Submitted 2 months ago by weirdbeardgame@lemmy.world to games@lemmy.world
Metro 2033. Played it in the dark with good surround sound headphones on, and it’s positively claustrophobic.
Last Light is good too, but at little too optimistic IMHO. 2033 nails that endless pit of despair feeling, with just enough lucky breaks that you might make it through.
I would absolutely put that game up high on the lists as it is a perfect piece of atmospheric gameplay of misery incarnate.
Prey, System Shock 2, Outer Wilds, and Undertale are fully-realized microcosms where the primary game is unfolding the complex origami of the setting. All of them absolutely beautiful to experience.
Do you think Return of the Obra Dinn would belong alongside these or is that game too flawed by comparison?
Haven’t actually played these two but from what I gather, they definitely fit the list!
“Abzû”. That’s a hill I’m willing to die on. Got to me even more than Journey or Jusant.
Also, thought very differently, **“Senua Hellblade” **because it perfectly displayed a condition that I could never fit into words.
Sekiro
Few games have such tight game design, story, lore, and characters blended so well into a single experience.
I don’t think I even want or need a sequel.
I tried playing it, but the combat… the combat, man, I can play many games, finished Elden Ring, played ton of CS1.6, Dota 2, Terraria Infernum… but Sekiro I could not finish.
I’ve heard it’s a rhytmic game, but I suck at those, too.
Antichamber
and maybe Portal
Bloodborne Bioshock Hollow Knight
Left4Dead2 (also L4D1)
EXCEPT…for when your computer teammate jumps in front of you while you’re shooting and accosts you for it, then a second later they literally mow down a bunch of infected by shooting through you with no consequences.
So I have to knock it down to a 9.9/10
Immersive sims: Prey, Dishonored, Deus Ex Story-driven: The Last of Us, Horizon Zero Dawn, Halo, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Uncharted, HL2, Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, Splinter Shock Platformer: Braid, Ori and the Blind Forest, Mario 64, Crash Bandicoot, Spyro, Limbo Action/roguelike: Bastion, Hades RPG: Fallout: New Vegas, Mass Effect Puzzle: Lumines, Puzzle Quest, World of Goo, You Must Build a Boat, Reigns, Threes, Meteos Other: Desert Golfing
I always forget how absolutely awesome Escape From Butcher Bay is until I’m reminded of its existence and its shockingly unfair to that game.
I’d kill for a new Riddick game!
Hollow Knight is peak
Chromehounds was the greatest mech game on shitbox 360 and you can’t change my mind.
The sheer variety in player created metas was glorious to behold. Sure, you could play how the game encouraged you to play and hang your weapons in “normal” configurations. But you could also bury whole teams in indirect fire with a triple double from across the map. You could build a little punchy boi buggy with a dick piston, cockpit, wheels, and nothing else. You could even try to sweat the meta in the chicken leg howitzer or the turtle up in the armored crab.
The only limits were creativity and spacer availability lmfaooo
It’s pretty wack that we haven’t since had a game that captures many of the better elements of Chrome hounds.
Nethack
check out Caves of Qud if you’re into NetHack
Indeed!
Is disco Elysium the one with all the talking? Like multiple books worth of text? No thanks
Disco Elysium is definitely closer to the visual novel spectrum of video games than it is to something like Tetris. But make no mistakes, its narrative and impact would be much lessened were it delivered in any other medium. It is absolutely a perfect example of how you use video games to make art.
My biggest issue is I game late at night when everyone else is in bed, so a game like that would knock me out
How do you even begin to care about anything in that game when you are basically mashing buttons for hours and just listening to people complain about how shit life is?
I get its an art piece of living the existence you are thrown into but it feels like a confusing mess even gameplay wise for the starting hours that people that have finished it I feel miss how unfun it is at first.
I didn’t even know why I was now stuck on the other side of a wall in a union dispute and I just couldn’t be bothered to restart the game to try something else after how long it took to get dressed the first time.
Half-Life 2, both Psychonauts games, the Arkham series
I didn’t see these listed so I’m dropping three objective masterpieces here:
For be it’s still System Shock 2
Have you played Prey? Only other game to scratch that same itch for me.
Prey 2017 or Prey 2006?
Sid Meier’s Pirates.
Either version.
I was going to say Sid Meier’s Civilization, but both of them qualifies really.
The Spyro the dragon trilogy for me is just an absolute masterpiece.
Final Fantasy VII, IX and X are three master pieces
Metroid prime and fusion
Fatal Frame trilogy on the PlayStation 2, Forbidden Siren, Silent Hill 2, Resident Evil 2 are amongst the best of the best
I do think the Spyro games are probably the absolute best of the collect-a-thon genre. Joyful and fun and with fun puzzles. I am worried I am too biased to say it though since I have 120%/100%/117% beat the games multiple multiple multiple times.
Hey, you and me man xD
Super Hexagon
It’s about as simple as a ‘modern’ game can be (I read there was even a port of it to Commodore 64.) but it’s a finely tuned machine. When you lose - and you will, a lot - it feels like mostly your own fault and not the game’s.
The difficulty levels very accurately start at Hard for the easiest one. There are 6 total levels, the next 5 difficulties are Harder, Hardest, Hardester, Hardestest, and Hardestestest.
With much time and luck I can beat the first level (unlocking the 4th). On a lost save I had unlocked the 5th level by completing the 2nd, and have only ever seen the 6th in videos from other people. I would have to beat the 3rd to see it myself, and that’s not happening.
The criteria to beat a level is “last for 60 seconds”.
It’s really good, I played it again recently after not touching it for maybe 10 years, and finally beat the last difficulty in an attempt to prove to myself I’m still not old
Super. Hexagon.
It’s hard to explain the relief I felt upon beating the last level. I can fairly easily survive for 300s in the first one, but I’ve never gotten close to beating the last one again.
There’s also a “spiritual successor” called Open Hexagon that’s extendable by the community if you want more, though I haven’t played it myself.
I’ll have to try that vsync thing when I get a new PC (laptop)
Braid. Surprised that it wasn’t mentioned yet
Half-life 3
Nobody can answer that question objectively.
Minesweeper.
Simple, endlessly playable.
• Sonic the Hedgehog ( Genesis/Mega Drive )
• Chuzzle Deluxe
• Borderlands
• Baba Is You
Out of recent ones, Blue Prince
It’s such a good puzzle box but I don’t think I would call The Room, a masterpiece while it’s still yet another great puzzle box game.
They are masterpieces in puzzles but maybe not games? I dunno why I don’t consider them.
Honestly, many of them you know full well, but that’s because yes, they are that good:
Completely deserve their legendary status
I’d say games that have set the standard for their genre, and have not been surpassed, would be the only ones that count.
SOMA was great
I feel like Soma was a decent metaphysical question wrapped in a okayish walking simulator.
It got a lot of praise, but basically boils down to the question “what makes you you” with nothing else about it standing out.
If the gameplay isn’t a driving factor of making the game objectively good, then I don’t think it counts.
The lack of gameplay is fine, and very much important to call out for any new players. There’s a whole genre of “you’re playing a movie” that SOMA fits nicely into
Personally I think story can make a game stand out far more than graphics or gameplay. I also disagree that the game boiled down to one question. While it was the primary focus of the narrative, the underwater laboratories and world building/history was amazing.
I’ve been craving another experience like SOMA but unfortunately nothing even comes close. It was probably the coolest and most disturbing story I’ve ever seen. Finishing that game gave me an existential crisis for like 2 days after. It was that good.
How come no one has mentioned “Life is strange” yet? Also, “A plague tale”.
The intro to a plague tale… Jesus.
mechoman444@lemmy.world 2 months ago
What’s left of edith finch.
Such an amazing game. Absolute masterpiece.
TheOakTree@lemm.ee 2 months ago
This is the game I used to convince my film nerd friends that games can be art too. They really enjoyed playing through it!