Which games blow your mind, but only if you know nothing about them in advance?
Best examples I can think of are:
- Outer Wilds
- Doki Doki Literature Club
- The Stanley Parable
What are yours?
(please no spoilers)
- Disco Elysium
- Return of the Obra Dinn
- House Of The Dying Sun
- FEAR
- Limbo
- Oxenfree
Yes! Return of the Obra Dinn 100%. You can still watch other people play it on YouTube later and have a blast seeing them figure things out. And read Lucas Pope’s excellent devblog later as well.
I am super intimidated Return of the Obra Dinn. But it looks so cool, and I feel like it uses a lot of lateral thinking and makes you smarter for playing it.
No need to be intimidated. Just pick it up in a sale. Definitely a brain teaser but there are spoiler reduced guides out there in case you get stuck. But you should be able to finish the game even without guidance.
I went into Oxenfree completely blind after picking it up for next to nothing on the switch store. Great story with choices that actually matter. OP, do yourself a favor and play this without a guide.
Heck yes. I still need to play the second one.
Can you send me the link to FEAR? In steam there are a lot of games with this name lol.
Ok thx, this one is actually available in gog too, and for cheaper. Gonna check it out. (Costed me 0.2$, but there is regional pricing here).
Heck yes. Enjoy. Say hit to Alma for me.
What region is that?
Brazil
Tunic.
The one thing I think is worth “spoiling” just to save you some pain:
Tap for spoiler
If you find a room with a bunch of curtains and bells, it is NOT A PUZZLE!
I also second Outer Wilds.
I just finished playing tunic (good ending). A friend and I were playing it at the same time. If I didn’t have that friendly competition I would have dropped it so many times. There is way too much manual work in this game that you often times aren’t playing a video game anymore.
At the end of it all I didn’t feel a sense of accomplishment just relief that I’m done with the game. Only to find out after doing the secret puzzle is just more meta puzzles outside the game.
Outer Wilds on the other hand is fantastic and not having to use a pencil and paper to advance in the game is A+.
Inscryption
Damn, was I surprised as a fan of older TCGs and videogame TCGs.
Was gonna mention this one soooooo good
Minesweeper
I’m surprised no one mentioned Spec Ops: The Line yet
Journey. You can get it on PlayStation, iOS, steam (on sale for $5 atm) and epic. It is 2-3 hours short and not very challenging, but it does look absolutely stunning and has a very beautiful gameplay mechanic that you better find out for yourself. IMO it is one of the best games of all time and one that really demonstrates what the medium is capable of.
spoiler
Gosh this one makes me cry every time
Thank you for this. Just recently picked up and played through twice Gris and Neva. Even though they’re short as well I really find myself loving the visuals, gameplay and the atmosphere created by these games.
I wish someone had told me what Journey was about so I could have avoided it. I went in blind and didn’t enjoy it at all. It was a cool concept but it wasn’t for me.
That is odd that nobody could tell this wouldn’t be for you @SHOW_ME_YOUR_ASSHOLE@lemm.ee
The Long Dark
Getting lost in the snowy wilderness I so much fun. I have many “oh shit” moments that kinda don’t happen once you learn the maps and improve.
I’ve had that one in my library since it originally came out and I’ve been wanting to play it ever since, but haven’t found time. I understand they’ve added quite a bit since the early days!
Yeah it’s changed a lot over the years but is such a unique experience I recommend it to everyone.
They still haven’t released all the story mode chapters but survival mode is by far the best way to play.
I have been thinking about some old survival game that I used to play that doesn’t exist anymore recently, maybe it’s time I give The Long Dark some real playtime!
Oh, the story mode is not finished yet? Any idea if they have a goal date?
They are on to the last episode now but it’s all overdue by like 5 years at this point so who knows.
Seems like just about all games end up overdue by years (or sometimes a decade) these days.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
And probably Tears of the Kingdom too but I haven’t played it yet.
If you’ve played botw, you basically can’t play totk blind by the nature of the games’ similarities
I can at least try to wait a few years to forget as much as possible.
I believe Cyberpunk 2077 is a fantastic experience going in blind.
Especially Phantom Liberty. I went in blind, made decisions, lived to regret them, fucked up everything, and loved every minute of it.
Playing through Phantom Liberty now. So far it’s a breath of fresh air in a save I’ve been playing on and off since launch.
There’s a couple of quests that have a time limit, and it’s easy to not be aware since all the others can be completed whenever. I only knew beforehand because I read about it, and I’m glad I did, because letting them unintentionally expire has really bad outcomes.
Also I got a mod for infinite respecs. Otherwise I would worry about wasting finite consumable points and never spend them.
Bioshock.
Red Dead Redemption (and RDR2).
Portal.
What happened to Edith Finch
What Remains of Edith Finch
Yeah. That one. I’m just going to stick with calling it Edith Finch.
What’s up with Edith Finch
Dude, where’s Edith Finch?
The Edith and the Remains: Tokyo Finch
beautifully absurd 😂
I’m gonna go with Skyrim, the more unoptimized and aimless your playthrough is, the more fun you’ll have.
Just started playing Skyrim for the first time last week.
My character is optimized for ending fights before they begin – by liquifying the opponent’s noggin’ with one swing of her 2-handed warhammer.
Other than that, she travels the world collecting ingredients to cook, brew and smith stuff with.
I suspect that’s not an optimal build, but it’s fun.Perfect, I wouldn’t change a thing.
Hollow knight. The exploration of that game is absolutely the pinnacle of world layouts
Surprised I haven’t seen Undertale yet. The online fanbase is hilariously toxic, (seriously, don’t go looking for any extra details about the game after you finish it) but it’s a solid game that should be experienced 100% blind. All I’ll say is that it’s a game that is written to subvert expectations; If you go into it expecting to play it like a traditional RPG, you’ll be in for a big surprise.
Tunic. Knowing how to do the puzzles defeats the fun of the game.
+1 Loved every time I learned a new mechanic through the game.