Let’s face it: gaming has a bit of a bad rap. Lots of people think that video games “rot the brain,” or that they’re only about whether you can react quickly to certain events on the screen. However, there are actually plenty of games that will challenge your mind and let you sharpen the old gray matter; you just have to know where to look.
Let’s unlock some of the best computer games that offer both relaxation and a challenge for your brain. There are plenty of titles out there that are absolutely perfect for this!
Casino Games
This might not sound like an obvious starting point! But stick with us.
Not all casino games are suitable for brain-training, of course, but there are quite a few titles that require you to engage your mental muscles if you want to succeed. If you want to play online casino games that are challenging, look to options such as poker and blackjack, both of which require you to think about probability and math in complex, high-level ways.
In a game of poker, for instance, you don’t just need to think about your own cards and what possible hands you can make with them. You’ve also got to think about what other people are likely to have, what cards are on the table, what you know of the other players, and more. You’ve got to consider the possibility of bluffing, figure out how to make a convincing bluff, and maintain the bluff across multiple rounds if the situation demands it.
That’s a lot more complexity than you might see at a glance!
And let’s take a look at blackjack, another game extremely well-suited to those who want to train their brains. It doesn’t require you to think about other players, but it does require you to memorize charts and focus heavily on probability. You need to know whether your ace and five is likely to be stronger than the dealer’s hand based on their upcard. You need to know whether drawing another card risks tipping you over 21 and losing you the game. You’ve got to figure out the risk of standing or hitting, and you’ve got to weigh up the side bets before you start, so you can decide whether one would bump up the game’s fun for you.
Both of these games, therefore, represent good opportunities to train your brain and get yourself thinking in a fun context. There are other options too; online casino games are very varied and represent many different challenges – but where luck is the main factor in most, these two depend much more heavily on skill. That makes them excellent picks for the intellectuals.
The Witness
What if puzzle games are more your scene? You couldn’t find a better pick than The Witness, a game that centers entirely on you figuring out the environment around you. This game has been widely praised for presenting puzzles that are extremely difficult, but never unfair.
The idea of the game is to see patterns in the world your character is playing in; it’s filled with two-dimensional mazes that will challenge you to see the whole landscape differently. Fluid and highly satisfying, this game is unlike pretty much any other title, and the sensation of unlocking a hidden area when you finally spot a pattern you’ve been overlooking for weeks... it’s worth all the time you’ll put into it.
And it’s certainly not an easy game. If you think puzzles are too simple, you have to give this a try; it will leave you stewing away for hours as you try to figure out what you’re missing. Then, abruptly, you’ll see it. Like looking at an optical illusion, the concepts in front of you will suddenly shift to perfectly align, and you’ll feel that rush of satisfaction that you’ve solved another element.
Fair warning: this game is so pleasing that it will have you searching for puzzles outside the game context too! When you try to slot clouds into mountain ranges or attempt to figure out how a car headlight is supposed to line up with the road... well, you just know that your brain is responding to the training and getting better at spotting patterns, even if they’re not really there.
This game trains you to change your perspective, and it’s fabulous as a result.
Baba Is You
The Witness is beautiful with its 3D graphics and meticulously crafted scenery, but what if you want something more minimalistic? Well, it would be hard to have a game with a more minimalistic art style than Baba Is You. Even the title feels stripped down and simplistic, yet behind that, there is an extremely complex game where the rules for each level are plainly stated, yet highly flexible.
The game stands out because, much like the casino games mentioned above, it combines multiple very different forms of problem-solving. Some levels will require you to meticulously line up all the pieces to achieve your goals, while others simply require a change in perspective or for you to look at your options in a new light. While playing this, be prepared to catch yourself at least once devising complex solutions to overcome a barrier, before realizing that nothing is actually preventing you from simply walking around. Don’t worry, though; the thinking time will not be wasted, as many of the levels are followed by a similar one that is just slightly more complex.