The One And Done - The Bear and Badger

regmcfly

A place where you can (briefly) celebrate those candy games - the games that you buy, blast through, and enjoy, and then never go back to, and to be honest, never really talk about again.
It's the adrenaline rush, it's the spectacle, or else it's the sheer dumbness of it. Not memes, not so-bad-it's-good, a real solid game that does what it needs to do, and then never needs to be seen again.

I'll start with two that stand out to me from this gen.

Marvel's Spider-Man

This is what inspired me to post this forum, as I was thinking about it - actually, I was thinking about the 'pizza time' moment from the Toby Maguire movie, but it linked me to it. There's so much to admire here, from the core swinging system, to the way the theme music picks up as you do, to the fact that they do a properly decent superhero plot. Yet, unlike Arkham Asylum/City, I don't get the desire to play back through it due to the gameification of it - the ring challenges, the environmental missions. Unlike the backpacks, which provide some very nice links to old games, much akin to Arkham's Riddler Challenges, the stuff around it doesn't quite do it for me. And having a proper Manhattan is nice, but it's not the same as Gotham. That being said, I loved my time blowing through the game and hundo-ing it, even if the last gang fights became a little tedious. A cool game, with a lot of love poured in.

Middle Earth - Shadow of Mordor
Remember when we all thought the Nemesis system would be the next thing in gaming? I loved Shadow of Mordor - I have to say I haven't touched War so I can't comment on it, but Mordor felt like a proper murky middle earth. The levelling system and the Nemesis system, again, although ultimately becoming something very gameified, were concepts that I very much enjoyed, and the way in which they used the Tolkein universe whilst avoiding the overall Hobbit/LOTR plots was very well done. I can barely remember much about the game however, except for those amazing moments when the Orc Nemesis burst in and then said some shit to you. Interestingly, both games I've mentioned use a variation on the Arkham combat system. I could talk about Assassin's Creed in here too, but I think I would revisit those cities.

Anyway, over to you.

b0r1s

Gotta be Resident Evil 4 a rollercoaster ride and top of my sheer spectacle games even beating out the more graphically advanced Uncharted games.

I loved every single second but have no desire to taint perfect memories by replaying today.

Did it get 10 of 10? It should if it didn’t.

Bob

b0r1s wrote:

Gotta be Resident Evil 4 a rollercoaster ride and top of my sheer spectacle games even beating out the more graphically advanced Uncharted games.

I loved every single second but have no desire to taint perfect memories by replaying today.

Did it get 10 of 10? It should if it didn’t.

Can’t wait to play it again on switch

regmcfly

I can't truck with Resi 4 here as it's a game I would genuinely fire through again if time was unlimited. It's an all time banger.

hylian_elf

Resi 4 is so replaybale. And people talk about it all the time. Ok, appreciate Boris may not hence it makes the cut for him.

I can’t think of any off the top of my head. I mean if I really like a game I’m likely to talk about it again. Or at least want to play again even if I actually don’t get the time to do so.

Diluted Dante

I talk about them all the time, so it doesn't quite fit, but The Last of Us and The Last Guardian. Both games feel almost wrong to play through again, like I would be re-doing a part of my life.

regmcfly

Diluted Dante wrote:

I talk about them all the time, so it doesn't quite fit, but The Last of Us and The Last Guardian. Both games feel almost wrong to play through again, like I would be re-doing a part of my life.

No, that probably fits. I was thinking about Watch Dogs 2 recently too

hylian_elf

regmcfly wrote:

never really talk about again.

Diluted Dante wrote:

I talk about them all the time

JonB

I suppose most games are like this. It's rarer that I'll go back to something.

In some cases, it's because you can do everything in a single play-through. Like Horizon: ZD, for instance, which I'll almost certainly never play again, but then I went everywhere and saw all it had to offer.

In other cases, it's a one-off experience and even if there's more to find, it's never going to be the same replaying it. Until Dawn, perhaps. I enjoyed it well enough as long as the first run lasted, but there's absolutely no reason to ever look at any of it again after. But with that it's also that you can really see the strings towards the end of the game, so the illusion of choice and consequence is shattered if you go back.

There's another game I'm playing right now for review that will doubtless fit into this category as well. It's well-made but very linear and story-driven, so I can't see any reason to repeat it.

Moot_Geeza

Almost everything I've played since the 90s has been a one and done for me, but in the spirit of the thread I'll throw in Sleeping Dogs, Mini Ninjas, Moss, Fight Night Champion, Heavy Rain and A Way Out for retail games.

hylian_elf

Just went to the top 100 thread (Stu via Cinty) and went through the alphabetical section and the first game on the list that just may fill the criteria is probably Batman: Arkham Asylum. Not one that I would talk about much at all and no real desire to play again.

Moot_Geeza

Didn't spot the not talk about it thing, scratch Heavy Rain then. And A Way Out, but nobody listens anyway.

[Deleted User]

hylian_elf wrote:

regmcfly wrote:

never really talk about again.

everyone including reg wrote:

bunch of games we talk about all the time

hylian_elf

Trudat. I’d still mention Arkham re good batman game or metroidlike etc

regmcfly

Moot_Geeza wrote:

Almost everything I've played since the 90s has been a one and done for me, but in the spirit of the thread I'll throw in Sleeping Dogs, Mini Ninjas, Moss, Fight Night Champion, Heavy Rain and A Way Out for retail games.

Sleeping Dogs is a great shout. Haven't thought about that in ages.

Mikemsp

Breath of the wild. With the caveat I’ve played the first 15 mins a few times to see the opening panning shot of hyrule

mistercrayon

Almost every game ever for me.

Mikemsp

Tetris?

yourfavouriteuncle

All games. Never been back to one in any real capacity ever. I just don’t have the time or wherewithal.

Moot_Geeza

I haven't played it, but I always thought Dante's Inferno looked interesting, despite mixed reviews, and I haven't seen anyone mention that for years.

mistercrayon

Mikemsp wrote:

Tetris?

Touché.

cosmicjellybean

Most RPGs, especially things like Persona. I can’t justify playing 80 hours of something I’ve already played again...

But candy games? New Wolfensteins are great run and guns and dones.

bad_hair_day

Tap Tap Fish

Populate your wee aquatic reef by tap-tap-tapping the screen to earn points. That’s it.

Much to my family’s consternation a couple of summers ago, it took over my life for a month.

Ye be warned!

acemuzzy

"fish"?

bad_hair_day

They’re dog fish stoopid.

hylian_elf

That is so damn cute!

cosmicjellybean

bad_hair_day wrote:

Tap Tap Fish

Ye be warned!

Downloading

Facewon

As folks have mentioned, there's an element of personal preference for how you deal with any game, vs games that suit the OP.

However, in the interests of answering.

Mr shifty. Bing bang boom. Probably designed for some score chasing, Tbh, but it was a brill short ride for me.

See also the usual darlings/is this a games, journey, abzu, rime, and a number of their lesser known pc cousins....

Bokida, aer: memories of old.

And looking at my played to completion since having pc, there's numerous games that had content and mechanics for replay which I had no interest in.

Any and all supergiant games.

I guess I should remove journey as I did talk about it after....

Or if I didn't, I at least had thoughts about it.

Moot_Geeza

Mr. Shifty's great, agree that there's a good score chaser in there but I haven't played it since hitting the credits.

One and done applies to indie games regularly imo, even going back a few years. Braid was lovely, but has anyone replayed it? (probably a bad example, I haven't though). Limbo and Inside, any Finchlikes, even Ori - they're one shots for me, even though they're all three pointers (from downtown). We talk about them of course, some of those are belters, but I don't revisit.

Facewon

Yep on all points.

Every indie 2d game fits for me.

davyK

That bloody paper clip game.

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