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)
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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.
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.
- 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.
The Beginner’s Guide
I’m surprised no one mentioned Spec Ops: The Line yet
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.
Inscryption
Was gonna mention this one soooooo good
Damn, was I surprised as a fan of older TCGs and videogame TCGs.
+1 for Outer Wilds
Return to the Obra Dinn, you are a insurance auditor
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’m disappointed that nobody’s mentioned Pony Island yet.
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.
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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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
