Life can be incredibly intense. Sometimes we all need a breather, a reset, a refresh— something real, intense and close—to find our footing and get back on our feet. Experiencing vivid stories and exploring different ideas can clear minds, refresh our hearts, and help us through life’s hardest times. Video games can be particularly good at this, since they’re able to amplify everything through audio, visual elements, and interactive storytelling, which puts players at the core of whatever immersive tale lay ahead. 

Remember who you are and find your footing with these five games that get really close, personal, and take you through it on the Epic Games Store. 

Night in the Woods

Night in the Woods is about so many things. At its core, it’s about navigating a cruel world when you’re already struggling and not sure what to do. And it has talking animals as its cast of characters, which always makes stories more rad. 

Mae Borowski is a 20-year-old college dropout that moves back home with her parents in Possum Springs, a dwindling and dying rust belt town that’s been gasping for breath for decades. Yet somehow, it's still getting worse.

However, it’s in this town’s tapestry of textures—made up by a colorful cast of characters— that Mae manages to not only find herself, but also help her friends and others discover more about themselves and the world around them. 

Night in the Woods is a story-focused side-scrolling adventure that has players take Mae throughout her town, engaging in many conversations, many of them optional. These scenes reveal more about the town and its history, while helping Mae get to the bottom of a mystery with her friends, which involves a cult that’s tied to dark secrets that surround the town’s past. 

Night in the Woods is about depression and what it feels like to get back up in a world that doesn’t make it easy. A trip through Possum Springs with Mae is all it takes to change yourself for the better.

Pick up Night in the Woods here.

We are OFK

We are OFK is a game about a group of friends, music, and the struggles that come with creating art in a difficult world. We are OFK is a narrative-focused experience with gameplay consisting of conversations between a group of friends working through conflict as they put on concerts. 

We are OFK is about a real-life animated band—not unlike acts such as Gorillaz and Hatsune Miku—with you the player in the middle, guiding the dialogue and decisions through it all. 

Meet Itsumi, Jey, Luca, Carter, and their digital companion Debug in the dreamy, kaleidoscopic  world of We Are OFK. 

Pick up We are OFK here.

Tchia

Tchia is an exciting, open-world adventure that takes players on a beautiful journey across tropical islands as they harness magic power to save protagonist Tchia’s father. 

Tchia is a little girl with a very special gift that will aid players on their adventures across the Archipelago. She is able to possess any animal or object players come across, and there are over 30 to discover. 

Tchia is an open-world sandbox adventure that allows players to sail, glide, and explore  a dizzying amount of must-see sights while on an epic quest. 

Pick up Tchia here.

Adios 

Adios is a story with a small cast of characters—starring only a pig farmer and a hitman—but the tale that takes place between them both is one for the ages, like a Shakespearan play plucked out of time. 

Adios is about the last day spent between two friends that would love nothing more than to pass another day together—but they both know this is it. This is goodbye. On its surface, Adios is a basic game, consisting largely of easy tasks around the pig farmer’s home.. But it’s the conversations, the history, and the gaze between these two friends that makes the game stand out—watching them reminisce and remember the lives they have shared. 

The pig farmer wants to walk away from the life he’s lived. He wants to live out his days on his farm, but they both know it’s just not possible to do that anymore. 

The densely detailed environments and lifelike conversations make Adios not just a must-play game that will stick with you long after the credits roll,. but a story for the ages that almost feels too good for video games. However, it’s the immersion and interactivity in the audio/visual medium that help everything meld together. 

There’s a question the farmer asks the hitman:  “What good is living if you ain’t happy?” Adios makes sure that question echoes long after players hit the credits in this expertly crafted indie narrative experience. 

Pick up Adios here.

The Outer Wilds

Perhaps one of the deepest games you can play, The Outer Wilds is an out-of-this-world story of cosmic proportions that asks: "What would you do if you only had one more day?" But also a jetpack, as well as a spaceship with unlimited fuel. Oh, and the ability to repeat time again and again, so you can make sure you get it just right after seeing all there is to see. 

The Outer Wilds is a non-linear adventure game that gives players everything they need to see and do everything in its universe almost right away. . It’s an experience that could technically be beaten in just under 30 minutes—if you’re rushing to the end of the universe, that is. 

But that’s not the point of The Outer Wilds, or what it’s about. The Outer Wilds is about taking the time to learn about the world around us—paying attention to it all, taking it in, and using what we learn to make everything around us better. 

There’s a lot to The Outer Wilds. At its core, it’s a first-person adventure where players are able to meet different characters across five different planets in outer space, while discovering the mysteries of life and the universe, all while listening to pretty, peaceful banjo music. Oh, and it's also about witnessing the death of the universe every 22 minutes—but then you get to try again with everything you’ve learned, to push your life and what’s possible just a little bit further. 

The Outer Wilds is a labor of love that’s the culmination of several game projects that all came together to create one. It all started with a scene where the player roasts a marshmallow while watching planets end around them—and then the planet they are on is also destroyed. 

That same introspection and self-examination across time and space is deeply embedded throughout all of The Outer Wilds. It will change your life and weekend, all while under the cozy, relaxing banjo strings of its original soundtrack. 

Pick up The Outer Wilds here.