I want to try and play some more games. That feels more fulfilling if you play games that you can finish and be done with.
So what are some good games that have zero (or close to zero perhaps) replayability? I’ll start with my own suggestions:
- Return of the Obra Dinn: Amazing mystery/detective game. However once you’ve played it, you basically can’t play it again as you remember the solution already and the challenge of the game is trivialized.
- Chants of Sennaar: Really great game about deciphering languages. However, once again, by playing the game once, you’ll remember the languages and the game has no challenge any more.
- Outer Wilds: Mystery adventure game. There is some replayability as there are perhaps areas that you can still explore, but largely once you figure out the mystery and complete the game, there’s not much more to experience. Some people speedrun the game though.
All of the above games I value extremely highly even though I only played them ~8-10 hours.
Do you have any others?
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Tunic is a solid 10-15 hour adventure game, and I highly recommend playing without spoilers as several experiences are information-locked like Outer Wilds. It’s an isometric adventure game heavily inspired by Zelda with some Souls influence bleeding into the lore, mechanics, and boss fights. Replayability is limited to speedrunning and challenge runs.
Bastion is a wonderful adventure game with a heavy focus on combat. It’s a precursor to Hades from the same developer, and shares the same mechanical DNA minus the rogue-lite elements that Hades introduced. The followup game, Transistor, is also worth checking out, though it didn’t quite hit the same highs for me as Bastion. Both are 10-20 hour adventures with limited replayability if you want to achievement hunt.
More games to check out:
Psychonauts and Psychonauts 2
Journey, Abzu, and The Pathless
Subnautica
I definitely played through Bastion at least thrice. There is enough build variety that you can make another playthrough feel totally different, not to mention the difficulty modifiers. First game that I took the time to 100% for achievements.
Bastion’s story doesn’t necessitate multiple plays. Sure, it’s fun to play through again and try different builds. I’ve also 100%'ed the game.
The important thing, I think, for OP’s question is that it can be finished in one play. It has a satisfying ending from which the player can set down the game and move on.
+1 for Tunic especially if you go for all of the late game puzzles and other stuff that I shall not spoil. I have the Tunic plushy up on my shelf!
+1 for Tunic. Fantastic game. Not too long. Get it on sale.
I played it on my Steam Deck when I had Covid and was banished from my bedroom so I didn’t get my wife sick. 😅
For Tunic - you will 100% be expected to play like an old school game. So keep physical paper notes of what you see or you’ll be going back and forth.
I would highly recommend Tunic as well, played through with a GF and it’s an amazing game! (Single player though)
I would somewhat disagree with Subnautica. There are lots of different settings you can tweak to make the game harder or more survival-oriented that might warrant a replay (although probably only one) if your first play-through was on a simpler/easier mode. Plus there are the creation modes where you can create your own base without restrictions, which sort of counts as replay? Mostly though the setting in Subnautica are quite unique, and short of playing Below Zero you won’t be able to hit that vibe without playing the game again. However as a story-oriented game I’d agree it has lower-than-average replay value.
I find Subnautica has less replayability than other survival games since the map and questline is static. Once you know where everything is and you’ve seen all the plot beats there’s not much reason to play the game again unless you want to challenge yourself with a speedrun or, as you said, one of the harder difficulties.
I wouldn’t consider creative mode or sandbox mode to be a core part of the game. They’re great for fucking around or as an extended tutorial, but I see them more as external tools than as part of the game experience proper.
For me the story really drew me in. It was like watching Terminator 1 and 2 for the first time - you had no idea where it was going but it was going to be awesome.
I have watched both movies again, and while they are great they don’t hit the same as the first time.
I would absolutely consider replaying subnautica if managing inventories wasn’t so bad. Playing it to build up a base would be fun if it wasn’t such a frustrating process to deal with. I think all crafting should pull from all inventories in your base, and also preferably adding inventories just increases the size of one large abstract storage system of your base that you don’t need to worry about organizing.
As it is, once the story was done I was done. I had become so annoyed with building out my bases that I just couldn’t be bothered to do it again.
Saying Tunic has zero replayability is absolutely insane to me. IT EVEN HAS A NEW GAME PLUS!!
NG+ is optional since it’s not required to finish the game or appreciate the story. It’s there for the challenge.
“Finishing the game” comes before the “replayability” aspect though. You finish the game first, THEN you see if it’s replayable. So… Yes, I completely agree? Replaying is usually always optional lol
I kind of agree with OC’s sentiment. The game is a masterpiece, but the puzzle solving and metagame is half of the game, if not more. Once you’ve solved that, replaying it is just going through the motions of a pretty OK action adventure game. I dunno.
It’s like playing Braid after beating it. Another masterpiece of a game! You could speed run it—which I was very much into—but the thought of playing it again after that just doesn’t interest me. It’s just going through the motions.
That being said, its been years and years since I’ve played it and there’s a new anniversary edition coming out with new content. I’m almost certainly going to buy it.
I loved the built-in speed run of that game. You only had 45 minutes to beat the whole thing. The first time I accomplished that, my time was 44:58 and some change! I lost my shit that I managed to juuuust squeak in a win! 😂
I ended up getting it down to 37 minutes. There are so many tricks in that game to speed it up. I wonder what the official best time is. Back in the Xbox 360 days there were a lot of cheaters using the back-end to submit bullshit scores. Or people doing save trading and all having the exact same time down to 1/100 of a second.
Deathloop’s story basically means that >!you’re replaying the game because you failed your previous attempt at escaping!<. You can play it more than once, the game encourages you to, and I kinda want to, but I never did because I already won.
Also… A big part of playing Death Loop was figuring out the proper order to kill everybody. … and sadly, there’s only one order that will work. So once you know the order, a big part of the challenge is eliminated.
It would have been really cool if the game selected a random ordering for your character at new game start and each target’s vulnerable timing changes accordingly. Something similar to how some of Dishonored’s missions could have multiple solutions.
… but I get why they didn’t. Dishonored had mission variants just switch up some text which is relatively cheap compared to having fully different behaviors and speech and so on that would need to be created just for the tiny set of players that not only finish but replay a game.
As someone who played through Dishonored 1,2 and all their respective DLCs multiple times, I was sad that Death Loop didn’t have the same level of repayablity baked into the overarching structure, but I still quite enjoyed the game itself. I just finished it once and moved on.
I don’t mind that there’s only one winning order too much. Could be cool to have more options but I’m okay with that design choice. Like you said, it’s a lot of effort for not a lot of players. I could still vary the gameplay during the missions and that’s good enough. Besides, I enjoyed the world and the characters more than in any other Arkane game, maybe on par with Prey, can’t put one above the other.
The Witness has a lot of generative puzzles that I guess technically are replayable, but you can’t go back to before the moments of joy of discovery and that’s the core of what made that game incredible to me
If you want a good laugh, check out The Looker. It’s a short satire of the Witness, free on Steam
I did play the Witness, though the ending was quite disappointing to me. I got kind of tired of the (imo) very similar puzzles throughout the game.
A problem with The Witness is that the game’s single biggest excitement comes from a twist that revealing completely spoils
spoiler
The environment puzzles
So it’s stuck in the position of letting 80% of its player base walk right past the best part, or preserving the moment of discovery.
I’m personally grateful it has the integrity to let me find it on my own, but it’s also a bummer since at least two of my friends beat it without ever realizing
Agreed. By the end, i was just looking up the solutions so i can just figure out what the heck happened on the island, only to be met with the biggest let-down in my personal gaming history. Game went from an 9/10 to a 3/10 just on the ending alone.
Funny OP, you named the exact 3 games I was planning on naming here.
Great minds think alike 😜
What Remains of Edith Finch. A psychological horror game that REALLY sucks you in. As you play, there is a lot of stuff that doesn’t make any sense, but there’s a secret (disturbing) meaning behind it all.
I spent a good chunk of a Saturday going through it and there’s no need to do it again, but it was a great ride!
I am thinking of replaying Edith Finch because I must have missed a lot of details by the time I realised what the story was about.
Oh man - I loved WRoEF, but the bathtub segment has ensured I can never play it again.
Oh yeah. They aren’t subtle in that one, you know what’s coming and I think I just muttered “oh no. Oh no. Oh no.” through the whole thing.
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is a little older but it kind of reminds me of Edith Finch in vibes. It’s also really beautiful.
And if you do want more try out Unfinished Swan.
Thanks for pointing that out, I had never heard of that one. I looked it up and I’ll definitely check it out.
The Unfinished Swan is such a hidden gem, honestly. I never hear anyone talk about it. Very unique style and mechanics and an endearing story. Some beautiful environments too. And pretty short, so not a big commitment.
It’s a great, great game.
Also take a look at: The Suicide of Rachel Foster
It’s currently 90% off on steam at 1.79USD
Stranded Deep - one of the only survival/crafting/procedural open world games that has a defined objective and an actual ending.
10/10 don’t need to play it again but I might anyway because it was so great
I want to like this game but I keep making stupid decisions and being so confused at the start that I just gave up. The game is fun but doesn’t do a fantastic job at explaining how to get going.
I would also put Subnautica here - and personally say it is worlds superior to Stranded Deep but of course personal preference can give either hte advantage.
Subnautica is replayae just because the world is so beautiful
I enjoy replaying it, but the contrast between first time and any repeat is mind-boggling, and nearly enough to say that replaying it isn’t worth it. That first time… wow, it just hit so well.
Antichamber - clever first person puzzle game. I played it exactly once and I loved it.
This goes for most of these first person puzzle games. Once you solve the puzzle its not very fun to do it again.
Portal 1 and 2, the Witness, Talos Principle 1 and 2, Manifold Garden - all worth a play through. Next on my list to try is Viewfinder.
I play through both Portal games every few years; maybe every 5 or 6. I think I’m due again soon.
I kind of got bored of manifold garden. I guess it was the lack of any story. I just had no motivation to continue.
I feel portal could be replayed if you focused too hard on the puzzles the first time through, there were quite a few secrets worth exploring in that world, though none too deep unfortunately
I’d place Superliminal in this category as well.
Superliminal was cool, but I just didn’t enjoy it. It was fun for a bit, but I feel like the mechanic overstayed it’s welcome for how simple it is. There’s not very many unique ways to use it. That’s probably why Valve abandoned the idea too.
Still, it’s interesting and worth a shot. Plenty of people love it.
I replayed it after many years. It was fantastic, now I need to wait another many years to forget the solution.
The older you get the more often you’ll be able to play!
Good suggestion, I played it many years ago as well :)
Copying my comment from elsewhere in this thread
I was going to write anti chamber, because I never want to play it again, but %'s 30-90 of the way through the game I was itching to start over. It had me so hooked, but then the ending just took the wind out of the sails so hard. Heck maybe 10-98% of the game had me itching to replay it.
Awesome game. I was high on cannabis when I played it, and managed to beat it in one sitting about 10 years ago. I want to play it while high on shrooms, that would be even crazier.
Firewatch. Road 96.
How “bad” is the walking simulator aspect in these games? Is it mostly just walking or is there actual gameplay?
Bad if you hate it, good if you like it.
I like walking simulator and Firewatch is great. Lacking gameplay doesn’t mean it is bad.
What Remains of Edith Finch is even better.
I haven’t really tried a walking sim before but I suspect I’ll find it boring - considering the reviews on What Remains of Edith Finch, I’m statistically unlikely to dislike it though, so I guess I’ll give it a shot and see what I think :)
Personally I thought What Remains Of Edith Finch was boring as hell as none of the emotional points hit and the super-low-fi sequences made the game feel almost buggy and as a result ruined a lot of the atmosphere.
OTOH, I loved Firewatch, a great short interactive story about someone working in isolation and trying to get away from their life.
If you like exploration and discovery, good “walking simulators” are actually really compelling.
If you don’t like games without action, they’re going to feel rather boring.
I definitely recommend trying one, at least.
Try changing your mindset when you approach the game, treat it like an interactive exploration or a digital toy. You might get into it more easily doing that.
I would not recommend Road 96 although some people seem to like it.
Instead, I would suggest “As Dusk Falls”.
I hate the term “walking simulator”. It’s totally missing the point. They’re never about walking, but about discovery. Outer Wilds is a “walking simulator” in that there’s no combat and traversal is the only “action” you take. That’s definitely not what Outer Wilds is about though, right? That term should probably die.
Road 96
Huh? The point of that game is being a narrative roguelite, everytime you start out different and have different choices to make.
Same with firewatch.
Firewatch has 1 ending and only pretty small changes depending on dialog.
Road 96 has quite a bit of replay ability as you’re unlikely to get 100% of all stories on the first playthrough.
It’s quite an open question. Most games I play are “one and done” even though I think most people go back to them. Even with replayability it doesn’t mean that you have to and I’m happy to leave things be once the story is over.
Mafia trilogy sticks to the story and will take a decent amount of hours.
Inside is short but fun.
+1 for inside, I love this game
Don’t forget about Limbo!
Firewatch
I replied it after several years cause of nostalgia, but yeah first time is where it is at!
Great example
First impressions, I thought it was going to be a boring on-rails walk simulator.
Then I teared up at the end with Delilah. I can’t believe how good the acting is for me to fall in love with a voice.
They don’t exactly fit with your theme of short mystery and puzzle games, but based on your initial question most JRPGs and most story-focused games came to mind. Let’s go over a few of them I’d recommend to everyone interested in those games:
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Persona 5 Royal: It’s about a 100h and very story-heavy. There are some twists and turns which keep you engaged and you built relationships with a wide cast of characters. Besides the story and actual combat, there’s a ton of side activities, all of which you only do a few times. It’s probably my favorite game I’ll never replay, because all these things are an absolute slog to play again. The same goes for Persona 4 and maybe 3, haven’t played that one.
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every Etrian Odyssey: They are old-school dungeon crawlers originally released on the 3/DS and got remakes on steam and the Switch. You draw you own maps of every layer the dungeon has, which is a large puzzle in itself. However, once you know the dungeon, there is literally no point in exploring it again. You know every trap, every worthwhile detour and of course the path to take.
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Like a dragon 7/8: They combine an open world with lots of mini-games, funny and/or touching side stories and an epic overarching main story to follow. There are tons of interactions with your companions, all of them interesting. It’s just, similarly to Persona 5, all these mini-games and interactions only carry themselves for the short burst you get them in and while they are fresh. Replaying them? It’s an absolute slog. You know every punchline, you have optimized most mini-games and probably remember most of the great backstories each character has - you’d be skipping most of the content and the non-optional combat system isn’t fun enough to carry itself on its own.
Can’t you have fun in dungeon crawlers by trying other party compositions? Or is EO badly balanced where you can only succeed with an specific composition?
You absolutely can! There are classes, subclasses and equipable skills depending on the game. All with different builds. You can win with all of them and swapping around can be fun. However, you can also do this within a single playthrough. At least in my opinion, the dungeon is the main draw here - but of course, as with all games here, there are certainly people who like to replay them.
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If you liked chants of shenaar, check out heaven’s vault. I think it does what chants of shenaar does, but better, and it did it years before. It was a bit strange to me to see chants of shenaar get so much hype, but have heaven’s vault stay slept on.
I considered it as well, but this review made me reconsider. Would you say it is as bad as that review makes it seem?
Well - I played both and I quite enjoyed Heaven’s Vault as well.
I played HV through twice - once for the story and then a second time to see how far I could alter that story with different choices. My wife even played a third time to try for a really particular set of events.
The translation game in HV goes much harder than Chants’. After the first playthrough, you get longer and more challenging texts to decipher.
Also - there’s no backtracking really required. The game is pretty strict about telling you where you can and cannot go and reacting to what you found or didn’t find. You can cut whole plot lines in HV and it’s no problem.
Which makes it one of the better games for replayablity in my mind.
It is - for sure - slow paced. Almost meditative.
Funnily enough, what that review said is basically what I said in my review about chants of shenaar, except without the glowing praise. Lots of tedious running across maps and very surface level language-puzzling, whereas I don’t remember any tedium with heaven’s vault at all. I guess different strokes for different folks?
I would say, it’s such a unique and well-executed concept that I would give it a play yourself to see what you think. It’s one of those games I haven’t found a replacement for, even with chants of shenaar.
I’ll give it a shot!
Out of all that I could’ve suggested, Ace Attorney series probably fits the bill the most
And if you try ace attorney and liked it then I would highly recommend Ghost Trick by the same creator.
I have yet to play it, do you think it is better to go with the DS version or the Switch version?
This is not a joke question, I tried TWEWY on the Switch and I didn’t like the controls.
Yeah, I’ve yet to check it out
Ace Attorney series probably fits the bill the most
Hehe, and there is me who has finished the trilogy about 3 times now.
Honestly, I also replay the trilogy from time to time lol
13 sentinels: aegis rim
Personally, any bigass AAA game that has a million different things to do. Like there’s no way I’m playing the God of War sequel-reboot again even though I enjoyed it. Coming from someone who beat the original trilogy like 3 times each at least
More on topic though: Any adventure game for as long as you remember the solutions
I haven’t even played the Witcher 3 DLCs.
I beat the the main game at one point but was so exhausted with the game I had to take a break. By the time I got back I didn’t remember enough about the main game to play the DLCs, so I keep trying to replay it from the beginning.
I think I’ve made 4 attempts so far and end up stalling out about 10 hours in each time.
What do you need to know about the main game to play the DLCs that isn’t in the DLCs?
It’s going to be hard to come up with a list of things I have forgotten that might be relevant to the DLCs I haven’t played.
That aside, it’s more that I barely remember even many of the main story beats and any characters aside from the top 4.
Edit: Oh, and I remember another thing. My main playthrough was on PC, but I don’t use my PC for gaming so much anymore. I had a decent playthrough on main game on Xbox, but I bought the GOTY edition without realizing that the saves weren’t compatible, or something like that. Hence, my attempts at trying to play through the game.
