My title of choice would probably be Daggerfall because it’s just so ambitious and truly offers an experience none of the other elder scrolls games offer. That being said it is kinda an example of a sequel eclipsing it’s predecessors as well given it is more or less a straight improvement over Arena in every way.
Likely controversially, I’d say Portal.
Yes - the sense of exploration and discovery in Portal 2 is a good thing, but the puzzles, which are necessarily a central part of the game, are IMO much less engaging than the ones in the original.
The thing to me is that the Portal 2 puzzles are more complex and involve more tools, which actually makes them much less of a challenge and thus more of just a pointless chore.
In the first one, I had to think creatively. I just had a room and a small set of tools and had to figure things out. There were some hints - ledges to jump off of and such - but the solutions were still complex, and complex through the creative combination of a handful of simple elements, which is exactly what makes a good puzzle
In the second one though, there were many more and more specialized elements to the puzzles, and that meant that most of the time I could do it without even having to think much. I’d just go into a room, take this new item that’s obviously meant to be used in some particular way and use it in the spot that was obviously set aside for it’s use, then take the next item that can only be used in one particular way and use it in the place obviously set aside for it’s use, and keep moving around the room that way until it was all assembled, then just trigger it and be done with it and go on to the next one. And that was disappointing.
Portal 2 is a good game. I just think that, all in all, the first one was better.
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Doom 1 and 2. The 2016 reboot and Eternal just don’t do it for me. And I just pretend 3 never happened.
Ahhh Daggerfall! I worked for Virgin at the time, who distributed that outside US. So many initial bugs we got calls on. Something about Werebears I kind of remember as being one of them haha. Great game though.
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I was on the same track when I read this - Morrowind was the first one that came to mind for me. It just had so much in it. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve enjoyed oblivion and skyrim, but there’s something special about Morrowind to me. Never tried daggerfall, your post inspires me to try to find it again :)
For me, I think the nostalgia of the first iteration is part of what holds me. Halo 1, for example, is my fav of the Halo games as a whole. Sure, I enjoyed many of the others, but there’s just something about that first game and the experiences I had in it that have been hard to top.
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Whoh! Great suggestion - daggerfall unity apparently is free on GoG!
https://www.gog.com/game/daggerfall_unity_gog_cut
Is that the one you’re talking about or is there another version?
Probably Commander Keen: Invasion of the Vorticons. I loved that game but the next title was Keen Dreams which didn’t feel like Commander Keen to me. The third game Goodbye, Galaxy did turn it around though and was probably my favorite in the series.
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The original Deus Ex is still amazing and has definitely held up better than the immediate sequel, Invisible War. The Eidos Montreal sequels have their charms and are definitely more accessible to modern gamers, but lacks the flexibility for emergent solutions that you could come up with in the original game.
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The megami tensei series has some interesting moments like this: to start with, the fact that one of the spinoff series, Persona, is arguably much more successful than the mainline games. I think which of the series is better is up to any given individual’s tastes, but I’ve spoken with many persona fans that have never touched a mainline entry.
Following up on that, I believe that P4 Golden is better than P5/P5 Royal. Don’t get me wrong- P5 has a better soundtrack and is visually striking, but I think P4G gives the player more freedom and has a more cohesive story. Additionally, I think P4G nails the Jungian themes better than P5/P5R. I believe both of these entries are top-tier games, I just also feel that P4G is overlooked in favor of P5R when P4G does nearly everything as well as or better than P5R outside of presentation.
I would say:
- Fallout 1 and 2 compared to 3/New Vegas/4
- Crusader: No Remorse compared to Crusader: No Regret
- Monkey Island 1 and 2 compared to 3/4/…
I mostly agree on the Fallouts, but I think it gets tricky with New Vegas as that game is actually amazing. I’d probably rank them 2 > New Vegas > 1 > 3 > 4.
Far Cry 2 still feels better than the new ones. Dragon Age: Origins is better than all the rest
Easily New Vegas and Interplay fallouts (excluding tactics ofc). Put an easy 150 into FO4 but New Vegas really isn’t overrated, and 1/2 are amazing with the sheer desolation and creepiness factor. Love those games, probably played NV a dozen times by now
