Probably, the most recent game I've stuck with despite it being deeply anti-fun is the System Shock remake. Overall, it's a very worthwhile experience, but it is one of the least 'fun' games out there, due to:
a) very antiquated design, true to the original (which was finnicky, demanding and had very high expectations of the player, even for the time).
b) through being actively stress-inducing on purpose. There's an in-game recording explaining how the station is designed to be disorienting and maze-like as part of an experiment on long-term stress, with its workers reduced to 'rats in a maze'. This disorientation, together with the puzzle-like quest design, scant resources, and difficulty of combat makes for a very uncomfy experience.
However, the suffering is kind of good from a narrative point of view, in that it really makes you feel like you're trapped on a space station being terrorised by an AI dominatrix, and the sense of achievement when you progress hits hard. It's also just a very interesting game as a kind of historical artifact, and the remake looks great.
Well said. I played the original DOS version for the first time about five years ago, which was probably the most acutely stressful FPS experience I'd had since Alien: Isolation (another game that absolutely nails deliberately stressful design). "Fun" is definitely not the right word to describe it, but it was absorbing as hell. Folks still underrate how excellent SHODAN was in the first game.
Still gotta get around to the remake. Glad to hear they understood the assignment!
I tend to stick with all but the most brutal slogs the past few years since I've started being fastidious with writing down my impressions of each game, so I can say for certain whether even games I didn't like or thought were a drag had some good elements worth mentioning, or commonalities to other games that I wouldn't find out about or remember if I weren't dedicating myself to get to the credits and catalogue everything. So it's hard for me to even consider what games I normally would bounce off of but stuck with anyway. Probably mostly puzzle games - I tend to get to a point where I feel like I've 'gotten' the gist of all the tricks the game has up its sleeve and the solutions are starting to become busywork rather than requiring new lateral thinking. Sometimes I'm right, sometimes I'm wrong, but years ago I definitely left puzzle games incomplete more than anything else.
I have a similar feeling about puzzle games. The ones I stick with are those that reward lateral thinking with opportunities to apply it in new contexts, especially when it comes with some kind of visceral narrative payoff. I guess that's why I love Portal and Return of the Obra Dinn but never got on with The Witness.
I have this foreboding sensation that I would also rack up thousands of hours in HoI4 if it ever clicked with me in the same way as CK2 and EU4 did. I've been fastidiously avoiding the total conversion mods (esp. TNO and Old World Blues) for that reason — I'm basically certain that they'd suck up every morsel of my free time and I've got a lot of other stuff to play.
Fingers crossed that CK3 will reach parity with CK2 at some point before we all age to death!
HOI4 is an absolute dog to learn abd the community is 'interesting' but once it clicks it's lethal, the skill-ceiling, player expression etc. are so vast
How was I not subscribed to you before now? Love your stuff!
Glad to see a fellow trying-my-hardest-to-love Total War 4X player. There's just something there that doesn't quite work for me, despite all my friends loving them. CK works, if only when I'm in the mood.
Thanks so much! The fascinating thing about CK is how it can engross you in procedural character stories, which I think it does far better than any other game of its kind. Thing is, ya really have to be in the mood to engage with its storytelling. In my experience, CK just never comes together if you approach it strictly as a strategy game.
Probably, the most recent game I've stuck with despite it being deeply anti-fun is the System Shock remake. Overall, it's a very worthwhile experience, but it is one of the least 'fun' games out there, due to:
a) very antiquated design, true to the original (which was finnicky, demanding and had very high expectations of the player, even for the time).
b) through being actively stress-inducing on purpose. There's an in-game recording explaining how the station is designed to be disorienting and maze-like as part of an experiment on long-term stress, with its workers reduced to 'rats in a maze'. This disorientation, together with the puzzle-like quest design, scant resources, and difficulty of combat makes for a very uncomfy experience.
However, the suffering is kind of good from a narrative point of view, in that it really makes you feel like you're trapped on a space station being terrorised by an AI dominatrix, and the sense of achievement when you progress hits hard. It's also just a very interesting game as a kind of historical artifact, and the remake looks great.
Well said. I played the original DOS version for the first time about five years ago, which was probably the most acutely stressful FPS experience I'd had since Alien: Isolation (another game that absolutely nails deliberately stressful design). "Fun" is definitely not the right word to describe it, but it was absorbing as hell. Folks still underrate how excellent SHODAN was in the first game.
Still gotta get around to the remake. Glad to hear they understood the assignment!
I salute you for finishing the OG, I never got very far!
I tend to stick with all but the most brutal slogs the past few years since I've started being fastidious with writing down my impressions of each game, so I can say for certain whether even games I didn't like or thought were a drag had some good elements worth mentioning, or commonalities to other games that I wouldn't find out about or remember if I weren't dedicating myself to get to the credits and catalogue everything. So it's hard for me to even consider what games I normally would bounce off of but stuck with anyway. Probably mostly puzzle games - I tend to get to a point where I feel like I've 'gotten' the gist of all the tricks the game has up its sleeve and the solutions are starting to become busywork rather than requiring new lateral thinking. Sometimes I'm right, sometimes I'm wrong, but years ago I definitely left puzzle games incomplete more than anything else.
I have a similar feeling about puzzle games. The ones I stick with are those that reward lateral thinking with opportunities to apply it in new contexts, especially when it comes with some kind of visceral narrative payoff. I guess that's why I love Portal and Return of the Obra Dinn but never got on with The Witness.
I have 1000 hours in Crusader Kings 2, its (worse) sequel_ and 2000 hours in Hearts of Iron 4. Welcome to the addiction XD
I have this foreboding sensation that I would also rack up thousands of hours in HoI4 if it ever clicked with me in the same way as CK2 and EU4 did. I've been fastidiously avoiding the total conversion mods (esp. TNO and Old World Blues) for that reason — I'm basically certain that they'd suck up every morsel of my free time and I've got a lot of other stuff to play.
Fingers crossed that CK3 will reach parity with CK2 at some point before we all age to death!
It looks like it will soon :)
HOI4 is an absolute dog to learn abd the community is 'interesting' but once it clicks it's lethal, the skill-ceiling, player expression etc. are so vast
How was I not subscribed to you before now? Love your stuff!
Glad to see a fellow trying-my-hardest-to-love Total War 4X player. There's just something there that doesn't quite work for me, despite all my friends loving them. CK works, if only when I'm in the mood.
Thanks so much! The fascinating thing about CK is how it can engross you in procedural character stories, which I think it does far better than any other game of its kind. Thing is, ya really have to be in the mood to engage with its storytelling. In my experience, CK just never comes together if you approach it strictly as a strategy game.