5 Immersive RPGs to Lose Yourself in as You Try to Forget The Upcoming Election

Is this year’s election bothering you? Are you concerned a dystopia is close at hand? I wouldn’t worry about it. If games have taught us anything over the years it’s this: politics are everywhere, but in the games there’s always a good side.

While any game can take your mind off of this election, the easiest thing to lose yourself in is an RPG. If you just want to blow this whole thing over, try out one of these games.

1. Mass Effect

Taking place in a multitude of  planets and moons of the milky way, you play as Commander Shepard. After touching a device from the Protheans, Shepard receives visions of death and destruction, and falls unconscious. After awakening you must set out on a journey to stop the enemy, elite operative (Spectre) gone rogue, Saren, from making that vision happen.

Because of this game having multiple classes to choose from, as well as hybrid classes, it allows you to take your own approach to each mission.

With 3 games in the Mass Effect series, each one longer, and bigger than the last, not only will you lose yourself in the first game, but the sequels too.

2. Fallout 4

Fallout 4 takes place in the post-nuclear ruins of Boston Massachusetts, After a series of events that happened in vault 111, your character goes out in the wasteland to find their missing son, Shaun.

Within the vastness of the commonwealth, you will have to fight your way through many dangers, including the irradiated beasts of the pre-war era.

This game has no level cap, which means you can eventually unlock every skill on the tree, while that’s not the best for replay value, it certainly will be time consuming.

3. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Ulfric Stormcloak has quite a hot temper concerning the freedoms of his homeland, sound familiar?

In Skyrim, you start out as a prisoner being transported for execution. When you’re the one under the chopping block, suddenly a dragon attacks the village you’re in, making you run out through a series of tunnels, with someone who was also set for execution. From there you must go on to discover the mysteries of the dragons and their return. The land of Skyrim is very beautiful, and vast in scale, as well as diversity.

The skill tree differs from the previous Elder Scrolls games, as you have constellations pop up and you must create routes to the perks you want, point by point. This too, like Fallout 4 has no level cap. 

With many areas to explore, many skills to master, and spells to learn, Skyrim is very time consuming, going for days on end. In a good way though, not like the Presidential debates.

4. Final Fantasy VIII

You play as Squall Leonhart, a student at the Balamb Garden Military Academy. After receiving an initiative mission to acquire the Guardian Force Ifrit, squall is sent off to Dollet, with a few of the other main characters, to help fight off a Galbadian invasion. After these events, they have a graduation ballroom party, where Squall meets the girl who starts the whole adventure.

With a humongous world, there are a few side activities to do, they even have a card game with different regional rules!

With a unique conjunction system, you have to equip a summon, then you could equip spells to them, boosting strength, vitality, etc. You could also experiment with a lot of magic elements, to fight against monsters with their weaknesses, and you can strangely enough add a cure status effect to your attack too!

5. Final Fantasy VII

A light haired person stabbed a good friend of mine in the back… No I’m not talking about Hillary stabbing Bernie in the back. Politics aside, Final Fantasy 7 is a good game that has captured the hearts of hundreds of millions.

You play as Cloud Strife, a mercenary for hire who has joined an eco terrorist group called AVALA`NCHE. Tasked with destroying Mako reactor, they succeed only to have Cloud fall. Luckily the roof of a chapel broke his fall, there he met Aerith Gainsborough.

A series of events leads Cloud and his group into the shinra building, where they were detained, but one morning, when they woke up, they found their cells open, and most of the personnel and guards murdered by the antagonist, Sephiroth. The band then escape the city in pursuit of Sephiroth

This game has another massive open world with dynamic events occurring within it, for example there was a serpent creature in a swamp that you could not beat before getting further in the story, but you could see him slithering under the swamp.

The skills have to do with materia, these orb objects you equip on your weapons and gear. Each color presents different kind of magic, i.e. red materia is used to summon.

While it might not be completely possible to take your mind off of politics, these games are still really good, and deserve a playthrough… or two, or five.

Which games have you played to take your mind of the mindless bickering? Have you played any political games so that you could make ‘the perfect world’? Let us know in the comments below!