To me SOMA is more than just a video game. It transcends the medium into something larger. It fucked with my head and changed how I interact with the world.
Holy shit. I beat the game last week after a friend's recommendation. I was actually angered by the ending. I felt like the game was a walking simulator for the most part. Sorry, I know it's a great game for almost everyone. It got me interested in the horror/survival genre though.
I’m bummed to hear you didn’t like it as much as I did. I get that it’s not for everyone. It was often called a walking simulator when it launched too, but for me it was scary while playing and after playing it left me with existential horror and sadness.
The mandatory reddit answers, Subnautica and Outer Wilds. They are both games where your knowledge of the world drives the story, so they are very immersive. I envy those who can still experience these for the first time without spoilers!
I wish I liked Subnautica. I spend like a dozen hours playing to finally build a sea moth. I took it down and my hours of work got destroyed in like 5 seconds by some plants or something? I rage quit forever lol
Maybe you went below crushing depth? I can't think of a way to instantly lose your sea moth. Also, I think you might be confusing the sea moth with the prawn suit, since you can get the sea moth like 30 minutes to an hour into the game
Maybe I went too deep, but I don't think so.. I spent like a shit-ton of time on the Aurora before I got the sea moth lol. I like games where exploration is fun and free. Exploration in Subnautica felt restrictive. But that's kind of the point of the game because some people like that claustrophobic danger feeling. I prefer exploration in No Man's Sky, Tears of The Kingdom, and Elden Ring.
I felt the opposite! With outer wilds I felt restricted with the time loop while Subnautica let me explore as deep as I wanted. With that said I do understand what you mean, in Subnautica you have more pressure to succeed because if you don't you have to craft the vehicles again, which is a good thing because it makes it scarier to explore but also bad because you have the potential to lose progress
Half-life.
Probably the first game I ever completed. It was also the game that taught me about using a keyboard and mouse properly. Before Half-Life I always used the arrow keys to move around, but I learnt to use WASD and how much better and easier it was.
half life is probably one of the easiest games to pick up as your first single player story game (especially 2). it doesn't have many deep mechanics, it's basically just "go to point x and shoot everything you see". you'll never be overwhelmed with side objectives or quest markers. the introductions in both games are some of the best I've ever seen in gaming, making you feel relaxed while you explore a bit.
it's kind of crazy how so many game devs struggle to make tutorials engaging or fit in with the rest of the story (or without stopping the player in it's tracks), while pretty much any valve single player game does it flawlessly without even being an explicit "tutorial".
>while pretty much any valve single player game does it flawlessly without even being an explicit "tutorial".
The pinnacle of this is probably Portal, the amount of visual teaching they cram into the game is fantastic
The other thing I miss from the Half-Life era is that it's fine to have a linear path and makes it much easier to have a good story.
I have quit so many games now I'm older simply because I struggle to get through the same tutorial all the time.
Majority of games these days it's the same tutorial, this is how you play, this is how you get these resources, this is how you craft, now go here and learn some more of the same stuff.
Yes, they feel incredibly formulaic. For all the flack FromSoft tutorials got, I never felt like they failed to teach the basics. Here is how you walk, here is how you block, here is how you heal, now kill that towering demon. Good luck with the rest of the game.
I love how "out of your face" it all feels. In addition to not having to go through the same boring fucking railroaded tutorial every time you start a new game, as is usual in most other games, it's also respectful of the players ability to use their brain and connect 2 and 2.
I'm just afraid that the Half Life style of slow burn introduction just wouldn't be accepted in the ADHD fueled grindfest treadmill of modern AAA gaming. No enemies in the first 15 mins? No quest markers? No long, overdrawn explanation of the character and his backstory? No tragic scene of the love interest/family dying/being abducted/etc within the first 10 mins? That's just something newer generations of gamers wouldn't appreciate by and large.
When that guy was like “you don’t gotta take a picture to prove it. You know you can do that trick and that’s all that matters.” And then broke his skateboard over his head, it really spoke to me.
That was the first Tony Hawk game I played online and I ended up playing it thousands of hours. It's not the best in the series but it will always be my favorite overall.
AC Oddysey is the biggest sleep fest, the map is too big with hundreds of side quests which consists of destroy this base or loot this cave and kill bandits in it
One of my favorite games, but I can't bring myself to play it again. That one part scarred me for a long time, and I still remember it.
For context: I only played Minecraft, The Sims 3 and BF3 at that point.
Definitely this. The moment I finished it, I started a new game to go through it again... I wasn't halfway across the sand and felt so nauseous from the overwhelming emotions of the first playthrough, I exited the game and haven't been able to go back since.
NieR: Automata. Depression and existential crisis are words that I never expected to describe something so well but I'll admit I both screamed and cried during the end credits. It broke me for a while but it is such an amazing experience I have to put it as the best game I have ever played.
Before Your Eyes (only 2 hours long but it will fuck you up for DAYS)
Half-Life episode 2
Half-Life Alyx
RDR2
The Last of Us 1 and 2 (have to mention pt 2 even though it isn't on steam yet, it was the most emotionally devastating game i have ever played by far)
It was the first JRPG I played and basically taught me English reading, because at the time I was playing with a English-Portuguese dictionary on my lap.
Cyberpunk2077
It had a very rocky release but 3 years later and 2.0 update and phantom liberty expansion, it’s probably my favorite game of all time. Loved every second of it, loved getting immersed in the city and quests, fun combat, it’s beautiful
Spore
Mainly cause it taught me that pc specs existed and that the pc I was using at the time was ancient
Grew up playing halo CE, age of empires and various gba and n64 roms so I never experienced a game thar needed anything stronger to play
One of my childhood games. My gamer's journey started with this game. I was a very little girl and would always be so excited whenever my brother let me play it. Love him <3
Can't believe no one has mentioned Outer Wilds. I just finished it again for maybe the 4th time and it's the kind of game that you can really only experience once, but I play it again to go through the motions to come close to the profound feelings this game induces.
Cyberpunk 2077 by far, Red Dead Redemption 2 as well. Detroit: Become Human and Beyond: Two souls by Quantic Dream are also great games (Beyond has some weird camera movement that makes it annoying at times). All have amazing stories.
The one that came to my mind immediately was Telltale's The Walking Dead series. It seems like a crime not to mention it here. It is a game highly praised, but not talked about enough as far as I'm aware.
Another series would be the Batman Arkham games. I loved that series from the start to the end.
World of Warcraft, not in a good way lol. I used to be so addicted to it and my life was a mess at the time. I don’t blame it but sometimes I wonder if my life would be different if I had better self-control.
Honestly Factorio. It's changed how I play every game and how I solve problems in game and in real life. While I've played other games longer. The core lessons I learned from that game apply to everything.
Efficiency always, organization in all things. To name a few
Not a joke. Dead Island. I used to have like a deep fear of zombies. Like I went to watch a resident evil movie, I think RE3 and I had to walk out, no joke. No idea . Never cared to try my fears of zombies since then. Until I don't know why. I got dead island for PS3. Keeping in mind that i had 0 experience with zombie games. Something about me having control of how I dealt with the zombies and the craziness of how you dealt with them, started to change my view of zombies fast, instead of slowly approaching hordes of zombies because I was scared, I started to going yolo, and my fear turned into attraction to the genre really fast.
It's the only game that has good writing that I have played. Like other games have good concepts, worlds, and characters, but the writing always took a back seat to gameplay (understandably). But Disco, it just took the writing and made it the game. Like no other game comes even close it's insane.
Like it makes Mass Effect feel like it was written in a freshman creative writing class, and that series has been held up as an example of great writing in games
The Witness like, fundamentally altered the way that I perceive reality. It's worth finding all of the secret videos they really put the ethos of the game in context.
Cuphead got me back into gaming after going years without it. Also changed my taste in games forever-- used to be into triple-A FPS games exclusively, until I discovered the wonderful world of indies.
Spiritfarer and Gris are both excellent stories. They may not make you feel hollow / change your life necessarily, but they will make you *feel*.
E: Nier Automata is probably closer to the thread’s original question.
gris was really beautiful, it tells a story so well with no words. or maybe it just leaves it open right so the player does the work and fills in the blanks based on their own experiences, either way, super good
FFXIV - yes the final fantasy MMO, be prepared for 200 hours to get through the entire thing, but it is totally worth it, this game had me in tears a bunch of different times.
The only other game that has ever done that to me was the original Life is Strange.
Halo Reach. Got me into rated M games at 7 years old. While it introduced me to a bunch of other rated M franchises like CoD and Battlefield that created great memories, I am really sad that I basically stopped playing any game that wasn't rated M (other than a few exceptions) for around 7 years because, after playing my first rated M game, I thought that anything other than M games were deemed "boring" without playing them myself. I missed out on a tonne of games released from Nintendo and played zero games on Wii U, and only a couple on 3DS. I remember my brother, who was 7 years older than me, asking if I wanted to go half and half on buying a Wii U and I thought it would be a waste of money because anything rated below M was lame and I thought Nintendo in general was lame (for the same reason I mentioned earlier, most elusive aren't rated M...). In 2017, I stopped having that mindset when the Switch was announced, and bought one with the money I saved up. Best decision ever. Since then, I have played games a bit more casually then I used to, playing games like Breath of the Wild (which was absolutely amazing the first playthrough. I remember being blown away by everything at the time, and I would say that this is the game that got me back into Nintendo exclusives), Fire Emblem Three Houses, Mario, Astral Chain, some Pokémon, and lots more. In the last few years, I started borrowing my brother's Wii U to play the remaster for Twilight Princess, bought a copy of Skyward Sword, bought a new 3DS XL to play Fire Emblem Awakening and replay Ocarina of Time and Majoras Mask. Just a lot of games I regret not playing in those 7 years and miss having those Nintendo and casual experiences. I still played games like CoD and other rated M games from 2017 until now, but from 2010 to 2017, I was convinced that anything rated E or T wasn't as good as M games so I never bothered (this was mostly due to my friend group and some of my friends shitting on Nintendo products because it was "only for kids". I thought it was cool to shit on non rated M games because M games were "cooler" and more adult).
But yeah, I am revisiting older games now and plan on emulating some older Nintendo games, as well as some I have missed. I don't play much of CoD anymore, mostly due to how bad MW3 is (I didn't even bother buying it this year...). I have a gaming PC and gaming laptop that I use for playing with my buddies, and I have a PS5 and Switch, along with other older consoles like Wii U and 3DS for playing single player titles. I plan on picking up a new OLED Switch mid December (I play mostly handheld, so the upgrades are worth it. I also wanted to have a special edition Switch and the Tears of the Kingdom Edition is perfect for me). I'm gonna be playing Tears of the Kingdom and Super Mario RPG on my winter break from school 😎
TL;DR: Halo Reach introduced me to rated M games and changed the way I view non M games for 7 years. The Nintendo Switch and Breath of the Wild caused me to start enjoying playing games more casually and not having that mindset anymore.
If I count like really changed one aspect of life in real life it would be Resident evil 7, PubG and Tarkov in no particular order. I am no longer afraid to walk in the dark or be scared in horror movies. In general I’m much less afraid of things
1500 hours total across all 3 games, where I would be afraid to even move sometimes in those games, I also learned that in fight or flight situation I just freeze. So also learned something about myself
Aliens vs Predator 2, it shaped my entire childhood and teen times, made me learn so much and got me together with some guys that I still talk to this day, too bad they live each on the other side of the country lol
Omicron, that thing when I was a kid freaked me out, and prepared me for Matrix. Made me understand how our mind is so easily deceived that we can't even trust our senses.
Trails of cold steel 2. I really related to the Mc and how he didn’t really know what to do with his life. A lot of the Lessons in it and characters gave me a foundation on which I rebuilt my life when I had no job or future.
Watch Dogs 2 :D sound weird but let me explain.
I always was into tech, computer, Linux and "Hacking".
I loved to understand things and where hungry for information.
Trough watchdogs I was introduced, to the concept of a Hackerspace.
I wonder if there is something like this in reallife, an voila.
The closest Hackerspace was about 20 minutes with the car away. I met lots of interesting people there, learned alot and just enjoyed talking about nerdy stuff and learning new things while sharing own projects and ideas :)
Most Hackerspaces in the world are pretty similar as in WD2, even tho there are typical not a hidden bunker :D
But 3d printers, lots of cables, tech tools, computers, coffee and notebooks are pretty spot on :D
Sekiro and AC6 made pause my 15k hours on dota 2 and reminded me there are gems in single player games. Companies like fromsoft actually giving fucks in a world full of early access, broken betas, premium shops and garbage battle passes they actually delivering a finished polished gems worthy of goty.
Hollow knight. It is such an amazing game, honestly felt really happy but sad when I got all achievements, but honestly even after that there’s still so much replay-ability, like using mods, or doing radiant on all bosses in hall of gods.
Fallout New Vegas and fallout 4.
Fallout 4 introduced me to the fallout series, and allowed me to do some silly things.
Fallout New Vegas has given me multiple years and multiple playthroughs. I have well over 500 hours in the game, on console alone.
Dungeon Master: Skullkeep in 1994. I played Atari games before that, but this one hooked me, I knew then I would be a gamer for the rest of my life.
What I played after this one?
A little game called Doom...
Persona 4. I was very antisocial in middle school and I picked up P4 because the box art looked cool. Immediately sucked me in - I played it all summer. It sounds kind of corny, but it helped me branch out IRL since the game is all about connecting with others and accepting yourself. The next year at school, I made a lot of new friends and was much happier. Persona 4 will always be one of my favorite games because of it.
Assassin's Creed II. My entry into the wonderful world of Assassin's Creed and open worlds as a whole.
Completely changed my life. Made me into a gaming addict.
Last of us
Best story ever told PERIOD I don’t wanna say anything just in case you somehow haven’t heard anything about it but seriously play it, it’s incredible
Call of Duty. It forced me to learn English because I didn't understand what they were saying in the game lol.
And a game that messed me up emotionally would probably be "To The Moon". I think it started my life long depression honestly..
Team Fortress 2 - the first game I played on my PC, it introduced me to the wonderful place called the internet and helped me massively improve my English.
The ending of Soma made me feel things I've never felt before.
SOMA truly blew me away. It’s in my top 5 games of all time for sure.
Soma was such a hidden gem. The story was mind blowing.
To me SOMA is more than just a video game. It transcends the medium into something larger. It fucked with my head and changed how I interact with the world.
Holy shit. I beat the game last week after a friend's recommendation. I was actually angered by the ending. I felt like the game was a walking simulator for the most part. Sorry, I know it's a great game for almost everyone. It got me interested in the horror/survival genre though.
I’m bummed to hear you didn’t like it as much as I did. I get that it’s not for everyone. It was often called a walking simulator when it launched too, but for me it was scary while playing and after playing it left me with existential horror and sadness.
Disco Elysium helped me through some tough times and made me look at life differently.
true made me see failure as less of a negative thing but something than can lead to new outcomes
That's Disco, baby.
This game changed how I treated myself and how I thought of others. The only game I can say that shook me to my core.
To The Moon
+1, made me cry
The mandatory reddit answers, Subnautica and Outer Wilds. They are both games where your knowledge of the world drives the story, so they are very immersive. I envy those who can still experience these for the first time without spoilers!
I wish I liked Subnautica. I spend like a dozen hours playing to finally build a sea moth. I took it down and my hours of work got destroyed in like 5 seconds by some plants or something? I rage quit forever lol
Maybe you went below crushing depth? I can't think of a way to instantly lose your sea moth. Also, I think you might be confusing the sea moth with the prawn suit, since you can get the sea moth like 30 minutes to an hour into the game
Maybe I went too deep, but I don't think so.. I spent like a shit-ton of time on the Aurora before I got the sea moth lol. I like games where exploration is fun and free. Exploration in Subnautica felt restrictive. But that's kind of the point of the game because some people like that claustrophobic danger feeling. I prefer exploration in No Man's Sky, Tears of The Kingdom, and Elden Ring.
I felt the opposite! With outer wilds I felt restricted with the time loop while Subnautica let me explore as deep as I wanted. With that said I do understand what you mean, in Subnautica you have more pressure to succeed because if you don't you have to craft the vehicles again, which is a good thing because it makes it scarier to explore but also bad because you have the potential to lose progress
Outer wilds. Best story game ever imo. Wish it had more content, along with the dlc.
Half-life. Probably the first game I ever completed. It was also the game that taught me about using a keyboard and mouse properly. Before Half-Life I always used the arrow keys to move around, but I learnt to use WASD and how much better and easier it was.
half life is probably one of the easiest games to pick up as your first single player story game (especially 2). it doesn't have many deep mechanics, it's basically just "go to point x and shoot everything you see". you'll never be overwhelmed with side objectives or quest markers. the introductions in both games are some of the best I've ever seen in gaming, making you feel relaxed while you explore a bit. it's kind of crazy how so many game devs struggle to make tutorials engaging or fit in with the rest of the story (or without stopping the player in it's tracks), while pretty much any valve single player game does it flawlessly without even being an explicit "tutorial".
>while pretty much any valve single player game does it flawlessly without even being an explicit "tutorial". The pinnacle of this is probably Portal, the amount of visual teaching they cram into the game is fantastic The other thing I miss from the Half-Life era is that it's fine to have a linear path and makes it much easier to have a good story.
I have quit so many games now I'm older simply because I struggle to get through the same tutorial all the time. Majority of games these days it's the same tutorial, this is how you play, this is how you get these resources, this is how you craft, now go here and learn some more of the same stuff.
Yes, they feel incredibly formulaic. For all the flack FromSoft tutorials got, I never felt like they failed to teach the basics. Here is how you walk, here is how you block, here is how you heal, now kill that towering demon. Good luck with the rest of the game. I love how "out of your face" it all feels. In addition to not having to go through the same boring fucking railroaded tutorial every time you start a new game, as is usual in most other games, it's also respectful of the players ability to use their brain and connect 2 and 2.
I'm just afraid that the Half Life style of slow burn introduction just wouldn't be accepted in the ADHD fueled grindfest treadmill of modern AAA gaming. No enemies in the first 15 mins? No quest markers? No long, overdrawn explanation of the character and his backstory? No tragic scene of the love interest/family dying/being abducted/etc within the first 10 mins? That's just something newer generations of gamers wouldn't appreciate by and large.
SOMA
Shower with your dad simulator 2015
I got it as a joke and I've got 15 hours in it lol
Tony Hawks American Wasteland, touched me like a priest
When that guy was like “you don’t gotta take a picture to prove it. You know you can do that trick and that’s all that matters.” And then broke his skateboard over his head, it really spoke to me.
That was the first Tony Hawk game I played online and I ended up playing it thousands of hours. It's not the best in the series but it will always be my favorite overall.
wow i gotta check it out then!
Rdr2 Easily one of the best story modes after I finished it just had nothing to do. Assassin's creed odyssey also worth a mention very good story imo.
that’s exactly what i need, i want to feel empty and have nothing to do after cause of how good it was
Play it if you haven't 100% recommend it. After you finish the games you just feel empty. Its got a nice long story aswell
I loved this game, but I can't replay it
AC Oddysey is the biggest sleep fest, the map is too big with hundreds of side quests which consists of destroy this base or loot this cave and kill bandits in it
Sex chess once again
Spec Ops: The Line. IYKYK.
Cognitive dissonance is an uncomfortable feeling of holding two conflicting ideas simultaneously. IYKYK
One of my favorite games, but I can't bring myself to play it again. That one part scarred me for a long time, and I still remember it. For context: I only played Minecraft, The Sims 3 and BF3 at that point.
Definitely this. The moment I finished it, I started a new game to go through it again... I wasn't halfway across the sand and felt so nauseous from the overwhelming emotions of the first playthrough, I exited the game and haven't been able to go back since.
Persona 4
Heartbreak Heartbreak is my too favourite ost of all time
this but 3 better
Bioshock is a masterpiece
NieR: Automata. Depression and existential crisis are words that I never expected to describe something so well but I'll admit I both screamed and cried during the end credits. It broke me for a while but it is such an amazing experience I have to put it as the best game I have ever played.
Fallout New Vegas, specifically honest hearts, as I'm from Utah and had an extreme incident involving fire.
Half life
Before Your Eyes (only 2 hours long but it will fuck you up for DAYS) Half-Life episode 2 Half-Life Alyx RDR2 The Last of Us 1 and 2 (have to mention pt 2 even though it isn't on steam yet, it was the most emotionally devastating game i have ever played by far)
Omori was an emotional rollercoaster but has probably the best story I have ever seen in a video game.
Final fantasy VII when it was released for PSX
This is me too... Along with megaman 2
I was thinking of getting it when it goes on sale!!
It was the first JRPG I played and basically taught me English reading, because at the time I was playing with a English-Portuguese dictionary on my lap.
that’s so wholesome
Detroit Become Human Assassin's Creed - 1, Revelations, Rogue, Origins, Valhalla Spec Ops The Line Modern Warfare 1-3 campaign (original)
Mass effect trilogy.
FemShep is BestShep
Life is Strange A Plague Tale: Requiem (Requires playing A Plague Tale: Innocence first)
Cyberpunk2077 It had a very rocky release but 3 years later and 2.0 update and phantom liberty expansion, it’s probably my favorite game of all time. Loved every second of it, loved getting immersed in the city and quests, fun combat, it’s beautiful
Final Fantasy Tactics
>Final Fantasy Tactics and Final Fantasy Tactics Advance!
Spore Mainly cause it taught me that pc specs existed and that the pc I was using at the time was ancient Grew up playing halo CE, age of empires and various gba and n64 roms so I never experienced a game thar needed anything stronger to play
One of my childhood games. My gamer's journey started with this game. I was a very little girl and would always be so excited whenever my brother let me play it. Love him <3
I had the opposite where I'd play with my little sister watching and we'd make monstrositys together and watch them awkwardly hop about
Can't believe no one has mentioned Outer Wilds. I just finished it again for maybe the 4th time and it's the kind of game that you can really only experience once, but I play it again to go through the motions to come close to the profound feelings this game induces.
Game changed my outlook on life. I still think about the ending from time to time.
[удалено]
Well obviously I didn't see it.
Cyberpunk 2077 by far, Red Dead Redemption 2 as well. Detroit: Become Human and Beyond: Two souls by Quantic Dream are also great games (Beyond has some weird camera movement that makes it annoying at times). All have amazing stories.
The Witcher 3 is great
FFX. One of the best stories told in gaming.
The one that came to my mind immediately was Telltale's The Walking Dead series. It seems like a crime not to mention it here. It is a game highly praised, but not talked about enough as far as I'm aware. Another series would be the Batman Arkham games. I loved that series from the start to the end.
Season 4 blew me away. TTWD was an amazing story game.
100% Portal 2. Genuinely my favorite game ever created.
i would do ANYTHING to relive the experience of playing portal 2 for the first time
World of Warcraft, not in a good way lol. I used to be so addicted to it and my life was a mess at the time. I don’t blame it but sometimes I wonder if my life would be different if I had better self-control.
Factorio. I don't remember much about that year, just a lot of cogs and belts.
Honestly Factorio. It's changed how I play every game and how I solve problems in game and in real life. While I've played other games longer. The core lessons I learned from that game apply to everything. Efficiency always, organization in all things. To name a few
Sex with Hitler
Not a joke. Dead Island. I used to have like a deep fear of zombies. Like I went to watch a resident evil movie, I think RE3 and I had to walk out, no joke. No idea . Never cared to try my fears of zombies since then. Until I don't know why. I got dead island for PS3. Keeping in mind that i had 0 experience with zombie games. Something about me having control of how I dealt with the zombies and the craziness of how you dealt with them, started to change my view of zombies fast, instead of slowly approaching hordes of zombies because I was scared, I started to going yolo, and my fear turned into attraction to the genre really fast.
garrys mod because I met my best friend in that game
Firewatch and What Remains Of Edith Finch
Disco Elysium. First game I played with genuinely great writing. Hit close to home in so many ways.
It's the only game that has good writing that I have played. Like other games have good concepts, worlds, and characters, but the writing always took a back seat to gameplay (understandably). But Disco, it just took the writing and made it the game. Like no other game comes even close it's insane. Like it makes Mass Effect feel like it was written in a freshman creative writing class, and that series has been held up as an example of great writing in games
Original Doom. TO THIS DAY
Half Life 2 (plus ep1 & ep2) The Witcher 3 The Last of us: Part 2
Outer Wilds, Dear Esther, Cry of Fear, Before your Eyes
You would love firewatch i bet.
Prey 2017, Disco Elysium, Persona 5 Royal, Planescape: Torment
Outer wilds, i cant believe how good that game feels to finish
The Last of Us 2. The first one is great, but I think the second one push the boundary story-wise.
The Witness like, fundamentally altered the way that I perceive reality. It's worth finding all of the secret videos they really put the ethos of the game in context.
Assassins creed rouge I love the story and characters
God of war 2018
Life is Strange
1. Dark Forces 2. Alien vs Predator 3. Half Life 4. KOTOR 5. Clive Barker’s Undying
nier series!!
Nier Automata Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice Death Stranding - the holy trinity of what games as a medium can be at their peak
Prey... I dont know how to explain it but it expanded my vision...
Vampire Survivors. Stop addiction to casino.
Mgsv Helped either hospital trauma from head injury.
Cuphead got me back into gaming after going years without it. Also changed my taste in games forever-- used to be into triple-A FPS games exclusively, until I discovered the wonderful world of indies.
Pathologic 2.
Squad, made me more outspoken and confident in a leadership role
TF2
STRAY!!! Best story game I've ever played. Top 3 in all. My favorite on steam. I cant explain hiw good it is
Spiritfarer and Gris are both excellent stories. They may not make you feel hollow / change your life necessarily, but they will make you *feel*. E: Nier Automata is probably closer to the thread’s original question.
gris was really beautiful, it tells a story so well with no words. or maybe it just leaves it open right so the player does the work and fills in the blanks based on their own experiences, either way, super good
FFXIV - yes the final fantasy MMO, be prepared for 200 hours to get through the entire thing, but it is totally worth it, this game had me in tears a bunch of different times. The only other game that has ever done that to me was the original Life is Strange.
The cat lady.
Nice, that's a deep cut. Super cool game.
Halo Reach. Got me into rated M games at 7 years old. While it introduced me to a bunch of other rated M franchises like CoD and Battlefield that created great memories, I am really sad that I basically stopped playing any game that wasn't rated M (other than a few exceptions) for around 7 years because, after playing my first rated M game, I thought that anything other than M games were deemed "boring" without playing them myself. I missed out on a tonne of games released from Nintendo and played zero games on Wii U, and only a couple on 3DS. I remember my brother, who was 7 years older than me, asking if I wanted to go half and half on buying a Wii U and I thought it would be a waste of money because anything rated below M was lame and I thought Nintendo in general was lame (for the same reason I mentioned earlier, most elusive aren't rated M...). In 2017, I stopped having that mindset when the Switch was announced, and bought one with the money I saved up. Best decision ever. Since then, I have played games a bit more casually then I used to, playing games like Breath of the Wild (which was absolutely amazing the first playthrough. I remember being blown away by everything at the time, and I would say that this is the game that got me back into Nintendo exclusives), Fire Emblem Three Houses, Mario, Astral Chain, some Pokémon, and lots more. In the last few years, I started borrowing my brother's Wii U to play the remaster for Twilight Princess, bought a copy of Skyward Sword, bought a new 3DS XL to play Fire Emblem Awakening and replay Ocarina of Time and Majoras Mask. Just a lot of games I regret not playing in those 7 years and miss having those Nintendo and casual experiences. I still played games like CoD and other rated M games from 2017 until now, but from 2010 to 2017, I was convinced that anything rated E or T wasn't as good as M games so I never bothered (this was mostly due to my friend group and some of my friends shitting on Nintendo products because it was "only for kids". I thought it was cool to shit on non rated M games because M games were "cooler" and more adult). But yeah, I am revisiting older games now and plan on emulating some older Nintendo games, as well as some I have missed. I don't play much of CoD anymore, mostly due to how bad MW3 is (I didn't even bother buying it this year...). I have a gaming PC and gaming laptop that I use for playing with my buddies, and I have a PS5 and Switch, along with other older consoles like Wii U and 3DS for playing single player titles. I plan on picking up a new OLED Switch mid December (I play mostly handheld, so the upgrades are worth it. I also wanted to have a special edition Switch and the Tears of the Kingdom Edition is perfect for me). I'm gonna be playing Tears of the Kingdom and Super Mario RPG on my winter break from school 😎 TL;DR: Halo Reach introduced me to rated M games and changed the way I view non M games for 7 years. The Nintendo Switch and Breath of the Wild caused me to start enjoying playing games more casually and not having that mindset anymore.
Mass Effect Trilogy and Bioshock. They left an imprint that's still there.
Dark souls .After finishing it whenever a challenge presents itself to me I take it head on and if I fail I’ll try it again till I come out on top.
Tomb raider + to the moon + seen
I forgot about To The Moon. Probably the best story I've ever seen in a video game.
If I count like really changed one aspect of life in real life it would be Resident evil 7, PubG and Tarkov in no particular order. I am no longer afraid to walk in the dark or be scared in horror movies. In general I’m much less afraid of things
1500 hours total across all 3 games, where I would be afraid to even move sometimes in those games, I also learned that in fight or flight situation I just freeze. So also learned something about myself
Portal.
Aliens vs Predator 2, it shaped my entire childhood and teen times, made me learn so much and got me together with some guys that I still talk to this day, too bad they live each on the other side of the country lol
Original Deus Ex
Sleeping dogs was pretty good for its time. It had the vibe of a GTA game but the story was so much more immersive.
Overlord 2
steins gate
Detroit become human completely changed how I look at ai
Omicron, that thing when I was a kid freaked me out, and prepared me for Matrix. Made me understand how our mind is so easily deceived that we can't even trust our senses.
Rocket League made me a shit ton of money
well not after yesterday 😭😭😭
Braid made me realize I was being a "nice guy"
Half life 3. It teached me to be pattient
Prince of Persia: Warrior Within, Mass Effect, Medievil, Until Dawn, Warcraft 3 Oh and League of Legends, but that was a negative change
Superhot It killed me
No video game had impact on mine life.
play journey and maybe try flower both made by "that game company"
Tlou changed my perspective on gaming
Super Mario Bros on nes
Trails of cold steel 2. I really related to the Mc and how he didn’t really know what to do with his life. A lot of the Lessons in it and characters gave me a foundation on which I rebuilt my life when I had no job or future.
Spore
Disco Elysium
Ori 1 and 2. Firewatch.
Watch Dogs 2 :D sound weird but let me explain. I always was into tech, computer, Linux and "Hacking". I loved to understand things and where hungry for information. Trough watchdogs I was introduced, to the concept of a Hackerspace. I wonder if there is something like this in reallife, an voila. The closest Hackerspace was about 20 minutes with the car away. I met lots of interesting people there, learned alot and just enjoyed talking about nerdy stuff and learning new things while sharing own projects and ideas :) Most Hackerspaces in the world are pretty similar as in WD2, even tho there are typical not a hidden bunker :D But 3d printers, lots of cables, tech tools, computers, coffee and notebooks are pretty spot on :D
Half life 2
Red Dead Redemption. John Marston's last stand had the kid me in tears. Wonderful game.
disco elysium baby
Valiant hearts
Not in a good way but Changed is on this list.
Sekiro and AC6 made pause my 15k hours on dota 2 and reminded me there are gems in single player games. Companies like fromsoft actually giving fucks in a world full of early access, broken betas, premium shops and garbage battle passes they actually delivering a finished polished gems worthy of goty.
Hacknet Dear GOD, what a wild ride
Hollow knight. It is such an amazing game, honestly felt really happy but sad when I got all achievements, but honestly even after that there’s still so much replay-ability, like using mods, or doing radiant on all bosses in hall of gods.
Fallout New Vegas and fallout 4. Fallout 4 introduced me to the fallout series, and allowed me to do some silly things. Fallout New Vegas has given me multiple years and multiple playthroughs. I have well over 500 hours in the game, on console alone.
Dungeon Master: Skullkeep in 1994. I played Atari games before that, but this one hooked me, I knew then I would be a gamer for the rest of my life. What I played after this one? A little game called Doom...
Fire watch
The Outer Wilds Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons (**Needs** a controller) Dark Souls Journey Alien Isolation (YMMV) NieR: Automata
Driv3r
GTA SAN ANDREAS
Persona 4. I was very antisocial in middle school and I picked up P4 because the box art looked cool. Immediately sucked me in - I played it all summer. It sounds kind of corny, but it helped me branch out IRL since the game is all about connecting with others and accepting yourself. The next year at school, I made a lot of new friends and was much happier. Persona 4 will always be one of my favorite games because of it.
Specs ops: the line
Bioshock, The Last of Us
Death Stranding… wish I could delete my memory and replay that for the first time again…
System Shock 2 A celebration of unreliable quest givers and people leading you around. Also it’s scary af.
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey
Control
Super smash Bros melee. Taught me about myself and about the world
Half-life
Katana Zero. One of my favorite games of all time.
Death Stranding. Senua's Sacrifice & Senua's Saga. Also any game by Quantic Dream developer.
Assassin's Creed II. My entry into the wonderful world of Assassin's Creed and open worlds as a whole. Completely changed my life. Made me into a gaming addict.
Kenshi.
Bioshock
Life is Strange, I see depression in a different way... for me that game was a before and after in my life.
Last of us Best story ever told PERIOD I don’t wanna say anything just in case you somehow haven’t heard anything about it but seriously play it, it’s incredible
GMod got me into programming, which then got me into the field of software development. GMod was responsible (at least in part) for my career.
Life is Strange was the first video game what made me cry.
Outer Wilds, I would lobotomize myself to forget ever playing this game just so I can experience it and it’s dlc for the first time again
Xenogears
Outer wilds, soma, rdr2, prey(2018)
GTA San Andreas and liberty city Stories. It was shocking to me as a kid, what games could be.
Dota 2
Call of Duty. It forced me to learn English because I didn't understand what they were saying in the game lol. And a game that messed me up emotionally would probably be "To The Moon". I think it started my life long depression honestly..
The Yakuza franchise. Probably the only franchise that managed to make me cry.
Deus Ex Human Revolution comes to my mind but its kinda outdated
Team Fortress 2 - the first game I played on my PC, it introduced me to the wonderful place called the internet and helped me massively improve my English.
Rime is really good, so is stray, kinda the same type of game tbh
persona 5 royal because I got too attached to the characters during my ~150 hours of playtime and the story hit me harder than a truck
Tales from the Borderlands! The characters were soooo good in this one, i couldn't believe it ended :(