Looking over this, it seems like I’m drawn to games that have either unusually good writing, very long skill curves, or (e.g., #1) both.
UT2004 sneaks in for being the absolute best LAN-party game ever (fight me). I think Link’s Awakening is mostly just nostalgia though. 😋
Edit: bumped UT2004 down to “honorable mention” because I somehow forgot the billion hours I’ve sunk into Satisfactory. Still very curious to see where that game goes story-wise after the 1.0 launch, though.
Funny story about that one: my first time playing it, I actually found it a bit too… visceral, and had to stop after getting a couple hours in - I only came back to play it all the way through several years later.
In the intervening time, I learned that one of the developers, when asked whether the game had a “good ending”, said something along the lines of “that’s when the player stops playing in disgust”.
It’s also just an incredible deconstruction of the “modern warfare” shooter genre. It screams at the player, “hey, hold up a sec, think about those people you’re shooting”.
I think it’s part of why the only other shooters I like are TF2 and the Borderlands series, both of which frame the violence with a distinctly fantastical, escapist setting, intentionally distancing the game from reality.
Roughly in order, I think:
Honorable mention:
Looking over this, it seems like I’m drawn to games that have either unusually good writing, very long skill curves, or (e.g., #1) both.
UT2004 sneaks in for being the absolute best LAN-party game ever (fight me). I think Link’s Awakening is mostly just nostalgia though. 😋
Edit: bumped UT2004 down to “honorable mention” because I somehow forgot the billion hours I’ve sunk into Satisfactory. Still very curious to see where that game goes story-wise after the 1.0 launch, though.
Can’t stop playing FTL years later.
Weirdly Monster Train has a similar flavor to me in play style.
Spec ops is amazing
Funny story about that one: my first time playing it, I actually found it a bit too… visceral, and had to stop after getting a couple hours in - I only came back to play it all the way through several years later.
In the intervening time, I learned that one of the developers, when asked whether the game had a “good ending”, said something along the lines of “that’s when the player stops playing in disgust”.
Guess I got the good ending.
Its a great anti war message marketed to the pro war gamers.
It’s also just an incredible deconstruction of the “modern warfare” shooter genre. It screams at the player, “hey, hold up a sec, think about those people you’re shooting”.
I think it’s part of why the only other shooters I like are TF2 and the Borderlands series, both of which frame the violence with a distinctly fantastical, escapist setting, intentionally distancing the game from reality.