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Get in without clicking on a vowel: The [Gimmick Run/Self-Challenge] thread
yalborap
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Registered User regular
As I am sure you are aware, the vast majority of us here play videogames. Most of us have done so for quite a long time, playing for the bulk of our lives.
BUT!
As time goes on, the same games begin to bore us. They become...Less interesting, by virtue of having been played again and again. Your Zeldas, your Metroids, your GTA-Esque Sandbox Games. What is a poor, hapless soul to do in such a situation? I'll tell you! A self-challenge!
What is a self-challenge, you may ask? Well, our lord in internet, Wikipedia, lacks a definition. But checking the new world TVTropes, gives us this:
They also provide a handy list of basic, near-universal types:
So, in appreciation of the batshit ways some of us keep ourselves entertained in a game, I have started this thread to self-challenges, or gimmick runs, as I sometimes call them. One may simply discuss them, or one may take on a challenge themselves. If one does, it would be polite to tell us about it and present one's progress, yes? Yes! So do so, please.
With all that said, I am of course currently locked in my own. In Prototype, I have begun what I am calling the 'basic' run. No non-story required upgrades to basic abilities or new moves, but I am allowed to buy distinct powers(whipfist A-OK, air-dash before the game makes me not OK). I have also allowed myself the adrenaline surge ability, as a sort of panic button. The end goal of this will be to leave me with a perfect 'base' Mercer for future runs, with all story-required abilities, and the start of all powers, but no extra upgrades.
So, what kinds of crazy runs have you all done, or are doing?
BUT!
As time goes on, the same games begin to bore us. They become...Less interesting, by virtue of having been played again and again. Your Zeldas, your Metroids, your GTA-Esque Sandbox Games. What is a poor, hapless soul to do in such a situation? I'll tell you! A self-challenge!
What is a self-challenge, you may ask? Well, our lord in internet, Wikipedia, lacks a definition. But checking the new world TVTropes, gives us this:
TVTropes wrote:Pastime reserved for the hardcore. You see, most gamers don't have unlimited funds, and are disappointed if their most recent $50 investment doesn't require and reward a month's worth of attention. However, thanks to the gradual demise of Nintendo Hard over the years, it's becoming increasingly difficult to milk that kind of commitment out of most new games, which can be completed in a weekend without much effort (well, by the hardcore).
Enter the Self Imposed Challenge.
A Self Imposed Challenge is a playthrough of a game wherein the player plays under an restriction not required by the game itself in an attempt to increase the difficulty and replay value. These restrictions can range from the fairly simple (a refusal to make use of a Game Breaker, for example) to the near-impossible ("Hey, can you beat Super Mario Bros without pressing the "B" button?"). Check a message board for a game that's been out for a while and you'll undoubtedly find players reporting on their progress in various exotic Self-Imposed Challenges.
Gamers will occasionally record these runs and post them on various archive sites.
They also provide a handy list of basic, near-universal types:
Examples of common Self-Imposed Challenges:
* Hundred Percent Completion
* Low Level Run
* Minimalist Run
* No Damage Run
* No Casualties Run
* Pacifist Run
* Solo Character Run
* Speedrun
* Stealth Run
* No (or default only) armor and or no weapons (Fight In The Nude is named for one such challenge)
o Alternatively, a melee weapon only run
* No continues
So, in appreciation of the batshit ways some of us keep ourselves entertained in a game, I have started this thread to self-challenges, or gimmick runs, as I sometimes call them. One may simply discuss them, or one may take on a challenge themselves. If one does, it would be polite to tell us about it and present one's progress, yes? Yes! So do so, please.
With all that said, I am of course currently locked in my own. In Prototype, I have begun what I am calling the 'basic' run. No non-story required upgrades to basic abilities or new moves, but I am allowed to buy distinct powers(whipfist A-OK, air-dash before the game makes me not OK). I have also allowed myself the adrenaline surge ability, as a sort of panic button. The end goal of this will be to leave me with a perfect 'base' Mercer for future runs, with all story-required abilities, and the start of all powers, but no extra upgrades.
So, what kinds of crazy runs have you all done, or are doing?
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Deus Ex, too, as long as I convinced myself that Police Batons were just for knocking people out, not killing them.
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To explain the challenge, in Monster Hunter games you kill monsters, carve parts from them, and craft new weapons and armor from those parts to bootstrap yourself to harder and tougher monsters. There are no experience levels, per se, and your health/stamina values never change from a range of 25 to 150 (100 is default. Some armor and kitchen cats can make you lose health, but no one ever uses them except in very specific builds). In other words, while there is an equipment grind, there is no level grind... you can't just gain more levels to have an easier time beating monsters.
In MHFU, there is a zone called the Pokke Farm. After every mission, you can gather (or have a cat named Trenya gather for you by proxy in the various zones of the world) in the Pokke Farm to gain some raw materials. While these are also used for crafting weapons and armor, most of the parts are supplemental to the monster parts. There are only a handful of weapons and armor that can be made exclusively from Pokke Farm materials, and the vast majority of armor and weapons in the game require monster parts.
The Pokke Farmer is a character who does not carve monsters and does not take rewards of monster parts from missions. I only use parts from the Pokke Farm to make my armor and weapons. This gives me a severe gear handicap and requires a LOT of farming in the Pokke Farm and earning Pokke Points (to upgrade the Pokke Farm). It's been challenging and a lot of fun. Most folks choose a single weapon type that they specialize in (and maybe one more weapon type for certain monsters with a different fighting style), building weapons that have elemental damage strong against particular monster types. With the Pokke Farmer, the weapon type selection is more important, and you have to learn to tailor the weapon type versus a particular monster rather than elemental damage (because you simply don't have access to those weapons under the limitations of the challenge).
I'll also note that Monster Hunter Freedom Unite has hundreds of hours of gameplay. This is the sort of insane thing you do AFTER you've exhausted it all. I also know one person who's doing the Gunlance Challenge (beat all of the monsters in the game with a Gunlance), the Naked Bowgunner challenge (no armor, only bowguns for weapons), and I plan on doing the Iron Chef challenge at some point (only Food-based gag weaponry, like the Frozen Tuna and the Lobster gun).
The game resented me for it. It was so incredibly annoying and not fun I ended up abandoning it near the end of the game.
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So I guess I should've said "no murders run" rather than pacifist run.
Other than that, I do this most with strategy games.
"Home-grown" UFO Defense: Human technology only in X-Com, with the exception of the avenger. No plasma, no psi. Lasers, armor, tanks, medi-kits, motion scanners, rifles and cannons.
"BSG" Space Empires V: No shields, no energy weapons. Depleted Uranium cannons, missiles and Armor are the only weapons or defenses on ships. This one can be a bitch, because shields pretty much make the game like, possible, they extend your ships lives forever. Also with DUCs and Missiles you need to carry extra storage on ships, without much extra damage or advantages.
I just finished an A-Rank Megaman Zero 4. It was a lot easier than Zero 2, I have to say.
Unless you crotch kick a dude off a building
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I did that, and then jumped after him. Next time, I managed not to kick him off the building.
But then there were the subway levels where I'd knock someone out, they'd fall on the tracks and then a train comes and bam, they're gone. That infuriated me something fierce.
I've only done tame ones like a vegan weaponless monk, because playing a monk properly almost forces those conducts on you, but I know people who have gone for the more extreme ones, and it takes a toll upon a person.
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What about when you're on the bike with big momma?
Fuck Henry took a long time to kill.
Tranq guns and infinite flashbangs.
And a LOT of patience. And some luck, gotta remember to bring your luck.
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Usually I'm mostly done with games once I've completed them. I notice now that I jump into games on the harder difficulties and if I know of any interesting quirks, I'll use them on the first go-around. Right now I'm playing Bioshock for the first time on Hard with no vita-chambers. The game doesn't seem all that tough even playing like this, so I imagine normal difficulty with them on would probably be a cakewalk. I also did my first Mirror's Edge playthrough without using guns, and while it was exasperating at times, 9/10 encounters in that game have tricks which make fighting, let alone shooting, not as important as it immediately seems.
One game I went crazy for was Pilotwings 64. I explored every nook and cranny of every island using the jetpack and gyrocopter. Eventually started exploring caves in those vehicles that were not designed for such tight maneuvering. Then I made up little games where I would go on attack runs with the gyrocopters infinite missiles. Tried shooting pretty much whatever, like the space shuttle after it had taken off. Hard to explain, I just went nuts over that first sense of open exploration in a 3D world.
Funny enough, games with exploration in mind aren't as interesting to me. I love jumping around in Halo and it's sequels and seeing how far off the beaten path I can get - pretty much everything you can see in those games is solid and can be stood upon, the characters have good jumping skills, and figuring out ways to get on top of structures and areas in that game become like little spatial puzzles. I've spent more time doing stuff like that than actually shooting vagina-mouths and space-robots. Yet a game like Oblivion, which has a massive world which should be fun to explore, doesn't really give you any tools other than walking around.
Like when I played Rogue Trooper. I got about 2 levels in and realized that it was pretty terrible and also stupid easy, so I restarted on Hard and did pistol + sentry gun only. The game was still stupid easy, but at least I got some fun out of it.
Other times I'll do it because I'm a very specific player. I will play a game the way I want to play it, not necessarily the way it was meant to be played. If a game gives me multiple weapon options then I will use the one that I like, even when it's not optimal. For example, I don't like sniper rifles, so I just don't use them in games. This can lead to some tricky situations; the last game I remember doing that in was my first run through Resident Evil 4. I never bought any of the sniper rifles and used my pistol in situations where they were needed, like the part where you have to keep the monks from grabbing Ashley. You can also kill the Regenerators without the special scope, they just take a whole lot of ammo (I also didn't buy any SMGs because I don't like them, either, but shotguns solve everything).
Unfortunately, this follows through to my competitive gaming as well. I will avoid using weapons I don't like and I will choose characters in fighting games based on how I like to play them, not on their optimal playing style or how good they may be. Sometimes it works out alright, but other times I just end up being the guy who reps the low tiers at every tourney.
I did have a lot of fun doing my lowest stats, no deaths, no gels, Mania mode run through Tales of Symphonia.
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When you don't have boosted Muscle Mass to fall back on, the Hammerfist can be a fucking GODSEND. Also, armor helps a LOT when you have a health bar the size of a fucking jelly bean.
It was a lot more fun playing the game like you really actually care about making guards even the least bit suspicious.
Super Metroid: the usual low-item run. Currently (assuming the battery is still working) on Ridley with zero energy tanks, no reserve tanks, 15 total missiles, 5 super missiles, 5 power bombs; excluding the X-Ray Scope, Grappling Hook, Spazer, Plasma, Wave, High Jump, and Spring Ball. I think - I'm going off of memory here.
System Shock 2 - fairly sure I completed an OSA only run, including no wrench.
Bioshock - spent no adam. Rescued all the sisters. On hard, no vita-chambers. Was sorely disappointed.
I've tried ghosting the Thief games, but I'm not sure how far I've gotten.
Should probably try a HL/HL2 gimmick run. Crowbar only? heh.
HL2 - Episode 1 has that achievement on the Xbox with only firing one bullet - I have it on the PC, so I've never felt compelled to try. Hm.
First time playing Final Fantasy I decided to unequip all of the weapons and armor from my friend's game. And discovered that the Black Belt (? it was long ago) was doing better without his weapon.
I'm quite sure there've been other cool things I've done.
Something I've been pondering for a while, there's all these OSA only runs and shit, how feasible is a no-upgrades run? No spending cybermodules, no OS upgrades, etc. Labassistant implant gets you the toxin-A, can't think of anything else that required spending points aside from sanity.
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I want to say that the LabAssistant only gives you an extra point if you already have one. I'm not sure.
Oh! Getting the Sympathetic Resonator requires hack, I'm pretty sure.
Might be a few similar things. It'd just be painful by the end, mainly.
1) It's spelled "kinky".
2) Like you have any room to criticize marital bedroom practices.
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1) Kooky is a word
2) It's a joke
1) I know, but it wasn't being used correctly.
2) Your sex life is a joke.
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Labassistant works if you have no points, there's several ICE picks by the time you need the resonator.
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Boy howdy that was tough. Not as tough as Big Boss'ing MGS2, though, which I never finished, because FUCK THAT.
Congratulations you've rendered the game unwinnable, as you need at least 3 (I think) E-tanks to survive Mother Brain.
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Yep.
I've reached Mother Brain with 0 energy tanks before. Had some reserves, then, as well as actually using missiles on the bosses.
I intend to either 'beat' Mother Brain (get her to use the hyper beam weapon) or pick up the 3 needed ones and hold myself to taking less than 99 damage.
Haven't decided yet. . . Ridley is... well, I think I'd have to be playing perfectly for nearly an hour to make it work: the best I've done is make it to the first palette swap.
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Non-lethal runs in SWAT4 are fun, and they actually get pretty challenging near the end, once the enemies have gas masks and full armor.
Can you use that glitch beam to win, or do you not even have the items required to access it?
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1) If I meant "kinky", I would have used "kinky". There's nothing in the definition of "kooky" that makes it inappropriate, and I like the sound of it.
2) My joke was funnier, as long as we accept that we're both joking.
I recently played through Crysis using only the strength and speed modes (no cloak or armor). Not so much gimmicky, or even fantastically difficult as it is a total contravention of how I usually play these sorts of games. Going on the full offensive when I'm spotted, running up to dudes, and punching them in the face isn't exactly natural to me but it is pretty fun. I tried it on Delta and it doesn't work too well, so I busted down one difficulty level and it's frustrating but possible.