What are your favorite "gotta go in blind" games?
Which games blow your mind, but only if you know nothing about them in advance?
Best examples I can think of are:
What are yours?
(please no spoilers)
Subnautica.
Survival. But you're in the middle of an ocean. Good luck!
The way the game drip feeds you information. I love it!
Is it available for android?
No, but it's on Nintendo Switch, PC/Steam, and a few other consoles, I believe!
I think it may be my favorite game of all time, so if you choose to play it, I hope you have fun!
Undertale, but at this point you'd have to have lived in a cave for the last decade to not know most of the spoilers by now.
Well, apparently I have!
The only thing I've heard about Undertale so far is that it is supposed to be good.
Undertale is such a bolt of lightning. It both depends on its player having experience with traditional JRPG and having no fucking clue what it is. But when the conditions line up, as it did for many people at release, it was such a master fully crafted experience. But even the slightest amount of "it's good because..." really siphons part of the experience away.
Tbh, I played it for a few hours, didn't like it and don't understand all the fuss about it. Does it get good later?
I was at a point, where I was going through a cave with a castle in the background (it was a few years ago), it was probably some kind of riddle, but I couldn't be bothered.
Is it worth going forward or did I see enough to just say "it's not my kind of game"?
I'm gonna be the heretic here, it's actually really terrible. If you don't like Homestuck and that brand of humor, you won't like Undertale.
Spoiler: There are high jinks, low jinks, dangers, puzzles, capers, japers, being captured, and other sorts of fun activities in this game.
Guess I live in a cave then. I have even had the game on steam for ages now. The graphics are just too much of a turn off for me to ever play it.
I have heard the name but don't know what it's about, I'll look into it. Thanks !
I'll look into it.
No, don't!
Or at least don't do anymore than choose your preferred platform and then buy it. Its available on Windows, Linux, Mac, PS, Xbox and Switch but not on Android or iOS.
Its a couple of bucks on steam at the moment, included in PSN if you do that, or full price everywhere else.
I disagree with FEAR simply because I'd say to play it on the hardest difficulty and go balls to the wall because the AI will fuck you over if it gets the chance; and the longer you take to clear a room, the more time the AI has to organize and execute a plan. If it weren't for the fact that I've seen plenty of people get stuck on FEAR because they tried to play it like a cover shooter, I'd fully agree with you.
Honestly, fair assessment. Well said.
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.
Can you send me the link to FEAR? In steam there are a lot of games with this name lol.
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.
Control
Yeah, got it for free on epic, assumed it was a game on dictatorship for reason... What a trip it turned out to be
It's on sale on Steam for $7, just got it!
Great combat, graat atmosphere, great story. Definitely worth your time.
The DLC for that game was a trip too. Highly recommend checking it out as it really added to Alan Wake 2 for me.
You should go into Nier: Automata thinking it's a game about a hot chick fighting a bunch of robots. The only spoiler you should know is that the end isn't the end, and you need to play it again.
You should go into Spec Ops: the Line thinking it's a game about a cool special forces team fighting a bunch of terrorists or something. The only spoiler you should know is that it's supposed to feel like a generic third person shooter.
Haha I stopped playing Nier Automata after finishing it once. Yeah, yeah I heard it's not the end, but the gameplay really isn't good enough to go through it again. Right now I'd give it a 7/10, but if you force me to do it all again I am going down to 3/10. I think it feels incredibly cheap to do this gimmick.
For you, a little extra spoiler: the next ending also isn't the end, there's a lot more. I will admit that playing the second run is a big grindy at first, but it quickly differentiates itself from your first run by the time you get to the first boss. Also, in the second run, the side quests are crucial.
An extra-extra spoiler: there's a lot to dig your teeth into, philosophically, that makes the whole rigmarole worth it.
I love Nier! I'm thought the second play through would be a slog, but they kept it really interesting imo. And starting it up for a third time was wild. Even starting that game is part of the game mechanic, it's so neat!
Tunic.
The one thing I think is worth “spoiling” just to save you some pain:
I also second Outer Wilds.
i bounced off tunic super hard. i love the puzzle aspects, the cryptic manual pages, and figuring things out, but the combat was way too brutal, even on the easier setting. the bigger white ghost enemies at the very start killed me so many times i no longer want to go back to it.
I’ve gotta remember what those ghosts are.
I’ve slowly acclimated to Soulslikes since Tunic, and a common theme is that they make you think you need to be pressing more buttons, when they’re often teaching specialized bits of patience. In Tunic’s case, a lot of people expend their stamina too quickly.
Still don’t like FromSoft’s games
I thought the reward for the puzzles was not good enough, either. When you play Outer Wilds, you figure things out, unlock a wonderful story, and learn tricks for other puzzles. When you play Tunic, you (eventually) figure things out and get a bad ending for a game that barely reveals anything, story-wise.
I also thought that requiring a web app or a bunch of paperwork to figure out the language was far too inconvenient for a game made in the 21st century. They borrowed the wrong lessons from Fez.
I switched that to easy mode at one of the mid game bosses, and I still struggled. The combat is way too tough for what it is.
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+.
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.
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
I fucking loved it and cried.
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.
Subnautica. Just bopping along, in my cute little submarine.
I had no background and nearly shat myself at a moment you can probably guess lol
Subnautica. You can only play it for the first time once.
Absolutely this. I am jealous each time I recommend it to someone who hasn't played it yet.
I'm glad there was a thread about Subnautica in here.
absolutely stunning, especially if one has any kind of decent audio system
I tried it a few years ago and gave up after an hour of not knowing what to do. But I had this week off and tried it again, it I'm really enjoying it this time. It's not like anything else, and once that initial bump is passed its learning curve is really quite good.
It is one of my all-time favorite games. I have unfortunately played it to death; I've run out of stupid challenge runs. The game has a story and uniquely for survival games it has an ending, there's a Win The Game button. But the game is as much about the story you're going to create; the way you choose to go about things, the order you decide to explore in, the happenstances of your adventure are maybe more important than what the wiki says the story is. Savor that.
I will offer this hint. I don't think it's a spoiler; I think there is a strong possibility this hint will prevent you from alt-tabbing out to look up the wiki and accidentally encounter a spoiler. But I will tag it as a spoiler anyway.
Minesweeper
I don't know if you're being sarcastic, but your comment is so true it hurts. When you first figure out how minesweeper works, your mind is blown away.
Inscryption
Damn, was I surprised as a fan of older TCGs and videogame TCGs.
Was gonna mention this one soooooo good
And The Hex, which is his prior game. IT IS SO HORRIBLY UNDERRATED
Inside. Made by the same company as Limbo, but Inside is much more "don't look up a single thing"
Thanks for the recommendation. Just bought both for $3 lol
Sweet deal!!
Limbo was alright for me, but Inside blew my mind. So if Limbo doesn't float your boat, don't stop there!
have a great time !! Inside is fantastic
Awesome! Inside is far better than Limbo in my opinion, but they are both good games
I'm surprised no one mentioned Spec Ops: The Line yet
Inscryption absolutely blew my mind. I'd toss Undertale on there too.
Inscryption totally lost me after the cabin. Felt like having the rug pulled out from beneath me.
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!
Sauna2000 (it's not out yet, but there are some demos floating around).
Squirrel stapler
Cruelty Squad - depends on the kinda person you are. If you're super open-minded about game presentation then I'd tell you to go into it blind. If not, then I'll happily try to sell you on it. If it helps, the game looks the way that it does because of how fucking confident it is in itself; and that confidence is fully justified. Give it time, even if the first level doesn't hook you, give it time because in my experience it will eventually hook you and reel you in and leave you thinking it's one of the best games of all time.
Undertale
Hypnospace Outlaw
Jet Set Radio, Jet Set Radio Future, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk. Give the first two a try, and if you don't like either one, skip BRC; it's a spiritual successor to JSRF and if you didn't like JSRF then you probably won't like BRC.
Hylics. If you liked that and wanted more, Hylics 2. Hylics 2 actually does something throughout the game that I've only ever seen as a gimmick in other games. It's really cool and it'll probably catch you off-guard every time it does it.
Katamari Damacy. If you liked that, there's also We <3 Katamari.
Myst. The newest version has VR support. If you liked that, the recent Riven remaster also has VR support.
S C O R N (if you like Myst, give it a try. It feels very myst-like)
Hrot (boomer shooter, but if you like boomer shooters then you should give it a go).
If you're at a place in your life where you're trying to still find yourself: Night in the Woods. Especially if you're a furry. This game is really fucking good. It'll make you laugh. It'll make you cry. It'll make you miss home but also be glad you aren't there anymore. It'll make you question your place in life and who you are. Also, you can interact with things multiple times, make sure you don't miss out on dialogue, you'll regret it.
STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl - This is hard to go into blind because it's buggy as fuck and most people recommend some form of community patch even for your first playthrough. That said, play it on the highest difficulty. It's unironically more fun once you get used to it. If it's too hard though, don't be fooled into thinking that dropping the difficulty will make it easier, the hardest difficulty is special (you can only take a few hits, but the same is true for most enemies), and dropping it down will result in enemy difficulty scaling becoming more traditional (buffing health and damage).
Portal (and Portal 2).
Bugsnax.
If I can throw in a movie too:
Willy's Wonderland. It's a Nicolas Cage movie and that's all I'll tell you. DO NOT LOOK UP THE TRAILER. I wouldn't have watched it if I hadn't seen the trailer, but the trailer also has huge spoilers. I'm not a huge movie person and I had to watch it after seeing the trailer, but again the trailer has spoilers. It is on my top-10 movies list now.
Portal 2 has, hands-down, the most hilariously-written dialogue I have ever seen in a video game. That alone is worth playing the game, but it's also a fun puzzle game to boot.
I was gonna mention Bugsnax, but you beat me to it. That game starts so innocent.
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.
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.
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.
I'm surprised I haven't seen anyone mention one of my favorites:
Spec Ops: The Line.
The risk with going in blind is that it seems like a generic cover-shooter that doesn't do everything quite as well as its competitors but it actually works to its advantage once you get into it.
If you haven't tried it, I highly recommend it, you can usually find it for really cheap.
Well you can’t buy it digitally at all anymore and if you do find the disc it’s usually priced as a “retro collectible” so the only reasonable way to get it is via the high seas—which, technically, is “really cheap”
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.
TotK makes BotW feel like a tech demo
Death Stranding
Hollow knight. The exploration of that game is absolutely the pinnacle of world layouts
Doki Doki should be 90% blind. Players need to understand they're going into a horror game.
But I'll also add one, Detroit: Become Human. While it's based on replaying it a massive number of times, going in blind makes the story a lot better.
David Cage gets lots of shit for his games, but If you experience them blind without spoilers ahead of time I find they're pretty good interactive movies.
My gf watched me play through all of Detroit, and then started to wonder "what would happen if x didn't y?" Aaaand rabbit hole time.
Now i wonder about the opposite. Games that you should never go in blind XD
Dwarf Fortress, probably.
That one's tough. I went in blind when the steam version released and had a blast. The actual "game" part is not challenging once you figure out the basics. The fun of it is the stories that spring up that are mostly out of your control.
So, I'd say going in blind, but being open to asking questions or googling specific things is a great way to play it.
My Summer Car
Most multiplayer games gain by already knowing mechanics, maps, characters, items, etc.
Path of Exile is one of those games where you never stop learning new things and the ceiling is always higher than you think it is.
If you‘re an achievement/trophy hunter, there‘s a lot of those cause of missables
Personally I'd say none because I'm a firm believer games tend to be more fun when you go in blind.
Hearts of Iron IV
Prey 2017 can be incredible blind and Dredge might be worse if you’ve had the ending spoiled
Bioshock.
Red Dead Redemption (and RDR2).
Portal.
What about Portal makes it worth going in blind?
Its something of a mystery game. You wake up in an unfamiliar place and have a nebulous goal.
Letting the clues of the story build is a big part of the experience.
At its heart it's a puzzle game so going in having seen someone do the puzzles will make it not as interesting.
Someone already mentioned Disco Elysium, system shock 2 and BioShock are also very good
I agree with your others
SOMA is such a kick in the nards.
Duskers
Brothers - A Tale of Two Sons
An astonishingly good story line that can only be really appreciated blind.
For those of you who remember TotalBiscuit, he rated this as one of his favourite games.
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.
I'm disappointed that nobody's mentioned Pony Island yet.
Fucking great game, Inscryption was mentioned in here at least.
Everyone always glosses over his second big game, The Hex. It’s fucking stellar, and a GREAT game to go into blind.
Quick edit: I didn’t think I’d like it more than Inscryption and it doesn’t have the same replay value, but after beating it over the course of two days… The Hex is his best work. Very excited for Pony Island 2.
Hollow Knight
Warframe
Noita
The warframe lore is pretty complex, but its also great. Especially the way the game tells you the story. Can only recommend going into it blind.
I don't think you understood the assignment...
I think they're all games that seriously benefit from not knowing the lore or mechanics beforehand... you didn't even contribute aside from being snide to me so how about you explain what I did wrong?
Will second Doki Doki Literature Club. Undertale should also be on this list I feel.
Detroit: Become Human
Gris
Stray
warframe used to be. but it's near-impossible now to start & get through even the first major 'holyshit' moment without having it at least partially spoiled before hand.
Nothing will ever match the effect The Second Dream had on me. This Is What You Are still sends shivers down my spine
I've tried to get back into it a few times, but there's just so much new stuff that it's hard to pick it back up
I'm honestly not sure this applies to any of those games.
Not as good as the examples you listed but subnautica imo
Return to the Obra Dinn, you are a insurance auditor
I wish I could erase all my memories of Obra Dinn, just so I could experience it again for the first time 🥺 Also that soundtrack slaps!
Morrowind.
... and it was just the beginning.
It's a real shame later Elder Scrolls games mostly lost that otherworldly feel.
What they did to The Summerset Isles in ESO is a crime against Auriel and the 9 divines. I was expecting mushroom houses, and they made rivendell.
I'm not salty and bitter. Bethesda is salty and bitter.
It's almost impossible to have not been bombarded with the main story and setting of Morrowind by this point. But when this game came out, it was an experience and a half. Unlike anything I had seen before at least. Sure, Ultima, TES 2, etc all existed. But none of them had never sold their world so effectively if you ask me.
Silent Hill 2 and SOMA
BioShock. It really depends on playing it blind in order to have an impact.
Undertale
God of War 2018. I played all the original games but I was still just a casual fan. I heard about the new game coming out but didn't really pay much attention to it. I eventually play it and holy crap I didn't know it was going to be what it was. Before playing it, I had RDR2 as my game of the year but GOW really stole it in the end.
Frog Fractions
What, and I can't state this clearly enough, the FUCK did I just play?
I wasn't prepared to have the history of punching explained to me on Mars in a frog platformer.
I envy you.
The Beginner's Guide
It's by the same guy that made The Stanley Parable, but it's more serious.
It's the same themes from Stanley Parable except made into an actual story instead of one long recurring joke.
I'm not saying the long recurring joke is bad - someone will probably hate that I said that - but they're just two different things that both do their different things very well. The Stanley Parable explicitly never builds to any kind of conclusion.
SOMA! Just play it.
Thanks, just bought it.
Nice! You're in for an experience.
It's so great! I played through it recently.
The Zero Escape Series. I wish I could play it again without knowing anything.
Same with Professor Layton games (for the big plots).
Chants of Senaar - You interpret alien languages.
Echoing Zero Escape. The twists and turns of the series are absolutely magical, and I wish I could play the end of 999 for the first time again.
I got lucky and was there when my partner played for the first time, and watching his shock was a treat!
EDIT: Jade Empire doesn't really fit, so I'll go with Observation instead. I'll still argue you're better off not knowing anything about KOTOR aside from being an RPG in the Star Wars universe.
I can confirm that when you know "the thing" about KOTOR ahead of time, it ruins a lot of the magic.
Yeah, definitely. I've still managed to finish it some 20 times but going in blind the first time really contributed to me loving it so much.
I'd also argue you shouldn't look too much into the sequel. Not because of any "thing" in particular but because it's more fun to immerse yourself in the game and slowly begin to unveil all the major themes of its story.