I’m not sure why exactly, but I just struggle to finish basically any game where there is a heavy focus on story.
I seem to get about 90% of the way through them and then just stop playing abruptly. I think sometimes I do that because I just play too much in too short of a time, so I burn myself out on it unintentionally because I’m just enjoying the story so much up to that point. Other times I seem to be able to tell where the story is going and I don’t like it, usually because it’s tragic and I don’t want to experience the tragedy I know is coming; It’s like this sense of dread overcomes me and I struggle to continue. Other times still, I seem to just know the end is coming and I don’t want it to end so I put it off and then forget that I was almost done with it.
Does anyone else do this? I feel bad for having not finished a ton of different games, even the ones I was really enjoying at one time.
For me the biggest hurdle in these types of games are when I’m hit with the ‘completionist’ bug. I want to check every corner of the map, finish all the side quests - often burns me out before I can finish the actual story.
I’ve actually gone hard the opposite direction… I used to just skip all the story because I didn’t care. Idk what that took out of my game experience, but considering I started gaming in the early 90s, probably not much…
Idk what changed either, but I’m finding it much easier to play story heavy games (as long as I would like them entirely without the story), and even really huge story heavy games… not always to completion, but usually as close as I can get.
But I do heavily intersperse them with fluffier games, because too much long story is still very draining. I managed to binge forbidden west to the point that when I downloaded the dlc, I abandoned the game (I know I’ll go back to it eventually, I love the mechanics, but I talk to everyone and go through every dialogue option, and that’s just a lot). But I’ve also played a number of others that I didn’t collapse in upon myself by the end, so I think it’s the burnout that keeps me from finishing them (exact same reason I used to skip all the story - it’s tiring when you just want to play).
It doesn’t happen to me because I usually only play one game per time, at my very slow pace (I am a patient gamer after all) so I don’t get burn out.
When I’m feeling tired about a heavy story game I usually play something light like Mario Kart, Animal Crossing or your favorite multiplayer game, that way I avoid the burn out.
And well, this is a hobby after all, if you feel no other gaming workarounds/habits works for you you can always switch to another hobby, watch a movie, tv show, anime, read a book, go for a walk, or ultimately for me, go to Lemmy lol.
Hope it helps a bit.
I can count on one hand the number of games I’ve finished in the last 4-5 years. Off the top of my head
- The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
- Spider-Man (PS4)
- Red Dead Redemption II
- L.A. Noire
- Middle Earth: Shadow of War
Games I stopped playing:
- Horizon: Zero Dawn (PC)
- Cyberpunk 2077
- Disco Elysium (I know. right.)
- DEATHLOOP
- Spider-Man: Remastered (PC)
- Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey
- Divinity: Original Sin II
- Dying Light 2
- Half Life - Alyx
- Boneworks
- The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
- Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords (I think I did complete this game once when I was 14 or so)
- Kingdom Come: Deliverance
- Fallout 4 (I did complete the story to this a long time ago but I wanted to give it another go a couple years back)