6mo ago

What games did you have a good time with that you just never finished?

168 comments

You guys finish games?
- Right? This question is basically asking for a list of games I love, excluding the ones that somehow tricked me into finishing them

I liked fallout New Vegas a lot, but my hoarding mentality and constant inventory management was a bad combination, so I never finished that game.
- There’s a UI mod that makes a world of difference. Adds categories and columns for sorting, one of the categories is junk so you know what you can just trash without worries. Another is a weight/value ratio so its easier to drop heavy armor that looks sort of valuable but really isnt. It saves an incredible amount of time. Game still takes forever to beat if you wanna do all the quests.
  
  Anyone know what this mod is called? I have the same hoarding problem as the other poster so this sounds essential for me.
  
  I'm on fallout 4 with an unlimited carry weight mod and having a blast. I'll come back to fnv with mods after I'm done with fo4 then, thanks
- Save corruption was what did it for me. Every single attempt at playing New Vegas resulted in save corruption before I could beat it.
  
  One thing that worked for me was starting a new game and loading the corrupted save from there rather than trying to load it from the main menu
- I'm replaying New Vegas now and made misc items have zero weight so I can hoard away.
- I got all the way to the end, but then decided to enter one of the DLCs and just lost all interest in it.

Baldur's Gate 3.
I played through one single player save and two multiplayer ones with different groups, enjoyed it all - but only got a little ways into Act 3 on any one save. A combination of middling performance with my older rig and just having sank so much time in I burnt out a little.
Still think it's a fantastic game, but I don't know if I'll ever go back to finish it - I feel like I'd have to start a whole new save.
- I'm in the same boat. I want to like the game and it is fun, but I got stuck with some area with orbs and my save corrupted...one of the orbs just disappeared after 50+ hours and I can't bring myself to play again and possibly have the same bug pop up. Maybe someday but it's just such a big game.
- Yep, love the game and got a good portion into act 3 but then just lost all will to play.
  
  It was the same with divinity original sin 2. The final act was so large, disorganized, and not fun. Like they had a lot of ideas they needed to use but didn't know where until then, so they threw them all in a big city and called it a day.
  
  In my experience act 3 was extremely buggy, we had a blast in act 1 and 2 with my friend but the bugs in act 3 killed basically all our motivation and we never finished it.

Doom 2016: Save with low ammo before a big fight
BioShock 1: Save with low ammo before a big fight
Prey 2017: Save with low ammo before a big fight...
Hollow Knight: Got lost to the point where now half my playtime is trying to find where to go, making me give up
- I loved Hollow Knight except for the same issue. By the time I gain a new traversal skill, I have so many paths to explore that I can't remember them. Became all about meticulous backtracking, gave up.
  Decided to give it another go. This time I found a map online, removed all icons and edited the image so it was just a simple outline with no spoilers. Printed it out. Marked it with notes and colour-coded symbols as I played. Made more progress, and exploration was way more fun.
  Then I moved house and lost the map... I really love the game but just haven't gotten the desire to try again just yet. No idea how everyone does it with just those way-too-limited in game map markers
  
  I found that Elder Bug would pretty much always just tell you where to go
- You can just beat the crap out of everything with the wrench and the only consequence for death is... Moving 40 ft to a vitachamber. Bioshock is a great game but yeah you should just try to finish it, it's great.

FFX
First time I played was at a boyfriend’s house. I got like 80% of the way through, then we broke up.
Second time, I let a friend borrow my GameCube in exchange for his PS2. I got about 80% of the way through, then he wanted his PS2 back.
I finally got my own PS2. Played about 80% of the way through but had a couple bad builds and couldn’t beat a boss. I didn’t have energy to grind my way into a better build, so I just never finished.
It’s been ~20 years. I still sometimes think I’ll break out the old PS2 and see if my save file is there. I probably won’t.
- The remastered copy on Steam let's you speed up the game. It is much quicker running around at x4 speed and clearing random encounters. Then slow game speed to normal for major bosses and events. I would highly recommend this route rather than trying to find a PS2 again.
  If you haven't played FFX-2 or FFXII then those are worth checking out too.
  
  Omg, I had no clue that existed. Thank you!
  
  I mentioned your comment to my partner after I saw it. Last night, he showed me he’d bought the FFX/X-2 bundle on Steam for me! So I guess I might actually finish the game after all :D

Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077. Both amazing games (latter after the many updates that brought it over to the good side).
If it’s “too” long (really, no such thing, but situationally this can be the reality) it can happen that life turns so that there’s no more time, and when I try to get back, too much time has passed and I can’t orientate myself anymore, can’t remember where I was and what I was doing etc.
On the other hand, I can’t start again either, for a few years, because I remember everything before the point I left off at, once I get into the places and puzzles and whatnot.
Annoys me to no end.
But c’est la vie.
- I love long open-world games, but I also reached a certain point in TW3 where I just burned out. It was weird too, because up until that point I was getting anxious over how little map I had left to explore. Then boom, I just lost my drive. Maybe I subconsciously sabotaged it so that I wouldn't run out of game. I'd really like to try again sometime.
- Yeah I had to go nolife for a while with Cyberpunk, got more than 100 hours in that game, definitely a commitment, although the main story is pretty short if you just want to do that
- I feel like some AAA games have gotten better at making it easier to return after a long absence. FFVII Rebirth basically has a timeline of every single event leading up to your current mission and FFXVI had the Active Time Lore system and basically an entire in-game wiki that you put together for that old librarian dude. It also had that strategist lady who would explain to you the state of the realm between events and missions.

I like playing minecraft. But i have never gotten to the credit screen
- Same, played since beta era, haven't even gotten to the end world. My potato farms are doing ok, though.
- Exactly the same for me too haha, I've beat the ender dragon with friends before on shared worlds, but I've never beaten it in my own single player world.
  I generally have really short bursts of playing MC these days, and by the time I play again a new update has come out so I usually just completely reset to new world features and such. I know that they generate in unexplored chunks and that you can go prune chunks and whatnot, but rather than spend time doing that I'd rather just spend the time playing. Hell, these days I don't even usually get to the stage of getting Netherite gear.

Im honestly not sure the last time I actually finished a game.
A combination of not having enough play time and those rare occasions I do have the time I tend to burn myself out playing the game.

Subnautica. I always have so much fun exploring and crafting things, but then for one reason or another I end up putting it aside. By the time I get back to it, I've forgotten how to play so I end up starting a new game, only for the cycle to repeat. One of these days I'll finish it!
- Please do, it's so good.
- I really struggle to enjoy crafting in Subnautica. Something about it just feels clunky and/or a step removed from me, and I don't engage with it very well.
- Subnautica is absolute fire all the way through. But then again quitting before completion, forgetting all about it, and being able to perpetually start anew as it were your magical first time playing sounds like a pretty good plan for game edging :>

Breath of the Wild 😞
- The world wasn't interesting enough for me. It felt like the same 45 minute game loops over and over again.
  
  Too many chores. Too much filler in between (very good) puzzles. Traversal way too boring.
  All imo of course. I feel the same way about almost all open world games these days. I don't play video games to do chores.
  If I could play just the dungeons in BOTW & TOTK all in a row, 10/10.

Elden Ring. It was fun at first and I got farther than I thought I could which makes it better than the other souls games for me.
But now I have terminal skill issue and I dont really desire to bang my head against the wall trying to beat bosses. I also find some of the later stage content a little too unsettling for me. Stuff like caelid and just the general body horror of some of the enemies. I dont know why that stuff has such an effect on me but it does.

Almost all of them. I rarely finish a game. For a variety of reasons, all added together. The closer I get to the end, the more I want to put it off if I'm enjoying a game, so I will keep finding more and more nuanced stuff to do instead. A new game comes out and I eventually completely forget one of the 10 games I'm currently actively playing when it temporarily becomes 11, then back down to 10. My friends stop playing a game, but my character relied on them... maybe I'll just start over with a character that can solo. Maybe that game will just go on the pile of "not today, but I'll play it soon", until it's been in the pile so long that there isn't much point anymore.
I should mention I am autistic and likely adhd but I haven't got that diagnosed yet. So while some of this is probably normal behaviours, some of it probably isn't too.

Spider-Man Remastered - 80% completed the story and left it there. Lost interest. Didn't see any point in exploring most abilities when a hand full of AoE enemy clearing abilities were so effective.
Guacamelee 2 I left close to the final boss and still think of it as one of the best games I ever played.
Cuphead - had plenty of fun, but lost interest in replaying bosses so many times over and over.
Eldest Souls - excellent game, but I took along break from it and when I came back I forgot how the mechanics and ability synergies worked out and felt like I was relearning it from scratch (except I was on advance and difficult bosses).
Overcooked 2 - my wife stopped making time to spend on the game and would rather watch TV together instead.
It Takes Two - my brother's schedule never lined up with mine.
Sifu - got too difficult.

Baldurs Gate 3.
Don't get me wrong, I love the game, and I'm sure I will finish it at some point. I just played it too much for a while, and found myself rushing for the main quest and ignoring side quests right after arriving at Baldurs Gate. I took that as a sign that I was in "just get it over with"-mode, so I decided to take a break for quite some time so that I can one day return to the game, take a step back, and continue with the pace that I had to begin with.

Baldur's Gate 3. I never finished Act 1. I'm sure it's great. I enjoyed what I did play. I just put it down one night and never picked it back up.

The Talos Principle.
I just stopped playing it one day and never touched it again. I didn't dislike anything about it.
- Same.
- Same, but I'm stuck at one specific puzzle near the end.
- Oh damn... You should try to finish it, the end is so satisfying!

Dwarf Fortress
- I don't think you can finish dwarf fortress

Most of them, but KCD is my favourite, I suck at sword fighting, bow shooting, but I keep returning to this game
- The sword fighting becomes way easier once you unlock some skills through training. The first time I played I didn't know about the training and it took me way longer than it should have to figure it out. Maybe you already know about that, but just in case you missed that like I did at first, thought I'd mention it.
  
  I heard it's the same for archery, I hope it'll be more rewarding in KCD2 because I'd rather pick flowers now
- Same.
- I love the archery.
  I haven't played in a good while, but just sneaking through the forests poaching deer (to cook because the second it's cooked it's not suspicious at all that I have 500 pounds of meat for sale) is one of the more satisfying hunting in games experience I've had.
  (Edit: it's $3 on PSN right now. I have it on steam but I can't resist rebuying to have on both at that price.)

Baldur's Gate 3.
I've put over 500 hours in, play it almost every day, and still have yet to complete the main story in any of my playthroughs. It's just so good, and I feel like completing the game will give it too much finality.

Hollow Knight, I got about 70% through, but then it got too difficult. Still enjoyed the part that I played though.
- I absolutely loved that game until it got too hard for me or I got too anxious about losing my souls (putting me in an even worse position from them on). Probably also about 70% in.
  Sadly I played it on Switch, otherwise I would have used some kind of mod to lower the difficulty. Doing that would have sucked, but never finishing the game sucks even more...

Metro: Exodus. I remember it being extremely pretty, but I never beat it like I did the previous two games

Red Dead Redemption 2. I love it but put it down for like a week then got distracted by other games. Haven't had the drive yet to pick the story back up.
Witcher 3. I never played Blood & Wine. I loved the game as well as Heart of Stone but I scoured every inch and burned myself out. Told myself I'd save B&W for when I make some changes in my life, as motivation. Still haven't made a couple of the biggest yet though.
- You *have * to try Blood and Wine. Simply put, it makes up for everything before it. The bright, warm, Southern France -inspired map, great quests, and finally a homestead.
  Try Witcher with some QoL mods, like easier fast travel, auto harvesting, auto-applying of oils. Everything that lets you play the game instead of plucking flowers all day.
  
  You had me nodding till the oils. That personally sounds a bit cheaty, but then I quite enjoyed the thoughtful aspect of planning your potions and oils carefully before combat.
  But otherwise yeah I played with QoL mods before, mostly to help the UI and map and inventory. Worth the minor effort for sure.

I've finished nearly all at least once.
But I've played Skyrim for thousands of hours and only ever completed the main questline once.

The one that still pains me to this day is Black Mesa.
I thoroughly enjoyed it, I even played it before the last chapter was done. I was really excited to go through the redesigned Xen levels, and was enjoying every minute.
Then they throw that massive spider into a huge arena filled with micro obstacles that prevent you from properly avoid all the multiple types of attacks it throws at you, while absorbing insane amounts of rockets.
I'm not a skilled gamer but I was moving through the game just fine until someone decided to crank the difficulty to eleven.
That killed the game right there for me. Other than that, it's a brilliant game that I heartily recommend.

Fallout 4. I just stopped for some reason. I think I was close to having to pick one of the factions to support and I couldn't decide, then got distracted by other games. I tried to pick it up again recently and didn't remember the story. I'd love to sit through and read summaries of all the quests I completed so I can catch up on where I was and what I did one day, and then I can finally properly finish it.

Morrowind. I loved exploring the world, hoarding stuff, and leveling up, but towards the final boss area I just kind of fell off and played other games. I don’t even remember why, it has been a few years now. Definitely put like 2-3 hundred hours into it. Also used several gorgeous graphical mods which made exploring the world even better.

Witcher 3. it was my first RPG, and as much as I enjoyed it I just did not have the patience
- I'm in a seemingly significant minority of people who just don't like TW3. Never liked the controls, inventory system, or story.
  
  I don't have the patience for RPGs but I was invested enough in the Witcher lore that I was pushing through, but my ADHD eventually betrayed me.
  
  After a few hours of playing Witcher 3, I realized it was Fable but more complicated. Have you ever played Fable 3?

The Witcher 3. Game looks great and fun but I spend so much time trying to upgrade my gear but it never felt that I got any stronger. Maybe I will revisit and look up a guide our something.

Fez. Got stuck and just couldn't figure out how to complete the game.
For Hades, I beat him once after an enjoyable 35 hours, but didn't have it in me to repeat that 9 more times for the credits to roll.
- I love FEZ and I totally understand that being stuck is frustrating. At one point, I consulted the internet only to find out that you HAVE to look up the solution for a certain puzzle on the internet (I believe it was on the game dev forum or something like that, it's been a while). I liked that.
- Same, I've been stuck in Fez for the mast ten years. It's so hard to get your bearings !

Subnautica. Basically can't figure out where to go next. Fortunately I got it as a physical release on Switch so I can just sell the cart.
- When I beat Subnautica, there were long periods of me just wandering around gawking at the scenery until I stumbled upon what I needed to do next. To me, that wasn't a bad thing either. I wish there was some way to selectively wipe from my memory everything I remember about the game so I'd get to play through rediscovering everything again.
- Hint: ::: spoiler spoiler go deeper :::
  I don't even need to know where you left off in the game.

This may reveal me to be some kind of weirdo, but I've never managed to finish any Zelda other than the very first one on NES. I've gone back and tried other Zelda games over the years, they all seem interesting to start with but I just end up putting them down at some point and losing interest entirely.
I love a lot of single-player action RPGs and always have, but for some reason the most popular series of them ever consistently fails to vibe with me.
- I was actually coming in to say the Switch Zelda games. BOTW and TOTK were both fantastic, but I never finished them because it never felt like I had done “enough” to actually go fight Ganon.
- So odd as I feel I may be the Ying to your yang. The first zelda is maybe the only one I haven't completed. I think it was incredible for it's time but I think modern controls have left me in a place where I get bored with that entry too quickly.

Adding to Fallout New Vegas, which others have mentioned, Skyrim. I got into modding but then sold my Xbox and haven't yet gotten into the fuller glory of modding it on PC. And, anyhow, I don't really think of it as a game to finish, just a game to play.
Also haven't completed BG3 despite liking it. I suffer in games what I suffer in life: the desire to experience it all and not close any options. Which is to say, I struggle with the reality of consequences and so avoid choices and commitments
- Had some good gameplay here and there but didn't seem engaged by the story. I guess that's the biggest problem with open world games, that everyone can get the story fed to them in a different order.

Divinity: Original Sin 2. I played co-op with my wife. The first time, we got most of the way through act 2 before visiting family over the holidays. More recently (starting a fresh game), we made it much closer to the end, finishing several characters' personal quest lines, before yet another holiday interrupted our game.
Each time, we just never really felt like picking it back up. Maybe we'll get back to our "current" game at some point. Otherwise, I suppose I'll play it solo at some point. Of course, that's how this run started -- she just saw me playing and wanted to play again.
- Its my white whale. Some day ill crush that game

Tears of the Kingdom. It took a few years to finish BotW though. I kept putting it down for various reasons.
- I played the hell out of BotW but have TotK still shrink wrapped... haven't even opened it.
  
  It's a disappointing masterpiece!

System Shock 2.
I always get too scurred around Hydroponics.

Day of the Tentacle
- now this is a bit more like it :)
- There were some critical items that were near impossible to find without a guide.
  
  Yeah, Back when I was a kid we used to roam those point and click adventures a lot. We'd get stuck all the times. Sometimes a friend would have an idea and we'd make some progress. But the internet was slow and we still had dialup. I guess there weren't that much walkthroughs available. At least not in the parts of the internet I knew my way around... Yeah, and English is my second language. So information was kinda scarce antways, before I learned the main language of the internet in school... Everything developed and now I have everything available. I even have those old games sitting on an SD card on a Raspberry Pi and waiting for me. I really should finish that game at some point. On the flipside, I'm an adult now and it's difficult to find the time to play point and click adventures all day long 😆
  And regarding the items: I tried ManiacMansion, which I believe is included in DOTT. That's properly impossible without an expert at your side.

Baldurs Gate 3, The Witcher 3, Red Dead Redemption 2 and many more. These games are all great and I liked them. But sooner or later I just stop playing. I can't even tell why. Maybe I am not a story gamer or the world's are a bit to big.

BG3. I moved after I started playing and haven't had time to really go back to it and, at this point, kinda forget everything.

I've never finished even half of Final Fantasy 6. That game is fucking long. It's the only game I actually like that I have never beaten.
Well, and Nethack without cheating.

Celeste. Like done others have mentioned, I just met my match, for too hard, and I lost interest.

Doom 2016
- Hopefully the computers of today can still run it.

Sekiro. Either I would finish it or I would just break something. Most likely the second
- I beat this a few years ago, was by far the hardest game I've played.
  Back when I beat it, the achievements suggested that about half of the people that made it to the last boss gave up. Which sounds about right in my opinion - I think I did that fight around 50 times.

Unfortunately Stardew Valley. But now I don't have much time and I lost my save file, so I would have to start all over again.
- There's no end to it though
  
  I know, I mean I haven't really played it much and haven't progressed far. I feel like I missed out on a huge part of the game. Will definitely get back to it some day.

Mount and Blade, both titles Kingdom Come Deliverance Elden Ring Ghost Recon Wildlands
I've got untold hours into Ghost Recon, but once they released the permadeath ghost mode, it's the only way I play. I even made a youtube guide on how to speed run the first hour for various perks. Sure I could beat the game in normal mode, but it just seems too easy.

Bloodborne.
I love the aesthetic and the setting, but the gameplay just doesn't click with me. It's clearly very well polished and designed, but I have never been good at third person melee games and soulsborne stuff cranks the required precision up too much for me. Instead I've just listened to dozens of hours of Bloodborne lore to get the experience.
- Same for me. I preserved and eventually got good. Then the story went from wierd to gross and there just wasn't enough love of the game for me to push through.

Tears of the Kingdom. It just got too grindy for me. I rarely play anything any more anyways.
- Oh, you can finish it up pretty quickly when you decide to. Just make a b-line for where all the big dungeons obviously are. You don't need much for gear.

Been meaning to go back and finish Subnautica. I had a good time with it but one sea moth got destroyed bc I couldn't find the zap key in time and I got ejected from another when it was really deep and couldn't go back down and get it without collecting more resources.
I enjoyed the game but I wish it was like 10% easier with QoL improvements, like having a bigger inventory, your ship respawns, etc.
- I highly recommend giving Subnautica another shot. It quickly became one of my all-time favorites. The devs have gone back and made improvements and even brought some buildables and minor features from Below Zero into the original game. It's not perfect and you could still potentially lose a seamoth to a bug but I was able to finish it on hardcore mode (one death erases your save) if that tells you anything about stability.

Metroid Dread. I got stuck on an enemy and couldn’t go forward or backward. Basically met my match, put it down and never played again, which was my enemy, because I didn’t get better.
- I was in same danger until I just tryharded the difficult bosses. They're really tough compared to previous Metroids and I haven't got used to that. Btw, did you drop your game soon after release? A post-release update gave a rookie difficulty mode that might give some mercy on next playthroughs.
  
  I had no idea! Time to brush it off and play like a noob! :) thanks internet friend!

I never finished Bravely Second. I loved Bravely Default, but for some reason I just stopped playing the sequel.

Kingdom Come:Deliverance. I started playing when in had a 1080ti and got pretty far, then I tried to upgrade to an AMD 6900xt. The AMD card performed worse than my old 1080ti on that specific game, which I later found out because AMD had (maybe still does) huge performance issues with the CryEngine.
After a month of messing about trying to get it to play well I ended up returning the card for a 3070ti instead and just never picked up the game again.

Dying light

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