It’s been a long time since I faced such moments perhaps due to games taking longer to make and becoming a more mature medium. Also games as a whole are more consistent at just being good instead of being built around moments. But here’s my list
- Raphael’s Boss music in Baldurs Gate 3
- GoW 2018, Kratos uncovering the floorboards and recovering those things
- Dropping the monkey paw at the end of Obra Dinn
- The plane moment in Indiana Jones
Honourable mentions
- The open world reveal in ff7 rebirth didn’t hit as hard as we knew it would come, but still brought a smile to my face. The other big twist at the end of the game was more confusing than epic
- Unchartered 4 surprisingly still fits in the list from 2016. The boat chase and truck trying to kill you was awesome
A little bit of a different type of game and I’m cheating by using four moments, but they all stuck with me.
Not For Broadcast, Day 296: The Heatwave.
It starts off with a slight shift in tone from the earlier broadcasts, you feel the tension ramping up, and then you know exactly what’s coming, but it’s still a fucking gut punch no matter what choice you make.
Day 371: The 20 Week War adds on to that with this underlying tension from the last broadcast, broken by some hysterical nonsense and then hits you with a sobering end to the broadcast which plays out three different ways depending on earlier decisions you’ve made. All three are devastating in their own right.
The entirety of Day 2602: The Finale is just fucking wild, and best experienced without any hint of spoilers.
Beyond that, the lockdown broadcast is fucking hilarious and came out of nowhere. The sheer absurdity of it caused a “wait, what the fuck is even happening?” moment every single time something new happened.
Honestly, that entire game has so many of these moments, but those are the ones that have stuck with me. I often find myself singing “Mr. Bear (What’s That Over There?)” for literally no reason whatsoever.