Great games to play without spoilers

bartholen_v1legacy

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I just realized a moment ago that I've missed a ton of the greatest plot twists and surprises in gaming because of the internet. Especially recently with the rise in popularity of streaming, it seems getting spoiled about these things is easier than ever. I knew the twist in Bioshock years before I played it. I got spoiled thoroughly about Undertale's genocide run ahead of time. Doki Doki Literature Club. Knights of the Old Republic. Bioshock Infinite. I'm pretty sure I know what happens at the end of Telltale's Walking Dead despite never even watching a Let's Play of it.

So I'd like recommendations of particularly spoiler-vulnerable games (meaning giving certain elements away from the plot or the game itself changes one's experience fundamentally compared to experiencing it blind), because for once I'd like to experience something of the sort totally by myself. You can just leave game titles and the genre if you want, don't say if it's to do with the story, gameplay, structure or anything.
 

Drathnoxis

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Nethack. But playing it without spoilers would actually be really, really tough.
 

Arnoxthe1

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In order of personal recommendation:

The Beginner's Guide. Made by Davey Wreden. That's all I can and probably all I should say about it.

The Talos Principle. A puzzle game to rival Portal 1 and 2.

Riven. A sequel to Myst. Widely agreed as the best in the Myst series. It's kinda low-res now but as long as you can deal with that, it still holds up VERY well considering and doesn't look like CGI ass like Myst now does.

Antichamber's really cool as well. All the way until the shit ending that is super anti-climatic. And trust me. I'm telling you that to redeem the quality of the game, not to spoil it, so you won't be let down later.

Divinity: Original Sin 2. The Neverwinter Nights 2 we should have gotten.

The Stanley Parable if you haven't played that yet. Just a ton of laughs as long as you don't take it too seriously.

Tyranny if you can stomach the RPG inventory management.

Dust: An Elysian Tale is supposed to be good for story but I haven't played it yet. I'll return to you on that one.

Consortium is supposed to have a really amazing story, but the load times are atrocious and it could never really hold my interest. Maybe it will be different for you.

The Walking Dead. I swear, people won't shut up about it even though it looks like another dreary ho-hum zombie drama to me, so maybe check that out.

EDIT: I finished it. Dust: An Elysian Tail is indeed a very good game. It's basically Banjo-Kazooie meets Ninja Gaiden but 2D. Definitely recommend it.
 

Johnny Novgorod

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Spec Ops: The Line.
Batman: Arkham City.
Red Dead Redemption.
BioShock and BioShock: Infinite.
About every Silent Hill - Silent Hill 2 in particular.
 

Worgen

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Shadowrun Dragon fall and Hong Kong. They are very story heavy games that could be messed up by spoilers since player choice plays a big role.

Oh oh oh, UNDERTALE. If you are lucky enough to have not heard anything about it then don't look it up. Its one of those games that is great to go into totally blind.
 

Saelune

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Worgen said:
Oh oh oh, UNDERTALE. If you are lucky enough to have not heard anything about it then don't look it up. Its one of those games that is great to go into totally blind.
You're more likely to have never heard of the sun.
 

Neurotic Void Melody

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Hmmm... MGSV? [small]*Chortle*[/small] certainly a twist there, for better or worse. Tee, and indeed, hee.

>Observer - some stuff I'd imagine not been outed in pop-meme culture yet.

Resi 7? Am not really a follower of what has been popularly spoiled online to be honest, so kinda lazily spitballing from a half-working, malfunctioning mind. Was i zombies all along?

Ooh! Time to shill predictably; Horizon Zero Dawn. For you see...Was robots the real dinosaurs all this time??

Oxenfree? Can't actually remember if there was a twist in this, but it feels like there should be, so am throwing it out here just for good measure anyway. Are twists plot reveals or delicious fruit ice-creams? Probably best not to ask around these parts.
 

TheFinish

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Xsjadoblayde said:
Oxenfree? Can't actually remember if there was a twist in this, but it feels like there should be, so am throwing it out here just for good measure anyway. Are twists plot reveals or delicious fruit ice-creams? Probably best not to ask around these parts.
Oh it does. And it's a great one too. Plus the game is great overall, if you like Adventure Games.

In the same vein, I'll throw in The Fall and The Sexy Brutale.
 

Squilookle

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More than anything else:

Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven [https://www.gog.com/game/mafia]
 

bartholen_v1legacy

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Drathnoxis said:
Nethack. But playing it without spoilers would actually be really, really tough.
Well, that goes on my list then. I've heard the name but nothing else. Thanks. Or do you mean not knowing anything about the game makes it really difficult?
Johnny Novgorod said:
Spec Ops: The Line.
Batman: Arkham City.
Red Dead Redemption.
BioShock and BioShock: Infinite.
About every Silent Hill - Silent Hill 2 in particular.
All save for Silent Hill played and accounted for unfortunately (and I know the twist in Silent Hill 2). Well, I haven't played RDR all the way through, because the open world just feels kind of hollow. The weapons don't feel that different from one another, and the gameplay doesn't seem to evolve at all. I just get kinda bored playing it.

While I did know what Spec Ops: The Line was like way beforehand thanks to Yahtzee's Extra Punctuation about it, I was still taken aback by just how rough and brutal it gets. There were several points where I thought "this is rock bottom. Things can't get any worse from here on out", and then they did. After watching a couple of videos about it I also realized how many incredible details I'd missed about it the first time through. I'll definitely play it again as soon as it hits Steam sales.

Worgen said:
Shadowrun Dragon fall and Hong Kong. They are very story heavy games that could be messed up by spoilers since player choice plays a big role.

Oh oh oh, UNDERTALE. If you are lucky enough to have not heard anything about it then don't look it up. Its one of those games that is great to go into totally blind.
Dude, I mention Undertale in the original post. I've played it through four times, with all the main endings.

Arnoxthe1 said:
The Walking Dead. I swear, people won't shut up about it even though it looks like another dreary ho-hum zombie drama to me, so maybe check that out.
I have the first two seasons installed on my PC, but haven't started playing yet. I just kinda feel like I already know what's going to happen: people have said the ending of the first season made them cry. The second season's promotional art emphasizes the little girl, with the original protagonist nowhere to be seen. It's a zombie setting. Oh gee I wonder what could possibly happen. And if I'm wrong, don't say anything.

Xsjadoblayde said:
Resi 7? Am not really a follower of what has been popularly spoiled online to be honest, so kinda lazily spitballing from a half-working, malfunctioning mind. Was i zombies all along?

Ooh! Time to shill predictably; Horizon Zero Dawn. For you see...Was robots the real dinosaurs all this time??
I watched Pewdiepie's Let's Play of RE7 so that's done for. Good to hear about Horizon Zero Dawn though, I have it installed on my PS4, and am thinking about playing it next. After finishing Undertale's genocide run I don't really have a main game to play right now.
 

Howllons-y

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The best ones I can think of are:

Inside, made by the same guys who did Limbo;
Night in the Woods, a Kickstarted game;
Little Nightmares (plus the three DLC), a Limbo-esque adventure;
The Last Guardian, made by the people who did Shadow of the Colossus;
Subnautica, a survival game on an ocean planet.
 

CaitSeith

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Hatoful Boyfriend (comedic dating simulator)
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy. The three games are full of twists; but the third game (Trials and Tribulations) is the one where the twists change the plot perspective in a more dramatic way.
Portal (first-person puzzle game).
SOMA (first-person horror game). I also put here Amnesia: The Dark Descent and Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs.
Frog Fractions.
 

Ravenbom

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bartholen said:
I got spoiled thoroughly about Undertale's genocide run ahead of time.

Worgen said:
Oh oh oh, UNDERTALE. If you are lucky enough to have not heard anything about it then don't look it up. Its one of those games that is great to go into totally blind.
Mostly for PC:
- David Lynch Teaches Typing (Free)
- Save the Date (Free)
- Analogue: A Hate Story (I played it before it was on Steam, I don't remember if that version is free now, but it's on Steam as well, short visual novel)
- To the Moon (it's on sale all the time, a few bucks RPG maker story based game, no big twist, just good short story game)
- Night in the Woods (great Millennial coming of age story in a small, dying rust-belt town)
- Firewatch (walking sim, short and compelling)
- Gone Home (walking sim, short and compelling)
- Metal Gear Solid V (long AF, but the best in the series gameplay wise, story is mostly on optional tapes)
- Nier: Automata (can be long AF to get all 26 endings)
- Mass Effect (the first one is so hard to play now, garbage combat and Mako driving and inventory compared to ME2&3, but really good story reason to play that fully sets up the series)

- Mario Odyssey (first Mario game where plot actually matters and you don't want to be spoiled by the few surprises)


@OP - You know, you're basically asking for a list of games with story twists... which somewhat defeats the point of playing a game with a story twist. :p
 

bartholen_v1legacy

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Ravenbom said:
- To the Moon (it's on sale all the time, a few bucks RPG maker story based game, no big twist, just good short story game)



@OP - You know, you're basically asking for a list of games with story twists... which somewhat defeats the point of playing a game with a story twist. :p
Man am I glad that I got to experience To the Moon completely blind. When I played it the only thing I knew about it was a review I read in an actual gaming magazine years prior that gave it 93/100 and called it one of the greatest achievements of storytelling in games. I had no idea what the plot was even about, and boy what a ride it was. I'm trying to get myself to play the sequel, Finding Paradise, but that kind of game requires a certain mindset which I'm not at right now.

Twists can be found elsewhere than in stories. In Undertale, for example, there's the whole choice thing, and discovering small surprises like the thing with the Spider Donuts or the Stick.
 

Dreiko_v1legacy

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I don't play any games with spoilers. If I have even a tiny bit of interest in something I avoid spoilers like the plague and I don't have enough time to play any game beyond those that I have a tiny bit or more interest in. It's all a matter of discipline. For example, persona 5 was a game I super looked forward to so I only watched the very first trailer, then did not watch anything at all for years, and then I played the game. I knew less than nothing about the plot and I enjoyed every moment of it.
 

Vanilla ISIS

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The Darkness II - There's a nice plot twist that is subtly hinted at throughout the entire game, the game wasn't popular enough to be spoiled everywhere so I got to experience it genuinely.
Hotline Miami - There are 2 major twists and if you don't know them already, you probably won't see them coming.
Alan Wake - the game is very story driven (with a very good story, would make a decent book) and a lot of things get revealed as the game progresses (I honestly don't know if the game would be as good on the 2nd playthrough now that I know everything that's going on from the start).
 

Trunkage

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Life is Strange had some things early on in particular.

Papers, Please, if you haven't been spoiled somehow on that

Brothers: Tale of Two Sons

Dishonored has a small Game of Thronesesque storyline

INSIDE has a gameplay change as well as story. For that matter, Dishonored 2

Hollow Knight has a Dark Soulsish story, where you're piecing things together. As you'd expect, its full of tragedy.