Games That Keep You Coming Back?

The Guardian Gamesblog kicked off a great discussion on their site, talking about games that just keep pulling you back in. Games that, even if you've played through them once, you just have to pick them up again. eToyChest and Kotaku both have related threads. So, what about you? What are some videogames that, even years later, you just have to play through one more time?

For me, besides my ongoing fascination with World of Warcraft, Star Wars Galaxies, and Everquest II, there aren't that many that needed more than one playthrough. Both Half-Life titles, of course. I needed to play HL2 just to get everything I missed the first time. Jedi Academy and System Shock 2 required additional plays to try the game at a different angle. Similarly, I've played through the Diablo titles more than once each, as there's just so much clicking to be had. I somehow managed to avoid the gravity well of Civ4 for the most part, but Civilization 3 was almost the only game I played in college. Good times.

Some games off the top of my head.

[falzer]

The Legend of Zelda
Wasteland
Nethack on alt.org [alt.org]
Star Control II

Obviously...

[joe 155]

...It has to be the Zelda games... almost every one is a classic, my personal favourite has to be Ocarina of Time, its so fantastic.

The newest game to captivate me like this is Resident Evil 4, its a classic, getting to shoot anything with a shotgun, brill.

Tetris

[Anonymous Coward]

I still haven't got to the last level :(

Tetris

[Nerviswreck]

Best game ever. Bar-none

System Shock 2!

[PontifexPrimus]

... and Deus Ex (played that one on my last four computers). Both great games with extreme replayability, since they offer so much customzing options for your character. And, what's more important, those choices actually matter in terms of gameplay and are not purely cosmetic, resulting in sometimes radically different games.
Don't get me wrong, I like (for instance) the Splinter Cell series, but if you don't sneak in the levels where you're supposed to sneak, you simply lose the game; when I've made it through such an obstacle course once I see no motivation to do the exact same thing again the next time through.

Addictive games

[HalAtWork]

Contra & Super C (NES, Konami) - I memorized the game as a kid getting through it, going back to the game and running through it once more to play out all of that memorization is always fun

Gunstar Heroes (Genesis, Treasure) - It just has great gameplay, your characters seem like an extention of you. The stages are each unique and are fun obstacle courses to run through.

Megaman (NES, Capcom) - It's just a really unique and weird game, one of the first of its kind, the enemies and characters had a lot more personality than other games and it's always fun to go back and play because of the aesthetics, ambience, and gameplay.

Wildsnake (Genesis/SNES, Alexy Pajitnov) - It's party fun! You'll never stop playing!

Ghouls & Ghosts (Genesis, Capcom) - Again with the memorization here, plus a very unique concept and characters. The music, stages, and characters all came together to provide a fun experience. One wrong move and you're dead, but it's fun to get to the point where you can run through without dying. It may seem cheap at first but when you become one with the controls you'll do surprisingly well.

Streets of Rage II (Genesis, SEGA) - This game is great. Different characters to choose from with their own moves. Yes, moves in a brawler, like a side scrolling Street Fighter II where you beat up more than 1 opponent. This was the pinnacle of brawlers in my opinion. Had great music, graphics, and long stages that keep you entertained.

Thunderstrike (Sega CD, Core) - A blast! You'll keep playing the missions until you have a shred of life left and must escape. It's an arcade helicopter shooter... Sounds weird but incredibly fun. Lots of missions with varied objectives, music that fits the game, and great controls. Very good presentation and hasn't been a game that comes close, except maybe Warhawk on PSX.

Castlevania SotN, Metroid II, Zelda: A Link to the Past, and Quackshot are some others really worth checking out.

Deus Ex

[__david__]

I loved the original Deus Ex and played all the way through it twice and played just the first few levels a number of times since then. I would definitely consider playing it all the way through again! It's a shame the second one wasn't as good as the first.

The sad thing is I have it for the Mac and it only runs in classic mode now. When the intel move becomes ubiquitous they aren't going to do classic and I'm going to lose Deus Ex (as well as all my nostalgic classic apps). Very sad.

-David

Nethack

[YGingras]

There are games are fade away when you realize how dull the graphics are. There are games that let your mind make all the graphics.

Re:Diablo!

[techno-vampire]

What I like about Diablo II (with expansion) is the number of character classes, plus the variety of skill trees. Just because you've won as a Necromancer specializing in curses doesn't mean you can't play again as a Necro specializing in Bone spells or Golems. The stratagy is quite different for each type of skills. Not only that, even if you do try the same skills again you're going to find different weapons, armor and items and that can change things considerably. Even if you only play in single-player mode, there's so much variety in it that it can keep you coming back for years.

Simulators, Skills and Sandboxes

[syousef]

The types of games that I keep coming back to are simulators with a sandbox interface, that require you to develop a new skill or learn something new. Flight simulators are particularly challenging - There's always something new to learn on Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004, and similarly for remote controlled aircraft on Realflight G3.

In fact I'm a bit of a flight sim nut so long as the sim is sufficiently complex. There is always something new you haven't tried. Learnt Acrobatics? Try navigation. Learnt to navigate, learn to fly a 747 properly. Learnt that too how about crosswind landings, night flying etc. With the remote control sims there's always a new trick to try and master and your accuracy to improve. What's more you don't have to spend $200 and 3 weekends fixing things after every crash.

Then there's software that teaches you a classic game like Chessmaster. You can always get better at chess, and there are lots of tutorials in Chessmaster 10 so you can go through them again after a year or so and you're reminded of something you'd learnt but almost forgotten. The I can play in a virtual tournament against a number of virtual opponents.

These are the sorts of games I keep coming back to. They manage to keep your mind and/or your reflexes going without being completely artificial...and sure it's a cartoon world with virtual this and that, but hell I'll never get to land a real 747 or play chess against a grandmaster for real, so I appreciate these experiences.

Replay Value

[TheGSRGuy]

Many of today's games lack replay value. That is, once you beat it, you're bored by it. Doom 3 is like this. Sure, you can go back and try it on a harder difficultly level, but there's not a unique experience to be had again. The first time you play, it's amazing. The second time, you say, "already seen that."

Games like Counter Strike, UT2004, and Quake 3 bring replay value because the experience is never the same each time. This is why I prefer racing games and multiplayer games.

A modern game with infinite replay value is SimCity 4 (and really any other SimX game). You can build a city different each and every time. I NEVER get sick of that game, whereas I'm already bored wtih Doom 3. Same goes for Civilization 4 and its previous versions.

Multiplayer games

[yoprst]

It's not often you can claim you've played some multiplayer game precisely once.

Re:Deus Ex

[Anonymous Coward]

Damn that Steve Jobs and his evaporating Macs!

*(Hint: Keep your old mac around, or get a cheap pre-Intel Powerbook)

Re:System Shock 2!

[Mr. Underbridge]

In my opinion, both SS2 and Deus Ex (the first one) were two of the best two RPGs ever made. Why can't more developers spend more time on open-ended plot lines? I hated half-life; it was a glorified side scroller.