What are some video games that made you a better gamer?
What are some video games that made you a better gamer?
For example, I am terrible at Super Meat Boy, but just playing it has really improved how I play platformers and games that need faster imputs overall.
Sorry in advance to people who hate talking about it but Dark Souls is a very paradoxical experience It can:
- Help you learn patience and awareness
- Help you learn not to stress over losses
- Help you learn that people have different experiences of enjoyment and understand your scope of interest in games.
I’m surprised not to see more people mention From Software games. Going all the way back to demon’s souls they consistently teach you how to understand the tools at your disposal, the challenge that you currently face, and how to use the former to overcome the latter. I learned how to “read” opponents to find and exploit vulnerabilities while playing dark souls way back, and that general approach is consistently useful in all sorts of other games. There are lots of other translatable skills involved, of course, like timing and resource management.
Counter Strike: raw aim, how to outsmart opponents, perfect practice makes perfect and if you put enough hours into anything and do it correctly/good, then you can get good at almost anything.
Path of Exile: Taught me about being efficient. If you're repeating the same action 10,000 times, if you can cut even 1 second off each time you do that action, it adds up over time to a significant amount. And then you can try and cut another 2 seconds off...then another second.
Apex Legends taught me to spend less time playing video games. Thanks Apex!
This is admittedly kind of an oddball interpretation of "better gamer", but my personal take on that is being able to enjoy games more, as opposed to any measure of skill in playing them (and also understanding that there's a lot of overlap there, but humor me for a sec :P).
Perspective: currently in my mid 30s, peak gaming for my childhood was competitive shit like the N64's Smash Bros (which is the best Smash Bros. Fite meh.) or 007; fast forward to some racing type games, COD... the thing those all have in common was that the fun was in defeating your opponent, and any aspect of the game that wasn't competitive just kinda automatically felt not fun. Nor was getting stuck in a losing streak from playing against people better than me; or winning streak from playing against people who weren't challenging to beat. The window of potential to actually have 'fun' was shockingly narrow.
The game that kinda pulled me out of that was Halo CE. Right out the gate, it looked like any other shooter, and it had a rapidly growing community and the competitive elements that caught my initial attention. Fire it up, and it IMMEDIATELY stood out as something special. Up to that point, videogame music was pretty much exclusively simple digital sounding jingles, so the Halo CE login screen music hit like a fucking truck. I start up the campaign, and experience another first: the story had me hooked. Campaigns in shooters only ever felt like a tutorial you have to sit through to not be terrible in multiplayer, but Halo CE was like a full-blown movie, with each scene supported by a literal symphony.
It made me look at games differently - things like Zelda had flown under my radar, cuz what's the point if there's no multiplayer?? Not even score to compare?? Got myself a copy of OOC, and "...oh, that's why."
So, long story short, Halo CE was my gateway drug into RPGs.
More in tune with OP's question though, it kinda yanked off the blinders that stopped me from fully enjoying parts of some games, or entire genres of games.
...and that whole spiel is ofc relative to my subjective experience to the gaming industry circa ...idk, 1995+? So, Halo CE probably won't hit the same against today's gaming industry: but keep an eye out for games that blend elements you know you enjoy with material you haven't really dabbled into - you could unlock an entire new genre of awesome experiences.
Sekiro
Many games come down to finding some unbreakable combo of buttons or abilities and when you have that figured out you steamroll the game. To successfully finish Sekiro, you must be patient. Learn when to let your enemy attack, so that they leave themselves open or provide you with a chance to parry.
There's no leveling up to get so strong you can thrash any boss, like in other souls games. You just have to learn the game mechanics and get good.
Quake 3 Arena and Unreal Tournament. In my opinion, these are still two of the greatest games of all time. You don’t get better because your character or weapon is better. You get better because you put in the practice. you improve your reflexes. You learn the arena. Every player starts every match on an even playing field. Every frag feels like an accomplishment.
I appreciate that modern shooters are trying to do something different with every iteration. But stuff like call of duty, overwatch, or destiny never captures that magic. In many ways, they felt more like slot machines.
Halo got close, but I always felt it was too slow. And also, I felt Tribes was the better series for online play that felt similar. 
Hollow Knight 100%. Its also my favorite game.
Eve Online taught me that math + leadership are effective ways to win. Also the importance of thinking strategically and weighing risks.
World of Warcraft taught me that many people are willing to craft items all day, if it earns more in-game gold than actually doing anything fun in the game (actually in hindsight this was true of Eve, and real life for that matter). I sort of... ran an exploitative in-game sweatshop producing things for the in-game markets (e.g. not involving real money or anything that violated the rules of the game).
These two groups of realizations made me pretty good at online games for a little while! My gaming hobby came to an abrupt end when I realized I could just... start a company IRL and be paid non-virtual money.
Six-ish years ago I would say Overwatch. It was my first online multiplayer FPS and it fosters a lot of skills. Teamwork, communication, mechanical ability, game sense, ability management, managing tilt, etc.
Too bad Blizzard decided to stop new content for Overwatch 1 for years, only to reintroduce Overwatch 1.5 with an upgraded battlepass and cash shop monetization scheme. I don't get how people are still playing after what they did to it.
Gta vice city as I learned how to type properly as I couldn't figure out how to pause the game to type aspirin with 1 finger. Does that count?
Portal was my first FPS on a computer. Got me to practice using mouse and keyboard and now I can't imagine playing an FPS with a controller
World of Warcraft. 12 years of playing and raid/guild leadership helped me learn how to play, not just play. How to:
- Theorycraft
- Research how to improve
- Maximize output and/or efficiency
- Take advantage of class synergies in games
- Understand the importance of area of effect, burst damage, sustained single-target damage, etc.
- Understand damage mitigation vs avoidance, and where each is valuable
- Play to my/my team's strengths, rather than simply doing what is "best"
- Better recognize trends in game mechanics to anticipate what may come
- Recognize the valuable portions of a game's user interface and maximize its visibility while avoiding clutter
I had learned portions of these things in other games, but my leadership role in WoW pushed me to truly understand many things that aren't a major focus in most games.
This dates me somewhat, but trials maps in UT2004 helped me develop a lot of precision and fast fingers.
It was a multiplayer FPS, but it had cool mobility like double-tap dodges, double jumps, wallkicks, and crouch jumps. And they could be combined in many ways, so there were platforming levels of varying levels of difficulty. Diagonal dodge-doublejump with a wallkick at the very end to get onto a platform that's like 4 inches square, type of thing.
I have two answers.
First, my general reflexes, situational awareness in games etc. were strongly improved thanks to Doom Eternal. The game keeps you stressed and engaged the whole time (especially on the harder difficulties) and you have to be very quick. It was the first time I needed custom keybindings to be fast enough to solve some sections. Switching between 8 weapons, sometimes after single shots, is something you have to get used to, but it's incredibly fun!
Second, specifically for 6DoF navigation, Outer Wilds was incredible. When I started I could barely make the spaceship go anywhere without exploding, now I feel I could be pretty good at a 6DoF racing game!
StarCraft 2
Mostly for building in-game awareness. Helped in a lot of games, even FPSs. Just always being proactive when facing some kind of meta.
The 3 that stand out the most for me thinking back on it
Typer Shark and Mud's (typing skills)
Really helped me get down my typing skills which translates to a lot of pc based games (even just chat). Mud's were some of my favorite fast paced games (multi-user dungeons). Godwar's was my shtick and as a Drow character you had a lot of powers you had to get out before an opponent could notice and respond to your presence.
MechWarrior: Sega Genesis (team work skills)
This was a crazy one I would play with family. There was a co-op mode that allowed one person to control the bottom half while the other person controlled the top half of your mech. You really had to cooperate and work together so it didn't turn into an actual physical brawl because of the frustrations.
Call of Duty: Zombies (game mechanics)
This was probably my first game that I really got into game/enemy mechanics. To survive to higher rounds you had to adapt and know what the zombies were gonna do. Later iterations kinda destroyed that feature with zombies stumbling and etc but I get they were trying to stay innovative and fresh, still killed the genre for me though.
Honorable mentions are the great RTS's that were everywhere in the 90's. Starcraft for sure but even blizzards previous Warcraft's and then of course C&C and even Dune (another sega game but solid RTS for it's time). Really though the skills for RTS's don't translate as direct to other games anymore (just got me better at the RTS's that I love) as more and more they become hero focused like what they did with WC3.
edit: grammar
Rhythm Games in general, but specifically osu!mania taught me that I can, like, actually get good at completely new stuff no matter how much I suck at it to begin with
It also taught me that I really like Hardcore EDM, before hand I wouldn't really listen to music cuz I wasn't sure exactly what kind of music I was drawn to
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (PS2).
You either learned, or you quitted.
Elden Ring.
I didn’t love the learning/difficulty curve of Soulsborne games until this one, but it got its hooks in me hard.
I usually spammed most boss fights and played everything a certain way, but here I had to learn the boss’s moves and dodge, parry and use power ups to bring them down.
Worth it. While frustrating, it made me return to other genres and play them again but differently. Hitman, sniper elite, roguelites/likes, anything that rewards patience, really. These now had a whole new facet I didn’t see before, or I did and I was applying it to these games.
I’ve since tried other soulsborne games, and while I now appreciate the difficulty and find them a lot more fun, the exploration and world of Elden Ring was the difference maker for me. It was being able to forge my own path and choose my challenges.
Red Dead Redemption 2 taught me once again to slow down and take all the time I want with these huge games. I've saved a ton of money since.
In relation to skill, playing a ton of the original Halo on Xbox at my friend's house while being only a PlayStation owner got me really good at using arbitrary controls.
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Megaman X - Probably the best Action Platformer ever, it teaches you all the basics of the genre through gameplay alone.
Metal Slug 2 - Cuphead too hard for you? Then give this good ol' classic a shot! It has simple yet fun mechanics and you can go as trigger happy as you want. And don't feel bad if you play on Free Play Mode, what matters is that you have fun!
Gran Turismo (PSP) - If you want to get into the series (or into Racing Simulators in general) this is probably your best bet, you have all stages available from the beginning and very little customization, but you can feel the progressiveness of the game as you buy more powerful cars and unlock higher difficulties.
Grand Theft Auto III - This game can be really hard at times (no swimming, only 3 safehouses, cars are really fragile, etc.) But once you understand the mechanics of the game and you start getting better, the rest of the series is a piece of cake. (Also, i loved the freedom you had when performing most missions in this game, it makes sense that later titles restricted you due to being more "story oriented", but GTA V's missions really just feel like going through film setpieces that is boring :/)
Rainbow Six Siege made me much better at FPS games.
Metroid Dread. The quick thinking and reacting to avoid the E.M.M.I.s has helped me. But also raises my adrenaline whenever I hear that music…
If you think Super Meat Boy is hard oh boy do I have one for you.
The End Is Nigh is also an Edmund McMullen platformer, but with a much higher emphasis on precision. The game is technically short, but there are just so many easy ways to die that you have to get good to beat it.
It also has a little modding community that has produced some even more nightmarish levels to go along with it.
Life
Counter Strike got me through hard times in school an taught me how to communicate efficiently. It also got me over that cringy "i rage in video games" phase that many people are still in.
Elden ring taught me that I had to be calm when playing games. It taught me to know that I will be able to clear content, its just a matter of when. I used to think of games in terms of, can I clear this content? Now I think of games in terms of, how long will it take me to clear this content? I also realized that single player games aren't hard. They are literally designed to be beaten.
I also learned that I play a lot better when I'm more focused on my body than the screen. I started bringing the same mindsets I use for sports into playing games and it helped a lot. It used to be that when I played games the screen was all that existed. Now I focus more on the pleasure of my fingers gliding across the keyboard, or just the contentment of experiencing my body doing something it enjoys.
Margit the fell omen and Godric the grafted took me like 30+ tries each. I beat blood flower lady on the second try (with mimic tear) and the final boss in maybe 6 tries (with a less powerful tear). I was beating bosses on the first or second try pretty consistently, like the starbeast things, ancestor spirit, dragonkin soldier, magma wyrm, and some of the crypt dungeon bosses.
I had put 40 hours into hades back in 2020 or 2021 and I probably cleared the game with no heat 5 or so times in those hours. More recently I sunk my teeth into hades and put in another 60 hours. In those 60 hours I got 100% on steam and was able to clear the game on +17. I also got through the first phase of hades on +32. But, I realized getting good enough at that fight to get through all 3 phases would've been rough. But regardless the difference in skill level was really apparent to me. It was so much fun to actually get constant story progress because I was actually clearing the game.
Planescape: Torment made me slow down and realize a game can be an entire world onto itself and I shouldn't skim over stuff I read.
The Outer Wilds is probably the most recent game that changed how I approach stuff. It's so good. Nothing is given to you, you have to figure out everything on your own. It's good for developing patience and curiosity.
For twitchy gameplay type stuff, I recommend Radiant Silvergun. Makes every other shmup feel like they're in slow motion. That game is why I was able to beat any of the Touhou games.
Celeste, Guacamelee, and Monster Boy in the Cursed Kingdom all made me better at platforming games.
StarCraft II made transitioning to League of Legends easy. I also played a lot of Kovaaks which made my aim generally better in FPS games and it helps with osu! too.
Well, I can tell you this. I grew up playing Mega Man. People say those games are hard, but I have them all memorized, so they're all pretty easy for me.
Sometimes I play platformers that people consider hard, and I'm just disappointed by how mind-numbingly easy they are. Celeste is one example. I kept thinking, surely it must get harder. Maybe when I do the B sides. Surely there must be at least one part I struggle on. There never was. I never found anything hard about the game. The story was amazing, though.
So anyway, my answer is Mega Man. Not Mega Man X. Those games are amazing - quite possibly my favorite platformers of all time - but they're too easy to fit into this category. The classic, 8-bit mega Man games from the NES (Mega Man 2 excluded. That one is also too easy).
Mirror's Edge. I would try over and over to improve times on the time trials, and I found that I did better when I took a break and relaxed for a few minutes, or overnight, before trying again. It has improved my playing other games as well as my real life efforts
Mass Effect made me far better at multitasking and not letting myself get tunnel vision on an objective.
Sure I'd played Gears of War, or RTS's that used the traditional rock, paper, scissors method of unit dominance, and resource management.
I'd just never played a third person shooter that expected me to combine all of those skills into a single gameplay loop which required constant shifting from power/defense based problem solving to accurate shot placement and squad positioning on the fly.
I feel most improvement playing turn-based games, like TFT, Hearthstone, Slay the Spire.
The last of us multiplayer made me a better sniper. Smash bros amplified my reaction time. And halo improved my hand eye coordination with grenades.
Bayonetta, and Burnout 3. I got really good reflexes and timing.
And way way back when I was super absorbed playing Manhunt I got uncannily good at spotting dark shadows at night to hide in.
It's not really in the spirit of the prompt, but learning the NMG speedrun of LttP has really improved my movement efficiency in games simply because I'm always thinking about it now
Nioh 2
Dead by Daylight. Spending so much time chasing or being chased by other players has definitely improved my tracking/flanking abilities in other games, as well as pathing and following players audibly. I may not be a great shot, but I know exactly where you’re going and how to cut you off.
Also utilizing mindgame strategies can really fuck with people in other games.
Edit: Also also, I don’t get tilted nearly as easily as I used to. DBD sucked all the rage out of me.
Edit 2: My first point also applies defensively, in that I know how to more effectively lose someone if necessary.
spider solitaire for the windows 98
it thought me a lot about how to move the mouse around the screen and also built up my tolerance for horror games by introducing spiders into the solitaire universe
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DOOM 2016 on Nightmare (not ultra)
Sniper Elite
Hotline Miami
Dead Cells
Dying Light on Nightmare
Unblock Me taught me that even if you don't see the solution yet, moving the pieces in the way that they can move will often illustrate the correct path.
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Apex Legends really honed my skills with shooters on keyboard and mouse. I always thought I was terrible at shooters. Turns out it was just the controller I was bad with. I always played with friends and it greatly helped our tactical communication and snap decision making skills too. We found out who the natural shot callers were and who can't be trusted to make the calls in a tense situation, lol
Nerf Arena Blast. The first FPS I ever played. Got so good and bunny hopping around.
DayZ SA hardcore, my reactions have improved and I have become more cautious as a player, especially of people.
The original Driver on PS1 made me better at handling cars in general, both in video games and real life. It's a shame GTA and Saints Row went with exaggerated vehicle physics and the Driver series never got the non-vehicular parts right.
The speed and random nature of Spelunky really helps build gaming skills.
Zelda 2 Adventure of Link. I didn't have Castlevania or Ninja Gaiden as a kid so that was my Nintendo Hard game lol.
TF1, Q3 arena - at least for multiplayer.
Counter-Strike: aim accuracy and incredible keyboard-mouse hands eye coordination. Also, being able to grind and mental simulations of possibilities to be ready against them. It is like chess but with consequences.
Need For Speed: Most Wanted, Carbon, Underground and Underground 2 require you to use manual gears if you want to improve. Also, those titles involve a lot of manual car equipment tuning. The precision required on keyboard is almost equivalent to the combined precision you would need for Counter-Strike with both keyboard and mouse.
Pocket Tanks: incredible amount of guesstimation with projectile classical physics, and being creative with the use of weaponry. To make it harder, I always play against CPU-10 with always selecting "Random" weapons to learn to make the most of what I have.
Mario Forever community fanmakes: Yes, that Mario Forever game from 2005 has a giant community. The community exists across USA, Canada, Europe, Russia, China, Vietnam, South America and elsewhere. Some of the fanmakes have levels and battles against Bowser that can last 20-30 minutes with no mistakes allowed. BLOODY FUCKING HARD. Go through the community forum via this, to dive down this deep rabbit hole: https://download.marioforever.net/mf-games-en.html If you think Mario is easy, check this out https://youtube.com/watch?v=Oqv2JBGi4EA or https://youtube.com/watch?v=lpphf_gsYaQ or https://youtube.com/watch?v=P6ZIBZtOT30