Games that make you think

[anon]

Game
Plot / message
Time for one playthrough


Emily is Away (https://kyleseeley23.itch.io/emilyisaway)
Not all stories have a happy ending, and sometimes even if you have the best intentions, your actions can lead to the worst results.
30 minutes


Execution (http://www.venbrux.com/freeware.php)
A very short game that still manages to teach actions have consequences, and sometimes the most obvious choice isn't the best.
2 minutes


Super Columbine Massacre RPG (http://www.columbinegame.com/)
In between parodying the Columbine school shooting, it offers very powerful insight as to what was in Eric's and Dylan's heads, and what led them to do what they did.
4 hours


Doki Doki Literature Club (http://ddlc.moe/)
Don't want to give any spoilers, so let's say there are at least two powerful messages in it.
4 hours


Actual Sunlight (http://www.actualsunlight.com/)
Completely nails the feelings of depression and being stuck in an endless, dead-end loop.
1 hour


Little Red Lie (http://www.littleredlie.com/)
Follows two characters on two opposite sides of an economic crisis. Besides what may be expected from the premise, they both have their own stories to tell. Has a downer but realistic ending.
8 hours

[PukingTom]

Not really much thinking involve here but it's more like self interpretation of the occasions/events happening around. It's Divinity OS.

[anon]

I'd like to add Katawa Shoujo (http://www.sb-innovation.de/f82/katawa-shoujo-33703/) and Thing-in-Itself (http://store.steampowered.com/app/569340/ThinginItself/) to my list. I've heard Yume Nikki (http://www.moddb.com/games/yume-nikki/downloads/yume-nikki-v010) is very good but haven't played it yet.

[molosse]

Solitaire? :-)
I see a lot of executive travellers playing that game on the flight back home...

[anon]

Solitaire is just fun to pass time, it doesn't make you think like Actual Sunlight or Little Red Lie.

Or make you cry like Doki Doki :wcry:

[Master Razor]

If you want a challenge try OpenTTD. Very few are able to play it like it is meant to be played.

[anon]

If you want a challenge try OpenTTD. Very few are able to play it like it is meant to be played.

No offense, but I think the only life lesson simulation games can teach you is how those things don't work =] Or at least, I didn't become a great military leader after playing Warzone 2100... where jets can be repaired in mid-flight and building an array of 100 mortars (which never run out of ammo) is a perfectly reasonable decision.

But that's okay, they're games and they wouldn't be fun if they were realistic.