If you’re looking to strengthen your brain, you should check out these online problem solving games for adults.
As an adult, my biggest problems are usually financial or work related, which I supposed are hand-in-hand in some regard. They’re very solvable problems, but I wish someone would do it for me. With regard to work, can someone else figure out how late I can sleep in the morning without being late? Sometimes 6 a.m. just comes way too early for me. Problem-solving activities used to be fun and exciting, but now they come in the form of Sudoku, stress, and sleepless nights. As adults, we’re constantly busy and don’t tend to take the time to focus on games or other activities, but it’s important.
Sanzhar Murzin/Shutterstock.com
Problem-solving games help the brain grow and be able to process information better. They can make you smarter if you’re being effective about it. Focusing on problems within the framework of a game can actually help you compartmentalize the issues you may have going on in your real life. Obviously, in a game, it’s much more dramatized, but that’s why your other problems may seem small in comparison. It’s funny because children are told to play fewer games online to prevent a lack in brain development, but as adults, we can afford a little bit more online activity. Needless to say, none of the games on this list are also on our list of the best problem-solving activities for middle school.
In order to create this list, we used Business Insider and RSK to see what games improve problem-solving skills and make you smarter. The games that were mentioned in both sources were ranked higher on our list, but for the most part, these aren’t in any particular order because they span a variety of categories. All in all, these games will strengthen your brain so you can focus better.
Without further ado, let’s take a look at some online problem solving games for adults.
10. Grand Theft Auto
This is an action-adventure game that takes place in fictional places like Vice City, Liberty City, or San Andreas, which are the equivalent to Miami, New York, and California. In this game, you choose a mission to progress an overall story. You can also do side projects like shooting, stealing cars, or driving. The character in the game is betrayed by the protagonist or their organization. This game can help you process information faster and to keep track of more information to deal with highly stressful situations.
9. SimCity
SimCity is a game that allows the player to build an entire city and do an urban planning job. Players need to zone land for residential, industrial, or commercial development. Players need to do building and maintain the same public services, utilities, and transport. It gives you a lot of responsibilities where you have to think of solutions to make things better for everyone. It teaches you how to manage resources and the complex consequences of decisions.
8. Final Fantasy
This is a science-fiction and fantasy media franchise that has also branched into other genres like action playing, tactical racing, third-person shooter, fighting, and multiplayer online playing. Almost all of the Final Fantasy stories are standalone with various settings for characters who fight evil while experiencing internal struggles in their lives and relationships. Names are given often by history, language, culture, or mythologies. This type of game will help you with evaluating options faster and more accurately.
7. FIFA
FIFA was developed to bring the experience of playing soccer (or football, depending on where you’re from) as close as possible to the real life experience. The players have all the emotions of 22 players, which allows online players to connect better. FIFA can show you how to think like your favorite player and get closer to them to learn all their moves.
6. DayZ
DayZ is a post-apocalyptic game that gives you the chance to wake up your survival instincts. Sometimes this game is mostly watching and doing nothing, but you’ll feel the pressure and fear of being attacked at any moment. You can spend hours camping without seeing another player while still having an adrenaline rush waiting. This game is a great online problem-solving game for adults because it can help you improve your patience and teach you what to do or not to in situations where you must wake your inner survivor.
5. Diablo
In this game that ranks 5th in our list of online problem solving games for adults, each player needs to choose a profession, like a wizard, crusader, witch doctor, or barbarian. After this, they all need to come up with a plan for how to defeat the Lord of Terror. This game is full of adventure, making in interesting for players. It involves acquiring, exploring, and trading weapons. Players can exchange magic items, armor, demons, and battling hordes. It’s a great game for learning how to react fast and find new ways or exploring and finding the best solution.
4. Destiny
In Destiny, players are the guardians of the last remaining city on earth. The guardians have incredible power and they are working to explore the solar system and ancient ruins to find the best way to defeat enemies. It’s a first-person shooter game where players have unlimited combinations of armor, visual customization, and weapons. There are a few genre elements and it’s a massively multiplayer online game.
3. Mass Effect
Mass Effect ranks third on our list of online problem solving games for adults. It represents a science fiction game that’s also a third-person shooter. The player takes the role of Commander Shephard and he uses extreme character customization. In this game, you react to everything and every decision a player makes represents a rich, branching storyline with different endings. Mass Effect requires strategic thinking and tests your information-gathering skills.
2. StarCraft
This is a science-fiction, real-time strategy game that ranks second in our list of online problem solving games for adults. It features alien species that are fighting for dominance. Each species has a fighting unit that’s different from other species and requires a unique tactic to win. Also, the StarCraft has a resource management in order to build and sustain units. A study has shown that this game can improve brain flexibility and the ability to think under great pressure and challenging circumstances. Scientists have described this as the cornerstone of human intelligence.
1. Call Of Duty
Call of Duty puts the player in a powerful background of the future with new weapons and tactics. They’re used to win a high-tech era of combat and it includes vehicles like highly specialized drones and hoverbikes. Shooting a bad guy in a game can give the player better vision, according to a study done at the University of Rochester. People who play this kind of first-person shooting game had a boost in their contrast sensitivity function. This means that games like Call of Duty improve visual attention and spatial intelligence skills. These kinds of improvements often lead to better results in science, engineering, technology, and mathematics.
That concludes our list of online problem solving games for adults. Hopefully they’ll help your brain function better and make you smarter!
