What are the strangest games of all time?

boringnick

B
I want to compile a list here: The strangest games of all time.

The games must have a weird game mechanic or a weird/strange theme.

I will start and my entry is:

Leviathan: The Tone Rebellion.

tone01.jpg


This game has no humans at all. You control a tribe of floating alien jellyfishes who fight a giant worm, made of pure evil.

Your enemies are (amongst other things) bottles of evil and trees.

tone05.jpg


tone_rebellion_screenshot_4.jpg



So, what are your "strange games"?
 

Michael Brookes

Game Director
The Path is possibly the strangest game I've played, although probably more creepy than strange. It's loosely based on the Little Red Riding Hood story. You play one of several girls who have to get to their grandmother's cottage in the forest. You can follow the path and get there quickly, without incident. But go off the path and all manner of odd events can occur.

Michael
 

Sir.Tj

The Moderator who shall not be Blamed....
Volunteer Moderator
Sir.Tj
rgmarett said:
Jet Set Willy was pretty weird!
Click to expand...

I dunno, Staggering about the house after a night on the lash, trying to tidy up your mess before you get a ton of grief.

Sound's rather familiar to me. :D
 

boringnick

B
Another entry:

Lost Eden

losteden.jpg



This was essentially a myst-clone, the market was flooded with such titles in the mid 90s. What set this game apart, and made it "strange", was the mood of it. It plays in some mythical land, where humans and dinosaurs live together, the humans and dinosaurs can wield magic - sort of like Lord of the Rings with dinosaurs.

The puzzles are extremely easy - like finding an object and immediately afterwards some character demands it, so you give the object to the character - poof, the puzzle is solved! This is easy difficulty is apparent from the very beginning, thus creating a sense as if the game is for kids only.. BUT THEN, after a few minutes of playing, the story is getting fleshed out more... it turns out EXTREMELY dark and morbid, and sometimes genuinely creeps you out.

This comes totally unexpecting.

To quote a reviewer:

http://www.gamefaqs.com/computer/doswin/review/R9016.html


---------
"For a game so simple and basic that it feels like a kids game, the plot is
extremely dark and depressing, if not disturbing. While the set-up for
the game sounds very ''Land Before TIme''-ish, eventually the plot moves
into darker territory with serious issues of death, the terror of Moorkus
Rex, and even sub-plots about certain races and their imminent doom.

...

..puzzles to advance the game (including the end-game puzzle) are so ridiculously easy, it took
no thought in making. it'd be like putting a key next to a locked door.
This all makes it seem like a kids game. Having said that, though, the
plot is clearly too disturbing for most little kids. There's alot of
darkness and death in the game, as well as some extremely strange things
towards the end of the game (unresolved plot issues about forcing
characters to do things they don't want to do). The end of the gmae is
also a big downer

....

On one layer it's a kiddy adventure designed to educate through repetitive tasks, but on the other it's got this mature feel that creeped me out.
-----------------------

Another one:

http://www.ailsaleslie.blogspot.com/2009/04/lost-eden.html
-----
The game also stuck in my mind for ho sadistic it could be at times. There was always a sense of implied dread, that everything you did was petty compared to the forces you were up again, abetted by the ruthless taunting coming through the tablet, with Morcus constantly belittling your achievements in a brilliantly meaty voice. At one point one of your less objectionable party members disappears, and next time you talk to Morcus you suddenly realise that your former companions skull is sitting on the desk next to him as Morcus regales you with how he much he enjoyed eating him. You're also never sure about any of your party members, who all seem to have their own agendas. There's a horrible bit near the end where you have to go through maze, with only your sister to guide you who you've recently met. You know that a wrong turning means instant death and she's your only chance of getting through it. Trouble is you don't really trust her, and she says the directions in a horribly snide voice as the music hums and builds as you go round the corners, ever building to a sense of utter dread. Your own father cuts the tongue out of one of your henchmen at one point. Various other characters betray you. One poisons you to the brink of death so you can solve a mystery, then isn't particularly happy when you wake up. Nobody ever helps you without an agenda. You think your doing well, then out of the blue your father dies - and is embalmed. At this point your companions suggest you would like some time alone, an the game makes you stand and contemplate face to face your dead mummified father for a good minute. It's both evocative, moving and incredibly creepy. And the soundtrack is ever there, hinting of further terror ahead.
-----

The main antagonist is "Moorkus Rex", a sadistic T-Rex. While most other fantasy villians do their evil deeds just for the power, this guy was in it for the sadism. There is a minute long monologue where he explains various torture methods (not funny, it sounded dead serious).

Another highlight is the "valley of despair" where you get a nice, detailed description of some sort of ethnic cleansing.

The funny thing is that this game was probably bought by a lot of parents for their little kids, unsuspecting what awaits them.. on youtube there are videos featuring this game, and the comments tell the plight of countless of children, scared sh*tless:

---
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCiuB-ADc3M&feature=related

"One of the creepiest tunes at the time. It kind of freaked me out going down into the tomb listening to this."

"I used to be so scared that I always looked behind my back if something was coming. Especially at the part where you find the hidden tomb inside the Citadel of Mo"


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eR2NPOMqyQ&feature=PlayList&p=2F6E7B7E95AD04CD&index=2

"I'll never forget this part. I remember screaming at the computer screen and running out of the room. Fantastic game! "

"This part used to scare me as a kid lol. "

"God I know... first time I saw Moorkus Rex (I was 8), it was dark outside, almost 11:00 and I nearly ran to bed screaming... "

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zyghrs4zQyk&feature=related

"The part where you use the prism and Morkus Rex appears always used to scare me those years ago!! "

---


I was much older when I played the game for the first time, so I didn't ran to bed, screaming.. but I had some uncomfortable feeling during some of the "creepy parts" of the game, sort of like the first time you see planet of the apes (the scene where apes capture the humans).

For creeping out thousands of children, while disguising itself as a kiddie game, Lost Eden deserves its entry into the strangest games of all time-list.
 
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DraQ

D
boringnick said:
Same composer:

http://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/by_title/developerId,308830/
Click to expand...
I can't complain, PS:T sountrack is one of my faves, I'm very happy the game got recently re-released in Poland, where I live.

Speaking of which, does PS:T qualify as weird? Technically it's standard Infinity Engine RPG, but setting, atmosphere, dialogue, characters, art direction, plot, the fact that you start the game awakening in a mortuary and spend the rest of it figuring why you apparently can't die and what can you do to change it... :eek:
This game is just beyond awesome.
 

boringnick

B
DraQ said:
I can't complain, PS:T sountrack is one of my faves, I'm very happy the game got recently re-released in Poland, where I live.

Speaking of which, does PS:T qualify as weird?
Click to expand...


Yes, I think it can qualify as weird. And indeed, PT is a great game.

Speaking of soundtracks and weird, what do you think of the soundtracks of the games I showed here?

Tone Rebellion:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KfbQ9imB-I&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diz-WNU-vL4

Lost Eden:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCiuB-ADc3M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMgqCQRFn5A&feature=related

?
 

DraQ

D
boringnick said:
Speaking of soundtracks and weird, what do you think of the soundtracks of the games I showed here?

Tone Rebellion:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KfbQ9imB-I&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diz-WNU-vL4

Lost Eden:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCiuB-ADc3M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMgqCQRFn5A&feature=related

?
Click to expand...
Pretty nice, but the topic starts drifting from "strangest games of all time" into "awesomest game soundtracks of all time". ;)
Speaking of which, I really love the soundtrack in original Unreal. :eek:
 

boringnick

B
Right, so it's time for another entry:


I have no mouth and I must scream

9b9312321b23da8cmed.jpg


ihnm2.jpg



The story so far:

After the cold war, the super computers of the USA, Russia and China became sentient and join forces, the result is "AM", the combined super computer. AM wipes out all humans, except 5, who he tortures for all eternity.

The game is based on a short story from the 60s, written by Harlan Ellison. The author himself voices "AM" in the game.

Here is a review:

http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/i-have-no-mouth-and-i-must-scream/reviews/reviewerId,3250/


---

As the story goes, the end of the world has come and gone, and humanity is no more. Only AM, a god-like supercomputer roams the earth, but for it's amusement it has kept alive for centuries the last 5 living humans torturing them in all sorts of physical and psychological ways. However AM has grown bored, and thus has decided to engage his captives into one final game, and challenges each of his "test subjects" to undergo a unique experience and see if they pass a little scenario that he has built specifically for them. Each character thus stars in his own little "Twilight Zone" episode, where they are dropped off in a collection of wicked and seemingly alien environments that eventually p rove to have more than their share of connections with their character's past and disturbing secrets. In the end, the games are nothing but a last sadistic joke from AM, but who knows, if the characters (and you) play their cards right, they might find redemption at last from their own demons in the end, and maybe, just maybe, find out that there's more to reality than AM has been telling them all along.

Playing as a selection of 5 unique stories each focusing on the particular traumas and demons of each character, the stories allow the game to delve into subjects hardly ever dealt by videogames (a suicidal worker haunted by the memory of his dead wife and a horrible crime, a **** scientist that betrayed everything to the horrors of the holocaust, a paranoid strong-willed woman who nonetheless crumbles to the memories of a disturbing traumatic event, etc. etc...), The result is one of the most interesting gaming experiences ever to take place in your monitor, plus AM's god-like nature allows it to inject all sorts of surrealistic touches into each character's adventures and thus when I say that characters have to struggle with their inner demons and face symbolic representations of different obstacles, I mean that they really have to stand up and face the physical manifestations of different aspects of their psyches, past traumas, and even supernatural entities, all without losing the few marbles they have left.

---


The five characters (from wikipedia):

"Benny was a brilliant and handsome homosexual who the AM mutilated into an ugly, childlike, heterosexual savage, with large sex organs. Gorrister and Ellen both suffered from an assortment of serious psychological problems. Ted is a bigoted con man who lies his way into upper class social circles and is in love with Ellen, who only has sex with Benny. Nimdok is a Second World War German **** who participated in the Holocaust."


This game deserves its entry into the list.
 

boringnick

B
And another one:

Bad Mojo

badmojo.jpg



Sort of like in Kafka's novel, the once human protagonist gets turned into an insect, a cockroach to be precise.


But this time the poor guy is not a giant insect, but a normal sized coackroach.

Since the world of coackroaches is not exactly that of hygiene, the locations that you must visit are not for the faint of heart:

badmojo_screen004.jpg


That picture is quite harmless, I don't want to post here the not so harmless stuff.


More screenshots here (****** fishes and dead rats):

http://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/bad-mojo/screenshots
 
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boringnick

B
Dark Seed 1 and 2:

Dark_Seed_Cover.jpg


The plot of the first game is not awe inspiring: Aliens tampered with you. But the art was created by H.R. Giger (the man who created the creature from the alien films)

And his participation makes these games worthy to enter this list:

darkseed_screen001.jpg



Darkseed-2.jpg


109941279700.png
 
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Alien

Alien
Here are some of the strangest games I remember playing :
Skool Daze - Get beat up by 1st year pupils and write on blackboards to make teachers do things.

Wizball - You are a wizard trapped in a bouncing ball. Collect paint to cast spells (power ups).

Sentinel - Explore a world and do what ? (I never figured it out !)

Monty Python's Holy Grail - Text based adventure that bordered on plain crazy !

All were on a C64.
Ahhh memories !
 

boringnick

B
Fahrenheit 451:

122029915500.jpg



Games based on books are not seldom, but they are usually based on Tolkien's works and Dune.

This game is based on Fahrenheit 451, a somewhat unlikely candidate for a game, thus earning it's place here (I know, it isn't THAT strange, just the fact that of all things Fahrenheit 451 was picked (less known than 1984 and Brave New World) makes it interesting).

It was released in 1984 (nice dystopic coincidence)

Plot:

---
At the ending of Fahrenheit 451, former Fireman Guy Montag is a fugitive, wanted for murder for killing his supervisor and stealing contraband books. The game takes place five years later. A pointless war has swept across the country, leading to martial law by the Firemen. Now an agent for the literary underground, Montag makes his way to New York with the mission of rescuing books copies to microcassette that are slated for destruction in New York's Central Library. Along the way, he discovers that Clarisse, the young woman who inspired him to rebellion, is still alive.

Challenges for the player involve finding ways to alter one's appearance, fingerprints, and "chemindex" (body chemistry) in order to evade detection. Other issues arise in finding food to eat and safe places to rest. The player must also make contact with members of the Underground hiding in the city, through the use of a lighter and literary quotations.

In the end, Montag is able to break into the Central Library and meet up with Clarisse. The microcassettes are found and transmitted on the information network to resistance cells all over the world. While Montag and Clarisse achieve victory in saving the extensive collection of literature, it costs them their lives as firemen storm the office after the last cassette is transmitted, immolating them both.
---

from:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fahrenheit_451_(computer_game)

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OzFalcon

O
Mech Warrior 2 and PSI Warrior

The Unreal series soundtracks get a vote from me too.

Mech Warrior 2 & Ghost Bear's Legacy for cool soundtracks creating immersive game play.
336938.jpeg

211805.jpeg


and

PSI Warrior for the strangest game I've ever played.
psi-warrior.jpg

psi-warrior_01.gif


Yeah, I'm old.
 

OzFalcon

O
Tir na nog

I loved playing Sentinal (Many hours spent enjoying that game) and Alien (c64 escape thriller).
And thought Captain Blood was cool but never figured it out. I Didn't know there was a sequel.

I always though Tir na nog was a bit Strange. (c64 era again)
tir_na_nog.jpg

tir_na_nog_02.gif
 

Tikigod

Tikigod
Weirdest game I have ever played would have to be 'Dreamweb' on the amiga.

Basically the game focuses on your character who has been contacted in his dreams by a group of monks that protect the 'dreamweb' and instruct you murder famous celebrities who are part of a group looking to destroy the dreamweb, and you end up taking them out in some rather grusome ways.

What made the game the weirdest I've ever seen is that throughout the entire game is the impression that your character is quite insane, and the game came packaged with a large booklet titled 'Diary of a madman', which was the journal of the main character prelude to the game starting and shows him slowly losing his grip on reality.
 

boringnick

B
ZPC:

51CF1M8GVCL._SS500_.jpg



In ZPC (stands for "Zero population count") you're playing an intergalactic bearded Hippie who looks like Jesus.

From the cover: "From the earliest days, a royal line of God-Kings has benevolently watched over us, guiding the actions of all nations. And the world proposed; until the Black Brethern arose. Jealous of the King's powers, they swore to eradicate the Royal Line. The King's heir, Arman, was still a child when the Black Brethern stormed the palace atop Mount Psion. They killed the King and exiled Arman into space for eternity in cryogenic sleep. The age of despair had begun. Death camps, Torture, Brainwashing, Environmental corruption, Genocide. Its 400 years later, and Arman, the last of the Warrior Messiah's has returned. Vengeance will be his. No flesh shall be spared. "


What's unique about the game? Well, first of all, it has what every weird game needs (see Lost Eden) GENOCIDES!

----------------

ZPC asked the question -- long ago before it became fab for every awful comic storyline to have a millenium, Armageddon theme -- what would it be like if Jesus came back... and started shooting people in the face with a grenade launcher?

..
One scene has the player entering a room with about a half-dozen of his starving, withered worshipers begging for help. There is a foreign machine that has buttons for the player to manipulate. When I came across this, I dived right in and starting pushing things. What happened is that machine started its descent to the poor *******s and crushed them into slurry. Apparently it was a human food processing machine. The feeling of horror that I was overcome with literally made me shake. These people... they had begged for me to help them, to save them, and because of my recklessness I killed them. It was gruesome. It was awful. I was affected. I got just a small sense of what it must be like to see a particular people enslaved and treated as scum, as food

Most computer games never attempt anything along the lines of displaying the grisly reality of genocide. ZPC does, and portrays it quite effectively
----------------

http://www.joltcountry.com/trottingkrips/zpc.html



zpc2.jpg



Your enemies are SPACE NAZ*S:

799042.jpg


The art is pretty unique, here is a gallery:

http://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/zpc/screenshots

The enemies (and the whole world) look as if they are made out of colored paper.


The story so far: (from http://www.gamerevolution.com/review/pc/zpc&friend=1)


---

"No Flesh Shall Be Spared"

you are Arman, an extremely violent hippie who must liberate an entire world from the clutches of an evil imperial empire that has destroyed a once prosperous Republic. During Arman's early childhood, the Black Brethren (the bad guys) killed the old king, exiled the boy prince (you) to deep space, and then proceeded to transform the landscape into something resembling North Korea on a bad day. Your job, as the now returned adult Arman, is to walk through this world of devastation, pitiful souls, and loudspeakers blaring propaganda, literally blasting everything in your sight and leaving destruction in your wake.

....

This is not a warm, friendly game. I must admit that walking along the streets, hearing the phrase "No Flesh Shall Be Spared" with its carefully crafted echo effect coming out of the corner propaganda loudspeakers, sent chills up my spine.



-----------


Another review:

---

The plot combines a post-apocalyptic Mad Max setting with pseudo-religious trappings that are reminiscent of Preacher comic book series, mixed with a dash of -style propaganda for good measure. You are Arman, a violent, carefree hippie who must liberate an entire world from the clutches of an evil imperial empire that has destroyed a once prosperous Republic. As it turns out, you are actually the prince whose father, i.e. the former king, was killed by the evil Black Brethren. As a messiah who has returned to save the world and claim your rightful heritage, you must literally kill everyone who stands in your way while tolerating seemingly ubiquitous loudspeakers that blare propaganda nonstop.

--------------

from: http://www.squakenet.com/computer_games/6204/ZPC---Zero-Population-Count/download.html


zpc_002.gif




The intro and cutscenes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98vuEmgYm9k

And yes, they are damn "strange".
 
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