Games with philosophical themes?

[Quilliano]

Hi all, I'm wondering if there are other games that are thought provoking and philosophical. Any suggestions? Would prefer to be on Steam since large sales are going on. Thanks in advance!

[inappropriately_gendered_fungus]

I would check out the Swapper. It raises some interesting questions, looks and sounds gorgeous, and has top-notch puzzles.

[Avylen]

Essentially "Planescape: Torment" fits this bill as an old-school RPG; the storyline eventually delves into questions of self, with the manta "what can change the nature of a man?".

There is far more written about the Planescape crpg than I can mention here, so go look it up!

Not sure if it's on Steam, but GoG.com has it.

[Quilliano]

Many thanks, I've looked both of them up! I already own The Swapper thankfully, reminds me I should play it xD And Planescape looks super good and in-depth, prob will wait for a sale on GoG, thanks!

[punchobastardo]

One could say also that the the Deus Ex series have an ethic and moral background (transhumanism, augmentations, bio-engineering, moral or not? and 4 factions with different philosophical views on that matter antagonizing each other for world domination according to their beliefs with you in the middle (in DX:IW)), and you can make choices in-game that affect the dialogs and the story as well. Most prominent of the 3 in that department is Invisible War (followed by DX:Human Revolution), but due to the poor implementation of stencil shadows at that time (Doom 3 madness) and the primary target being the weak consoles of that time, the level designers had to brake the world into so many small chunks that led to very frequent loading and horrible loading times that was and can be annoying. But the content is good.

[GeN2Mo]

You could also take a look at "The Fall" (revolves around AI-evolution in its conenction with basic ethical questions) and "The Old City: Leviathan" (revolves around questions about knowledge and truth). None of them will offer you any deep mechanical option space, though. Mostly based around narrative presented in text or speech form.

[*Evil]

Edit: D'oh, that's what I get for not reading other comments before posting. Avylen seems to have suggested Planescape Torment way before I did, heh.

Edit: I'll just leave the link to the book version of Planescape Torment: http://www.wischik.com/lu/senses/pst-book.html

It's made by a fan using some of the in game dialogue and some extra narrative. Of course, it doesn't offer all the choices that you have in the game, so you could say it has less story than the game.

I read it after playing the game and quite enjoyed it.

[dq333]

Not a PC game but Xenogears on the PS1!

[punchobastardo]

Jonas Kyratzes' games like "The Infinite Ocean" and others http://www.jonas-kyratzes.net/games/

[K4ldr]

Gone Home maybe?... Not so filosofikal but...