At their inception, video games rarely featured complex stories, if they had one at all. Since the start of the 21st century, writers have really begun to challenge what video game narratives can include, sometimes making you question whether your character is insane, and occasionally even suggesting that you might be. The following are six games that challenge the sanity of their players.
SPOILER ALERT: This article contains SPOILERS for all the games listed. Please keep this in mind if you plan to play any of them!
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (2001)
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty; Image credit: Konami
Toward the end of Metal Gear Solid 2, the player character, Raiden, is captured and stripped. As you run around naked through the halls of Arsenal Gear, Colonel Campbell, with whom you had been communicating via codec throughout the entirety of the game, begins to “glitch.” He calls you repeatedly, serving up multiple conflicting stories about Raiden’s girlfriend, making him question if she is even real. Sometimes the Colonel recounts events from other Metal Gear games. He may even call and yell at you in Japanese.
Other occurrences also suggest that Raiden might be going crazy. At one point, the radar is replaced with a video of a woman. At another point, while fighting a wave of enemies, you get a fake Game Over screen that says, “Fission Mailed” (instead of Mission Failed). It is later revealed that the person you’ve been speaking to was not the real Colonel Campbell but rather an AI recreation, and that the other anomalies were a byproduct of information control technology within Arsenal Gear. Raiden was, in fact, not crazy, but it sure seemed like he was for a bit.
Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem (2002)
Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem; Image credit: Nintendo
A cult classic on the Nintendo GameCube, Eternal Darkness features a sanity meter that depletes whenever the player character encounters an enemy. When the character’s sanity drops, it causes hallucinations like blood running down the walls, but there are also effects that mess with you, the player. For example, the screen might turn black with an AV icon in the corner, mimicking the console shutting off.
Silent Hill: Shattered Memories (2009)
Silent Hill: Shattered Memories; Image credit:Konami
Promoted as a remake of the original Silent Hill from 1999, Shattered Memories is more of a reimagining. In both versions, you play as Harry Mason, who is looking for his lost daughter, Cheryl. However, despite having many of the same characters, the game features no combat as well as its own story and endings.
Shattered Memories ends with Harry discovering Cheryl — now an adult — in a therapy session. In reality, Harry died when Cheryl was a child, but instead of accepting his death, she imagined a fantasy town of Silent Hill where paranormal forces trapped Harry, and she sincerely believes her father is still there. Depending on your actions in the game, Cheryl will either confront the truth or stay in denial.
Alan Wake (2010)
Alan Wake; Image credit: Microsoft Game Studios
At a certain point in Alan Wake, the titular character wakes up in an asylum. The staff and other residents resemble the characters you’ve met throughout the game. It seems that the supernatural events you’ve encountered were all products of Alan’s psychosis. That is, until Alan manages to escape the asylum, and it’s revealed that the asylum itself was actually just another supernatural event designed to make Alan believe he is crazy.
Spec Ops: The Line (2012)
Spec Ops: The Line; Image credit: 2K Games
In the ‘90s, Spec Ops was a lower-budget alternative to Rainbow Six. In 2012, it was reinvented as a third-person shooter where your character, Walker, and his squad try to hunt down the leader of a rogue Army unit. At first, the game seems like another attempt by a developer to try its hand at a Call of Duty.
That is, until a certain point in the story when you finally reach Konrad and discover that he has been long dead. All of the communication Walker had with him, and much of the horror witnessed throughout the game, were hallucinations caused by PTSD and inhalation of white phosphorus. Interestingly, “Konrad” is a reference to Joseph Conrad, the author of Heart of Darkness, a novel where the character Kurtz experiences intense PTSD.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (2025)
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33; Image credit: Kepler Interactive
At the end of the second act of Clair Obscur, it is revealed that the world you are in — the one your party is trying to save — is actually a giant painting. The Paintress, the character your party believes is the villain, is really a grieving mother who entered her son Verso’s painted world after his untimely passing. She recreated her entire family in this painted world to try to recover the happy life she lost.
It is then revealed that your party member, Maelle, is actually the daughter of The Paintress, who also entered the painting to try to free her mother from it so she can face her grief. In one version of the ending, the world is destroyed when both characters exit the painting and mourn Verso’s death together. In the other, Maelle remains trapped in the painted world and loses her own grip on the reality outside of it.
What other games challenge the sanity of the characters or the player? Let us know in the comments!
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