If you could play one game for the first time all over again, what would it be?

Submitted ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨davetansley@lemmy.world⁩ to ⁨retrogaming@lemmy.world⁩

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Dq_gUziNZUk/maxresdefault.jpg

(Saw this question asked on another popular link aggregation website and it got me thinking)

If you could play one game for the first time all over again, what would you choose? This might be because you want to do it all again, or because you don’t think you got enough out of it the first time. It could be experiencing the game exactly as you were back then, or experiencing a game with what you know now.

For me, it’s Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past, experienced exactly as I was back in 1991.

Nothing comes close to how jaw-droppingly amazed I was by that opening sequence. The epic orchestral score, the cinematic rainstorm, creeping around in the dark… it was a generational leap above anything I’d played on 8-bit computers and consoles, and even the Megadrive. I’d love to play it again without thirty plus years of Nintendo/Zelda knowledge, or without knowing about the dark world.

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404@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
OUTER WILDS.

It’s a fantastic exploration game if you go in blind and I wish I could forget it all and explore it all again.

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- davetansley@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Yeah, it really was amazing to play blind. We especially enjoyed the DLC… when we first realised what it was all about, it nearly blew our minds!
  
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  - 404@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Yeah, I’ve never wtf’d so hard in a game as when I entered the thing and left the other thing in the DLC.
    
    That game was so well done and thought through.
    
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- Boxtifer@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  What’s sad is that I know I will forget the lore and the journey on how I figured out how I got to the end. But I don’t think I’ll forget the specifics for the ending.
  
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- retrieval4558@mander.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  I’m shocked that this isn’t everyone’s answer tbh lol
  
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  - Poopmeister@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Those are the people that haven’t played it yet.
    
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straypet@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
The Outer Wilds.

A game you can only play once and that one time is magical.

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- zeroshift11@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  I came in to type just this. One of the best games ever made!
  
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- DepressedCoconut@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Played about 2 hours of it and uninstalled. It was incredibly boring. Why do you think it was magical?
  
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  - Balinares@pawb.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Spoilers. ❤️
    
    But seriously, maybe it just didn’t work for you and that’s okay. Nothing is everything to everyone.
    
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  - straypet@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    It’s definitely a slow start. The way it’s designed to allow discovery but not lead you too much makes the moments where points of data click and connect really powerful.
    
    It’s hard to talk too much about it without potentially spoiling the enjoyment one might take from it.
    
    But it’s not for everyone. But if it is for you, it’s really really something.
    
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  - 404@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    It took me about two or three hours to learn to navigate and find my first “magical thing”. When I did I was hooked. But yeah it can be slow to start.
    
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  - PixxlMan@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Same story for me. I’ve heard it’s incredible so I guess I’ll have to try again sometime though. The start was just incredibly dull
    
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- PositiveControl@feddit.it ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  I was going to say outer wilds too, what an amazing experience.
  
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biofaust@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Half life or Half life 2.

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- Quazatron@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  I find Half-Life and Portal are some of the best games ever made regarding world building, story telling and general addictiveness.
  
  I keep coming back because I’ve never found any other game like those.
  
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  - biofaust@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    I don’t how old you are, but the first one was the first very big implementation of scripted scenes. To see something happening in an FPS as in a movie was mind-blowing.
    
    The second one is just absurdly well designed. And the visuals are imbued of this Eastern European architecture and vibe that right now, walking the streets of Warsaw, I am gladly breathing in.
    
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- PotjiePig@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Seconded.
  
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  - 50MYT@aussie.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Portal 1 / 2 wouldn’t be far behind
    
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- Tammo-Korsai@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  'Or?' Why not both?
  
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  - biofaust@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Because that’s not the question.
    
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- Xttweaponttx@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Half life Alyx is top of them all for me! Highly recommend
  
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  - biofaust@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    I strongly doubt it can be a defining game as the other 2 were and are. Plus, for me, there is attrition in the need to use a non-polished control system.
    
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  - raspberriesareyummy@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    published VR only, and - from Valve of all companies: Windows only!! F*ck them for that :(
    
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Chadsalot@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Windwaker.

Don’t think its considered retro yet, but I wish I could forget every second of it I played. The complete emotional Rollercoaster I went through playing that game was incredible.

One of the few games where I really felt like I was the “super important protagonist” and the world really depended on me.

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- davetansley@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  It’s 20 years old… if Windwaker isn’t considered retro now, then Atari 2600 games weren’t considered retro in 1997 :)
  
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  - Chadsalot@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Oh shit
    
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- QuantumSparkles@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Probably my favorite Zelda and the most underrated game in the series imho
  
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klangcola@reddthat.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
It might be relatively new, but I’d say Subnautica.

It was such a breath of fresh air when it came out, and instilled both such a sense of wonder at all the vibrant lifeforms of 4546B and also instilling such dread upon encountering reapers or diving deeper than ever before. I still remember the mixed sense of wonder and unease upon discovering the Jellyshroom caves for the first time

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- WindowsEnjoyer@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  I guess I am very picky in games and most of them are boring to me, but Subnautica (first game) has a special place in my heart. <3
  
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- Scubus@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Jellyfish caves were nothing, discovering the age of the map nearly made me start a new game because I couldn’t bring myself to continue knowing what my current situation was
  
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Strayce@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Secret of Monkey Island. Like most adventure games you can only really play it once. It’d be nice to enjoy it again.

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- jballs@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  I sat down with my son and let him play it. Seeing him experience it for the first time was a pretty awesome experience. He cracked up at the sword fighting.
  
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- mifan@feddit.dk ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  I think I’ve played it through more than 20 times. I roughly do it once a year… 1,2 and 3 at least. It’s no longer about the challenge, story or puzzles, it just feels like coming home.
  
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  - ScummBarChef@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Totally agree. I always play the first three every few years or so
    
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- kratoz29@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  
  Like most adventure games you can only really play it once.
  
  And then there is me, who just finished Hotel Dusk again as a ritual hoping Nintendo brings it back as it is about to be with Another Code!
  
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  - all-knight-party@kbin.run ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Agreed. I mean, The Silver Case and now Trace Memory are getting re releases so... Hotel Dusk seems like the perfect next choice
    
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- Frogster8@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Day of the tentacle, Sam and max, Simon the sorcerer, all the classics
  
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Sevirynn@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Outer Wilds. You can’t even really replay it, not like you can other games. But boy, I will never forget the unbridled joy of unraveling its mysteries - and ironically, would love to so I can do it all over again.

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- minyakcurry@monyet.cc ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  You can’t even share much about this game without ruining it for someone else. I love this game so much but it’s really difficult to get someone else to play it as well.
  
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- Poopmeister@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Well. In a sense you’re replaying it all the time ;)
  
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- fosforus@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  I wish I got another chance with it. Perhaps with less hype and fewer expectations of greatness. I somehow managed to ruin the game for myself.
  
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Voytrekk@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
World of Warcraft. Starting out in an MMO for the first time is magical. No worries about the endgame, just the desire to explore and learn.

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- merc@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  I responded to another comment here about it. WoW and other MMOs would be my choice – but to make it any fun you’d have to rewind the whole world. Not only get rid of wowhead, wowwiki, raider.io etc., but get people to forget they ever existed, forget how to do data mining so effectively. Also get rid of streaming and video sharing services so that you had the chance of discovering things on your own. You wouldn’t be the first, but you wouldn’t know that.
  
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  - Siethron@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Yeah, the internet ruined online gaming.
    
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- Squirrel@thelemmy.club ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Oh yeah, WoW hands down. The sense of wonder as I explored the world the first time was incomparable to any other game.
  
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Tammo-Korsai@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
It's hard to pick just one:

Deus Ex. It's timelessly topical despite being released in 2000. It predicted the War on Terror and a massive pandemic to name a couple.

Spiritfarer, for maximum onion chopping. Saying goodbye to Gwen really messed me up since I became very attached to her, and I can't finish the last stretch of the game because it's too emotionally taxing.

Undertale and wholesome fan-games like Act to Flirt.

Half-Life 2, circa 2004 when it was a leap ahead of everything else. I was unsettled by the teaser screenshots due to how real it all seemed to be during its heyday. (I did re-capture part of that feeling with M Mod and its great yet faithful modernisation effects. Plus there's some blursed mods you can combine with it such as replacing Alyx with Krystal, voiced by the original actress.)

Duke Nukem 3D: Alien Armageddon. It blew me away how much custom content and passion has been invested, so good that it almost felt like I was playing Duke Nukem for the first time all over again.
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- raspberriesareyummy@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  !!! How did I never hear about www.moddb.com/mods/duke-nukem-alien-armageddon ??? Thank you so much for mentioning that! Once I get home from vacation, I know what to do!
  
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  - Tammo-Korsai@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Enjoy! Let me know how it turns out!
    
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- soysauce@lemmynsfw.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  The first time my friend and I fired up Unreal we were completely blown away. The flyby camera through the castle at the menu screen was unlike anything we had seen before.
  
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  - raspberriesareyummy@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Have you checked out Unreal Tournament 99? Also has a fly-through of a building, and boy that game was awesome and still is.
    
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SharkEatingBreakfast@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Subnautica.

The first game to make me truly sad that I had finished it. Wow, what an experience!

I loved exploring and piecing together the story. I loved discovering new creatures and ecosystems. I loved finding strange things and figuring out what to do with them.

I’ve never played a game quite like it before or since. My god, it was really amazing. I beat it without needing a guide or walkthrough. It’s great enough to the point where, if you are curious enough, you won’t need one!

It’s certainly a slower-paced game, as it’s not all non-stop action, so it’s not for everyone. But if you’re a patient and curious person, this may be for you.

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- Buddahriffic@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Planet Crafter gives me Subnautica vibes, though it’s still in early access. But it has the “build a base and survive in a hostile world with cool things to explore” already and potential to become really great.
  
  That said, Subnautica was the first thing I thought of when I first saw this thread but not planet Crafter.
  
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- lesnout27@feddit.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Same for me yeah, such a great game. I remember doing so many things like setting free all animals i caught in their own habitat before leaving, because i wanted to play the last little bit out of it. Also filling the rocket food for the trip back home. I cried, when i started the flight.
  
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- Poopmeister@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Maybe give outer wilds a try. Exploration and really unique level design.
  
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fluid_s@feddit.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Oblivion. I liked Skyrim but Oblivion quests were so much better

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- saltesc@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  I didn’t like shutting down the gates which felt like the same thing over and over. But mostly it was awesome, especially the Grey Fox quests.
  
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- Igloojoe@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Its so dated now, but morrowind felt soo deeply built. The culture, the religions, the different political faction houses. How the empire influenced certain areas.
  
  The quest were raw. No waypoints. Just go to lake and go north*. The morag tong(assassin guild for morrowind) had a basic questline. But it did feel different. The morag tong was sanctioned by the politicians. So you could murder someone in the middle of a city and just show a writ of execution.
  
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theangryseal@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
I’m gonna break the rules and name more than one.

Super Metroid

Link to the Past I beat it with my mom as a kid. I’d love to go back and just be a kid who loves his mom playing that game again.

Ocarina of Time My mom and I snuck and opened the Christmas present every evening after my dad went to bed. We were at the forest temple when I actually opened it for Christmas and pretended to be surprised.

Wind Waker I was so disappointed over the cartoon graphics I almost didn’t play it. Once the game won me over I fell in love with everything about it.

Twilight Princess My first Zelda as an adult living on my own. I bought it on GameCube and played it with my ex. We had no cable, no internet, no phone. It was the only entertainment we had (video games) and it was an experience that made us closer.

Symphony of the Night I just fucking love that game.

World of Warcraft I want to go back and play with my son. We did arenas and we were an unstoppable team. Some of the best nights of my life were spent side by side playing WotLK and Cata.

I could go on but someone is standing here bugging me now. Take care folks.

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- AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Symphony of the Night is $2.99 on play store and istore. Using the native touchscreen controls gives you a hotkey for your spells, you only have to “cast” them once to unlock them.
  
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  - theangryseal@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Oh I’m sure they would be if I had ever played them.
    
    I’ll give them a go.
    
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JackGreenEarth@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Maybe Stardew Valley? I found that very enjoyable.

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PM_ME_YOUR_ZOD_RUNES@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Diablo 2 of course. It’s the best game ever made. I still play it for a month or two every year.

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Hennimore@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Outer Wilds. It’s the best game I have played, and it can’t really be played a second time.

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malchior@aussie.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Deus Ex

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xfts@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Not retro, but Celeste hands down. That game is an emotional roadtrip of a platformer. My favorite indie game out there.

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rafadc@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Final Fantasy VII

I went straight on from super Nintendo to this. You can imagine he level of amazement I got.

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silentknyght@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
World of Warcraft. 2005 was a hell of a time for that game.

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Alivrah@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
The Last of Us.

It’s very linear and short to the point most of that sense of wonder goes away immediately after you finish it once.

Also being a horror game, the more you play the less scary it is.

The big moments hit really hard the first time around, but then that’s kinda it. Still love it though.

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Swarfega@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Portal. I thought it was just a puzzle game. I love twists in movies and this one really caught me off guard.

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chowdertailz@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Dark Souls. It was a game that had so many surprises just to fuck you over randomly. Random boulders, hidden enemies, boss mechanics, mimics, hidden gems. Played the hell out of it but the first time was like magic. 2, 3, bloodline, elden ring… I had expectations. Only played a couple hours of demons souls before I dove hard.

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Nikki@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
celeste every day, that game got right to my heart

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WeebLife@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Mine would be bioshock 1.

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ethans1@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Metal Gear Solid. Going from tooling around in the NES Metal Gear to sneaking thorough Shadow Moses while figuring out 4th wall breaking puzzles was amazing.

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assassinatedbyCIA@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Mass effect 2

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Kichae@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Ocarina of Time, or Final Fantasy VII. Both of them had just incredible impacts on me as a teenager, and I’d love to be 16 and experiencing them for the first time again.

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TheMongoose@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic.

The universe! The characters! The plot! That reveal! Oh, man. To be able to experience that again for the first time. Wow.

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chunkystyles@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
TUNIC

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Mac@mander.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
World of Warcraft.

What a great game to be a noob in.

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