No on Watch Dogs 3. For great story I would suggest these:

God of War (2022)

Red Dead Redemption 2

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

Glitchy and exploitable how? And I’d say the boss fights fit perfectly in the regular game loop because every time you’d come to something like a boss fight it was really just introducing you to a new regular enemy type.

I remember the first time I fought the breaker, roid rage freak, and I burned through my entire stock of ammo and molotovs. And I never wanted to see one of those things again. But then they were added to the regular enemy spawns. Driving around at night, oh shit it’s a breaker. Cleaning out a nest, fuck it’s a breaker. The game kept the tension of exploring and fighting high by continually adding new challenges and as long as you kept going you’d get new ways to deal with those challenges.

Days Gone is much better than Mad Max, which was still a good game. It’s a shame Days Gone launched with so many problems because the final product is so so good. Yeah the story is a just ok and the acting can be hammy and a little uneven. But the gameplay is great and I actually enjoyed the story.

Midir is just Nameless King with more hitpoints. He’s not too bad but his health pool and resistances make him a little boring. Not that the fight isn’t worth it or not fun, it’s just that you’ll get in to a groove and then get complacent then you get to start over.

If you haven’t tried a lvl 1 run on DS3 I think you would enjoy it. I am not great at these games but that lvl 1 run made me re think every area, enemy, boss and equipment setup. It’s really freeing to not care about losing all your souls when you die.

I started with DS1 after trying the demo for DS2. I’ve gone through both games enough to have to delete characters in order to start a new one.

Then Bloodborne, which I did not like at first. But I did like the game by the time I finished it. After playing the full game with Old Hunters I was obsessed. It became my favorite game ever and might still be.

DS3 is chock full of fan service and I ate it up. DS3 is my favorite Dark Souls game because of the gameplay, settings, and all the callbacks.

Sekiro pushed Bloodborne out of the top for a little bit and it’s still probably tied in truth.

PS5 Demon Souls was great and the best looking FromSoft ever. But it held no magical nostalgia for me and the mechanics are dated compared to the newer games.

Elden Ring was where I started to burn out. I’ve done a couple playthroughs and I enjoy specific parts of the game but I couldn’t imagine going through all of it again.

My top 3: Bloodborne Sekiro DS3

And it really depends on what type of experience I’m in the mood for that determines that order.

Is Stranger of Paradise good? I never played it but you make it sound good.