When you think of video-games, all you have in mind is kill some damn enemies, race a few cars and win the competitions and save the world. After a wrecking day at the office or college, that’s all you are looking for in your consoles. But the wretched game developers think that your brains are not being strained enough, so they decide to make the games more and more complex, and this is not just restricted to the stunts.With plotlines that rival any Game of Thrones episode and twists that could make Memento seem lame, here is a list of games that could make your head begging for psychiatric help, if you decide to keep a track of what’s happening in there.
#10 Mortal Kombat series
With so many tiles under your tutelage, there is a definite chance that you may forget the game’s earliest history as well the character’s histories as well. And with the game’s rising popularity with each title, it also means a lot of the fan-favorite characters had to be brought in the later titles to please everyone, even if many of them are dead. The unique ways to bring them back literally from dead – one, even returning as a zombie – is enough proof that you may get confused if you have been playing the series for so long.
#9 Heavy Rain
This psychological thriller of a movie-game that has almost half a dozen playable characters out to catch a serial killer known as Origami Killer, who likes to drown his victims in rainwater. With these many protagonists and with the various decisions that each one make, there is everything in here that could help you suffer a short-term memory loss. The eight-odd endings, including one where everyone dies, is enough to be a total mind-screwup!
#8 The Legend of Zelda
This very famous video game that has its origins in the 80’s is well known for spawning around 18 titles and equally confusing plot narratives. With 18 titles, it is but natural that there are many opportunities to screw up the timeline and the plot-line, and that’ precisely is what happens here. Alternate worlds and alternate timelines make their presence here, as our hero Link is given a different backstory to go with. Even the villain, Ganondorf is revived many times to fight against.
#7 Mass Effect 3
Here, more than unnecessary complications like alternate dimensions, memory warps and doppelgangers, it’s the intrinsic details in the plot and the multiple decisions that you make, what makes the game so complex. Every decision that you make, every move you make, all depends on how well you know the other factions in the game – human, as well as alien. The now infamous multi-climax is dependable oh how you have performed all the way in the game.
#6 Metal Gear Sol
While the individual game itself is tight and easy to follow, if you take the entire series into consideration, the plot is actually more complicated than Game of Thrones and Arrow put together. Ranging from the timeline from 1964 to 2018 with three protagonists in Solid Snake, Raiden and Big Boss, the over-arching game plot makes us confused by the time we reach the last game in the series. With sequels and prequels in tow, and heroes changing with each title, you can hardly blame the player if he gets confused as to where he stands in the entire Metal Gear Solid universe
#5 Castlevania
Dracula is the villain and all you have to do is defeat him. The only problem is that every time you defeat the undying man and kill him in each game, he is resurrected again in the next game. Not that it is such a big issue, but you have another hero to face him this time. Seriously, if you can’t kill him, then why even try? Or have the developers not heard of any other monsters, like say, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Swamp Monster and other assorted monsters?
#4 Chrono Cross
Unlike its predecessor, this game is set in an alternate dimension. When you hear the words, alternate dimension, you know you are in for some complex turns, and you will not be disappointed here if you expected so. With around 45 playable characters, each having their unique background stories, it is not easy to follow the plot as you would have loved it. You also get to play the villain of the piece at one point, which itself is set in a different alternate universe.
#3 Kingdom Hearts
A boy and a girl are entrusted a trivial responsibility – to protect their planet from an unassailable and mysterious alien force, that is designed to consume their world. They set out on this task, while picking up various cute looking Disney characters on the way. Then the plot gets more twists than the Nilgiri by-pass, as there are lot of subplots thrown in, lots of villains to fight and lot of sacrifices and expositions involved, only to prove one point – it’s always light that can defeat darkness.
#2 Tales of Symphonia
Many of the games has one simple plot – fight villains, save the world and if there is a beauty to be saved in the process, definitely do that! This game’s plot also goes by the same lines, except that it goes the Abbas-Mastan way and includes several twists that confuses us as to who is good and who is bad. With primary villains changing every couple of levels, and new plot development brought in to rack your brains, all you have to do is to play along and make sense as to what is happening. The sequel does little to help in this matter.
#1 Legacy of Kain
Convoluted plot lines are not a recent travesty that plagued the games. In fact, few of the famous games in 90’s and 80’s have also been bitten by the complex bug. One such game is Legacy of Kain. You have every ingredient thrown in the plot that is necessary to make it a muddled matter – like time travel, monsters, multiple villains, amnesia, rebirths, multiple paradoxes and other convoluted nonsense. By the time you reach the finale and manage to remember what all had happened on the way, I bet you have a good shot at winning the Memory Game World Championship title, if there is anything as such!
