Poll: Which game should I play?

[Sixcess]

I'm trying to work out what I want to play next. I've narrowed it down to 5 titles from my unplayed list*, all of which are very highly regarded. I can't make up my mind, so help me out here, or I'll just keep procastinating and playing Minecraft and DOOM.

So which would you recommend, and why?

[sub]*well, in the case of Deus Ex, played to about halfway years ago but never finished[/sub]

 

[Susan Arendt]

You can't really go wrong with any of those, but I'd recommend Mass Effect, because then you'll get even more out of playing Mass Effect 2 (which you totally should).

 

[Rukishou]

Even though the release of Mass Effect 3 has been delayed to early 2012 I think you should play Mass Effect (followed by Mass Effect 2) first.

 

[Sixcess]

Deus Ex is definitely the most varied and is a true RPG, not a interactive spoken novel like the BW titles (just IMHO).

DE's definitely on the list. I still feel I should revisit it (and Invisible War) before Human Revolution hits in August.

SS2 is probably good if you're into punishing survival titles, but I'd like to know how you'll get ahold of this superrare title for a sane price. From what I know, everyone who has played it and likes it wants to own an original copy.

You can pick up copies on ebay for something close to the price of a current gen title. Alternatively... ahem... the internet will provide.

(Not that I'm advocating piracy. If GOG picked up SS2 I'd be all over it in an instant. Last time I looked it was their most wanted title.)

BTW if you like Doom, you might also like Doom 3. It's about 5 x longer than an average shooter today and has a nice almost RPG-like feeling about it (with a good background story, voice logs etc.) and awesome atmosphere.

I tried Doom 3 years ago, but never really got into it because it was so different from its predecessors. Might have to revisit that too. How I'll ever find the time for all of these I'll never know.

 

[MisterShine]

God I'm so jealous of you.

I'm going to go with what Susan said, except the exact opposite.

Start with the oldest and clunkiest game, then work your way up. Otherwise the experience might be a little too jarring and you won't enjoy it as much. Planescape: Torment!

Edit:then System Shock, then Deus Ex, then KOTOR, then Mass Effect.

Hey, that's also the order I put them in for quality as well... Hmm. Interesting.

 

[ironmace2.0]

Knights Of The Old Republic.

Because its a good RPG that if you dont know about the story it's really interesting to play.

Have Fun!

 

[Snork Maiden]

Planescape: Torment is the best game there by some distance, but it's also the most unfriendly. You have to *want* to play it, although it's super good if you can get over the initial hurdle. Of course, given that you own all these games anyway I'd totally recommend you start with PS:T - at worst you can just drop it and move on!

I've never really cared for KotoR and haven't played either Deus Ex or System Shock unfortunately (although like you I own Deus Ex), so after that I have to recommend Mass Effect by default. That said, I really couldn't get into ME for whatever reason - I bought it in a bundle with ME2 in a sale, and after about 3 or 4 hours in ME I dropped it and gave ME2 a go. ME2 is awesome, so the first is probably a good shout if you care about truly milking the story for all its worth.

 

[Sixcess]

Start with the oldest and clunkiest game, then work your way up. Otherwise the experience might be a little too jarring and you won't enjoy it as much.

I've been thinking about then, especially so far as KOTOR and Mass Effect are concerned, though I've been told that gameplay wise they're not really that similar.

That said, I really couldn't get into ME for whatever reason - I bought it in a bundle with ME2 in a sale, and after about 3 or 4 hours in ME I dropped it and gave ME2 a go. ME2 is awesome, so the first is probably a good shout if you care about truly milking the story for all its worth.

I'd have a really hard time skipping a heavily story based game and going straight to the sequel, so yeah, I'll milk stories until the cows come home (eh, mixed metaphor I think.) I slogged through Half Life partly because one of these days I'll play HL2.

 

[Snork Maiden]

I'd have a really hard time skipping a heavily story based game and going straight to the sequel, so yeah, I'll milk stories until the cows come home (eh, mixed metaphor I think.) I slogged through Half Life partly because one of these days I'll play HL2.

I'm always surprised when people say Half-Life was a "slog" because my first play-through of HL was a much better experience than with HL2. Then I remember that was back in 1999 and I should probably go and play HL again before passing judgement on people.

And yeah I can understand wanting to get the most out of the story. When I got ME/ME2 they'd both been out a while (well, ME1 certainly had anyway) and to be honest I wasn't expecting much - I'd never had an interest in them but did have to suffer getting people gushing about them all the time, so I guess I'd built up a kind of resentment of them or something, I dunno. As I said I only got them because they were on a sale, so when I didn't immediately click with ME1 it wasn't a real loss to just drop it, and since I didn't care about the story I didn't feel like I lost anything.

I still don't really care about the story, to be honest. People are critical of ME2 because it "dumbed down" ME1, but at the time all I was looking for was a silly action game to pass the time, and everything about ME2 is done to a mirror shine. That good story was a bonus for me, not the main reason I bought the game - as much as I enjoyed it I still can't get excited about ME3 in any way.

 

[Sixcess]

I'm always surprised when people say Half-Life was a "slog" because my first play-through of HL was a much better experience than with HL2. Then I remember that was back in 1999 and I should probably go and play HL again before passing judgement on people.

The problem with Half Life, for me at least, is that it's very recognisably a Valve game but it's far less well balanced than everything they've done since. If I'd played it for the first time in the late 90s I'd have been much more impressed, but nowadays it comes across as a rough prototype (which I suppose it was) rather than the exceptionally smooth and polished experiences we expect from Valve today.

 

[RyQ_TMC]

Go for Planescape: Torment if you don't mind graphics which have aged really badly. It's still one of the best written games out there, if not THE best one.

Then I'd go for either SS2 or Deus Ex. They're similar to each other in terms of gameplay mechanics and I judge them both as having the same merit. You just have to decide if you prefer the survival atmosphere of SS2 or conspiracy atmosphere of DE.

I found KOTOR to be a bit polarizing. Sure, it's a great game, but how much you enjoy it might depend heavily on your feelings on Star Wars universe. And the interface takes getting used to, as it feels like a transitional stage between the old isometric games and new TPP ones.

Mass Effect might be a bit of a letdown if you've already played ME2. ME1 stood well on its merits, but had some annoying flaws which were mostly polished out of ME2. Plus, ME2 players already know the story.

If you didn't, then I suggest you pick up ME1, then ME2. Then wait a few months and go for ME3.

 

[The Wykydtron]

Mass Effect or KOTOR. I need to go and rebuy KOTOR at some point... Maybe for the PC this time

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

KOTOR.

Assuming no one ever spoiled it for you, it has just about the best plot ever.

And rather awesome combat, imo.