I’m always having to learn new practical skills for work, and getting into things I know nothing about and having to learn them to be successful.
The difference is that the skills you learn from playing games usually are not transferable to the rest of your life. There’s some exceptions to this but most of the stuff you learn from complex games are completely fabricated for the game and have very little bearing on real life… Though, am argument can be made in many cases, such as kerbal. I haven’t played kerbal, but I understand there’s some reasonably accurate orbital mechanics and rocket science involved. This is just one fairly obvious example that I know of. Not to be confused with a comprehensive list of games with practical educational value.
For me though, I usually don’t want to learn anything useful while playing a game, since that’s basically what I do for work. So any game, like our example of kerbal will, in all likelihood, feel like more work to me, which is decidedly not the objective I’m going for by playing a game.
I dunno. Different games for different folks or whatever.
I don’t think that’s what they meant. More like where the game doesn’t hold your hand or suddenly give you knowledge of things that you don’t learn through playing. Like in outer wilds where the game really gives you almost nothing to direct you at first, you have to learn what’s happening and how to progress. But once you know it, you could technically finish the whole game in only a few minutes as it’s entirely deterministic and won’t gate you from content just because you didn’t do an arbitrary condition to reach it.
I have some suggestions that fit this category with varying degrees so I will include some justifications so you can decide if you want to include them in your own playlists
Her story/the stanley parable :: fit the category perfectly
subnautica :: Survival game with heavy exploration. Unusually for this genre it has a story which you can only progress by finding some clues and piecing them together
the witness :: This one has been mentioned already but I just wanted to reiterate that although it may seem like a simple puzzle game it’s a good fit for this category. Here’s an excellent analysis of it that you can watch after playing www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZokQov_aH0
The talos principle :: the main part of this game is just a puzzle game so it seemingly doesn’t fit very well. However, along with those there are some characters which ask you some philosophical questions which you unintentionally end up mulling over while solving the puzzles. By the end of the game you have understood some things that can make the ending very meaningful and emotional.
antichamber/gorogoa/superliminal/baba is you :: Simple puzzle games but they are solved by lateral thinking where you’re constantly pushing the boundaries and rules of the puzzle itself
into the breach :: rougelike tactics game. Someone else mentioned how roguelikes in general fit this category and this is my honorable mention
hacknet :: You are given some tools that can open some doors but you have to learn how to exploit those doors to open the remaining ones
Curiously Deep Rock Galactic is about practical knowhow. At least that differentiates greenbeards from greybeards.
The oppressor is nearly immune to bullets but melee attacks are super effective
The Driller will overheat digging about 12 meters (depending on the upgrades used) Digging ten clicks then pausing to cool will prevent overheat
Cave leeches make a distinct yummy noise before attacking. You can escape by seeking cover again. Cave leech attacks are often facilitated by a distraction such as minerals or glyphid ambushes
The Scout’s grappling hook does not account for safe perch or landing. Scouting to a sheer cliff is a good way to just get hurt. Mind where you’re going to land.
On the other hand minerals embedded in a cliff face often protrude enough to get purchase. This can be facilitated with a flying pickax attack. Practice, practice!
Likewise, dwarves can scamper up steep slopes like mountain goats with forward movement and spamming jump.
Then again, gravity is the number one killer of dwarves, seconded by common Glyphid Grunts. Don’t underestimate them.
The Driller’s Collette Wave Cooker can defuse unfuzed Exploders when it deals the killing damage (defuse = doesn’t explode). The Driller’s Cryo Cannon can defuse fuzing Exploders…sometimes.
Overhanging cliff-sides are the nemesis to the Engineer’s platforms. If you dont want to carve out headroom, extend them out a layer or two.
The Engineer / Scout team (platforms and grappling hooks) can quickly exploit the high-positioned minerals in a cave.
That said, platforms can make for great bridges. Do so at whimsy for starters and learn where it’s useful.
And yet, the engineer has the most trouble traversing sheer incline, especially in tight quarters. Make sure your Engie can get to the drop-pod safely.
Speaking of extraction, Simple Mining missions are the most linear and require the most attention regarding preparing traversal back to the droppod. Escort is also linear but naturally comes with a big tunnel which makes it easy (when Dotty doesn’t carve a vertical drop). Other missions feature a rounder, unlinear complex and a shorter exfiltration. Sometimes the pod will drop onto a crap place, with the ramp in mid air, or embedded in hard rock.
Drillers should watch for adjacent chambers to connect by tunnel. Engineers should bridge chasms and seal holes. Engies can also create safe steps to traverse hot slag and slime. Both can level out arenas where fights are expected (say when prepping for a dreadnought or powering up a salvaged drop-pod)
In escort the Engineer’s grenades make short work of rocks and beamers. (The latter needs something that chips into rock, even a scout with a pickaxe power attack). The Gunner’s hurricane rocket launcher manages both nicely.
Dotty, Hack-C, Steeve, lootbugs, Hexawings, Breathers, Cave Vines can all be petted and should be. Bosco can be saluted. Using the laser pointer, other Dwarves can be talked to.
These are all off the top of my head. There are dozens of others one learns on the path to Greybeard enlightenment. Rock and Stone.
I’m a big rock’n’stoner (700 hours) but I think you’re stretching it a bit.
Of course there’s knowledge and experience to acquire, but it’s not the main progression system. They are needed to beat harder missions, but the same could be said about 90% of the games out there.
On the other hand, I will agree that DRG does allow the player to express them more than your average RPG, because upgrades won’t beat haz 5 on their own. You still need to know how to play the game, and that is made of little know-hows and techniques like the ones you listed.
I think it might be classified less as knowledge but more skill? I dunno, it walks the line. Looking for opportunities to use your utilities makea the difference between a greenbeard and a greybeard.
Trying frantically to remember some recs too but nothing that fits exactly comes to mind except those already mentioned. Probably Cultist Simulator? Though it has frustrating moments where you seem to exhaust all available options and hit the wall without noticing some seemingly random option you have to try. Maybe also Sorcery! series — the more branches you try, the more complete picture of the world you get.
Cultist simulator was really cool, if a little esoteric (though I’m certain that was on purpose) and the new game Book of Hours looks extremely interesting too! Sorcery! is the second game here I’ve never heard of before, good reccs!
Ah I remember all my friends raving about Who’s Lila? a while ago, but I was too busy at the time to check it out! That’s definitely something I’ll be checking out!
I haven’t played a lot but there was one time where I managed to get a few immunities and I was nearing 1k hp. Then chaotic polymorphine happened and I died in one shot.
For anyone that has last played the game 2 or more years ago, go and revisit it. The game has had continuous improvements that make it worth a revisit.
You know how metroidvanias gate progression by having, for example, a jump you can’t make without an upgrade, or a poison area you can’t survive passing through without a way to be immune to poison, and so on? That, but instead of it being an upgrade your character gets, it’s knowledge. You find a clue somewhere in the game that allows you to solve a puzzle elsewhere. You were always able to take the actions needed to solve it, you just had to learn that you could.
These are games where a major portion of the gameplay involves learning about the game. In Heaven’s Vault and Chants of Sennaar this manifests as learning languages. In Return of the Obra Dinn this is figuring out what happened on the ship. In Tunic and The Outer Wilds this is based around knowledge checks, or mechanics that are present from the start of the game but you only learn how to exploit them much later.
I call these puzzle box games because that’s what they remind me of and nobody else has a name for them yet. There’s one called Void Stranger that nobody ever talks about. Baba Is You is popular but nobody has mentioned it here yet. I think it’s sad as hell that people let their dislike of Phil Fish ruin Fez for them. That’s a really good game.
i booted up void stranger without knowing anything about it and saw the languages were english and finnish and instantly knew this was going to be another one of those solo finnish dev games that i will become obsessed with
then i got to stage 27 and fucked up the save-the-random-lady puzzle then the game saved itself and put 2 and 2 together and i think i’m going to have to complete this entire game without dying once to beat it
It was definitely worth the price of admission, but I didn’t enjoy it enough to finish. The time loop mechanic just got annoying for me after a while. Having to time lots of different things and if you mess up you have to wait 15 minutes to try again.
I really like it but I’m a fucking dumbass apparently, because I’m stuck in it and can’t find any more clues to get further. not as much fun if you’re a dumbass
you’re joking if you think it isn’t mimic tear and op weapon arts that get most of us through everything after leyndell. I didn’t need to learn how to play to beat malania because blasphemous sword keeps her on naptime the entire fight.
But that’s the whole point? U can be OP if you want, or set yourself up for the freedom to choose a challenge. That in my mind is true open world and I’ve never seen any other game that’s done it to the same degree.
Try Deathloop. It’s actually a lot of fun once you get into it. Though the game will outright TELL you progression information every so often which can be annoying.
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