I love them both. I feel like they both need to be played on harder difficulties because they’re built for a pushy playstyle, especially Eternal which requires melee finishers for ammo drops even more than the '16 game already did.

'16 has more of a straightforward plot. The story is fine. The main NPC looks and sounds like James Spader’s Ultron, which thrills me. I love the Mars station design and wish the Hell levels were a bit more creative. Other than some mysterious hints at a connection between Doomguy and all the Hell stuff, '16 doesn’t bother much with lore.

Eternal takes everything good about '16 and gives it an espresso, some laughing gas, and a whole bunch of lore that might have been written by Tenacious D. It’s deeply silly, very hard and has some of the best game design I’ve ever seen. I don’t think one is better than the other; 2016 is more nostalgic, but Eternal is more ambitious. The only catch about Eternal’s ambition is that you really have to be on board, because there aren’t optional play styles — you play Eternal the way the devs tell you it’s supposed to be played.

Incidentally I just started Prey about an hour ago after sitting on it in my backlog for a couple years. It’s very good so far, seems to have a good spread of systems with decent depth and the graphics are still 2023-approved.

I’ve been playing a lot of DOOM so the combat feels a bit Lite™, but I felt that way about Dishonored too—blows land like wing chun and not like a rock crusher.

It’s got BioShock’s turrets, F.E.A.R.'s slow-mo and Dishonored’s stealthy parkour, and so far it all comes together nicely.

It feels very much like an Arkane title, too. Maybe a bit too much going on at once, but boy do they know how to throw everything at the wall to see what sticks.

Wow, hadn’t heard of this. It looks great, thank you!

Yes goddammit, now let’s do it again

Oh sick, I didn’t realize Deathloop was first-person (I assumed it was over the shoulder 3rd-person like Max Payne & Control).

I almost mentioned Control in my post because it did have great environmental design that felt like a cross between Aperture and The X-Files. I’ll stick Deathloop on the wishlist, thanks for the recommendation!

Shit, and it comes with the first two games for $4?? Purchased and downloaded. Thanks for the suggestion!

Thanks for the really thoughtful comment! You make all three sound extremely intriguing.

I was unaware that any of the Halo games had much of a story at all! I’ve always just imagined them as the present incarnation of Unreal Tournament, i.e. built primarily for competitive multiplayer. I’d have expected the art direction to be, uh, perfunctory. Shame on me.

The thing that I dislike about metroidvanias, which is that I get hopelessly disoriented, could indeed work in favor of a horror game. I’m very interested in this one now, and as a fortysomething gamer I love the idea of a Gameboy title.

I picked up Frostpunk during the Epic giveaway but haven’t dived in yet. Thank you for the specific description—it’ll make it easier to go in with the proper expectation for suspense!

Well you just bloody sold me on DOOM 3, adding it to the wishlist immediately

I’ve started Black Mesa but haven’t finished it yet. What I’ve played has been fucking impressive.

Valve is sort of the best at what I’m asking about—all of their games have the greatest touches that make the settings feel like existing locations you’ve walked into. It’s what makes me wish they published more.

The insane detail that goes into aging Aperture throughout the second half of Portal 2, the way it starts in the 40s or 50s at the very bottom and has a distinct “era” for each level as you get closer to the surface, including Cave’s progressing illness . . . it’s such good storytelling, and it’s literally just window dressing for the already-great main plot.

I’ve got about 2k hours in Skyrim so I definitely love a Bethesda game, but what I’m thinking about are simple arcade shooters with less of an RPG structure than TES or Fallout.

Admittedly Borderlands has skill trees and classes, but I feel like it’s safe to call it a shooter first & a roleplayer second. But DOOM, Bioshock, Portal, Metro—if there’s more to your character than their name & their gun, the game barely acknowledges it. :P

Not a Skyrim modder, I take it

An extremely patient gamer, I see ;)

I was 16 when Goldeneye released. The immersion of those locations was off the charts for the time. I’m not sure I played another game that gave me that uncanny feeling of being somewhere else until HL2.

I actually have SoC & CoP in my backlog. I tried SoC once, but admittedly didn’t give it the time it deserved.

Gameplay-wise, would you recommend playing CoP before SoC, since Pripyat is newer, or is it best to play SoC first for the story?

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Blood and Wine is worth playing for the soundtrack alone

Exactly, seems like I came to the right thread :P

I feel like I’m guilty of this within the Borderlands series – I love all the things about 2 that OG fans seemed to dislike, namely Anthony Burch’s writing and the weapons spread, and I actually think 3 is pretty respectable as a shooter; it’s a lot of fun to play, it’s just a weak sequel to 2. The things that fans seem to love about The Pre-Sequel (the ice and the butt slams and the new player characters) left me cold, and I think the first game pales in comparison to the second.

boring gameplay even on extreme difficulty but the world is so beautiful, and I love just driving around the map with no HUD.

Hey, this is basically Skyrim and I’ve got 2k+ happy hours in that

I think the peaceful vs chaotic option in Dishonored can make sinking into it a little less straightforward than the others, kind of like Deus Ex – except Deus Ex is a more complete espionage experience than Dishonored, where non-violence is sort of just a roleplay choice.

I say go high chaos, even if it feels like the game de-incentivizes it, and just enjoy it as a shooter experience. If you decide you want to do a sneak playthrough afterwards, you still can.

Sweet, I’ll keep an eye out for that DLC. I have the rest of it in my backlog (I think), but having been waiting for the whole thing to actually play it.