(Saw this question asked on another popular link aggregation website and it got me thinking)
If you could play one game for the first time all over again, what would you choose? This might be because you want to do it all again, or because you don't think you got enough out of it the first time. It could be experiencing the game exactly as you were back then, or experiencing a game with what you know now.
For me, it's Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past, experienced exactly as I was back in 1991.
Nothing comes close to how jaw-droppingly amazed I was by that opening sequence. The epic orchestral score, the cinematic rainstorm, creeping around in the dark... it was a generational leap above anything I'd played on 8-bit computers and consoles, and even the Megadrive. I'd love to play it again without thirty plus years of Nintendo/Zelda knowledge, or without knowing about the dark world.
Half life or Half life 2.
I find Half-Life and Portal are some of the best games ever made regarding world building, story telling and general addictiveness.
I keep coming back because I've never found any other game like those.
I don't how old you are, but the first one was the first very big implementation of scripted scenes. To see something happening in an FPS as in a movie was mind-blowing.
The second one is just absurdly well designed. And the visuals are imbued of this Eastern European architecture and vibe that right now, walking the streets of Warsaw, I am gladly breathing in.
I'm old enough to have been stunned by games like Cybernoid and Exolon (oooh, so many colours and sprites and explosions), Elite (damn, actual 3D wireframe spaceships!), Driller (wow, actual solid 3D at 0.5 frames per second!), Wolfenstein (actually playable 3D, with sprites), Doom (this changes everything), Quake (full 3D, nothing can improve on this), all the Half-Life franchise (you can also have a story to go with the shooting? who knew?), Portal, Portal 2 and The Talos Principle (puzzle games can have riveting stories) and finally Skyrim (damn, this thing is huuuge!). So yeah, I'm old. :-)
Seconded.
Portal 1 / 2 wouldn't be far behind
'Or?' Why not both?
Because that's not the question.
Half life Alyx is top of them all for me! Highly recommend
I strongly doubt it can be a defining game as the other 2 were and are. Plus, for me, there is attrition in the need to use a non-polished control system.
Nah it's hella polished! It's hard to explain but being inside the universe like that is a one of a kind experience. Give it a shot, I swear it's different!
published VR only, and - from Valve of all companies: Windows only!! F*ck them for that :(
There are mods out there! And honestly as much as it sucks to be an exclusive title like that, it honestly slaps for the same reason. The universe has so much potential to be told through the vr perspective, its absolutely incredible. Don't bash till ya tried it! I'm telling ya, it's a one of a kind experience
VR is not for me. The technology can't replace good storytelling, and HL2 sucked at that compared to HL1, sadly. It was still okay-ish but nowhere near as stellar as HL1. Also, VR is locked to expensive hardware with most drivers limited to the bloatware shitty windows. No thanks.