In Control, the Hotel Ashtray maze:
spoiler
You put on headphones and some epic hard rock kicks in. (Old Gods of Asgard: “Take Control”.) The hotel hallways open up and transform into a surreal maze of twisting, sliding paths as you run through and hit a series of intense fights.
I’d never done the maze before, so I totally wasn’t expecting this: At the very end of it, basically unison with the in-game character Jesse, I said “That was awesome”
Personally, I feel like most games that have a grind are kryptonite to me. Like, unless I really, really, really like the game loop to an obsessive degree - which is rare - I quickly get to a point where I’m like “I get it, now show me something new for crying out loud”.
This ropes in a vast number of games, alas. Occasionally, sure, I’ll find a grindy game is suddenly palatable to my brain. Like, there was a month or two I went gonzo for Warframe and played the same 3 maps repeatedly. But then I swore off the game for a year. Same for Diablo and any number of gacha games.
Some of my favorites are indie games that have a good fun loop and progression that doesn’t overstay its welcome.
A roguelike / roguelite like Hades drew me in for longer than expected, if only because I could shuffle up weapons and modifiers. Still kind of a repetition thing after awhile, but it had enough variety and novelty with each run to keep me engaged for good while.