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)

  • starman2112@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    2·
    5 months ago

    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.

  • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    5 months ago

    Factorio and Dyson Sphere Program. At least don’t watch people like Nilaus and Dosh Doshington play the game until you’ve tried to make your own solutions first.

    • cows_are_underrated@feddit.orgEnglish
      1·
      5 months ago

      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.

      • lilpatchy2eyes@slrpnk.netEnglish
        2·
        5 months ago

        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?

    • BenLeMan@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      5 months ago

      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.

      • SchrodingersPat@lemmy.mlEnglish
        1·
        5 months ago

        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.

        • BenLeMan@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          5 months ago

          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.

  • Dizzy Devil Ducky@lemm.eeEnglish
    1·
    5 months ago

    I feel like the obvious answer would be something like Fallout New Vegas, DLCs as well (especially the DLCs) or any visual novel games like Song of Data or the Danganronpa series.

    Though for non-obvious answers, gonna say Brok the Investigator. Story driven with changing how you play affecting the ending you get. Non-obvious because I don’t see a ton of hype around it, even though there’s a cool looking DLC being developed.

    Edit:

    Forgot to add just about any puzzle game to the list. I watched someone play a puzzle game (Baba Is You) roughly 4-5 years ago and picked it up last spring. Just long enough for me to remember almost none of the solutions. Definitely much more fun that way. Same reason I loved Portal 2 back when I got it on xbox. Didn’t have a clue what would happen or what the puzzle solutions were.

    • superkret@feddit.orgOPEnglish
      1·
      5 months ago

      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.

    • LuckyPierre@lemm.eeEnglish
      0·
      5 months ago

      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.

      • Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        1·
        5 months ago

        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.

        spoiler

        If you find yourself without an immediate goal, you’re milling about the ocean thinking “well now what?” Go deeper.

  • Pelicanen@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    0·
    5 months ago

    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.

    • QuantumSparkles@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      2·
      5 months ago

      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”