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Outer Wilds. Unfortunately I can’t elaborate without spoiling it.
Outer wilds hit that spot for me
Undertale. That was the game that really changed my life. I never did complete the bad ending route because that game is my comfort game, and it made me want to be friends with the world. I was kind of a jerk in middle school and highschool, but Undertale, which I played in my Junior year made me feel so guilty about who I was being. I think it also saved me from going down the rightwing extremist pipeline because of how much it touched me. I thank Undertale for making my life better.
Deltarune also means so much to me.
I actually found Lemmings to be a game that changed my life. I played it just before I became a professional programmer. Solving Lemmings puzzles is not exactly like programming, but it does teach you that there is a solution and if you just keep persistently trying different shit, you will eventually solve the problem. Also, it actually helps to be high as a kite all the time.
It was segmented so it wasn’t really at the ending for battlefield one but the beginning that has fucked me up for a long time. The game opens to a black screen, utter silence, and a description prints out of how wide and brutal the first world world war was. The last text that appears on the screen was, “What you are about to experience is front line combat. You are not expected to survive.”
What they were describing was that they didn’t expect you to play one character and that you should be dying to respawn in a new section of the map with new features. This was the most accurate depiction of the war possible, even if it was just meant to describe the mechanics of the level. It went further! Every time you died they showed a real name of a real soldier that lost their life in the war and their birth and death date. Most of these ages are under the age of 24.
After the final death, it plays a cut scene where two soldiers are pointing rifles at each other and they both break down and chose not to kill each other…I believe all of this gameplay and the cut scene are being played off as a PTSD nightmare he’s having while recovering in a hospital…one of those ‘stare at a blank wall and rethink how fucking good our lives are’ moments. Also a deviation to the standard which is having a good guy-winner/bad guy-loser. They instead opted for the “we’re all losing because of this” realization…I don’t think we’ll ever see anything like it again.
World of Warcraft. I was really addicted to it for a few years but it really helped me get over a lot of the social anxiety issues that I had. I went from being really shy and barely interacting with other people in that game to being elected to take over a 60+ person guild by the time I was done with it. That confidence carried over into real life when I went back to school and began my career.
Braid.
The game itself is brilliant. The story and message within is heartfelt, heartbreaking, and un-apologetically autobiographical. Up until that point, I knew gaming was a good storytelling medium, but not for something this moving.
Dance Dance Revolution 3rd mix. It sounds stupid, I know, but hear me out. I really sucked at this game at first. My friends use to play every weekends at the arcade, so I really wanted to get better. So I really trained hard and became the best player in our group. People gattered around the arcade when I was playing. I was good enough for tournaments.
Now when I face something difficult, I’m confident I can overcome it if I really want to. I wasn’t like that before. Thanks Konami.
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Disco Elysium
Cyberpunk 2077. Only game that touched me that deep so far (though not many games I have played)
Half-Life 2. It brought me into PC gaming, as well as introducing me to Garry’s Mod, a relatively simple sandbox tool for creativity, complete with a wide array of assets to use.
I also really appreciate its moody world design that doesn’t often explain things directly to you.
clair obscur expedition 33 players after every cut scene
The Witcher 3! I never played 1 or 2. However 3 did a great job of story recap and finishing up said story. DLC was a must as well. All in all, I was engaged with the story.
And of course, RDR2.
I loved RDR but every time I try to play RDR2 I struggle to stay engaged for more than a couple hours. Then it’s 6-12 months before I play it again. Still haven’t finished a single play thru. Just can’t put my finger on why.
I’m a big fan of RDR2 (~470hrs from two full playthroughs), and would recommend it to anyone, even if they don’t normally play games. However I can understand why it might not appeal to some people, for one reason or another.
I suspect this might be because of a slow start to the story - frequently the game falls victim to its own ‘cinematicism’ and holds the player’s hand too much (e.g. walking too far away from a mission area or trying things outside of the box runs the risk of failing the mission, unlike the creative approaches one may take in Rockstar’s earlier adventures). I have stopped seeing RDR2 as a ‘game’, and instead treat it as a world to experience, kind of like a good book. I want to feel that world more than conventionally play in it, and this process greatly heightens my attachment to it as well as to Arthur, increasing immersion.
That being said, I probably speak for many when I hope that you get to finish that journey someday and feel your place within it. It might take as long as it needs to, but it might just be worth it.
In my mind still somewhere outside of Corvo Bianco finally resting.
You should give Witcher 2 a go, it actually still holds up. The story is fantastic, and it gives you many twists and choices you can regret and think about a lot, just like how you love it from Witcher 3.
Red Dead Redemption 2
I am an emotional person, and I regularly cry during movies, shows and books. But this is the first and only game to day, where I cried. I don’t mean just teary-eyed, actually crying. And on more than one occasion.
It made me want to be a better person. Hopefully I am succeeding.
Cyberpunk 2077 is close second.
I didn’t play Expedition 33 yet, but I saw the prologue and it was very emotional. There is a really good chance this game will be on my list too.