[ ADVENTURE / INT FIC ]
In GNOSIA, the titular infection takes over people's minds, making them turn on their fellow humans. Detecting the presence of GNOSIA, the spaceship's AI has now prioritized its destruction over the survival of the crew. As a compromise, the crew are allowed to play a game in which they determine who is or is not GNOSIA, putting one suspect to cold sleep before every warp. Every warp in which a GNOSIA infectee has survived, however, is a chance for another uninfected human to fall victim. It's a single-player social deduction (vs AI) game presented like a visual novel, in which each subsequent "loop" gives players the chance to learn more about the characters they're up against—as well as the experience points necessary to level up various performance-enhancing stats and ability unlocks. The strong mechanics make this fairly similar to tabletop hidden role games.

[ ADVENTURE ]
Well-known post-modern adventure game about the relationship between the player, their avatar, the game's developer, and the game's narrator. Brilliant dialogue and voice acting. Though others have tried to replicate its wit, few are clever enough to succeed.

[ ADVENTURE / HORROR ]
Surreal adventure game starring Isabelline Fallow, the memories she holds, and the dying world she wanders through.

[ ADVENTURE / MUSIC ]
Exploration game featuring the music of Radiohead's Kid A and Amnesiac albums, as well as visuals from and inspired by them.

[ ACTION-ADVENTURE ]
Embark on a quest to reconnect America after it is left in ruin by the effects of the Death Stranding—a world-scale event that connected the world of the dead with the world of the living. I was hesitant to include a triple-A game on this list, but it has just the right amount of exploratory gameplay, surrealist elements, and general weirdness to fit right in with the others.

[ HORROR / RPG ]
An RPG about a 14-year-old mass-murderer on death row named Russell, who is incapable of feeling guilt. He ends up in an institution that makes him take Happy Dream, an experimental drug that causes him to dream about a small town inhabited by the people he's killed. If the dreams rehabilitate him, he might be spared. The plot itself is interesting, but this really makes the list for its often psychedelic and surreal approach to psychological horror. The colorful enemy designs and strange locations bring Yume Nikki to mind, and of course it gets bonus points for being an indie RPG Maker game with traditional combat that isn't actually tedious as hell. Check the site's content warnings on this one.

[ ACTION / MUSIC / SHOOT 'EM UP / VR OPTIONAL ]
A really good rail shooter with a Y2K aesthetic and a cool scoring system based on how many bullets you can target enemies with at once. I had initially passed this up for inclusion on the list, despite its somewhat abstract enemies and setting. After completing the base game and the new Area X, it seemed like it was just barely not "out there" enough to add. Unlocking the "Trance Mission" mode tilted my opinion into the other direction, though—an abstract, glitch-aesthetic endless mode scored by Oval, with enemies you can shoot at but don't present a danger. It's certainly the most fitting part of the game in regards to this list, and should please fans of abstract experiences (especially those with VR headsets).

[ PLATFORMER ]
Psychonauts: the commercial-flop-turned-cult-classic. When I first made this list, I passed the Psychonauts games over despite them being favorites of mine—mostly because they don't really deviate from the kind of gameplay and mechanics one would expect from pretty much any other 3D collect-a-thon platformers. I couldn't get that decision out of my head, though—after all, it'd be a lie to say that Psychonauts isn't a little bit off the beaten path. It's a game with a weird and sometimes dark sense of humor about a circus boy named Raz who sneaks off to psychic summer camp, eventually uncovering a sinister plot involving the theft of brains by one of the camp's mentors. Much of the game takes place inside people's minds, and the levels get really surreal and imaginative, which pairs well with the occasionally absurd dialogue delivered by fantastic characters. The whole thing is super charming, and still holds up really well.

[ ADVENTURE ]
Strange little dialogue puzzle-adventure game in which you have to uncover the lies of the Sacred Order, four individuals in charge of the Ossuary who are all competing for control. The puzzling involves some fetch-questing, but more interestingly the game asks players to spread sins to NPCs to bend their behaviors and attitudes.

[ ADVENTURE ]
Explore a trippy and surreal procedurally-generated building full of TVs. No longer officially available, so you'll have to find a mirror.

[ RPG ]
Cult classic RPG that became huge on Tumblr for a while and still maintains an active fanbase. The Batter embarks on a mission to purify the four Zones, small hubs of a strange and surreal world.

[ ADVENTURE / HORROR ]
Game Boy homebrew. Dark fantasy adventure about a girl who has become trapped in a land of lost souls, between dark and light. Some really fantastic character art, as expected from Kadabura. Some neat body horror in here.

[ ADVENTURE / INT FIC ]
A companion piece to the serial experiments lain anime, in which a girl named Lain is troubled by nightmares and signs of mental illness—including hallucinations, delusions, and depersonalization. Her story is told through audio clips of diary entries, counseling logs, and diagnostic reports. Despite the difficult UI, it's actually easier to follow than the anime, and is a bit more grounded, though it's also much darker. Playable in-browser with subtitles.

[ ADVENTURE / HORROR ]
Cult classic exploration game in which players explore the dream worlds of Madotsuki, who refuses to leave her room. Find "effects" laying around, encounter chance events, meet interesting characters. Slow gameplay, practically no dialogue, pretty surreal.

[ ADVENTURE ]
A florist ends up in Dr. Habit's "Habitat," where unhappy people go to cure their sadness. Dr. Habitat doesn't appreciate it, however, when the florist starts cheering people up—claiming that they're spoiling the smiles meant to be reserved for the "Big Event." An offbeat first-person adventure game in which players must react to people's "yes" or "no" questions by physically moving the florist's head with their mouse.

[ ADVENTURE / INT FIC / PUZZLE ]
Point-and-click adventure game in the form of a era sleep-time operating system, taking place in 1999 into 2000. Patrol Hypnospace as a community moderator and issue takedowns and warnings to its users. Delightfully funny, charming, and unique while flawlessly mixing the essences of early and modern Internet communities.

[ ACTION-ADVENTURE / PLATFORMER ]
As Nova, clean up the Dust that has settled in sick people's bodies while tackling the meaning of the work you do as well as life itself. Not particularly abstract, and only surreal in certain sections, but fits well in this collection regardless. You can play this without playing the first one—you will only miss a few references.

[ PLATFORMER / PUZZLE ]
When the King of All Cosmos goes on a drunken bender and destroys all the stars in the sky, the little Prince must take his katamari and roll up objects on Earth with it, creating stars in the process. A very not-indie entry into the list, and certainly one of the least "arthouse" games here, but its outlandish absurdism, its unique control scheme, and my favoritism all conspire to include it here.

[ ADVENTURE / HORROR ]
Well-known Yume Nikki fan game about Sabitsuki, a girl who uses her computer to explore a world within her mind. It has dark medical themes and is more overtly horror-themed than Yume Nikki.

[ ADVENTURE / SIMULATION / VR OPTIONAL ]
Powerful and fairly accurate outer space exploration simulator developed by an astronomer. Get far away enough from Earth and it will procedurally generate new planets and stars and stuff. Steam version costs money but is VR compatible. Not a particularly strange game, so it's a bit of an odd pick for the list, but I think it works well enough given it's an exploration-based game.

[ PLATFORMER ]
Shortly after the events of the first Psychonauts game, and immediately after the events of (the optional) Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin, Raz finds himself caught up in a conspiracy regarding an unknown traitor in the midst of the Psychonauts's headquarters: The Motherlobe. Released ~15 years after the first game, Psychonauts 2 is a miracle. It successfully captures the tone and heart of the first game, demonstrating a deep understanding of what made it special to a lot of people. Just as special (and weird!) as the first game.

[ ADVENTURE / HORROR ]
A large collaborative Yume Nikki fan game in which players must guide Urotsuki, a girl who won't leave her room, through her dreams.

[ ACTION / ACTION-ADVENTURE / FPS/TPS ]
Harman Smith and his assassin personalities—collectively known as the killer7—take on the Heaven Smile, a terrorist organization of suicide-bombing mutants. Low-poly, cel shaded, and as stylish as the PS2 gets (though I'd recommend the PC port). Players traverse each level with limited movement in the third person, and must switch to first-person shooting mode when enemies arrive. There's lots of environmental puzzle solving as well. It's a hard one to get into, and I wouldn't exactly call the gameplay riveting, but killer7 is a rewarding experience for those willing to stick with it and pay attention. If you need content warnings for media, though, maybe look into those first.

[ ADVENTURE / HORROR ]
A '90s point-and-click cult classic, translated and remastered for mobile devices. Take the role of a robot fished up from the sewage of a rickety town full of other robots, and discover the dark secrets behind the world of Garage. Very captivating, tackling lots of deep topics while managing to frame them in an easy to understand and very literal way. Navigating the world is a dizzying experience at first, but the game as a whole is surprisingly accessible for being both a surrealist art piece and a '90s adventure game.

[ ADVENTURE ]
A post-modern PS1 adventure game, now available in English on Switch. The "hero" of Love-De-Gard leaves a trail of destruction in his wake, and it's up to players to follow him, setting his wrongs right again. Collect Love to increase your Love Level, which allows you to perform more actions throughout each day.