9 Video Games With The Best ASMR
These are some great games to try if you’re a fan of not only great sound quality but also Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR).
Video games have a lot more to offer than just different art styles and graphics that look too real.Audio creation is also a big part of making a game experience memorable and immersive. Beautiful OSTs with orchestral music are always admired, but the Foley art isn’t talked about nearly as much in the gaming world.
Some video games keep the listening experience on the soft side so that the music doesn’t take center stage. This makes for an easy listening experience instead of a dramatic, intense one that feels more like a movie. No matter what kind of shivers players want, there’s probably a video game with the right sounds to give them those shivers. Here are some of the best video games for Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response, or ASMR.
Journey
Even though Journey is best known for its beautiful art and visual style, its sound design is also very good. Most of the time, the game has a theme that plays in the background. This music is soft and easy to listen to. Still, the beautiful sounds of the surroundings make it possible for the player to feel immersed and calm.
The flowing sound of capes dancing in the wind, the hot sand being slid across at sunset, and the mystery howling of the wind all create an experience that is just as beautiful as Journey’s physical look, but in a different way.
Bastion
Sometimes, ASMR isn’t just about the tingles caused by soft, subtle sounds or the clicks and tingles of an environment. The best ASMR can sometimes be found in a great story. Bastion stood out from other games because it had a story. This gave players another unique thing to look at as they went through the game.
Rucks, also known as “The Stranger,” tells a great story throughout the whole game Bastion. Rucks’ (voiced by Logan Cunningham, who is known for his other narration parts in Supergiant Games) delivery of each narration was perfect, not just for ASMR fans but also for players who want a fully immersive experience.
Unpacking
Aside from the joy of putting each little (or big) thing in its right place, Unpacking also gives players a satisfying audio experience. The soft music that plays during each level is easy to listen to and fades into the background the more you play.
When plates are stacked on top of each other, they make a louder sound when they hit each other. On the other hand, books on a wooden shelf make a much softer, muffled sound. When you pick up a piggy bank full of coins, it will make a small jingling sound. A small magnet on a fridge will make a small clicking sound. Every item that is unpacked, picked up, and put away has its own little sound that lets you know you did a good job.
Portal
Aside from GLaDOS’s snarky directions during each level, the sound design in Portal and Portal 2 is pretty “empty.” This is by no means a bad thing; in fact, the nothingness makes the main character, Chell, feel even more cut off from the rest of the world. Each test room is big, empty, and has no living things in it. This makes every sound inside the chamber really stand out.
From Chell’s quiet steps to the loud crackling or whirring of each new piece of sci-fi equipment, every sound in Portal can be heard and changes the game’s (and each chamber’s) overall feel and atmosphere, making it a great game to listen to (even without smooth jazz).
A Little To The Left
The music in A Little to the Left is great on its own, but the little sounds of items being moved around in the background really put the cherry on top of the whole experience. The music is soft and relaxed, and it almost blends in with how the game is played. As the player moves through each level, it almost seems to fade away.
If you’re a neat freak who likes to clean or organize late at night, you’ll love this game, not just because it’s fun to play but also because each thing you can interact with makes its own little sound. When the last piece of a puzzle is in place, nothing could be more satisfying than hearing a little click or chime of a bell.
Solitaire
Card games are a no-brainer on the list of great ASMR games to play with headphones on, and the best thing about Solitaire is that you can play it for free on Google. Solitaire will come up in a quick Google search as a free, playable game.
Players will get a good ASMR tingle from the sounds of the cards being mixed and dealt quickly. Every time a card is put or flipped in the deck, a small sound will play along with it, giving the player a nice, satisfying feeling every time they play.
Make sure you don’t dismiss any free or old-school games as “too basic” to be fun. Solitaire on Google will make you feel like you have a brand-new deck of cards in front of you, but without the hassle and mess of setting up each game!
Limbo
The world of Limbo might not be a place to relax, and it might not even be a place to want to go. But despite that, the game is still a great ASMR experience that hits all the right spots. From the sound of the player’s footsteps, it’s clear that the game puts more emphasis on the atmosphere of the surroundings than on a thrilling soundtrack.
Even though there are a few orchestral pieces in Doodle Baseball, most of the sound comes from the different settings the player has to explore.Limbo does a great job of giving the player a taste of many different soundscapes, like a rustling forest, a factory with gears turning, and even an empty hotel in the city. If a player wants to hear a certain sound, it’s likely that Limbo has it.
Dark Souls
Even though it might seem strange to think of Dark Souls as a relaxing game (maybe because it isn’t relaxing and can be very difficult at times), it is! Most of the time, there is no music played in the Souls games when the player is just exploring the world.
Even if you ignore how stressful the game is to play and how mean the bosses are (which are usually backed by music), Dark Souls has great sound design for ASMR fans. The quiet crackle of a nearby campfire and the soft clanking of the player’s armor as he or she runs make for a great place to relax. Players who are having trouble with Souls games should play with headphones on so they can focus on the beautiful sound design and stay calm for any annoying boss fights that are coming up.
Papers, Please
Papers, Please does have a well-known score that plays when you first open the game and go to the menu, but it doesn’t play any music at all while you’re playing. It might look lazy or careless at first, but it’s clear that it’s done on purpose.Papers, Please is all about the boring, busy work of an ordinary job, and adding a music would make the experience feel less real.
The small sounds of papers turning, documents being shuffled, stamps being pressed, and the faint sounds of nearby traffic all make the player feel oddly comfortable in their own little world while at their work booth. To keep the player’s attention on the job at hand, even the characters’ dialogue noises are soft and the same. They don’t make any familiar noises that sound like words. Papers, Please is a game that you should play with headphones on if you like soft ASMR sounds.
