Games which are way better when played a certain way

[Danbo Jambo]

Risen 2, Deus Ex: HR, Divinity 2: TDKS etc.

There's certain games out there that get a really bad rap, when actually they are tremendously great fun when played right.

Open world and "be anything you want" RPG class elements actually hinder some games IMO, and the above three listed are examples of games where - when played/setup "right" - they are brilliant, but when setup "wrong" I hated them.

Of course, "right" is subjective, but I'd still like to hear some of your recomendations of games which we may overlook or take a dislike to because there's several ways of playing them, but it's worth us persisting to find the right one.

For the 3 above:

Risen 2 - I keep banging on about how much i enjoyed this, but I truly did. The key was getting a firearm asap, and making sure I had a close combat companion with me. With this setup is was far easier to live with the awkward combat, and it made the game very enjoyable.

Deus Ex: HR - I hated this at first. Truly hated it. Then once I accepted that earning XP was more trouble than the boring, stealth/harm-free setup was worth and decided to start killing things it was superb. I found a nice balance between being a bit stealthly, but being a badass wrecking man-machine, and it made the game great.

Divinity 2: TDKS - Archer? Bleeeerrrgh!! Mage? Hmmmmmmm.....OK, but meh. Warrior? Getting there, but it still feels fairly averege. Warrior-Mage? Boom! We have lift-off!! It's a superb RPG in it's own right, like Risen 2 some truly great humour and an awesome atmosphere, but it can get so bogged down playing as the wrong class. The second I got a Warrior-Mage on the go the whole thing lifted big time and I had a whale of a time right through to the very end.

Honourable mention goes to KOA:R - not a classic by any means, but the difference it made when I stuck to the main quests and ignored the labourious side quests was massive. Went from a 4/10 game to a 7.5/10 for me.

I know a lot of these are down to personal tastes, but I'm still interested to hear others in case there are examples of setups which I aint tried yet.

 

[baddude1337]

I feel Morrowind is best played as a magic character, as the melee combat is.... Yeah.

 

[SoreWristed]

On all the elders scrolls games i played as a sneaky archer/thief, but skyrim i had to go with a heavy battle axe.

There is something just so satisfying about charging in headfirst, smashing and slicing everything in immediate range, and angrily shouting at everything else. (try exploring the range of mods that change the shout sounds)

On Oblivion : level your jumping to max, find the slippers of superawesome jumping. Jump in, whack something, jump out, repeat.

 

[Fat Hippo]

Yeah, I kinda screwed myself with Risen 2, cause I thought I'd get into magic, and invested my points accordingly, but it takes ages before you even get access to it, and I gave up before I even got that far, combat was such a slog.

I'd also nominate Planescape: Torment. That game is much better with high int/wis/cha scores, due to the additional dialogue options

 

[StriderShinryu]

Pretty much any fighting game. Sure you can have a limited sort of fun when you're just mashing buttons, but the entire genre opens up exponentially when you actually start learning the game and trying to get better instead. There's so much depth in almost every fighting game these days that they keep players progressing in knowledge and skill for years (and even decades in some cases) and yet so many people refuse to actually play them properly, which leads them to completely incorrect judgements.

 

[farscythe]

ncg: wreckfest racing clean...between the tricky handling and the fact that a single good hit will ruin your race.. its by far the best racing game ive ever played clean.

i dont care that its called wreckfest ive seen the light

 

[The Wykydtron]

Pretty much any fighting game. Sure you can have a limited sort of fun when you're just mashing buttons, but the entire genre opens up exponentially when you actually start learning the game and trying to get better instead. There's so much depth in almost every fighting game these days that they keep players progressing in knowledge and skill for years (and even decades in some cases) and yet so many people refuse to actually play them properly, which leads them to completely incorrect judgements.

The hell do you mean incorrect judgements?


I mean there is no possible way for this to fail, this carried me to Eighth Cosmic Lord you know.

OT: I suppose I might throw out some League advice. Don't play to win cuz you will never have fun with games you lose if the win itself is all you're in it for. This goes for fighting games too actually, I was once so caught up in winning when first starting UMVC3 I was having zero fun with the game, why was I so obsessed? It's just a rank, is it worth ruining a perfectly fun game over a simple number?

This goes for League and fighting games or anything really, i'm not saying to not win. I'm saying that don't make winning the be all end all of the game. Never be the guy who goes "gg 40 minutes of my life wasted because we lost"

My advice for League is 1. play to not lose 2. don't rage, unbind the open chat key if you can't help but rage 3. rely on yourself and possibly your premades and treat all teammates as being bad before proven decent 4. It is NOT your mid laner's god given right for Blue Buff and if he wants it and he doesn't use mana you tell him to fuck right off. Last time I checked, I was the jungler and hell if i'm giving blue to a 0/2 mid. Finally try to respect your team, even the 0/9 soon to be 0/10 Jax top lane. Try being the key word.

Also don't play solo queue bot lane. It's probably the most depressing lane to have. Even though it's supposed to be a lane where the carries farm for the first 15 minutes it turns into TDM, 4v4 towerdives every other game.

This is why I main Sion now. Every time a Sion presses R it's guaranteed to be fun for everyone.

 

[tippy2k2]

Sniper Elite III

It says it is a stealth game. It is a liar. Do not believe Sniper Elite III when it tells you this. I tried it for about half the game before I said "fuck it" and decided to just shoot everyone rather than sneak my way around (I still did it stealthfully like waiting for the loud noises and whatnot).

It became a much much MUCH better game once I let myself off the stealth leash and just murdered every Nazi I ran into. I always did my best to still be stealthy about it but rather than try to sneak by and get caught by the Nazi with super powers seeing through the boulder that doesn't actually exist 100m away that I'm lying down behind and then telling every Nazi within a mile radius that I'm there instantly via telekinesis, I just shot him in the back of the head when he turned around.

Made the game much better

 

[StriderShinryu]

Pretty much any fighting game. Sure you can have a limited sort of fun when you're just mashing buttons, but the entire genre opens up exponentially when you actually start learning the game and trying to get better instead. There's so much depth in almost every fighting game these days that they keep players progressing in knowledge and skill for years (and even decades in some cases) and yet so many people refuse to actually play them properly, which leads them to completely incorrect judgements.

The hell do you mean incorrect judgements?

Not sure if this is a serious question or not, but I mainly mean stuff like what Yahtzee trotted out in one of his recent articles. He's come to the completely incorrect belief that fighting games are all about memorizing super long complicated finger twisting controller inputs and that, even if you somehow do actually get good at the game (obviously just by mastering those impossible controls and not actually by learning to play), you'll still get beaten by someone who is just mashing buttons. Anyone who actually makes some sort of effort to understand fighting games knows that those two beliefs are completely wrong.

 

[Neverhoodian]

"Fat Scout" Heavy in Team Fortress 2.

Miniguns are for squares. Give Sasha a well-deserved break and go shotgun/melee only. What you lose in damage output you gain in mobility. I equip my Fat Scout with the Fists of Steel for extra tankiness from incoming fire. Alternate melee choices are Gloves of Running Urgently for more speed, Killing Gloves of Boxing for crits or Holiday Punch for the lawls.

 

[Chester Rabbit]

Skyrim is 100% better when played as a stealth game.

 

[Dalisclock]

Play the Saints Row games like you're an up and coming SuperVillian(ess). For bonus points, when you're playing 3 and 4, find the most awesome, silly costume to complete the illusion. Totally puts the silliness and OOTness of 3 and 4 in much better perspective.

For bonus points, assume the Boss's start of darkness and root of his/her psychotic destructive behavour is a result of brain damage resulting from the massive explosion at the end of SR1 and the resulting 5 year coma. It's amazing how well this glues the entire series together.

 

[Yellowbeard]

Metro 2033 played as a roguelike (if you die, game over) on Ranger Hardcore.

Someday I'll make it through the amoeba nest...

 

[Ihateregistering1]

Man, already Ninja'd about 4 times, but I'll add my vote to it as well: Skyrim is drastically better as a stealth game. I tried it as a melee character and magic character and was bored to tears, but playing as a stealth character was a blast. I thought the game had a much greater sense of progression and I could really feel my character's stealth and assassin skills get slowly better and better.

Also already mentioned, but Planescape: Torment is much better if you focus on intelligence and wisdom instead of strength, endurance, etc.

Dishonored: I pretty much ignored all the abilities that make you better in combat, make your guns better, etc. and focused entirely on being a bad-ass Steampunk Ninja.

 

[Sable Gear]

Dark Souls is pretty wicked when played to a custom soundtrack of jammin' swing music, but I don't think that counts...

The strange yet wonderful indie game OFF is best played as a weird tangential allegory for every modern anxiety from getting enough sleep to overworking to dieting, and the brutal but unattainable satisfaction that would come from solving all life's problems with a baseball bat. Or maybe that's just me reading too much into it?

Binding of Isaac is best played for the weird meditative state bullet-hell games induce in experienced players. I actually do runs to relax.

Half-Life 2 works nicely if you really get into the role of the messianic anarchist revolutionary, rather than someone just kind of dragged into the conflict who happens to be unkillable.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Dark Souls (and all the souls games really) should only be played as melee characters. You have the option of being a sorcerer, or a cleric, or whatever else, but you should actually either ignore magic entirely or use it VERY sparingly. The game is built around melee combat and killing everything using spells just makes things kind of boring.

 

[regalphantom]

Morrowind should be played as a mage or a thief. First person melee combat with RNG elements doesn't really work.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution should be played without using the Typhoon. That thing just makes certain parts of the game too easy.

Super Smash Bros should be played with Stock, no exceptions. The number of stock should scale with the number of people playing.

Pokemon X&Y/ORAS: As soon as you get the exp. share, turn it off. It just makes you get over-leveled faster and makes the rest of the game too easy (my one complaint about X&Y and ORAS is that if they are introducing tools like super-training, farmable cafes and using the Pokenav Plus to find good IVs and hidden abilities, they should at least make it so that the game is more difficult)

 

[SmallHatLogan]

I found Bioshock to be a decent but not particular noteworthy game (in terms of gameplay), then I decided to equip all the tonics that increase your wrench damage. Pretty much just played a plasmid/wrench user from then on and had a blast doing it.

Dark Souls - strength build all the way, baby. First couple of times through Demon's and Dark Souls I mostly used fast weapons and dabbled in a bit of magic. Then I did my first strength character. What a revelation. It was so much fun and so satisfying knocking enemies around with weapons that were about the same size as my character. I don't only play strength characters because it would get a bit old but it's definitely my favourite build.

 

[The Wykydtron]

I found Bioshock to be a decent but not particular noteworthy game (in terms of gameplay), then I decided to equip all the tonics that increase your wrench damage. Pretty much just played a plasmid/wrench user from then on and had a blast doing it.

Yo, Bioshock 2. Full Drill playthrough. The moment you get the charge attack and some good Drill tonics and upgrades you're set for the most fun way to play the game. It's surprisingly effective too, must be one of those moves that increase in damage the more Gurren Lagann references you shout at the screen.

Pretty much any fighting game. Sure you can have a limited sort of fun when you're just mashing buttons, but the entire genre opens up exponentially when you actually start learning the game and trying to get better instead. There's so much depth in almost every fighting game these days that they keep players progressing in knowledge and skill for years (and even decades in some cases) and yet so many people refuse to actually play them properly, which leads them to completely incorrect judgements.

The hell do you mean incorrect judgements?

Not sure if this is a serious question or not, but I mainly mean stuff like what Yahtzee trotted out in one of his recent articles. He's come to the completely incorrect belief that fighting games are all about memorizing super long complicated finger twisting controller inputs and that, even if you somehow do actually get good at the game (obviously just by mastering those impossible controls and not actually by learning to play), you'll still get beaten by someone who is just mashing buttons. Anyone who actually makes some sort of effort to understand fighting games knows that those two beliefs are completely wrong.

I thought the joke would be obvious since I linked an April Fools video by one of the best Dante players around and the only Phoenix Wright player in professional play (or ever really, aside from myself)

Yeah I think the only correct thing Yahtzee has ever said on fighting games is that the AI in Soul Calibur 4 is utterly baffled by the throw button. You only get beaten by people mashing buttons if you underestimate them and combos mean less than everyone thinks. Hell my favourite Persona 4 Arena doesn't bother with combos much at all, someone who does nothing but variations on the autocombo can beat someone who has the longest combo in the world easy because they know how to corner pressure with fucking Chie ohmygodplsstopwhy