Phoenix Wright comes to mind since I’m just watching someone else play the games I don’t have because there’s not much player agency so watching it is as good as playing it 🤷🏻♂️
Sometimes you can still replay them for the same reason you’d re-read a book (like to catch things you missed the first time around). It’s not as common and a different kind of replayability though
I would say something like ICO is the latter kind for me. It is focused on the gameplay, but the gameplay is the same exact thing from the first moment to the last and you can find all the secrets in the levels themselves pretty easy the first time through (since the rooms ain’t that big there’s not much room to hide things), the only reason to replay it multiple times is for the special weapons you can get; which are more like skins than actual weapons, except for the energy sword that OHKOs everything. But you only get that after like, 5 or 7 completions I think? It wasn’t worth it. By the time you get it, a normal person would be totally over playing the game lol
I think Dark Souls and Elden Ring and such would be the same for me, if not for the PvP multiplayer. Other games copying that style without any multiplayer at all, I have so far only played once and then never touched again. But I keep coming back to the ones with PvP to make new builds and fight other players. And because of how you obtain items, making an entirely new character means playing through the entire game, or at least a good deal of it. Currently building a dude to be ready for Shadow of the Erdtree and seeing just how low level I can beat Mogh at. So far it’s been 60. 😄
Deathloop’s story basically means that you’re replaying the game because you failed your previous attempt at escaping. You can play it more than once, the game encourages you to, and I kinda want to, but I never did because I already won. In a lot of games replays are basically just “fresh starts” and here, they are part of the story, and ironically, that’s what’s stopping me.
Also… A big part of playing Death Loop was figuring out the proper order to kill everybody. … and sadly, there’s only one order that will work. So once you know the order, a big part of the challenge is eliminated.
It would have been really cool if the game selected a random ordering for your character at new game start and each target’s vulnerable timing changes accordingly. Something similar to how some of Dishonored’s missions could have multiple solutions.
… but I get why they didn’t. Dishonored had mission variants just switch up some text which is relatively cheap compared to having fully different behaviors and speech and so on that would need to be created just for the tiny set of players that not only finish but replay a game.
As someone who played through Dishonored 1,2 and all their respective DLCs multiple times, I was sad that Death Loop didn’t have the same level of repayablity baked into the overarching structure, but I still quite enjoyed the game itself. I just finished it once and moved on.
I don’t mind that there’s only one winning order too much. Could be cool to have more options but I’m okay with that design choice. Like you said, it’s a lot of effort for not a lot of players. I could still vary the gameplay during the missions and that’s good enough. Besides, I enjoyed the world and the characters more than in any other Arkane game, maybe on par with Prey, can’t put one above the other.
They are speedruns of Elmos letter adventure, Clash of clan, Club Penguin and baking an actual real life pizza. So I don’t really think speedruns should dictate replayability.
They recently released an updated version of Brothers with new graphics. But the game is exactly the same. So it’s not really a must buy for me. Especially since the original had pretty good graphics anyway.
I loved it. The mechanics of The Scene is still one of the most amazing bits of storytelling I’ve seen in a video game. I think about it frequently when I’m considering how video games can tell stories in ways that movies or books just can’t.
The game as a whole is good, but a little uneven IMO. But I’d put that scene up there with Braid for the sheer impact of storytelling-via-videogame-mechanics.
If you liked chants of shenaar, check out heaven’s vault. I think it does what chants of shenaar does, but better, and it did it years before. It was a bit strange to me to see chants of shenaar get so much hype, but have heaven’s vault stay slept on.
Funnily enough, what that review said is basically what I said in my review about chants of shenaar, except without the glowing praise. Lots of tedious running across maps and very surface level language-puzzling, whereas I don’t remember any tedium with heaven’s vault at all. I guess different strokes for different folks?
I would say, it’s such a unique and well-executed concept that I would give it a play yourself to see what you think. It’s one of those games I haven’t found a replacement for, even with chants of shenaar.
Well - I played both and I quite enjoyed Heaven’s Vault as well.
I played HV through twice - once for the story and then a second time to see how far I could alter that story with different choices. My wife even played a third time to try for a really particular set of events.
The translation game in HV goes much harder than Chants’. After the first playthrough, you get longer and more challenging texts to decipher.
Also - there’s no backtracking really required. The game is pretty strict about telling you where you can and cannot go and reacting to what you found or didn’t find. You can cut whole plot lines in HV and it’s no problem.
Which makes it one of the better games for replayablity in my mind.
What Remains of Edith Finch. A psychological horror game that REALLY sucks you in. As you play, there is a lot of stuff that doesn’t make any sense, but there’s a secret (disturbing) meaning behind it all.
I spent a good chunk of a Saturday going through it and there’s no need to do it again, but it was a great ride!
The Unfinished Swan is such a hidden gem, honestly. I never hear anyone talk about it. Very unique style and mechanics and an endearing story. Some beautiful environments too. And pretty short, so not a big commitment.
I would volunteer a lot of the single-player story games produced by Sony like Uncharted, The Last of US, with Spiderman being the exception to the rule.
Some of their games have a little more open game loop design, but personally, I don’t think I could play The Last of Us twice.
From what I played of God of War I would imagine it’s similar, but I never actually beat it.
I’m sure there are people out there who love single-player game narratives and would disagree. I just think a lot of these games are good for the story, but the gameplay feels like once you’ve done it, you’ve done it.
Why do i keep bouncing off this game? I keep hearing it’s great and then i play a bit and get bored. I don’t get far. Is there a point i need to get to where the story opens up?
Much like the gameplay itself, the story is another puzzle. You assemble the story from bits of emails and voice recordings that you find around the place.
There’s some reading required to appreciate it, as you find the emails and the various philosophical texts around the place. If you get bored, maybe that just isn’t for you. But I’d encourage you to give it a shot and see the story as another puzzle.
Thanks, i didn’t know to look for the story as a puzzle as well. It might not be for me, but Ill know what to expect next time and i can give it an honest go
If you don’t already know… the “corrupt” text in the terminals is where a lot of the semi-secret story clues are - especially in the beginning. If you want to know how to read it, lemme know and I’ll tell you what you need. Otherwise, no spoilers.
That said, the puzzles in the game are pretty consistent throughout, so if solving 3d spatial arrangements of laser beams isn’t fun for you - it’s not gonna get any better.
I would also say that most of the walking simulators that where mentioned here:
My mentions would be The Last of Us, Spec Ops: The Line and Amnesia: The Dark Descent. Also The Stanley Parable depending on what you consider "completing" that game.
Well I played it, once, 12 years ago when the graphics were good. I don’t remember them being mind blowing, but I don’t remember them being bad either.
I dont think it really had an “are we the baddies” story, it was a very graphic anti war game for me.
It is one of the better executed anti-war message in games. Nothing I’ve played has come as close to its level of execution. I remember thinking, at the time, that the competitive multi-player really undercut the message of the single player campaign.
It is one of the better executed anti-war message in games.
I felt it was ham fisted. You don’t even get a choice in the most impactful scene of the game, you’re railroaded the whole time. Only choice I can remember was at the bridge and the game returns to normal after 5 seconds.
The graphics are were not good even for the time; contemporary reviews point this out. It looks like a 2007 game but was released in 2012. The guns aren’t good and the cover system is clunky.
I dunno, maybe it was hyped too much for me. I found it forgettable and not worth the 5 hours it took to beat.
Since puzzle games seem to be the theme overall here I’ll mention Cocoon. It’s a recent puzzler that is absolutely gorgeous to look at and did some super clever stuff imo.
bin.pol.social
Aktywne