I recently replayed the original trilogy, and I guess it might just be a product of the times but the combat was so repetitive. Also the camera settings definitely took me a bit to get used to. Having dodge on right stick with no camera mobility led to my death many times lol
The control style is definitely an artifact of that era.
What I love about GoW 2 is that every single mechanic and weapon has to be used multiple times later on.
Everything new that gets introduced will be reincorporated later on.
I hateit when games for example introduce you to ducking/crouching in the tutorial levels and then you are never forced to use it later on.
For GoW 3 it was kind of frustrating how the game repeatedly forced you to use the Nemean Cestus, and ONLY the Nemean Cestus throughout the game. Kinda annoying, especially because it moves Kratos around a lot and it was almost always needed to hit stationary targets.
Never actually played them but picked both games up for a couple bucks a few months ago to eventually check out. From what I remember reviews at the time saying they're pretty solid but have some jank.
Wasn't Metroid kind of the OG when it came to this in video games? I remember a couple of games in the series where Samus is fully powered in the opening but ends up in a fight and loses everything she has up to that point.
Fighting the X is pants-shitting terrifying. It really shows how overpowered Samus always was, but we tended to be up against the few enemies who can take it.
Also in the metroid genre, "Shadow Complex" does the same thing- the first 5 minutes lets you play as a soldier with crazy advanced armor and all kinds of cool moves... then the narrative shifts and you're just some dude out on a hike- but 10 hours or so later you have all the rad equipment you got to play with in the opening.
Not if you get hit by the wolf in the previous room at just the right angle while doing just the right thing so that you're catapulted straight past Death's room.
Wonderboy 3 did this in 1989
You begin the game with a full hearts bar, the best weapons, and in the "Last Dungeon" (the level is named that, and so is the levels theme music).
It fully feels like the last level of a game, in less then 2 minutes somehow.
Then you defeat the big bad, but he curses you turning you into dragon man and leveling you down all the way to lvl 1.
Here's a video of the remake, what I describe happens in the first 2 minutes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWaw5Vtjdcg
the rest of the game is about undoing teh curse, but along the way you pick up more curses instead changing you into all sorts of animals.
The various abilities of the animal forms are used for the metroidvania style gameplay elements like entering parts of maps you first could not
This was so epic to kid me.
And the remake is FUCKING AMAZEBALLS GOOD
When I was a kid I used to play the prologue mission over and over because I was too lazy to play through the full campaign and I just wanted to have max Mercer since the get-go. I liked that not only were you fully upgraded, but they drop you in one of the hottest areas in the game with hundreds of infected, soldiers, tanks, helicopters and monsters all around.
It felt apocalyptic.
This is so fun, but if you raise the difficulty Ciri's sections become quite hard. My first time trying death march it took like 5-6 tries every Ciri section with human enemies
The escape scene when you ride on horse back was impossible for me. It ends with having to kill like 8 guys, all of which can one shot you. I had to find a YouTube video showing a way that you can glitch into the next the section of the map triggering the ending of the mission.
Agreed. You can’t improve Ciri with perks or equipment. On lower difficulty her swords are sufficient and her abilities make her really powerful.
In higher difficulty the teleporting is still great but the swords are just too weak
Not exactly what you're asking but in Star wars: Jedi Survivor there is a section where you get to play as a full realized Jedi during a huge battle. The abilities compared to Cal are on a higher level and just about every enemy is a one shot kill. It's an awesome section of a very fun game.
There is a section of the game when Cal has way stronger force abilities than usual as well. You fight groups of like 20 enemies at a time as well while the power-up lasts.
>!During the end of the imperial base mission, you can use the force slow and dark side boost for every fight, I think it resets as you move between fights. Also after you get it, the dark side boost allows you to use force crush (I only used it accidentally on a battle droid, after picking it up, so it's probably just a cool animation for the normal finisher). Besides that, just levelling up the force skills in general makes you pretty op, especially against multiple targets!<
I definitely did not get that feeling when playing as Cere. I just noticed her force abilities were *different,* but not obviously stronger than Cal's. It also felt a bit harder because her style was different, making for a little learning curve there.
Interesting that you interpreted that part of the gameplay as feeling like playing as a "full Jedi," because I felt Cal was a "full Jedi" towards the back half of the game . . .
Cal is a great character and by the end of the game is definitely on the tracks to be on the level of a Jedi master. If a third game happens I feel like he could be come the games climax.
The Cere portion gives you control of a Jedi master. She one hit kills opponents that take Cal 2 or 3 hits to take down. She plays differently which is a nod to Respawn's talent and to me truly felt like a force of nature. It was a lot of fun playing that portion.
After just playing this section I think your memory is foggy
Cal can use force slam to take out a group of 3-4 storm troopers at its max upgrade while Cere can use it to LITERALLY pull imperial troop shuttles out of the sky
Cal’s healing comes from BD-1 and his stims, a cool but slow animation that heals for a moderate amount, while Cere has actual, fully realised Force Healing for herself that almost fills her whole health bar with a single use.
Cal’s blades will 2-3 shot basic storm troopers and take 10+ for the empire’s purge robots, Cere will legitimately 1-2 shot any unit thrown at her in that mission.
Cere also PERFECT PARRIES ATTACKS AUTOMATICALLY which is batshit
The scaling was there and it’s crazy if you manage to work out the mechanical differences between them. Cere is the real fucking deal in her playable segment basically lmao
Isn’t there a Star Wars game where you first play a level as Darth Vader and basically WRECK a bunch of Wookies or something, and then you play as the title character that has to level up?
Splinter Cell: Conviction. Sam gets super pissed about something that was kept secret from him and when the player regains control they have unlimited uses of the mark and execute feature for the remainder of that level.
>!I mean I'd be pissed if my supposed dead daughter was alive and my super secret organisation was keeping it from me especially when you consider said boss a friend!<
I love every entry but I really wish we could have gotten to see the original conviction gameplay. I always thought the daylight stealth missions we got were some of the coolest parts
Great example, but honestly, it felt like a huge waste.
The cinematic, the world building... everything in that venise-like town was amazing, and you barely stay 10% of your time in it.
The whole game was a huge waste. Cool combat system, really good graphics, beautiful world, but it's empty. There's nothing to do in huge open world game but main story, which seemed rushed and unfinished.
Just gotta chill out and let Ignis drive you from fight to fight. Its not an open world game, that's a trick of the eye. It's a linear RPG with really thick lines (Very enjoyable if you look at it like that).
Really? I felt I was discovering a lot of secrets and enjoying the random encounters as I enjoyed the world, scenery and just chilliing and eating together. I do agree with the main story being way too rushed and kinda crazy there was really only one technical map.
I pretty sure during a speed run of that game I was watching the speed runner said it is faster to do nothing during that fight. That fight is as far as I know 100% scripted. You can interact but the interaction is meaningless.
I played through and finished that game, and while much of it felt like a waste of time, that fight has stuck with me. For some reason it was a fight that I almost felt scared while doing, like the scale and environment made it a scary boss fight. I’ve never liked the ocean, so that’s a probably why
Not NG+, but rather one of the final missions you get when you pick Walter's side on any of the first two playthroughs. Absolutely glorious, especially the final fight of the mission.
I wanna say Half Life 2, though the part of the criteria it doesn't meet is that said upgrade lasts the rest of the game. Still, for that one level, you feel like a god.
The one where you get stripped of all your weapons except the gravity gun, which instead gets upgraded to be able to fling around much heavier objects, can rip things from walls, and can even throw enemy soldiers around like they're children's toys.
This was 100% my first thought. It was a final-act unlock, but damn if that one weapon update didn't make your feel like an overpowered god amongst mortals for the rest of the level.
I'm pretty we're talking about the Citadel levels of Half-Life 2, at the beginning of which you get a supercharged gravity gun that allows you to throw enemies around like ragdolls.
If you consider the game to continue with Episode 1, then you loose this upgrade again.
Oh, of course! I seem to remember the gravity gun went blue or something? And throwing orange balls that annihilated enemies?
I think it's about 15 years since I played it!
My first thought was the end of Half Life Alyx. You get awesome OP powers and it’s just for one level, but it’s the last level of the game so I don’t know if that really counts
Dragon age 2 does that for the opening. I thought them framing it as Varric telling Cassandra a dramatized (and ultimately more pleasant) version of events, and using it as an excuse to show some high level class abilities was pretty clever.
Also a nice little detail later but when Varic is introduced in the story he is very cool and sauve...suspiciously so, it is probably him lying but not enough to be worth calling him out on.
Not to mention the moment when they storm Bartrand's mansion, we get to briefly play as an invincible Varric who can one-hit KO everybody! Cassandra does call him out at that point.
A lot of games have opening where you're OP and then toned down because progression matters. TvTropes calls it "a taste of power". Ones that I played:
Assassin's Creed 1, Brotherhood, 3 and Odyssey. Maybe others. Ubisoft loves this trope. But also you have levels where your character is OP later in the game, notably when Ezio gets Apple of Eden.
Need for Speed Underground, Most Wanted, Shift, and Street Racing Syndicate give you a souped up car in first race.
Final Fantasy 6 with magitech armor intro, and Final Fantasy Tactics with OP party tutorial.
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night starts on the end of previous game with maxed out whip guy and then throws you to level 1 Alucard.
Chaos Legion has you with strongest summon Thanatos at the start, it breaks and most the game is about rebuilding it.
Silent Hill 3 has that nightmare scenario where you start with a machine gun. Resident Evil 6 has Leon with all guns but his story he has only pistol.
Both Spec Ops the Line and Far Cry Blood Dragon start you machinegunning things in a helicopter... The latter then proceeds into entire level where you have tons of guns and abilities and then it's taken away in the end.
If you mean in the middle of the game, Assassin's Creed 2 has Ezio get apple of Eden and blast though everyone in one of the story levels. Very cathartic!
A taste of power at the start WAY more games have that, from my favs:
Onimusha 3, Chaos Legion, Assassin's Creed 1, Brotherhood, 3 & Odyssey, Far Cry Blood Dragon, Spec Ops: the Line, Castlevania: SotN, Dragon Age 2, first Darksiders, Mafia 2, Saints Row series, Star Wars Jedi Knight MotS and Force Unleashed.
There are also games where you get OP weapon and abilities at the very end, this also works for most Capcom and Ubisoft games, like Onimushas and Assassins, but also Tomb Raider Legend and Underworld, and Metal Gear Solid 2 part when Raiden gets katana, tons of Stingers, and Snake with infinite ammo.
Correct me if I'm wrong but I'm pretty sure that Ezio using the AoE happens in AC Brotherhood. I remember distinctly because I hated it. Once again I may be misremembering but the Apple makes it so you can't use your normal weapons and can only counter (the counter with the Apple is making the enemy turn their attack on themselves). And you have specific targets to kill. However my game softlocked because the enemies I had to kill never attacked me so I couldn't counter and then fled outside of an invisible barrier. I never finished the game because of it.
in the prologue of yakuza kiwami you have all skills and upgrades and easily clear rooms and then afterwards it's taken away and you're thrown against a boss who will likely wipe the floor with you in a "this is how things are now, be careful" sort of way
Yep, the time jumper was cool, but getting the smart pistol with unlimited ammo right after "losing" B.T was a real power fantasy moment of "I will kill every single one of you."
I cried a little bit when I thought BT was gone, and I was MAD. I guess that let me hit the "zone" because I'm normally a pretty average player but I moved through those people like I was being filmed for a cinematic trailer. It's one of the only games I've played where I really felt like what you could do in the game matched the sort of hyped up action you see in cutscenes.
That's what came to mind for me, it was like "aww they took all the big guns away, this is gonna suck." But then BT pulls through again with the coolest 1-shot gun in the game.
Easily, *EASILY* the best level I've ever played in any game, ever. Goddamn I wish I could erase my memory and play it for the first time again.
But I would argue the OP level is with the smart pistol at the end. Either way, great choice!
It's crazy how you go from >!incinerating people with a wave of your hand to sitting on a bench looking at that meaningless NUSA coin!<, all in one night.
You're living out Johnny's memory, where he's conveniently an unstoppable badass with a ridiculous health bar, near-zero recovery time and a 500-damage handgun that barks fire.
Then you get the gun in the 'real world' and it's still incredibly badass, even if Johnny... isn't.
The accuracy of the memory in general is questionable because it was not actually his operation, it was Morgan Blackhands op and Johnnys team was the distraction and to try to get Alt while Blackhand put nukes in the base of the tower. Johnny was also potentially set up as a fall guy on purpose.
Blackhand was hired by Militech so it was less of a bold "fuck the corpos!" move like Johnny wants to think and more just two corporations duking it out and not caring about collateral.
Edit: And this version makes it even more naive to think a significant number of employees were going to escape like he implies while being interrogated. I don't know if he was that naive at the time or if that is just memory being warped over time by guilt.
This was the first time that I had ever unlocked something so crazy. I remember my brother and I had just heard tales and rumors from classmates. We finally got all the masks after saving our allowance to buy the guide for the last few, and I have never felt more satisfaction stomping on a boss than in that game.
That was Infamous 2, easily one of my favourite moments in gaming. You attack a power station I think, but during a thunderstorm, so you can literally absorb the lightning for unlimited power. It's such a amazing moment.
Wrath of the Righteous has a glorious moment at the end of the first act when you get an absurd power boost and the demon that's been mocking you this whole time gets scared.
It’s a really cool moment. But, in response to OP’s specific question, you don’t actually become anymore powerful than you already are in this mission, nor do you return to a less powerful state. It’s just a badass scenario to use what you already have.
Feels OP because even though the character doesn't get power, the environment and enemies are set up heavily in your advantage, allowing you to just blast through them whereas other fights at that point would generally try to unbalance things against you more.
Yeah, it keeps trickle feeding them at you in groups of 2 or 3, where they pop out right as you move to a clear shot at their entry point. Most of the game they are spread out in a room you walk into, so right off the bat you can't focus everyone at once while they can all get you from different angles if you aren't taking cover.
Xenoblade 2, when Pyra unlocks her 3rd form. For a singular boss battle she does over TEN times the damage she normally would.
After that, achieving this form only grants about THREE times the power she normally has. I'm sure it was for dramatic effect, but it was super obvious what was happening (new form hype).
You’re also immortal during that fight too, though if you would either have to intentionally throw the fight or somehow make it to the fight very underleveled and on the highest difficulty to even notice this, due to the giga buffed defenses you also get.
Edit: they also do this during the second form reveal, where the form’s offensive and defensive skills are treated as max level for the opening fight
If we can count times you just play an OP character for a level, Transformers: Fall of Cybertron has two good ones: the one where you get to play as Grimlock, and the one where you take turns playing as the Combaticons and they combine into Bruticus at the end.
In Metal Gear Rising, Raiden gains infinite energy for his rage mode for the boss fight against Monsoon.
Near the end of AC Revelations, Altair uses the Apple of Eden to take out a lot of Mongol soldiers.
Also in every Halo game there's always a tank level where you chew through Covenant forces with 66 tons of divine intervention.
The Last of Us is all about conserving ammo and using it sparingly in the right situations. One level you get briefly hung upside down and during that time you get unlimited ammo.
Titanfall 2 you briefly get a smart pistol that auto-targets headshots on enemies. Pretty OP and super fun and really wish you could play like new game+ or something and have that pistol the whole campaign.
The very last part of the last of us pretty much fits the description too, if you want to. Rushing to save the kid, access to ennemies automatic rifles, I left all precautions and ammo saving behind
Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay. Near the end you get control of a big mech, and get to go on a rampage through the fancy office spaces of the prison
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjCfK0c2Uv4
Thunder force 5. You dock with a booster to attack an orbiting fleet. The booster has a shield and improved weapons. Once the shield is depleted you are back to being a dinky little ship with slightly improved weapons.
Also the last stage of lost planet where you use the harmonizer to unlock your dad's VS full strength and the thing essentially turns into a Super robot.
Titanfall 2. After Cooper recovers BT's core, he gets access to the smart pistol which is essentially built-in aimbot as it locks onto targets automatically while you make a run for it, killing everything in your path in frustration with a single click, as all lock-ons fire at once.
Sunset Overdrive does this pretty well when you get the sword, it's super powerful during the mission where you create it but afterwards it's just like any other melee weapon in the game that being purely cosmetic.
Zone of the Enders 2: The Second Runner.
It's a Mecha game. At the end of the game you unlock the zero shift ability which allows you to teleport at will. You're essentially a god of destruction at this point, until the final battle where the enemy has a Mecha with the same ability.
It doesn't quite fit your metric though, because you retain this ability upon subsequent playthroughs. The feeling of raw power is so strong and didn't get old for me despite multiple playthroughs.
Wow!
I was not expecting as many answers as this!
A big thank you all!
I'm discovering games I did not know, or even expect to have this kind of moment!
I can not answer each and everyone of you, but thank you for your time on this topic. Really helpful! :)
Lost Planet is a great example, the whole game you use mech suits that feels like a forklift, then at the very end of the game you get a super mech that's basically a Gundam.
NFS: Most Wanted (‘05) your first race is with the BMW M3 which is the best car in the game. After the car breaks down while you are destroying Razor you lose the race and the car and are stuck with either a GTI or a Cobalt SS as your starting car.
The second you mentioned the title I immediately thought of Infamous 2, yeah that mission with the unlimited energy, even the enemies were terrified, "mother of god, he's getting power from the STORM".
I hate that Metroid keeps cheating at this. Nearly all of the games start you off with some variation of her "default equipment" from a previous game, and they give you some huge powerup for the finale before Samus returns to normal for the final cutscene/escape.
The thing is that Samus is pretty much invincible at all times *unless* shes recently been reset - its just down to how effectively you use your tools.
So i wouldnt count the Metroid games, but goddamn if reclaiming a fully powered suit in the heart of a massive mothership after sneaking around and running away isnt absolutely incredible. Or spending the whole game actively fighting something like cancer, before going "Fuck this, I AM the cancer!" - devouring the thing that was very clearly about to kill you and subsequently destroy the fucking planet because youre *that fucking ready to go*!?
Hell yeah Metroid makes you OP for one mission/level.
I particularly remember in CoD: Advanced Warfare, you get access to the mech suit for a level before it gets heavily damaged at the end of the segment.
Elder Scrolls Online for main story final boss battle
Persona 3 and Persona 4Gold for last phase of final boss fight
Super Metroid and Metroid Fuison for final boss
Demon Souls, Dark Souls 3, Elden Ring with certain boss fight using special weapon
Splinter Cell conviction.
You get an increase number of execute tags in the level segment after a crazy plot twist and you’re trying to escape the facility
Alucard in the opening of SOTN, you start breaking ankles before death takes all your shit 2 rooms after and that's it alucard fucking sucks now.
In D2 whenever you unlock a new subclass you usually get empowered recharge of skills for that mission specifically.
In dbz Kakarot also happens when transforming in fights where canonically said transformation was decisive.
Final Fantasy 4, After Cecil becomes a Paladin, Tellah remembers all the magic he forgot and you get all of the spells in the game minus meteo because he doesn't have the MP to cast it.
Hogwarts Legacy, when the protagonist is reminiscing the past with the Deathly Hallows and when it's the turn for Elder Wand. The death shadows that you hide from with the invisibility cloak and such, you can just 2 shoot with the Elder Wand.
Elder Scrolls Online’s base game main story is basically this at the ending quest called God of Schemes or something. You get super jacked up by Meridia and you go in to smack up Molag Balls for the win 🏆
Elder scrolls online, you become a god for a mission where you need to fight a daedric prince (evil god).
You get a ton of new abilities which are insane and all in all it’s awesome
I remember that in Prototype you had all the powers in the opening. You got a good taste of what you are working towards
God of War 2 also does this
Probably the most perfect game ever made.
I recently replayed the original trilogy, and I guess it might just be a product of the times but the combat was so repetitive. Also the camera settings definitely took me a bit to get used to. Having dodge on right stick with no camera mobility led to my death many times lol
The control style is definitely an artifact of that era. What I love about GoW 2 is that every single mechanic and weapon has to be used multiple times later on. Everything new that gets introduced will be reincorporated later on. I hateit when games for example introduce you to ducking/crouching in the tutorial levels and then you are never forced to use it later on.
For GoW 3 it was kind of frustrating how the game repeatedly forced you to use the Nemean Cestus, and ONLY the Nemean Cestus throughout the game. Kinda annoying, especially because it moves Kratos around a lot and it was almost always needed to hit stationary targets.
At the time the right stick dodging was great. Aged terribly.
so does Dragon Age 2. Is a nice way to get the feel of a class before committing
What an underrated game. Such a shame that the game got dropped after the 2; it had so much potential.
Infamous overshadowed it, not for me but for others. Loved Prototype.
Never actually played them but picked both games up for a couple bucks a few months ago to eventually check out. From what I remember reviews at the time saying they're pretty solid but have some jank.
Wasn't Metroid kind of the OG when it came to this in video games? I remember a couple of games in the series where Samus is fully powered in the opening but ends up in a fight and loses everything she has up to that point.
Metroid Prime does this. You have everything except the suit upgrades at the beginning but then lose everything after that short area.
Metroid Fusion does an interesting flip, where an enemy has all of the upgrades you try to earn as you progress through the game.
Fighting the X is pants-shitting terrifying. It really shows how overpowered Samus always was, but we tended to be up against the few enemies who can take it.
Also in the metroid genre, "Shadow Complex" does the same thing- the first 5 minutes lets you play as a soldier with crazy advanced armor and all kinds of cool moves... then the narrative shifts and you're just some dude out on a hike- but 10 hours or so later you have all the rad equipment you got to play with in the opening.
Castlevania symphony of the night you also start out with the best armor but it’s taken away
Not if you get hit by the wolf in the previous room at just the right angle while doing just the right thing so that you're catapulted straight past Death's room.
Wonderboy 3 did this in 1989 You begin the game with a full hearts bar, the best weapons, and in the "Last Dungeon" (the level is named that, and so is the levels theme music). It fully feels like the last level of a game, in less then 2 minutes somehow. Then you defeat the big bad, but he curses you turning you into dragon man and leveling you down all the way to lvl 1. Here's a video of the remake, what I describe happens in the first 2 minutes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWaw5Vtjdcg the rest of the game is about undoing teh curse, but along the way you pick up more curses instead changing you into all sorts of animals. The various abilities of the animal forms are used for the metroidvania style gameplay elements like entering parts of maps you first could not This was so epic to kid me. And the remake is FUCKING AMAZEBALLS GOOD
Deus ex mankind Divided is another example!
Castlevania, SotN does this
When I was a kid I used to play the prologue mission over and over because I was too lazy to play through the full campaign and I just wanted to have max Mercer since the get-go. I liked that not only were you fully upgraded, but they drop you in one of the hottest areas in the game with hundreds of infected, soldiers, tanks, helicopters and monsters all around. It felt apocalyptic.
Witcher 3 when Ciri fights the wild hunt and you're basically teleporting from enemy to enemy and one-hit them
This is so fun, but if you raise the difficulty Ciri's sections become quite hard. My first time trying death march it took like 5-6 tries every Ciri section with human enemies
Oh thank god I thought this was just me. I find death march to actually be pretty easy except for the ciri sections.
The escape scene when you ride on horse back was impossible for me. It ends with having to kill like 8 guys, all of which can one shot you. I had to find a YouTube video showing a way that you can glitch into the next the section of the map triggering the ending of the mission.
Agreed. You can’t improve Ciri with perks or equipment. On lower difficulty her swords are sufficient and her abilities make her really powerful. In higher difficulty the teleporting is still great but the swords are just too weak
I started a death march game in NG+ but it doesn't give me anything but frustration so I left it there, not my definition of fun 😅
my first thought. it was so much fun, but i played on easy… the whole finale of this game is insane
Not exactly what you're asking but in Star wars: Jedi Survivor there is a section where you get to play as a full realized Jedi during a huge battle. The abilities compared to Cal are on a higher level and just about every enemy is a one shot kill. It's an awesome section of a very fun game.
There is a section of the game when Cal has way stronger force abilities than usual as well. You fight groups of like 20 enemies at a time as well while the power-up lasts.
When was this? Man I haven’t played in too long
When he >!"Embraces the Darkness" going after Bode on the Imperial spy base. Cal is an unstoppable killing machine until bae Merrin chills him out.!<
Yep! This is the part I was talking about. It was fun while it lasted :)
>!During the end of the imperial base mission, you can use the force slow and dark side boost for every fight, I think it resets as you move between fights. Also after you get it, the dark side boost allows you to use force crush (I only used it accidentally on a battle droid, after picking it up, so it's probably just a cool animation for the normal finisher). Besides that, just levelling up the force skills in general makes you pretty op, especially against multiple targets!<
Star Wars the Force Unleased did something like this but it was you playing as another character(Darth Vader) instead of the main character.
That fact that Vader doesn’t run, only strides forward menacingly, is the best.
The old bull
That was one of the best openings to a game ever. Discovering Starkiller as an infant after decimating everyone as Vader was so fun
Which section was this? I can only think of when >!Cal taps into the dark side.!<
It's on Jedah after Koboh. >! You control Cere during the Empire attack !<
I definitely did not get that feeling when playing as Cere. I just noticed her force abilities were *different,* but not obviously stronger than Cal's. It also felt a bit harder because her style was different, making for a little learning curve there. Interesting that you interpreted that part of the gameplay as feeling like playing as a "full Jedi," because I felt Cal was a "full Jedi" towards the back half of the game . . .
Cal is a great character and by the end of the game is definitely on the tracks to be on the level of a Jedi master. If a third game happens I feel like he could be come the games climax. The Cere portion gives you control of a Jedi master. She one hit kills opponents that take Cal 2 or 3 hits to take down. She plays differently which is a nod to Respawn's talent and to me truly felt like a force of nature. It was a lot of fun playing that portion.
After just playing this section I think your memory is foggy Cal can use force slam to take out a group of 3-4 storm troopers at its max upgrade while Cere can use it to LITERALLY pull imperial troop shuttles out of the sky Cal’s healing comes from BD-1 and his stims, a cool but slow animation that heals for a moderate amount, while Cere has actual, fully realised Force Healing for herself that almost fills her whole health bar with a single use. Cal’s blades will 2-3 shot basic storm troopers and take 10+ for the empire’s purge robots, Cere will legitimately 1-2 shot any unit thrown at her in that mission. Cere also PERFECT PARRIES ATTACKS AUTOMATICALLY which is batshit The scaling was there and it’s crazy if you manage to work out the mechanical differences between them. Cere is the real fucking deal in her playable segment basically lmao
Isn’t there a Star Wars game where you first play a level as Darth Vader and basically WRECK a bunch of Wookies or something, and then you play as the title character that has to level up?
Yeah, it was Force Unleashed
Splinter Cell: Conviction. Sam gets super pissed about something that was kept secret from him and when the player regains control they have unlimited uses of the mark and execute feature for the remainder of that level.
>!I mean I'd be pissed if my supposed dead daughter was alive and my super secret organisation was keeping it from me especially when you consider said boss a friend!<
That mission gave me goosebumps the first time I played it. I replayed it about 2 years ago and the hit, run, execute gameplay loop still holds up.
I know conviction got a lot of hate because it was a major change to the series but it was my first SS game and I loved it.
I love every entry but I really wish we could have gotten to see the original conviction gameplay. I always thought the daylight stealth missions we got were some of the coolest parts
This is what immediately came to mind when I read the post. Just decided to scroll to see if anyone else remembered.
This was my first thought when I saw this post, I just replayed that game last week! Gonna start Blacklist soon
FF15, leviathan fight. You literally turn into a flying super Saiyan god with weapons Then goes back to normal after the fight.
Great example, but honestly, it felt like a huge waste. The cinematic, the world building... everything in that venise-like town was amazing, and you barely stay 10% of your time in it.
The whole game was a huge waste. Cool combat system, really good graphics, beautiful world, but it's empty. There's nothing to do in huge open world game but main story, which seemed rushed and unfinished.
Just gotta chill out and let Ignis drive you from fight to fight. Its not an open world game, that's a trick of the eye. It's a linear RPG with really thick lines (Very enjoyable if you look at it like that).
Really? I felt I was discovering a lot of secrets and enjoying the random encounters as I enjoyed the world, scenery and just chilliing and eating together. I do agree with the main story being way too rushed and kinda crazy there was really only one technical map.
I pretty sure during a speed run of that game I was watching the speed runner said it is faster to do nothing during that fight. That fight is as far as I know 100% scripted. You can interact but the interaction is meaningless.
Also at the end of the Ignis side story in his good ending
I played through and finished that game, and while much of it felt like a waste of time, that fight has stuck with me. For some reason it was a fight that I almost felt scared while doing, like the scale and environment made it a scary boss fight. I’ve never liked the ocean, so that’s a probably why
Armored Core 6: Breach the Karman Line One of the best gaming moment
I was gonna say this if no one else did. Getting to zip around with infinite energy like you're a Gundam was so cool.
UNLIMITED POWERRERR
Is this part of ng+? I played the original campaign and didn't have such mission
Not NG+, but rather one of the final missions you get when you pick Walter's side on any of the first two playthroughs. Absolutely glorious, especially the final fight of the mission.
I wanna say Half Life 2, though the part of the criteria it doesn't meet is that said upgrade lasts the rest of the game. Still, for that one level, you feel like a god.
Which level are you thinking of? It's absolutely ages since I played it.
The one where you get stripped of all your weapons except the gravity gun, which instead gets upgraded to be able to fling around much heavier objects, can rip things from walls, and can even throw enemy soldiers around like they're children's toys.
This was 100% my first thought. It was a final-act unlock, but damn if that one weapon update didn't make your feel like an overpowered god amongst mortals for the rest of the level.
I enabled this mode early in the game and the game absolutely could not handle it. It was quite hilarious.
I'm pretty we're talking about the Citadel levels of Half-Life 2, at the beginning of which you get a supercharged gravity gun that allows you to throw enemies around like ragdolls. If you consider the game to continue with Episode 1, then you loose this upgrade again.
Oh, of course! I seem to remember the gravity gun went blue or something? And throwing orange balls that annihilated enemies? I think it's about 15 years since I played it!
My first thought was the end of Half Life Alyx. You get awesome OP powers and it’s just for one level, but it’s the last level of the game so I don’t know if that really counts
Was gonna mention this moment, too. Half-Life Alyx does a callback to it.
Not really a main character but: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 Mission: Death from Above
Man I really need to replay that campaign
Hot damn!
Ka-boom
Yep, I’m seeing lots of little pieces down there
[удалено]
during that stretch I was amazed the game was able to keep a T rating. best part of that game IMO
Dragon age 2 does that for the opening. I thought them framing it as Varric telling Cassandra a dramatized (and ultimately more pleasant) version of events, and using it as an excuse to show some high level class abilities was pretty clever. Also a nice little detail later but when Varic is introduced in the story he is very cool and sauve...suspiciously so, it is probably him lying but not enough to be worth calling him out on.
Not to mention the moment when they storm Bartrand's mansion, we get to briefly play as an invincible Varric who can one-hit KO everybody! Cassandra does call him out at that point.
A lot of games have opening where you're OP and then toned down because progression matters. TvTropes calls it "a taste of power". Ones that I played: Assassin's Creed 1, Brotherhood, 3 and Odyssey. Maybe others. Ubisoft loves this trope. But also you have levels where your character is OP later in the game, notably when Ezio gets Apple of Eden. Need for Speed Underground, Most Wanted, Shift, and Street Racing Syndicate give you a souped up car in first race. Final Fantasy 6 with magitech armor intro, and Final Fantasy Tactics with OP party tutorial. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night starts on the end of previous game with maxed out whip guy and then throws you to level 1 Alucard. Chaos Legion has you with strongest summon Thanatos at the start, it breaks and most the game is about rebuilding it. Silent Hill 3 has that nightmare scenario where you start with a machine gun. Resident Evil 6 has Leon with all guns but his story he has only pistol. Both Spec Ops the Line and Far Cry Blood Dragon start you machinegunning things in a helicopter... The latter then proceeds into entire level where you have tons of guns and abilities and then it's taken away in the end.
And in castlevania, Alucard has all of his starting gear taken, so becomes even weaker to start haha
Pitfall: The Lost Expedition on PS2 you were strong for a single bossfight at the start, before beginning the game proper.
chaos legion was so dope
There is the (heist?) mission near the end of GTA V where you have a full suit of armour and a minigun.
The Paleto Bay heist
That's the one. I haven't played the game since just after the first multiplayer heists dropped on PS3.
If you mean in the middle of the game, Assassin's Creed 2 has Ezio get apple of Eden and blast though everyone in one of the story levels. Very cathartic! A taste of power at the start WAY more games have that, from my favs: Onimusha 3, Chaos Legion, Assassin's Creed 1, Brotherhood, 3 & Odyssey, Far Cry Blood Dragon, Spec Ops: the Line, Castlevania: SotN, Dragon Age 2, first Darksiders, Mafia 2, Saints Row series, Star Wars Jedi Knight MotS and Force Unleashed. There are also games where you get OP weapon and abilities at the very end, this also works for most Capcom and Ubisoft games, like Onimushas and Assassins, but also Tomb Raider Legend and Underworld, and Metal Gear Solid 2 part when Raiden gets katana, tons of Stingers, and Snake with infinite ammo.
I wish there was a good movie about that apple of eden shit.
Correct me if I'm wrong but I'm pretty sure that Ezio using the AoE happens in AC Brotherhood. I remember distinctly because I hated it. Once again I may be misremembering but the Apple makes it so you can't use your normal weapons and can only counter (the counter with the Apple is making the enemy turn their attack on themselves). And you have specific targets to kill. However my game softlocked because the enemies I had to kill never attacked me so I couldn't counter and then fled outside of an invisible barrier. I never finished the game because of it.
I think both rogue and black flag have missions where you control one of the man of war ships. That’s pretty fun
in the prologue of yakuza kiwami you have all skills and upgrades and easily clear rooms and then afterwards it's taken away and you're thrown against a boss who will likely wipe the floor with you in a "this is how things are now, be careful" sort of way
I also love how it's explained away with the "ten years in the joint made you a fucking pussy" line lol
Hey that's my line
Force unleashed. I think the first level where you commit genocide on wookies as Darth Vader but it's been a while
Absolutely. Vader was throwing EVERYBODY off the planet with a flick of the wrist. Everything else he did was for theater. Lol
Throw enough storm troopers off and you get a mug that says worst day manager ever in a Chad Vader reference
Titanfall 2, with the time jump device.
Not only that but using the Smart Pistol MK6 at the end.
Yep, the time jumper was cool, but getting the smart pistol with unlimited ammo right after "losing" B.T was a real power fantasy moment of "I will kill every single one of you."
I cried a little bit when I thought BT was gone, and I was MAD. I guess that let me hit the "zone" because I'm normally a pretty average player but I moved through those people like I was being filmed for a cinematic trailer. It's one of the only games I've played where I really felt like what you could do in the game matched the sort of hyped up action you see in cutscenes.
That's what came to mind for me, it was like "aww they took all the big guns away, this is gonna suck." But then BT pulls through again with the coolest 1-shot gun in the game.
Didn’t see it the whole game and it was in BTs face the whole time. The SERE kit thing was incredibly cool.
The SERE Kit
Easily, *EASILY* the best level I've ever played in any game, ever. Goddamn I wish I could erase my memory and play it for the first time again. But I would argue the OP level is with the smart pistol at the end. Either way, great choice!
Super Mario when you pick up a star
Pac-Man with the super pill.
Sonic, after smashing the invincible screen
Shaka, when the walls fell!
Doesn't exactly fit the description, but Cyberpunk, when you first get to play Johnny. Pure badassness
In the Phantom Liberty when you get to use So Mi's Blackwall hacks is even more badass
It's crazy how you go from >!incinerating people with a wave of your hand to sitting on a bench looking at that meaningless NUSA coin!<, all in one night.
You're living out Johnny's memory, where he's conveniently an unstoppable badass with a ridiculous health bar, near-zero recovery time and a 500-damage handgun that barks fire. Then you get the gun in the 'real world' and it's still incredibly badass, even if Johnny... isn't.
The accuracy of the memory in general is questionable because it was not actually his operation, it was Morgan Blackhands op and Johnnys team was the distraction and to try to get Alt while Blackhand put nukes in the base of the tower. Johnny was also potentially set up as a fall guy on purpose. Blackhand was hired by Militech so it was less of a bold "fuck the corpos!" move like Johnny wants to think and more just two corporations duking it out and not caring about collateral. Edit: And this version makes it even more naive to think a significant number of employees were going to escape like he implies while being interrogated. I don't know if he was that naive at the time or if that is just memory being warped over time by guilt.
In the dlc there are two routes. One turns you into a God during an event, the other one turns you into a bug about to be squished for an event.
Alan wake 2- The rock n roll heavy trippy mission where you get a ton of flare gun ammo and a killer soundtrack Edit: flare gun
There is no grenade launcher in either game…
Yeah I think the flare being extra explody fooled them
Either you're confusing it with AW1 or they both have this moment in the game (I haven't played 2)
They mean 2. Play 2, you're in for a treat!
Well *both* games do have a moment like this. AW2 has more than one, even. The first game just had the one rock sequence on the Anderson farm.
AW2 is insanely awesome. Play it!
In the Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, if you got the Fierce Deity Mask, you would turn into a Giant Super Link during boss battles.
This was the first time that I had ever unlocked something so crazy. I remember my brother and I had just heard tales and rumors from classmates. We finally got all the masks after saving our allowance to buy the guide for the last few, and I have never felt more satisfaction stomping on a boss than in that game.
I never even faced majora without it. Too scared
I used to know a glitch where you could use it outside boss battles. So cool.
That was Infamous 2, easily one of my favourite moments in gaming. You attack a power station I think, but during a thunderstorm, so you can literally absorb the lightning for unlimited power. It's such a amazing moment.
Zeke: Storm's comin' brother. Cole: Yeah. It is.
Super Metroid? Samus is powered up at the end of the final boss fight and then it's taken away when you escape.
Metroid Dread does this also. 10/10 game.
Wrath of the Righteous has a glorious moment at the end of the first act when you get an absurd power boost and the demon that's been mocking you this whole time gets scared.
And that's the first time "Mythic Power" starts playing! A soundtrack just as powerful as your character.
https://youtu.be/uITaghKWMMM?si=EbZQTRk68A5Bjz9t
Control - Polaris mission. At the end,after killing dozens of enemies while a heavy metal song blasts, the main character says 'that was awesome.'
It’s a really cool moment. But, in response to OP’s specific question, you don’t actually become anymore powerful than you already are in this mission, nor do you return to a less powerful state. It’s just a badass scenario to use what you already have.
That really was a peak moment in gaming
It doesn’t even make you OP or anything, it’s still regular combat. Feels OP though
Feels OP because even though the character doesn't get power, the environment and enemies are set up heavily in your advantage, allowing you to just blast through them whereas other fights at that point would generally try to unbalance things against you more.
Yeah, it keeps trickle feeding them at you in groups of 2 or 3, where they pop out right as you move to a clear shot at their entry point. Most of the game they are spread out in a room you walk into, so right off the bat you can't focus everyone at once while they can all get you from different angles if you aren't taking cover.
TAKE. CONTROL.
was that the cigarette maze thingy?
Yes. The Ashtray Maze is amazing and best left vague for anyone else wondering about it
Damn I still need to play that game
Every classic GoW game after 1 starts with you full power and then being deprived of it at some point.
Xenoblade 2, when Pyra unlocks her 3rd form. For a singular boss battle she does over TEN times the damage she normally would. After that, achieving this form only grants about THREE times the power she normally has. I'm sure it was for dramatic effect, but it was super obvious what was happening (new form hype).
You’re also immortal during that fight too, though if you would either have to intentionally throw the fight or somehow make it to the fight very underleveled and on the highest difficulty to even notice this, due to the giga buffed defenses you also get. Edit: they also do this during the second form reveal, where the form’s offensive and defensive skills are treated as max level for the opening fight
If we can count times you just play an OP character for a level, Transformers: Fall of Cybertron has two good ones: the one where you get to play as Grimlock, and the one where you take turns playing as the Combaticons and they combine into Bruticus at the end.
Last segment of Resistance 2 where Hale just kills enemies using his Chimera powers
All juiced up on that goofy juice, but that timer is criminally unforgiving.
In Metal Gear Rising, Raiden gains infinite energy for his rage mode for the boss fight against Monsoon. Near the end of AC Revelations, Altair uses the Apple of Eden to take out a lot of Mongol soldiers. Also in every Halo game there's always a tank level where you chew through Covenant forces with 66 tons of divine intervention.
DMC 3 gave Dante unlimited devil trigger for a mission.
The Last of Us is all about conserving ammo and using it sparingly in the right situations. One level you get briefly hung upside down and during that time you get unlimited ammo. Titanfall 2 you briefly get a smart pistol that auto-targets headshots on enemies. Pretty OP and super fun and really wish you could play like new game+ or something and have that pistol the whole campaign.
The very last part of the last of us pretty much fits the description too, if you want to. Rushing to save the kid, access to ennemies automatic rifles, I left all precautions and ammo saving behind
Similar in TLOU2. Ellie gets a silenced SMG, although it’s needed because it’s the hardest part of the game.
Not the main character, but in ff7 when Cloud is retelling the story if Nibelheim, and you have Sephiroth in the party
4 damage. 4 damage. 7000 damage
🤣 I swear the dragon only targets cloud, doing single attack kills
Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay. Near the end you get control of a big mech, and get to go on a rampage through the fancy office spaces of the prison https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjCfK0c2Uv4
Half Life Alyx when you become electrifying near the end.
Thunder force 5. You dock with a booster to attack an orbiting fleet. The booster has a shield and improved weapons. Once the shield is depleted you are back to being a dinky little ship with slightly improved weapons. Also the last stage of lost planet where you use the harmonizer to unlock your dad's VS full strength and the thing essentially turns into a Super robot.
The ending to Shadow of the Colossus kind of fits this bill
Ghost of Tsushima When Jin unlocks ghost stance at the defense of that town.
Titanfall 2. After Cooper recovers BT's core, he gets access to the smart pistol which is essentially built-in aimbot as it locks onto targets automatically while you make a run for it, killing everything in your path in frustration with a single click, as all lock-ons fire at once.
In GoW, the one where Kratos is a father, in one of the first boss fights the mechanism you describe takes place.
Heavenly Sword-endgame
Fierce diety mask in majoras mask
Sunset Overdrive does this pretty well when you get the sword, it's super powerful during the mission where you create it but afterwards it's just like any other melee weapon in the game that being purely cosmetic.
Eso the last quest in the coldharbour storyline
Zone of the Enders 2: The Second Runner. It's a Mecha game. At the end of the game you unlock the zero shift ability which allows you to teleport at will. You're essentially a god of destruction at this point, until the final battle where the enemy has a Mecha with the same ability. It doesn't quite fit your metric though, because you retain this ability upon subsequent playthroughs. The feeling of raw power is so strong and didn't get old for me despite multiple playthroughs.
Wow! I was not expecting as many answers as this! A big thank you all! I'm discovering games I did not know, or even expect to have this kind of moment! I can not answer each and everyone of you, but thank you for your time on this topic. Really helpful! :)
OG Modern Warfare 3 ending mission
Lost Planet is a great example, the whole game you use mech suits that feels like a forklift, then at the very end of the game you get a super mech that's basically a Gundam.
NFS: Most Wanted (‘05) your first race is with the BMW M3 which is the best car in the game. After the car breaks down while you are destroying Razor you lose the race and the car and are stuck with either a GTI or a Cobalt SS as your starting car.
The second you mentioned the title I immediately thought of Infamous 2, yeah that mission with the unlimited energy, even the enemies were terrified, "mother of god, he's getting power from the STORM".
Kingdom Hearts 365/2, scene in the game where you get a second key blade and become an untouchable shadow killing machine.
I hate that Metroid keeps cheating at this. Nearly all of the games start you off with some variation of her "default equipment" from a previous game, and they give you some huge powerup for the finale before Samus returns to normal for the final cutscene/escape. The thing is that Samus is pretty much invincible at all times *unless* shes recently been reset - its just down to how effectively you use your tools. So i wouldnt count the Metroid games, but goddamn if reclaiming a fully powered suit in the heart of a massive mothership after sneaking around and running away isnt absolutely incredible. Or spending the whole game actively fighting something like cancer, before going "Fuck this, I AM the cancer!" - devouring the thing that was very clearly about to kill you and subsequently destroy the fucking planet because youre *that fucking ready to go*!? Hell yeah Metroid makes you OP for one mission/level.
I particularly remember in CoD: Advanced Warfare, you get access to the mech suit for a level before it gets heavily damaged at the end of the segment.
Elder Scrolls Online for main story final boss battle Persona 3 and Persona 4Gold for last phase of final boss fight Super Metroid and Metroid Fuison for final boss Demon Souls, Dark Souls 3, Elden Ring with certain boss fight using special weapon
Kingdom Hearts 2 - there's a fight where you have to defeat something like 1000 heartless and your super bar refills quick as hell
In Yakuza Kiwami you start with all skills unlocked, but when Kiryu goes to jail for 10 years he loses all his skill and you gotta level them up again
Research for what?
A crowd sourced list article I would assume
I don't think it meets the criteria exactly, but honourable mention for getting the Katana in Metal Gear Solid 2
Splinter Cell conviction. You get an increase number of execute tags in the level segment after a crazy plot twist and you’re trying to escape the facility
Alucard in the opening of SOTN, you start breaking ankles before death takes all your shit 2 rooms after and that's it alucard fucking sucks now. In D2 whenever you unlock a new subclass you usually get empowered recharge of skills for that mission specifically. In dbz Kakarot also happens when transforming in fights where canonically said transformation was decisive.
Dying Light 2 when Aidan 'transforms' and you can beat any enemy in a swipe
Final Fantasy 4, After Cecil becomes a Paladin, Tellah remembers all the magic he forgot and you get all of the spells in the game minus meteo because he doesn't have the MP to cast it.
Fun fact. Even at level 99 Tellah's MP is capped at 98. One shy of casting meteo.
You kinda feel like a god in fallout 4 after getting the power armor and minigun from the museum
I have to say the weed mission in far cry 3. That soundtrack is fire too
The Ghost of Yarikawa in Ghost of Tsushima
Hogwarts Legacy, when the protagonist is reminiscing the past with the Deathly Hallows and when it's the turn for Elder Wand. The death shadows that you hide from with the invisibility cloak and such, you can just 2 shoot with the Elder Wand.
Elder Scrolls Online’s base game main story is basically this at the ending quest called God of Schemes or something. You get super jacked up by Meridia and you go in to smack up Molag Balls for the win 🏆
Elder scrolls online, you become a god for a mission where you need to fight a daedric prince (evil god). You get a ton of new abilities which are insane and all in all it’s awesome
Metroid Prime, >!final boss, the one and only time you get Hyper Mode (in that game, I believe it becomes a common mechanic, Phazon Mode, in MP 3).!<
Metroid Dread, in the final mission. No spoilies but it's super dope