The epitome of what I’m trying to refer to is the Playdead games (Limbo and Inside). Dark Souls and BioShock both hit on this idea but not quite so directly. The game BADLAND is also a great example of this, too. The mobile game The Silent Age also did this exceptionally well. Never quite knowing what’s going on, and maybe some tension without release, but again not straight up horror. A feeling of uneasiness is what I’m looking for.
When playing through Inside, there’s never any moments where you’re scared, but you’re never sure what’s going on and there’s always a level of unease. What are all the mindless zombie-like people? Why is everyone hunting the player? What happened to this city? What’s the goal of the character the player controls? What exactly is going on here? That’s what I’m looking for. If you know of any other games which do this, I’d greatly appreciate hearing about them. It’s a very specific niche so I’m not sure how many games do this, but the games that I’ve seen do this tend to be some form of post-disaster or dystopia. I’ve seen some great artwork do this too. Zdzisław Beksiński had done some stuff like this. Some great dystopian novels also do this quite well.
It’s honestly one of the most wonderful games I have played in a really long time. Totally different from anything I’ve played, the sort of thing I wouldn’t have thought I’d have enjoyed.
All I can say is, read as little as you can before going in, and resist the temptation to look up guides, at least to start with. Your curiosity slowly leads you to answers, and the satisfaction of piecing together bits of information and constantly making and adapting your own theories as you play is priceless. It’s a game actually designed to be completed by natural curiosity and exploration, which you rarely see!
Oh cool! Yeah I’m definitely interested and will check it out. I rarely use guides anyway so no issues there. I only ever do a guide if I’m going for 100% which is usually not on the first playthrough anyway