In addition to a few I’ve seen posted already (Stardew Valley especially)…
A Dark Room: A relatively short, minimalist, mostly-text-based RPG with a dark vibe. I come back to this at least once a year. Can be played free via web browser, but the native app version has some extras.
Dysmantle: A huge and well-polished zombie survival sim. Just recently finished it and was really impressed with the overall scale, level design and progression.
Papers, Please: A ‘dystopian document thriller.’ You play as a border checkpoint agent, verifying increasingly-complicated passport documents and questioning your moral compass. Port of a PC game by the same name.
I’ve fallen down the hole that is X4 Foundations. It is consuming my every waking thought. It has a frustrating learning curve and a lot of things to criticize but I do so love building my space empire and learning the subtler points of the game.
Yeah, Ringleader’s Evergaol was rough, took me over 30 tries. I was a bit under-leveled when I first found it and after getting my ass handed to me for 10 or so attempts I decided to mark it and return later, went back after leveling up a bit and died another 15 times or so. Came back a 3rd time after defeating Mohg on my 4th attempt and finally cleared the evergaol after about 8 more attempts.
Deacons of the Deep in dark souls 3. I was running a light dex build at the time (I think using a rapier?) and it was a bit of a nightmare.
The boss is supposed to be piss easy but if you don’t have any sweeping attacks it quickly becomes unmanageable becauss you can’t kill them fast enough and they keep spamming annoying spells.
I was literally going to say crystal sage before I read your full post. I’ve never once gotten through a DS3 run without dying several times to him, and I’ve probably played a dozen or more times. Even with the throwing knives cheese.
I HATE playing mobile games but my wife got me hooked on Dawncaster. It’s a roguelike deck builder. I think it’s like $4-5 and no micro transactions but there are expansion packs to add new zones and enemies. I’ve since picked them all up. It’s regularly updated with free content packs and balance changes. The devs are very responsive with the community.
If you have any interest at all in Souls-likes and want to see where the genre really started, consider Blade of Darkness. An updated version is available on GOG with modern resolution support and slightly improved controls (still clunky as hell in comparison to newer games, though).
Metal Gear Solid is one of my favorite games of all time, followed closely by 2 and 3. It really is an incredibly timeless piece of art in my opinion, just filled to the brim with incredible moments.
Sons of Liberty was my first experience of the MGS series and I really enjoyed it. Absolutely off the wall parody of military games in the absolute best way.
I’m def missing some here. I would argue not all of these have necessarily stood the test of time if we look at it from a modern sensibility lens. Particularly resident evil 1-3 and silent hill 1 can be a bit difficult to play if you can’t get used to tank controls. And Myst can be a bit esoteric, especially the older versions.
Besides that though I really do think these have all stood the test of time. I would like to particularly shout out the original re4. Despite having a recent remake that I adore potentially more than the original, the original is still so good even to this day. It is wild to me how well it still feels to play
No it’s not rewritten. Mainly I just think the pre rendered picture movement of the original can be harder to explore and piece things together than the fully 3d environment of the remakes.
As for Zork, I only played a very small amount for a school assignment lol. I considered it esoteric in a way I feel all text adventures are, but I really don’t have enough experience to say.
Is there any merit to getting a hold of mother 1 and playing that before earthbound/mother 2 and mother 3?
I hadn’t even heard of this one somehow, lol. I’ll check it out.
Ugh, super mario world is sadly one of the ones whose platforming I can’t stand :( It has so much going for it but I just can’t handle the floaty platforming
noted, noted, and noted.
I’ve played the first Myst game and I’m like halfish way through Riven with my sister. They’re awesome when they’re good but some of the puzzles are more frustrating than difficult (maybe it would be better if I was playing one of the more recent remakes?). One thing they’re incredible for is atmosphere, I struggle to think of any game that feels this way.
I played resident evil 4 back in the day and it was okay but I think that this style of game just isn’t my cup of tea (even if we ignore awful tank controls and shit from the earlier titles).
someone else recommended kirby’s adventure, so I guess I’ll add these two to the backlog too!
I look at silent hill and I’m in love with the atmosphere, I have been for ages and I’ve tried to stay spoiler free in case I one day play them. Are they more combat focused or is it closer to being a puzzle game almost? I could see myself really enjoying them if most encounters are mostly a case of figuring out how to progress past/through some group of enemies or something, rather than just scavenging enough ammunition to keep up with being forced to pew pew some baddies.
You could play mother 1 for sure if it interests you, although it’s aged the worst out of the 3 in my opinion.
Sad about Mario world :( I find it to be one of the least floaty Mario games, partially due to a mechanic in the game that isn’t present on many others where the speed of your fall is controlled by holding the jump button (many games have variable height by holding the jump button, but few have it so the speed of the fall down is controllable)
As for silent hill I’d argue that they could be seen as more puzzley. There are bosses and enemies of course, but it’s not usually a constant enemy fest. In silent hill 2 (and maybe 3 I can’t quite remember) there are separate combat and puzzle difficulty settings, so you can set easy combat and hard puzzles. Of the original silent hills id recommend silent hill 2 the most. You don’t need to play any others to get it, it’s a self contained story.
If it has aged poorly and isn’t really necessary to enjoy the others, I’ll give it a miss.
As far as I’m aware, slowfall by holding the jump button is present as far back as SMB1 on the NES (although almost imperceptibly). SMW is definitely waaaaay better than SMB1, lost levels and doki doki panic/SMB2 but it’s still not responsive enough for my modern sensibilities :( As I say, it has so much going for it but the character controller at the core of all the gameplay I just can’t get along with :/
Neat, nice to hear that it’s not reeeeaally combat focused. I’m down for combat but from a game like that it’s just not what I’m there for.
I’ve just noticed, is your display picture Hornet holding a trans flag? That’s awesome
Finished The Darkness, and still didn't find all the collectibles. But I did get a bunch of other achievements, so it wasn't a loss as far as that goes. I am a little sad that this game has multiplayer achievements though, because since this game is so old (and really didn't need multiplayer to begin with), there's no one available online. Multiplayer achievements in a primarily single player game are the bane of my existence.
I've also already played through The Darkness 2. It's crazy how the vibe is so different than the first one. The first game had a really gritty feel, meanwhile this one has a polished and "clean" feel to it, probably due to having different developers and art styles. I love them both, they are special in their own ways. While I do miss the "open" world and side quests of the first Darkness, I do love this game. It's so fun, and so is the extra content Vendettas. It's like extra story without taking away from the story, if that makes sense? Like you don't need Vendettas, but the extra bits are still fun to have.
Now I'm attempting Monstrum for the first time. I was a little wary at first because it seemed to start out boring since I was just walking around, but once I ran into the monsters it got a lot more interesting. I'm not sure I'll actually get all the way through it, but it's a fun little ride while I decide on what my next game is going to be.
For how little cultural impact The Darkness had in the long term, I remember it being very hotly anticipated before release. I think I made myself believe I liked it more than I actually did, but it was a really ambitious and interesting title all the same.
For sure, I can see how it wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea. There are a couple insensitive moments, and sometimes the game mechanics involving the Darkness itself are a bit of a pain, but I think the overall story and some of the settings (especially the whiplash you get about halfway through) are really compelling.
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