walking Simulator focuses on Adventure, Interactive and Exploration elements rather than Action and combat. Some games come with Horror Survival elements, where the player manipulates the world from a first-person perspective, encounter a number of creatures, which each embody an aspect of the theme of the game. Some game uses the element of psychological horror instead of conventional scares found in most video game within walking simulator genre. The player needs to complete a variety of levels in each game and each level full of mind-bending puzzles. Unlike other games, there is no combat, and instead, the player advances through exploration, puzzle-solving and the use of stealth elements.
#1 Gone Home
Gone Home is a First-person Indie Action-Adventure and Interactive Fiction Simulation developed by The Fullbright Company. The game takes place in the year 1995 and allows you to explore a mansion after coming back home after one long year. Every member of your family is vanished and you are left clueless about their sudden disappearance. In order to find them you must find clues, interact with objects and solve a number of challenging puzzles and mysteries. The game lets you be Kaitlin and allows you to explore the game world from a First-person Perspective, complete various game objectives in order to earn rewards, open up new areas and search for messages scattered all around the game world. Gone Home is an interactive video game that allwos you to look at objects, interact with them and keep on collecting the clues, objects and open up new game world areas to enjoy the game.
#2 The Stanley Parable
The Stanley Parable is one wonderful First-person, Action-Adventure, Interactive Fiction and Graphic video game like Gone Home. The game allows you to be “Stanley” and lets you choose between your actions either to follow the story or not to follow the story, have a choice or don’t have a choice, act as Stanley or simply don’t act as Stanley, it totally depends on you. This twisted game allows you to explore a strange world, buildings etc. and slowly find out the meanings of almost everything, solve quenching puzzles and be part of a strange strange world. With awesomely engaging story and loads of new content, amazing visual details and background music, voice over etc., and a brilliantly immersive game-play, The Stanley Parable is a wonderful game to play.
#3 Doors
Doors is an Adventure, Puzzle, Horror, and Single-player Strategy game developed and published by Calvin Weibel. The game takes place in the breathtaking strange world where you can assume the role of the protagonist. You must traverse a mysterious world from the first-person perspective to find the bacon. The world is full of hardcore puzzles, and a variety of levels. Each level contains multiple doors, some of them leads to bacon, while other doors result in death. Explore the strange world, find out where you are, and unearth the secret behind the scenes. The gameplay is inspired by The Stanley Parable, Limbo, and the Portal series. In the beginning, you will face two different doors such as red and blue, and you must select one of them to continue the game. If you choose the correct door, you will receive bacon and need to solve puzzles to earn points, but if you select the wrong door, you will face death. Doors offer core features such as Strange Environments, different Doors, mind-bending Puzzles, and more. Try it out, and you’ll enjoy it.
#4 Murdered: Soul Suspect
Murdered: Soul Suspect is and adventure game developed by Alright Games and Published by Square Enix. The story of the game kick starts from an American town named Salem. With a third person perspective, the player controls the main character of the game Ronan (formerly and agent) and explores the town walking and running through different places and buildings like churches, apartments, graveyards etc. Ronan is bound to collect different collectibles scattered around the town. Ronan being a ghost gets the advantage to use a lot of ghostly powers and benefits himself along the way and the story continues. The game comes with a lot of amazing and special characters like a ruthless serial killer Bell, Julia the wife of Ronan, Abigail a Puritan era girl, Cassandra Ronan’s mother and Joy the only witness to the murder of Ronan. Ronan is back to finish what he started and wows to kill his killer. Amazing graphics, details and gameplay forces you to stick to your chair and play till you get tired. Packed with all the action and drama, Murdered: Soul Suspect is worth giving a try. You can play this game on PC (Microsoft Windows), PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Xbox 360.
#5 The Walking Dead: Season Two
The Walking Dead: Season Two, based on the Comic Book named The Walking Dead by Robert Kirkman is an Episodic, Graphic Point-and-Click Action-Adventure and Interactive Drama video game. The game follows the story-line of the first season and continues from where it was ended previously. You can set yourself up into the character of Clementine (Previously the companion of Protagonist) and get into the play by exploring the world around you, interacting with the objects, engage yourself in the conversations with AI and NPCs, and by reacting to the replies given by the NPCs and change the course of events and endings of the game. Season Two of the game provides with a 400 Days game play in an apocalyptic world filled with Zombies and allows you to amaze yourself with a super thrilling and survival based game-play. The Walking Dead: Season Two is no doubt a great Graphic-Adventure and Interactive Drama video game to play and enjoy. You must play it.
#6 The Walking Dead
The Walking Dead, Developed and published by Telltale Games is an Action-Adventure, Graphic and Interactive Drama based on the comic book (The Walking Dead Comic Book Series) of Robert Kirkman. The game is set in an era of Zombie Apocalypse in Georgia, the story revolves around the life of the protagonist Lee Everett a former university professor, and a young girl named Clementine. Lee Everett helps a group of survivors stay alive and he leads them. Due to an open world gaming environment and a third person gaming perspective the player along with all the people roams freely and interacts with the item easily. The player controls the protagonist and helps him and other people fight against the hordes of zombies using every weapon they have. The life rate of survivors depends on the fighting abilities of all the fighters. With super cool graphics, a well-written storyline and many weapon choices, The Walking Dead provides with an amazingly fascinating game-play.
#7 Life is Strange: Before the Storm
Life is Strange: Before the Storm is a Graphic Adventure video game published by Square Enix and developed by Deck Nine. The game serves as the 2nd title in the series of Life is Strange and it is a prequel to the first installment, revolves around the 16-year-old girl named as Chloe Price and her relationship with her schoolmate named as Rachel Amber. It takes place in the stimulating environment, played from a third-person perspective. It offers the similar gameplay to its predecessor and doesn’t support time travel feature anymore. The game introduces a Backtalk feature, enabling the player to call up Chloe to get out of the precarious situation. The player as the protagonist can explore the world from a third-person view, interact with object and environment to complete the missions and score points. As the player progresses through the game, it becomes challenging to play and unlock additional content to enjoy. With enhanced mechanics, graphics, and controls, Life is Strange: Before the Storm is the wonderful game to play.
#8 Life is Strange: Episode 1
Life is Strange: Episode 1 is an immersive, Adventure, Episodic and Single-player Exploration video game that enables you to rewind effect and time the past, future, and present. The game brings an exciting gameplay for Life is Strange lovers and offers an addictive story follows the protagonist named as Max Caulfield, who is a photographic senior and finds that she is capable of reversing time while rescuing her beloved friend. After progressing the game, the protagonist finds herself investigating the strange disappearance of the student named as Rachel Amber in Arcadia Bay. You assume the role of the protagonist, who can manipulate the world from a third-person perspective and struggle to uncover the dark secrets of the strange world. The ultimate task for you to learn as soon as possible to change the time to fend off the devastation in future. It comprises multiple levels, and the player needs to accomplish each one to progress through the game and earn enough experience points. Life is Strange: Episode 1 includes core features such as Adventure Gameplay, Multiple Endings, Hand-Painted Visuals, Indie Soundtracks, and more. Try it out.
#9 Life is Strange
Life is Strange is a Single-player Graphic Adventure and Interactive Fiction video game by Square Enix. The game consists of five main episodes and focuses on the character of a Photography student named as Maxine Caulfield. Maxine Caulfield discovers out that she has the special ability to reverse time and any specific moment. The story takes a twist when Maxine foresees a huge Storm raging to destroy her town and that the time when she realizes that she’s the only one to prevent it from happening. Life is Strange allows the players to control the character of Maxine Caulfield and follow the narrative as it unfolds into all the storyful actions that the player character performs. Amazing trips to the past, fantastic quests, freedom to explore and the ability to manipulate environmental elements, loads of challenging puzzles and game ending based upon the actions performed by the character, Life is Strange offers a truly remarkable gameplay experience that is based on pure graphics and interactive elements. With an episodic gameplay, various character archetypes, a great story, graphic adventure nature and point-and-click puzzles, Life is Strange offers beautiful visuals and an impressively addictive gameplay to enjoy. Life is Strange is available to play on Microsoft Windows, Mac, PlayStation, Xbox and Linux platforms.
#10 Miasmata
Miasmata is an Open Word, First-person Horror-Survival and intensely Action-packed Simulation by IonFX Studios. The game sets on a Mysterious Island where you are the lone wanderer whose only task is to survive in a Hostile environment where an unknown Entity is haunting you. As the main character named as Robert Hughes and a plague-stricken Scientist, your task is to find the cure. Authorities left you stranded on the island after the virus infected you and now you must survive without any food, water, medical supplies and weapons. You must get out from the hiding, scavenge for the supplies, make weapons and survive while saving yourself from the unknown entity at your back. Get hold of your advanced lab and scientific research outpost, start experimenting and finally find a cure to save your old colleagues and all the infected ones. The game world is filled with all kinds of deadly creatures who continuously hunt you so you must be aware of them at all times. So are you ready for this haunting yet exciting adventure? Well if you are then you must know that this game is one of the best in the Horror-Survival genre. You’ll enjoy it.
#11 The Vanishing of Ethan Carter
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is a great Point and Click Adventure game developed and published by The Astronauts. This game was initially developed solely for PC (Microsoft Windows) but later on the company decided to launch a PlayStation 4 compatible version and that is expected to get in to markets in early 2015. The story of the game starts with a mysterious letter from a young boy Ethen Carter to Detective Paul Prospero about some supernatural events, murders and vanishing of Ethan all set to happen in near future. Detective Paul reaches the residence of Ethan and finds out that Ethan has already vanished. Detective Paul starts exploring Red Creek and gets to know about its dark secrets. This entangled storyline game traps Detective Paul in an endless world of puzzles and bizarre events all created by Ethan. He makes him solve some really weird murder cases of his family members and forces detective Paul Prospero to battle with un-natural beings. This amazing adventure game provides with an open world gaming environment, cool graphics and game-play.
#12 Firewatch
Firewatch is a First-person Action, Adventure and Mystery video game. The game takes the players back to the year 1989 and leaves them right in the middle of the Shoshone National Forest and lets them be Fire Lookout named as Henry. The game revolves around two main characters, Henry and Delilah, Henry’s Supervisor and tells the story of a mystery that formed over a Conspiracy. Firewatch is full of mysterious incidents, happenings, and all the pondering situations. According to the storyline, Henry works as a Fire Lookout, Delilah Assists him as a Supervisor and the story is about finding the roots of mystery that rocked the minds of the characters of the game. It all starts when Delilah Calls on Henry to investigate an illegal Firework at a Lake. Henry reaches to the spot only to find out two teenage girls Skinny Dipping who blame him for leering. On his way back to his watch tower, Henry finds a Cave locked and sees the shadows of a shrouded figure, returns to his Watch Tower and finds it completely ransacked. Next day, Henry gets to Communication line where he finds it cut along with a note from the girls. He plots to scare them away but finds their Camp abandoned. Some time later, on another location, Henry finds a Disposable Camera that belongs to Brian, son of Ned, the outdoorsman, and a fellow Fire lookout. Brian and Ned are both missing. This is where player’s character gets into the play. The game tasks the players to search for Brian, and Ned and the mission Girls, and solve the Mystery that’s bothering Henry big time. Firewatch is all about mysteries and amazing happenings that lead to an epic open world gameplay. With a great story, plenty of room for the gameplay, open world environment, fantastic characters and their own stories, Firewatch offers a remarkable and kind of twisted gameplay to enjoy. For all those who love playing mystery games, Firewatch would definitely be a great source of entertainment.
#13 The Long Dark
The Long Dark is a new Sandbox-Style Action-Adventure, Survival and Exploration-based video game that takes you to a Frozen World. The world around you gets devastated after a huge Geomagnetic event happens and the environment changes rapidly. Left in the wilderness, your task is to survive the chilling cold and all the threats Mother Nature throws at you. The game lets you think and find the ways to survive, explore the land, gather up the resources, create and craft different items with all the available materials, make shelter for yourself and keep yourself well fed by trapping the animals and drinking plenty of water. With an always changing environment and weather, loads of native creatures such as deer, rabbits, snakes, Wolves, Bears birds etc. you must know how to interact with them and how to survive the attacks. To save yourself from the unforgiving environment, you must know how to make cloths, harvest the wood to keep the fire burning, harvest different medicinal plants to make antibiotics and stuff etc. The Long Dark offers an amazing simulation like game-play, stunning visuals and lots of things to discover and Survive.
#14 Dear Esther
Dear Esther is a cool First-person Action-Adventure, RPG, Indie, Interactive Fiction and Art-based video game. The game takes you to a remarkable world where an unknown entity named Esther partially takes control of yourself and allows you to explore an amazingly huge game world from a first person perspective. After a road crash you found yourself into the world of Esther but it seems like you have been summoned by the Esther, for what motives, that’s what you have to find out. The purely story driven game-play allows you to explore, interact and find the answers about what happened on the motorway, what is the significance of aerial, who is Esther and why did she summoned you here etc. With a mysterious background, great visuals, an immersive game-play, surreal surroundings, great sounds etc, Dear Esther is an amazing game to play and enjoy. Do give it a try.
#15 Proteus
Proteus is a great Action-Adventure, Puzzle Platform and Exploration-based video game by Twisted Tree. The game takes you to an amazing dream-like world and leaves you on an island where you as the player will have to interact with objects, explore and solve some challenging puzzles in order to complete the game objectives. Proteus offers a procedurally generated game map and lets you experience traveling through the superbly designed valleys, ruins and a lot of other amazing wonders. With super fine graphics, amazing story and an immersive and engaging game-play, Proteus is one of the best Action-Adventure and Puzzle-Platform video games.
#16 Year Walk
Year Walk is an Action-Adventure, and Single-player video game published and created by Simogo for multiple platforms. The game offers a strange gameplay revolves around the protagonist named as Daniel Svensson, who visiting his lover named as Stina. The protagonist warns by his Stina about the dangers of the year walking, and tells her about her cousin who had died while immersive in the activity. After returning home, the main character prepare himself to engage in the year walk. The player assumes the protagonist’s role, who set out himself on an epic adventure. The player encounters multiple fairies and a variety of strange creatures while exploring the church. There are a set of levels and each level needs a completion of certain tasks. The game offers a puzzle-based gameplay, in which the player must solve numerous puzzles to progress. Primary objective of the player is to uncover the truth behind the scene and unlock further mysteries. Year Walk offers core features such as New Puzzles, new Locations, Hint System, Achievements, and more.