Can a video game give you your nature fix?
What the research actually says about nature games, stress, and why your nervous system might not know the difference.
I’ve been playing nature-based games almost exclusively recently; Wingspan, Eastshade, and stretches of Breath of the Wild where I’m not really doing quests so much as wandering around exploring. And I’ve been wondering whether it’s doing the thing I’m hoping it’s doing; giving me that nature fix to restore my factory settings.
The reason I care about this is probably worth explaining. Being out in nature is one of the most reliable tools I have for my mental health. For anyone who lives with depression and anxiety, you’ll know that “reliable” is not a word you throw around lightly.
So when I started noticing that certain games were producing something similar, I wanted to know if there was anything behind it, or whether I was just rationalising an excuse to stay on the sofa.
Turns out: there’s research. Quite a lot of it, actually.
The short version is this. Studies comparing virtual nature to real nature have found that while real nature still has an edge, the gap is smaller than you might expect. One meta-analysis put it plainly: across multiple studies measuring anxiety, mood, and stress, researchers found no significant difference between VR nature environments and flat-screen nature content. The medium, it seems, matters less than what’s in it.
What’s doing the work, according to something called the Attention Restoration Theory, is that nature (real or simulated) supports mental health by restoring attention through effortless engagement. It’s a break from cognitive load, not an addition to it. Which, if you’ve ever tried to “relax” by scrolling through your phone and felt more strung out twenty minutes later, makes a lot of sense.
One study used a nature-based casual game called Flower, and measured what happened after twenty minutes of play. The results were across the board: statistically significant reductions in psychological stress, heart rate, systolic blood pressure, and diastolic blood pressure. The researchers were comparing it directly to a mindfulness meditation session, and across every single physiological measure, the two interventions performed similarly. The game held its own against meditation.
I want to be careful not to oversell this, because the wellness-through-gaming conversation has a tendency to go very corporate very quickly. Nature games are not a substitute for actual healthcare, or for going outside, or for addressing whatever is making you stressed in the first place. The research is clear that real nature still does more. Fresh air is, of course, still good for you.
But I think what’s interesting here isn’t that games have been proven to be medicine. It’s that something we do intuitively; reaching for something green and low-pressure when we need to decompress; turns out to have a legitimate neurological basis.
There’s a concept that keeps coming up in the gaming and stress research, borrowed from psychology, called the flow state. It’s the thing that happens when you’re absorbed enough in an activity that you don’t feel your anxiety. Games are, researchers note, unusually good at inducing it, because they provide clear goals, immediate feedback, and just enough challenge to keep you present. Nature games, being generally unhurried and exploratory, seem particularly well suited to this.
A good example of this (and I’ll admit some bias here because these are my all-time favourite games) is the Ori series. Ori and the Blind Forest and Ori and the Will of the Wisps are not relaxing by any conventional measure. They’re precise, demanding platformers that will make you cry at the story and quite possibly swear at the difficulty. They are not games you pick up to wind down.
And yet. The environments are among the most breathtaking in gaming; luminous forests and light filtering through ancient trees in a way that frankly puts most real-world scenery to shame. And the flow state they induce in me is total. Which suggests that the restorative effect of nature in games might be less about the pace of the gameplay and more about the depth of the immersion.
The study I found most interesting looked specifically at open-world games like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. It found that players reported a sense of freedom and autonomy that was directly tied to reduced stress levels, not just as a side effect but as a mechanism. The exploration itself was the thing. Moving through a world at your own pace, with no one timing you or ranking you or requiring you to perform.
I’ve been thinking about why this helps us so much when over forty. Partly it’s that you’ve accumulated enough actual responsibilities that genuine unstructured time becomes rare. Partly it’s that leisure, for women especially, so often comes with invisible obligations attached, to be productive, to be improving, to be doing something that will benefit someone else eventually.
The research calls the stress reduction real. I’d call it something else too, though I’m not sure I have the academic vocabulary for it yet. Maybe just: approval. To be somewhere beautiful for a while. To let your nervous system remember what it feels like when nothing needs fixing.
The forest really doesn’t care whether you’re doing it right. That might be exactly the point.
What nature-based games have you been playing lately? I’d love to know what’s in your rotation! Please drop it in the comments.
Suseno, B. & Hastjarjo, T.D. (2023). The effect of simulated natural environments in virtual reality and 2D video to reduce stress. Frontiers in Psychology. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1016652
Mattila, O. et al. (referenced in): Effects of exposure to immersive computer-generated virtual nature and control environments on affect and cognition. Scientific Reports (2023). https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-26750-6
Stanhope, J.L., Owens, C. & Elliott, L.J. (2016). Stress Reduction: Casual Gaming versus Guided Relaxation. Human Factors and Applied Psychology Student Conference. https://commons.erau.edu/hfap/hfap-2015/papers/9/
Russoniello, C.V., O’Brien, K. & Parks, J.M. (2009). The effectiveness of casual video games in improving mood and decreasing stress. Studies in Health Technology and Informatics. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2009-11993-007
Veling, W. et al. (referenced in): Daily exposure to virtual nature reduces symptoms of anxiety in college students. NCBI/PMC (2023). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9868517/
Kaplan, S. (Attention Restoration Theory, referenced throughout virtual nature literature).
Some years ago I spent a month off work recovering from burnout. This gave me more time to continue Breath of the Wild than usual. While I was making more general progress in the game, I would actually find I was spending a lot of time just milling around. I particularly remember standing on the hills of a coastline and just watching the sun set over the sea, then rise again, as the light would hit the water. It's not a photorealistic game, but it was beautiful to watch.
So I can understand this stance how it affects us. Not just nature games, but slower paced games too.
I also agree that the Original games are definitely not relaxing, I think my blood pressure rose significantly with that game!
I’ve been thinking about this article a lot over the past few days and I have to say that the time I spent in the calm Wild West of red dead redemption 2 where you could just explore and hunt and camp where very calming.