There is something to be said about “easy to learn difficult to master” curve, as well as overall basic simplicity and the feedback loop being very transparently clear and “tactile.”

The one game that never fails to hook me in that way is Quake 3. Every mistake feels like your own, but with a very clear and obvious path for improvement. Every improvement step feels incremental and doable, none of that “noscope 180 from the bushes where i had zero chance to spot the enemy” situations.

Even on kills where it initially felt like some annoying cheap trick, i watch the killcam, and walk away very impressed and eager to try out their approach myself. And it always makes perfect sense. As opposed to a lot of more modern games, where killcam only frustrates me more.

Imo this is the same thing that made the original DOOM a massive sensation, but I feel like Quake 3 would be easier to relate to for a lot of people (on HN or elsewhere). At the time, I was too young and growing up in a wrong part of the world to catch that original DOOM hype. But with Quake 3 (and imo even quake 1 and 2), that phenomenon truly transcended countries and cultures.