What was the last game you played that felt refreshing/new?

I would say Persona 5 Strikers is refreshing. It's not perfect, but I like how they took the Persona 5 setting and characters and made it into an action rpg. It feels like an actual sequel.

Another game that comes to mind is Hades. I never finished it, but it was fun. The game loop is refreshing. It encourages you to keep playing and get better without being super repetitive.

How about you, SW? What was the last game you played that felt refreshing/new?

What is new or refreshing about any of those games?

Creature in the Well.

Hades i guess. The dying part is refreshing cause it actually move the story.

Overwatch

It was the most addictive MP game I've ever played until Blizzard went and ruined it to cater to pro players. I had never played another shooter quite like it before.

I must be a boomer, because I cannot for the life of me think of anything recently that has felt too refreshing or new. Everything feels the same, just improved upon. I probably need more time to think about it, but kinda makes me sad inside to think that Super Mario 64 and Half Life 2 are the only things that come to mind. Tho, I haven't had the privilege of playing Half Life: Alyx yet.

The only time i felt games were refreshing and new was for the first 6 months of getting a next gen console and playing its games was refreshing/new.

That didn't happen this gen because the consoles are scarce and the UI is basically the same and there's no NEW NEXT GEN ONLY GAMES, what a fustercluck of a new gen this is, MS & Sony really fucked up this gen already.

Remnant From the Ashes co-op mode. They took elements from all my favorite games into one game.

@joshrmeyer: Don't bring that game up here, are you crazy? Certain people call it a poor mans DS game, pity those fools will never know or enjoy the sleeper hit known as the brilliant Remnant From the Ashes.

PS...you should probably try Chronos Before the Ashes.

Breath of the Wild. Slay the Spire. Stardew Valley.

Hmm. Been busting my head trying to think of one, can't seem to. Am I just that jaded?

Going back to the past 5 games I've completed, Jedi Fallen Order just felt like Jedi Knight meets Dark Souls. Bloodstained: ROTN felt like Castlevania: SOTN wearing a hooded cloak and a fake moustache. A Plague Tale felt like The Last of Us until it went to Bonkersville. Horizon Zero Dawn just reminded me of Mass Effect 1 smashed together with Assassin's Creed. XCOM 2 was just XCOM EU/EW with a few bits stapled on. So on and so forth.

I suppose if any recent game made me thought "hey, this is kind of new," it would probably be Warframe, but only because it felt less like a focused and polished experience than somebody's mad science experiments stapled together. Pretty much the main reason I'm still playing, aside from it being such a good podcast game: I want to know what Dr. Sinclairstein is going to cook up next.

Loop Hero and Death Stranding. Can still fit both into established genres, but can't really think of others games that do what they did.

For some reason the last truly different game I remember playing is Katamari lol. I'm sure I've played others since then, but nothing springs to mind.

Tomb Raider: The Lost Artifact. Ebay impulse.

Probably Breath of the Wild.

Just finished playing Genesis Noir. That feels fresh and new! Many will try to diminish it by saying it's not really a game, because gamers are basic like that, but who gives a damn? It's a brilliant experience that wouldn't be possible without interactivity.

I have been playing games for a long lone time so it's harder and harder to find stuff that i find really new or refreshing. i'm sure there are a lot of cool new ideas out there i havent tried yet but its just harder to find them.

VR stuff would be the biggest of course. HL:A, beat saber, paper beast and so on. VR really is a new frontier. and i really hope there is more experimentation with it from developers. I must try VR racing at some point but i'm not using it much at the moment as my PC is not quite up to getting the best out of my index. but a simple thing like picking up a leaf by just bending down and picking up the leaf.....Mind blowing!

Breath of the wild would be up there too. In a lot of ways i think of it as a spiritual successor to HL2. obviously very different games, very different themes and very different visually. but one of my standout memories of HL2 is the playground in the first level and just messing with stuff and throwing stuff around. more interesting gameplay physics rather than just eye candy physics. BOTW really ran with that. it's more hands off approach was also quite refreshing. most games just automatically put makers on the map but in BOTW you have to do it yourself and it was cool.

Dead Rising. I can't think of another game that has you locked up in a mall with zombies, and you can use just about anything as weapons.

Mass Effect. Travelling in a universe felt like a new experience. I hadn't played Elite or Kotor when I started Mass Effect.

Resudent Evil. The first time a video game genuinely scared me.

If you want original games, you will probably find most in the 8-bit area where graphics were limited and programmers had to use their imagination a lot more.

Death Stranding, definitely.

Kind of forgot about that one. The gameplay loop was great. Just wish the story was something to write home about.

Ghost of Tsushima mostly due to its setting.

I have already played Prey (2017) but the SeXXboX update gave me reason to revisit. What's refreshing is the 60fps responsiveness and quick loading. But besides that, it just feels fresh because this feels like the perfect 7th gen game in design, before publishers took that perfect 25-40 hour experience and padded it with shallow cookie cutter shit to make it more like a 60-100 hour chore. So, it feels refreshing because it seems whole industry lost its way.

Sea of Thieves

that feeling didn't last very long but the first few sessions me and my friends had with that game were unique and so damn enjoyable. then we realized how shallow it was.

I'll also give Kingdom Come Deliverance a shoutout for just completely marching to the beat of its own drum but it had too many bugs/issues

Definitely Until You Fall.

The funny thing is, it's using very old ideas. Light-gun games like Virtual Cop and House Of The Dead applied to VR swings and parries.

Kinda feel it's never got the recognition it deserves. Everyone has been fawning over Alyx but this arguably fixes the problem since first person inception of "shitty melee".

Cyberpunk 2077

@i_p_daily: Ok thanks, I'll look that game up. Hopefully has a co-op mode.

@joshrmeyer: I think its solo and its weapon based.

People saying playing a Fed Ex employee is refreshing 🤣🤣🤣

I bet you guys loved Postman Pat growing up.

No Man's Sky for me as it was so cool to be able to fly from one planet to a different planet sailing across the stars.

@davillain-: At least name the game properly, its One Man's Lie.

the medium’

Half Life: Alyx... Bar none.

Dishonored & Prey

Arkane's new game looks refreshing too.

As I was saying...NMS really was a new fresh of breath air into the gaming world.

Half-life: alyx obviously, greatest gaming experience in ages!

Also slay the spire and hades were both new expirences for me and just great games!

I was about to say this but was happy to see you already brought it up. Granted its fresh in my mind because ive been playing it a lot this past week with 2 buddy's. Such an awesome game. I dont even like Souls games so i don't even like that people compare them.

Remnant is the best damn CO-OP shooter ive played in a long time. The boss fights are epic. The weapons and gear is badass. Plenty of hidden secrets in the game as well. The mod attachments actually matter even changing how the weapons look.

We only started playing it because it was the free game this past month on PS plus. I already went ahead and bought the dlc. Excellent game I'm really enjoying it.

another one id like to bring up is Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin. Been playing that on the switch and its got a nice mix going on between hack n slash and a farming sim.

yeah it's a shame it fell into the trap of repeating open world activities, or I would've mentioned that too.

The combat and exploration certainly felt refreshing.

Maybe it's just me but stuff like that doesn't bother me at all because...well it's a video game. Everything gets repetitive from a certain point of view. Nevertheless, Ghost of Tsushima was indeed a fresh of breath air and the funny thing is, it won "Players choice awards" during VGA 2020 and rightfully so, that award is more important than GOTY awards.

But hey, I love open-world games, so don't take me seriously when I don't mind doing the same shit over and over again lol.

Sea of mofo Thieves. :P

Dreams. Unique and brilliantly executed.

Yeah, repetition by definition isn't bad. I still like climbing towers in AC, lol.

But my issue is when it gets drawn out.

So for example you could open a chest, and that could contain an item.

Or a game could have it where you open a 100 chests, and each one of those chest has 1/100th of an item.

Too many open world games step into the pitfall of mindless repetitive busy work.

I didn't do many of the 'far cry outposts' in Ghost of Tsushima, but I might do it on my next run :)

It's just a game creation kit though. Similar to Project Spark. It's cool, but you are limited to creating on a console with limited distribution and can you even monetize your creations? You are better off using something like Unity or Unreal Engine if you want to get serious about game development.

Most recently, Maquette.

Really clever puzzle game that I wouldn’t have played were it not for PS+. The narrative coupled to it is pretty plain, but not bad.

@BassMan: 'Just another game creation kit' wouldn't get AAA scores everywhere, win some GOTY awards or a BAFTA. It's not as professional as Unity or Unreal, oc, but it's capable enough and super fun to use. And of course, there's a campaign made by media molecule, and a ton of great user creations to play already.

In my particular case, it's the reason i started learning game design and programming. Monetization is in Mm's plans (can't say more than that yet), but assuming the worst scenario, i would gladly jump to something more serious on PC.

none i can recall atm.

Definitely VR for me. I've been playing games since the NES days and I can honestly say playing Skyrim, No Man's Sky, and Squadrons in VR is like nothing else I've played in my 25+ years of gaming.

@SolidGame_basic: Death Stranding had a really good ending in my opinion, however the story leading up to it was average.

Persona 5. I just finished it on the hardest difficulty and it was really challenging. The last boss was crazy hard, but felt so rewarding.

Breath of the wild for me. Probably the only game I got that "wow" feeling for all generation. Loved every aspect of it and it felt like I was playing something entirely fresh and familiar at the same time. Aces....

Shovel Knight. I love old-school games and this game did it very well. I haven't finished it, though.

Valheim, what games should be. 500mb, group of 5 people, 17 euro's. and its godly.