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)
You must log in or register to comment.
Factorio and Dyson Sphere Program. At least don’t watch people like Nilaus and Dosh Doshington play the game until you’ve tried to make your own solutions first.
The real answer will always be Outer Wilds.
But also…
Fez. It definitely inspired Animal Well and Tunic.
ANIMAL WELL
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
And probably Tears of the Kingdom too but I haven’t played it yet.
If you’ve played botw, you basically can’t play totk blind by the nature of the games’ similarities
TotK makes BotW feel like a tech demo
Inscryption absolutely blew my mind. I’d toss Undertale on there too.
Inscryption totally lost me after the cabin. Felt like having the rug pulled out from beneath me.
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.
Subnautica.
Survival. But you’re in the middle of an ocean. Good luck!
The way the game drip feeds you information. I love it!
Is it available for android?
- Disco Elysium
- Return of the Obra Dinn
- House Of The Dying Sun
- FEAR
- Limbo
- Oxenfree
I disagree with FEAR simply because I’d say to play it on the hardest difficulty and go balls to the wall because the AI will fuck you over if it gets the chance; and the longer you take to clear a room, the more time the AI has to organize and execute a plan. If it weren’t for the fact that I’ve seen plenty of people get stuck on FEAR because they tried to play it like a cover shooter, I’d fully agree with you.
Yes! Return of the Obra Dinn 100%. You can still watch other people play it on YouTube later and have a blast seeing them figure things out. And read Lucas Pope’s excellent devblog later as well.
I am super intimidated Return of the Obra Dinn. But it looks so cool, and I feel like it uses a lot of lateral thinking and makes you smarter for playing it.
No need to be intimidated. Just pick it up in a sale. Definitely a brain teaser but there are spoiler reduced guides out there in case you get stuck. But you should be able to finish the game even without guidance.
Can you send me the link to FEAR? In steam there are a lot of games with this name lol.
Ok thx, this one is actually available in gog too, and for cheaper. Gonna check it out. (Costed me 0.2$, but there is regional pricing here).
What region is that?
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.
Inside. Made by the same company as Limbo, but Inside is much more “don’t look up a single thing”
Thanks for the recommendation. Just bought both for $3 lol
Awesome! Inside is far better than Limbo in my opinion, but they are both good games
Now i wonder about the opposite. Games that you should never go in blind XD
Dwarf Fortress, probably.
That one’s tough. I went in blind when the steam version released and had a blast. The actual “game” part is not challenging once you figure out the basics. The fun of it is the stories that spring up that are mostly out of your control.
So, I’d say going in blind, but being open to asking questions or googling specific things is a great way to play it.
I think the Steam release definitely makes it easier, especially with the tutorial. I tried to get into the original version about 10 years back and let’s just say going in blind was a very different experience.
Hearts of Iron IV
My Summer Car
Hollow knight. The exploration of that game is absolutely the pinnacle of world layouts
The Long Dark
Getting lost in the snowy wilderness I so much fun. I have many “oh shit” moments that kinda don’t happen once you learn the maps and improve.
I’ve had that one in my library since it originally came out and I’ve been wanting to play it ever since, but haven’t found time. I understand they’ve added quite a bit since the early days!
Yeah it’s changed a lot over the years but is such a unique experience I recommend it to everyone.
They still haven’t released all the story mode chapters but survival mode is by far the best way to play.
Oh, the story mode is not finished yet? Any idea if they have a goal date?
They are on to the last episode now but it’s all overdue by like 5 years at this point so who knows.
Subnautica. Just bopping along, in my cute little submarine.
I had no background and nearly shat myself at a moment you can probably guess lol
A moment? I had a few during my first playthrough. PD, RL, W, T, DL. And many moments of forgetting to keep an eye on that oxygen meter lol.
The Beginner’s Guide
It’s by the same guy that made The Stanley Parable, but it’s more serious.
It’s the same themes from Stanley Parable except made into an actual story instead of one long recurring joke.
I’m not saying the long recurring joke is bad - someone will probably hate that I said that - but they’re just two different things that both do their different things very well. The Stanley Parable explicitly never builds to any kind of conclusion.
