The Challenge

[Exia91]

Dear reader,


I am in need of a challenge! Thus, I challenge you!

This one relates to my gaming habit, namely, mindless shooting and RPGing.

Spoiler

I love shooters. The reason why is that my friends play them, and I love to play with them, have a laugh, and curse at our losses. (We play for victory, not for own gain, i.e. K/D. W/L Ratio in all CoDs is above 2.5, K/D is 1.8) I believe that I am the most 'gamer' of the group. I reckon that this related to my interest, often fleeting, in other games and especially, other genres. Their interests do not change: shooters and FIFA, or just shooters.
Even though I mentioned 'fleeting' interest, there are many more that I hold on to.

I like to play shooters, and RPGs. Additionally, I have some racing games, such as Forza, but I haven't touched them in a very long time. My list of RPGs includes: Dragon Age (+all DLC) and Final Fantasy (various versions from VI to XIII). Some action-adventure games like Darksiders and Shadow of the Colossus. Also, another one that I have played is borrowed, a long time ago, something with Vikings and Demons. Completed most of them on medium difficulty, and some on the hardest difficulty for some extra challenge (I'm looking at you Darksiders!! Too easy, except the hardest difficulty).

My interests lie in exploration. I often find myself wandering around towns, or hug the wall the entire way around the map, to find every treasure around. I love rewards, especially when earned by looking in hooks and crannies. However, one important thing, respawns. If I walk around section A of a map and choose to go to section B, and afterwards return to section A and move on to section C, while crossing section B, I do not wish to fight the same mobs again and again. Not something that is easily found, but hey, one can always dream.

My other interests lie in hack&slash. I love to smack a big hammer or sword and crush some bones of my enemies. Tactical fights is what I hope to achieve, no random button-bashing. However, I do not like combo moves of more than three buttons. I also played lots of Soul Calibur IV, but just could not get into it, because I do not wish to learn these combo schemes.
Finally, I am a hard learner. (see the above about combos) I takes some time before I get the hang of things. However, I do not mind getting killed and I have an abundance of patience.

TL;DR: I advise you to read it to be able to make a appropriate answer.

Now that you know a little about me, I think I should get straight to the point.

I am looking for a different kind of game to play when my friends are not around. I am in need of a Challenge! Something that is rewarding and keeps you interested for a long period of time. Patience is my forte, therefore I read into Dark Souls and figured it would fit my wishes most.
But, if you, dear reader, were able to give me some complete and comprehensive advise that is unbiased and fits my wishes, what would you advise me? Dark Souls? A different game? Demon's Souls? Both, or a collector's edition that contains both games will be announced soon? What about the online play in both? Replay value? Own experiences? Basically, anything you know that comes to mind.

I am asking a lot of you, but I hope you will be able to help me out.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

 

[Ranorak]

Well, Especially from the last two points, the interest in exploring and hack&slash. I can't help but to recommend Skyrim, or if you want it NOW and can't wait two weeks, Morrowind or Oblivion. Or hell, even Fallout 3 / New Vegas.

Though, for Morrowind and Oblivion you might want to push up the difficulty for that challenge.
But in the end, it's a massive world you get to explore on your own.
One of the great things about these games is the little things you find while exploring.

Hidden treasures and rewards are great in these games. Especially finding a cool enchanted giant hammer on that Bandit leader you just killed.

Other then that, I could recommend the Metroid Prime games, though they do have a bit more of Respawn issues like you mentioned.

 

[krazykidd]

Ummmm. I would say dark souls and demons souls . Pretty fun and challenging , and a big sense of reward when you complet something , but a big sense of frustration when you die multiple times. Thankfully i am patient and i don't mind doing the same secrion three times because i made a mistakes . The problem is you don't like respaws and every minor enemy on that game respawns every time you go to a bonfire.

My next game would be, star ocean 3 or 4 . That can prove a bit of a challenge especially when you play on harder difficulty , again monsters respawn bt you can run past most them if you don't want to fight them ( it doesn't have random encounters ). Plus if you try to go for the in game trophies , the game could last you a VERY long time .

Next suggestion is eternal sonata , again repsawnable monsters , non- random encounter jrpg , fun but the story os kinda meh.

NIER, is a very fun hack and slash rpg, start it on hard mode if you are looking for a challenge . I startes nier on hard mode my first playthrough , completly doable , not too hard when you start to understand how the game works , but hard enough to keep you on your toes.

Also magna carta2 . Although this game is fairly easy , nothing very challenging about it , but still a fun jrpg to play.

 

[JochemDude]

I think you'd like The Witcher 2.
Really check it, I think you might like this one a lot

 

[Exius Xavarus]

Since you've mentioned and are already looking at them, I highly recommend Demon's Souls and Dark Souls. The combat is extremely well done, and there's a lot of exploring you can do, albeit in Demon's Souls a large portion of that is conditional, but there are a lot of places you can reach in each stage in Demon's Souls, and lots of goodies to obtain. And there is a nice big load of challenge in Demon's Souls, as well as Dark Souls. Don't listen to the idiots that keep saying Dark/Demon's Souls is unfair. These two games are always fair and if you die, it's because you fucked up, not the game. The people claiming unfair bullshit are just raging and blaming the game for their own inadequacy.

However, if you're looking for story, you won't find it on the surface of Dark/Demon's Souls. In order to get more of a story out of these two games, you have to go get it. There are many parts of the story that you can only find by going and finding it. However, in Demon's Souls, a lot of it relies on the world tendency system, some of it being found when you're got pure black world tendency, some found when you've got pure white. There are also a great deal of ways you can fight in DmS/DkS. You can fight with curved swords, straight swords, greatswords, BIG greatswords, daggers, magic, bow and arrow. Even more.

Sadly, there won't be a collector's edition that has both Dark/Demon's Souls, that I know of. DkS/DmS are not sequel/prequel, but rather, DkS is a spiritual successor to DmS. Despite playing virtually the same way, looking the same, and having a sense of isolation in these dark worlds, DkS and DmS actually have got absolutely nothing to do with each other, by way of actual content. Except for a single NPC that can be found in both games, but I'll let you figure that one out yourself. And unfortunately for you, you missed out on the free collector's edition for DkS. Before it was released, all pre-order copies were upgraded to Collector's Edition, at no additional cost. But it's just physical swag, so you're not missing anything in terms of game content.

But seriously, if you've got an abundance of patience and you love a great challenge, Demon's Souls and Dark Souls are definitely, in my opinion, a must-buy. While Dark Souls is the full $60 price, Demon's Souls is just $20, brand spankin' new, and who knows how many copies will be left here soon, because the supply for Demon's Souls, everywhere I see it, is beginning to dwindle. However, if you get both games to play, I suggest playing Demon's Souls before you play Dark Souls, seeing as Dark Souls is a spiritual successor, and "should"(though, it doesn't have to be) played after Demon's Souls. DOITDOITDOITDOITDOIT.

(Also, when you play it, you'll figure out why Demon's Souls was given such an awkwardly pronounced title)

 

[latenightapplepie]

Basically, anything you know that comes to mind.

Bastion is what immediately came to my mind. Although it's not terribly challenging at first, unlocking additional difficulty modifiers later on in the game absolutely makes it seriously challenging. It has the depth of a good action-RPG without the fiddly daunting statistics and grind-leveling of many of those Diablo clones. It might be just because I'm really loving this game right now and I can't help but recommend it to people, but I seriously think you might like it.

 

[Da Orky Man]

snip

Well, looking at your bio and requirement, I recommend Borderlands. If you son't know about it, it's an RPG/shooter (mostly shooter) hybrid which is fairly difficult, and thanks to a unique weapon randomiser, has somewhere in the realm of 16 million different weapons. Just last time i played it, I found a burst-fire rocket launcher and a sniper that fires like a shotgun so you don't get those annoying just-over-the-shoulder misses.

It is also currently on sale on Steam, so if you have a PC that can run it, get it now.

 

[JemothSkarii]

DOITDOITDOITDOITDOIT.

You get that from the Hiimdaisy Persona 4 comic?

OT: I'd throw a vote at New Vegas; I've put 300+ hours into that game, and it does have quite a bit of difficulty and exploration. Only thing is I REALLY recommend getting the DLC and playing it all, Lonesome Road being last, it really adds to the experience.

 

[Exius Xavarus]

DOITDOITDOITDOITDOIT.

You get that from the Hiimdaisy Persona 4 comic?

OT: I'd throw a vote at New Vegas; I've put 300+ hours into that game, and it does have quite a bit of difficulty and exploration. Only thing is I REALLY recommend getting the DLC and playing it all, Lonesome Road being last, it really adds to the experience.

I've actually never read/played/watched anything related to Persona, admittedly. I've always said that. :x