Tomi on 14/1/2016 at 13:52
Quote Posted by Starker
Oh, and also Max Payne 2 -- the film noir atmosphere wasn't really diminished the second time around and the new ending was actually kind of nice.
The new ending?! Wot? :erm:
Starker on 14/1/2016 at 13:57
Quote Posted by Tomi
The new ending?! Wot? :erm:
On the highest difficulty,
Mona lives. I didn't know about this, so it really caught me by surprise.
Tomi on 14/1/2016 at 14:12
Interesting. I suppose I'm gonna have to play MP2 again then. Do I have to play the game three times though, because the hardest difficulty (Dead on Arrival) is still locked for me after the first play through? Or do you get the alternative ending in Hard-Boiled too? I only replayed both Max Payne 1 & 2 last summer and was quite surprised to see that MP2 especially has aged pretty well (it's still a lot of fun to play and looks nice with the widescreen mod), but I'm not sure if I want to spend that much time on it.
Starker on 14/1/2016 at 14:13
IIRC, the highest difficulty was unlocked right after completing the game once.
catbarf on 14/1/2016 at 14:24
I enjoyed replaying Spec Ops: The Line, knowing what the story was about and where it was all leading. I think Dema is right, that the concept of having an ending that dramatically changes how you view the rest of the work is a lot more common in films than games. I'm not sure why that is.
faetal on 14/1/2016 at 14:33
The Binding of Isaac. The 100th play through is better than the 2nd though.
heywood on 14/1/2016 at 14:58
The Nameless Mod: The second time around, I played for WorldCorp and joined the goats and picked up on more of the lore and easter eggs.
SS2: The first time, I went into it thinking it was mostly going to play like an FPS. Also, I underestimated the difficulty and parts of it ended up being a grind. The second time, I treated it like the survival RPG that it is and really enjoyed it much more. The third time, I played as a pure psi character and that was also as fun.
Also, Stalker: SOC. Never got through it the first time but learned a lot about how to play it. I came back to it a year or two later much better prepared and with bugs fixed and it became one of my all time favorites.
To pick up on what dema said about sims, they usually get better as you develop proficiency, and then you start to lost interest once you stop improving.
Harvester on 14/1/2016 at 15:07
When a game has the reputation of being very hard, I usually enjoy it more the second time. The first time I keep being worried that it will be too hard for me to finish. This happens with any game where friends of mine said they couldn't finish it. Examples are Serious Sam: Second Encounter and Call of Duty: United Offensive.
With System Shock 2, I heard all those tales about being constantly low on resources and that developing the wrong skill set could get me in trouble. That had me worried, so I enjoyed that game more on the second playthrough, when I knew I could beat it.
demagogue on 14/1/2016 at 15:20
Speaking of Binding of Issac, there's Rogue-likes, which are designed to procedurally give you a new game and world each time, BoI, Faster than Light, Sunless Sea, Don't Starve... They're going to be better on later playthrus because not only are you better, but you're not going to be bored of it being the same game.
I guess 4X and Elite-like games also fall into that category.
faetal on 14/1/2016 at 15:37
Quote Posted by heywood
Also, Stalker: SOC. Never got through it the first time but learned a lot about how to play it. I came back to it a year or two later much better prepared and with bugs fixed and it became one of my all time favorites.
I did the same thing. This also reminds me - Dark Souls. My first attempt where I bounced off it hard involved me mostly figuring out how levelling character and equipment affects the game (especially the latter being much more important and the former just being there to facilitate being able to use said equipment). Second play through with a smarter build and play style was tonnes more satisfying.
