Three video games perfect for lockdown

There's never been a better time to find a digital world to escape to.

No, I don’t want buckets of gore. I also don’t want violent first-person shoot-em-ups. I’ll pass on your stupid cross country courier simulators. And please, the last thing anyone needs is an apocalyptic zombie thriller sparked by a pandemic.

Right now, with what’s going on outside, I’ve been craving games that transport me to a different world, with immersive stories and complex puzzles and quirky characters and beautiful scenery. Or just some clunky animated cars kicking a soccer ball around.

Basically, anything that takes my mind off bubbles and levels and lockdowns and the takeaway queue at my local KFC is okay by me.

So I found a few that I thought might be worth mentioning to anyone else struggling to pass all this time on lockdown. Or at least until The Last of Us Part II finally gets released.

Enjoy!

Control (PS4, Xbox One, PC)

One of my all-time favourite video game sequences comes from Max Payne, a comic book detective noir stunner from eons ago. In the middle of the game, out of nowhere, you find yourself drunkenly staggering through a blood-red nightmare maze as a baby cries in the distance. Sitting in the dark in front of my PC (I didn’t have many friends back then) it shook me to my core. Control is like that all of the god-damn time. I could try and explain the plot here, but it won’t make any sense. Trust me though, Control is a stunning game, full of beautiful visuals and wonderful gameplay and great set pieces and huge plot twists. It comes from Remedy, the same team that made Max Payne, Alan Wake and Quantum Break, so, if you like any of those, you’ll love this. I sure do.

The Witness (PS4, Xbox One, PC)

You wake up, alone, on a strange island full of puzzles that will challenge and surprise you. That’s the description that comes with The Witness, and it makes it sound so incredibly lame. It doesn’t even come close to describing the kind of chaos this game will cause in your life. Lined up around this “strange island” are more than 500 puzzles, and each gets more complicated and frustrating the deeper you get into the game. You’ll tear your hair out while playing it, but find yourself with a pad and pen when you’re not, mapping out boxes, scrawling down shapes, babbling like a lunatic as you work on the tricky ones in your spare time. The Witness came out a while ago, so if you finished it when it came out in 2016, trust me, you’ll have forgotten all of it by now and can struggle your way through it all over again. Or maybe I just have a terrible memory.

The Outer Wilds (PS4, Xbox One, PC)

Ever wondered what it’s like to become an astronaut? Of course you have, because that would be awesome. The Outer Wilds does exactly that, putting you in the cockpit of a rickety spaceship, and letting you go explore the final frontier. This isn’t a big budget space game like No Man’s Sky, so don’t expect amazing graphics and movie style cut scenes and super polished gameplay. But what The Outer Wilds does have going for it is a really cool mystery at its heart. Every 22 minutes, the game reboots, and you get another chance to try and solve it. Intrigued? Of course you are.

What are you playing? Got any recommendations for me? Let me know!

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