Games that offer a truly unique game experience

[v1c70r14]

L'Arche du Captain Blood, the gameplay is you talking to aliens.

 

[ShaggyMoose]

I remember Messiah; it was a big deal at pre-release due to its uncommon use of tessellation, but it pretty much sank without a trace at release.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Realms of Arkania HD

 

[jebsmoker]

both pathologic games. pathologic 1 has wonky balance and resource hunting isn't as bad in the middle of the game, but in the remake - everything is a struggle

 

[Eisen]

i forgot about the Marathon series

 

[anvi]

Being true to Anvi's haragues, I'll mention EQ at launch. It wasn't like anything else around and the mentality of people going into the game cannot be reproduced now.

"Content" and consuming it did not exist back then. You played to have fun and explore and figure it out. A day losing your corpse deep in Dalnir and staying up late just to recover it and be happy that you only lost half a level of exp wasn't a waste of time, it was part of the adventure you were on and that shit stuck with you. Eventually, Eq helped create the MMO experience that we now know and killed itself (and MMOs).

You can go back playing it now, but everyone will be rushing to maximize their exp rate at the best camps, get the best gear and be ready to do raid targets in a couple weeks.

Sonic the Hedgehog, unironically. There is no 2D platformer that comes even close to Sonic's unique style of movement and controls, except games that are direct clones of Sonic (and even those are of lesser quality).

You'd think melding physics with platforming would be a no-brainer and yet others struggle to do it well. Even Sonic itself lost it when it stopped being 2D and is why Sonic Mania has been the decent thing from the series in over 20 years.

Yeah I loved the group survival feel of early EQ. The mobs beat up the players everywhere you went. Everyone was so weak in comparison and people knew nothing. Once the players started dominating the game it lost a lot of appeal. Cool while it lasted though.

Something else that seems unique was how people made their own camp spots anywhere that had a good supply of enemies or a named. I much preferred setting up camp at Orc 1 and being like a hunter or something, or camping a room in a dungeon. I like it much more than the constantly running around questing that other games do. And I liked how you could spend hours there and get a lot from it. And when you are tired of that place there are plenty more to go to. It could be super intense at times but often it was slow paced and I liked that.

 

[Watser]

DROD is probably one of the more unique takes on the puzzle genre I have come across. Even though it's an old series I haven't seen other games trying to mimick this type of gameplay.

 

[anvi]

I thought of some more for this thread:

Magic Carpet, Populous, Bomberman, Stunt Island, Nox, MDK, Panza Kickboxing (Best of the Best on SNES), Hidden & Dangerous (more or less), Omikron The Nomad Soul, Ultima Online, World of Goo, Kerbal Space Program.

 

[Goliath]

Gemini Rue

The game is a real mindfuck. Literally the only game which ever managed to stun me. And one of the very few games which managed to have a serious emotional impact on me. And it is just damn good.
I can almost promise that you will love this game if you loved the Blade Runner movies. But no, it is not about synths, it wouldn't be unique in that case. It does ask the question what it means to be human though, but in a completely new / unique way.
Seriously, just play it, it is one of the best games ever made.

The Entire Blackwell Series

Great adventure games. The premise is unusual but not really unique: You have to help the ghosts of dead people to find peace. One unique thing about the series is that it mostly deals with real world problems real world people have e.g. you don't have to rescue your girlfriend from a ghost pirate or something like that. Instead you get e.g.; Why did this college girl overdose on drugs? And no, there is no supernatural reason, it is all real life shit that happens every day to ordinary people. And another thing which makes these games unique is that they deal with such topics in a very mature way. I would say the Blackwell games are the most "grown-up" games I have ever played. They are heartbreakingly sad and tragic though. Again, you are always dealing with the ghosts of dead people who can't find peace - and there are reasons why these souls can't find peace and accept death. Usually very sad and tragic ones. And yes, to point that out again, your "job" in these games is to make people accept death. I can almost promise you will like these games if you are the melancholic / depressive type.

Cloudpunk

This one is hard to describe. Technically one could say this is a voxel cyberpunk version of Euro Truck Simulator
The appeal of the game is also hard to explain. Objectively speaking there isn't much real gameplay but the game is extremely immersive somehow.
I can almost promise that if you like cyberpunk you will like this game because it is honestly the most immersive cyperpunk game I have ever played.
The immersion is unfortunately brutally broken multiple times by very forced scenes of American far-left preaching. Like they added characters to the game just to diss Joe Rogan and Ben Shapiro, and as you might imagine those characters stick out like sore thumbs in the otherwise very well made cyberpunk world. The main character also occasionally makes those self-righteous "I am so smart and noble and those people are all so stupid and evil." comments far-left types are infamous for.
But then, that shit is like 5% of the game and the rest is so good that I still recommend it despite of those aspects.
I mean I always thought those people who refuse to read H.P. Lovecraft because there is a "bigoted" line here and there are morons with mental issues. We basically have the same situation here, just here the question is if you can look past occasional elements of American far-left derangement.

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

Gemini Rue is indeed quite a gem in the Wadjet Eye catalog, but the Blackwell series is honestly a much more traditional PNC game. I'd mention Resonance; the game isn't particularly good but it has a memory mechanic, like you can add certain things to your short term or long term memory and use those as you would use items in the game.

 

[Goliath]

Gemini Rue is indeed quite a gem in the Wadjet Eye catalog, but the Blackwell series is honestly a much more traditional PNC game.

I didn't say that the gameplay was unique, it is indeed PNC, but then so is the gameplay in Gemini Rue except for a few gun fights. Again, the unique part is the story. Blackwell feels nothing like Monkey Island, Maniac Mansion, King's Quest or any of the other traditional PNC games which defined the genre. I actually don't like those. Silly stories, lame jokes, pixel hunting / non-sensical puzzles - no thanks.

 

[deuxhero]

Dark Messiah: Nothing else really offers fast, playable, first person melee like this game. Dark Forces 2 is the only thing that even comes close, and even that is 1: really only practical against generic enemies you're taking out in a single strike, the dark jedi fights in first person don't work at all 2:still inferior to third person mode you can swap to at the press of a button

 

[Blutwurstritter]

This is hard, most unique games that turned out good also have sequels, imitators or games that were clearly inspired by them. Sacrifice is one of the few games that comes too mind with no obvious alternative. MadWorld on the Wii stuck with me due to the controls and the visuals although, the gameplay at its core is not truly unique. Factorio was rather unique, but there have been some game releases that clearly took inspiration from it by. Hotline Miama was also rather unique on release, but quickly spawned imitators and sequels. Stronghold to some degree. There is also Stronghold Crusaders which is basically the same game and threre are sequels, but they are all so shitty that the first two games still remain somewhat unique. The arcade racing game Mashed: Fully loaded had a pretty unique mechanic, where you die once you are too much behind. I don't know if there are other racing games like that. Moonstone from Amiga is also a nifty game, where I couldn't name a clear-cut alternative.

 

[Angthoron]

Machiavelli the Prince comes to mind as something I felt was a rather unique experience.

You had a game where you could explore, trade, play politics in various ways, it was a pretty different game for certain.

I guess The Guild series took after it.

 

[holla_cabezas_de_mierda]

I have been playing some of the Demos in the steam 'Next' festival and I think something is happening in video games that happened to movies starting about 25 years ago or so where there is more and more money to be made, games are costing more and more to make so development rests on these studios to raise lots of money or back them but then they all want some derivative game to be made in hopes that they might be able to cut down on risk of failure by just copying what came before...or maybe its just easier to explain to boomer executives you need all this cash to make this new game called 'X' and game is going to be just like 'Souls' which sold 4 billion dollars or something and then boomer execs all understand that because they can't into video gamez.

But you sort of see this in game descriptions too...every fucking game is basically described as having 'rougelike' RPG elements now, no matter if its a war game or RPG, side-scroller action game, whatever the case it is a 'roguelike'....and many of the games just feel like they are copying each other. You go to 'rooms' and defeat the 'room' then get some 'loot' then go to next 'room' which is a little harder. So tired of the 'rooms' type of game design..it is lazy as fuck. I basically immediately uninstall right away when I see it now...and all the art has this modern cartoon globohomo look to it...fucking making me rage. lol

 

[Arthandas]

YU-NO (the original) - A visual novel focusing on jumping between parallel timelines created by your in-game choices. Your game saves are physical (and limited) objects you place on the timeline map. You collect items and can inspect characters and backgrounds like in a point & click game.
Hollow Knight - elevated metroidvanias as a genre, nothing came close since
The Witness - a puzzle game within a puzzle game with exploration elements
Braid - everybody knows it
LISA - a unique experience that's equally funny and depressing
Planescape Torment - you can almost taste Avellone's dick and nothing else will ever taste the same
Frostpunk - pretty great survival colony sim
Paradise Killer - whodunnit with colorful world and characters
Undertale - everybody knows it
The Textorcist - typing bullet hell with great OST
Original War - very ambitious RTS with non expendable units

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

YU-NO (the original) - A visual novel focusing on jumping between parallel timelines created by your in-game choices. Your game saves are physical (and limited) objects you place on the timeline map. You collect items and can inspect characters and backgrounds like in a point & click game.

Yeah, also:

Couldn't find it, but I think you can invite her to a cup of coffee, pick up her cup and gulp it up in one go. She stares at you in disbelief.

 

[Arthandas]

I fucking love PC-98 pixel art, can't believe how they butchered the remake...

 

[LarryTyphoid]

I know I'm far from the first one to ask this question, but seriously, what is with the Japanese and panties? Foreign sexual habits like this always repulse me. "Bobs and vagene" pajeet vibe.

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

 

[Arthandas]

what is with the Japanese and panties? Foreign sexual habits like this always repulse me

"Foreign"? Where are you from, the Middle-East?
Also, if you're not aroused by female panties you're gei.

 

[Lucumo]

Machiavelli the Prince comes to mind as something I felt was a rather unique experience.

You had a game where you could explore, trade, play politics in various ways, it was a pretty different game for certain.

I guess The Guild series took after it.

The Fugger/Guild series is older than that game though.

 

[Angthoron]

Machiavelli the Prince comes to mind as something I felt was a rather unique experience.

You had a game where you could explore, trade, play politics in various ways, it was a pretty different game for certain.

I guess The Guild series took after it.

The Fugger/Guild series is older than that game though.

Ah, didn't know about Fugger. Thanks!

 

[Dadd]

I know I'm far from the first one to ask this question, but seriously, what is with the Japanese and panties? Foreign sexual habits like this always repulse me. "Bobs and vagene" pajeet vibe.

It's not exclusive to Japan but it is quite disgusting

 

[laclongquan]

To be fair about it, Japan is not the only land and people obsessed with panties
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frFzDUC-6AQ