(electronic chiming) - [Falcon] Some games out there follow a very specific formula. Open-world games all have certain things that you'll find in them, but
some games are totally unique. Hi folks, it's Falcon,
and today on Gameranx, 10 games that aren't like any other game. And before I get going here,
like, it has to be said we're not gonna focus on indies today. The indie game scene
is extremely creative. People come up with
unique stuff all the time. What we're really gonna do
is focus on mainstream games. Like big games where, if
you really think about it, there really isn't anything
else quite like them. There aren't really any
good imitators, you know? With that in mind, let's
start off at number 10, "Ghostwire: Tokyo." Now, this is probably the
most recent game on the list, it's also one of the most unusual. It's a Japanese FPS set in
an open-world recreation of the real-world Shibuya
district in Tokyo, Japan. You play a ghost hunter. It's your job to exercise the
demons that have taken over. And that sounds like a horror game, right? More of an action game. Yeah, there are some
minor horror elements, but mainly an action game. Instead of guns, you use
magic to defeat the ghosts which makes this game feel kind of like a first-person "Devil May
Cry," rather than an FPS. It's really unusual. (magic whooshing)
(dramatic music) It has the trappings of a
lot of open-world FPS games, but how it pulls everything off makes the game feel really
unique and different. It doesn't always work. Like there are times where this
game can be a bit of a chore to get through all the open-world stuff, but the visual style alone
makes the game stand out. And again, it just has a
weird cadence to the gameplay that you don't really get anywhere else. It clearly does take inspiration from a lot of other games out there, but the sum of its parts, the way it incorporates all those ideas, is just really unique. At number nine is
"Undertale," a subversive RPG that can feel similar to
other games in terms of tone and some of the ideas of the plot, but the presentation and style make it
completely unique even now. There's a few imitators
out there at this point, but they just don't hit the
same way as "Undertale." "Undertale" is set in an underground world filled with monsters
and has a very strange, but easy-to-understand
turn-based battle system where whenever an enemy attacks you manually control a heart
in order to dodge them. The battle system alone would be enough to make this game stand out because it's basically
a JRPG battle system that plays nothing like
a JRPG battle system, but if you know how to
play a JRPG battle system, you know how to play "Undertale." That's kind of the best
way to describe it, which is laborious. But they manage to do
a lot of clever things with what seems like a
really basic concept. But the real noteworthy thing
that everybody remembers is that this is an RPG where you do not have to kill anything. You could choose to be totally nonviolent by selecting the spare option in battle. And that's not all you can do. If you're not feeling so
friendly you can kill everything. Like literally everything. And depending on what you do, it can have a major impact
on the ending you get. (upbeat electronic music) It's a game with tons of inspirations, but there's just nothing out there that managed to pull it all off the way that "Undertale" does. At number eight it's "Bully." It's easy to call "Bully"
"GTA" but in a school, but I think that's selling
the game a little short. You almost never see Western-developed and published games set in a school, let alone one by a studio like Rockstar, and never with this
kind of love and detail. Instead of being set in a
sprawling open-world playground, "Bully's" set in a small
town called Bullworth. You play as Jimmy, a new
kid at Bullworth Academy. And at least, at first, the
game is probably the opposite of a "Grand Theft Auto" game. You have to go to school,
avoid getting into trouble, you can't kill anyone for fun. Hell, you can't even leave the Academy for the first few hours. Rather than being an
unstoppable killing machine like a "GTA" game where you're free to basically
do whatever you want, in "Bully" you're a kid, and at best, you can beat someone up and maybe avoid detention by
running away from the prefects. (upbeat techno music) Yeah, there's a lot of
Japanese games set in schools, but they are nothing like "Bully." Like, most of those games
involve making choices as to who you date and
what spells to learn when you take out the invading army. Yeah, those are weird too,
but there's a lot of them. There's only one "Bully." At number seven is the "Hitman" series. Now, when you think of stealth, most people think of sneaking
around in the shadows, hiding in closets, avoiding enemy patrols. And while you do a little
of that in "Hitman," these games are way more out in the open. Stealth in the "Hitman" games is more like a puzzle than anything else. It's about finding the right uniform, sneaking in the correct weapons, setting up the perfect situation
so you can kill your target without anyone even
knowing you were there. The "Hitman" games are exactly
what their name implies, their hitman simulators. You play his Agent 47, a guy that you would think would stand out because he's bald and has a distinct barcode
tattoo on the back of his neck, but he seems to fit in pretty all right. To eliminate whatever target or targets you've got
for a specific level, you usually have a ton of options. You can snipe them from
a good vantage point, orchestrate some kind of accident, push them off a ledge
when no one's looking. As long as you're wearing the right thing in the right place, most people won't question you and you're free to move around
the area as you see fit. (needle plunging) (tense music) - [Announcer] Rico Delgado
has been eliminated. - [Falcon] All these interlocking systems make each level in a "Hitman" game basically a huge puzzle
that needs to be solved. It's all about trying to get that coveted Silent Assassin ranking, which you can get by killing your target without alerting anyone or
leaving a trace of your presence. Getting that perfect
assassination is super satisfying, but it's almost just as
fun when you screw up because that's when you
just grab a machine gun and go on a rampage. The "Hitman" games have
elements of stealth games, adventure games, and
third-person shooters, but the way all those pieces come together just make it something
nothing like anything else. At number six is the "Splatoon" series. This has gotta be one
of the weirdest concepts for a multiplayer shooter at all, right? In the "Splatoon" games, you
play as a kid or a squid, maybe a kid. How about a squid kid? I don't really know what to say here. The commercial really made it so that it's impossible to
get past those two words. But you're going up
against other squid kids in a multiplayer battle arena. The difference is that
instead of shooting bullets, you shoot ink 'cause
you're a kid and a squid. And kids don't shoot bullets at each other and squid shoot ink. I know I'm, you know,
having as much fun as I can with saying this stuff, but
it's actually pretty simple and straightforward and
extremely enjoyable. Now, instead of being about getting kills, "Splatoon's" basic game mode, Turf War, is about spreading ink. Whoever covers the surface
of the map the most is the winning team. Now, the ink is also not just for splashing around, of course, you can use it, you can
kind of get kills with it. They don't really matter in
terms of score per se though, they just kind of knock the
enemy team out of action. Now, to refill your ink, you
transform into squid form, which actually also has other benefits. Like you're hidden, the ink recharges, you can move much faster
through your own ink. Like, normally, the
movement is pretty slow, but traveling through the ink is essential to getting back to the frontline quickly, especially after you've been knocked out. And you can flank opponents this way, using all of these
moves to your advantage. This is all wrapped up in
a really cool urban style which is pretty unlike
anything else out there. The "Splatoon" games are both
kid-friendly and weirdly dark. Just the fact that the series comes from the usually
risk-averse Nintendo kind of makes the thing seem
that much more original. And really, "Splatoon," fantastic games. (lively upbeat music)
(ink splattering) At number five is "Sea of Thieves," a large-scale cooperative
multiplayer action game. "Sea of Thieves" is
really hard to pin down. It's a multiplayer game
where teams of four players can control various parts of a
pirate ship and go exploring, you can get in fights with other players, or you can just trade
items like fish and meat. I mean, you're a pirate so, obviously, people are questioning where
that meat is coming from, at least internally, or I like to think of it that way anyhow. That's a pretty basic rundown
of what the game has to offer because it's getting consistent updates, and has since it came out
way back in March of 2018. Basically, if you want a
game to do pirate stuff in this is the game to do it. The entire package is wrapped up in Rare's unusual brand of humor as well, which gives it a really unique flavor. And there are a few
pirate games out there, there's just nothing even
close to the ambition and weirdness of "Sea of Thieves" though. (dramatic music)
(thunder rumbles) (waves crashing) Which, when the game came out, is not something I expected
I would ever say, also, 'cause it was kind of bland at launch. So, I mean, even on that level, that launch in a way
that not everybody loves that turn into something that you go, "Wow, that's just nothing
like anything else "and it does it well." At number four is "Driver: San Francisco," maybe the strangest turn
for a major franchise I can think of. In the PS1 era, "Driver"
was a huge franchise. They were semi-realistic driving games set in a massive open-world city and you could really only drive, but, I mean, they were
pretty ambitious in that way. With "Driver: San Francisco," they just completely changed the formula. Instead of just being
able to control one car, you can possess any car you want. It's done seamlessly. When you leave a car, the
world goes into slow motion and you can fly around
and possess a new car, which is weird. This little mechanic
lets you do crazy stuff like swap into a new car mid-race, switched to a vehicle
heading the right direction if you take a wrong turn
during a time trial, or if you're feeling spicy,
you can possess a bus and crash it head first
in your rival racers. It completely changes
the dynamic of the game and takes what would otherwise be a pretty simple driving game and makes it one of the most fun and unique racers out there. At number three, "Brothers:
A Tale of Two Sons." An adventure game created by Josef Fares, the guy who would go on to
create some amazing co-op games like "A Way Out" and "It Takes Two." This has a simple premise, it's a co-op game, but single-player. How does that possibly work you ask? Simple, one brother's
controlled by the left stick and the others is controlled
by the right stick. So instead of controlling
one character at all times, you control two. Thankfully, they put in a lot of effort to make it go as smoothly as possible and ease players into the experience, but it's still something that
takes a lot of getting used to and not something that
other people have done. Story is very simple. It's two brothers on a
journey to find medicine to help their sick father, and along the way, you're solving puzzles and avoiding danger. It's kind of short, but it smartly doesn't
overstay its welcome and try to do anything too complicated. It's brilliant and a
creative control method that I really don't think
has ever been replicated, at least in a way that works. At number two is "Shadow of the Colossus." Few games manage to both
be incredibly strange and entertaining in a way that "Shadow of the
Colossus" manages to do. It's a game that's set
in a really desolate land and you have a really simple goal, hunt all these huge
creatures down and kill them. Now, in truth, that doesn't
sound particularly unique, but it's actually some of the limits and the mechanics that make it into just a completely
different experience than anything else. You only have a few tools, a sword, a bow and arrow, a horse and you have, you know,
hands so you can climb. To take out the colossi, you have to find a way to
climb up to their weak points and take them out. It's part action game, part
platform, part puzzle game. And each colossus is different, so it's not like they all
have the same weak points, and getting them to expose
their weak points isn't easy. Further, this whole experience has a really melancholy feel to it that gives the game a
really unique atmosphere. I mean, it's hard to
mention open-world games without mentioning "Breath of the Wild," but it's not what you think here. This is a game that a
lot of this game's DNA can be felt in "Breath of the Wild." Hell, a lot of this game's DNA can be felt in "Sonic Frontiers" once you get into the bigger bosses. Not quite the same thing, but
you know if you've played it. But even though a lot of games
have taken influence from it, it is totally unique. There's just nothing else quite like it. And finally, at number
one is "Death Stranding." From the mad mind of Hideo
Kojima comes possibly the strangest AAA
big-budget game of all time. As best as I can describe it, "Death Stranding" is an
open-world post-apocalyptic supernatural FedEx simulator. Yeah, as a follow-up to the
masterful stealth action of the "Metal Gear Solid" series, Kojima made a game about
delivering packages. The setting itself is also one
of the weirdest of all time. Most of the world's been devastated and the mere presence of a
dead body can be catastrophic. And your goal is basically to
reconnect humanity to itself, one delivery at a time. Little bit higher stakes
than the Amazon guy. I mean, unless you're really
anticipating a package, then it seems like the stakes are super high for the Amazon guy. But no, he is not reconnecting
humanity with itself. There's so much weird stuff in this game, it would take a whole day to explain it. It's so strange. It's a game where you
have a baby in a tank strapped to your chest, which warns you about invisible ghosts that appear as handprints. There's rain that makes you age. When people die, they
essentially become a time bomb. When you die, you are
transported to a beach and you can swim back to life. I mean, everything about it is strange. It's probably one of the all-time strangest video game experiences of this or any generation. Some bonus games for you too. The "God of War" reboot series. Some people might bulk at
this, but think about it, the reboot is super weird. Instead of a usual third-person
action game camera, it looks more like "Gears of War," with its close
over-the-shoulder camera angle. It's partially an open-world
narrative fiction game, but the presentation is so unique that it doesn't seem like
anything else in that genre. It's easy to forget how revolutionary "God of War" felt in 2018. And it's sequel, I mean, it's still like the
only other game like that. There's just nothing else out
there quite like these games. And then I gotta also
mention "Katamari Damacy." You can't do a unique games list without mentioning this PS2 classic. It's a puzzle game, I mean, I think, where the goal is to roll a
sticky ball called a Katamari around various environments to collect larger and larger objects until the ball is big
enough to reach a goal. It starts off small, eventually, you're rolling
up house pets, people, and even entire cities. This is all because the King of All Cosmos destroyed the stars in the sky, and I guess rolling up random
junk is able to make stars. Don't question it. It's a game that is actually pretty fun. But don't think about it, that's more difficult
than the game itself. And that's all for today. Leave us a comment. Let
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right here on Gameranx. (upbeat music)
