Are you looking to task your brain? Maybe you’ve discovered that you’re getting slower on your calculations, or you’re just bored because you have no work to do and would like to keep your brain active. Playing brain games on PC is one of the ways to alleviate your stress. It could be puzzles or even mini-action games that require you to think properly before you can complete the game. There are over a thousand of these games available on the internet. So, we’ve picked out the 20 Best Brain Games for PC for you. Get ready to have your mind blown.
1. Halo 2
Halo 2 may be an old game, but it is still a very good one for boosting brain efficiency. Do you know that shooting games help people develop better attention skills? This is one of those games. It has been observed that people who play intense-action games like Halo 2 develop the ability to focus on multiple things at the same time than people who do not play them. This game is linked with X-box Live Service which makes it connect to other players globally. When you start playing, you can either be the alien, Arbiter, or the human super soldier, Master Chief. You must find your way back to Earth to warn of an impending invasion by Covenant forces.
2. Call of Duty
Call of Duty is a game series that trains you to make smarter decisions within a short period. Most of the installments in the series are focused on games set in World War II, but there have been others with settings in futuristic worlds and even outer space. In most of them, you’re the first person shooter, while others like Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, the fifteenth installment focuses only on the multiplayer aspect. Playing Call of Duty helps improve your reaction speed when you’re about to make a decision.
3. Brain Age 2
Have you been flopping in Mathematics, and you’re getting worried that you will never get it right? Maybe all you need to is upgrade your brainpower. Brain Age 2 is an edutainment puzzle game that helps shoot your brain age up. Before you begin playing the game, the player performs a Brain Age Check to determine their Brain Age which usually falls between the ranges of 20 to 80. The lowest brain age you can have is 20, which indicates that your brain is as active as that of an average 20-year old. You have to complete a series of mini-games in the game to improve your brain’s responsiveness.
4. Peggle
Have you been overthinking things and started struggling with anxiety and depression? Playing Peggle can alleviate your pain and get you on the right track in no time. Each level in this puzzle game requires you to shoot some balls at some colored pegs in a field. Your goal is to improve your skill shot by aiming at the right pegs on the field. As you shoot the right thing, your high score increases. I’m sure when you play this game for at least three times a week, you’ll enjoy the peace and more stable emotions.
5. Unreal Tournament
The brain is involved in all the activities of the body including your sense of smell, sight, hunger, etc. When you play Unreal Tournament, you sharpen your vision. Playing action games such as this forces you to notice the smallest things in a distance. In the game, you’re the first-person shooter. There are different tournaments in the game series; from capturing the enemy flag to fighting in a player versus player combat, and even a team quest for battle supremacy. Like every other action game, you have to survive by winning.
6. Tetris
Tetris, like many other puzzle games, improves your brainpower. In other words, it makes your brain bigger and more capable of handling more complex situations. The game challenges you to create complete lines by moving different pieces. Mind you, these pieces are not all straight. They are also shaped differently. When the complete lines disappear, you are granted points. You can then continue to fill the vacated spaces. Your game lasts when what you’re building reaches the top of the screen. To raise your high score, you have to make sure this doesn’t happen by putting the right pieces together for a longer time.
7. Rise of Nations
Rise of Nations is a strategy video game that helps you improve your decision-making skills. The game takes several features from many other strategy video games such as attrition warfare and territories. Rise of Nations centers around the territory and maintaining your space. The area near your settlements is your territory. You can’t go out to build houses and carry out activities in other people’s territories. You must create a balance between the economy, offense, and defense. You also need to have knowledge of the troops and what their fighting abilities are. Playing Rise of Nations helps you make better executive decisions in real life.
8. Minecraft
Minecraft can be played by anyone regardless of age. It helps sharpen your reasoning skills. This widely popular video game has bad graphics, but that doesn’t stop it from being popular. People all around the world still enjoy playing it. You will be tasked with building a civilization to protect yourself against the impending alien attack. You have to take care of weaponry, armors, and even the team. Minecraft helps build collaboration because it is not just a one-player game. Because your imagination should be endless in the game, you’re free to think creatively and make anything you want. In real life, you start thinking out of the box more.
9. Starcraft
Starcraft has been pivotal in debunking the long-held beliefs about video games. You may think that Spacecraft is just about aliens fighting over power and who will take control of it all, but this game is much bigger than that. For you to gain the ultimate power, you have to be able to make smart decisions and manage the limited resources in your possession. If you make the wrong moves, you lose. It is a strategy game that requires a lot of thinking and planning. Some people even compare Starcraft to Chess in terms of strategy.
10. Portal
This series is usually hard to describe because it is a bit complicated. In the game, you are trapped in a laboratory, and you need to escape. The only weapon at your disposal is your mind and your portal gun. You can never be bored while playing either of the two games in the series because your brain is always working. You are forced to think several steps into the future to be able to survive the game and solve the puzzle.
11. Kerbal Space Program
This game was designed to teach you and me, the players. The simulations in this type of game mimic real-life situations and force you to think as if these things are happening to you in real life. So, you have to manage the resources, think, and analyze the situation properly before you can make the right decisions. In Kerbal Space Program, you are instructed to assemble a spaceship that can successfully land in space. It sounds difficult, right? Yes, the game teaches you about trial and error. When you fail, you try again until you’re successful.
12. Civilization
Just like the name says, this game is about building a civilization. The first game which came out almost three decades ago was as good as the recent ones. The storyline of this game follows the history of mankind we all know, from the beginning when we could barely light fires to this present moment when men are going to space and exploring other worlds. You have to build a world from nothing. In your game world, settlements become empires; technologies are developed and used to advance the society generally. This is like another form of puzzle that helps you think of how you will reach the end.
13. Total War
Like other war games out there, Total War series teaches you strategy. The different installments in the series all have different periods and settings and are based on varying aspects of history. When battling enemies, you have to think strategically and come up with maneuvers. You must know everything about every soldier in your army, so you can make the right decisions based on what abilities they possess on the battleground. Total War not only teaches critical thinking, but it also enables better decision making in players. You might think it’s just another video game where everyone gets violent, but it’s more than that.
14. Trine
This game is very underrated. You might think it’s just a game for kids where you play in a world right out of a fairytale. But, it’s much more than that. There are many challenges you face in Trine. To complete them, you need to think critically. Your journey in this game world is a puzzle that requires thinking goof thinking to solve. There are three characters in the game, a wizard, thief, and knight, each with different abilities. You need to know the ability each character possesses and the right situations to use them.
15. XCOM
When extraterrestrial beings attack earth, you and some other humans are Earth’s last hope of survival. You have to know how to think strategically to figure out how to defeat these aliens. The worst-case scenario is when XCOM gives its players an intelligent enemy that can figure out their moves. You have to prove that you’re more intelligent than this enemy by defeating it. This game enables you to implement different ideas and also change ideas when one does not work. When you play for a long time, there’ll be an improvement in your reasoning and cognitive skills.
16. Doodle Kingdom
There are several games in the Doodle Kingdom series. Doodle Kingdom Walkthrough is the third installation in the series. This game also involves building a new civilization with the elements that are given to you at the beginning of the game. There are quests you are required to unlock as you approach the main chapter, Genesis. Like the other world-building games included on this list, Doodle Kingdom helps you improve your critical thinking skills and also builds your decision-making abilities.
17. The Far Kingdoms
In the first adventure game on the list, you’re playing as the character, Princess Anna, who returns home from a long journey only to find her kingdom in chaos. A witch, Morgana, had enslaved everyone with an evil spirit and taken over the kingdom. You have to save the kingdom and its people by using the Royal Amulet to create magic spells to guide you on a magic quest. This game helps you think fast and right. You have to know the right spells to use in every dire situation.
18. Solitaire
Solitaire is known as Patience in Europe. This is a card game that is played by a single player. You have to organize the cards given to you into decks. You can’t just put a wrong card under a preexisting one. They need to have the same image on them and the numbers on the cards must follow each other. This game teaches patience as the name suggests. There’s a timer on the screen that also helps calculate your high score.
19. Chess
Chess is still considered as one of the best strategy games. This two-player strategy board game has also been made available on PC. It teaches you strategy that you can apply in real-life situations and also helps you develop tactics to defeat your opponent. The benefits of chess on the brain are numerous. They include the improvement of memory and cognitive abilities, attention, and strategic thinking.
20. Checkers
Just like chess, checkers is also a strategy board game played by two people. Although there are no kings, queens, and pawns, this game involves you moving uniform game pieces diagonally and also jumping over your opponent’s pieces to capture them.