The [single player] game the sticks in your head and keeps drawing you back in

[Old_Hunter_77]

... or, why I'm replaying Sekiro despite (because?) it giving me high blood pressure.

You ever have a game that parks itself in your brain like an unwelcome house guest and just lives there no matter what else you're playing.

FromSoftware games are the only ones where I grit my teeth and completed them. Normally I like to play games in easy mode.
Probably due to listening to Escapist stuff and the hype of Elden Ring, part of me has been craving a little git gud gaming again.
Sekiro in particular has this combat that I freaking love, with the parrying and timing. It's also so goddamn hard I can't believe I'm putting myself through crap like the Guardian Ape again.

I recently completed a mini-spree of indy games: Unpacking, The Forgotten City, The Artful Escape, Genesis Noir. I've also started Inscryption (my latest attempt to try to get into a CCG). All this stuff is good, it's great, quirky and interesting and artistic and beautiful, but meanwhile a tiny part of me is thinking parry-deflect-mikiri counter.

As I'm struggling through the Hirata Estate gank squad led by fat boy the drunk yesterday I'm thinking "my good why am I doing this to myself." Sometimes a game can be like that boy/girlfriend you shouldn't be with, but you can't help but go back.

Tell me about yours. Keep it to single-player please because playing games with other people is a whole other thing. I'm more interested in what about the gameplay, design or mechanics of a game has you obsessed and coming back.

 

[BrawlMan]

• Devil May Cry 1, 3, and 5.
• Bayonetta 2
• Streets of Rage 4
• FEAR
• Crysis 2 & 3
• Bulletstorm
• Serious Sam: 2nd Encounter
• Gungrave
• Donkey Kong: Tropical Freeze
• Rayman Legends
• Vanquish

 

[NovaLight]

Mass Effect - complete

The games are awesome the story is pretty straightforward. But what really gets me was that it’s a sci-fi drama that I got into with each world and species. Hell even Andromeda has its moments.

Infinite Undiscovery - incomplete
and the vain of my existence

Infinite is a bad JRPG game. Bad voice acting, audio sound and gameplay. But I can explain why I still want to complete it. e I’m at a point where I’m planning to buy a Xbox 360 just to play and complete that damn thing.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

Mass Effect - complete

The games are awesome the story is pretty straightforward. But what really gets me was that it’s a sci-fi drama that I got into with each world and species. Hell even Andromeda has its moments.

Mass Effect is so good, I don't know if I ever want to replay it. I mean, it's just this nice little (well, 3 games long) epic that felt perfectly wrapped up as an experience.

I played it because it was described to me as a "playable Babylon 5," which, yeah, 'cause of the various space civilizations as you describe.

I think the main thing stopping me from a replay is that shooting is just the most boring type of combat mechanic in games for me. Mass Effect is like Tomb Raider or Uncharted- I just wanna get that boring pew pew out of the way to get back to the story and environments.
Then again, there is the remasters, so that could entice me back. And also I would be curious to see if I can do a renegade run.

 

[NovaLight]

Mass Effect is so good, I don't know if I ever want to replay it. I mean, it's just this nice little (well, 3 games long) epic that felt perfectly wrapped up as an experience.

I played it because it was described to me as a "playable Babylon 5," which, yeah, 'cause of the various space civilizations as you describe.

I think the main thing stopping me from a replay is that shooting is just the most boring type of combat mechanic in games for me. Mass Effect is like Tomb Raider or Uncharted- I just wanna get that boring pew pew out of the way to get back to the story and environments.
Then again, there is the remasters, so that could entice me back. And also I would be curious to see if I can do a renegade run.

Yeeeaaahh the combate is very random. I think ME2 mange balance combate with story. Not to far off as Skyrim where there is barely any cut scenes or pause for the story or Metal Gear where there (from what I hear) too much cut scenes that it’s basically a movie

 

[Agema]

Lords of Midnight & Doomdark's Revenge
Wizardry 8

That's about it, I guess, unless you count Elite: Dangerous (as I play it in solo mode, although it can be played MMO) that I drift in and out of playing. There's usually enough out there to keep me busy with new stuff. I used to pop back to Medieval Total War (1) occasionally, but it's been a very long time since I last played it.

 

[Gordon_4]

Mass Effect is so good, I don't know if I ever want to replay it. I mean, it's just this nice little (well, 3 games long) epic that felt perfectly wrapped up as an experience.

I played it because it was described to me as a "playable Babylon 5," which, yeah, 'cause of the various space civilizations as you describe.

I think the main thing stopping me from a replay is that shooting is just the most boring type of combat mechanic in games for me. Mass Effect is like Tomb Raider or Uncharted- I just wanna get that boring pew pew out of the way to get back to the story and environments.
Then again, there is the remasters, so that could entice me back. And also I would be curious to see if I can do a renegade run.

Legendary Edition fixes the combat in ME1 so non-solider classes aren’t massively penalised because that stupid weapon skill requirement is gone and the aim being shit is also gone. So and Adept can aim and fire any gun as well as the Soldier can, just the Adept won’t get the ranks for bonus damage or powers for untrained weapons. But you can aim and shoot them unimpeded now. It’s almost as if Shepard is an elite military operative or something.

 

[CriticalGaming]

Final Fan.....you know what....You kno wwhat fucking game it is. I'm not even gonna bother saying it again.

Mass Effect - complete

The games are awesome the story is pretty straightforward. But what really gets me was that it’s a sci-fi drama that I got into with each world and species. Hell even Andromeda has its moments.

Having marathoned the trilogy earlier this year...errr LAST year, I enjoyed replaying them but I don't think they are overall as great of games as people make them out to be. This playthrough left me noticing so much nonsensical plot holey bullshit that just pulled me out of a lot of it. And the formula between ME2 and 3 got noticably repetitive. Still they are good games, but I don't think I'd ever be pulled to play them over again.

Though i do want to give Andromeda a second chance.

 

[meiam]

... or, why I'm replaying Sekiro despite (because?) it giving me high blood pressure.

You ever have a game that parks itself in your brain like an unwelcome house guest and just lives there no matter what else you're playing.

FromSoftware games are the only ones where I grit my teeth and completed them. Normally I like to play games in easy mode.
Probably due to listening to Escapist stuff and the hype of Elden Ring, part of me has been craving a little git gud gaming again.
Sekiro in particular has this combat that I freaking love, with the parrying and timing. It's also so goddamn hard I can't believe I'm putting myself through crap like the Guardian Ape again.

I recently completed a mini-spree of indy games: Unpacking, The Forgotten City, The Artful Escape, Genesis Noir. I've also started Inscryption (my latest attempt to try to get into a CCG). All this stuff is good, it's great, quirky and interesting and artistic and beautiful, but meanwhile a tiny part of me is thinking parry-deflect-mikiri counter.

As I'm struggling through the Hirata Estate gank squad led by fat boy the drunk yesterday I'm thinking "my good why am I doing this to myself." Sometimes a game can be like that boy/girlfriend you shouldn't be with, but you can't help but go back.

Tell me about yours. Keep it to single-player please because playing games with other people is a whole other thing. I'm more interested in what about the gameplay, design or mechanics of a game has you obsessed and coming back.

Sound like you should play more game on higher difficulty, maybe you don't so much like the soul game as you like being challenge and actually having to learn to play the game rather than playing on difficulty so low it might as well be a cutscene. Nothing wrong with easy game, but its pretty much impossible to appreciate finely crafted gameplay/mechanic/encounter when everything is so easy you bulldoze over it.

I dunno if it work for topic, but I just replayed trough thread of fate/dewprism for probably the 20th time cause its just so delightful and I adore Mint (one of the two protagonist) she's such a spoiled asshole but the writing ooze so much charm that its impossible not to like her and every characters. Sadly, speaking of difficulty, the game is super easym so even trough the game has some fin mechanic, like 30 different magic, there's never really any reason to use them since jump kicking ennemy will kill everything in 1-2 hits.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

Sound like you should play more game on higher difficulty, maybe you don't so much like the soul game as you like being challenge and actually having to learn to play the game rather than playing on difficulty so low it might as well be a cutscene. Nothing wrong with easy game, but its pretty much impossible to appreciate finely crafted gameplay/mechanic/encounter when everything is so easy you bulldoze over it.

Sure sometimes I like a challenge but I find most high difficulty settings are not fun challenges, just annoying. I think FromSoftware benefits from tailoring their experiences to one specific challenge and without difficulty settings it IS the game. The reason I play most games on easy mode is because I just don't find the mechanics compelling enough to merit repeated attempts or enemy health sponges. Sekiro's mechanics are so unique that it makes me want to try again and again.

The only game I beat on highest difficulty is Witcher 3 just because it's my favorite game and it gets too easy even for me after a bit.

 

[Zykon TheLich]

Total Warhammer 2. So many cunning ways to play in the battles, and there's a fair few tricks and little bits of mechanics to get to know on the campaign map too. Watching Legend of Total War on YouTube has given me a new appreciation for the intricacies of it all.
I love the game anyway, but mechanically there is a lot to it

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

I used to play the hell out of SNES classics like Super Mario World and Zelda: A Link to the Past. I’d listen to the radio and play through dungeons to the point of knowing them like the back of my hand. Same kinda went for F-Zero and Mario Kart to a lesser extent, because it was so fun to eek out a few tenths of a second better times and perfect the shortcuts.

The original Resident Evil 2 is the only one in the series I ever enjoyed enough to S rank, just through sheer repetition. Yeah, I need to give the Remake another go too.

Castlevania: SotN is my all time favorite metroidvania, and the soundtrack plays no small part in that.

Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune is one of the last games I’ve found very charming and nostalgic to go back to, even though the sequel outdid it in many ways. I really should install the ND Collection and check out the remastered version soon.

I also still haven’t gotten tired of RDR2. Its incredibly ambient game world is like digital therapy in a way. I think the strong possibility that it might be the last of its kind only adds to the appeal.

I’ve also put a lot of time into SoulsBorne, but with the asynchronous multiplayer aspect these may not technically qualify. I’ve played Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls offline the most but that was mainly to get the platinums before moving onto sequels and Sekiro.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

I generally never replay games but:

Arkham Knight - One of the few games I have reinstalled. Everything is just so satisfying. The gliding, the combat, the stealth. It's never deep or particularly challenging, but it's just so seamless. Like riding a bike downhill.

The Witcher 3 - I have yet to go back to it, but I want to. The scenery and music just really pull you in. When the soundtrack kicks in while you're galloping on Roach across the plains where a battle took place and the sun is setting... Magnificent. I genuinely become emotional, which is not something I can say for most games.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Nethack. I often think about the game even when I haven't played it for a long time, and if i ever see individual colored letters my mind goes immediately to what they represent in Nethack.

bbb
b@N
f ^

(Pictured above the player surrounded by 4 killer bees, a red naga hatchling, and a kitten, with a magic trap in the bottom middle -- a scenario responsible for many deaths of low level wizards early in my Nethack career.) Nethack was probably the deepest, best designed game I'd ever played when I found it in 2013 and still ranks very highly with me today.

I don't actually really want to play the game again because it's quite a long game and I've beaten it enough times that my playstyle has become relatively solidified beyond the early game, but I'm not gonna say I'm not tempted every now and again.

 

[Worgen]

Halo series. I know it has multi but as far as I'm concerned, multi is just a bit of extra icing on the cake. I really enjoy them for their single player and have played through them all (aside from 4 and 5... and halo wars and wars 2) multiple times and still need to finish going through them all on legendary for the MCC.

Hedon, such a great game, I've beaten the first chapter like 4 times and I need to start a run on the second on Bearzerker mode.

 

[laggyteabag]

Definitely the Mass Effect trilogy.

I love the world, I love the characters, and I enjoy the gameplay. I pretty much make the same choices every time, because I cannot stomach the idea of a Renegade playthrough, but as soon as I finish one playthrough, I just wanna start again, but with a different squad, to see all of the alternative dialogue options.

The games aren't perfect, but I find them so comforting to play through again.
-------
The Halo series.

Moreso the Bungie games than the 343 ones. The levels are just great. Each level in each game offers a great diversity in terms of enemy selection, weapon selection, environments, and overall focus. So whatever I am in the mood for, there is always level that will entertain me.

The games are short enough too, where I can easily complete one in a few hours, and move on.
-------
Otherwise, just a load of Roguelikes/Roguelites.

FTL, Slay the Spire, Into the Breach, Hades, etc.

These games are made to be replayable, and are meant to be replayed effectively endlessly. I have a bunch loaded on my Switch, and it is great for travelling, because I can just hop into any of them over the course of a journey, without needing to be bogged down with the story, or a previous save, or anything like that.

Arkham Knight - One of the few games I have reinstalled. Everything is just so satisfying. The gliding, the combat, the stealth. It's never deep or particularly challenging, but it's just so seamless. Like riding a bike downhill.

Im glad im not the only one.

Arkham Knight is generally always installed, just because jumping into the challenge mode and pummelling some goons is just so satisfying in this game.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

I used to play the hell out of SNES classics like Super Mario World and Zelda: A Link to the Past. I’d listen to the radio and play through dungeons to the point of knowing them like the back of my hand. Same kinda went for F-Zero and Mario Kart to a lesser extent, because it was so fun to eek out a few tenths of a second better times and perfect the shortcuts.

Oh man me too. The time in my young life when I was starting to pay attention to music and lyrics, and listening to 92.3 and 104.3 in NYC while re-running Link to the Past and trying to beat my time. It's for sure the first and best game where I just played and over and over to the point where I could just dictate exactly where to go and what to do in my sleep.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

The Witcher 3 - I have yet to go back to it, but I want to. The scenery and music just really pull you in. When the soundtrack kicks in while you're galloping on Roach across the plains where a battle took place and the sun is setting... Magnificent. I genuinely become emotional, which is not something I can say for most games.

And how in the last post I talked about Link to the Past as the game where I could never get tired of just replaying, Witcher 3 evokes that same feeling now as an adult. I don't even know how many times I've replayed, most times with clearing all the ?'s and winning all the cards. It's me chill game for sure. I know this makes me weird- it's a single player story game and once you've seen a couple of endings there's really no logical reason to replay it. But I freaking love it.

 

[Kyrian007]

Yeah it happens a lot with various random games. The whole Fallout series, I'm replaying NV right now. Every once in a while I'll dust off the SNES or N64 or Gamecube and retrogame. Zelda or Fire Emblem every other year or so. I'll go back to Stardew Valley or My Time at Portia every now and again. Really, multiplayer games don't have the same kind of replayability for me. About the only one I can think of is Minecraft... and about half the time I'm playing it solo. Actually strangely I'll go back to Far Cry Blood Dragon or 5 every so often. Blood Dragon just because it is pure joy and cheese, and 5 because I love shooting 2nd amendment loving religious nuts.

 

[Satinavian]

Europa Universalis IV