this post was submitted on 03 May 2025
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We've all played them. Backtracking, not knowing where to go. Going back and forth. Name some of these games from your memory. I'll start: Final Fantasy XIII-2, RE1

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (4 children)

I would say many games with procedural generated worlds, like Minecraft, No Man's Sky, etc. Where the main task is deciding where do I go next, where do I settle down, maybe there is some better place over the next hill, next planet, etc.

There are other games, where it is also sometimes not quite clear what to do next. Like games have a lot of progression and rebuilding of stuff that was done before because of it. Like Satisfactory, Factorio, etc.

And on a more literal sense, where you actually redo the game over and over to progress, like The Stanley Parable or Outer Wilds.

Some games have a very labyrinthine level design, where it also isn't really clear what to do next, like Dark Souls, Subnautica, etc.

Or environment puzzles, where you have to figure out how to progress, like the Myst series, Riven, etc.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

I've just finished Turok for the first time. Some of these levels are absurd.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (5 children)

Every

Single

Old

Game.

I hate it

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

The original Final Fantasy. If you don't have a walk-through open next to you I have no idea how you would naturally beat the game in a respectable time frame.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Everytime this game got ported, I'd retry it. I'd get over the bridge, get into town, fight the pirates, earn the boat... and get completely lost.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

La Mulana for sure! It's a game where you play as professor Lemeza Kosugi (i.e. Japanese Indiana Jones) exploring an ancient temple. I admit that I did not have the patience for it. The map is huge and exploration is very non-linear. You also have to solve fairly obscure puzzles. If you really wanted to give it a go, I'd keep hand-written or typed notes separate from the in-game notes. They only let you save so much data at once, and you need more notes (or a good memory). I still kind of loved exploring the maps even partially though. It's pretty huge and ambitious in scope.

The combat and movement are not fantastic though. Not bad, but they feel very limiting compared to typical metroidvanias that let you style on enemies as you get better at the game. The game is not very shy about how it enjoys killing you too! I respect it, but it was tough for me to enjoy.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 weeks ago

It feels like such a silly example now that I know the game, but tales of symphonia made me give up for about three years before coming back and beating it. There's a section where you're supposed to go to a specific city to progress, but there's a semi-secret long way around that lets you experience a different character's story early. Well, I somehow sucked at following directions and went the semi-secret way, and then couldn't figure out how to get ANYWHERE that let you do anything. I wandered around the same continent for several months (playing a few hours a week) before moving on.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

Unreal. I stopped playing when I couldn't find the exit.

Edit: But to be honest that was kind of the norm back then. I hated Half Life for popularising the more linear level design.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I don't know, man, I ran around hugging every wall of deserted Doom and Wolfenstein 3D levels that a) noclip became the default way to play those games, and b) Half-Life felt like an amazing breath of fresh air.

Well, Quake 2 did, I guess. Half-Life felt like the next-gen take on that idea.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 weeks ago

All of fucking Bloodborne. Fast travel is great. Building into the narrative where you don’t tell the story directly? Fuck that.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 weeks ago
[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

I’ve probably played a bunch, but the one that most comes to mind is Antechamber. Super weird FPS puzzle game ala portal but with a lot of mindbending illusions, non-Euclidean geometry, etc.

It’s got a metroidvania structure but without much guidance and a lot of stuff will just loop you back to where you’ve been if you’re not getting things right. At some point I was just completely lost. I couldn’t possibly think of where I haven’t tried to go or do. Worst part if I tried to look up a guide I don’t even know where I’d begin to look.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)
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[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (4 children)

Atari's ET. Game was bugged. Every 80's kid that bought this was disappointed. It is the worst video game in history and all unsold copies were buried in a landfill only to be rediscovered decades later.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E.T._the_Extra-Terrestrial_(video_game)

The High Score is a great documentary that actually has the guy that developed it. I think he was high when he developed it which explains a lot.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 weeks ago

Halo ce campaign.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 weeks ago

Myst, sometimes Max Payne, Doom 3, Tomb Raider

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 weeks ago

The Outer Worlds is a perfect example of this in the best way possible.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

Prince of Persia Warrior Within

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

The original Bard's Tale

Me and my best friend literally spent a month of near nightly playing trying to get through the first in-town dungeon

Daggerfall also fits the bill

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago

The problem with Daggerfall is that the dungeons are procedurally generated. I have spent hours digging through a dungeon, hugging the right wall and spam clicking on every surface for a hidden door, to eventually give up and hotkey through all the spawn spots, to find the quest target in a disconnect glitched out dungeon segment.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Try Platoon on the NES, you get bombarded by ennemies while you have to find your way through this abomination of a maze!

A map of the 1st level of Platoon on the NES, showing the 1st level which is a huge maze in the forest with simillar-looking backgrounds everywhere

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)
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[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Blue Prince for me right now.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago

The first 4 Tomb Raider games on PC/PS1

Digimon World on PS1, made worse by the fact that it's a tamagotchi roguelite RPG. I never played DW3, but I heard it can easily become a "where the fuck do I go now?" because of obtuse/asshole time sinking designs here and there

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)
  • Star Trek 25th Anniversary Game
  • Star Trek Judgement Rites
  • Myst
[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago

I've installed Myst around 10 times and I haven't gotten anywhere with it. I refuse to look at solutions because its a legendary puzzle game and I will not be beaten by it, but also I'm not at all sure what to do at all. I have never solved a single puzzle. I'm never even sure what's interactive or not, or if I'm even looking at a puzzle or just seeing clues where there are none.

I should try it again soon...

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Tunic

Pokémon Gold/Silver/Crystal

Metroid

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

This one's pretty controversial, but if you've never played it before,

Half Life 1

It's really confusing and enemies will pop out of nowhere and kill you instantly. Not really fun imo, but then again I AM playing it for the first time 27 years after it came out 😂

I'm sure Black Mesa is more intuitive though.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago

Make sure you listen to the NPCs. They give you clues like being quiet around the big beaky things that one shot you. Also, if it is really big you guns do nothing. Go and find the other way to destroy it.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago

Zork. God forbid you forget to look mailbox

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Star Flight. I played it on Genesis, and it's still one of the greatest games I've ever played.

One space ship, 270 solar systems, and 800 planets. The manual included a captain's log that was sent back in time from the future, but without that you'd just be scouring the stars for clues, interrogating aliens, digging through ancient ruins, and watching slowly as a rash of planet-destroying solar flares spreads through the galaxy.

So fucking good.

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