For me, Tunic. Well, it’s a bit more complicated. I was burnt out on soulslikes and wanted a break. Saw what I thought was a nice little Zelda clone, as in I was scrolling the Steam store home page and did a double take when I saw the one and only piece of promotional art for the game. That character design looked like it was one floppy green hat away from a lawsuit from Nintendo. Instantly downloaded it upon learning that the instruction manual played a big part in the gameplay.
I have fond memories of game manuals when I was a kid, coming home from not-yet-gamestop with a new game looking at all the concept art, or having my parents read to me from the super mario 3 manual when I was little. Anyway, long story short the game was another soulslike. Set in the ruins of a fallen civilization? Check. Spend currency to level up? Check. Opening up shortcuts to previously visited areas as you progress? Check. Difficult bosses? Check.
Oh, but what’s this? The whole game is in this indecipherable script that you have to decode? Oh baby! I spent way, way way too much time trying to decipher it. I got so obsessed that it was effecting my sleep and I had to uninstall the game for a few weeks. Never ended up solving it.
spoiler
I knew it was an English cipher from the beginning. Nobody ever goes full conlang, as much as I would love that. I got as far as deducing it was phonemic, as the same glyphs kept appearing before cleartext words, which I assumed were “a/an” and “the”, and the way “the” was written made me think it was two glyphs, one for the <th> and one for <e>. The last thing I got before giving up and looking it up online was one of hte ghosts standing next to the well in the village and repeating the same word three times. Of course he’s saying “well well well”.
Anyway, overall the experience was a roller coaster of mild interest to acute dislike shifting to all consuming curiosity and finally to exasperation. I don’t think a game has evoked that many varied reactions from me. The music is also amazing.
Hades. Hate roguelikes. Quite enjoyed that.
Supergiant Games are great if you enjoyed Hades would recommend Transistor
Transistor is way more tactical.
If you wished you could customize your boons in Hades to a specific style without having to deal with randomness, Transistor is the game for you!
Hollow Knight. I tried playing it back when it came out but it wasn’t until silksong was about to come out I gave it a shot. Was obsessed with the game and almost did everything in the game. Never thought I’d like a Metroidvania this much before
Outer wilds, went in blind (as you should) was not disappointed.
I went in to this blind and ended up quitting after a couple hours because there was no save ability and the checkpoint system was useless.
I learned months later, from my son-in-law, that it’s a time-loop game. Tried it again with this knowledge and had a MUCH better experience.
So, my advice is to go in 99% blind. The player should know it’s a time-loop game before they start.
I have become an Outer Wilds evangelist. One of my favorite games hands down.
Subnautica, I thought it was just minecraft under water, which sounded ok. Didn’t expect it to have a story, absolutely didn’t expect it to have an interesting story. The audio logs had some charming characters, ham and cheese had me cracking up whilst trying not to die. BUT, the exact moment I realized this game was special was the translated message you get after getting your arm poked, suddenly hours of environmental story telling snap into place as you realize what is about to happen. 11/10 would buy again.
Bro it was so good! I expected to not give a shit about it. I really enjoyed it throughout and felt soooo epic at the end.
Real shame that the next one is queued up to be mess
Subnautica is the fastest 75 hours I ever put into a game. I blitzed it over the course of a week. The end of every play session felt like the most satisfying workout of my life. I’m not a horror gamer at all but Subnautica hits every aspect of survival horror so we’ll that I, pun intended, really submerged myself in the world of that game.
I’m not a fan of survival/crafting games at all, but Subnautica completely captured me.
That game did exploration as well or better than any other game I’ve ever played.
People with thalassophobia should DEFINITELY stay away, or maybe just play in the shallows.
No, they should play it. I was deathly afraid of the sea and after playing Subnautica I picked up free diving, went to lie down in the seagrass and all. Had I tried to do such a thing before experiencing the game and getting more comfortable underwater, I would have died of fright, literally, I think -or perhaps drowned
It was truly therapeutic for me
Alternatively, it might be a great way to do low risk exposure therapy.
It’s all fun and games until “Detecting multiple leviathan class life forms in the region. Are you certain whatever you’re doing is worth it?”
Dwarf Fortress.
And, I mean pre-steam release.
The ASCII graphics, controls and everything about it were not appealing to me. I started playing it because of the Boatmurdered story and some friends trying to recreate that. We started playing and rotating fortresses on a random Friday night.
And once things started to click? I put way too much time into it. I’d eventually mod it and make it easier to play but I put many many hours into it.
I wouldeventually put the game down after that initial burst and then years later the steam release came, making it much more enjoyable and well… A couple thousand hours later I still keep going back to it.
Disco Elysium…, totally not my kind of game, gameplay-wise. I reluctantly accepted to give it a go after my best friend sold it to me passionately. and damn
I died sitting in an uncomfortable chair. I’ll have to pick it up again when I’m in the mood.
heh, didn’t know that was possible ! I almost died during a standoff, but I pulled it off with the magic of save loading
Horizon Zero Dawn - From what I saw from the marketing seemed just odd. Relatively primitive looking humans fighting animal shaped robots. It just looked a bit too gimmicky. Several years after it’s initial release I saw that it was on sale and gave it a shot. I was genuinely surprised by the depth of the story. It was much more emotionally impactful than I expected and the story now feels almost prescient.
This is the one I was going to say - I got it second hand somewhere, on a whim because I had a voucher to spend. Had never even heard of it before, but boy oh boy, what an amazing decision that turned out to be!
Yeah I was similarly VERY skeptical by the premise but was pleasantly surprised when I discovered what was actually going on.
This game was a real rollercoaster for me. I had low expectations for HZD and became obsessed with completing it. I was then totally hyped for HFW and gave up halfway through, utterly disapointed.
Haven’t played the sequel yet. Waiting to get it on sale if/when it shows up on GOG. That said, I don’t have big expectations. Sequels rarely live up to the original.
I, on the other hand from the person above, really like both games. I don’t really know why some folks hated Forbidden West. Even if it is a little “worse” than the first game (and I don’t really subscribe to that), that still makes it one of the best action/adventure games out there. I ended up getting the platinum in both games by the end.
I agree with you. I don’t get the hate. I preferred the first one but that’s not because of anything wrong with the second one. Both really good games.
I had the opposite experience. I was looking forward to it and disliked it. I still haven’t completed it yet.
If you don’t mind me asking, what specifically didn’t you like about the game?
I found it a bit confusing. It wasn’t really explained what the optional weapons were. I found a few guides online but really hoped the game would guide a bit better. Also the fact that you need to blow bits off the enemies to make them weaker wasn’t fully explained.
Also didn’t really gel with the story. I put it on easy to make progress and got bored.
Not saying it’s a bad game. Just not for me.
Fair enough. There were a lot of weapons and variations of the weapons and I’d agree that some things weren’t explained well or at all. But for me part of the fun was experimenting and figuring out what worked and what didn’t.
As for the story, it really didn’t click for me either until later in the game when the how and why of that world became clearer. Prior to that it felt like just another derivative (post-post-)post-apocalyptic story. But from that point on I was fully invested, which made the ending all the more impactful for me.
Maybe I’ll give it another go. And if I can find this thread again in 5 years when I finish it… I’ll let you know :)
Thanks for the feedback.
Funny you mention HZD, I just fired it back up a couple weeks ago and completed the main story last weekend.
It’s not that deep, but I thought Ultrakill wasn’t something I’d enjoy. Now I don’t enjoy any shooter that isn’t like Ultrakill
VA-11 Hall-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action
I usually don’t have the patience for VNs with minimal gameplay, but the atmosphere, soundtrack and the general mood of the game got me hooked.
These three jump out at me. I went blind on all three.
- Portal 2 - I genuinely had no idea what it was about when I started, and I certainly did not expect comedy.
- Titanfall 2 - Bought it on release because I wanted a solo FPS game. Amazing. I wish I could experience it for the first time again.
- Spiritfarer - I cried. A lot.
I always up vote Spiritfarer.
Hehe, I just played the cat on my sister’s playthrough. Did all the tedious/difficult stuff so she could focus on the story.
Spiritfarer hit hard. Came into the room with my wife crying playing the game.
I never finished Tunic, I got stuck on some relatively simple fight and it put me right off it. Always vowed to come back but I havent yet.
I loved how it took me back to being 3 years old though playing my dads Nintendo. Can sort of work out what the manual is telling me based on pictures, but cant read the language.
Hellblade. Senua’s sacrifice
I don’t particularly like “medieval” games. Which I thought this was. It isn’t. But I played it because I heard somewhere it was a psychological game. It is.
It also was cheap when I bought it. Like $10.
I really like it. I ended up watching all the dev log videos on it. I have a background in psychology and was rather impressed by how many things in the game are based on the perception distortions common in schizophrenia.
Like the mask thing is part of that too. The pattern matching from perspectives. Seeing faces in trees or rocks (paraedolia). That’s all part of the condition.
The story itself was also very good and it is a personal story of her journey.
However that said. Hellblade 2 was awful in every way that made the first one good. Bad puzzles. No real personal journey. Story was garbage. And very little player autonomy. No exploration. Fixed speeds and at the start of every single enemy encounter, the enemy, a man, beats the piss out of you.
Almost to the point it felt exploitive, and for people who like watching men beat up women.
Sad to see the 2nd so terrible. But the first is brilliant. It’s also the perfect length. Not too long.
The first game was a trip. Played it in a pitch black room with noise canceling headphones. It’s wild how quickly I got used to hearing Senua’s voices. World felt empty when I stopped playing. I still go back and listen to that one cutscene every couple months
Gris
I was looking for a game to play with my daughter and I saw it included in the Apple Arcade subscription.
…. I don’t remember ugly bawling like that at the end of a game. Truly a work of art.
My kid and I recently got Split Fiction and love it. It’s so simple, but can be tricky in parts. Not hard enough to rage quit, each area is just long enough and interesting enough to keep you engaged. 6.5 hours straight the first night, streams to TV very well, controls are awesome and fluid. We’re loving it, haven’t finished yet. Looking at A Way Out next.
Another non-VN guy, but 1000xResist became one of my favorite games despite being essentially a VN. Like the gameplay is literally just walking up to people and talking, and the dialogue options don’t impact the story at all, but damn if the narrative wasn’t enough to earn a 10/10 from me
marvel’s midnight suns. the only other turn based game ive played was fallout 1. i just expected something to scratch my superhero video game itch and instead found a new favorite. im on my 2nd playthrough now and still loving it. my favorite “relaxing” game
Midnight Suns is one of the few games I never skip the cutscenes in. Everyone is so cozy and delightful!
