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!
Half-Life 1, 2 and 3. You may have to wait a bit for that last one.
Late to the party, but Mass Effect, Dead Space, and the Arkham trilogy are all extremely solid choices haha.
How has nobody mentioned the Bioshock trilogy?
1 and 2 are fantastic and Infinite is great, though a huge departure from the first two.
It’s just about my favorite trilogy of all time.
The OP did. Maybe read next time?
Is my comment not actually deleted?
I realized after I posted that I was mistaken, so I tried to delete it. And it shows deleted on my end.
Ace Attorney Trilogy. I was immediately hooked even though I am not a fan of visual novel or detective games.
OBJECTION!! But seriously, they’re excellent.
More than a trilogy, but I’ve been enjoying Yakuza quite a bit.
Prince of Persia trilogy could work. It’s more linear than assassin’s creed so it could offer a change of pace.
For games that you can download and play right away on the Steam Deck
-Mass Effect Legendary Edition Remastered
-Dead Space
-Yakuza series
-Uncharted Trilogy
-Shadows of Mordor and Shadows of War
I would also recommend Max Payne 1-3, but that I know of the first one, at least, does need a bit finagling.
Also the Borderlands series, not sure if it can be played on Deck as is. 2 is a masterpiece though
I also would also not recommend anything Ubisoft right now with the whole deleting people’s profiles and game libraries right now, even though Black Flag is one of my favorites. With all the other games and series everyone else is recommending, anything Ubisoft made can take a backseat for now imo.
Please do try the Mass Effect trilogy if you haven’t yet. I put it off for the longest time and then just started playing. I finished all three games within a combined 100h over the course of like two months and could not play anything else. It was that good.
Elder Scrolls: first complete Daggerfall, then Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim.
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
How’s the combat system in Xenoblade?
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
Yeah, I haven’t played enough of 2 to give any info on it, but once you get invested in 1, it’s all fantastic ride through the end of it. I wholely recommend it.
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.
People have mentioned Mass Effect so a big +1 to those games as well.
Yeah I love the story of the first games
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.
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.
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.
I actually really liked Crysis 2, it felt like a polished Crysis and I enjoyed the city setting. The plot was quite basic but so was the first game.
I am sad there was no Zero-G moments though.
Without a doubt, Max Payne 1, 2 and 3
Dark Souls 1-3 is a perfect casual experience
I was going to recommend you the Uncharted trilogy, but then I noticed you said on Steam Deck, then I proceed to be sad because I don’t have one lol.
Is emulating an option? That opens up more stuff!