Title.
You might’ve heard the fancy term ludonarrative dissonance, which describes something a lot of modern games suffer from. It’s the way games often tell stories that don’t fit within their gameplay loops. How a character can take 20 shots to the head in gameplay, and then die from a single wound in a cutscene. Or how in the story, characters can act like people who would never do the things they do do in gameplay.
This conflict doesn’t actually ruin a game most of the time. But the pictured game is one which is renowned for showcasing what can be done when gameplay is used as a narrative device, reinforcing rather than conflicting with the story. Using every element of a game in concert.
I would say Hollow Knight. Every new ability you get is from the environment, which changes the environment after you get it. One great example is that the room where you get the double jump is gusty, which disappears once you get the double jump. Those gusts then affect a different area, and any more would be semi-spoilers. Regardless, the whole game is wonderful, especially if you love Metroidvanias.
journey does this in a cool way.
it has some replay value, but its sadly too short
My sister played the crap out of Journey, she’d hang around the first area until another player showed up, then guide them through the game, showing the stranger all the secrets she knew, tracing hearts into the sand and such.
The embroidery on the robes actually becomes more elaborate as you find more secrets in the game, so she realized she could tell new players from experienced ones, and would guide players or look to learn from them accordingly.
She got the white robe without ever looking up where to find the symbols for it, just finding other players who’d show her where to look.
Braid is probably the first game I saw do this in a masterful way.
Right now I would suggest Helldivers 2. You are a young soldier fresh out of boot camp. Frozen and thawed out to carry out a suicide mission. The game constantly praises you and mentions how you are the best of the best. You are actually incredibly expendable and likely to die in less than two minutes. There is no “respawn,” you are replaced by another Helldiver just like you.
That’s true! Helldivers has fantastic attention to detail, and Arrowhead has really put effort into having every piece of the game sing to the same tune.
The game isn’t always immersive in the typical sense, especially matching with randoms, but it still manages to evoke that feeling of being “in a different reality” when you play.
Outer Wilds.
Anything I can say about this game is potentially a spoiler. Just play it. The expansion Echoes of the Eye is well worth the extra pennies as well.
I don’t know is Spec Ops: The Line falls into this category or not. As you progress through the game and your characters mental state deteriorates, most of the voice lines change from professional to aggressive and the loading screen tips break the fourth wall.
That reply is the most AI sounding response I’ve ever gotten.
I’m not sure which of us that reflects most on 🤔
I try to be encouraging when it comes to discussion threads, and also I’m not sure which of my many replies to commenters you’re referring to.
LLMs do do that weird sycophancy thing, but often while getting details wrong.
