Which games blow your mind, but only if you know nothing about them in advance?
Best examples I can think of are:
- Outer Wilds
- Doki Doki Literature Club
- The Stanley Parable
What are yours?
(please no spoilers)
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Subnautica I guess
Surprised I haven’t seen Undertale yet. The online fanbase is hilariously toxic, (seriously, don’t go looking for any extra details about the game after you finish it) but it’s a solid game that should be experienced 100% blind. All I’ll say is that it’s a game that is written to subvert expectations; If you go into it expecting to play it like a traditional RPG, you’ll be in for a big surprise.
+1 for Outer Wilds
The real answer will always be Outer Wilds.
But also…
Fez. It definitely inspired Animal Well and Tunic.
I dislike two types of games the most: >!ones that make me replay the same thing and puzzles!<.
(very minor spoiler)Outer Wilds is amazing. Top of my list if an alien landed on our plannet and had time to try one game only.
ANIMAL WELL
What a treat of a game. That feeling of discovery made me feel like I was 10 years old
Pony island, 0,75 cent on sale right now on steam.
Outer Wilds.
Nobody said Firewatch yet?
I’ll also add To The Moon as well. I could list more, but almost any game where narrative is the main focus and gameplay is secondary.
Return to the Obra Dinn, you are a insurance auditor
I wish I could erase all my memories of Obra Dinn, just so I could experience it again for the first time 🥺 Also that soundtrack slaps!
Way to make me feel old, I don’t know any of those games.
Where’s my late 90s early 2000s gamers at?
I’m going to nominate:
- Fallout (1997) for plot twists and introducing (to me at least) open world role playing.
- Fallout 2 (1998) for further plot twists
- Max Payne (2001) for stealing bullet time from the matrix and putting it in a game
- Mafia (2002) for being a kick ass game that would blow your mind, by making 6 hours of your night disappear, and not lifting the lid on that plot twist before you heard the birds start singing, and realize that you should probably hit the shower and get to school.
If Fallout introduced you to open world RPG’s, that means you missed Daggerfall.
Arguably the greatest open world RPG of all time.
That was the game that absolutely, completely blew my mind with its openness, freedom, and scale (none of which were matched by any following TES game).
Well worth blocking the phone line for an entire night and running up a phone bill that’ll get you yelled at by your parents, to download the 140MB installer.Luckily today, it’s available for free:
https://www.gog.com/de/game/the_elder_scrolls_chapter_ii_daggerfall
Dark Souls and Return of the Obra Dinn have already been mentioned, but I’ll also recommend Universal Paperclips. These also happen to be my favorite 3 games.
Brothers - A Tale of Two Sons
An astonishingly good story line that can only be really appreciated blind.
For those of you who remember TotalBiscuit, he rated this as one of his favourite games.
Maybe literally the only game that’s ever done storytelling through gameplay mechanics-- really cool concept
Death Stranding would like a word…
haven’t played it-- how do the mechanics change with the story?
Honestly… I would say that the game fits with the theme of the original post, and explaining it would ruin the magic.
I will say that not only do the mechanics change based on the story, but there is an entire asynchronous online system where users help other users (that they will never see or meet in game) to construct be infrastructure to make travel for others (they will never see or meet) easier.
Then those mechanics feed back into the actual story. It’s kind of wild.
I know it’s a divisive game, but I will say it’s a masterpiece imo. Even if only for those mechanics.
And yes, the controls change based on how the load you’re carrying is balanced. I believe the definitive way to play is the Definitive Edition on PS5 with the DualSense controller since the adaptive triggers become harder to press as your load increases.
a lot of games do this?
sorry, badly phrased-- I was trying not to give away the mechanic. In the game the literal controls on your keyboard/controller get altered in order to advance the story
Gods Will Be Watching and The Red Strings Club
Spec Ops: The Line
Subnautica. You can only play it for the first time once.
Absolutely this. I am jealous each time I recommend it to someone who hasn’t played it yet.
I’m glad there was a thread about Subnautica in here.
absolutely stunning, especially if one has any kind of decent audio system
I tried it a few years ago and gave up after an hour of not knowing what to do. But I had this week off and tried it again, it I’m really enjoying it this time. It’s not like anything else, and once that initial bump is passed its learning curve is really quite good.
It is one of my all-time favorite games. I have unfortunately played it to death; I’ve run out of stupid challenge runs. The game has a story and uniquely for survival games it has an ending, there’s a Win The Game button. But the game is as much about the story you’re going to create; the way you choose to go about things, the order you decide to explore in, the happenstances of your adventure are maybe more important than what the wiki says the story is. Savor that.
I will offer this hint. I don’t think it’s a spoiler; I think there is a strong possibility this hint will prevent you from alt-tabbing out to look up the wiki and accidentally encounter a spoiler. But I will tag it as a spoiler anyway.
spoiler
If you find yourself without an immediate goal, you’re milling about the ocean thinking “well now what?” Go deeper.
