5 Games I Finished Multiple Times

I’m a grown up.  That means I don’t have nearly as much gaming time as I used to.  That means most games tend to get the “one-and-done” treatment.  That means that I tend not to complete many games multiple times.  That means…I don’t think I can carry on doing this “That means…” thing.  I know.  You’re upset.  It was pretty hilarious whilst it lasted.  But you’ll just have to move on.  Much like I’m going to right now.

Rambling aside, I tend not to finish games repeatedly, simply because I don’t have the time to before I move onto the next experience.  But there are a few games I’ve played during my more recent adult life that have had the special privilege of not being returned to the shelf once I’ve finished it.  This is dedicated to those games!

Some rules here.  Games that require multiple playthroughs don’t count (sorry Nier: Automata).  Super short games don’t count either, so things like Blue Estate are going to be ignored.  They need to be games I’ve played since being a proper grown up and having a real job, so don’t expect anything before the past couple of generations.  On with the show!

Mass Effect

Seven times.  I played this from start to finish seven times.  It was absolute madness to spend that length of time on a single game, but utterly worth it.  There were so many different ways to play it, with multiple classes as well as multiple ways to approach a situation and alter the story.

Nothing to do with playing the game multiple times, but this really made me laugh.

My final playthrough was on Insane mode.  God knows why I did that, but it really was a slog as the enemies just became bullet sponges.  Still!  There was a lot to love in this universe, so much so that I went back to see those things seven times…

Oh, and I ended up taking my original playthrough through to the future games, making those other playthroughs moot.

Dark Souls

This was an odd one for me, as I finished the game and then started playing it through again immediately so I could get the other ending.  Not that I had a clue what either ending meant.  Honestly I think it was just an excuse for me to go back and experience it all again.

That’s a whole lot of demon butt.

Having finished the game, I found out that there were other bosses and such that I didn’t even know existed, let alone had found.  So back in I went, armed with my new knowledge.  I got thoroughly killed by most of them (along with the minions in the areas.  Screw those wheel skeletons) but going back through the worlds was just as much fun the second time around as the first.

Alan Wake

Alan Wake did something that I don’t like in games.  It hid content behind difficulty modes.  If you wanted to see everything in the game you had to play it on the hardest setting.  Thankfully, normal mode was actually fairly tame, meaning that I felt alright about going into Nightmare mode.  For a hardest setting, it wasn’t all that tough (HASHTAG MLGPRO!).  Anyway, I’d enjoyed the main game a lot.  I found the story interesting, the atmosphere spot on, and the soundtrack fantastic.  The gameplay wasn’t half bad either.

The light + gunfire gameplay still works as far as I’m concerned.  Using flares and other light sources as offense and defence works very well.

I’m pretty sure there isn’t anything in this game that I didn’t do.  All the collectibles, all the DLC, all the extra challenges, everything.  I know it has its flaws, but I found it utterly compelling, and I’m one of those that still hopes for a proper follow-up one day.  I’m not holding my breath though.

DmC: Devil May Cry

No, you shut up!  Whilst I found the new Dante a bit irritating (plus that who “Not in a million years.” thing felt like a deliberate swipe at fans of the previous games), I considered the world and gameplay to be absolutely spot on.  The real world/demon world thing lead to some really intersting environmental designs and trversal challenges, and whilst the combat was a little easier than previous installments, it was still incredibly satisfying.

He’s certainly not one of the hardest bosses I’ve ever faced, but the it does so much so well!

Add to that the bosses, that were incredibly varied and fun to fight.  The Bob Barbas one above was insane in its presentation alone.  I didn’t play this a second time until years later, but it was just as fun the second time around.  It held up pretty well in spite of this being a pretty hated entry in the series.

XCOM/XCOM 2

Well obviously.  Did anyone expect this to not be here?  Literally hundreds of hours across numerous playthroughs that are different every time depending on successes and failures as well as the choices you make in the “overworld”.  This is my go to game any time I need a play through of something comfortable.  Comfort gaming if you like.

The War of the Chosen expansion adds such a huge amount to XCOM 2.  It practically makes it a whole new game.

If you missed it, I recently did a week by week run through of my most recent campaign featuring friends and family.  Needless to say, not eveyone made it thought…

Some honourable mentions.  Alpha Protocol was a horribly under appreciated spy thriller with tons of choice about how to play that had genuine consequences.  I needed a few playthroughs to see everything I wanted to.  DOOM (2016) got a couple of run throughs by virtue of being brilliant and having a fun enough core gameplay loop for me to want to do it all again.  Fallout 3, because I really wanted to blow up Megaton…

How about you?  What have you played over and over again?  Are they comfort games or ones that genuinely needed more playthroughs just because they were that much fun?  Tell me about them so I can absolutely not play them because I don’t have time to!