unogueen Posted October 28, 2021 Share Posted October 28, 2021 Remember playing Tomb Raider back in the day, what the fuck were the flesh monsters at the end? Or scrolling through Metroid, gliding past bubble platforms. At those points in gaming there was scant ways for the developer to communicate their intent with the player. And even if they did aim for strange, what difference is it? I guess the uneasiness of youth is a part, But batshit gave way to pretty I feel. Gaming was best for me when I felt like I was dropped in the middle of nowhere, and had to scrutinize anything and everything. It's the best part of immersion for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gamer.tv Posted October 28, 2021 Share Posted October 28, 2021 I feel like a lot of games offer that, looking at you FromSoftware. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commissar SFLUFAN Posted October 28, 2021 Share Posted October 28, 2021 1 minute ago, unogueen said: Remember playing Tomb Raider back in the day, what the fuck were the flesh monsters at the end? Or scrolling through Metroid, gliding past bubble platforms. At those points in gaming there was scant ways for the developer to communicate their intent with the player. And even if they did aim for strange, what difference is it? I guess the uneasiness of youth is a part, But batshit gave way to pretty I feel. Gaming was best for me when I felt like I was dropped in the middle of nowhere, and had to scrutinize anything and everything. It's the best part of immersion for me. I think you'll find that "weird gaming" is alive and well in the indie scene. Case in point: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keyser_Soze Posted October 28, 2021 Share Posted October 28, 2021 I thought this thread would be about actual weird games like Incredible Crisis and Mr. Mosquito Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghost_MH Posted October 28, 2021 Share Posted October 28, 2021 Weird gaming where you get thrown into the craziest places to just drag with is abundant. There's stuff like The Artful Escape which came out not too long ago and I rather enjoyed. I'd also mention Cruelty Squad, but @Commissar SFLUFAN already did. Games are all over the place visually moreso than they've ever been. For striking visuals you have Genesis Noir or maybe from a few years back ,Return of the Obra Dinn or Unfinished Swan. Why am I only thinking about black and white games now? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unogueen Posted October 28, 2021 Author Share Posted October 28, 2021 I mean I play plenty of random itch.io shit. But the current modal relegates them to a corner.I mean you literally fought houses and lettucerabbits in old final fantasies. It's fine to diverge stylistically, but the top crust that wants the crown could not be more far than what cinema churns. I'm not making this about low or high art, both specttrums gain from the same things. Gaming is a medium afforded by gimmicks, like film was. Whatever it has it's sights set to is a choice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crispy4000 Posted October 28, 2021 Share Posted October 28, 2021 Psyconauts 2, It Takes Two, Lost in Random, Little Nightmares 2, etc. It's been a pretty good year for weird and creative stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stepee Posted October 28, 2021 Share Posted October 28, 2021 biomutant certainly seems really strange to me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bloodporne Posted October 28, 2021 Share Posted October 28, 2021 You should play The Evil Within. That game strongly reminded me of shit like Splatterhouse where every level was drastically different and had a gameplay gimmick just because it was 'weird Horror'. Returnal also nails this weirdness I think. The enemy designs and abstract, old school level designs especially are pretty weird and old fashioned by modern standards in my opinion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShreddieMercury Posted October 28, 2021 Share Posted October 28, 2021 It isn't quite what you're describing, but I miss the wild, bizarre, big creative swings of the Dreamcast library. The creative free reign that Sega gave its developers during that time was both what cemented that system as a classic, and part of what ensured its eventual commercial failure. It's my favorite video game console and I doubt anything can even begin to come close. Games have been largely homogeneous since the 360/PS3 generation, and we're seeing more and more of a split between micro-budget indies and the AAA, focus-grouped games that the big studios put out. It's hard to imagine anybody funding something like Seaman ever again, and games are worse for their lack of wild imagination and no-holds-barred creativity that we frequently saw in that era. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unogueen Posted October 28, 2021 Author Share Posted October 28, 2021 Sega was wild at time wrestling with arcade and the burgeoning console style. I fell in love with many of their arcade games at the time (woo 60fps). The schism and dynamism of two very different determinants was focal. More to a recent point lore logs are not how I find myself through life. I talk to people, hear things, learn streets. Weird wasn't right. Like the Half Life idea in a smothering form (haven't tried alyx yet). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commissar SFLUFAN Posted October 29, 2021 Share Posted October 29, 2021 5 hours ago, unogueen said: Sega was wild at time wrestling with arcade and the burgeoning console style. I fell in love with many of their arcade games at the time (woo 60fps). The schism and dynamism of two very different determinants was focal. More to a recent point lore logs are not how I find myself through life. I talk to people, hear things, learn streets. Weird wasn't right. Like the Half Life idea in a smothering form (haven't tried alyx yet). How do you feel about "immersive sims" such as the Deus Ex series, Prey (2017), or the Dishonored series? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghost_MH Posted October 29, 2021 Share Posted October 29, 2021 10 minutes ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said: How do you feel about "immersive sims" such as the Deus Ex series, Prey (2017), or the Dishonored series? When your say immersive sim, I'm not sure those games come to mind. The first one that came to mind is Metro Sim Hustle. It's a subway train operator sim, but then after work you spend the money you've made on strippers and blow and maybe find yourself in debt and joining an underground fighting ring. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unogueen Posted October 29, 2021 Author Share Posted October 29, 2021 Immersive sims are great. Although I feel suffer from an unfair from where the grandfather and subsequent developers of this time of genre were and are. This is probably bloviating, But recall a game call millennia:altered destines. It's a beat the foozle game, but you are all but a caretaker in player agency. Millennia: Altered Destinies - Wikipedia EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DPCyric Posted October 30, 2021 Share Posted October 30, 2021 Inscryption is super weird and very popular right now... tons of stuff out there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xbob42 Posted October 30, 2021 Share Posted October 30, 2021 Hmm. Not everything I'm going to list will be "weird," but it should all be highly creative and unusual. Based on the examples you gave, you don't seem to be too attached to either indie or big titles, you just want that same feeling regardless? I'm not sure I entirely understand the exact feeling you're describing, but I'll try to include a mix. The closest I can think to what you're describing is the feeling that you don't fully understand the limits of the world, which makes the world seem bigger and more limitless than it is. A sort of unpredictability in not just mechanics, but tone and maybe narrative as well? Anyway, don't get overwhelmed at the big list, maybe just check back and randomly check one out every once in a while. Inscryption (Don't look up anything about it... but it is a game that deals heavily in cards... in a very interesting way), the Outer Wilds, the Good Life, Psychonauts 2, the Dread X collections (some better than others, Solipsis highly recommended), Coin Game, Lost in Vivo, the Nier games (they're very good at providing weird, stick with 'em), Loop Hero, Yakuza Like A Dragon, Valheim, Crosscode, Tormented Souls, Kentucky Route Zero, Hypnospace Outlaw, Ys VIII, There Is No Game, Pathologic 2, the Eternal Cylinder, Return of the Obra Dinn, and many, many more. If you were to ask for a place to start, I'd say if you wanted a game where the world seems to have more than you can see at any given time, go with Outer Wilds. If you want a sort of "how did we get here" weirdness, maybe the Nier games, either one is fine to start with. If you want something that'll be quick to get into and easy to understand while keeping strange, Inscryption will be great. Finally, if you want something a little more highly unusual but extremely satisfying and also very weird, Return of the Obra Dinn might be one of my favorite games ever. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bloodporne Posted October 30, 2021 Share Posted October 30, 2021 @Xbob42 Return of the Obra Dinn is a puzzle game, right? I've never wanted to spoil it by looking into it too much but love the art style. How does it actually play moment to moment? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keyser_Soze Posted October 31, 2021 Share Posted October 31, 2021 5 hours ago, Bloodporne said: @Xbob42 Return of the Obra Dinn is a puzzle game, right? I've never wanted to spoil it by looking into it too much but love the art style. How does it actually play moment to moment? It plays like a FPS adventure game. You basically walk around the environment solving the mystery. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vaxick Posted October 31, 2021 Share Posted October 31, 2021 On 10/28/2021 at 1:44 PM, Keyser_Soze said: I thought this thread would be about actual weird games like Incredible Crisis and Mr. Mosquito God Incredible Crisis pissed me off because the timing was so brutally unforgiving, but damnit did that game have such a great ska soundtrack. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghost_MH Posted October 31, 2021 Share Posted October 31, 2021 5 hours ago, Bloodporne said: @Xbob42 Return of the Obra Dinn is a puzzle game, right? I've never wanted to spoil it by looking into it too much but love the art style. How does it actually play moment to moment? It's a whodunit with an entire ship of murders and unexpected deaths where you jump back and forth through time trying to figure out how everyone died. I quite enjoyed it. Like @Keyser_Soze said, it controls like a FPS, but there is zero action and you're the only thing that actually moves. Everything else is frozen in individual moments of time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xbob42 Posted October 31, 2021 Share Posted October 31, 2021 I didn't want to say too much about Obra Dinn because figuring it out is half of what makes it fun, but yeah, it's a puzzle game of sorts, and it relies heavily on you being able to both observe and intuit information in really cool ways. It can be pretty damn tricky to make progress on sometimes, but it's legitimately one of the most satisfying games to make progress on I know of. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unogueen Posted October 31, 2021 Author Share Posted October 31, 2021 Thanks for the suggestions. Weighing cruelty squad against a random gog.com stack for my weekend purchase Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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