Edit: Thanks so much for all your awesome recommendations and feedback. Based on sheer popularity it looks like my next 3 franchises will be Mass Effect (5 votes), Dead Space (3 votes) and Batman Arkham (3 votes). I love Lemmy!
So since picking up my steam deck last year I’ve been slowly but surely working through some old trilogies that I never got round to playing. I’m a very casual gamer who plays when opportunity strikes, so it’s taken me a year to play all 3 bioshock, mafia and tomb raider games. I played them in alternating order of release (bioshock 1, mafia 1, tomb raider, bioshock 2, mafia 2, tomb raider 2 etc) and I must say I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of watching each story unfold and graphics improve.
So as I approach the end of Mafia 3, I’m looking to repeat this exercise. The Assassin’s creed collection just went on sale on steam, so I’m thinking I may start there, so am looking for recommendations for another 2 franchises to compliment (or change up) my playing experience over the next year.
Any help much appreciated!
Mass Effect is one of my favourite game franchises of all time (the trilogy - I never really got into Andromeda) and can definitely be played on a casual basis.
Playing through the Legendary Edition remasters on Xbox right now - I second this recommendation, they’re a lot of fun.
Half-Life 1, 2 and 3. You may have to wait a bit for that last one.
Batman Arkham trilogy! I only played the first one but it blew me away.
If you’re into jrpgs and manage to set up a switch emulator also the Xenoblade trilogy is unbelievably good
It’s very satisfying and gets more fun and deep the more you progress. Also it’s quite a bit different in all the three games. I’ll refer to Xeno1’s combat for the sake of simiplicity.
Tldr: this is a good general explaination, also shows some general combat https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_DsUSxDm3M
This is just some random gameplay:
The basic gameplay flow consists in: Engage the enemy > draw aggro to the party’s tank > use debuff skills > use damage skills. Throw in the mix a chain attack when possible, and repeat until the enemy is dead.
The party consists in two characters played by the cpu and one character controlled by the player. Everyone autoattacks automatically, and everyone is free to move around the enemy while doing so. The fun part consists in using the right skills at the right moment (if the enemy has a debuff) and in the right position (some skills hit harder or trigger additional effects if you hit the enemy from the sides or from behind). You have to be mindful of your skills because they (obviously) go on cooldown once used and because if you do too much damage the enemy will target your character (which is something you don’t want, unless you’re playing as Reyn)
Wow, thanks for the detailed answer! The combat looks more thorough and fun than I thought :D
People have mentioned Mass Effect so a big +1 to those games as well.
As others have said I would 100% recommended the Mass Effect trilogy.
I Also really enjoyed the crysis trilogy, it’s like playing through a Michael Bay alien movie. The 2nd and 3rd games especially.
I’d also recommend the Arkham and Witcher trilogies. For the Witcher trilogy I’d wait till the remake of the first game comes out if you plan on playing them in order, as the first game hasn’t aged particularly well.
crysis is a lot like the matrix of video games. the first one was groundbreaking and set technical standard all releases were compared to - for years! - then 2 and 3 were very meh and forgettable.
By the time the Witcher 1 remake comes out we will also have a Witcher 4, so it won’t be a trilogy anymore. That being said, I’m hoping both entries turn out to be good, especially the W1 remake. It’s a fantastic game that’s really hard to recommend for newcomers to the series.
