A question to completionists

[BoxGuy23]

Say there is a game you've put off for some time. three months, a year, two. When going back, do you swing back into the saddle of where you left off or do you start back from square one. I really want to jump back into Assassins Creed two but don't know if it worth more of my time to watch some recap to get up to speed and jump back in or do the time and start it back. It happens to me with a lot of games because I struggle to just sit down with one game and play sometimes. would love to hear anyone's thoughts!

Edited November 21, 2022 by BoxGuy23

[MonaSaxPayne]

ummm... it doesn't happen often.. but sometimes I'll start a game and then stop playing for some time.. if I didn't play much of it to begin with.. I'll just start a fresh game

 

if its a game that I made a fair bit of progress with, I'd probably just start start a new game (on a separate save file) and play for about 30 mins to an hour just to get acclimated with the controls again.. then I'd re-download my original save and continue from where I left off

 

if the story bits are important to u, u could probably just look at a YouTube video with all the cut scenes, and catch up to where u stopped playing

 

the majority of the time tho, I have to end up going back to an old game because of dlc added long after release 

 

dlc notwithstanding, all of the issues in the OP could be avoided if u just strive to complete a game before moving on to a next one.. which is easier said than done especially if you're a person who gets bored/distracted easily

 

 

[Sylvanticore]

For me it really depends on how far I got into the game, say I was close to the end when I stopped then I'll just mess around and relearn controls before going for the end, if I'm only a few hours in when I last played then I will restart it.

[ARIXANDRE]

The best thing is to stick to one game at a time, really. When I want to test a game, I play it on an alternative account. 

 

Things get tricky with DLC. Learning the controls again might warrant a new playthrough or a couple hours. 

[InsomniWrench]

Most of my backlog is PS3 games since I didn't trophy hunt back then. Since I also didn't have PS Plus back then and my original PS3 console is long gone, I've had to start them all from scratch.

 

So far I've really enjoyed playing through them again since it's been so long since I last played these games. But if it they were more recent. Like a year in OPs example, then I'd rather just jump back in from where I left off.

 

Depends on the game I think, if you don't mind spending the extra time and you want to experience it all again then go for it.

[vanslayder]

I continue from the point I stopped. However if the game is something too extreme and I played it too long time ago (like Hard corps: uprising), then I might start from the beginning,

P.S. I like how 2 guys answered the thread about completionists have 45% and 69% completion rate. True completionists, lol.

Edited November 21, 2022 by vanslayder

[LucasDragon570]

As far as I can remember, the only game I played that I still haven't finished the story mode was AC IV, because I was already starting to get saturated with the series and I let it go. In this one in particular I will start over because I stopped at chapter 5 or 6.

 

But I've already restarted practically all over a game because the PS3's HD died and I didn't save to the cloud. In this case, I didn't have much to do.

[VigilantCrow]

I'll usually jump back in exactly where the game was left off.

Anytime I play a game, I'll document everything I'm doing/strategies/etc so that if I ever need to come back or help someone else I can catch up very quickly.

[TrophyChief]

Honestly, depends on how I feel and the time commitment involved. When I cleaned up my PS3 games, I started them fresh.

[MonaSaxPayne]

53 minutes ago, vanslayder said:

P.S. I like how 2 guys answered the thread about completionists have 45% and 69% completion rate. True completionists, lol.

 

?

[You]

In recent years I think it’s best to try and finish what you started, in almost all cases. While it's all still new, fun and fresh in your mind. Going back later can sometimes be hard and sometimes less rewarding, knowing you might have to play a ton of stuff you already did before but (trophy wise) lack of rewards.

Considering I have so many games on the go and a nightmare inducing backlog of games I have yet to start... I often just don't bother.

 

I also kind of resent the pressure of "Oh I have to play this game again at some point because I didn't get 100%" yet, when I could actually just go back and play any game I like, and for fun, even if it was already at 100%

 

Which I end up not doing because like yourself, there's this weird pull of trying to prioritise on games you haven't finished yet.

 

I first of all just boot up an old game and play it for a few minutes, see if I enjoy it, see if I enjoy holding an old controller on an old system, can I be bothered to get my VR kit out, can I be bothered to find people to boost the online DLC for. All sorts of things to consider which in the end put me off going back to old games.

 

I would say continue, don't start a new save, well for me anyway, the thought of having to start completely from scratch, the burden of spending even more time on a game I might not want to play. I would rather try and remember what I was doing and try and continue.

Edited November 25, 2022 by enaysoft

[Evil_Joker88]

I continued games i had played a bit and left even the story incomplete for years (i.e. Infamous and RDR).

 

In case of Ni No Kuni i had finished the story and came back years later for trophy cleanup i used my backup to go into post game cleanup.

 

I wasn't happy to replay some games from scratch but had no savefile to use (Ni No Kuni II: story Incomplete, Batman Arkham Origins: story completed but wanted to do NG+ and NG++).

 

I choose continue if i have a savefile.

[EDGES]

if I'm not done with a game in relevant time, always a fresh new game

[Aidan_sam]

This tends to happen a lot for me and I'll normally just continue from where I was, usually I'll have a quick look at the controls and trophy guide, then play around for a bit until I figure out how to play again. 

[Tsundokuist]

Personally, I think video games are a shoddy delivery method for a story so I couldn’t care less about watching recaps or trying to remember who characters are. If I took an extended break from a game the first thing I’d likely remember about it is any shocking plot twists or great characters, the rest will either be overly formulaic or convoluted and probably not relevant to any gameplay. 100% of the time you can fall back into the story loop after just one or two main missions so it then all comes down to progress tracking.
 

For example, if I need to collect 100 MacGuffins and I can see which I have already on that save file in my inventory or on a map, then I will just pick up where I left off. If that progress tracking was all in my head then I’ll just start over as I may as well experience the joy of picking up each item and knowing I have it rather than likely getting to the end and having to wonder which I’ve missed and having to find that through randomly backtracking.

[pinkrobot_pb]

8 hours ago, vanslayder said:

P.S. I like how 2 guys answered the thread about completionists have 45% and 69% completion rate. True completionists, lol.

 

That's because the question is actually not really relevant for most completionists. As far as I have seen they will mostly play 1 or 2 games at a time until they are finished. How to return to a game after months or years of not playing is a question better answered by players who not religiously try to keep their profile above 95% at all times.

[Mina]

I usually start from where I left off. Except with TLoU, I deleted my save as I’ll be starting again from scratch because it’s just been so long. 

[BlueDragonZero]

Like most things it will come down to various factors. Firstly I very rarely stop playing a game for an extended period of time until I've finished it but this situation has arose for DLC and the like. 

 

It will largely depend on these factors:

How long since I last played the game?

How much I remember about the game?

How much did I enjoy the game the first time round?

Doe's the DLC require a new playthrough or a new playthrough would be a better option?

 

I don't have a go to position on the matter and it will be based on a game by game basis. For instance the two games on my list that I don't have 100% in atm are kingdoms hearts 3 and kingdoms of amalur fate sworn. KH3 will require another playthrough anyway so I will end up doing it for that which tbf I'd probably have done anyway but honestly I'll probably just start where I left off for fate sworn.

 

Form what you have said I'd ask myself this.

Will I lose interest in the game like I did last time?

How much time did I invest the first time?

Do I care about the story?

Do I mainly just want the trophies? (I mention this as this a trophy website after all)

 

These are by no means a perfect list but it might help you with your decision if you ask these to yourself and answer honestly.  

 

 

[DrBloodmoney]

Sometimes, if it's a game I haven't touched in a while that I want to come back to, I'll keep my save, but the first night, I'll actually start a new game - play a few hours, just to go through tutorial stuff and the basics, and re-familiarise myself, then abandon that new game once I feel familiar, and pick up the save again.

 

Obviously, if it's a very narrative-driven game, I might not get the best experience that way - but TBH, I feel like if the narrative was good enough that that would be an issue,  and I cared enough about it for that to be important, then I wouldn't have put it down in the middle of it anyways!

[sepheroithisgod]

I usually jump in from where I left off, but I don't really take breaks when I start a game. And when I do leave off, I can't recall when I ever left off in the middle of a story. It's usually after I have at least beaten the game that I would consider taking a break.

[Jamescush147]

Depends on the game and if I remember the "how to play" said game. 

 

I restarted both God of War and Persona 5 Royal because I forgot how to play and because I wanted to play better then my first runs.

[Ashande]

For me, it depends on a lot of factors; how long has it been, how far was I, how many MacGuffin doohickeys did I already have (and is there a sane and rational means of tracking which ones I already did, and I’m looking at you, L.A. Noire, and your bloody film reels), what sort of game is it, how much of either the story or the gameplay mechanics do I remember, if whatever trophy or goal I’m trying to reach is actually achievable from whatever save file I have, and whether or not I even still have my save (primarily a concern for Vita or PS3 titles, where I had gaps in my PS+ subscription and had to replace the systems, but there’s a couple PS4 titles suffering that fate - Warriors Orochi 4 being the worst)

 

In general, I try to pick back up with wherever I was at, rooting around in the tutorials or skimming YouTube for a refresher on the controls. If I literally have no bloody clue what I was doing, don’t have a save, what I need to do isn’t possible with my save file as it currently stands, or if I poked the game once for half an hour (dinging a tutorial trophy or something, but not actually getting into the game itself), I’ll start over.

[Moridin83]

It largely depends on how likely I am to need an extra run because I don't know what I've done on my save. Something like AC2, I would jump back into my file no question. On the other hand, something with as many conditionally missable things as Cross Edge(my 1st trophy on the account), I'll need to restart again when I get back to, because there's no good way to confirm what I'd done when I stopped, and I might not know if I was screwed for dozens of hours.

[da-Noob123]

This to me, is highly dependent on the game and whether or not you have a save to begin with.

 

This year for example, I cleaned up a lot games on my PS3. Most of them I made new saves mainly because I had no previous saves or recollection of what was going on. However, for BioShock Infinite, I had a save and a rough idea of what I was doing so I continued from that point. It was a little rough relearning the controls but I managed. 

[Taliesin_2943]

It's rare for me to just jump back in usually I have to start from scratch (I lose my saves alot it's freaky) but sometimes depending what's left to do I speed run to that point and go from there I'm doing that with Arkham knight it's slow going that games pretty big with collectibles

 

But then again most times I'm on a replay when I leave off so the plots a known quantity