VIDEO GAMES TO ESCAPE SHELTER-IN-PLACE

Now is the best time to play video games. When sheltering in place feels boring and stagnant, they offer entertainment and a sense of progression that we could all use.

Want to thumbtick your way out of coronavirus funk? Here are some new ways to play.

Build stuff

“Super Mario Maker 2”: The “Mario Maker” series lets players design levels based on the classic side-scrolling adventures of Nintendo’s most famous mascot. While you can build simple stages, check out the most insane creations on YouTube, where top players traverse the levels like complex Rachmaninoff compositions. Level creator game. Publisher: Nintendo. (ESRB Rating: Everyone. For Nintendo Switch. $59.99).

“Cities: Skylines”: Pretend as though you live in a fully functional city untouched by plague. “Cities Skylines” is an excellent urban planning game. What it lacks in exciting disaster scenarios, it more than makes up for in its meticulous game mechanics, which let you solve everything from pollution to taxation as your metropolis grows. City-building game. Publisher: Paradox Interactive. (ESRB Rating: Everyone. For Nintendo Switch, PC, Playstation 4 and Xbox One. $19.99-$39.99).

Fight the virus

“The Last of Us Part II”: You can’t punch a disease in the face, but in “The Last of Us Part II,” you can wage war against the human scourge of a fictional fungal infection and empathize with the postapocalyptic survival stories of characters such as Ellie, a teen on a revenge quest across the country. The game has crafting, looting and exploration, but it shines best in the absolutely nerve-destroying levels where you sneak through main streets, coffee shops and shuttered businesses filled with zombies. The 2013 original is widely considered to be one of the best video games ever made, and the sequel continues that legacy. Action-adventure game. Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment. (ESRB Rating:

Mature. For Playstation 4. $59.99).

Be the virus

“Plague, Inc.”: As they say — if you can’t beat them, join them. Mobile game “Plague Inc.” (and its console iteration subtitled “Evolved”) lets you create a deadly disease in a lab and release it onto the globe. You have the choice to kill populations, enslave them or turn them into zombies. The realtime strategy aspects make for fun, if morbid, game play, and the console versions add multiplayer if you want to test your horseman-of-the-apocalypse skills against other players. Puzzle game. Publisher: Ndemic Creations. (ESRB Rating: Everyone. For Android, Apple iOS, Nintendo Switch, PC, Playstation 4 and Xbox One. $0.99$14.99).

Relive childhood

“Final Fantasy VII Remake”: Though not a 1-to-1 reimagining of the classic Playstation role-playing game, this is an excellent adaption of the original story, with fastpaced combat and plenty of visual candy. It’s still the classic tale of a group of ecoterrorists taking on a megacorporation, but the old text dialogue is now rendered with full voice casts and an expansive world that makes its steampunk city Midgar feel lively. Action-adventure game. Publisher: Square Enix. (ESRB Rating: Teen. For Playstation 4. $59.99).

“Return of the Obra Dinn”: For the cerebral nostalgia trip, it’s got to be “Return of the Obra Dinn.” The graphics are meant to resemble the 1-bit graphic style of the early PC era, mixed with a “Myst”-esque interactive mystery as you try to solve what happened on an abandoned ship. Billed as an

“insurance adventure,” the game lets you rewind time to the moments of various characters’ deaths to figure out who died, when and how amid the attacks of strange creatures from the deep. It’s not an easy game, but it’s very satisfying if you can successfully navigate the scattered pieces of the puzzle.

Puzzle game. Publisher: 3909. (ESRB Rating: Mature. For Nintendo Switch, PC, Playstation 4 and Xbox One. $19.99).

Expose the conspiracy

“Is the President a Traitor?”: It’s a hidden-identity game using an old-school, “bleeding graphic” style that lets you live out your wildest “this goes all the way to the top” dreams. It’s basically “Robert Mueller: The Video Game” with a healthy dose of Cold War spy thriller tropes. You’re an intelligence agent using money, intel and evidence to try and prove — wait for it — that the president is a traitor. Doing so will involve elaborate links among various suspects and sources, with the goal to slowly unravel the tangled web. You can tap phones, bribe people and prosecute them if you can find the evidence, but beware of factions that will assassinate you for being careless. Action-adventure game. Publisher: Some Hominid Games. (ESRB Rating: Not Rated. For PC. $12.99).

Play together

(with appropriate social distance)

“Mario Kart 8 Deluxe”: Often imitated, never surpassed, there is a reason the “Mario Kart” series has stayed relevant. Couch racing is easy and fun, and unlike a lot of games, you don’t actually need a second controller beyond what comes with the Nintendo Switch system. The game’s combative racing style is timeless fun. Racing game. Publisher: Nintendo. (ESRB Rating: Everyone. For Nintendo Switch. $59.99).

“Never Alone”: This is a game about Alaska Native mythology that is best played with two players, as a young girl, Nuna, and her fox guide navigate frozen landscapes to find the source of a blizzard. Both Nuna and the fox have special abilities that can only unlock the way forward in tandem. Meanwhile, the game provides stories about the Inupiat people and short documentary segments about their lives and legends. Action-adventure game. Publisher: E-Line Media. (ESRB Rating: Everyone. For Apple iOS, Android, PC, Playstation 4 and Xbox One. $4.99-$14.99).

“Overcooked! 2”: We’re doing a lot of home cooking now, and the idea that it just might save the world is a potent one. You and a friend control chefs as they whip up dishes to defeat monsters. Players have to navigate various kitchens and use ingredients in the right order within a time limit to make correct dishes. The game’s whimsical art style masks a devilishly hard degree of difficulty, and playing together truly is a bonding experience. Puzzle game. Publisher: Team17. (ESRB Rating: Everyone. For Nintendo Switch, PC, Playstation 4 and Xbox One. $24.99).

Shoot, reload, repeat

“Borderlands 3”: When it comes to the joy of shooting things, few games can beat the “Borderlands” series. The latest entry in the cartoony sci-fi game starts on the planet Pandora, full of monsters and wasteland maniacs, but players can soon get a starship that lets them travel to new worlds. The best way to play is to have a group of up to four players to handle the missions as you blast through colorful, violent lunatics on the path to unlocking more guns and gear. It’s a simple game that doesn’t expand that much on the shooting genre, but what isn’t broken doesn’t need fixing. Action-adventure game. Publisher: 2K Games. (ESRB Rating: Mature. For PC, Playstation 4 and Xbox One. $59.99).

Stop texting (a.k.a. smartphone games)

“Monument Valley”: Using non-Euclidean geometry, you have to guide a young girl through a mystical world of baffling structures as she seeks the history of a lost people. Simplistic and beautiful, completing the game is an act of existential contemplation.

Puzzle game. Publisher: Ustwo Games. (ESRB Rating: Everyone. For Android and iOS. $3.99).

“Skate City”: Miss being able to hit the streets with a board? “Skate City” is a pretty good substitute. You move through three cities doing tricks and taking on challenges, as well as earning money on upgrades. The tricky touchscreen controls function more or less fine, but if you’re wondering whether a Bluetooth controller for mobile games is worth an investment, this is a game that will convince you of it. Sports game. Publisher: Snowman. (ESRB Rating: Everyone. For iOS. Available through Apple Arcade subscription: $4.99 per month).

Relax

“Firewatch”: Maybe you just want a game that you can’t fail at. Walking simulator “Firewatch” is a must as you explore the woods looking for wildfires and the answer to a strange conspiracy. Long walks through beautifully rendered forests and mountains are almost as engrossing as the protagonist, Henry, trying to come to terms with a family illness through walkie-talkie conversations with his boss in another watchtower. It’s a game about distance, both emotional and physical, combined with some light map-reading and navigation puzzles. Walking simulator. Publisher: Campo Santo. (ESRB Rating: Mature. For Nintendo Switch, PC, Playstation 4 and Xbox One. $19.99).

Embrace weird

“Kentucky Route Zero”: And the word Lynchian was redefined, and we all stood back in awe and wonder. “KRZ” is a slow, strange descent into a nearly impenetrable world of weirdness out in the Kentucky hills. Nominally, it’s about a man trying to make the last delivery before his antique shop goes out of business, but that is only the tip of the iceberg. With haunting minimalist graphics and a never-ending surrealism that becomes more and more unsettling as you play, you travel into alternate dimensions and deep underground, where a variety of madnesses take form. Adventure game. Publisher: Fullbright. (ESRB Rating: Teen. For Nintendo Switch, PC, Playstation 4 and Xbox One. $24.99).

Jef Rouner is freelance journalist based in Houston.

Sony Interactive Entertainment In the “Last of Us Part II,” players embark on a revenge quest across postapocalyptic America.

Some Hominid Games Players act as intelligence agents on the hunt in the graphically oldschool game “Is the President a Traitor?”

Campo Santo Looking for a calm game? “Firewatch” has you mostly trekking through the Wyoming wilderness with a handheld radio, on the lookout for fires.

Annapurna Interactive “Kentucky Route Zero” is an eerie video game that takes players into alternate dimensions and feels as though it was pulled from a David Lynch movie.