Puzzle Pirates, frankly. Made by people who knew what they were doing, were extremely talented, independent, although eventually tried to hook onto Sega as publisher, almost killed the game and then re-purchased the game from Sega to continue as “re-indie” devs. Still going to this day with a stable player base of a few hundred. The game itself is very clearly hand-crafted and every one of the (few) developers left their mark on it. Feels completed and polished.
Outer Wilds is this game.
Cold Waters if you’re hankering for some hot sub on sub action.
Planescape: Torment does it for me.
More lines of dialogue than all of Shakespear’s works? Sign me up for that kinda RPG, lol.
Though these days some good voice actors can do a lot, looking at BG3 here, at least the voice casting.
Surprised no-one pitched Elite:Dangerous. Certainly a labour of love to begin with, incredibly talented sound design, first space sim to VR, truly devoted to the original material… Still going pretty strong (had a few weak years) with updates (only 2 DLC-ish major updates of which were paid) a decade later…
I would have to go with the Panzer Dragoon trilogy on the Sega Saturn.
While the first title was, at its basics, a fairly simple on rails shooter it was more than the sum of its parts.
It had incredible art direction, a sweeping musical score, innovative world building and rock solid gameplay.
The second title built up on the first installment in every way to solidify it as one of the best titles of that generation.
Then came Panzer Dragoon Saga which evolved the series into a full blown JRPG that is still so unique and unlike anything else out there.
Team Andromeda’s passion, dedication and innovation ensured each game was a new benchmark for Segas black box.
What I wouldn’t do for a new installment by the original team.
Lost Odyssey. I haven’t played Clair Obscur yet, so I one know how it compares, but for me Lost Odyssey is the pinnacle of turn based RPGs.
The Stick of Truth, obviously.
Semi-jokes aside, I am a bit sad that not a single person mentioned the first four Silent Hill games. The sheer influence that series had on video games as a whole, especially in the horror genre cannot be overstated. But I guess it is tricky with games because everyone has different tastes and interests. It is rare that games unite people the way lord of the rings did. Gaming is at once so broad and so niche.
It’s weird that Deus Ex isn’t in this thread yet. Such a well made game with quite a few prophetic moments.
The original, not human revolution…
Yeah ofc
Zelda OoT, Majora’s mask, BotW, TotK
No one mentions Red dead redemption. This world doesn’t have any change.
Baldur’s Gate 3
A lot of folks are listing their favorite games but this is the one that truly fits.
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Unusually long development time by a studio known for DnD-simmiliar RPG games getting the next installation for the series that defined the genre.
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Cast voice actors for several years, ones that are still playing their characters on a variety of platforms.
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Just chock filled references to DnD lore, cute in-jokes, and faithful updates on old characters.
Everyone involved clearly loved it!
It got people not previously interested in DND to actually enjoy DND.
Also, as a literal interpretation, it occurs over 3 arcs.
Unusually long development time
No joke, I installed the open-beta/pre-release years ago, played for a bit, and uninstalled it. When the actual release dropped, I had the most intense déjà vu about it all because I forgot that had even happened. I had to go back to my Steam library to puzzle it all back together.
The real question is what is Larian’s equivalent to Peter Jackson’s “Meet the Feebles”?
Divinity: Dragon Commander, duh.
Part of the reason development took so long was due to them using early release for the right reasons. They listened to the player base and changed the game based on feedback from the fans
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As far as labors of love go, Stardew Valley is probably the most current example. People paid for this thing years ago, but Concerned Ape keeps adding new features anyway. The retro graphics give this thing a timeless quality out of the box, so it already looks “dated” - this hasn’t stopped the robust player community around it. We’ll probably see this game stay relevant for a long time.
And that’s before you start talking about modding the game.
The amount of mods for this game is insane. From simple QoL stuff through to full expansions.
No replay of the game ever has to be the same.
Do people ever do total conversion modifications anymore? Are there any Stardew Valley mods that turn it into something totally different?
I have no idea. Only recently tried an expansion mod for the first time. I never even considered conversion mods might be a thing for this game.
I was just reminiscing on how people used to do stuff like that for the early FPSes. And honestly, since I never really got into Stardew, I thought it might be cool to see a totally different world.
Hope you’re enjoying the expansion!
Yeah it’s been great. Stardew Valley Expanded adds areas and characters and stuff to the game that feels like they belong in the original world. The creator did an amazing job.
Dwarf Fortress.
Objectively correct answer.
Strike the earth!
Half-life.
Yeah this is it for me. Half Life was such a technical marvel and a step change in story telling through gaming.
