Your Favorite Walking Simulator?

I really enjoyed "Firewatch" and would like to play some more games like it. Anyone out there have one that they reeeaaaaally like? If you've played a bunch of them, which ones set the bar for technical quality? Seems like having good voice acting/sound/art and etc is really important to this genre, since the gameplay itself can't make up for anything.

It's the obvious one, but I liked Gone Home a whole lot. There's a lot of really nice touches in that game that make it feel alive in a way that games generally don't. It also managed to elicit a full range of emotions in a very short amount of time.

Edit - Also, it depends on what you consider a "walking simulator". I could see an argument that the new style of adventure game(Telltale, Life is Strange, etc) are very similar, just longer and aren't as focused on environmental storytelling(though definitely still present)

I enjoyed Dr. Langeskov the tiger and the terribly cursed emerald: A whirlwind heist. I really hate the term "Walking Simulator". It's as if they have nothing else to offer than walking.

Edit: You put "walking simulator" in quotes. We know you know what we know.

What...what counts as a walking simulator? See, I wouldn't consider something like Gone Home as a walking simulator, even though other people would use that term. I really like Gone Home, but there's not a great deal of walking, it's more of a rifling through people's personal belongings simulator (RTPPBS for short).

Does The Witness count? Because that game's pretty good. If we're talking about walking and nothing else, then I'd probably say Proteus.

The one mode in AC Revelations was alright.

Jazzpunk

The Division

There is this free Unity game from years ago that I like, but I forgot its name. All you do is walk around in it. It has a MIDI of Smash Mouth playing from an egg and standing by a specific door for a while makes everything dark. I switched PC's and lost my copy, and I haven't been able to find the game since.

I also really like LSD. (Please don't quote this out of context.)

The Stanley Parable, by a country mile.

Morrowind

I haven't play most of them so. Gone Home is probably still my top. The Stanley Parable is a close second.

But no really Morrowind. It the most egregious and glacially slow walking speed of any game ever. The distance you could cover in a 10 sec sprint in Skyrim would take 15 minutes fully specced in speed in Morrowind.

While I wouldn't say these are amazing games (minus SOMA), though certainly have aspects of greatness, I think I'd consider them my favorite walking simulator games. They'd be Everybody's Gone to the Rapture and The Vanishing of Ethan Carter. I wasn't personally a fan of Gone Home, Dear Esther, or even Stanley Parable (though each of course have their strengths), which are some other ones I played. I can't say I was a fan of Firewatch either (dialogue and voice work was the major strength to me). Ether One was another I tried, but when it was on PS4 for free, I had many issues with it, I tried keeping in contact with whoever was on the Facebook page, telling them my issues, and they replied back often. I quit before all fixes could get through, if they ever did, so I never finished it. It was okay from what I played. A game that is a little more than a walking simulator, but I would by far consider my favorite if you could add it in, is SOMA. It's not as rudimentary in terms of simply walking, but it's close, and it's still superb. Anyways, yes; Vanishing of Ethan Carter and Everybody's Gone to the Rapture, if you want what I consider the best, though ultimate walking simulator's. They have issues, but still.

SOMA has a fantastic story to me, and a fantastic setting. There is horror in it, like sneaking/hiding or running from enemies, but it's surprisingly few and far between compared to expectation. It's basically you as a player exploring its setting, getting more interesting story along the way.

Gone to the Rapture also has an interesting setting (I really liked the camp area setting which comes later in the game), The walking is slow, and holding the trigger to work up the speed doesn't help it. It didn't bother me too much on my first go, but it can become bothersome if you want to backtrack, or want to go through the game again. The dialogue and voice work that tell the stories between characters is more interesting than the eventual answer to the major questions.

Vanishing of Ethan Carter is yet another game that also has a decent setting, though in the end, it's quite small of one, so there isn't that much to explore, at least compared to the other two mentioned. It's bigger than Firewatch though I suppose. There's a twist in the end, and though I didn't see how it would be executed, right when I picked up the first clue, I immediately guessed what the twist was. I still really enjoyed the story though.

I'll add more info about the specific games if you want to know. This is me assuming you didn't play any of these, though I could be incorrect. Some may argue otherwise about SOMA's voice work/dialogue, but for the most part, I think it was great. Technically on a visual standpoint, it was probably it's least appealing aspect, but it was definitely good enough, and wasn't detrimental to the experience. Both Vanishing and Rapture are great in those respects. I think Gone to the Rapture's brightness was a bit off, where things were a bit brighter than I'd like, though some changes to the TV settings may fix that. Ethan Carter is on PC, so you can either go that route, or PS4. The PS4 version added a 30fps limiter to it, but I bought it on there and beat it before that update came. Yeah, I bought Vanishing on both PC and PS4. It was really unnecessary, but oh well. Anyways, yeah, try those. Ask me if you want to know more about those specific games.

Every time I see it I hear Jeff's sarcastic voice in my head.

@ntm Can you die in SOMA and just how scary are the horror parts? I remember the QL being interesting, but when I heard it was made by the Amnesia developers, I was out ^_^

@ethanielrain: I didn't find it that scary, and like I said, it's few and far between. The scariest moments is when something chases you, or in one sequence that's unavoidable, you walk around a corner, and you see one of the creatures walk down some stairs and run at you. It's intense and you may in that moment wonder what the heck you do, and where you can go, perhaps stunned in place due to being shocked, but it's supposed to happen. This game isn't like Amnesia in terms of horror. Just in terms of expectation though, even when you learn how the game plays, throughout the game you may be worried something could come out. And yes, you can die in SOMA, but the likelihood of it happening isn't often, and when it can happen, if you do, you're not set back that far.

When I played through it, I could feel comparison between a walking simulator, even though the game isn't necessarily one of them. What I took away from the game wasn't any of the horror moments, but the time exploring the environments and the story it told. I can't really answer your question about how scary it is honestly, because it differs from person to person. I'd say it's somewhat intense, but nowhere near frightening. The enemies are creepy looking (excluding the first enemy encounter), and the sound design is great, those are things that really help it, but the enemies are easy enough to figure out, so you won't have much issue getting past them. Talking about it makes me want to playthrough it again.

Stanley Parable and Firewatch, for very different reasons. Stanley Parable is funny, clever, and pretty surprising the whole way through. Thoroughly enjoyed that game. And I absolutely adore the storytelling and dialogue in Firewatch. I even loved the ending!

Stuff like Gone Home and Jazzpunk did very little for me. Didn't dislike either of them, but I really didn't understand they fervor around those two.

I'm super interested to see what Tacomah brings to the table.

Guess the genre isn't for me at all, but a game with walking that I loved a whole lot was The Unfinished Swan. It's more puzzling than simulating, but soaking in the aesthetic is a big part of the game.

Played it the night before I played Journey and thought it was better in just about every way.

The genre hasn't existed long enough for me to have a favorite.

Might be firewatch, or it might just be that that's the one that's freshest in my mind. I certainly loved that game a whole bunch.

@devil240z: It obviously depends on what you define as walking simulator. I don't think it would be too much of a stretch to call The Manhole a walking simulator, and that was originally released in 1988.

Dear Esther, the Source-mod turned full game release mapped by an ex-Mirror's Edge map artist.

Everything else is derivative. Like how all FPS are DOOM-Clones, all "walking simulators" are Dear Esther Clones.

If you could somehow just excise the camping area of Everybody's Gone to the Rapture, that would be my favorite, far and away. It's superb storytelling in an otherwise boring game and might be worth the price of admission if that game comes up on a steep, steep sale.

Other than that, Dear Esther was really cool for what it was and while I don't quite like them myself, I think Gone Home and Stanley Parable are really interesting too. In regards to semi-related minimalist-gameplay style games, give The Novelist a try. That's pretty interesting too.

I really liked The Stanley Parable as well. Excellent voice acting and just a fair bit of clever writing like people already said. I enjoyed The Beginner's Guide quite a bit as well but that is more niche, I think, because it doesn't go for humor like TSP does.

As far as "progressive" adventure games (or whatever we want to call them) go, I'm a fan of Life is Strange. Interesting characters with good voice acting and excellent use of a setting I wouldn't expect to enjoy neccessarily. The game makes outstanding use of environmental storytelling - there's so much fascinating stuff everywhere if you take your time and look for it. Even the journal is unlike most other games in that it's brimming with artworks and details, which makes it worth checking out for its own sake (and not just to remind you of what is going on).

I find Life is Strange has puzzle elements in it so I wouldn't consider it a "walking simulator." If I had to go by what I think constitutes a "walking simulator," experience thing, then I'd go with Stanley Parable. That game is hilarious and fun.

Even though a lot of people hated it, or at the very least were entirely ambivalent towards it, I absolutely loved Everybody's gone to the Rapture. How much you enjoy it may be based on what you take from the radio-play style drama and English village setting, but honestly it is one of the most thoughtful games I have played this generation (although calling it a game is a bit of a stretch). If you want, you can check out my write up of it here.

Haven't really played that many, loved Gone Home, and enjoyed my time with the Stanley Parable. Interested in checking out Firewatch.

I guess the only one I even like is The Stanley Parable, and that's because it knew what it was doing with character/scope/tone. So many of these games are reliant on having deep, meaningful relationships with characters we never even see or physically interact with (because modelling/animating humans is hard), and I guess that just doesn't do anything for me.

There's also stuff like Dear Esther that tosses a bunch of philosophical gibberish at you hoping that it makes an impact, no matter how shoddy and meaningless the delivery/context is. I'm sure I just don't "get" those games.

I always thought it would be funny to make a "walking simulator" game where a bunch of objectives and events come up where, if you could run, you could complete them. But since you can only walk you just watch it happen. Like a guy steals a purse. A runaway stroller. Maybe one day I'll try in unity or unreal to make something like that.

I keep hearing good things about The Beginner's Guide, but that hasn't been mentioned here yet. I might give that a try sometime.

Probably Gone Home. Firewatch and The Stanley Parable I also really like.

The Beginner's Guide was really fucking good.

Does Journey count? Because that's one of the best games I've played period. Otherwise I'd probably say the Stanley Parable or the Beginner's Guide.

I think I've played 3 of them? Gone Home, Stanley Parable, and Beginner's Guide. I can recommend all of them. Still have to play Firewatch.

Definitely The Beginner's Guide. I found it INCREDIBLY effective.

Okay, am I wrong in thinking that The Vanishing of Ethan Carter or Gone Home were both more of a walking-sim than Firewatch? I like all games, but I think Firewatch (having played it) was far more 'game' like than Ethan Carter or Gone Home.

I actually like talky, beard scratchy games so they are all tops to me; but I just never viewed Firewatch as walking sim like the others, but maybe it was. Hmmmm, it just that all the talking on teh radio with a whole other person made it not feel as isolating as walking sims tend to be in my mind.