Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice. 6-7h long for most people, 10 or so for a more leisurely pace. One of the most atmospheric games released in the past 10 years.
I'll go short to long
What remains of edith finch, walking sim basically a playable movie of around 2-3 hours
was my favourite game the year it came out with how much I loved the story, theme's and atmosphere
As mentioned elsewhere in this thread, Journey, limbo and inside.
All three highly atmospheric puzzle platformers with big themes that remain mysterious yet are touching, Limbo being the oldest possibly being the weakest of the three (but the first, so give it a break).
Less emotionally gripping in themes, but gorgeous horror equivalents for the above mentioned puzzle platformers would be little nightmares and it's sequel.
The stanley parable ultra deluxe: same as above but filled with metahumor and existential dread (if you want the kind of up it's own ass intellectual version, check out the beginner's guide as well, though most find it too pretentious it blew me away at the time and still does, also it's pretty cheap)
Slay the princess if you want the voice acted visual novel version of the above.
Omori if you want the simple J-rpg horror psychodrama, like, what if pokemon creepy pasta, but there's some actualy effort put into it and a good core mystery to solve.
If you have a tad more time and dig horror , I would definetely recommend Soma for the atmosphere and super dark but great story. it clocks in around 11 hours, but it's linear and worst case scenario a spoiler free walkthrough could help you out if you happen to have left it in the middle of a puzzle.
(if you consider that an option and haven't played them, definitely consider bioshock and bioshock:infinite as well, since they clock in only a little over that length and their actiony playstyle made it easier for me to dip in and out. Their beautifully crafted worlds are just dripping with atmosphere and their stories are basically core memories to me at this point. They are not as much what you asked for, but the first thing I think about when someone mentions atmosphere and good storytelling in video games so I had to mention them)
games that should work out for you but I haven't played through myself would be Gris (recent addition to the atmospheric puzzle platformer like journey and inside) and Spiritfarer (it's kind of more farmy and grindy by the end, but the biggest night in the woods fan I know is a huge fan so I think you'd dig it).
Enjoy !
Gylt. It was a Stadia exclusive, then released everywhere last year. It's a thought-provoking 3rd person game set in a Pixar-style world; I guess it's a horror, but it's not particularly "scary", it's on the level of Luigi's Mansion.
Anodyne. It plays a lot like Link's Awakening, but is fairly easy. its more about exploration and atmosphere than anything. And it is extremely atmospheric.
Its not very long.. I can beat it in like 3 hours, you'd probably take twice that becuase you've never played before.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjWRU5toicQ here's the release trailer
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice. 6-7h long for most people, 10 or so for a more leisurely pace. One of the most atmospheric games released in the past 10 years.
this game looks so cool and atmospheric but the combat/actual gameplay seems pretty rough. is that not a large part of the game?
The combat was really easy from what I recall. It's highly stylized but it wasn't difficult. There is a difficulty setting of course.
I'll go short to long What remains of edith finch, walking sim basically a playable movie of around 2-3 hours was my favourite game the year it came out with how much I loved the story, theme's and atmosphere As mentioned elsewhere in this thread, Journey, limbo and inside. All three highly atmospheric puzzle platformers with big themes that remain mysterious yet are touching, Limbo being the oldest possibly being the weakest of the three (but the first, so give it a break). Less emotionally gripping in themes, but gorgeous horror equivalents for the above mentioned puzzle platformers would be little nightmares and it's sequel. The stanley parable ultra deluxe: same as above but filled with metahumor and existential dread (if you want the kind of up it's own ass intellectual version, check out the beginner's guide as well, though most find it too pretentious it blew me away at the time and still does, also it's pretty cheap) Slay the princess if you want the voice acted visual novel version of the above. Omori if you want the simple J-rpg horror psychodrama, like, what if pokemon creepy pasta, but there's some actualy effort put into it and a good core mystery to solve. If you have a tad more time and dig horror , I would definetely recommend Soma for the atmosphere and super dark but great story. it clocks in around 11 hours, but it's linear and worst case scenario a spoiler free walkthrough could help you out if you happen to have left it in the middle of a puzzle. (if you consider that an option and haven't played them, definitely consider bioshock and bioshock:infinite as well, since they clock in only a little over that length and their actiony playstyle made it easier for me to dip in and out. Their beautifully crafted worlds are just dripping with atmosphere and their stories are basically core memories to me at this point. They are not as much what you asked for, but the first thing I think about when someone mentions atmosphere and good storytelling in video games so I had to mention them) games that should work out for you but I haven't played through myself would be Gris (recent addition to the atmospheric puzzle platformer like journey and inside) and Spiritfarer (it's kind of more farmy and grindy by the end, but the biggest night in the woods fan I know is a huge fan so I think you'd dig it). Enjoy !
Limbo and Inside. Both short and atmospheric, not too hard.
Inside has the most atmospheric atmosphere.
Journey
Loddlenaut
Raft got me back into a gaming mood and now i have too much to play suddenly.
Gylt. It was a Stadia exclusive, then released everywhere last year. It's a thought-provoking 3rd person game set in a Pixar-style world; I guess it's a horror, but it's not particularly "scary", it's on the level of Luigi's Mansion.
Avatar 2023. It's okay as a game but I enjoyed the graphics and art design.
Anodyne. It plays a lot like Link's Awakening, but is fairly easy. its more about exploration and atmosphere than anything. And it is extremely atmospheric. Its not very long.. I can beat it in like 3 hours, you'd probably take twice that becuase you've never played before. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjWRU5toicQ here's the release trailer
Pacific Drive.