Games

DOOM

Fuck your Blue Key.

You want the absolute "guide damn it" example? Try playing the OG Dragon Quest games. They're nonlinear by nature and there's a spot in 2 (or was it 3) where you need to literally check an unmarked floor for an item. No indicator, save maybe a vague NPC dialogue in another part of the planet that didn't get adequately translated in English so you're truly aimless.

Just started playing a simple isometric game called Tunic. It's cute, and you play as a little button mashing fox creature with a sword in a language that's gibberish as you find hidden paths in the isometric style. It's frustrating for being so simplistic, because the hidden paths are hidden. I kinda like it so far tho. Just simple, relaxing, chill music, and cute AF artwork.

Final Fantasy 7 has a lot of mini versions of this moment because the level art is rarely distinguished from the actual terrain you can interact with so sometimes you kinda get stuck until you realise that this time that little ramp is actually something your supposed to walk up rather than un-interactable scenery like all those previous times.

Currently playing through Rainworld for the first time, and "where the fuck do I go" has definitely crossed my mind more than a few times.

I will say I've mostly been enjoying just exploring, but it has been frustrating at times trying to figure out what to do or where to go when my little in-game helper suddenly decides to play coy at another crossroads.

The old text adventures where being able to solve a puzzle required hitting the right words. "Oh, twist, not pull."

That game, bro, omg

You stumble around, find a key, a corpse gets up and you have no idea how to fight back, and then do it all over again.

I actually like those a lot. Just listing some in no particular order:

• Metroid Prime Series
• Dark Souls Series half the time
• Resident Evil 1, 2 and maybe 8
• Hollow Knight
• Castlevania Symphony of the Night
• Outer Wilds

The original Bard's Tale

Me and my best friend literally spent a month of near nightly playing trying to get through the first in-town dungeon

Daggerfall also fits the bill

I had the Old Ninja Gaiden i believe on some Collection for the PS3 growing up. Maybe it was just my age but i could never figure out what the hell i was supposed to do. There were a few games like that in the collection now that i think about it, like Echo the Dolphin and some top down rpg like thing

Metroid and Legend of Zelda I and II for NES.

every Metroid or Castlevania game, to the point metroidvania is a genre.

Myst.

Riven.

Myst III Exile

Subnautica and Hollow Knight spring to mind

Myst, sometimes Max Payne, Doom 3, Tomb Raider

Divinity: Original Sin 1. took about eighty odd hours to get to the door that says sorry mate, not enough magic stones

For me it's always been Zelda games.

I would say many games with procedural generated worlds, like Minecraft, No Man's Sky, etc. Where the main task is deciding where do I go next, where do I settle down, maybe there is some better place over the next hill, next planet, etc.

There are other games, where it is also sometimes not quite clear what to do next. Like games have a lot of progression and rebuilding of stuff that was done before because of it. Like Satisfactory, Factorio, etc.

And on a more literal sense, where you actually redo the game over and over to progress, like The Stanley Parable or Outer Wilds.

Some games have a very labyrinthine level design, where it also isn't really clear what to do next, like Dark Souls, Subnautica, etc.

Or environment puzzles, where you have to figure out how to progress, like the Myst series, Riven, etc.