Masterstrokes of Gaming

[Draje]

Replaying MGS4, it struck me how so many little things in this game were not explained and how revolutionary a lot of these choices really were.

It made me want to discuss certain moments, mechanics, or features that are master-strokes in gaming. Doesn’t mean the game is perfect or the mechanic is perfect but something that was expertly done that might define that mechanic for you.

-The Nemesis System in the Mordor series.

-The arms race/gameplay loop of X-Com 2

-Dialogue/Choice system in Disco Elysium

-Deus Ex/System Shock 2 for immersive sims

-The Last of Us (Opening and ending)

-Bloodborne’s use and subversion of Lovecraftian Horror.

-Pathologic 2 and how it creates a video game that actively goes out of its way to make its mechanics less fun to create a masterpiece of story telling

 

[Gizmo_Duck]

David Cage shower scenes

 

[Batsute]

Replaying MGS4, it struck me how so many little things in this game were not explained and how revolutionary a lot of these choices really were.

It made me want to discuss certain moments, mechanics, or features that are master-strokes in gaming. Doesn’t mean the game is perfect or the mechanic is perfect but something that was expertly done that might define that mechanic for you.

-The Nemesis System in the Mordor series.

-The arms race/gameplay loop of X-Com 2

-Dialogue/Choice system in Disco Elysium

-Deus Ex/System Shock 2 for immersive sims

-The Last of Us (Opening and ending)

-Bloodborne’s use and subversion of Lovecraftian Horror.

-Pathologic 2 and how it creates a video game that actively goes out of its way to make its mechanics less fun to create a masterpiece of story telling

Elaborate breh

 

[Draje]

Lovecraft’s horror has to be viewed from his racist lens. It focuses on dehumanizing other cultures and the encroaching threat in a good chunk of his story is how simply engaging with these other cultures and getting privy to their beliefs is tantamount to poisoning his idea of humanity (White folks).

It’s why Lovecraft tends to punish those who seek to gain understanding, knowledge, and an understanding of “others” in all his stories. They die from insanity, are used as tools or sacrifices, etc.

Bloodborne leans into those Lovecraftian themes but then repurposes them as a critique of how Eurocentric/Colonizing regimes (The same culture that Lovecraft thought was the purest and best form) will commit atrocities and repurpose the culture of others to benefit their own interests.

The Great Ones are the biggest, baddest antagonists in the game but it’s the Healing Church/Government that actually cause the most atrocities in the game and is the real reason for all the issues.

 

[Gizmo_Duck]

Lovecraft’s horror has to be viewed from his racist lens. It focuses on dehumanizing other cultures and the encroaching threat in a good chunk of his story is how simply engaging with these other cultures and getting privy to their beliefs is tantamount to poisoning his idea of humanity (White folks).

It’s why Lovecraft tends to punish those who seek to gain understanding, knowledge, and an understanding of “others” in all his stories. They die from insanity, are used as tools or sacrifices, etc.

Bloodborne leans into those Lovecraftian themes but then repurposes them as a critique of how Eurocentric/Colonizing regimes (The same culture that Lovecraft thought was the purest and best form) will commit atrocities and repurpose the culture of others to benefit their own interests.

The Great Ones are the biggest, baddest antagonists in the game but it’s the Healing Church/Government that actually cause the most atrocities in the game and is the real reason for all the issues.

Well said…..

This game is piff, you actually can die from simply knowing too much of whats happening in the world around you.

 

[winb83]

The Suicide Mission in Mass Effect 2. I still feel like this is one of the greatest achievements in gaming. It is the moment in gaming where it really felt like your choices mattered. The things you decide to do or not do and the choices you make in the mission directly influence its outcome.

The Chomp scene and its aftermath in Muv-Luv Alternative. The most shocking thing I've experienced in a game. Thing is you have to experience it blind because if you look it up and see it out of context or if you know when it's coming the shock effect will be lost and it's just another jump scare you saw coming.

The third semester of Persona 5 Royal. The most compelling content in the game. The antagonist was right and I've never felt so conflicted confronting someone who the game set me against but I felt like they weren't wrong at all.

The mental assault done to Velvet Crowe in the last 3rd of Tales of Berseria. Especially the final push to destroy her. From the moment you go back to her home town it's on. Never seen a character broken down like that before.

The final battle of The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time. You walk into the room and Ganondorf is playing the piano music you hear in the final dungeon. From that point on its epic.

This scene from Lunar SSSC

Blew me away as a kid.
Also this from the sequel.

 

[Gizmo_Duck]

The Suicide Mission in Mass Effect 2. I still feel like this is one of the greatest achievements in gaming. It is the moment in gaming where it really felt like your choices mattered. The things you decide to do or not do and the choices you make in the mission directly influence its outcome.

The Chomp scene and its aftermath in Muv-Luv Alternative. The most shocking thing I've experienced in a game. Thing is you have to experience it blind because if you look it up and see it out of context or if you know when it's coming the shock effect will be lost and it's just another jump scare you saw coming.

The third semester of Persona 5 Royal. The most compelling content in the game. The antagonist was right and I've never felt so conflicted confronting someone who the game set me against but I felt like they weren't wrong at all.

The mental assault done to Velvet Crowe in the last 3rd of Tales of Berseria. Especially the final push to destroy her. From the moment you go back to her home town it's on. Never seen a character broken down like that before.

It was pretty much a red pill blue pill situation

 

[MajesticLion]

Intredasting thread

 

[Draje]

The Suicide Mission in Mass Effect 2. I still feel like this is one of the greatest achievements in gaming. It is the moment in gaming where it really felt like your choices mattered. The things you decide to do or not do and the choices you make in the mission directly influence its outcome.

The Chomp scene and its aftermath in Muv-Luv Alternative. The most shocking thing I've experienced in a game. Thing is you have to experience it blind because if you look it up and see it out of context or if you know when it's coming the shock effect will be lost and it's just another jump scare you saw coming.

The third semester of Persona 5 Royal. The most compelling content in the game. The antagonist was right and I've never felt so conflicted confronting someone who the game set me against but I felt like they weren't wrong at all.

The mental assault done to Velvet Crowe in the last 3rd of Tales of Berseria. Especially the final push to destroy her. From the moment you go back to her home town it's on. Never seen a character broken down like that before.

The final battle of The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time. You walk into the room and Ganondorf is playing the piano music you hear in the final dungeon. From that point on its epic.

This scene from Lunar SSSC

Blew me away as a kid.
Also this from the sequel.

Great examples.

I’ll add another in the first reveal of the first Colossus in Shadow of the Colossus. I think it’s one of the most perfect examples of a conveying every single emotion that it wants you to experience in a small microcosm of the game.

 

[ImLionyall]

Exiting vault 101 in Fallout 3. A top 5 game introduction

 

[Kamikaze Revy]

Lovecraft’s horror has to be viewed from his racist lens. It focuses on dehumanizing other cultures and the encroaching threat in a good chunk of his story is how simply engaging with these other cultures and getting privy to their beliefs is tantamount to poisoning his idea of humanity (White folks).

It’s why Lovecraft tends to punish those who seek to gain understanding, knowledge, and an understanding of “others” in all his stories. They die from insanity, are used as tools or sacrifices, etc.

Bloodborne leans into those Lovecraftian themes but then repurposes them as a critique of how Eurocentric/Colonizing regimes (The same culture that Lovecraft thought was the purest and best form) will commit atrocities and repurpose the culture of others to benefit their own interests.

The Great Ones are the biggest, baddest antagonists in the game but it’s the Healing Church/Government that actually cause the most atrocities in the game and is the real reason for all the issues.

Intredasting thread

Maybe the Oxford English major can help you

 

[Kamikaze Revy]

Thread title is worthy but I respect the effort.

I recently saw Kojima take credit for the modern in game photo modes. He mentioned that MGS2 was the first game to introduce a 3D in game camera to capture images of the world. I didn’t even think about it that way but I think he’s right. I can’t think of any game before it that did that.

What Halo did for the console FPS genre should be regarded higher than it is.

Chrono Trigger set the bar in terms of in game choices and how widely they effected the story and had multiple endings. I still consider it the gold standard. Most games with choices don’t truly effect the story and the endings typically wind up the same or with very little variety.

 

[MajesticLion]

Maybe the Oxford English major can help you

 

[Monsanto]

Ending the game half way is the best outcome in SMT4. If you choose to commit to the cycle and have your turn, the game continues. The White were great in giving you everything you needed and showing how useless any other choice is.

Blasted Tokyo remains as the most impactful event in a video game that I've ever played. It is a playable sequence of what happens when the Megido Ark from SM2 is fired and the consequences for those living. Amazing callback.

And then you get to the Law theme remix for Kiyoharu's theme which says it all:

 

[Master Teacher]

Yall talking about everything but actually gaming with these games

The original Mario Brothers is the blueprint for any side scrolling platformer to action platformers like ninja gaiden to castlevania, the physics, the secret passage ways and multiple routes through levels its a revolutionary game which were later perfected and taking to a new level with the original sonic the hedgehog

Super Metroid of course for it's one map level design and progression system that's still used today

Ocarina of Time was the first game with locked on targeting, also the first RPG when you changed equipment the character's appearance changed, you could go under water, ride a horse, first game to use fast travel system, it was the most innovative game ever made and modern gaming still uses all the things that were first implemented in this game.

Grand Theft Auto 2, I never played the original GTA, but GTA2 is more open world and a true sandbox game unlike the recent open world games from Rockstar like Red Dead and GTAV, where you fail missions if you don't do them by the script. This was the first game with the mission system we see in all open world games today, and you were giving the creativity to complete these missions anyway with the tools you are given in the game. The gameplay was fun and I would like to play a newer game in this style of game, surprise there hasn't been any clones of this.

GTA 3, which brought everything GTA2 had as far as freedom to do whatever you want in this world, you could do way more in this game than in GTAV and Red Dead put together, it's one mission where you have to kill a target but it's hard to catch him when he gets in his car and start driving, you can literally rigged his car with explosives before you start the mission, and blow him up as soon as he gets in the car, you can't do that in the new rockstar games, they care won't even put there in the open world until its scripted, and you would fail the mission not following all the cues in the script, these new games are not open at all.