I played Nine Sols recently and it had a transformative effect on my gaming experience. I’ve found myself no longer getting mad at fairly structured games and deeply enjoying the personal refinement of my skill set in pursuit of a goal. Suddenly this shift in perspective has allowed me to see difficulty in a new light and truly savor the victory that comes after significant effort. With this new perspective, I decided to try the game that had made me hesitate the most with its reputation for difficulty: Sekiro
Its been truly eye opening to realize that my nervousness has only kept me from a good time. Or maybe I just wasn’t ready for it…
Following that trend, I started Celeste for the first time even though I never play pure platformers, and it has blown my socks off. Do I suck? You bet your ass I do. But I know it’s from a lack of detailed platforming, and developing that skill has been very fun and satisfying.
Now, I’d love to hear from others. What games made you regret waiting so long to try them?
I picked up hitman 1-3 with VR for sale on PSN and holy shit. I’ve had so much fun with this game already. I haven’t even played 2 or 3 yet, or even halfway through 1 yet but I already know I’m getting my money’s worth out of it. It’s only been 2 days and I just can’t wait to get back into it.
There’s so much replayability due to different ways you can get the job done, and they acknowledge and reward replaying missions. I don’t know if it was always that way but I just assumed it was a syphon filter/Bond type game but it’s so much more, at least the remasters or whatever this is. I’ve been having such a great time that I’m excited to get my son into it… It’s just not quite appropriate for an 11 year old lol.
It kinda bums me out I’ve gone this long but at the same time, maybe it’s for the better, to get the full, modern experience out of it? I dunno, but its a great deal for the $45 or whatever, considering it’s 3… Technically 4 games, with loads of replayability.
Love this!
I tried Hitman a few times as i knew I’d love it but just didn’t get it. This year I tried again and it took. I then played it for about 6 months exclusively. There’s just so much to do, threads to pull apart, lore to discover. Its baffling at first but then you realise all the clues are there if you pay attention. Amazing games.
Apart from the online thing. That’s a huge stain on an otherwise awesome experience
Once you play each map a few times, Freelancer is kind of an incredible addition.
It’s a blast because as much as you think it’s just brutal violence, it really isn’t. It’s about outsmarting literally everyone in the radius.
It’s more like chess than a shooter. Once that clicked for me, I was all in. Glad you’re having a good time with it. As the other commenter said, Sapienza is awesome but you’ve got some really top tier maps coming up in the other games. Enjoy!
So glad to see these games getting more recognition. It’s my second most played game of all time if you count it all as one game like IOI now does. I’m currently making my way through the rest of the achievements I’m missing.
Yeah there’s just so much depth that I’m really excited to keep playing and doing missions in different ways. I have a friend’s birthday to go to tonight and I’m bummed I won’t have time to play lol. Once I get into the VR stuff I’m sure it’ll be really hard to put down.
It’s really fun to do the story, it’s also really fun to replay and get every mission story. It’s even more fun to figure out your own assassinations. It’s easily one of my favourite games of all time, I just really hate the online semi-requirement.
Yeah, that always grinds my gears. Especially in Gran Turismo…
I haven’t redone any missions yet. I’m still working my way through the story, but I don’t know if I’ll stop at the end of 1 and go back, or finish 3 before redoing them. Currently on the hotel level with the cross family and having a hard time finding a costume to get anywhere useful. There’s just so many people around it’s hard to get someone alone.
Ah, Bangkok, that’s a fun one. A bit challenging as you’re learning, but rewarding.
Sapienza is my all-time favourite, but there’s lots of great locations. I won’t spoil anything, but my three runner-ups for best map are still ahead of you. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!
It’s kind of hidden, but Contracts mode is where the game becomes infinitely replayable. Every single NPC can be made a target, up to five per mission, and there are millions of contracts the players have made. So there are millions of unique missions to play.
Edit:
I also sat on that game till a few years ago. I was a huge fan of the 2000s games which each had like 20 levels so between the reviews of Absolution and the fact that Hitman 2016 had only 6 maps, I just assumed the franchise had been completely enshittified. But I grabbed Hitman 2016 when it went on sale for a dollar and was pleasantly surprised. I got the other games and was disappointed by the whole series just having 21 levels (Hitman 2: Silent Assassin had 22!). But then I discovered Contracts mode and realized how insanely replayable the game is. It’s an infinite Hitman game generator.
There’s also Freelancer, the roguelike mode. My friend plays this exclusively, she has like 500 hours in it alone, probably more
I haven’t even gotten to Freelancer really. So that’s a whole big chunk of the game I haven’t played yet. It’s hardcore. I may be playing it wrong, but don’t you have to play all three missions in one sitting? The few times I’ve gotten through 2, by the third, I’m too tired to continue.
I also haven’t really tried, looks intimidating, but my friend swears by it. Apparently at some point you just “see the matrix” and kill everyone with the durian fruit in 10 seconds
It’s a bit confusing at first but totally worth persevering. You can do one mission at a time but you can’t save in-mission and the difficulty ramps up after each one. Each campaign has 18 missions and the difficulty resets when you begin a new campaign. It’s a whole new game really. I loved it.