What game or series would you love to play again for the first time?

[laggyteabag]

If you could somehow find a way to forget everything about a single game or its respective series, and experience playing it again for the first time, what game would it be?

For me it would be a toss up between 3 games, the Halo franchise, Mass Effect trilogy, or Telltale's The Walking Dead.

Halo has always been my childhood game, whilst I did play other games before it, Halo was the first game that really cemented me as a gamer. I can still remember the day when I first saw the Halo 3 trailer, and I was so excited that I must've watched the Halo 3 trailers and ViDocs about 20 times before the game finally launched. The first time I played the series was a true adventure because the previous console that I had owned was the PS1, and to go from that to the original Xbox was an amazing and truly spectacular occasion for me. Playing Halo now just doesn't feel the same, whilst I get excited whenever I feel like playing it, it just will never feel the same as when I first touched the franchise. It also saddens me now to see how Halo 3 has a measly population of around 6,000 players right now, with most of them only playing because the game was free a few months back, I miss the days when Halo was in its heyday.

Mass Effect was probably also the first major story oriented game that I had ever played and really enjoyed. I had played other BioWare games in the past such as Dragon Age: Origins/ 2, as Baldur's Gate, but Mass Effect is where it really caught on. It was a wonder to see the story unfold, and the characters develop, but I would really love to make the choices that I made for the first time again.

No game has made me feel for fictional characters as much as Telltale's The Walking Dead, for pretty much the same reason as Mass Effect, I just want to make my choices for the first time again, and get shocked and sad without knowing where the game was going, or what was going to pop around the next corner.

 

[dyre]

Probably a toss up between the Mass Effect series and Planescape Torment. Mass Effect because it's a wonderful series with great characters, a truly epic story, and a decent amount of significant choice. Though thankfully I never experienced the original ME3 ending, since I waited for the extended ending, so I don't need brain bleach for that reason. But I'd still like to reexperience it from a blank slate.

Planescape Torment because I played it when I was 13, and to this day I regret playing it then. I should have waited until I matured enough as a gamer and a person to really appreciate what a beautiful game I was experiencing. Back then I barely had the mental stamina to read through all the dialogue! Now though, the mediocre gameplay really puts me off :\

An honorable mention goes to Fallout 3/New Vegas. I'm now much more comfortable with using/editing/cleaning mods, and I would say that I have an adept grasp on using the modding tools that Bethesda provides. What I'm saying is with my current knowledge, I could play a heavily modded Fallout 3 with all the great quests, gameplay overhauls, graphic enhancements, etc that the modding community has to offer, plus some tweaks of my own, and minus the constant crashing/performance issues that I suffered from back when I first played it. The only problem is that I've played it three times already

 

[MysticSlayer]

Toss up between Mass Effect and The Prince of Persia: Sands of Time Trilogy.

Mass Effect was truly an experience to remember for me. I had certainly played games that gripped me with their writing and world, but as a series, Mass Effect is the one that consistently awed me the most in that regard. It was hardly a perfect franchise, but it always highly compelling and completely engrossing. I would particularly enjoy going into it completely blind to the outcome my choices would have and simply experiencing the story unfold again, seeing the effects I could have only imagined. Not to mention, I'd actually have to think about my responses again. Now I just go with whatever will yield the result I want, as the mystery and gravity is never there anymore. Not to mention, the very act of learning about the world was wonderful, and I just can't have that experience again without forgetting it all.

In the case of Prince of Persia, that is mostly because it is my favorite series ever. From a writing standpoint, it was rather simple, but it still had fantastic characters and writing and really drew me in. Of course, its strength mostly lay in its gameplay, and I would love to try to figure out all the puzzles and platforming challenges again rather than just going through on speed runs and re-appreciating the story. Still, I can't think of any character in gaming that developed more enjoyably than The Prince did throughout the trilogy (yes, even considering the Warrior Within version), and seeing his relationship with Farah develop again would be priceless. Ultimately, experiencing the games for the first time was just an all-around fantastic experience that I wish I could have again.

I guess for a single game, it would probably be BioShock. The game has lost almost all its appeal to me over the years. Maybe it is because I have more to compare it to now. After all, it was the first game I can remember playing that focused as much on world building and story as it did, and I've since played many games that are far better than it in those regards, either because they released after it did or because I went back and played older games. However, part of me thinks my current cynicism towards it is just that I've played it to the point of it losing appeal, and I would love for it to be appealing again because it was one of the most engrossing games I'd ever played back when it was.

 

[Hero of Lime]

Most of the Zelda games for sure. It would be great to see if I could figure out all the puzzles and navigation without help like I needed for some of them.

Mario Galaxy would be a pretty good game to experience completely fresh. Everything about it blew me away the first time, will lightning strike twice? I don't know as this is all hypothetical.

 

[Ihateregistering1]

Second Planescape: Torment. I was able to appreciate the game when I played through it the first time, but it was just such an incredibly satisfying game with such an amazing story that playing through it again just won't be the same when you already know a lot of the plotline, twists, character development, etc. Part of what made the game so great was that it through you into such a weird environment with so little of an idea of what the hell was going on, and then crafted this phenomenal story around it.

 

[Mikejames]

The Silent Hill series. I love those games and the narratives they can tell, but there's no beating the initial thrill of not knowing what to expect, and debating whether that horrible sound in the distance is actually coming towards you.

It would be great to re-experience stories like The Walking Dead or Dreamfall for the first time as well though.

 

[dragonet111]

Grandia, the first time I played I spent 54 hours in 3 days. My aging playstation died because of that but that was totally worth it.

 

[iamnoobie616]

Shadow Of The Colossus and ICO. I remember the first time I played the two, and honestly, as far as firsts go, each and every colossi is an experience I would want to revisit. Whilst ICO in itself was a pretty amazing game, albeit overshadowed(hue pun) by its predecessor.

Another game, though it is a stand-alone, would be To The Moon. If this is your first time hearing the name, STOP DOING WHATEVER YOU ARE AND GO PLAY IT NOW!! This is a game with the story that needs to be told and if you didn't cry during the game, something is wrong with your soul.

But the game series that holds the space closest to my heart as it probably does for a lot of you, and will probably do so for as long as I can predict, is my personal favorite to this day, the Kingdom Hearts series. Honestly, I am surprised no one has mentioned this till now V.V . The primary characters were lovable and Disney's worlds added humor to the story and life to the game as a whole, stopping it from drowning in its own seriousness. Most importantly though, the growth of Sora and Riku through the series is one of the best in gaming I have seen thus far.

Honorable mentions goes to Pokemon, which was amazing the first time you played the game, but has grown stale over the years due to the lack of innovation over the last DECADE!! Still, it is a game that I would love to play again over for the first time.

 

[madwarper]

The Elder Scrolls.

Though, I've only played Oblivion and part of Morrowind, I wish I could erase all memory of them. First, so I could play Morrowind when it first came out, so I might have a shot of not being completely turned off by how often actions fail to do anything. Second, so that it would take me a good long while to realize that in order to get the "optimum build" on a character, you have to play them like a spreadsheet. Playing spreadsheets are not fun. Third, so I could play through the Dark Brotherhood's quest chain for the first time again.

 

[iseko]

Kind of hard. Mass effect/kotor/baldurs gate. Cant choose

 

[Rich Webb]

I think Mass effect is a very good answer and I'd be tempted to agree. However, if I could go back and replay the game as a child for the first time it would have to be the DK country series on the SNES. I would have said Super Metroid but that game is so fun to speed run, you gotta know it inside out!

 

[SomeLameStuff]

Persona 4. It's still a great game, but you'll never get that same feeling once you know who the murderer is...

 

[NightHavoc]

Mass effect series or KOTOR. Mass effect simply because the characters and story kept me so captivated throughout the entire series, I rate it as the best series I have ever played to date. Honestly when the credits rolled around on mass effect 3 I wasn't that pissed at the ending I was sad that the journey had ended.

KOTOR because damn that game was fun and for spoilers sake let me just say I didn't see it coming and it blew my mind the first time I played it and would love to experience that again.

 

[Akiraking]

Kingdom Hearts, I have played and finished them all and with the HD collections being made it would be the perfect time to wipe the memory and enjoy the magic again. At the same time I am afraid that I may not be able to do it all and get turned off it because there is so many games and all the wiki readings just to understand everything.

Regardless I would totally do it again.

 

[The Wykydtron]

I'll skip over the Persona 4 answer and go for something unexpected instead

Metal Gear Rising Revengeance (it is a word by the way, it's just really archaic.) It's fucking amazing, I was never even into the MGS games but Platinum Games strikes again. The level of quality they put into all their games never ceases to amaze me.

The final boss is now one of my all time favourites, sudden awesome boss battle out of nowhere. The cool one liners come every 10 seconds in that last hour or so

"Besides... This isn't my sword."

 

[Sefa Lagaaia]

Definitely the Jak and Daxter trilogy or the Ratchet and Clank trilogy, I grew up with those games and I've played each of them easily of 40 times each, the amount of fun i had with those games cannot be matched by anything past or present, those games were what got me into gaming and I'm sure if I were to start afresh, even in todays gaming market, they could do the same again

 

[Yopaz]

I guess I would say either the Professor Layton series (I adored those) or Tales series.

Professor Layton because I genuinely enjoyed the story and the puzzles. The ending of the time travelling one really got to me.

Tales series because those are games that have improved a lot over the time. I loved Tales of Symphonia when it came out on GameCube, seriously, it still is among my favourites.

Now the Symphonia Chronicles are due for release in just a couple months. I fear I will be really disappointed by it because the combat is worse, the graphics aren't as amazing as I remembered and the story isn't really among the best of the Tales series.

After that I could discover Tales of Xillia, Graces F and Vesperia and just keep that moment of nostalgia towards Tales of Symphonia. That said I have pre-ordered the special edition regardless.

 

[franticfarken]

KOTOR/Dragon Age Origins for me,

I loved both of them tremendously, some of Bioware's work is a masterpiece.
I've had 3 KOTOR breakthroughs and 5 DA:O

 

[DarkhoIlow]

Planescape Torment for me. I wish I would erase the memory of "What can change the nature of a man?" from my mind so I can experience again and get my mind blown.

Alas, that will never happen unless I get amnesia which I'd rather not get.

 

[panosbouk]

Silent Hill 1,2,3. What can I say about those. I love when games makes you feel something. Been afraid of something is one of those feelings. Apart from the creepy setting, I loved their storyline and their puzzles. I remember how good I felt when I solved the piano puzzle in SH1, or the bookstore puzzle SH3 (hard mode).

FF series. Doesn't matter which one is the best, even to find the bad ones it was and will be a good experience for me, But the one that made me think this way it was FFVII. I hadn't played anything like this before, my very first experience with JRPGs.

Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Again back in psx N64 era, 2 games made me fall in love with gaming in general. Ocarina of time was one of those 2. Such a beautiful crafted game.

Fatal Frameroject Zero. Before I rented this one I was telling myself "Pff I have played all the silent hill games, I don't think anything can scare me more than those"... I was wrong.

World of Warcraft(alpha). Yes WoW. That feeling where I was a total noob into the game is priceless. For me it was just a vast world needed to be explored. If I play any other MMO now I want to lvl up fast, see what is the most efficient build, what kind of gear I'm looking for, which quests I don't need to be bothered with. So basically the whole experience discovering the unknown is lost. And that is why I don't play MMO's anymore.