Game recommendations?

Underrated hidden gem disco elysium

:stop-posting-amogus:

Stop posting about Elysium! I'm tired of seeing it! My friends on TikTok send me memes, on Discord it's fucking memes! I was in a server, right? And all of the channels are just Elysium stuff. I showed my empty hands to my girlfriend and I said, "Hey, babe, help me find my gun!" Haha, ding ding ding ding ding ding ding, ding-ding-ding! I fucking looked at a trashcan and I said, "boutta go full hobocop!" I looked at my reflection, I think of an expression and I go, "smile? more like an expression of pain" Aaaaaaargh!
- We will never stop till you play it
- wake up babe new site tagline just drop

Hellblade: Senua’s sacrifice has to be experienced (with headphones), but it’s the best game story in terms of depicting ND and coping with grief.

I did play hellblade, but I personally wasn't a huge fan of the story. Its kinda hard to put yourself in a characters shoes if they start out mad, rather than descending into it.
- Easy for me, I was already there lol.
  
  Probably why I liked it. It actually has a lot of empathy for how Senua experienced reality
Idk if I got the story wrong but isn’t SA a big part of her symptoms?
- Permanently Deleted

Cruelty squad is loaded with bad vibes. I don't think the vibes could get any worse. power-in-misery

my ND mind powers are incapable of parsing cruelty squad so i'll safely say it could always get worse if the line goes down at any point
I did play that one a while back, but I dont remember much about it. maybe I'll play it again.

You could try Pathologic if you never played it. Ideally the classic HD version, but 2 is also really good

never played it but its in my steam library. I dont remember buying it :thonk:

guess I'll try it
- It’s a wild and surreal ride, it’s not quite the vibe you are looking for but I’d wager it’s close

Returnal?

For someone who likes both Signalis and Hotline Miami? Yeah, this is the one

It's one of my favorite downer stories in any medium
- spoiler
  
  The thing that got me interested in the game was a video of a certain boss fight
  
  The fact that I hadn't seen that boss yet at the "end" of the game accidentally spoiled the gut punch lol
does that have a cohesive story? store page describes it as a rougelike.
- It's got a story in the same way that something like Metroid Prime has a story, sort of "it's not driving things but it's there if you want it."

Papers, Please is an obvious suggestion (though it is basically anti-revolutionary).

i did like that one

Games I would recommend:

Lunacid- it is a dungeon crawler inspired by old fromsoft games like kings field and shadow tower

Northern Journey- It’s a strange, lonely, game with lots of arachnids that is pretty fun and beautiful.

Pseudoregalia- it’s a 3D platformer metriodvania inspired by both Mario 64, dark souls, and hollow night.

I played Pseudoregalia, actually think its really good but not exactly what I'm looking for here. I'll take a look at those other two though
- Oh also maybe try out Fear and Hunger, I haven’t played it but I’ve heard it’s very dark and bad vibey.
- Awesome!!! Out of the other two I think that Lunacid is closer to what you are looking for

Have you tried the Resident Evil remakes?

no, but I thought resident evil games were more comedy than horror?
- Sort of... hmmm...
  
  I don't play many games with bad vibes. I'm more into narmy silly shit. I was propaby the wrong person to answer.
  
  I swear I've played some grim games. Gah.
  
  Disco Elysium? Damn it, that one is kind of funny too, even if it has some depressing moments.
  
  The Fallout 1 and 2?
  
  Uhhh... Fuck
  
  I Have no Mouth and I Must Scream?
  
  Lisa: The Painful?

Based on the fact that Drakengard is on this list I'm gonna assume you've played Nier Replicant, but I'm gonna recommend it just in case you haven't.

Other than that, while I wouldn't say it has bad vibes, Dragon's Dogma's story goes to some weird places by the end that you might like.

Yeah big fan of all the drakengard/nier games with the exception of drakengard 2

Will look into dragons dogma, thx

Shadow of the Colossus?

Wait, is saying the name of the game a spoiler? XD Also maybe there isn't enough story, but there are certainly (ever-worsening) vibes.

Been meaning to play that one actually
- It's very good go check it out

BioShock. I've only played the original and thought it was pretty good.

If you don't mind visual novel type games then 9 Hours, 9 Person, 9 Doors is another good one. There's another two games in the series too (Virtues Last Reward and Zero Time Dilemma). Another one is Paranormasight. Recently played it and it's a short play, about 10 hours.

I actually played all the Bishock and Zero Escape games, I liked them for the most part except for Bioshock 2 and ZTD. not exactly the types of games I'm looking for but I'll take a look at Paranormasight, thanks.

You kinda hit the peak of bad vibes with drakengard and signalis. I can't think of any games even near to the levels of pure hopelessness.

Amnesia and penumbra are fun, especially the new amnesia the bunker. Cryostasis is a very unique experience. The sinking city is fun if quite light hearted in its approach, personally feel that's quite an underrated game.

Omori might be something to look into. Fromsoftware games generally have quite a despair ridden vibe, my personal favourite being kingsfield 4 because the music SMACKS

Area 51 for original Xbox is a quite literal descent into UFO conspiracy and includes narration by David Duchovny

Played the Mgs games yet? Mgs2 is mostly ehst fits this but you gotta say mgs1 to get it

ye they were good but not really what i'm lookin for here
- Glad you did, but how is mgs2 not exactly what you described?

edit: to be more specific, looking for something with that "Heart of Darkness" decent into madness vibe

Far Cry 2. I mean the story isn't gripping or whatever but the ludonarrative is very much heart of darkness with the serial numbers filed off

I was about to recommend the Fatal Frame games if you're looking for classic survival horror recommendations but on second thought they don't really fit your parameters about descending into madness. They're more about exploring haunted Japanese manors and villages with the protagonists themselves being mostly blank and static.

If you decide to check the series out, I would recommend you grab iso files of the first three PS2 games and play them on your nightly build of PCSX2. While 4 and 5 have been made available on all modern platforms, I don't think either of them really showcases the series at its best. 5 is just a huge mess all around and while 4 is more in line with the PS2 trilogy, it's still frustratingly railroady and trivially easy.

Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War has that going on. It's a PS2 game, but emulating it should be pretty easy on a modern PC. It's definitely got a decent into madness vibe in the story/plot, can't say more without spoiling it. It's an arcade fighter jet game, with some great levels.

Played the whole ace combat series gotta be my favorite games gameplay wise.

Disco Elysium

You should try playing the Siren series on a PS2 emulator. Its basically cousins with Silent Hill and somewhat similar to Signalis in vibes I think.

Celeste

Bad vibes

It is a game about depression

Good story

check

similar feel to:

Hotline Miami

It's got pixel art, an incredibly catchy electronic soundtrack, and a very quick trial and error gameplay loop with a high emphasis on quick reflexes.

Play OFF

Maybe not quite what you're looking for but Return of the Obra Dinn is cool. Definitely some bad vibes and a good mystery story

played that was good, but yeah not exactly what I'm looking for in this case

Shin Megami Tensei, especially 1 and 3 (I have not played V. II is great too, but the tone is different) & the first three/four (2 has two parts) Persona games (yes, really - 1 & 2 don't have the social sim aspects and 3's story is dark, even if a bit of a slow burn).

The first Bioshock game.

Deus Ex (The first one. Human Revolution is also pretty good)

Half-Life 1 (or Black Mesa, the remake)

Bonus:

Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines. It's both dark in tone and really cheesy at the same time, good stuff.

Dead Space, the remake is good

As an aside, people here actually like Signalis? It seemed really anti-communist.

Maybe I should replay it but as far as I remember the Eusan nation felt more like a fascist colonial regime, with an apartheid element regarding the replikas. It did use some imagery reminiscent of vintage communist propaganda, but I dont think that's damning on its own.

I could be misremembering though it has been a few years.
- The developers are German and the government in game uses a flag that's almost exactly like the DDR flag.
  
  I get it, the gameplay was good and they did a good job with the atmosphere/art, but I just felt annoyed when I finished cause the anticommunism felt constant, including the conclusion. Also weird vibes from making almost all characters anime lesbians when both creators are men.

I really liked Control

well, if you want fucked vibes and good story, i have to recommend STASIS: bone totem, or its predecessor, STASIS for somehow even more fucked vibes (you don't have to play the first one to enjoy the second one), both are pretty great value for their content, if you want to pick em up legally janet-wink

You could like the Fear and Hunger series, the second obe is a bit easier from what I have heard.

You should play STALKER Call of Pripyat AKA the greatest game of all time. You can even play it for free because the standalone mod Anomaly doesn't require owning the 3 base games which it contains. Also check out Gothic I and Gothic II AKA the best RPG games ever made

Expeditions Rome is an alt history strategy rpg where Caesar dies in his first military assignment and you take his place.

Bad vibes because proto-fascism of the Roman Empire.

The story is well done and the gameplay rocks.