10 Games Where You Play As A Non Human in a Human World

(electronic jingling) - Often in video games we play as a person, a human being, but there's also tons of non-human protagonists that allow for some scenarios that are just a little bit different. Hi folks, it's Falcon and today on Gameranx the 10 Best Games where you aren't human. Just to set this up a little bit, there's a lot of non-human protagonists out there, so we're gonna narrow it down a little bit. We're talking about non-humans in a human world, like post-apocalyptic, set in a real wo

rld or a fantasy world, but it's got humans in it somewhere, either past or present. So no, we're not talking about Sly Cooper where everyone's an animal, or Ratchet & Clank where they're all aliens or Sonic the Hedgehog. Actually, I guess there are humans in Sonic the Hedgehog but tonally that's not what we're looking at here. So without further ado, here's number 10, Maneater. This is a recent standout. It's a game where you play as a particularly hungry shark with one single primary goal, one

thing on his mind, so to speak, eat everything. You start simple, you munch on fish in the bayou, but as you evolve, you get bigger. You start going after larger prey, which includes humans. It's not long before you're just chowing down on dozens of hapless beach goers and drawing the attention of shark hunters. It's kind of a nasty premise, but the game's surprisingly goofy and has a good sense of humor. Most of it obviously going to the framing device that everything in the game is actually f

ootage from some kind of reality show about shark hunters. The humor keeps things light, even if the gameplay can get a little bit repetitive. If you're okay with the repetition, this is a really fun game. At number nine is AVP 2010, developed by Rebellion, this somewhat forgotten, but I actually decent Aliens game has the unique distinction of letting you play as either a colonial marine, an alien, or a predator. And all three have their own unique campaign to play through. The Colonial Marine

game play is pretty much exactly what you'd expect. Standard alien blasting FPS, but the Predator and Alien are pretty unique actually. Most of the classic predator tools are here. You get the plasma cannon, the disc, the wrist blades for close combat and the ability to cloak. So while the predator is powerful, they can be overwhelmed by a squad of marines. So their game play is more about using ambush tactics to pick off foes and slowly weed through their numbers rather than straight up shootin

g matches. (dramatic roar) The alien has stealthy gameplay, though, no ranged attack, relatively vulnerable, but they can climb on walls and squeeze through vents that nobody else can fit through, on top of being a lot faster than anything else. This one's worth playing through just for the single player campaigns. If nothing else, the fact you get to experience the life cycle of a xenomorph is worth the price of admission alone. At number eight is Deadly Creatures, a game that just doesn't get

brought up enough. It's basically Devil May Cry, but with spiders and scorpions. Yeah, it's a bizarre game. It got published by THQ back in 2009 as a WII exclusive, which interesting place to do that. But it's a grotesque game locked into a system that's mostly known for kids stuff and that's probably why it's forgotten these days. But the gameplay is actually really great. You play as either, yes, as scorpion or the tarantula. You move through these linear levels, take on all kinds of other bug

s and creatures. The story's basically nothing to do with the creatures you play as, you're crawling around trying to survive. There's a story about two hicks looking for buried treasure that sort of ties everything together. I wouldn't even bring it up but the two human characters are played by Dennis Hopper and Billy Bob Thornton. Yes, really. - I'm gonna have to loosen my drawers or something. Start here. - No, no, I'm just getting my bearings, it's over this way. - Who we digging up anyway?

(ominous shuffling) - It is just an incredibly weird game that's actually really fun and worth taking a look at. In the pantheon of action games, it's far from the best out there, but it's pretty fun for what it is and the concept alone is just cuckoo crazy in a great way. At number seven is the Destroy All Humans series. We didn't say animals, we said non-humans and what could be any less human than an alien? In these games you play as Crypto, and if you've ever heard me talk about them, you kn

ow how much I love these games. So this little gray alien with a bad attitude is actually not out to destroy all humans, there's kind of a convoluted plot about collecting alien DNA that's been seeded into humanity in order to sort of restore the alien race. But that doesn't really matter. It's kind of just an excuse to let you go nuts. I think that it's better that there is a plot and it feels like they have to progress because the dialogue's all really funny in this game. - Take a spin in your

saucer, get a feel for the controls and then go ahead and start shooting. Destroy all buildings. Leave no trace. Bomb from those monkeys back to the stone age. - Some of it may be a little cheesy, but generally it's the kind of cheesy that is funny. If you are me, I guess, I'm sure there's people that disagree with me on that. But you get all these different alien weapons and throughout the game you more effectively destroy humans. You can ride your flying saucer, lay waste to entire city stree

ts with a death ray. There's a lot of destruction you can get up to. Both the first and second games were developed by Pandemic and their remakes, which were developed by Black Forest Games, improve on the originals in almost every way. In all seriousness, this is one of those series it just feels like it's a perfect example of why video games are good. It's ridiculous. It's over the top. It's funny. It lets you effectively indulge a power fantasy that's also totally unrealistic for reasons beyo

nd God of War, beyond cartoony, super silly, knows exactly what it is. I love Destroy All Humans. At number six is Tokyo Jungle, a weird survival game set in a post-apocalyptic Tokyo, where humanity is completely gone and animals are offending for themselves. What used to be a city dense in people is now overgrown and filled with wild animals. And when I say filled with, I mean like a lot, there's like 80 different types of animals and you can play as literally all of them. It's got two differen

t modes. There's a scenario-based story mode where you play as different animals trying to survive and uncover the mystery of why humanity is gone, because I'm sure that's what they'd be thinking about in this situation, right? "Ah, I'm a bison. I really wonder where the people are." But there's a also a more hardcore survival mode where you pick an animal and try to see how long you can go without dying. The main goal of the game is to find food to survive and then establish a pack. Your player

character will eventually grow old and die, but if you have a pack the game doesn't end because you got more animals. You just move on to the next generation. The actual story elements are kind of crazy, but the survival gameplay is way ahead of its time in a lot of ways. It's a weird and somewhat awkward game to play but it's really unique and does deserve a mention. (upbeat electronic music playing) At number five is Untitled Goose Game, which, if you dealt with geese in your life, you know t

hat they can be total jerks to put it nicely. That's what the game's about though. Instead of being a dangerous predator in a constant life of death struggle, you play this goose, you waddle around, grab stuff with your beak, flap your wings uselessly and honk. Doesn't sound like a lot, right? It's great mischief. That's what the game is. It's a mischief game. Every area you enter has its own little checklist of activities which are built around terrorizing the inhabitants of a sleepy little Eng

lish town. You steal stuff, throw stuff into the lake, scare children and you're just generally a big nuisance. The tasks start off pretty simple, but slowly they turn into these little puzzles where you have to figure out how to complete your goal while someone is trying to stop you. It's a creative and clever little game that does only take a few hours to finish, but you're gonna laugh more than a few times and it never wears out its welcome. It's done, after like the perfect length of time. (

mischievous music playing) Moving on to number four, Carrion. In a nutshell, Carrion is kind of the thing, except you are the monster and you can't really shape shift in other people. Quick spoiler alert, until the very end and you can't really control it. Set in an underground lab, your goal is very simple. You're a pile of flailing meat. You wanna escape, you want to expand and you want to eat everything that stands in your way. (dramatic music) (terrified screaming) (dramatic music) Combat in

this game is fast and super violent. The monster doesn't take a lot to go down but as an amorphous blob, you can pretty much squeeze through anything. And the unique controls make it so you can move inhumanly fast to zip around the levels and ambush the scientists and soldiers trying to stop you. It's all pretty creepy and the controls do take a little getting used to, but there's something so satisfying playing as this unstoppable beast in particular, just rampaging around like a true horror m

ovie monster. At number three is Stray. Of course, Stray was gonna show up on this list. It's basically an indie favorite. It has you play as a cat in a post-apocalyptic world. It was inspired by an incredibly packed city from 1980s China, except there's only robots living in it. So the game's a narrative adventure game. You platform around as a cat, you explore environments, you solve puzzles, and it's all very cat like. Like that's probably the most allure of the game is just how cat-ish it is

. They really nail cats. You knock things over, you scratch things. You can take naps. I mean, you really can do a lot of cat stuff. Like there's normal game stuff but there's lots of cat stuff and it's actually really fun to be a cat as it turns out. Yeah, the interactions are kind of pointless but they're also the reason that you feel like you're playing as a cat rather than just like a thing that has four legs. All the animations are just fantastic too. You could move through the environment

in a way that feels right, traversal is just a joy in this game. The story's simple, it's engaging. It's not too scary. There's a little bit of an opening moment that's a little scary, but the rest of it, not so much. If you're an animal lover that doesn't want to see the cat get hurt, you're probably gonna be mostly okay with this game. It's not like a story about animal suffering. It's a little on the short side, but it is definitely a lot more than being like a meme game. It's really good. Mo

ving on to number two, Ancestors, The Humankind Odyssey. In many games that lets you play as non-human creatures. There's some element of power fantasy involved but not this game. Set millions of years before the human race even existed you play as one of our distant ancestors and your mission is nothing less than to thrive and evolve in a hostile world that wants you dead. This is a strange and difficult game, even when the most basic actions have to be researched and discovered before you can

do them. Even then the unusual controls can take a lot of getting used to and finding out how to progress and evolve can be a little frustrating. At least it's a lot of fun though, climbing around in the trees. The game gets the climbing part so right. It's just really a weird, fascinating game. (heavy rain falling) And not a lot of the other games let you eat bugs off of a monkey's back. It's not really a thing that you do. Even in like Donkey Kong country games. You'd think that'd be a thing t

hat they'd capitalize on for humor, Rarewear and all, but no, Ancestors, The Humankind Odyssey, is one of the most unique survival games out there. And while it did get a lot of negative reviews at first, more recently people have come around and really appreciate what this game was trying to do. And finally at number one, Okami, Capcom's answer to Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time. Okami originally came out back in 2006 for PlayStation 2. It was developed by Clover Studios and they would eventual

ly become Platinum Games. Now, what makes this game unique? It's actually a lot of stuff. You play as Amaterasu, literally the Shinto goddess of the sun, in the form of a white wolf. Because you're a god, you have the power of the celestial brush which can do all sorts of godly things. When the game starts, the world is in disarray, your task is to fix stuff. And while the premise sounds deadly serious, there's actually a lot of humor in it. A lot of that coming from Ammy herself. Yes, I'm sayin

g Ammy, because the full name is a hell of a mouthful, but Ammy often acts as a stereotypical dog who is easily distracted, confused and carefree. And I think that that can easily become an overlooked part of this game looking back at it. But it really adds a layer into the game. When you talk about games as art, this game gets brought up a lot because it has a super distinct watercolor style. And while everything is very stylized and cartoonish, like I said, the animations on Ammy, surprisingly

accurate and lifelike to a real animal. Okami is kind of this one of a kind classic and while it still has its flaws, it's so unique and interesting that they're pretty easy to overlook. And that's all for today. Leave us a comment. Let us know what you think. If you like this video, click like. If you're not subscribed, now's a great time to do so. We upload brand new videos every day of the week. Best way to see them first is, of course, of subscription, so click subscribe. Don't forget to en

able notifications. And as always we thank you very much for watching this video. I'm Falcon, you can follow me on Twitter @FalconTheHero. We'll see you next time right here on Gameranx.