Some video games are pretty simple, and some are very much not. For every modern game that tells a simple or relaxing story to players while they adventure through a colorful or harsh landscape, there is another one which is filled with intrigue and lore, a level of world-building that cannot possibly be completely understood on a first-time playthrough.
As such, more and more as the gaming industry gains more complexity, there are a lot of games that need to be replayed for players to fully understand a much more complex story or world on the level that the game deserves to be fully appreciated.
7 The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim
There is simply no way that a player can experience absolutely everything which Skyrim has to offer in one playthrough. This isn’t because experience is required in Skyrim to fully understand any of the stories. It is because the level of content, and the choices players have to make in some factions by picking one side or the other, means they’re simply not allowed to experience it all at once.
Quests like the Dark Brotherhood, Civil War, and Dawnguard involve multiple paths that players can take, even the main story diverges somewhat based on whether the player kills Paarthurnax. Because of all this and the fact that Skyrim is hugely fun to play through again when players understand the world better, at least two runs are required.
6 Red Dead Redemption 2
Red Dead Redemption 2 is a game that manages to take the Wild West and the sort of stories countless old movies have covered over and over again and do something new with it all. That in itself deserves a second look for gamers who have only played it once. But other intriguing aspects to the game earn it that second playthrough.
One of the primary reasons gamers should think about returning to this incredible game is its size. Much like Skyrim, there’s almost no way that players play through all the amazing extra content the game has to offer the first time around. The other major reason is the morality gauge which may have left players wishing they’d done some things differently once they find out how much it affects certain moments in the story.
5 Bioshock
It’s possible that feeling the after-effects of making the wrong moral choices in a game has never been felt more than by players who don’t save the little sisters in Rapture. The tirade which Tenenbaum delivers in the closing moments made angrier depending on how many of the little sisters were harvested, is extremely depressing to get as an ending.
If players didn’t know how bad it was to harvest the little sisters, they’ll be clamoring for a second playthrough. Never mind the fact that Bioshock is still such an incredible game to play that it deserves as many playthroughs as players are capable of giving to it.
4 Dead Rising
Dead Rising is a game where players are pretty much always under time pressure, this inevitably leads to mistakes and missing missions. The idea of being able to do a perfect run where players complete all the missions by rushing around the mall at light speed is so tantalizing that it is difficult for players to put Dead Rising down after one playthrough.
Even if they aren’t searching for the elusive perfect run, players will certainly want to experience more of the crazy missions they’ve been missing out on. The wide variety of characters with ludicrous personalities that Frank can save makes a second playthrough of the original Dead Rising a must, and gamers may get the chance through an upcoming remake.
3 Undertale
Undertale is a game that is so much deeper than it seems. With several different ways that players can tackle the game, ranging from full pacifist to killing off everything they come across in the Underground, the punishments or rewards, in the end, are varied greatly in this beautiful pixel art world.
In particular, the player will receive various levels of scolding for their lack of morality in killing off various characters. The only way to bring true peace to the Underground is to kill nobody, which makes the game trickier and gives hours of extra runtime after the initial ending. If players missed this extra content in their first playthrough, they’ll be booting Undertale up again quickly.
2 The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
The Witcher 3 is not only one of the best games released in the last decade and deserves a second playthrough for that reason alone, it again contains a complex morality system that can affect many smaller interactions throughout the game. The problem is that the game keeps players guessing about what is even the right choice, the world of The Witcher is not black and white.
These difficulties and moral dilemmas will keep players on the hook for several playthroughs of this game. The Witcher 3 has huge replayability and is worth another look even if players are happy with their moral choices and meter in their first run.
1 NieR: Automata
NieR: Automata is one of those games that can only be fully understood after multiple playthroughs because it is cruel enough to only give out the full story after at least three playthroughs. This strange mechanic gives the players a huge amount of content for their money but makes it an extremely strange experience going through the game.
While other games work in similar fashions with extra content only being available during a later run, NieR: Automata took this much further than most games in that vein. Nevertheless, it is an amazing game and deserves the several playthroughs that are required to fully experience it.