5 Games That are Tough to Restart if You Stop for Too Long

Not every game can be played in quick succession. Some games require a ton of time to complete, and more often than not, they necessitate breaks. You might’ve gotten 20 hours into Death Stranding before something new captured your interest, so you took a break to go play that other game. There’s nothing wrong with that, but when you eventually return to the game you paused, it can be challenging to remember what the controls are, key tips for efficient play, and what you were doing at the time. Switching games is hard enough, let alone without having any information handed to you or a quick exposition dump. Here are five games that make it hard when you come back after a break.

5. Any Classic The Legend of Zelda

If you stop a classic Zelda title for too long, it can be incredibly difficult to get back into it. This does not really apply to Breath of the Wild or Tears of the Kingdom because the free-flowing, nonlinear slant of those games makes it a whole lot easier to start again since you can do anything at any time. If you were working on one quest when you stopped, you can pivot to another at literally any time. This is not the case for classic games like A Link to the Past or Link’s Awakening. They’re very linear, and they are not always easy to progress through, even without taking a break. But if you do, coming back and figuring out where you are, what you’re doing, and what you need to do next can be an awful headache.

4. Fallout 4

This applies broadly to most Fallout games, but Fallout 4 has the most to do out of any game in the series. There are just so many missions and so many different things you can, but are not required to, do to complete the main story that it’s hard to return once you’ve put it down. Deciphering whether you were on a main quest versus a side quest or how to proceed is difficult after some time away, and the controls aren’t always the most intuitive. It’s a vast world, too, so remembering why exactly you’re in this particular area can be a bit befuddling.

3. The Last of Us

If you put The Last of Us down for too long, it’s going to be hard to come back to. Both games are extremely linear, so you won’t have as much trouble remembering what you’re doing or where you are in the world. It will be exceptionally hard to remember all the narrative information you experienced the first time, and that is incredibly important to a game like this. It’s not about exploration or gameplay, but rather the story is the central focus of the game. If you forget key points, it dulls the narrative and takes away what this series brings to the table. You wouldn’t want to pause a movie and then return to it several weeks later, nor should you do that with The Last of Us.

2. Injustice 2

Fighting games are typically good for coming back to whenever, as the main focus is not a story or missions but rather just PvP combat over and over again. This inherently makes them an easier genre to pick back up after a long time off. However, fighting games do have unique combinations and require some effort to get good at, so hopping back in against someone who’s been playing when you haven’t is a recipe for disaster. This is true in Injustice 2 due to the impressive number of combinations you have to learn for even just one character. It is easy to forget the best moves when you haven’t played in a while, making it harder to enjoy the game or have success after long breaks.

1. Stardew Valley

Stardew Valley is really hard to pick back up after you’ve put it down. In theory, it doesn’t matter because everything in the game is cyclical. That season you just missed will come back, as will that event and those items you can’t obtain in any other time of year. However, it’s not fun to have to wait a full in-game year to get that item you need for the Community Center. Plus, it’s impossible to remember where you were in terms of crops or what events are coming if you start again after a lengthy break. You inevitably end up wasting some resources because you didn’t remember that you planted something at a specific time.

What do you think? Are there any games you’ve found it impossible to pick back up after a long time off? Let us know!

Stardew Valley Just Overthrew the Reigning Top Rated Game on Steam