Games that stuck with you

I watched a YouTube video about this topic today and thought it was the perfect idea for a post here. It’s pretty straightforward, it’s games you played in the past that you’re still stuck thinking about, or games that taught you a lesson that you’ve held on to.

I’m going to start. For me, the two games that perfectly exemplify the idea of a game that sticks with you are Sekiro and BioShock. I have a feeling Dark Souls will be a popular choice but I think Sekiro did it more for me personally.

Starting with Sekiro, I honestly think it’s the closest to perfect I’ve ever seen in a video game, at least for a first playthrough. It’s fun, challenging, rewarding, thoughtfully made, beautiful to look at, it’s got great voice acting, memorable characters, and I honestly can only think of two mini bosses that bring the whole game very slightly down. Every other aspect is a 10/10 from me. Not to mention the combat is the best combat of any game I’ve ever played. Personally, this game is the purist example of a game that forces you to get good at it, and does the best job at teaching perseverance. In the rest of the Souls games, you can upgrade your weapon, get a new weapon, use buffs, summon NPCs or another player to help, if you’re getting stuck. With Sekiro on the other hand, you need to get good. Above any other game, this one showed me just how well hard work can pay off. I feel about this game the same way video essayists feel about Dark Souls. If you know, you know.

Moving on to BioShock, this one really taught me the value of a good story, and showed me that video games truly are art. It helped that the game itself is a ton of fun to play, but on top of that the writing is just phenomenal. I’m assuming most people on here have played this one so I won’t get too into it, and in case you haven’t, most of what I’d be gushing about would spoil the whole game anyway, so I’m just leaving it short, but yeah. This game is the finest example of video games being an art form.

What about you guys? What has stuck with you the hardest? I’ve got more games I could talk about but I’d love to see discussion from you.

thesohoriots,

SOMA. Duplicating consciousness across multiple bodies and the branching off of one particular conscious mind to carry the narrative while the others were left behind was a fascinating concept for a game to engage with. Plus the atmosphere was a sublime nightmare.

domi,
@domi@lemmy.secnd.me avatar

The discussion between Catherine and Simon on the elevator is my favorite dialogue in any game. Not just are the voice actors amazing but a common sci-fi trope is presented from a much darker view than usual.

(Spoilers for SOMA ahead; go play the game, it only costs 5 bucks on sale)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnJ09VPnG-Y&t=188

Suck_on_my_Presence,

That’s what I came here to say as well. It’s so well done and it hits in such a profound way.

Have you read any of the short stories on the game’s website? I highly recommend it. Catherine’s is so sad and it really gives a ton of insight into what she went through.

Ashtear,

This game has lived rent-free in my brain ever since playing it. Not always in a good way either, it’s some genuine existential horror.

The ethical explorations are interesting too, such as the implications of repeatedly booting up a personality to extract information from it.

Khrux,

My big three are Outer Wilds which at this point barely needs mentioning, Disco Elysium which seems to be getting more famous by the day, and Hollow Knight.

Outer wilds is an exploration game, and if the other comments haven’t been clear, that’s all I’m saying.

Disco Elysium is an unbelievably dense police procedural set in a unique setting, it can also be fantastic to explore without hearing much beforehand but unlike outer wilds, you don’t really need to beat yourself up for looking up the occasional piece of lore.

Hollow Knight is a souls-like metroidvania, so it’s ticking the Sekiro / Dark Souls box well.

I got about 90% through the game with only a rough understanding of the lore before ending up watching video essays about it and I was absolutely blown away. I don’t think the lore is overly difficult to find, and isn’t that complicated, but like FromSoft’s games, it’s not always delivered in a way that you naturally pick it up.

I play a lot of games with the “media literacy” part of my brain firmly switched off, because often games handhold you through the storytelling. With Disco Elysium, you know from the getgo that it’s a pay attention kind of game, but Hollow Knight, it sort of feels like a storyless flash game, and sometimes key lore is delivered in a beautiful set piece or creature design, so I only realised I should have been paying attention when it was too late to catch up.

I got no less enjoyment from it by catching up on the lore later though, these three games are absolutely my top three.

My final bonus suggestion is to bash out all the supergiant games in order, Bastion, Transistor, Pyre and Hades all hit the marks for me to sometimes just stop in awe and let myself get chills, although less tban the three above. I also think Pyre is one of the most overlooked games of all time.

Notyou,

I never played Outer Wilds and I don’t know anything about it, but I absolutely love Disco Elysium and Hollow Knight. I might check out Outer Wilds since I agree with your write ups with the other 2.

Thanks for the rec.

Ashtear,

I was enthralled by almost every part of my Disco Elysium experience, but it was the main character’s past trauma that sticks with me. The phone call, the nap dream–both hit me hard. I’m also gutted that we’re probably never going to see another game set in that world again. The global setting concept of Elysium is a stroke of genius as far as I’m concerned.

Hades 2 is excellent so far, by the by.

LaserTurboShark69,

SIGNALIS has been haunting my brain for a full year now. I’ll probably be thinking about that sad scary beautiful horrifying piece of art for the rest of my life.

ReynT1me,

Remember Our Promise

Donnywholovedbowling,

Great holes secretly are digged where earth’s pores ought to suffice, and things have learnt to walk that ought to crawl.

SorteKanin,
@SorteKanin@feddit.dk avatar

Personally I have to mention The Talos Principle and its sequel. It has helped me formulate a kind of philosophy of mind that I couldn’t entirely grasp before. It’s also just an absolute masterpiece of a puzzle game. If you’ve played portal, you’ll enjoy Talos too most likely.

Elevator7009,

I asked this once on the Talos Principle subreddit and got absolutely wrecked for asking in the first place awhile back, I'll try again here:

If I like puzzle games but do not enjoy philosophy, would I enjoy the Talos Principle?

SorteKanin,
@SorteKanin@feddit.dk avatar

In the game, you’ll find various philosophical texts. These are entirely optional and serve as a kind of background set and things to think about. So you can just not read them if you don’t want to or find them boring. I’m guessing when you say you don’t enjoy philosophy, you’d find it boring to read those texts, so just skip them.

You’ll also find snippets of other texts that aren’t philosophical that give clues to the story. These can also be skipped but you’ll miss out on a significant chunk of the story then. There are other story bits that require no reading so you’ll still get an idea of it and might still get the gist mostly.

But you can play just the puzzles and not worry about the philosophical background or the story at all. They actually deliberately designed the game this way so that you can enjoy the puzzles alone if that’s your jam 🙂. The puzzles are very good so even if you just want some good puzzles, I’d still recommend it.

Elevator7009,

Thank you so much! This was a very helpful comment.

SorteKanin, (edited )
@SorteKanin@feddit.dk avatar

No problem 😇

Also the second one is lighter on the reading and has more character dialog and such, so definitely play that too!

rainynight65,

Dreamfall Chapters was the first game where I stopped and thought for 15 minutes about a choice I needed to make, and its implications.

Life is Strange, LiS: Before The Storm, and LiS: True Colors, hve a special place in my heart for their deeply engrossing and moving stories, and for really getting me to care about the characters and their fates.

The first Witcher game was one that drew me in so much that I immediately started a second playthrough upon finishing the first. I have never done that with any other game.

Hardspace: Shipbreakers stuck with me for being such an excellent melange of complex puzzle, industrial accident simulator, and poignant satire on the state of labour in late stage capitalism.

Dempf,

I loved The Longest Journey series. Beautiful games. Not without flaws, but beautiful and thoughtfully written.

SteveNashFan,

Oneshot, Undertale, Mother 2 and 3 are games I think about years after playing them, great worlds and characters. Super Metroid too, the ambience alone still strikes a chord with me.

janus2,
@janus2@lemmy.zip avatar

Mother I feel like changed the way I view storytelling and RPG game design, like I use it as a mental benchmark for story-driven and/or turn based RPGs

Like I don’t think I would have appreciated OFF or Omori the same way without having played Mother games as a teen

AngryCommieKender,

Would you kindly play Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Excellent game play, especially going in blind. The music is one of the best game soundtracks ever. The writing is compelling, and you get to play as everyone’s favorite broody vampire, Alucard.

cod,
@cod@lemmy.world avatar

Strange, after reading your comment I get a very strong urge, almost need, to play that game. It’s almost like I don’t have a choice not to. Weird. Anyway, I’ll definitely play it soon

the16bitgamer,
@the16bitgamer@lemmy.world avatar

Rollercoaster Tycoon. What was a silly little game which we got for free out of a cereal box is now a main stay on any computer I own. Runs on everything and has aged incredibility well.

Shoutout to OpenRCT2 for modernizing it, even if the original games run fine as is

LMagicalus,
@LMagicalus@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

What Remains of Edith Finch was the first game to make me cry. I think I played it when I was around 12, and it just kinda broke me for a few days, particularly Walter’s story. Just an entire game of people trying and failing to escape their fate. The narration is pitch perfect. Edith sounds so real, and so tired.

chunkystyles,

TUNIC

LaserTurboShark69,

I just bought Tunic and am going to dive into it today!

chunkystyles,

Go in blind and avoid looking anything up if possible.

Enjoy!

cybervseas,

Games that play with metanarratives stick with me:

  • Beginner’s Guide
  • The Stanley Parable (Ultra Deluxe especially)
  • Break The Game really stuck with me the ending especially.
clearedtoland, (edited )

Damn! Your list made me remember that I missed Superliminal.

Which led me to Stanley’s Parable, which I hated. I maintain that I totally missed something despite a few playthroughs to “the end” but it seems to have just gone over my head.

*Break the Game is $2 during the Summer Sale. Definitely trying it.

Poik,
@Poik@pawb.social avatar

Which end? The main story is just a narrative device, in fact you shouldn’t really obey the narrator at all. Calling any end “The End” doesn’t make sense in the context of the game, really. Unless you just broke out of the mind control facility three times then called it quits? That end is supposed to be non enticing so that you try literally anything else before putting it down. I think the going insane end sticks with me the most. Although the game dev commentary in the recent release is fun.

all-knight-party,
@all-knight-party@kbin.run avatar

You should play Slay the Princess if you haven't. It'll be up your alley and it's fucking good

cybervseas,

Thanks for the rec. It’s on sale on GOG so I nabbed it!

all-knight-party,
@all-knight-party@kbin.run avatar

I hope you thoroughly enjoy it like I did!

technopagan,

Definitely “Abzû” and “Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice”. One is a beautiful piece of art that touches me every time I replay it and the other finally gave me a wonderful example to show to friends & family of how noisy it is in my head sometimes.

Pheral,

I love Abzû! It truly is a beautiful piece of art.

ValenThyme, (edited )

I’ll tell you this and I would love to know if anyone agrees; Starfield’s entire ship combat mode is stunningly similar to the Wing Commander series. I’d bet the farm some lead devs or PMs were fans of WC.

Granted you are always going to be limited within a genre however to me;

  • the views feel the same
  • ship handling is very very similar
  • the way you transfer power between systems is identical in practice and visual design
  • weapons are similar in function and feel
  • enemy ships come at you in similar counts and formations

you can’t control individual shield direction and you can’t ram enemies and do damage but otherwise every time space combat starts i expect a little PIP cat to start talking shit.

cod,
@cod@lemmy.world avatar

I actually had a really fun time with Starfield. It didn’t blow me away and suck me in for 1000+ hours but the 60-70 hours I spent on my first playthrough was a blast and I got immersed and really felt connected to the characters. Not to mention the ship building which I got from pretty obsessed with for a couple weeks

DjMeas,

For me, it’s Beatmania by Konami. I first played it as a highschooler in the late 90s and it’s totally changed the way I visualize music. I will never not think of music as notes falling towards a line because of it.

CleoTheWizard,
@CleoTheWizard@lemmy.world avatar

I have many choices but here’s a few that really stand out to me

  1. The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine If you’ve played just the base game of Witcher 3, you’ve missed out. I decided after playing the base game and waiting for a couple years that I’d go back for the DLC. I spent upwards of 100+ hours with this game on the hardest difficulty and the story in the base game is long, engrossing, and whimsical. But at the end you aren’t really completely satisfied despite several moving moments. Enter the DLC of Blood and Wine though and now you’re basically in The Witcher 3 part 2. This is where you leave the baggage of the main game behind and play out the best ending to any character I’ve ever seen. It’s full of adventure and new sights to see, its full of interesting characters to meet, and it captures the sense of love that Geralt has for the other characters. I legitimately cried at the end of the epic adventure when you sit down next to Ciri and just… realize that its over. Every good book I’ve ever read makes you really feel an empty heart to see the last page and read the final words on it. It felt just like that and I was sad to leave that world behind.
  2. Kingdom Hearts Series Just an incredible game series that appears almost made for children but turns into a very convoluted and at times extremely beautiful story. Whats so wild about it is that the story is somewhat complex but the emotions throughout are so simple, pure, and understandable. It gets to the core of what we all feel and makes cartoons of our emotions and never leaves that space. And the music matched with those emotions is just the purest art.
  3. To The Moon Its short, its sweet, it has great music, go play it and bring tissues. Its a sad tale with very simple gameplay but I listen to the soundtrack once in a while to this day and I never stop thinking about the themes of this game. What exists in this game is so thoughtful, thought provoking, understandable, and most importantly human. I can’t discuss the story at all without spoiling it but just go play it. It takes a few hours and I recommend never leaving your seat for the whole thing. You can probably even just watch it be played on youtube without commentary and get 95% of the experience.
cod,
@cod@lemmy.world avatar

Do you need to play the first two Witcher games to play the third one? I want to play the Witcher 3 but I can’t seem to get into the first one. I’ve got about 6-7 hours put into it on steam and I haven’t had any desire to come back since

CleoTheWizard,
@CleoTheWizard@lemmy.world avatar

I actually haven’t played the other two since they’re both very old games at this point but I do plan to try them out. Witcher 3 seems like it mostly stands on its own and you won’t be missing anything too huge when it comes to the story and characters from the other games. That being said, its a situation where knowing the prior games helps and you’ll understand the relationships better. If you bounced off of the first one though, my recommendation is just to at least read up on the characters and major events of the first two. Maybe watch a game movie if you can find one. I went in completely blind into the third game and it turned out fine so really you can’t go wrong, don’t let the prep for playing the game stop you from actually playing it.

cod,
@cod@lemmy.world avatar

I appreciate it. Thank you!

SolOrion,

Absolutely not- you can just play TW2 which is significantly less dated than TW1, or just skip directly to TW3. Maybe watch a recap of the first two games if you do that, though.

HelixDab2,

Blood and Wine was especially tragic; I sympathized with Dettlaff and his pain, and Syanna was a terrible person. But preventing Detlaff from killing Syanna for using him leads to him attacking Geralt, who has to defend himself. Regis understands why you had to kill Dettlaff, but he still loved him like a brother; the death of Dettlaff leaves him feeling terribly alone. There isn’t any way to end the bloodshed; everyone is hell-bent on destroying themselves.

CleoTheWizard,
@CleoTheWizard@lemmy.world avatar

That’s what I really love about the Witcher and its writing, there aren’t very many characters that I can think of that don’t have many dimensions to them. And every decision you make isn’t good or bad, just different. Even the love interest you can completely turn your back on and for understandable reasons. It’s just phenomenal writing that doesn’t exist in any other game of its caliber imo

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