The original Quake. I was really at a low point in my life. My roommate got a copy from his girlfriend and he let me play it on his computer for hours at at time. I had never really played PC games or used computers much before that. I ended up learning all about computers and started a career in IT. I still play PC games today.
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.
Recently beat Portal (first one), for the first time. Please play if you haven’t!!!
Portal 1 and 2 are both phenomenal. But my feeling at the end was less “Wow that changed my life” and more like “damn it’s over, I wish there was another game like that out there”
If you check steam, there’s 2 or 3 portal games outside the legit 2 that are super fun. One valve even approved as canon IIRC. One of them you go back and forth in time with a third portal type. One of them is even multiplayer.
Any names for those games/mods?
Portal Stories: Mel
Portal revolution, and portal reloaded
I believe revolution is the one valve approved as canon, but you’ll have to check that if you care.
Reloaded has the time travel, and multiplayer.
I made the mistake of trying to go back and play Portal 2 during the pandemic, and the themes of isolation, neglect, abuse and gaslighting just weren’t as funny in 2019.
tbh it’s better this way.
Why?
Because nobody could ruin the story on the 3rd attempt.
BUT asssuming they could make the 3rd installment a prefect fit to round it up: Gimme
For me the second was more emotionally important. That small bit of opera when you get on the lift still can move me to tears.
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.
Man that game was 10 levels of fucked and creepy all wrapped in existential crisis and the definition of who is ‘you’? Still fucked up on that game, but damn was it good.
As someone who loves watching but not playing horror games, I am still waiting for someone to play this for me to watch. I bought the game ages ago!
In case you didn’t know, SOMA has a safe mode in which enemies don’t attack you.
A friend of mine who gets scared at everything finished it for the story in that mode.
Excellent game.
I’m in the minority on this one but I found that game very overrated. There was nothing new or tantalizing gameplay or concept wise here. I’d dare say it was boring.
Daring today are we ?
It’s less of a game and more of a story experience I’d say. I think it nailed the atmosphere.
Spec Ops: The Line. Probably kinda dated now but there were multiple moments in that game where I had to cool down after some heavy shit happens.
Do you feel like a hero yet?
I really want to play this game. I haven’t found a copy of it anywhere. I can’t believe it was pulled down online due to licensing 🙄
Really? I would think the lagoon of buccaneers would have it.
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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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.
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.
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.