This question popped into my head when I was playing Void Stranger. I just got done with the game and will probably never play it again despite not finishing it. The game is genuinely amazing but it just gets so demanding as you progress through it. I ended up watching the second half of the game on YouTube.
What is your favorite game that you feel is really cool and special but you never felt the pull of actually finishing it, and why?
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I think what you’re describing is how I felt with Hollow Knight. When I set it down for the last time (so far), I did so knowing I would probably never return to finish it.
I don’t get a lot of time to game, and the time I get is punctuated by months of hiatus each year. Any game that’s too long, too difficult, or too complicated to pick back up quickly after I’ve been gone awhile is not a good fit for me.
I was too far along in the game to even consider starting over, not to mention that a lot of the magic would be lost. But I was also far enough along that I know I don’t want to put the effort into relearning the mechanics, figuring out what I’m supposed to be doing, and having to re-explore everything.
Granted, by the time I stopped playing, it had already grown tedious and I wasn’t enjoying it much anyway. It stopped being rewarding was just mostly just punishing at a certain point.
After I set Hollow Knight aside, I found other games that I liked better and were more accommodating to my circumstances (ex: Hades). And now, even if I did want some more time with Hollow Knight, I’d honestly just wait for the upcoming sequel / prequel / whatever it’s going to be (Silksong).
This also happened to me. Spent a week getting through Path of Pain only to die on the last hit from the two dudes at the end. I just turned it off and by that point I had advanced far enough to beat the game but just never did. I got the gist of it and my time is now too valuable to go back and relive the trauma of fighting those bosses…
I actually had a similar experience with Hollow Knight where I had to stop playing for a while and when I picked it back up I forgot where I was and where I’m going, so I had to start all over. It was really worth it imo, because the end sections of the game are insanely cool. But I can understand not wanting to repeat ~10-20 hours again.
I fucking loved Hollow Knight but I put it down right before finishing it and… god… I’d have to start all over again T_T
Red dead redemption. I refuse to go in that fucking barn.
What a great piece of storytelling. Those doors opening and seeing all those guns pointed at you. “Guess I’m going to have to commit genocide” was my first thought quickly followed by “oh no, wait, what’s happening!?”
The only winning move is to not play.
Satisfactory, it’s so much fun, but looking forward to the endgame builds is super daunting.
Let’s not forget 1.0 still isn’t released yet.
Skyrim.
I spent about 100hrs playing and even built my own house. There’s a branch in the story line part way through where you have to choose to be a Dragon killer or supporter. I couldn’t choose so I just kept doing side-quests. Not played it in years though.
Isn’t that the dlc? Maybe I’ll confusing it with the vampire hunting
Noita, kinda. I’ve won a few runs and unlocked most of the secrets, but some of the late game quests just get absurd to the point of taking dozens of hours and even with a perfect god-mode setup there’s still ways to get instakilled.
I love a game with depth and secrets but noita definitely reached the point of “y’know, I’m not having fun anymore. This is just work”
The sun quest was one of the wildest things I’ve ever done in a video game
Ahh man… I haven’t been able to get noita to launch recently. I followed every forum guide I could find and still no luck. It was my top game played on steam this last year. I miss it.
Not my absolute favourite game, but one that I loved is Kingdom Come: Deliverance. But I just don’t have the time to invest into relearning the combat system anymore. Which is a shame because I think the world it creates is amazing and you can get a bit lost in it.
Didn’t you find the dialogues in the game very bland? This plus the clunky combat system really put me off?
I don’t think the dialog was that bad, not great but passable. I guess I looked past a lot of issues, performance, combat, because I just wanted to keep exploring the world.
Yes, the world was beautiful, and I really liked the idea of the game, but for me a big part of the game enjoyment is the story and this game was too shallow.
I fucking loved that game. I was immersed immediately, running around town fucking shit up with my boys, getting in fights, getting in trouble, it was incredible.
I played it constantly for a few weeks, never even approached the ending. Then at some point I was immensely powerful, kitted to the nines, my friends were all dead, and I was just some random nameless Knight errant fighting goons and all the magic was gone. I haven’t played it since. Doubt I ever will.
Can’t wait for a sequel though
Bg3. It’s a fantastic game that I put 100 hours into. I’ll never finish it though because I was just done with the well put together gameplay loop. It made me realize I may be done with that genre altogether now. I’ve put uncountable hours into various crpgs, and I’ve had my time with them. I finished off with one of the absolute best. Good enough for me.
How do you tire of an entire genre?
As an example, I’m done with MMOs. I played RuneScape back when it first launched (RS Classic) and continued for a while into the RS2 era and eventually I was just done. I tried WoW and a few other big games but eventually I just realized I was playing RuneScape again, and I played that already. That isn’t to say these new games weren’t different. They offered A LOT of new things, of different things, at their core I was just playing an MMO, and I’d done that already.
I’m also done with shooters. I’d say FPS, but the truth is it applies to third person as well. Again, I played a bunch over the years. CounterStrike, Battlefield 1942, Halo, and a few different Call of Duty games. I’ve dipped my toes into many over the years. If all my friends are playing, asking me directly, sure I’ll hop in. I don’t hate them, but I won’t suggest playing them. I’ve played them a million times. I’m tired of them.
Just to flip it around. I love platformers. I’ve played so many platformers. Each have such huge variety. Friends will have moved on and I’m still going for 100% completion. Even after 100% I’m looking for a leaderboard, or self-imposed challenge to keep me playing.
I’m confident some people feel about shooters the way I feel about platformers. If someone says their tired of games like BG3, I don’t get it. I could never tire of that genre. It has too many options to keep things fresh. But I know some people feel the same about shooters.
I don’t get it, but I guess I get it.
Arpgs like Diablo or pathofexile are my “will always play” games. Like you I’ve played the mmos, shooters, and others and feel like I’ve “finished” those genres and am satisfied not going back unless with friends.
It’s both a nice feeling but also a sad one. I still follow fps games and watch videos of them, but playing them… Meh
If you haven’t looked into it yet check out Last Epoch. It will be launching 1.0 on Feb 21, but the early access has been amazing.
I’ve jumped in a few times since they started letting people play years ago! I’m a big fan and am eager to give 1.0 a whirl.
I like how they are embracing the solo vs trading play style and leaning into rewarding both types of players uniquely with power for that choice.
great stuff. I’m really looking forward to it too. I like how the skill modification trees work and all the various synergies that are available.
I haven’t paid much attention to the single player vs multiplayer stuff because I’m trying to go in blind enough to not try and min/max from day 1. I feel that pushes me to not enjoy the game as much since i’m skipping over experimenting with builds or skills. I’m really hyped. Feb 21 can’t get here soon enough.
I see, I definitely feel that with MMOs, but it’s more because the successful ones are always following the same formula just done well, like XIV, WoW and GW2; while games that had something very interesting like Peria Chronicles get gutted of what was different and cancelled after.
You should try Escape From Tarkov. Yea it’s a shooter, but it’s intense and, most importantly, not call off duty or battlefield
Subnautica. I always have a lot of fun building out my base and discovering things and poking around, but after a while I get distracted by another game and put Subnautica on the back burner. By the time I get back around to it, I’ve forgotten how to play and end up starting a brand new playthrough.
Another one is Darkest Dungeon. I have over 100 hours in that game and loved it, but I kind of stopped playing after all the strategies I had been using stopped working and all my parties kept getting annihilated. I was spending so much time recruiting, training, curing, etc that it sort of stopped being fun.You are keeping away an amazing story from yourself. I highly recommend the mod where you can get all of the required storage directly on your vessels, so you can focus on exploring and enjoying the story. Do yourself the favor and thank me later. 🥹
Yeaaaa… Do what the other guy said. Subnautica is an amazing game. I wish I could play it again for the first time
Valheim. I just build shit though.
It actually never even occurred to me that you could beat it. I just figured everyone plays until they get bored
There Is a game call Ancient Domains of Mystery (ADoM) that has been around since the early 90’s. It’s a traditional Roguelike that I picked up and started playing in 2003 and I have yet to actually beat the game. I have thousands of hours on it in Steam and much much more than that before the Steam release and I have yet to actually win. It’s hard.
Tetris
Europa Universalis IV and Stellaris. For exactly the same reasons.
I spend way too much time in those games. Hundreds of hours each. But the end game is just too much of a slog. You already won, so there is no challenge; the framerate tanks into unplayable territory; and the micromanagement to manage the late game wars and economy becomes insane.
But starting with a different empire, and doing early/mid game again is awsome!
I have one of the fastest, most powerful laptops that exist, and the last century or so of stellaris brings it to a crawl.
Bg3 at 4k ultra settings? 144fps. Stellaris? There are some entire seconds without a new frame.
Same reason that Dwarf Fortress also has the same problem. Simulation is a lot heavier than graphics, and it’s CPU heavy, but gaming computer usually have acceptable CPUs and powerhouse GPUs, so they bottleneck on the CPU with simulation games.
I have an i9 13900, so uh, it isn’t exactly a mid tier CPU.
Stellaris just can’t have a full, long game without eating shit at the end frame wise.
edit: i9 13980HK, slightly wrong model, point stands as its a very high end CPU that’ll beat the snot out of anything normal. Stellaris is actually just brutal to run end game.
Fallout 4 I have around 450 hours in it, and like 10 are in character creation and 400 are in settlement building.
I have not meet the Institute, I have had two run in with the Railroad, I have defended Far Harbor when you first arrive, I have meet Virgil ones and I have never been on board the Prydwen. I did get to some big fight in the Automatron DLC after you build the brain bot, but I have now idea if it was the last or not.
But I absolutely love the game to bits and can roll play in it for hours.
Wow, target audience for settlement building actually exist! It was always a point of frustration to me, I build necessary minimum for some quests and that’s it, partially being sad that they could’ve put those resources to make main loop of Fallout part of the game better
I kind of agree with you, to be honest.
Instead of putting this two things together and half assing them both, we could have had a more Fallouty Fallout 4 and a spin-off like Fallout: The Minutemen Story where you work in a Minutemen like faction somewhere to get it establish and working. With a much more settlement focused gameplay and with the big baddies being some raider factions, you have to deal with in different ways.
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I did everything up to the ending, but then decided that I wanted to do the DLC as well.
Went into one of them and got bored, so there it sits forever.
Half-life 2 has probably been installed on every PC I’ve owed over the past 20 years but I’ve never finished it. On the positive side I’ve managed to avoid spoilers for this long so what’s another 20…
You should get on that. I hear the sequel is coming any time now.
Well, just play this before Hl3 comes out.
That’s the goal. Better get a move on…
Wow. Where do you leave off? It’s not a super long game so I’m a little surprised… But there’s definitely parts you might lose interest in.
I can’t speak for the parent, but I don’t remember ever getting past Nova Prospekt. Not because I didn’t want to, it’s just that every time I’ve started playing I get distracted right around that part. But I have a serious problem of not being able to finish games, I get distracted by other games far too easily.
I never started episode 2. I knew that was the end and just… never played it to keep things non definitive
I found it to be a pretty short game, maybe you just did not enjoy playing it?
