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)

  • missingno@fedia.io
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    23 days ago

    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.

    • superkret@feddit.orgOP
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      23 days ago

      Well, apparently I have!
      The only thing I’ve heard about Undertale so far is that it is supposed to be good.

      • ZeroTwo@lemmy.world
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        23 days ago

        That’s all Ive heard too. I tried playing it but the combat was weird. Kinda boring to me so I never advanced further.

        • WarlordSdocy@lemmy.world
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          23 days ago

          It gets good by the end but yeah if you don’t mesh with it early on it can be hard to get into and want to finish it.

          • Hugin@lemmy.world
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            23 days ago

            Yeah that happened to me. Never finished it and wonder why it’s so loved.

            • WarlordSdocy@lemmy.world
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              23 days ago

              Yeah I almost had that happen with me but I think I ended up watching someone play it. Still kind of regret it but at the same time probably wouldn’t have finished it on my own otherwise and I atleast have Deltarune to look forward to now.

        • ABCDE@lemmy.world
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          23 days ago

          Yeah I didn’t really get it. I did play Everhood though and that was much better.

      • HexesofVexes@lemmy.world
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        22 days ago

        It’s good in a way that isn’t really expected - the only thing I can say without spoiling is it did something really different with things that had been there a long time.

    • Glide@lemmy.ca
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      23 days ago

      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.

    • korny@communick.news
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      23 days ago

      Spoiler: There are high jinks, low jinks, dangers, puzzles, capers, japers, being captured, and other sorts of fun activities in this game.

    • Black616Angel@discuss.tchncs.de
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      23 days ago

      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”?

      • PugJesus@lemmy.world
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        22 days ago

        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.

    • Hadriscus@lemm.ee
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      23 days ago

      I have heard the name but don’t know what it’s about, I’ll look into it. Thanks !

      • Kelly@lemmy.world
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        23 days ago

        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.

        • Hadriscus@lemm.ee
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          23 days ago

          hop just got it. Thanks for the recommendation. Let’s see what this is all about 😁

    • SaharaMaleikuhm@feddit.org
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      23 days ago

      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.

    • Damage@feddit.it
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      23 days ago

      Yeah, got it for free on epic, assumed it was a game on dictatorship for reason… What a trip it turned out to be

    • ZC3rr0r@lemmy.ca
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      22 days ago

      The DLC for that game was a trip too. Highly recommend checking it out as it really added to Alan Wake 2 for me.

  • starman2112@sh.itjust.works
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    23 days 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.

    • SaharaMaleikuhm@feddit.org
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      23 days ago

      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.

      • iheartneopets@lemm.ee
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        23 days ago

        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.

        • starman2112@sh.itjust.works
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          22 days ago

          An extra-extra spoiler: there’s a lot to dig your teeth into, philosophically, that makes the whole rigmarole worth it.

          That’s a strong point for me, and the main reason I liked it as much as I did. Same reason I loved The Talos Principle, despite having to look up guides for the majority of the puzzles.

          • iheartneopets@lemm.ee
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            22 days ago

            Ooh, yeah, Talos Principle! Perfect rec for someone who loved Nier and Portal. I haven’t played the sequel yet, but really really enjoyed the first game. I agree about some of the puzzles, though.

    • 2ugly2live@lemmy.world
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      23 days ago

      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!

      • PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.world
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        22 days ago

        I would have to disagree about the second playthrough; I found it to be a very large slog. The third and subsequent playthroughs were amazing though.

    • msage@programming.dev
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      23 days ago

      I bought it expecting like a Devil May Cry or maybe Souls… then the game started and I noped the hell out. It’s weird and I did not like it at all.

      • starman2112@sh.itjust.works
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        22 days ago

        If I remember right, the first couple minutes is like a top-down shoot-em-up, but it transitions into that Devil May Cry style pretty quickly

        • msage@programming.dev
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          22 days ago

          Not really, the out-of-combat movement was almost strictly 2D? And the first real fight did not teach me the controls in any way, I had no idea what was going on.

          • PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.world
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            22 days ago

            It’s a game that relies on shifting the gameplay mechanics based on where you are and what you’re doing. There are certainly 2.5D and top-down sections, but it’s a small part of the game overall.

  • darthelmet@lemmy.world
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    23 days ago

    Tunic.

    The one thing I think is worth “spoiling” just to save you some pain:

    Tap for spoiler

    If you find a room with a bunch of curtains and bells, it is NOT A PUZZLE!

    I also second Outer Wilds.

    • lime!@feddit.nu
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      23 days ago

      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.

      • Katana314@lemmy.world
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        23 days ago

        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

        • lime!@feddit.nu
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          23 days ago

          i thought that too, and tried studying their movements, but they attacked faster than i could even press the button.

      • P03 Locke@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        23 days ago

        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.

        • lime!@feddit.nu
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          23 days ago

          hey i learned to read the language in fez fluently. this is more like they took the wrong lesson from double fines Hack’n’Slash, where the glyphs are absolutely everywhere and look so much alike that the easiest way to decipher them is to replace the font.

      • darthelmet@lemmy.world
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        23 days ago

        Understandable. It got pretty frustrating for me too at various points. I’m kinda bad at this kind of combat in general. Most of what motivates me to push through it in games like Dark Souls or Tunic is being interested in the world. But sometimes not even that’s enough.

        • lime!@feddit.nu
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          23 days ago

          it’s especially wild in a cutesy game like tunic where it just bodies you ten minutes in. it made me feel like i had been tricked.

          • P03 Locke@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            23 days ago

            Try playing Environmental Station Alpha. Super cutesy robot, absolutely unfair difficulty for a Metroidvania. Which is a shame, because there’s an interesting story and gameplay buried in that difficulty, and I love Metroidvanias.

          • boringbisexual@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            23 days ago

            I didn’t have too much trouble up until the first real boss. Thankfully there was a save point pretty close by so I just threw myself at it more times than I’d like to admit.

            • P03 Locke@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              23 days ago

              The game throws big bosses at you at a time when you won’t have range weapons, and expects you to dodge these big sweeping attacks that would be more appropriate fighting with ranged weapons. And by the time you get a ranged weapon, it’s too late, and they’ve raised the stakes again for future bosses to the point that having a ranged weapon isn’t even an advantage.

              I was forced to reduce the difficulty just for the bosses. All of the other enemies were mostly fine.

      • Blackmist@feddit.uk
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        23 days ago

        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.

    • rooster_butt@lemm.ee
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      22 days ago

      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+.

      • Buddahriffic@lemmy.world
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        21 days ago

        A moment? I had a few during my first playthrough. PD, RL, W, T, DL. And many moments of forgetting to keep an eye on that oxygen meter lol.

  • lemmylommy@lemmy.world
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    23 days ago

    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.

    • SHOW_ME_YOUR_ASSHOLE@lemm.ee
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      23 days ago

      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.

      • Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        22 days ago

        I fucking loved it and cried.

        Tap for spoiler

        The person I matched up with was a 10/10. I went in blind but I knew it would match me with someone. I found them right away and they stayed with me the whole game. My partner got a person who dropped out, then restarted. Got another person… speedrunner. Tried once more and got someone who dropped out after an hour. Got another person they finished with, super frustrated. They did not have my experience.

    • Juvyn00b@lemmy.world
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      23 days ago

      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.

    • Lenny@lemmy.world
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      22 days ago

      Absolutely this. I am jealous each time I recommend it to someone who hasn’t played it yet.

      • SidewaysHighways@lemmy.world
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        22 days ago

        I’m glad there was a thread about Subnautica in here.

        absolutely stunning, especially if one has any kind of decent audio system

    • LuckyPierre@lemm.ee
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      22 days 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.works
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        22 days 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.

    • BigDanishGuy@sh.itjust.works
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      22 days ago

      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.

  • otp@sh.itjust.works
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    23 days ago

    Inside. Made by the same company as Limbo, but Inside is much more “don’t look up a single thing”

  • B0NK3RS@lemmy.world
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    23 days ago

    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.

    • Jonathan@lemmy.world
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      23 days ago

      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!

      • B0NK3RS@lemmy.world
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        23 days ago

        Yeah it’s changed a lot over the years but is such a unique experience I recommend it to everyone.

        They still haven’t released all the story mode chapters but survival mode is by far the best way to play.

        • ouch@lemmy.world
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          21 days ago

          Oh, the story mode is not finished yet? Any idea if they have a goal date?

          • B0NK3RS@lemmy.world
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            21 days ago

            They are on to the last episode now but it’s all overdue by like 5 years at this point so who knows.

            • Jonathan@lemmy.world
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              21 days ago

              Seems like just about all games end up overdue by years (or sometimes a decade) these days.

        • Jonathan@lemmy.world
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          21 days ago

          I have been thinking about some old survival game that I used to play that doesn’t exist anymore recently, maybe it’s time I give The Long Dark some real playtime!