How do you 'move on' from an awesome game/experience?

Thinking about this a bit after a discussion with a mate of mine. I finished God of War maybe a month ago and I loved it. It's the first game I've taken the time to go through and Platinum, because I wanted to stay immersed in that world. The only other game to do that for me in recent times is The Witcher 3, which kept me going with its great DLC.

What I'm struggling with is moving on from God of War. It has set an unrealistically high standard for other games to match for me. I kind of find myself just wanting to play more God of War, but I can't really because I did everything there was to do in that game, and going back doesn't have the same fresh impact.

I've jumped between games trying to move on. I fired up Ni No Kuni 2 but burnt out on that after 20 hours. I'm about halfway through The Last of Us Remastered, which is still good, but I;m kind of meandering through. I've also just started Octopath Traveler and I'm restarting a Rome 2 campaign.

How do you move on from a game that you really love/enjoyed? Do you just replay that game again? Do you go back to an old favourite? Do you just move on to the next big thing?

I haven’t really loved a game in some time.

Nier: Automata was probably the closest, recently. It was a long game, so I was happy to play it, happy to finish it, and happy to move on.

Usually, I kinda bask in the credits if a game REALLY leaves an impact. My next game after that is usually something totally different in scope, approach, mechanics, and style because I know it’s following a tough act.

@nutter: Nier Automata is one I need to get back to. Off topic and weird question, but when does it "get good"? (I don't mean to sound like a dick, I genuinely want to enjoy the game) I know the GB crew talked about at least getting to Route C. I was just finding even my first playthrough such a slog that I dropped off it.

Well, I play a lot of MLB The Show and NBA 2K and pepper that with bigger experiences, so for me there's usually a pretty long cool down period between one great game and another one. It's definitely a bit of a sad feeling when a great game is finally done, but I don't really struggle with trying to replicate that feeling the same that I do with the ending of a great TV show. Something about the ultimately ethereal nature of video games keeps me from getting fully attached to its world and characters the way I can with live action cinema.

@captain_insano: So, some will crucify me for this, but I say just blast through the main quests if you are in any way time constrained. I work 40-50 hour weeks, have two kids, and volunteer with multiple organizations. I can’t spend time searching for content, as cool as some of it may be.

Anyhow, playthrough 1 is cool. Playthrough 2 is too long and similar, but when they change things up, it’s really cool. That playthrough was a mix of highs and lows, for me. Playthrough 3 (where ending C happens) is where things get nuts and a lot more interesting. It brings the first two playthroughs into perspective and just kinda goes nuts.

After that, I think there are endings D and E, if I remember right. Everything in the final hours of that game is super cool. There are some scenes that are etched in my brain.

Anyhow, the game got chore-y for me from time to time, but the stuff they throw at you in the third act, while not non-stop cool, has some amazing moments.

By having a short attention span, since I usually move on to play something else after a week or two.

@captain_insano: If the 2Buns chapter is boring, then the game is probably not for you.

It is interesting. I think I have the opposite experience. I loved God of War, but the production values were so damn high and the game was so long that I felt a bit fatigued by it by the end, and was very happy to move on to "smaller" games.

I just move on, I guess. Admittedly it can be a bummer in some cases if that last great game still lingers in your mind. I also loved God of War and have now daabled with Witcher 3 again, which is the first game closest to GoW that I have played since it, but the combat feels even more lacking now, thanks to how much I enjoyed swinging that axe around with Kratos.

But I can still return to GoW when that NG+ patch comes out...and while waiting for it, I can play games from completely different genres, that won’t remind me of GoW in any way and which I can enjoy on their own.

Like some have said, I also just play something very different. That's troublesome at times because almost all games are 3rd person action games now, which means it's nice to have a broad spectrum of genres I enjoy. The perfect move from GoW would be something like a colony sim like Rimworld, or maybe an RTS or something. That's PC stuff obviously, but if you have access to a PC it definitely cleanses the palate.

I just play VR these days, so I never really have any problem moving on. (Games are on the short side, and there's so much improvement year by year that I'm never stuck replaying a game over and over. It gets dated so fast because of the increase in know-how amongst devs. WipEout VR set an unreasonable standard though. That thing is nigh perfect as far as first gen VR goes.)

I can't remember the last time I was truly impacted by a game. The last time I was totally immersed in a game was MGSV, but it didn't have any real impact on me emotionally, it was just fun to play. There has been a few games that I've really enjoyed from a gameplay perspective, that have had little or no lasting effect on me in an emotional sense. It's not a reflection of the games, but a reflection of me as a person. Video games don't mean as much to me now as they did 15 years ago, they're just a way to chill out for an hour or two every couple of days.

Basically, this makes it difficult for me to move on from games that have aesthetics or mechanics that work for me. I can't help comparing every game in a genre to the one that I enjoyed. For example, no game in the fantasy RPG genre has come close to Skyrim since its release, so I just play Skyrim for that fix. Most of the games I have installed on my PC are over 5 years old.

In terms of story, characters and emotional impact, I move on immediately.

The Witcher 3 did that to me, felt like playing anything else right after it would be a downgrade. Got over it by taking a break from singleplayer and mostly playing multiplayer games until something else caught my attention enough to move on from it.

NG+ is designed for us, "but I must have more," folk. Maybe they'll add it in God of War at some point? Otherwise, I wait a year or two 'til I forget a lot of the game then play through it again, happily.

Interesting question, though. I was at a similar crossroads with Dark Souls 1 and 2. I finished both games twice in a row in one 48-hour session. It was incredible, and finally quenched my thirst.

By having an endless type of game I could always go back to just relax with and decompress. For a long time that was Civ5 for me, these days its Europa Universalis IV. I think for a lot of people it could be sports games or multiplayer shooters.

@captain_insano: I totally get what you're saying. I had a 2 week hiatus from gaming after I finished God of War because I knew there was nothing that was going to be as great, then after that two weeks, I decided to jump into my backlog, tackling games with genres completely different.

@nutter: Yup. I purposely switch up genres and art aesthetics after beating a game. Hell, even if it's not a game with a lasting impact I still do this.

For instance, just beat a third person character action game (melee focused)? Move on to an fps or strategy game. Done with a mindless fps campaign? Move on to something very narrative driven.

It takes me so long to finish games these days that it's usually a relief when i do.
Also modern games don't affect me the same way they did 10-15 years ago.

They can't all be bangers so I approach each game that way.

To be honest, I felt this way about The Last of Us. It's a game I thought was probably going to be good as Naughty Dog is just a talented team, but it was yet another one of those zombie stories that I just didn't want more of, and it wasn't Uncharted which I was wanting at the time, but it exceeded my expectations. After that game, I was just kind of disappointed by even the games I did enjoy because it didn't reach the level of The Last of Us to me (at least when it came to the games I heavily anticipated, and hoped would be that next best game to me), all the while that game stuck in my mind and I kept going back to it to experience it again and again. There still isn't really any game that surpassed it to me, but it's been long enough and enough good games came out since then that I am not feeling that way as much now.

My recommendation is to start playing games you've never played and think might be good, or go back to older games that you also loved. Check out some highly regarded games you've never played and if you have the money, take the plunge and try it out. It doesn't hurt to play more God of War every once in a while if that's a game you love. To be honest, it is kind of weird to hear the sentiment about God of War since it's so similar to me about The Last of Us, and yet God of War doesn't come near that level to me personally (honestly, God of War felt a lot like a 'been there, done that [oh, but better before]' kind of thing in many respects, despite its very high quality overall). Opinions though obviously. It's also probably my third favorite GOW. I saw the reviewer at GodisaGeek write an article saying a similar thing to what you said.

The Witcher 3 is also a game for me that did that to a degree, but not when it comes to games as a whole, but when it comes to open world games. The Witcher 3 is still the open world game to beat in my opinion (maybe a game coming out this year will be the one, who knows).

Once you get older you just start forgetting shit.

I thought I'd never be able to player another similar game after AC: Origins, because it felt so good to travel and climb anywhere I wanted to. But that feeling passed in a week or so.

My only actual hang-up are games in which you cannot jump. Real trouble going back to them. Original Doom is an exception.

Another thing (some folks are sort of alluding to this in the thread), sometimes it helps to pick a game that you know/expect to just be okay. As someone else said, they can't all be bangers. If you're always going in with the mindset of 'I hope this is as good as God of War' then you're going to be waiting a long time to get another game you enjoy.

Every now and then you'll find a game you expect to be just decent that you end up really enjoying. Happened to me with Darksiders. I really enjoyed my time with that game, most likely because I didn't expect it to be more than just decent.

I'm 31, so games generally don't really impact me as much as GOW has, I'm usually okay just to move on to the next thing. That being said, I do usually have a hangover after finishing a game of not being sure what to start playing next. GOW is a bit of an anomaly for me now in that I did find it to be pretty impactful, so I've kind of just been meandering around for a couple of weeks since.

After beating a big game, I feel accomplished and take a break. That way I'm not chasing some constant high. After dedicating a few weeks to beating a game I just take some time off, or play something small or an old game to cleanse the palate. This break could go on for awhile, a few days to a month or two (depends on the what time of year it is). The key is to not force myself back into the next game.

Life is Strange was the last one that got me. I ended up falling deep into the soundtrack, reading theories, and watching LPs. I found it good to play something very different afterwards like Rocket League.

I tend to just take some time to reflect on the experience, relive bits in my mind when walking to work etc. I'll also often try to write a review of any game that had an impact for better or worse, the less risible of which end up on here. I certainly don't get the same high I got from when I was younger but there are definitely times where the magic of a great game creeps back in (Deadfire being the most recent example).

I never had trouble enjoying games like Prey, Dead Cells or Night in the Woods even if they can't compare
to the the mind-blowing experiences I had with titles like BotW, Shadow of the Colossus or Silent Hill 2.
It's kinda like food or movies/series; a lot of it is enjoyable but rarely will it leave an ever-lasting impression, nor do I really expect it to.

@captain_insano: honestly God of War was so fantastic i took a break from games for a week, started watching Vikings. Ultimately settled into a replay of Bioshock which is still great, and now im back on my normal gaming life, replaying some final fantasies. sounds like you're trying to burn your gaming candle at both ends, let some of those newer games marinate for awhile

If I have trouble moving on from a game I really liked playing that has ended, and has left me empty and fixated enough afterwards that I don't want to play another game, because my mind is kinda in that world. And I am too exhausted from putting my all into the playthrough of the game I just finished to play it again.

I usually take that a sign that's it's time to join the fandom online and talk about the characters I liked and such.

I rarely get floor by games that are "great" these days, but I definitely need a lot of down time in between large titles.

I usually like games that are lengthy in story, tend to marathon them, and spend lots of time on them in a short period of days/weeks. This kind of makes me exhausted and angsty to the point where I can't really do that again that soon. Also I often find myself taking the apart the game from a critical standpoint and from a gameplay mechanics, strategy standpoint. A lot of the times it lead to me wondering if/how it could be better in certain aspects. Sometimes I will dig around online and see what others said.

In between diving headfirst into large titles I usually spend time on games that are more repeatable or shorter or less narrative focus. Which is pretty good since that gets me playing different kinds of stuff.

I'll generally play something that's a palette-cleanser of sorts. I just finished a second play through of the Witcher 3 and both expansions, and went straight into Assassin's Creed IV. It's not as huge of an investment, since I'm basically there to sail around and do some pirate stuff. If I'm just not feeling it after finishing a particularly amazing game, I'll just focus on another interest for a while until I'm itching to play something again.

Go back to something familiar. I find myself going to Darkest Dungeon, Sentinels of the Multiverse, The Shrouded Isle, or Stardew Valley whenever I need to just let something sink in or if I'm not ready to "move on." Whatever you play or do for basic comfort, just do that for awhile.

@captain_insano: You just play another game.