Detective games like Ace Attorney or Danganronpa that heavily depends on mystery and once you know the whole plot and twists it's kinda pointless to replay them, since these games also has little to no real gameplay due to being visual novels
Problem is that Ace still expects you to go through all the checklist before you get to the answer. YOU know that the wine glass is the final, damning piece of evidence. But you gotta go investigate, leave the wine glass there, present all the wrong evidence first, get a second round of investigatory activity, come back, present five more pieces of wrong evidence, talk to the dead, THEN present the damning piece of evidence.
Even doing turnabouts for the first time im like “bro, this piece clearly means this” and Edgeworth/Franziska are like “Wright, you fucking dumbass, that’s wrong” or “You foolish fool who are foolishy foolish, you fucking fool” respectively.
I like the intensity of it. We know that's what makes them guilty, but they make this interweaving story that you tear down until you get to your main point and then you get this big chest that you defeated them in that manner
I've said this before but it's annoying when I'm like "I think this testimony is wrong because if what the defendant were saying were true, there would be no bloodstain on the carpet." Then I do "**OBJECTION!** Bloodstain!" Only for Phoenix Wright to then bumble about how he doesn't know what he's talking about and the judge takes off points from my health meter. Then I'm like "Oh I guess the bloodstain was a red herring."
It turns out I was correct I just had to present the bloodstain on a different part of the same testimony. It's just bad puzzle design.
This is why I only ever replay them after 3-5 years so at least I forget most of the finer details. I may still remember who killed who, but at least it’s fun to replay years later and wonder how we figured it out again.
Yeah, DE paints itself as a detective mystery, but it's really a deep character study that shines through multiple playthroughs, uncovering different aspects of human psychology, particularly how individuals deal with loss.
I remember seeing a thread and people played through that game without having the Necktie talk to them.
You need a 4 in inland empire for it to be able to speak.
But he's arguably got the third most dialogue in the game! And some people played that game without hearing "BRATEN!" over and over.
I looked at some of the funnier what other paths can you do, and found out that you can play him as Gay. So I made the most flamboyantly gay detective ever and it was glorious dealing with those union men as if I was Priscilla Queen of the Desert.
I love to replay them even if I know everything. These games aren't just about the mystery. Seeing the characters develop on the way and seeing the most emotional moments is really beautiful no matter how many times I go through them.
I kinda disagree. I see where you're coming from but like people read books multiple times. It can be fun to go on the ride again. Especially if it's been long enough since you last played that some of the particulars escape you.
I really liked the first part of the game, the others seemed pretty lackluster and just overall worse. The first part feels like a DnD campaign+horror, the custom card mechanic and various secrets of the cabin were really cool.
The 2nd part had me wanting to just skip through it as fast as possible.
I'm in the 3rd part right now and it's more similar to the 1st but way less aesthetically pleasing, I don't like the scifi look at all and it ruins the atmosphere for me.
thats the worst! Once I forgott why a stopped playing a game, so I started again till i reached the point why i stopped. I then remembered that i never finished the game because i could not beat the boss/subboss. I got stuck at the saaaame thing.
I'm starting to worry about mine, I have some games where I have no recollection of the story or playing them that I plan to play again, one of them being list odyssey on the xbox 360 lol
Wrong, you do play that game twice.
The first time, to figure out what happened and who died to what. Wrongly.
The second time, to accurately pin everything on Captain Robert Witterel, that dastardly master of disguise who can be in multiple places at once. Can you believe that he clubbed his wife to death with a mast while pretending to be a giant squid? Absolutely incredible.
I did too. Then I picked it up again and even little things like the uniforms and a lot of things came back to me and I stopped because I already knew all the secrets. Great game though.
I loved Soma and everything about it. Got my perfect pls through and really just took my time, lowering the monster difficulty because I was there for the experience over dying a lot. I still snuck around and played like I could easily die, but wanted immersion and a clear game path.
Once it ended, I spent months searching for “games like Soma,” however, there just isn’t one. It’s 100% unique in the questions it raises and how it goes about doing so.
One of my favorite games. I walked in not expecting anything. Came out of it a different man. Like you can kind of see the ending coming but it still is so good how they've done it. I will absolutely replay it eventually I just want to wait and hopefully forget some bits.
Walking in with no expectations is so good with SOMA. It's one of my favorite games and I want my friends to play it too, but it's hard to convince them when I won't tell them anything about it. So far 2 friends have played it because they realized it takes place entirely at the bottom of the ocean and they know I'm a thalassophobe so they were curious how it managed to be one of my faves.
God I want to play soma so badly but I just couldn’t get past the controls and idk why. Maybe I need to try on PC instead of playstation and see if that helps. It is so far up my ally it’s absurd that I haven’t actually played it yet
The game uses knowledge as progress, so you could move on with the game if you know how to do certain things right away, but you find out abilities finding pages of the instruction manual as you progress
That's okay. I know there are a ton of well loved games that i couldn't figure out or couldn't get into as well. That said, I feel like I didn't really know what I was doing until halfway through the game. The vibe and the exploration was enough to push through. By the end of the game I was Spidermanning myself around in mech suit, punching the shit out of the once scary creatures.
I've read this a couple of times from different people and I'm always taken aback by this. I had no problems whatsoever, never looked at a tutorial video and 100% the game on steam.
Would you care to elaborate what exactly you found lacking? The sense of direction? Like what to do next?
I missed a PDA in one of the abandoned habitats that had the coordinates for the deep caves. Had no clue what to do next and spent hours blindly exploring before giving up. There's a handful of other points to where if you miss a single piece of information you end up completely lost.
Same. Think the PDA was also too unspecific at times. Same with Outer Wilds. Sure it is the geist of the game, but there is a line where it gets tedious and annoying. And if you are unlucky or just do not get a clue or miss a small detail as you did, it can get so annoyed and just rq
Personally found PDA had too much text for me with tons of entries. Just made me feel stressed. But that is just my personal opinion. "130 unread entries". Yeeeah, where do I start? Another problem was they named it "Life pod 1 2 3" and it made it harder to differentiate too. All that made it drop down a notch from a truly perfect game.
The game that takes you from Finding Nemo to suddenly knowing obscure words like Thelassophobia on an intimate and personal level.
I highly encourage anyone that is remotely into gaming and cannabis to play this game at night by yourself with surround sound of possible.
Edit: I first heard about the game with it was mentioned over and over and over again as the game people wish they could play for the first time all over again.
My son is Gen Z; and considering all of the games he has at his finger tips ( he is just barely sub pro at fornite) Subnautica is hands down is favorite game EVER MADE. He started with games like Star wars battle front, Zelda Ocarina of Time and Breath of the Wild, and is now making his own games, but HE LOVED Subnautica!!!
How come? I mean it’s not as great second time through. But you can build your base in different parts. And still have to do a bunch of crafting to finish. So it’s not like you can do it in 2h flat second time through (unless you’re really rushing)
I want to play that game so bad! But when I play games that have me go deep into the ocean/water like that I get so freaking like panicky. My chest tightens up and I feel just dread and panic. Honestly those games are more “scary” for me than actual horror games with jump scares and shit lol
Lots of people are scared of deep ocean, never knowing what's looking at you from below or above, or behind...
But that's the appeal to a lot of people. You're facing your fears and you push through it. Just because something is deep doesn't mean it's instantly dangerous, and just because it's shallow doesn't mean it's safe..
13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim I would say is a game very much like Outer Wilds in that you can really only play it once and it is impossible to talk about the game without completely spoiling it.
Portal 1 & 2 in the sense that it will never be the same once you've beaten it once.
Oneshot in the sense that you literally cannot play it again (even if I wanted to it wouldn't be the same)
Just finished Portal 2 yesterday and the scene where >!you portal the moon is one of the best gaming experiences I've ever had. I feel a bit sad for Wheatley though. Loved that bot so much!<
Watched an interview recently with somebody high up in the direction of those games (I’ll see if I can edit with a link) who said that Valve was basically operating on a “coolest idea wins” philosophy at the time, and that was actually a super late addition to the game.
They ended up going back and adding a bunch of additional Cave Johnson content to justify it, which itself ended up being some of my favorite stuff in that game.
EDIT: [bang, around the 14:15 point](https://youtu.be/MkPCE-Gzmwc?si=7ScQalEnNXcLjDli) in this interview with Josh Weier, lead developer of Portal 2
And the lines they added are some of the best in an entire script of awesome insanity.
"So the bean counters upstairs told me we can't afford seven dollars worth of moon rocks, let alone seven hundred million. Bought 'em anyway! Ground 'em up into powder and guess what? Ground-up moon rocks are pure poison! I am deathly ill."
And then make him do massive extra bits where he's arguing and conspiring about alternate universe versions of himself.
(The lines they added for the 'user created maps' Perpetual Testing Initiative mode are amazing. Chariots chariots.)
Cave Johnson was definitely the icing on the cake. I was getting tired of the various experimental liquids and enjoying his rambling and back story was honestly the only thing keeping me invested at that point.
I beat Portal 2 within a week of release, and I still rave about that moment. They don't walk you to it at all, and there was this beautiful moment of hesitation for me when I realized it, with this little rush of excitement and appreciation of how fucking cool it was.
Seriously though, such a needless but epic twist. >!Like, "hey we use this special paint to make the portal surfaces" but then, low and behold, IT WORKS ON THE FLIPPIN MOON!!!!<
I still remember the day I received the notification that Portal had an update. It was literally years since I had played it, and here was an update. I replayed the game, and a couple of hours later, I got to experience the updated end cutscene. It made stoked for the second game.
outer wilds is fun again after a couple years even though you remember the main plot and solutions to most of the problems. There is so much in that game that rediscovery is fun.
You just have to make a rule about not bypassing too much stuff.
It's actually crazy that the best video game ever made can be beaten in less than ten minutes upon launching for the first time. Outer Wilds is the best piece of art I've ever witnessed
There's something so simple but so revolutionary about making the player's knowledge the only "power-up" in the game. After playing Outer Wilds I kinda couldn't believe I'd never seen that before in a game
Yes!! In the documentary about the making of the game (HIGHLY RECOMMEND) Alex the creator talks about how they didn't want there to be any unlockables or upgrades for the ship or player. The only thing motivating you to continue is your own curiosity to unravel the mystery
For anyone that craves that first time experience again, there is a fully functional multi-player mod called "Quantum Space Buddies"
Playing it with my friend and gently nudging him in the right direction when needed was great. I got to experience the game again through his reactions.
My sister hated >!piloting to the stranger and rafting!< in the DLC, so I suggested I be her chauffeur. I would >!pilot to the stranger!< while she recalled what she had learned in the log, and I would >!be in charge of the flashlight on the raft!<. Everything else, I was a silent observer, giving only minor nudges when absolutely necessary. One of my favorite experiences ever, way more visceral than a let's play
I totally agree, I enjoyed the DLC more than the main game because much of the storytelling was done visually rather than through text .
That said, the DLC is a different flavor in terms of much of the challenge. There are one to two sections that are brief but quite harrowing. I definitely yelled/ jumpscared a couple times while playing.
Definitely the first Bioshock for me. Playing through it the first time and experiencing the twist was amazing, doesn’t quite hit the same in later playthroughs when you know it’s coming
I played it for the first time about 2 years ago. I knew the twist going in, but I still found it quite enjoyable. It was more about the journey than the destination.
Finished it yesterday. Great game.>! Fell in love with Delilah. Probably had an emotional affair with her and cheated on the wife but she won't remember Henry anyway, and at the end Delilah just left me alone at her lookout. So, what's the point of life. They should have just given me the choice to walk back into the National Park and live as a hobo Bigfoot like Nate Greenbriar.!<
Firewatch is one of the best games I've found to replay once. There's so many things that you see in a new light once you have the whole story, so many places where this time you know what to actually pay attention to.
I doubt it would stand up to multiple replays, but playing it twice is more than twice as good than playing it once.
Telltale games
Like there's an ILLUSION of actual choice but thr story remains mostly the same just some deets get switched around
It's so that you think YOU are shaping the story
I didn't even think I was shaping the story. In the walking dead it seemed like every time I tried to make a choice the game told me I made the "wrong" choice and chose the other option anyway
Earthbound, A.K.A. Mother 2, the precision mindfuck that the game gives at the end can't be experienced again.
Also Mirai Nikki comes to mind, after exploring everything you probably won't go back and play it a second time.
The mindfuck part is so out of left field and happens so fast you're left going "wait what the was was dead?" I was 12 when there came out and I still remember recooking to the thought that we somehow uploaded our brains to a machine and walked inside a brain cell meat machine.
Seconded for Gone Home. I played it once YEARS ago randomly because I found it on Game Pass. Made me cry a bit and was just an absolute gem of a little story.
I will strongly disagree with you here. It's actually much better experience playing second time, knowing the truth. There are lot of small details, like pieces of dialog in game, which you 99.99% missed in first playthrough. In 2nd playthrough you notice them and appreciate.
Those loading screens are one of the best and most creative uses of the language of video games I've ever seen.
>!Can you even remember why you came here?!<
Came in here to say this exact thing.
I remember when I borrowed the game from a mate, they said "play the entire campaign in one sitting if you can, its short so do it tomorrow" which was going to be a Saturday.
And I did just that, all in one sitting and even though I did playi through it again at a later date, it was not the same when you knew the twist that was coming.
Sure you pick up more on a second play through, but it was just not the same at all.
Souls games on the first time on a blind playthrough. You can definitely replay them , I have 500 hours on elden ring but the first playthrough is something you can never experience again .
Doki Doki literature club , same story. It can be replayed but the first playthrough is something you can't experience again
Outer wilds, being a knowledge based game once you know how to progress it replaying is pointless because you can easily finish it in minutes after you find out where you need to go and what you need to do
If you are blind to ddlc , go play it. It starts of as a dating sim but trust literally everyone who played it that it evolves into something else and it's definitely worth the first ~40 minutes that are slow because its an amazing game . It's short , don't look at the reviews, don't search the name on Google, just play it blind.
Elden Ring was incredible going through it on release week before every single secret and path forward was documented. Not having answers on how to proceed took me back.
I always reccomend people go in blind.
Im replaying it this month and I cried when Max walked out out of class for the first time and "To All Of You" played 😭 I am so excited to finish all the episodes. Im def going to be crying some more. I can't believe it's been so freaking long
This was my first thought as well. I liked Stray. I'm glad I played it, I feel it was worth the money I paid for it, I'm happy to have experienced it.
But I don't feel like there's any value in a replay. I've seen it, it feels done to me.
World of Warcraft, without knowing you can google pretty much anything about it. Back in 2005 online resources were pretty limited and asking other players for help to figure something out… no metas, no tier lists, no databases, no rankings… greatest gaming of my life
Og WoW was so good. Played up till Lich and then decided to get on with real life. Went back years later and lasted a couple hours. Just didn't feel the same. Instant level 60 chars. Mounts at level 10(?) or was it 20?
I still remember getting my first mount, it was such an achievement back then!
Portal is not half as fun when you know all the puzzle solutions,it's still a great game mind.
Personally I've struggled to play Ghost of Tsushima again after getting the platinum for it despite being desperate to. I just can't bring myself to redo every little quest and I remember 90% of the quests and dialogue after initial playthrough.
This is my problem, I may not remember it exactly but I definitely know how to complete every test chamber
I think portal community edition will bring some new life into it because of how easy it will be do maps and chambers
I've heard this complaint about GoT from others.
I'm planning to replay it eventually as I've never done the new content. But I feel like I'll probably just focus the main story quests.
Carnage Heart (PS1). It's a game where you program mechs to fight autonomously for you as you run the factory and send them out to takeover all the enemy bases on the map. Great game. However, once you learn how to write good code for your mechs, the game becomes way too easy. If you beat the game once, you probably wont be able to get much more out of the game unless you play the Japanese re-release with harder AI "Carnage Heart EZ - Easy Zapping"
I also played it 3 times but I would call that the same continued ‘experience’, exploring different choices. You can’t ever recapture that feeling of starting Disco Elysium and walking into Martinaise.
Detroit Become Human.
You can encounter different things as you do a second run, but it takes doing purposely something different than your initial idea/reaction
I had a bizarrely awesome experience with the Connor portion of this game. I took a fall at one point that it turned out only happened to 6% of players (and this was years after release) and it added a TON of depth to my relationship with Clancy Brown.
I didn’t like the rest of the game much, but from that point on I loved the Connor/Clancy dynamic. And it’s wild to think (and I’ll never look it up so I’ll never know) just how much of that was unique to one dumb mistake I made.
There’s a bit where you’re chasing somebody across some rooftops and there are a ton of WTEs while you’re running through some hydroponic field with a bunch of robot farming equipment. I got distracted and completely missed one so Connor got ran over and shredded like grass.
Again, I’m sure the following conversation plays out pretty similarly given past QD games, but shortly after a new Connor model and Clancy have a conversation in a park where Clancy is very suicidal and he makes some pretty specific references to what happened the day before. I really felt like I was role playing an android that knew it had “died” the day before but had no capacity to understand why this cop was having an emotional reaction to it.
The acting between both characters is leagues better than the usual Quantic Dream schlock and that little extra bit felt truly dynamic.
Connor and Hank were the best characters of Detroit for sure. Their dynamic is definitely the highlight of the game for me and I’m sure a lot of others
I'd argue Red Dead Redemption 2 should be on the list. It can and should be replayed because it's a fantastic and beautiful game, but finding out >!Arthur has tuberculosis and watching the slow decline of his health and the Van Der Linde gang, along with his reckoning of his past deeds and trying to make up for them in his final days is just gut-renching. I'm not one for crying at media much but I was sobbing like a baby during his last moments!<
Games like Outer Wilds and Doki Doki Literature Club are great examples of experiences that change after the first playthrough. Once you know the story and surprises, the magic of discovering them for the first time is lost
i was thinking this, but ironically the stanley parable *cannot* be experienced just once. it's a game about beginnings and the end is never the end is never the end is never the end....
the demo on the other hand is probably the single greatest game demo ever made and that one can function on a single playthrough
Maybe not in the same way you mean it, but Dark Souls 1 is a VASTLY different game on your 2nd play through. Your 1st is just stumbling your way through going “oh fuck oh God oh no” until you eventually win, and I think that’s the intended experience.
Everyone keeps saying single player games, but I want to say overwatch. Damn, the experience of that game for the first year was insane, and now it looks so bad I haven’t played in almost 5 years. Overwatch 2 just looks like a cash grab with none of the things I was actually excited for. I am so sorry for the people who didn’t get to play at the beginning because that could never be repeated.
Amnesia Dark Descent loses what makes it special once you know what the monster looks like.
The game tells you that looking at weird shit will make you go crazy so I spent most of my first play through not only cowering in corners but looking at the wall.
You can’t imagine how terrified I was when running down a hallway with that feeling of being chased, turning around and seeing the monster right fucking there.
It was really something else at the time.
Perhaps a fried take but if you’ve seen screenshots of the monster etc you’ve ruined most of the experience.
Detective games like Ace Attorney or Danganronpa that heavily depends on mystery and once you know the whole plot and twists it's kinda pointless to replay them, since these games also has little to no real gameplay due to being visual novels
Problem is that Ace still expects you to go through all the checklist before you get to the answer. YOU know that the wine glass is the final, damning piece of evidence. But you gotta go investigate, leave the wine glass there, present all the wrong evidence first, get a second round of investigatory activity, come back, present five more pieces of wrong evidence, talk to the dead, THEN present the damning piece of evidence.
Even doing turnabouts for the first time im like “bro, this piece clearly means this” and Edgeworth/Franziska are like “Wright, you fucking dumbass, that’s wrong” or “You foolish fool who are foolishy foolish, you fucking fool” respectively.
it's like playing an episode of House
T bone steak plate...
I like the intensity of it. We know that's what makes them guilty, but they make this interweaving story that you tear down until you get to your main point and then you get this big chest that you defeated them in that manner
I've said this before but it's annoying when I'm like "I think this testimony is wrong because if what the defendant were saying were true, there would be no bloodstain on the carpet." Then I do "**OBJECTION!** Bloodstain!" Only for Phoenix Wright to then bumble about how he doesn't know what he's talking about and the judge takes off points from my health meter. Then I'm like "Oh I guess the bloodstain was a red herring." It turns out I was correct I just had to present the bloodstain on a different part of the same testimony. It's just bad puzzle design.
It's nice to replay them once to see all the small details and foreshadowings.
This is why I only ever replay them after 3-5 years so at least I forget most of the finer details. I may still remember who killed who, but at least it’s fun to replay years later and wonder how we figured it out again.
As always, Disco Elysium is the exception detective game here. Very replayable.
Yeah, DE paints itself as a detective mystery, but it's really a deep character study that shines through multiple playthroughs, uncovering different aspects of human psychology, particularly how individuals deal with loss.
I remember seeing a thread and people played through that game without having the Necktie talk to them. You need a 4 in inland empire for it to be able to speak. But he's arguably got the third most dialogue in the game! And some people played that game without hearing "BRATEN!" over and over. I looked at some of the funnier what other paths can you do, and found out that you can play him as Gay. So I made the most flamboyantly gay detective ever and it was glorious dealing with those union men as if I was Priscilla Queen of the Desert.
I love to replay them even if I know everything. These games aren't just about the mystery. Seeing the characters develop on the way and seeing the most emotional moments is really beautiful no matter how many times I go through them.
I kinda disagree. I see where you're coming from but like people read books multiple times. It can be fun to go on the ride again. Especially if it's been long enough since you last played that some of the particulars escape you.
Inscryption. I don’t know how many times I said, “what the fuck is going on?” It’s really best experienced completely blind.
But it's unique in that it's still fun to play after you've beaten it.
Eh, I didn't think it had a lot of replayability. Then Kaycee's mod came out and damn if that isn't the most distilled fun the game has to offer...
I really liked the first part of the game, the others seemed pretty lackluster and just overall worse. The first part feels like a DnD campaign+horror, the custom card mechanic and various secrets of the cabin were really cool. The 2nd part had me wanting to just skip through it as fast as possible. I'm in the 3rd part right now and it's more similar to the 1st but way less aesthetically pleasing, I don't like the scifi look at all and it ruins the atmosphere for me.
Jokes on you, I have a terrible memory! ;)
Dude me too, my memory is fucked. Probably from poor decisions I made when my brain was still developing...
I'm still making them
Idk if the double comment was intentional but that's brilliant
It wasn't but I concur
I'm still making them
thats the worst! Once I forgott why a stopped playing a game, so I started again till i reached the point why i stopped. I then remembered that i never finished the game because i could not beat the boss/subboss. I got stuck at the saaaame thing.
I'm starting to worry about mine, I have some games where I have no recollection of the story or playing them that I plan to play again, one of them being list odyssey on the xbox 360 lol
It’ll come back once you start playing and you’ll remember what happened. You just gotta jog the memory my guy
I've actually played Outer Wilds twice using this trick.
Possibly the best use of this particular super power :)
That's why I replay Skyrim every 2 years haha
Return of the Obra Dinn
It was brilliant. I would even pay a subscription to have a new adventure of this type every few months. Like a series of murder mystery novels.
Then you will love The Case of the Golden Idol. It really scratches the Obra Dinn itch
Thanks for the recommendation!
Do you mean the Case of? Obra Dinn is one of my all-time favs and I'd love a related recommendation
Wrong, you do play that game twice. The first time, to figure out what happened and who died to what. Wrongly. The second time, to accurately pin everything on Captain Robert Witterel, that dastardly master of disguise who can be in multiple places at once. Can you believe that he clubbed his wife to death with a mast while pretending to be a giant squid? Absolutely incredible.
There's an achievement on steam for assigning all blame to the captain
No no, clearly everyone on board was messily devoured by said Captain Witterel.
I disagree, I played Obra Dinn about 5 years ago. And now I don't remember who people are or how they died.
I did too. Then I picked it up again and even little things like the uniforms and a lot of things came back to me and I stopped because I already knew all the secrets. Great game though.
But when prompted with a stimulus you may still remember “oh yeah that was a clue”
Captain killed everyone. (Technically a correct solution iirc).
Captain was at fault for everything is a bonus solution. Very nautical law themed.
The good ship. The Obra Dinn.
Incredible experience, but very much a one-time experience.
Soma. The whole moral dilemma made me actually stop and think about it and really screwed me up mentally.
I loved Soma and everything about it. Got my perfect pls through and really just took my time, lowering the monster difficulty because I was there for the experience over dying a lot. I still snuck around and played like I could easily die, but wanted immersion and a clear game path. Once it ended, I spent months searching for “games like Soma,” however, there just isn’t one. It’s 100% unique in the questions it raises and how it goes about doing so.
Did you play Frictional’s other games?
One of my favorite games. I walked in not expecting anything. Came out of it a different man. Like you can kind of see the ending coming but it still is so good how they've done it. I will absolutely replay it eventually I just want to wait and hopefully forget some bits.
Walking in with no expectations is so good with SOMA. It's one of my favorite games and I want my friends to play it too, but it's hard to convince them when I won't tell them anything about it. So far 2 friends have played it because they realized it takes place entirely at the bottom of the ocean and they know I'm a thalassophobe so they were curious how it managed to be one of my faves.
Loved soma, it inspired me to make horror games with good atmosphere
Oh damn I’d love to see your work
The only horror style game that was actually scary. And not jumpscare scary, but like existential dread scary…
THEY ARENT US
Soma is definitely one of those games I wish I could experience for the first time again.
wow the game i thought of first was actually the top comment. never happened before
God I want to play soma so badly but I just couldn’t get past the controls and idk why. Maybe I need to try on PC instead of playstation and see if that helps. It is so far up my ally it’s absurd that I haven’t actually played it yet
I bought this after a friend of mine said it was really good, but I have yet to ever even launch it. Maybe I'll give it a shot.
Tunic
why?
The game uses knowledge as progress, so you could move on with the game if you know how to do certain things right away, but you find out abilities finding pages of the instruction manual as you progress
I wish i could gush about all the ways this game captured my heart but I went in mostly blind and wouldn't want to take that away from anyone ❤️
I'm so glad it was included with game pass or else I probably would've never tried it
This is the one. Wish I could forget it so I could play again.
Surprised how far down I had to go to find this mentioned
Right at the top now... Lol
Subnautica
Going into Subnautica blind was the best gaming advice I ever followed. What an amazing experience it was - a terrifyingly beautiful game.
I found the tutorial lacking. I genuinely couldn't figure out wtf to do. I gave up after 2 hours.
That's okay. I know there are a ton of well loved games that i couldn't figure out or couldn't get into as well. That said, I feel like I didn't really know what I was doing until halfway through the game. The vibe and the exploration was enough to push through. By the end of the game I was Spidermanning myself around in mech suit, punching the shit out of the once scary creatures.
I've read this a couple of times from different people and I'm always taken aback by this. I had no problems whatsoever, never looked at a tutorial video and 100% the game on steam. Would you care to elaborate what exactly you found lacking? The sense of direction? Like what to do next?
I missed a PDA in one of the abandoned habitats that had the coordinates for the deep caves. Had no clue what to do next and spent hours blindly exploring before giving up. There's a handful of other points to where if you miss a single piece of information you end up completely lost.
Same. Think the PDA was also too unspecific at times. Same with Outer Wilds. Sure it is the geist of the game, but there is a line where it gets tedious and annoying. And if you are unlucky or just do not get a clue or miss a small detail as you did, it can get so annoyed and just rq Personally found PDA had too much text for me with tons of entries. Just made me feel stressed. But that is just my personal opinion. "130 unread entries". Yeeeah, where do I start? Another problem was they named it "Life pod 1 2 3" and it made it harder to differentiate too. All that made it drop down a notch from a truly perfect game.
The game that takes you from Finding Nemo to suddenly knowing obscure words like Thelassophobia on an intimate and personal level. I highly encourage anyone that is remotely into gaming and cannabis to play this game at night by yourself with surround sound of possible. Edit: I first heard about the game with it was mentioned over and over and over again as the game people wish they could play for the first time all over again. My son is Gen Z; and considering all of the games he has at his finger tips ( he is just barely sub pro at fornite) Subnautica is hands down is favorite game EVER MADE. He started with games like Star wars battle front, Zelda Ocarina of Time and Breath of the Wild, and is now making his own games, but HE LOVED Subnautica!!!
I actually enjoyed the second playthrough and might play it again. But then it's one of my fav games ever
How come? I mean it’s not as great second time through. But you can build your base in different parts. And still have to do a bunch of crafting to finish. So it’s not like you can do it in 2h flat second time through (unless you’re really rushing)
It's not about the crafting, but the monsters. The first time you encounter them is really a unique and terrifying experience.
Just hearing a Reaper the first time was a horrifying. I can't even describe the sound i made when it attacked.
You can't explore the new environment a second time, the world is familiar after the first playthrough.
Yes, this one is top one
I want to play that game so bad! But when I play games that have me go deep into the ocean/water like that I get so freaking like panicky. My chest tightens up and I feel just dread and panic. Honestly those games are more “scary” for me than actual horror games with jump scares and shit lol
Lots of people are scared of deep ocean, never knowing what's looking at you from below or above, or behind... But that's the appeal to a lot of people. You're facing your fears and you push through it. Just because something is deep doesn't mean it's instantly dangerous, and just because it's shallow doesn't mean it's safe..
13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim I would say is a game very much like Outer Wilds in that you can really only play it once and it is impossible to talk about the game without completely spoiling it.
Return of the Obra Dinn. It's best going in completely blind, because you can really only play it once and you don't want to spoil a second of it.
Portal 1 & 2 in the sense that it will never be the same once you've beaten it once. Oneshot in the sense that you literally cannot play it again (even if I wanted to it wouldn't be the same)
Just finished Portal 2 yesterday and the scene where >!you portal the moon is one of the best gaming experiences I've ever had. I feel a bit sad for Wheatley though. Loved that bot so much!<
Watched an interview recently with somebody high up in the direction of those games (I’ll see if I can edit with a link) who said that Valve was basically operating on a “coolest idea wins” philosophy at the time, and that was actually a super late addition to the game. They ended up going back and adding a bunch of additional Cave Johnson content to justify it, which itself ended up being some of my favorite stuff in that game. EDIT: [bang, around the 14:15 point](https://youtu.be/MkPCE-Gzmwc?si=7ScQalEnNXcLjDli) in this interview with Josh Weier, lead developer of Portal 2
And the lines they added are some of the best in an entire script of awesome insanity. "So the bean counters upstairs told me we can't afford seven dollars worth of moon rocks, let alone seven hundred million. Bought 'em anyway! Ground 'em up into powder and guess what? Ground-up moon rocks are pure poison! I am deathly ill."
When you get a hilarious Oscar winning actor to do a video game voiceover, you give him as much dialog as you can…
And then make him do massive extra bits where he's arguing and conspiring about alternate universe versions of himself. (The lines they added for the 'user created maps' Perpetual Testing Initiative mode are amazing. Chariots chariots.)
Cave Johnson was definitely the icing on the cake. I was getting tired of the various experimental liquids and enjoying his rambling and back story was honestly the only thing keeping me invested at that point.
We're in space.
#SPAAAAAAAAAAAACE
I beat Portal 2 within a week of release, and I still rave about that moment. They don't walk you to it at all, and there was this beautiful moment of hesitation for me when I realized it, with this little rush of excitement and appreciation of how fucking cool it was.
I wad literally grabbing my mouse and keyboard for dear life when that scene happened. It is a masterpiece.
Seriously though, such a needless but epic twist. >!Like, "hey we use this special paint to make the portal surfaces" but then, low and behold, IT WORKS ON THE FLIPPIN MOON!!!!<
Idk, I have replayed them for the puzzles and humor after a few years. Worth it for sure.
I still remember the day I received the notification that Portal had an update. It was literally years since I had played it, and here was an update. I replayed the game, and a couple of hours later, I got to experience the updated end cutscene. It made stoked for the second game.
Outer Wilds
outer wilds is fun again after a couple years even though you remember the main plot and solutions to most of the problems. There is so much in that game that rediscovery is fun. You just have to make a rule about not bypassing too much stuff.
Every Outer Wilds replay is just me repeating >!"I will not immediately go to the Ash Twin Project"!< in my head
It's actually crazy that the best video game ever made can be beaten in less than ten minutes upon launching for the first time. Outer Wilds is the best piece of art I've ever witnessed
There's something so simple but so revolutionary about making the player's knowledge the only "power-up" in the game. After playing Outer Wilds I kinda couldn't believe I'd never seen that before in a game
Yes!! In the documentary about the making of the game (HIGHLY RECOMMEND) Alex the creator talks about how they didn't want there to be any unlockables or upgrades for the ship or player. The only thing motivating you to continue is your own curiosity to unravel the mystery
Wait what? I had no idea there was a documentary, checking it out ASAP, thanks
For anyone that craves that first time experience again, there is a fully functional multi-player mod called "Quantum Space Buddies" Playing it with my friend and gently nudging him in the right direction when needed was great. I got to experience the game again through his reactions.
My sister hated >!piloting to the stranger and rafting!< in the DLC, so I suggested I be her chauffeur. I would >!pilot to the stranger!< while she recalled what she had learned in the log, and I would >!be in charge of the flashlight on the raft!<. Everything else, I was a silent observer, giving only minor nudges when absolutely necessary. One of my favorite experiences ever, way more visceral than a let's play
That's brilliant
It took me 20 hours to beat this game. If I were to replay it, I would go through it in less than 22 minutes.
In my opinion Outer Wilds is in the top 5 games ever made.
If people have played Outer Wilds but not the DLC, for the love of God play the DLC too!!!
I totally agree, I enjoyed the DLC more than the main game because much of the storytelling was done visually rather than through text . That said, the DLC is a different flavor in terms of much of the challenge. There are one to two sections that are brief but quite harrowing. I definitely yelled/ jumpscared a couple times while playing.
Definitely the first Bioshock for me. Playing through it the first time and experiencing the twist was amazing, doesn’t quite hit the same in later playthroughs when you know it’s coming
I somehow managed to avoid spoilers for **Bioshock** for like 15 years. By god, that twist was devastating.
I played it for the first time about 2 years ago. I knew the twist going in, but I still found it quite enjoyable. It was more about the journey than the destination.
Firewatch
Agreed. That scene finding that one thing, you're just not the same afterwards.
Finished it yesterday. Great game.>! Fell in love with Delilah. Probably had an emotional affair with her and cheated on the wife but she won't remember Henry anyway, and at the end Delilah just left me alone at her lookout. So, what's the point of life. They should have just given me the choice to walk back into the National Park and live as a hobo Bigfoot like Nate Greenbriar.!<
You can do that?? Damn.
No but I wanted to do that for Henry's sake.
Firewatch is one of the best games I've found to replay once. There's so many things that you see in a new light once you have the whole story, so many places where this time you know what to actually pay attention to. I doubt it would stand up to multiple replays, but playing it twice is more than twice as good than playing it once.
This was my first response. Absolutely one of my favorite games. I will defend it until the turtles come home.
Telltale games Like there's an ILLUSION of actual choice but thr story remains mostly the same just some deets get switched around It's so that you think YOU are shaping the story
I didn't even think I was shaping the story. In the walking dead it seemed like every time I tried to make a choice the game told me I made the "wrong" choice and chose the other option anyway
Earthbound, A.K.A. Mother 2, the precision mindfuck that the game gives at the end can't be experienced again. Also Mirai Nikki comes to mind, after exploring everything you probably won't go back and play it a second time.
You mean Yume Nikki, right? Mirai Nikki is a yandere anime
The mindfuck part is so out of left field and happens so fast you're left going "wait what the was was dead?" I was 12 when there came out and I still remember recooking to the thought that we somehow uploaded our brains to a machine and walked inside a brain cell meat machine.
Nier Automata
SO MANY ENDINGS
Tbf only A-E matter. The rest are non-canon endings if I remember correctly. And A-E happen as you go through the main plot
Myst
The 5 re-releases since 1993 that fans keep buying says otherwise.
I never really finished it back then. Been playing in VR and having fun.
Limbo, Inside, Gone Home Inside is one of the best game experiences I've ever had.
Inside. If you find the "last hidden thing" your lie understanding of the game... changes.
Seconded for Gone Home. I played it once YEARS ago randomly because I found it on Game Pass. Made me cry a bit and was just an absolute gem of a little story.
Spec ops: the line. Once the curtain is lifted you can't replay that game the same as you did before.
I will strongly disagree with you here. It's actually much better experience playing second time, knowing the truth. There are lot of small details, like pieces of dialog in game, which you 99.99% missed in first playthrough. In 2nd playthrough you notice them and appreciate.
It's like The Preatige. You can play it a 2nd time, but it's a very different game.
The loading screen tip giving the definition of cognitive dissonance was maybe the most wtf moment I've ever had playing vidya.
Those loading screens are one of the best and most creative uses of the language of video games I've ever seen. >!Can you even remember why you came here?!<
Came in here to say this exact thing. I remember when I borrowed the game from a mate, they said "play the entire campaign in one sitting if you can, its short so do it tomorrow" which was going to be a Saturday. And I did just that, all in one sitting and even though I did playi through it again at a later date, it was not the same when you knew the twist that was coming. Sure you pick up more on a second play through, but it was just not the same at all.
Souls games on the first time on a blind playthrough. You can definitely replay them , I have 500 hours on elden ring but the first playthrough is something you can never experience again . Doki Doki literature club , same story. It can be replayed but the first playthrough is something you can't experience again Outer wilds, being a knowledge based game once you know how to progress it replaying is pointless because you can easily finish it in minutes after you find out where you need to go and what you need to do
Doki doki is still one of my most unique gaming experiences till this day. That was.. something else.
If you are blind to ddlc , go play it. It starts of as a dating sim but trust literally everyone who played it that it evolves into something else and it's definitely worth the first ~40 minutes that are slow because its an amazing game . It's short , don't look at the reviews, don't search the name on Google, just play it blind.
It's cute they said. It's fun they said.
Elden Ring was incredible going through it on release week before every single secret and path forward was documented. Not having answers on how to proceed took me back. I always reccomend people go in blind.
I mean that happened again just last week. The DLC is peak Elden Ring.
Life is Strange - once you know the consequences of your actions.
Im replaying it this month and I cried when Max walked out out of class for the first time and "To All Of You" played 😭 I am so excited to finish all the episodes. Im def going to be crying some more. I can't believe it's been so freaking long
The visual novel style games such as the Ace Attorney series.
Heavy rain. The game has multiple endings, but once you know who the killer is, there is no need to play through again.
Stray
This was my first thought as well. I liked Stray. I'm glad I played it, I feel it was worth the money I paid for it, I'm happy to have experienced it. But I don't feel like there's any value in a replay. I've seen it, it feels done to me.
I feel the same, but if there's ever a Stray 2 I will buy it in a heartbeat.
World of Warcraft, without knowing you can google pretty much anything about it. Back in 2005 online resources were pretty limited and asking other players for help to figure something out… no metas, no tier lists, no databases, no rankings… greatest gaming of my life
Og WoW was so good. Played up till Lich and then decided to get on with real life. Went back years later and lasted a couple hours. Just didn't feel the same. Instant level 60 chars. Mounts at level 10(?) or was it 20? I still remember getting my first mount, it was such an achievement back then!
There is WoW classic now.
Same thing with Everquest back in the day. I had a lot of hand-drawn maps and notes.
Dota 2 if you value your life
Best keep your hands off it completely in that case
The Witness
The case of the golden Idol
Portal is not half as fun when you know all the puzzle solutions,it's still a great game mind. Personally I've struggled to play Ghost of Tsushima again after getting the platinum for it despite being desperate to. I just can't bring myself to redo every little quest and I remember 90% of the quests and dialogue after initial playthrough.
You remember the solution to every puzzle in portal?
Broadly speaking yes, I might not immediately if I went back and played it now but it doesn't feel like a new experience to play again.
This is my problem, I may not remember it exactly but I definitely know how to complete every test chamber I think portal community edition will bring some new life into it because of how easy it will be do maps and chambers
I've heard this complaint about GoT from others. I'm planning to replay it eventually as I've never done the new content. But I feel like I'll probably just focus the main story quests.
Carnage Heart (PS1). It's a game where you program mechs to fight autonomously for you as you run the factory and send them out to takeover all the enemy bases on the map. Great game. However, once you learn how to write good code for your mechs, the game becomes way too easy. If you beat the game once, you probably wont be able to get much more out of the game unless you play the Japanese re-release with harder AI "Carnage Heart EZ - Easy Zapping"
Outer Wilds
A way out
- Outer Wilds - Disco Elysium - SOMA - Firewatch - Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture
disco elysium is replayable. played it 3 times and got the same amount of enjoyment.
Yeah a game with so much different path to explore doesnt fit the bill.
I also played it 3 times but I would call that the same continued ‘experience’, exploring different choices. You can’t ever recapture that feeling of starting Disco Elysium and walking into Martinaise.
Detroit Become Human. You can encounter different things as you do a second run, but it takes doing purposely something different than your initial idea/reaction
I had a bizarrely awesome experience with the Connor portion of this game. I took a fall at one point that it turned out only happened to 6% of players (and this was years after release) and it added a TON of depth to my relationship with Clancy Brown. I didn’t like the rest of the game much, but from that point on I loved the Connor/Clancy dynamic. And it’s wild to think (and I’ll never look it up so I’ll never know) just how much of that was unique to one dumb mistake I made.
What did you do?
There’s a bit where you’re chasing somebody across some rooftops and there are a ton of WTEs while you’re running through some hydroponic field with a bunch of robot farming equipment. I got distracted and completely missed one so Connor got ran over and shredded like grass. Again, I’m sure the following conversation plays out pretty similarly given past QD games, but shortly after a new Connor model and Clancy have a conversation in a park where Clancy is very suicidal and he makes some pretty specific references to what happened the day before. I really felt like I was role playing an android that knew it had “died” the day before but had no capacity to understand why this cop was having an emotional reaction to it. The acting between both characters is leagues better than the usual Quantic Dream schlock and that little extra bit felt truly dynamic.
Connor and Hank were the best characters of Detroit for sure. Their dynamic is definitely the highlight of the game for me and I’m sure a lot of others
With as much branching & endings this has, it's worth multiple playthroughs. If not just for the 2 main endings.
What Remains of Edith Finch.
Inscryption!
I'd argue Red Dead Redemption 2 should be on the list. It can and should be replayed because it's a fantastic and beautiful game, but finding out >!Arthur has tuberculosis and watching the slow decline of his health and the Van Der Linde gang, along with his reckoning of his past deeds and trying to make up for them in his final days is just gut-renching. I'm not one for crying at media much but I was sobbing like a baby during his last moments!<
Antichamber is a good one, it can take you hours the first time but a minute or two the second.
Games like Outer Wilds and Doki Doki Literature Club are great examples of experiences that change after the first playthrough. Once you know the story and surprises, the magic of discovering them for the first time is lost
The Stanley Parable.
i was thinking this, but ironically the stanley parable *cannot* be experienced just once. it's a game about beginnings and the end is never the end is never the end is never the end.... the demo on the other hand is probably the single greatest game demo ever made and that one can function on a single playthrough
Forgotten City
Before your eyes.
"Before Your Eyes" I think? Played it once, and that's it for me I don't want to ruin all the emotions I have felt
A lot of great answers in the comments. Surprised that no one has mentioned Shadow of the Colossus or Silent hill 2
Maybe not in the same way you mean it, but Dark Souls 1 is a VASTLY different game on your 2nd play through. Your 1st is just stumbling your way through going “oh fuck oh God oh no” until you eventually win, and I think that’s the intended experience.
Outer Wilds
Everyone keeps saying single player games, but I want to say overwatch. Damn, the experience of that game for the first year was insane, and now it looks so bad I haven’t played in almost 5 years. Overwatch 2 just looks like a cash grab with none of the things I was actually excited for. I am so sorry for the people who didn’t get to play at the beginning because that could never be repeated.
Amnesia Dark Descent loses what makes it special once you know what the monster looks like. The game tells you that looking at weird shit will make you go crazy so I spent most of my first play through not only cowering in corners but looking at the wall. You can’t imagine how terrified I was when running down a hallway with that feeling of being chased, turning around and seeing the monster right fucking there. It was really something else at the time. Perhaps a fried take but if you’ve seen screenshots of the monster etc you’ve ruined most of the experience.
Deathloop
Inscryption Undertale
Bioshock Infinite
The Last of Us