I recently finished Rise of the Tomb Raider and Final Fantasy XVI, and I’m hesitant what I should play next (PC or PS5).
With FF I enjoyed the game and the story was all I expected from it, and I’m really looking forward to the DLC.
With Tomb Raider… damn that game is all over the place. The story is predictable, and also stupid. “Why did you rush in there? Without weapons? Against an army?”, and other similar thoughts kept running through my head. I don’t feel inclined to play Shadow of the tomb Raider (the sequel).
I have a backlog of too many games, and lately it takes a lot of effort to start because I don’t know if it’s worth the time investment. I love games with good stories, and playing a game that puts the lore and story in the background feels like a waste of time.
Sure, I could get started on Baldurs Gate 3, I’ve heard great things. But is the story great? Will I be able to say “oh that chapter/fight/act is awesome!” To other people looking for game experiences?
Experiences like Escaping from the ship in Super Metroid, helping that king in Witcher 3, fighting Psycho Mantis in MGS, fighting Titan in FFXVI, killing the first colossus, escaping from darth Vader, that first Mario odyssey stage, beating the first boss in Bloodborne, playing “Brothers” for the first time and getting to the ending… all great experiences with awesome stories to tell
TL;DR: what am I missing?
EDIT: Holy crap I didn't expect these many replies. Thank you! There are many recommendations I've already played, and many others I will definitely play. Thanks!
If anyone is interested in the result:
Recommended, bought:
- Bioshock 2
- Black mesa
- Cyberpunk 2077
- Death stranding
- Deaths door
- Detroit become human (PS5)
- Disco elysium
- Dragon Age
- Elden ring
- Fallout 3
- Fallout 4
- Fallout new Vegas
- Ghost of Tsushima
- Hades
- Half life alyx
- Hellblade senuas sacrifice
- Homeworld
- Horizon zero dawn
- Inscryption
- Just cause 3
- Life is Strange
- Mass effect 3
- Metro series
- Ori and the blind forest, and sequel
- Oxenfree
- Persona 5
- Planescape: torment
- Shadowrun dragonfall
- Shadowrun Hong Kong
- Soma
- Spider-Man
- Subnautica
- Tyranny
- Wolfenstein series
Recommended, to buy:
- 13 sentinels (PS4)
- Age of decadence
- Cruelty squad
- Dead space
- Ghost recon wildlands
- God of war ragnarok
- Grandia
- Kingdom Come Deliverance
- Octopath Traveler 1 & 2
- Outer wilds
- Pathologic 2
- Red dead redemption 2
- Song of horror
- Star Wars: The Old Republic MMORPG
- The hex
- the last of us part 2
- The upturned
- Torment: tides of numenera
- Withering rooms
- Yakuza
Already Played, and yeah, these are awesome:
- Alpha centauri
- Bioshock 1
- Bioshock infinite
- Borderlands series
- Control
- Dark souls series
- Deus ex human revolution
- Deus ex mankind divided
- FFXIV
- Ghost trick
- God of war 2018
- Guardians of the Galaxy
- Hollow knight
- Hotel Dusk
- Mass effect
- Mass effect 2
- Nier: automata
- Nier: replicant
- Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney
- Portal
- Portal 2
- Psychonauts 1 & 2
- Spec ops: the line
- Stray
- the last of us part 1
- The Stanley parable
- Titanfall 2
- Undertale
- What remains of Edith finch
- Witcher 3
Both have powerful stories, and I can respect a narrative that takes risks like TLOU has. I have some gripes with the second's narrative, but I would still recommend it to many. I've also been thinking about it recently, so I'm pleasantly surprised to see it mentioned here.
I think it’s totally fine that a game may not be someone’s cup of tea, but I recall the second game getting a lot of negativity for…some reason I don’t fully remember.
Outside of the story the gameplay is better, the tech is better, the environments are better. Even today it holds up as a powerhouse in these areas.
But, again, a recall a lot of people trashing the game, and I’m not saying that’s you at all. Don’t get me wrong. I’m just trying to remember why a certain subset of people online were going all apey over it. To me it’s absolute top tier game to this day.
Some of the popular complaints went into spoiler territory. Since I can't seem to spoiler tag on kbin, I'll only briefly mention that they generally centered around one of the main character's choices early on, while also targeting their appearance for being "unrealistic".
I agree overall. I also applaud Naughty Dog for the considerable number of gameplay options and accessibility features. If I remember correctly, someone has even beaten TLOU1/2 who was born blind.
Not gonna get into it here, but the lesson learned by the protagonist felt like it missed the mark a bit when looking at the events of the game after things were said and done. Ultimately, I think it's fairly minor considering that's maybe my main gripe. I suppose I had some issues with pacing too, and thought some aspects of the plot should have been fleshed out differently. I was hoping to revisit TLOU1/2 eventually to see how my thoughts have changed.