Edit 2: got a notification about Cronos: The New Dawn as I was launching Steam and decided to go for it. So far… holy hell, yep! Soo much yep! Just, uuh… turn off ray-tracing…
Edit: thanks so much to everyone who chimed in, there are some awesome recs in this thread! Also, really sorry to hear so many of you can relate to such games, good thing we have’em!
I apologise if I missed anyone’s comment.
OP: So, going through It™ again and my mood’s really gloomy. Anyone got any good recommendations to go with my mood?
To specify, PC-only, and I’m mostly asking for atmosphere, though some mechanical goodness will not go unappreciated. Thinking of stuff like Observer, Silent Hill, Darkwood, Arx Fatalis, Fallout: NV, Bloodborne, Dark Souls, Elden Ring, etc. Played most of these except Bloodborne, gathering the patience to deal with emulation.
Edit: oh, and if the story’ll shred my soul to pieces, all the better! Hit me with your best shot!
For both rich atmosphere and unique game mechanics, you could do a lot worse than Return of the Obra Dinn.
If you’re unfamiliar, the presentation evokes early PC (or Mac, more specifically) black and white “1 bit” games, but real time 3d. This already is very distinctive, but the gameplay also sets it apart.
You are an insurance investigator with a magic pocket watch which allows you to travel back to the moment in time that someone expired, if you find their corpse. From these brief flashes (and by cross-referencing the ship manifest) you piece together what happened to all the crew and passengers on the ships ill-fated voyage, before it’s baffling reemergence years after the fact.
Oh, I’ve known about this one, been avoiding Grim Beard’s review of it since it came out=)) This one looks so artful that I need to be in the right state of mind, otherwise I’d do it a disservice.