(Saw this question asked on another popular link aggregation website and it got me thinking)
If you could play one game for the first time all over again, what would you choose? This might be because you want to do it all again, or because you don't think you got enough out of it the first time. It could be experiencing the game exactly as you were back then, or experiencing a game with what you know now.
For me, it's Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past, experienced exactly as I was back in 1991.
Nothing comes close to how jaw-droppingly amazed I was by that opening sequence. The epic orchestral score, the cinematic rainstorm, creeping around in the dark... it was a generational leap above anything I'd played on 8-bit computers and consoles, and even the Megadrive. I'd love to play it again without thirty plus years of Nintendo/Zelda knowledge, or without knowing about the dark world.
I agree with lots of what's already been said and haven't got much to add to those extant conversations, so let me try to add in some that I've not seen:
RuneScape is a candidate. I started way back with RS Classic (the sprite-based one!).
Oh, and Dwarf Fortress too. That began in 2009.
Achaea and/or Lusternia are way up there but I don't imagine anyone but me can share the experience.
Oh, as well, Mount & Blade: Warband. Quite the adventure(s).
I don't really game anymore. But this thread did dredge up some memories, old and new.
Thank you.
Dwarf Fortress is one of those games that I love to read about, but I don't think I would actually enjoy playing. Like Eve Online.
I always like the idea of Eve Online. Then I start it up again and hate myself.
If you aren't aware, Dwarf Fortress is now sprite based. It's still the same game under the hood, but it's cool to experience in it's new form. You should get back into it. You won't regret it!
I actually did revisit it last winter around time of release. If anything, my lack of ability to summon up interest in it was one of the starting stepping stones of my realization that gaming just ain't it for me anymore.
I don't dislike it, mind you - neither gaming nor DF - it just doesn't fulfill like it used to, nor possess the same attraction.