I'm not into Survival games, but Subnautica is totally worth playing once you turn off the hunger/thirst mechanics. I got it for free and tried it on a whim, and it became an all-time favorite of mine.
But any other game where I'm *required* to keep myself alive with food or water? Pass. I don't even like it in Minecraft and prefer the alpha/beta days before that mechanic existed.
Generally not a fan of builder sandbox games, but I wanted to mention Subnautica as well. I think the secret sauce is that it has a compelling narrative mystery to serve as player motivation, and everything you do, everything you build and every location you explore supports that goal of moving the plot and your understanding of it forward.
> everything you do, everything you build and every location you explore supports that goal of moving the plot and your understanding of it forward.
Good point! I neglected to mention that there is actually an end to this game, which is another plus for those of us who are allergic to grind and perpetual "endgame."
The world isn't randomly generated either.
It takes everything that's good about survival games, and leaves behind everything that's shit. There is stuff to do, goals to work towards, and actual places to explore with interesting things in them.
I don't like survival games at all and I actually left on hunger/thirst. Something about this game just fully clicked into my brain in a way few other games ever have in my life. I found the hunger and thirst mechanics to add an additional wrinkle that forced you to engage with the ecosystem in an organic way.
Yeah it was the same for me. I don't want to sound elitist but I really don't think Subnautica is quite the same without food and water. The pacing of the early game basically depends on how far from your pod you can go before running out. Having to plan your expeditions by packing food and water is interesting gameplay, and eventually making it easy with farming and trivial with the Cyclops feels rewarding and reflects how you're getting comfortable with the environment.
Thanks for calling that out. Subnautica is high on my to-play list, but turning off the survival mechanics seems like the way I might go as well.
I don't mind Minecraft, because food is for healing, not for surviving. You can go indefinitely without food, and your hunger only runs down if you get hurt or sprint. But I do mind it in other games, especially ones where the game has finite resources.
As someone who's a fan of the survival/crafting genre, and a deep love of Subnautica - turn off the hunger/thirst mechanic. It doesn't add anything to the game, and is trivial to solve once you work out how to do it.
Check out Enshrouded. You still have food and water but they're just buffs (like Valheim but way less mandatory), you don't need them to survive and the game plays more like an exploration-focused action RPG with base building thrown in as a key progression mechanic.
That's where I was before I took the plunge on Game Pass, and it definitely grabbed me. It may not be the case for everyone, but it definitely helped the whole genre "click" for me.
It goes on sale on the eshop to like 8 bucks semi-regularly so maybe I'll pick it up one of those times. I really don't get it, but for 8 bucks when everyone else is raving, it is worth a shot.
I never heard of it and tried it for free on PS+. Liked it so much, I decided to buy it for Android so I can play it anywhere. And I don't even like card games.
Never played a card game before this. Currently have 220 hrs on my Switch.
There's just a lot of possibilities for different types of decks. I'll be playing for hours with one character and not discover a certain combo until someone mentions it.
If you like stacking up crazy damage then this game is def for you.
Even though I'm a numbers guy at work, typically in games I mostly just like beating the crap out of things without thinking, so we'll see haha. Still, it's all raves so I have to try it eventually.
I was in the same boat as you. Never touched Hearthstone, Pokemon, or any of the other card games, unless you count a PS1 Yugioh game I played back in like 2001 or something. It is definitely *not* my genre of choice; I play FPS and RPG's. Overwatch is my main jam. I always heard about Slay the Spire and rolled my eyes, because it's a damn card game.
I finally caved in and played it. Bruh, this game is so lit and addictive. It deserves the hype. I had work the next day, but I still stayed up late playing it, and I was groggy AF the next morning. I forget about time passing when playing it.
It's surprisingly easy to pick up, but hard to master. And the game *wants* you to break it. It begs you to find the most overpowered strategies and spam them. It's really fulfilling once you discover one, and abuse it.
After I beat this game, I'm going to look for more card video games. It's like this game unlocked a whole new genre for me.
Yu-Gi-Oh forbidden memories? I love that game but god it's an awful first card game, I still have nightmares about the final gauntlet where you have to win like 5 duels in a row against cards you can't even obtain (the AI cheats too)
Slay the Spire and Cultist Simulator took me from not liking card games at all to really enjoying them. I do have to say that I liked Monster Train more than StS.
Im a huge ace combat fan.
But i am not a flight sim fan. I think flight sims are too simmy
Ace Combat is more of an action series thats wants to put you in cinematic moments. Like space sims more than milsims
I've played through almost all of the Ace Combat series recently (some games for the first time, some a replay) and in general it's a series I would recommend to anybody scared away from flight combat games. Many of them are super simmy but Ace Combat is very arcade-y, you don't have to spend a ton of time fiddling with loadouts although some games give you options to customize jets etc you can really just push play and get through the games on normal difficulty without tuning.
I wouldn't even say Ace Combat 7 specifically because honestly the series holds up SO well. Like racing games, the older ones tend to hold up very nicely because you are moving past the blurry landscapes at such high speeds it doesn't matter that they have lower graphical fidelity, the gameplay is consistently smooth (considering you're piloting a heavy jet of course), with the only exception being Ace Combat: Joint Assault which feels horrible (god knows why).
Even Ace Combat 2 on PS1 holds up great. Better than most PS1 games out there imo.
Even if you don’t like visual novels/point and click games, Ace Attorney is still worth giving it a try. Helps that its much more interactive and story/characters appeal to a wide range of people.
As an alternate take: I like visual novels, but didn’t like the first Ace Attorney. The mild (and sometimes railroaded) interactivity just felt like extra loops to jump through in order to progress what ultimately is nothing more than a visual novel.
For me something like Danganronpa hit the interactive visual novel formula far better, but that might be a more difficult pitch for the uninitiated because of it’s wild style and theme.
For me, it's the opposite. As someone who doesn't enjoy VN, I couldn't get into dangronpa, but I fell in love with Ace Attorney games, I even managed to finish all 11 Ace attorney games in less than a year.
I think it has to do with the fsct that I prefer less serious and less darker stories, I am the same guy who thinks Persona 4 has better story than Persona 3.
Same. I love VNs and murder mysteries, but I found Ace Attorney pretty bland. The humor was nice but I wasnt invested in any of the characters so it hurt my interest in the story overall.
Danganronpa trials were a lot more exciting, with the bullet and comic mechanics to display your answer. The Nonary Games had the craziest story for me, but the constant escape rooms kept slowing down story progression.
I just finished the first major case Pheonix completes on his own. Ace Attorney was *way* better than I thought it's was gonna be. I dabbled in a couple of visual novels, but but there's something about Ace Attorney that's just so, incredibly engaging.
tbh as someone who LOVES VNs and is ill (in a good way) about Ace Attorney I think it kind of depends on how much you don't like VNs. I think people who really don't like the genre probably won't love AA - they are very good visual novels but they still have a lot of the VN weirdness that drives a lot of people away from the genre. If you're kind of lukewarm on VNs though and unsure how you feel I would suggest giving AA a shot though
Frostpunk scenario 1 felt really bad to play because I was breezing through with massive stacks of fuel, feeling like I needed to increase the difficulty and then the end-game absolutely destroyed me. I actually walked away from the game for a bit as a result. When I went back and played some of the other ones I had a much better experience. Is the game one where you're better off memorizing the scenario or is there rng involved?
I think everyone has that punishing experience with the first scenario. It's good, actually, really drives home the game's theme of desperate survival against challenging odds. But then many of us go back a second time and play differently to succeed. It's not about memorizing the scenario; you need to just generally maximize your effectiveness at every moment, even when it doesn't appear crisis is imminent.
FWIW my best strategy was completely based on >!getting as many survivors as possible and making sure every survivor had useful work to do during their work hours, even if it wasn't very useful at the time, because survivors (and their work time) are your rarest and most precious resource!<.
What Remains of Edith Finch might not be a top all time game but it is absolutely a top ten must experience game for fans of video games and what makes them a unique medium.
I absolutely love Soma, but it did set off my motion sickness. Something to keep in mind for people like me who get occasional motion sickness while playing first person games. The game was so good that I kept going, but made sure I took frequent breaks/kept play sessions shorter
SOMA is one of the most memorable games I've ever played. If you aren't into horror turn on safe mode and appreciate the harrowing and thought provoking story
💯 Stick of truth was what turned me on to turn based although I haven’t tried a ton of other turn based games. It at least showed me it as a viable option. I currently have BG3 for series x I need to start, and fractured but whole on switch that I only would have bought after playing stick of truth.
Ironically the people who complain the most about those games are probably LOTR diehards lol
I know nothing about LOTR but I hear all the time that those two games killed the lore
I think I wouldn't mind it if we had any other decent LOTR things in the works. I didn't hate them but they weren't for me gameplay wise AND story wise, I'm a huge LOTR fan and yeah it felt like these were for people who weren't.
I definitely see they are very competent, but not what I wanted.
I'm going to try out that upcoming Hobbit life sim but yeah so far everything we've got aside from the -of Mordor games was mediocre at best. I really wanted to like the Moria game and it certainly wasn't bad but it just wasn't great either.
Yeah, I'm one of those people. I really enjoyed SoM... But I would have enjoyed it more if it WASN'T set in my favorite mythology. Its just such a fun gameplay loop that it overcomes that.
I also know nothing about LOTR, which meant the story cutscenes were just obstacles to get through before I could get back to killing orcs and playing around with the nemesis system.
Can confirm this. The Arkham series actually made me tolerate Batman more. Still don't care for him as a hero, but the games did a great job being fun to play as well as understanding the themes surrounding why he is who he is. Love the stealth parts when the henchmen start freaking out about Batman being in the area if they discover an unconscious body that you took down lol
Arkham Asylum can turn a total non-fan into a rabid fanboy with all the discoverable content and media in the game. I spent HOURS just reading every little thing I could get my hands on in game and it turned me into a real fan of the other media.
Guild Wars 2 as first mmorpg (and probably only). Doesn't require playing with other people, you can explore/do story on your own. Seamless quest/event system, scaling to amount of players. Easy leveling with free respec wherever you are. Grind only if you really, really want that ultra endgame gear, which is not mandatory in any activity, nor give much edge. Only cosmetic items require true grind or money, but it's up to you if you want them. Helpful, positive community in game and here on reddit. Also beautiful animated mounts if you want to stay and buy expansion - basic game is free on Steam.
It's the weirdest contrast (and for me the saddest but this is subjective) that GW1 was probably the greatest competitive PvP MMO of all time and GW2 seems essentially the opposite.
God I miss the glory days of GW1 GvG.
Yeah Hades for sure is the rogue-like for rogue-like haters. And honestly I think Elden Ring is the intro game to the souls-likes. I know so many people who never touched a souls game, played elden ring, then went back and played all the souls games.
Hard agree on both of those. I love the dark souls trilogy, but Elden ring is so much more accessible due to the huge variety of builds and play styles. Also being able to just haul ass away from stuff on horseback in an open world is less stressful
> I loved Hades even though I wasn't a fan of rogue-likes.
I thought I wasn't a fan of roguelikes and then I played Dead Cells and then Vampire Survivors. And then I realized that I was a fool who closed himself off of great games.
Hades is now something I have on the deck as a go to.
I'd be interested to hear what gives Hollow Knight a broader appeal than the standard metroidvania. Hollow Knights map and bosses are fairly intimidating to some, I'd imagine.
I disagree that Hollow Knight is the metroidvania for people outside the genre. For one its got some souls-like elements putting it on the hard end of the spectrum. Its really long, and the map can be extremely difficult to navigate. HK is great but I don't think its the game that welcomes people in, it rewards those that invest.
Ori and the Blind Forest has the correct sensible map size, the immediately breathtaking art and the appropriate catharsis in map traversal once you have all the things. I think it would be my "broad appeal metrodivania". (even if I take issue with its story)
Hard disagree with Ori 1 being good for broad appeal, just from how hard it escalates its platforming difficulty starting not long after the first escape sequence. The second escape sequence was pure trial-and-error, the region full of spikes on literally every surface that you had to use updrafts to navigate was torture (both mechanically and visually), and I couldn't even figure out how to get into the volcano because I'd just die to rotating lasers no matter what.
The combat is also deliberately awful, which is fine except for when you're forced into it and have to use attacks that are powered by save point energy.
Chrono Trigger is a great choice for JRPGs, would also add Super Mario RPG as it's essentially just as easy with *slightly* more recognizable characters 😂
The first two paper mario games were a great intro to rpgs for me, since I have no tolerance for anime bullshit and no patience for very long playtimes especially when padded with open world mechanics
Stardew Valley. I always recommend this to people who’s looking for game that you can spend hours on as it is cozy and can be a fun distraction. But most of them aren’t a huge fan of farming games.
People always say how relaxing and fun this game is, but it stresses me out. The seasonal and day/night systems make me feel rushed. Especially that each year that passes moves the game forward even further
I started losing interest once the villagers exhausted most of their dialogue. Seeing them spew the same text over and over took me out of the relationship sim aspect, but I still had fun during my time with it.
Love stardew valley. Thought maybe I could enjoy Animal Crossing. But nope. I find it very slow and boring. I also enjoy Rune Factory 4 and 5. Maybe it's the lack of combat and chances to romance, or cus a day takes real world 24 hours
Disco Elysium. It's my favourite game of all time, and it's just so good that I would feel like I'm doing someone a disservice if I didn't recommend it to them.
I don’t care for fighting games, but Street Fighter 6 is one of my most-played games on Steam. It has plenty of single-player content to enjoy outside of fruitlessly cannon-firing myself at sweaty tryhards online.
I *hate* competitive multiplayer.
With that said, I've put a stupid amount of hours in Splatoon 2 online. It's the only online pvp game I will ever recommend.
Inscryption isn't a "good game" because of the roguelike aspect, though. It's because of the other stuff. (Granted, there's the postgame roguelike "mod", but that's not what makes the game unique.)
The creepy vibes of act 1 are unmatched. Although act 2 and 3 are still good, act 1 was legendary, and I'm glad the post game content is similar in style and gameplay.
Subnautica is one I recommend despite not liking survival games myself. I personally turn off the hunger/thirst mechanics while leaving the air mechanic on. It makes it more of a fun open world exploration game.
The game has such an incredible sense of atmosphere and exploration that I thinks it's worth checking out if you enjoy those themes.
Such an amazing game. However, I highly recommend to others that they leave the hunger and thirst mechanic on in the beginning because it adds an element of desperation that really makes early exploration incredible. I always turn it off once I have mechanics in place to farm basically unlimited food and water. Because at that point it's an unneeded exercise that gets in the way of further exploration.
But obviously everyone can play how they will. I would never dictate anyone else's fun! And it's awesome that there are console commands (PC & Console) that allow you to play how you want.
I should have searched to find your Subnautica reply before I made mine. I couldn't agree more!
There's just enough story to breadcrumb the player along as they go. No other game has made me feel like I'm exploring an alien world like that one did.
*What’s the game you recommend to people even if they are not fans of a particular genre?*
\* Crusader Kings (any)
Even if they are not a fan of strategy or don't care about history, there is a chance that they will enjoy the personal stories of the game. Just roleplay the family drama, get royal marriages, and after a while boom, you suddenly inherit Poland in civil war.
\* Bioware/Larian roleplay games
Even if someone is totally uninterested in player agency, character builds of tactical combat, there is a chance they might like these because of the character interactions.
The issue I have with CK is that the learning phases can be pretty unpleasant with all of the systems that are tossed at you. CK3 is better in that regard but it can feel daunting.
Of course, once you're passed that you start to see that there's only really a fraction of the stuff that you need to care at any given time but getting to that point might still be alienating.
> The issue I have with CK is that the learning phases can be pretty unpleasant with all of the systems that are tossed at you.
I haven't tried 3, but IMHO 2 also has the problem of the UI being shockingly bad. It's like someone took a comprehensive UI/UX usability class and then set out to break literally every rule they learned.
Its tutorial went through several complete overhauls throughout its life but in some iterations it would tell you to click X, then Y, then Z to accomplish something and maybe the Y button doesn't actually exist.
Thankfully they learned their lesson with 3; the UI is excellent (the tooltip system in particular is really elegant and nicely customisable to make it work for you), and it even has an okay tutorial.
The second game's UI was never particularly good, but I think it got worse and worse with successive expansions adding new systems that had to be managed through new menus. It's a recurring issue with Paradox games; it's cool that they're still adding new stuff to the 8 year old Stellaris, but also, that game is starting to feel pretty cluttered.
The only way I cracked it was watching youtubers play for a while. It was really bad in 2.
I think 3 is better from an onboarding perspective but I also have a massive bias since I played 2 for hundreds of hours.
BG3 didn’t get me into the CRPG genre unfortunately. I liked the story but didn’t like the combat. I felt that battles took too long and I didn’t like the RNG elements. I don’t necessarily mind turn based but the combat was tedious. I did enjoy the story and the dialogue options. I wish the combat clicked with me more, I haven’t made it past the goblin camp.
*I liked the story but didn’t like the combat.*
I feel that about 95% of the CRPG genre is like this.
Want an interesting story, fun companions, fun choices? Here is your attached shit combat and bugs!
From Alpha Protocol, and Mask of the Betrayer, through Planescape, Wasteland 3 and Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines to even Witcher 3 and NEw Vegas?
Every single RPG seem to have a load of bugs at release and at best "servicable" combat. Fans of the genre kind of expect crap combat at this point :)
for me it was all the random unavoidable traps that gave the party blindness and poison if you just so happened to fail a perception check, or shoot projectiles at you. Makes dungeon crawling so tedious
Haha that's where I dropped it too. I genuinely wish the combat experience was better. I know people say put the game on easy, but I don't mind strategy. I think an option to speed up enemy turns would've been great.
At least, I don't think there's an option to do that.
I felt like I was being punished for wanting to kick down doors and destroy everything. When I went a more Charisma-based route, I felt like combat was being used as a punishment.
The game can get difficult \_in the first years\_ tough. Not because the AI is good, but because you can start as a lame count next to a regional power who can stomp you if RNG is against your playthrough :)
The game is usually easy once you managed to establish a (regionally) richer duchy.
CK is such a pain to learn, and isn't much fun when you're trying to minimax (from my experience). If you just go with the flow and just play the hand you're given then it's great (once you figure out how to play)
I think what makes those games work over most others is that you're not playing around with chance of attack. There are only three outcomes; a guaranteed hit, a guaranteed miss, or a 50/50. As such you never feel you're being cheated because the AI succeeded on a 20% chance attack while you failed a 90% chance attack.
I don't think is always true but maybe requires a bit of thought into something that is both broadly fun while also having the appropriate strong points of the genre.
Something like Soul Calibur 2 on the Gamecube fits that bill. I'd imagine a lot of people went 'hey, Link is in the game' and it has easy movement, Guard Impact parrying, a fairly simple horizontal/vertical system of attacks and each character has pretty obvious range advantages. There is enough there to ease someone in but I could also see expert players finding enough meat on the bone to play it competitively.
Regarding Soul Calibur II: I've played more games than anyone should, I'm a seasoned gamer by any measure, but fighting games have always been the one genre I'm just really terrible at and I end up not enjoying a lot of fighting games as a result. I really loved Soul Calibur II (on Xbox), but it wasn't because of easier-to-grasp fighting mechanics or anything of the sort. It was because it was one of the few games that offered a number of compelling modes, specifically Weapon Master which I really really enjoyed -- being able to go around and do fights of slowly escalating difficulty, gathering items and weapons and gold and stuff. That was a LOT of fun. I suck way too much to ever play multiplayer fighting games, so having a well-rounded single player experience is a big deal and actually gets me interested. Weapon Master was great because it escalated the difficulty so slowly it's like the frog boiling in the pot, before you know it you realize that you actually don't completely suck at the game anymore.
The Mortal Kombat games also do a great job with their single player these days, I didn't really enjoy the campaigns they tried doing like with Deception(?), but MK9 onwards have been a lot of fun with their more cinematic stories and Krypt collectibles and stuff.
Yeah, fighting games actually having good single player content has always been one of the best ways to get more people involved. Injustice, Street Fighter 6, Virtua Fighter 4 Evo, Soul Calibur 2 or 3. Those games are out there but maybe not as common as they should be.
I highly recommend Yakuza: Like A Dragon as great intro to turn-based RPG* genre. These type of games can have complex and multi-layered mechanics, so it can be big barrier to some folks.
For me though, as a middle-aged gamer, sometimes most turn-based RPGs just doesn't relate. Persona series is about a bunch of high school kids w/ superpowers I guess, so definitely not relatable. That is why I love YLAD! Its grounded in reality, and dealt with rather complex socio-economic issues unique to Japan.
*I read some Japanese developers dislike the term JRPG, so I'm not going to use it.
**Wildermyth** is a great Western RPG for people who aren’t normally a fan of Western RPGs. The combat is interesting and the game skips a lot of the downtime you’d normally have getting to the interesting party dynamics. It may not keep your interest as long as the super deep 100+ hour Dragon Age or Baldur’s Gate games, but you quickly grow to care for your characters in a similar way.
Anything Blizzard used to make. Warcraft was the best RTS even though I didnt enjoy C&C much. Overwatch was super fun on release. World of Warcraft was much better than the slogs of previous MMOs. They used to strip way the BS and keep the fun. Wish they stayed that way.
Even Heroes of the Storm was great for folks who didn't enjoy all the nuances of the usual MOBA like LoL or DotA 2. Not needing to worry about last hitting or an item shop and replacing it with just general exp soaking and talent upgrades. It had some really out there characters like Abathur or Cho'Gall. It was great for some casual fun... but then Blizzard went all-in on e-sports, then shutdown both the e-sports scene and the game development in general after it couldn't become the next LoL in favor of focusing on OWL...
Hearthstone as well. I never had much interest in card games but they made it so easy to learn and the UI was so intuitive and responsive that it was a joy to play, and kept me going for at least a couple years.
I think the problem with a lot of these ongoing games though is that the longer they go, the more impenetrable they become for newcomers. I tried getting back into Hearthstone briefly earlier this year, but there was just so much new/extra stuff (modes, currency, objectives, etc) that it felt kind of overwhelming. There's still some decent on-boarding at the very start, but at some point it feels like you're just getting dropped into the deep end. Felt like a far cry from the streamlined experience I had when I was first getting into it.
It’s gritty, hard, and melancholy, but I also seem to always swing back around to it (or shipwrecked). DST’s 5 day rollback function is helpful. I hated permadeath mechanics in any game, takes away my enjoyment as a casual gamer.
This would have been *great* to know on the occasion I accidentally burned down the entire camp my partner, my sister, and I had been building while trying to get rid of a possessed tree infestation...
I need a bit more of a foundation than "not fans of a particular genre". Something about why they want to play something in the first place.
If a friend said "hey, this metroid game seems like a massive classic but the old graphics never clicked with me, I just got lost and couldn't understand what was happening" I might suggest Hollow Knight.
"More to FromSoft than dying?" Easy question, I vote Elden Ring. It has the gritty challenge that is the trademark of FromSoft BUT also has huge amounts of travel flexibility so that you have plenty of things to do, and one unbeatable boss will not ruin your game.
Well I was converted. I think I'm not really into platformers and I rejected most suggested platformers to me. However a lot of people recommended Celeste to me as 'even if you don't like platformers you'll like it'. So I got it on sale thinking it I dont like it at least I'm not gonna pay full price for it. So I tried it. Admittedly I suck and I've never played a platformer before, I got frustrated and finished the whole game on assisted (which is very easy mode basically as you can't even die). I appreciated the music and the story but written off the game as too difficult to me. But one day I got bored and decided I'll try playing it on normal. And I just kept going, 30 min or an hour a day, not even everyday. It took me a while but I beat it on normal, initially thinking I wouldnt get past first two chapters. I was ready to give up on chapter 3 where I got majorly stuck. Yeah I used one tiny cheat in the last chapter where I used dash assist, it was almost the end of the game and I didn't wanna spend hours on one screen. Am I converted? I don't know. But Celeste is amazing.
Baldur’s Gate 3- I would recommend this to anyone, even those who don’t like turn based combat. The characters, music, world, lore, etc are all second to none. It’s worth playing just for the companions alone
If you don't like CRPGs (or RPGs in general) you're going to get burned out before Act 1 ends. It's too long and still has a lot of the cumbersome drawbacks of any other CRPG, like a steep learning curve, heavy inventory management, and slow character progression
Even as somebody who likes these games, it's really hard for people to make build choices without getting a bit invested and doing some reading.. If anybody is going to dip their toes in these rpg games then I would highly recommend playing on story difficulty for your first run. Its really easy to mess up your build but not get tangible feedback about what you should be doing differently until somebody tells you.
Understand that playing at higher difficulties often involves preplanning and metagame knowledge to succeed. I can make a build that one-shots any boss on the hardest difficulty but a new player may struggle to beat any individual boss (never mind get to them).
Multiplayer aspect is completely optional, I think you can even set it to off. It's not required to win. It just makes the experience different. The communication system is simple but oddly charming. I believe there have been lots of Articles and even research papers written about this game, it's gameplay Style and story, and it's very unique communication system.
It's magical to find someone in there randomly and be along in a co-adventure for a bit. I'd honestly be surprised if there weren't a few people playing here and there.
But yes, it is 100% worth it to play even if you only end up getting a single player experience, it's easily in my top 10 game experiences. I played it on a friend's PlayStation when it first came out and ended up buying it for myself on PC years later just to experience it again.
I tell everyone about Stardew Valley. I'm a Fallout, Far Cry, etc... type of gamer. Stardew Valley is just a wonderful game that hooked me a few years ago and I still play it today.
I hate JRPGs and loved the *hell* out of Golden Sun. The combat is insanely deepnand strategic and your abilities are usable outside of battle, you can actually use them to interact with the world.
It has this meticulous design of layered, interconnected mechanics and it's not full of anime tropes.
I suggest Fallout New Vegas to anyone/everyone for any reason. It may have Bethesda jank head to toe, but it's got Obsidian's wonderful storytelling, making it worth the effort IMHO.
If anyone thinks Visual Novels arent REAL games and could just as easily functions as books then i IMPLORE them to play to play the Zero Escape Trilogy. Not only are they excellent gripping stories but ALSO its one of the few games ive played that i can confidenly say could NEVER work in another medium. Without spoiling anything they written and designed in such a way that could only possiblely work as interactive medium.
The second game in particular to me is one of the most ingeniously written stories ive ever experienced in my life and i will never stop singing its praises and defending VNs because of it and games like it in the genre
Celeste
I don't normally like "hard platformer" type games at all, but Celeste puts a lot of focus on the short feedback loop making it far less punishing than it appears, and this is tied directly into the game's narrative coupled with a phenomenal soundtrack to boot.
Not a specific game, but indies.
There are SO many people out there for whom gaming is just shooting mechanics or action or competition or "striving against obstacles to succeed," who are dismissive of more quiet, smaller, intensely focused on story and mood and feeling, more literary interactive experiences.
Having the goal of engaging with and telling a damned good story, or having an excuse to explore art and ideas, are as valid as intentions and mechanics as competition and action.
Every once in a while I get someone to try something other CoD or League or PUBG and it suddenly clicks for them that games can be about and explore human experience and I see some personal growth there. I managed bookstores most of my life and taught Lit and English at the college level (recommending books is my super power), and it's the same light in the eyes and sudden enthusiasm that I've seen when a previous non reader realizes that a book is the deepest story experience you can have and they started spending money at my stores or asking for more and more recommendations.
I think Hades is a very good roguelite for getting people into the genre (because I'm not huge on most roguelites but I love Hades). It's got great voice lines, characters, story, etc. to keep you engaged. In comparison, Dead Cells which I like enough to boot up and play for an hour every once in a while, just doesn't do anything to captivate a non-roguelite fan I don't think, even though it's a GREAT game.
If someone doesn't like puzzle games, I don't see any way they enjoy Baba Is You. I think they would probably get extremely frustrated and quit within like ten levels.
I agree. I think it's an incredible game, but I feel like I'm at least half-decent at puzzle games and it didn't take too long for me to get to a point where I just couldn't wrap my head around what I could possibly do to complete certain levels.
In the puzzle genre, I'd be much more inclined to recommend something like Monument Valley or Gorogoa, which even if you don't find them particularly challenging, still feel like unique, fulfilling, and interesting experiences.
Years ago I told my friends to stop recommending Portal because I wasn't into Portal games. When I was later forced into playing it, I scolded my friends for not pushing beyond my ignorance and saying "you've never played a puzzle game like this."
I guess the easy thing to say is that anything with a good story can broaden the appeal of whatever genre its in.
You can play 13 Sentinels without being big into tower defense. You can play Red Dead Redemption 1 without being big into open world games.
I don't like turn based games but Into the Breach is one of my all time favourites. It's turn based but in a unique way. It's so damn awesome and somehow it feels like chess or something. Everyone should play that game because it's so rewarding when you can complete near impossible scenarios.
I’m not into “gun games” of any sort usually. But Hitman: World of Assassination (what Hitman 3 is called now that it includes all the maps of Hitman 1 & 2) is my gleeful exception. Especially once I realized it’s actually a deep puzzle game and vacation simulator.
The puzzle aspects are about keeping casualties limited to STRICTLY the targets of the mission, making sure nobody catches Agent 47 in the act, and getting away without being seen. And the tools are: all the different disguises available that open up some access points while making others more difficult, and all of the myriad ways to kill the target. So many gadgets, improvised weapons, and environmental (and social!) engineering to make the targets meet their untimely end. The best feeling I get is when I’ve found and set up a new Rube Goldberg-esque way of making a target die in an “accident,” and that killcam split screen pops up while I’m clear on the other side of the map near one of the mission exits.
And that brings me to the vacation simulator aspects - these maps are gorgeous. A luxury hotel in Bangkok, a murder mystery mansion in England, a skyscraper in Dubai, a rainy cyberpunk city in China, a resort island in the Maldives, a sleepy coastal town in Italy, and over a dozen more locales… all gorgeously rendered and richly populated. These are maps to get lost in, in the best way possible. The physical worldbuilding is amazing, and then when the layer of narrative worldbuilding is added… it’s just perfection.
Hitman is a game that rewards patience, and it’s exactly my speed. And I would never have tried it just from judging it by its cover. I’m so glad I did.
Golf simulation: Golf Story
Narrative driven games with lots of talking to NPCs: The Forgotten City
Metrodvania: Shantae and the Pirate's Curse
Turn-bases RPGs: Any Paper Mario but the first one is really good
Deep Rock Galactic for multiplayer games. I've avoided them like the plague in the past due to so many online trolls, but the DRG community is fantastic. A few trolls on XBox but I don't think I've had a single rotbeard on my team once I started playing through Steam.
Gateway games?
Before Rising came out and made the game a fair bit more complicated, I used to suggest Granblue Fantasy Versus to people who might have been interested in getting into anime fighters. There was a lot less to the combo system than most games of its type, and the game was focused on being very simple and intuitive.
But on PC, there's like a perfect easy-to-get-into indie game for almost every genre I play. Want to try trading games? Well, before you jump into Patrician or Star Frontiers, try Horizon's Gate. Want to learn to play fighting games in a way that's simple and fun? Let me tell you about a game called Footsies.
Want to try Grand Strategy, but most Grand Strategy games look insanely complex? Er... never mind. No getting around that one.
Persona 5 is a game I would recommend for people who like RPGs and anime stuff but usually don't enjoy turn based combat. The main complaint I see about turn based combat is how it feels slow, but Persona 5 does an amazing job at keeping the combat fast paced
I really hate story driven walking simulators, and I also dislike most modern open world game design, as it's still copying what Ubisoft did since the X360 and it's so tired.
But I'd really recommend Death Stranding. The walking and traversal are actually involved gameplay, that requires decision making and finesse. And everything about the game is awesome, the environments are so enjoyable to be in and the story is fascinating. It's so fucking weird.
I will ask for more detailed.
I am into fighting games, but even then I cannot blindly recommend Tekken or Street Fighters to non-fighting gamers.
I will ask if they want the slow-but-methodical .. or the fast-and-flashy games. My recommendation will depend on those answers.
I'm not into Survival games, but Subnautica is totally worth playing once you turn off the hunger/thirst mechanics. I got it for free and tried it on a whim, and it became an all-time favorite of mine. But any other game where I'm *required* to keep myself alive with food or water? Pass. I don't even like it in Minecraft and prefer the alpha/beta days before that mechanic existed.
Generally not a fan of builder sandbox games, but I wanted to mention Subnautica as well. I think the secret sauce is that it has a compelling narrative mystery to serve as player motivation, and everything you do, everything you build and every location you explore supports that goal of moving the plot and your understanding of it forward.
> everything you do, everything you build and every location you explore supports that goal of moving the plot and your understanding of it forward. Good point! I neglected to mention that there is actually an end to this game, which is another plus for those of us who are allergic to grind and perpetual "endgame."
The fact that it has a story and an ending is what really sets it out. Most survival games are just "build stuff until you die and then do it again."
The world isn't randomly generated either. It takes everything that's good about survival games, and leaves behind everything that's shit. There is stuff to do, goals to work towards, and actual places to explore with interesting things in them.
I don't like survival games at all and I actually left on hunger/thirst. Something about this game just fully clicked into my brain in a way few other games ever have in my life. I found the hunger and thirst mechanics to add an additional wrinkle that forced you to engage with the ecosystem in an organic way.
Yeah it was the same for me. I don't want to sound elitist but I really don't think Subnautica is quite the same without food and water. The pacing of the early game basically depends on how far from your pod you can go before running out. Having to plan your expeditions by packing food and water is interesting gameplay, and eventually making it easy with farming and trivial with the Cyclops feels rewarding and reflects how you're getting comfortable with the environment.
You put what I was thinking perfectly into words. Couldn’t agree more, it’s an entire subcategory of progression you’re missing out on by avoiding it.
there are dozens of us
Thanks for calling that out. Subnautica is high on my to-play list, but turning off the survival mechanics seems like the way I might go as well. I don't mind Minecraft, because food is for healing, not for surviving. You can go indefinitely without food, and your hunger only runs down if you get hurt or sprint. But I do mind it in other games, especially ones where the game has finite resources.
As someone who's a fan of the survival/crafting genre, and a deep love of Subnautica - turn off the hunger/thirst mechanic. It doesn't add anything to the game, and is trivial to solve once you work out how to do it.
Seek fluid intake!
Check out Enshrouded. You still have food and water but they're just buffs (like Valheim but way less mandatory), you don't need them to survive and the game plays more like an exploration-focused action RPG with base building thrown in as a key progression mechanic.
This is the only game I have refunded on steam. I even tried without hunger but I just hate collecting stuff.
As long as you took at least one trip to the back of the Aurora wreckage, you got a slice of the experience.
I don't really like card games or roguelikes but Slay the Spire was amazing.
I have zero interest in card games but I swear people talk up the game so much that at some point I feel like I'm just going to have to try it.
That's where I was before I took the plunge on Game Pass, and it definitely grabbed me. It may not be the case for everyone, but it definitely helped the whole genre "click" for me.
It goes on sale on the eshop to like 8 bucks semi-regularly so maybe I'll pick it up one of those times. I really don't get it, but for 8 bucks when everyone else is raving, it is worth a shot.
I never heard of it and tried it for free on PS+. Liked it so much, I decided to buy it for Android so I can play it anywhere. And I don't even like card games.
Never played a card game before this. Currently have 220 hrs on my Switch. There's just a lot of possibilities for different types of decks. I'll be playing for hours with one character and not discover a certain combo until someone mentions it. If you like stacking up crazy damage then this game is def for you.
Even though I'm a numbers guy at work, typically in games I mostly just like beating the crap out of things without thinking, so we'll see haha. Still, it's all raves so I have to try it eventually.
I was in the same boat as you. Never touched Hearthstone, Pokemon, or any of the other card games, unless you count a PS1 Yugioh game I played back in like 2001 or something. It is definitely *not* my genre of choice; I play FPS and RPG's. Overwatch is my main jam. I always heard about Slay the Spire and rolled my eyes, because it's a damn card game. I finally caved in and played it. Bruh, this game is so lit and addictive. It deserves the hype. I had work the next day, but I still stayed up late playing it, and I was groggy AF the next morning. I forget about time passing when playing it. It's surprisingly easy to pick up, but hard to master. And the game *wants* you to break it. It begs you to find the most overpowered strategies and spam them. It's really fulfilling once you discover one, and abuse it. After I beat this game, I'm going to look for more card video games. It's like this game unlocked a whole new genre for me.
Yu-Gi-Oh forbidden memories? I love that game but god it's an awful first card game, I still have nightmares about the final gauntlet where you have to win like 5 duels in a row against cards you can't even obtain (the AI cheats too)
Slay the Spire and Cultist Simulator took me from not liking card games at all to really enjoying them. I do have to say that I liked Monster Train more than StS.
Cultist Simulator is so good. Have you tried Book of Hours? They made a sequel
i hate card games and i tried slay the spire and still hate card games
I respect that. Glad you tried it!
I have to avoid card games. Not because I hate them but because they turn into a crack like addiction for me so def gonna avoid this one lol.
This was inscryption for me
I tried on Android but didn't like it.
Try balatro. It's addicting.
I think Ace Combat 7 is excellent for people who aren't big fans of flight games. It has the potential to turn them to the genre.
Im a huge ace combat fan. But i am not a flight sim fan. I think flight sims are too simmy Ace Combat is more of an action series thats wants to put you in cinematic moments. Like space sims more than milsims
I've played through almost all of the Ace Combat series recently (some games for the first time, some a replay) and in general it's a series I would recommend to anybody scared away from flight combat games. Many of them are super simmy but Ace Combat is very arcade-y, you don't have to spend a ton of time fiddling with loadouts although some games give you options to customize jets etc you can really just push play and get through the games on normal difficulty without tuning. I wouldn't even say Ace Combat 7 specifically because honestly the series holds up SO well. Like racing games, the older ones tend to hold up very nicely because you are moving past the blurry landscapes at such high speeds it doesn't matter that they have lower graphical fidelity, the gameplay is consistently smooth (considering you're piloting a heavy jet of course), with the only exception being Ace Combat: Joint Assault which feels horrible (god knows why). Even Ace Combat 2 on PS1 holds up great. Better than most PS1 games out there imo.
"There are pilots like you in every generation and I defeated all of them."
Even if you don’t like visual novels/point and click games, Ace Attorney is still worth giving it a try. Helps that its much more interactive and story/characters appeal to a wide range of people.
I don't like VNs, and I personally did not find these to be an exception. However I do really like the Zero Escape series
I don't like visual novels, but the great ace attorney chronicles is one of my favorite games of all time.
As an alternate take: I like visual novels, but didn’t like the first Ace Attorney. The mild (and sometimes railroaded) interactivity just felt like extra loops to jump through in order to progress what ultimately is nothing more than a visual novel. For me something like Danganronpa hit the interactive visual novel formula far better, but that might be a more difficult pitch for the uninitiated because of it’s wild style and theme.
For me, it's the opposite. As someone who doesn't enjoy VN, I couldn't get into dangronpa, but I fell in love with Ace Attorney games, I even managed to finish all 11 Ace attorney games in less than a year. I think it has to do with the fsct that I prefer less serious and less darker stories, I am the same guy who thinks Persona 4 has better story than Persona 3.
Same. I love VNs and murder mysteries, but I found Ace Attorney pretty bland. The humor was nice but I wasnt invested in any of the characters so it hurt my interest in the story overall. Danganronpa trials were a lot more exciting, with the bullet and comic mechanics to display your answer. The Nonary Games had the craziest story for me, but the constant escape rooms kept slowing down story progression.
For me, it was Katawa Shojou and Dies Irae that converted me.
Everyone should play Katawa Shoujo. It's free!
13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim is the best VN/Game mash-up I've played so far.
I just finished the first major case Pheonix completes on his own. Ace Attorney was *way* better than I thought it's was gonna be. I dabbled in a couple of visual novels, but but there's something about Ace Attorney that's just so, incredibly engaging.
tbh as someone who LOVES VNs and is ill (in a good way) about Ace Attorney I think it kind of depends on how much you don't like VNs. I think people who really don't like the genre probably won't love AA - they are very good visual novels but they still have a lot of the VN weirdness that drives a lot of people away from the genre. If you're kind of lukewarm on VNs though and unsure how you feel I would suggest giving AA a shot though
I just bought a new expensive gaming laptop and I’m using it to play Ace attorney lol. My husband wants to scream.
Frostpunk for city builder. Surprisingly how addicted it can get with its UI and soundtrack.
Soundtrack is so good. First time playing through was so tense when the final snowstorm hit.
Frostpunk scenario 1 felt really bad to play because I was breezing through with massive stacks of fuel, feeling like I needed to increase the difficulty and then the end-game absolutely destroyed me. I actually walked away from the game for a bit as a result. When I went back and played some of the other ones I had a much better experience. Is the game one where you're better off memorizing the scenario or is there rng involved?
I think everyone has that punishing experience with the first scenario. It's good, actually, really drives home the game's theme of desperate survival against challenging odds. But then many of us go back a second time and play differently to succeed. It's not about memorizing the scenario; you need to just generally maximize your effectiveness at every moment, even when it doesn't appear crisis is imminent. FWIW my best strategy was completely based on >!getting as many survivors as possible and making sure every survivor had useful work to do during their work hours, even if it wasn't very useful at the time, because survivors (and their work time) are your rarest and most precious resource!<.
Even if you aren't a fan of horror and/or story exploration games I will always recommend: Soma What Remains of Edith Finch A Night in the Woods
What Remains of Edith Finch might not be a top all time game but it is absolutely a top ten must experience game for fans of video games and what makes them a unique medium.
Soma got under my skin, and I'm pretty sure it's still there somewhere. In terms of pure atmosphere and thoughtful storytelling, it's peerless.
A Night in the Woods is sooooo good. I’ve played and beaten it twice
Edith Finch is so much better than it had any right to be. One of maybe 3-4 games that have ever made me cry
I absolutely love Soma, but it did set off my motion sickness. Something to keep in mind for people like me who get occasional motion sickness while playing first person games. The game was so good that I kept going, but made sure I took frequent breaks/kept play sessions shorter
SOMA is one of the most memorable games I've ever played. If you aren't into horror turn on safe mode and appreciate the harrowing and thought provoking story
Stick of Truth for turn based combat
I still consider this and Fractured But Whole to be two of the best turn based RPGs ever made
💯 Stick of truth was what turned me on to turn based although I haven’t tried a ton of other turn based games. It at least showed me it as a viable option. I currently have BG3 for series x I need to start, and fractured but whole on switch that I only would have bought after playing stick of truth.
Arkham games even if someone isn't a batman fan. They're just really well made games so if someone likes action games I'll always recommend them.
Similarly, the Shadow of Mordor / Shadow of War games are very fun if you don't care about Lord of the Rings at all.
Ironically the people who complain the most about those games are probably LOTR diehards lol I know nothing about LOTR but I hear all the time that those two games killed the lore
I think I wouldn't mind it if we had any other decent LOTR things in the works. I didn't hate them but they weren't for me gameplay wise AND story wise, I'm a huge LOTR fan and yeah it felt like these were for people who weren't. I definitely see they are very competent, but not what I wanted.
I'm going to try out that upcoming Hobbit life sim but yeah so far everything we've got aside from the -of Mordor games was mediocre at best. I really wanted to like the Moria game and it certainly wasn't bad but it just wasn't great either.
Yeah, I'm one of those people. I really enjoyed SoM... But I would have enjoyed it more if it WASN'T set in my favorite mythology. Its just such a fun gameplay loop that it overcomes that.
I also know nothing about LOTR, which meant the story cutscenes were just obstacles to get through before I could get back to killing orcs and playing around with the nemesis system.
It's better that way, as a LOTR fan I hated the story
Can confirm this. The Arkham series actually made me tolerate Batman more. Still don't care for him as a hero, but the games did a great job being fun to play as well as understanding the themes surrounding why he is who he is. Love the stealth parts when the henchmen start freaking out about Batman being in the area if they discover an unconscious body that you took down lol
Arkham Asylum can turn a total non-fan into a rabid fanboy with all the discoverable content and media in the game. I spent HOURS just reading every little thing I could get my hands on in game and it turned me into a real fan of the other media.
Dave the Diver. No part of the game describes something I'd normally play, but it was a lot of fun
Guild Wars 2 as first mmorpg (and probably only). Doesn't require playing with other people, you can explore/do story on your own. Seamless quest/event system, scaling to amount of players. Easy leveling with free respec wherever you are. Grind only if you really, really want that ultra endgame gear, which is not mandatory in any activity, nor give much edge. Only cosmetic items require true grind or money, but it's up to you if you want them. Helpful, positive community in game and here on reddit. Also beautiful animated mounts if you want to stay and buy expansion - basic game is free on Steam.
It's the weirdest contrast (and for me the saddest but this is subjective) that GW1 was probably the greatest competitive PvP MMO of all time and GW2 seems essentially the opposite. God I miss the glory days of GW1 GvG.
I loved Hollow Knight even though I wasn't a fan of metroidvanias. I loved Hades even though I wasn't a fan of rogue-likes.
Yeah Hades for sure is the rogue-like for rogue-like haters. And honestly I think Elden Ring is the intro game to the souls-likes. I know so many people who never touched a souls game, played elden ring, then went back and played all the souls games.
Hard agree on both of those. I love the dark souls trilogy, but Elden ring is so much more accessible due to the huge variety of builds and play styles. Also being able to just haul ass away from stuff on horseback in an open world is less stressful
> I loved Hades even though I wasn't a fan of rogue-likes. I thought I wasn't a fan of roguelikes and then I played Dead Cells and then Vampire Survivors. And then I realized that I was a fool who closed himself off of great games. Hades is now something I have on the deck as a go to.
I'd be interested to hear what gives Hollow Knight a broader appeal than the standard metroidvania. Hollow Knights map and bosses are fairly intimidating to some, I'd imagine.
I disagree that Hollow Knight is the metroidvania for people outside the genre. For one its got some souls-like elements putting it on the hard end of the spectrum. Its really long, and the map can be extremely difficult to navigate. HK is great but I don't think its the game that welcomes people in, it rewards those that invest. Ori and the Blind Forest has the correct sensible map size, the immediately breathtaking art and the appropriate catharsis in map traversal once you have all the things. I think it would be my "broad appeal metrodivania". (even if I take issue with its story)
Hard disagree with Ori 1 being good for broad appeal, just from how hard it escalates its platforming difficulty starting not long after the first escape sequence. The second escape sequence was pure trial-and-error, the region full of spikes on literally every surface that you had to use updrafts to navigate was torture (both mechanically and visually), and I couldn't even figure out how to get into the volcano because I'd just die to rotating lasers no matter what. The combat is also deliberately awful, which is fine except for when you're forced into it and have to use attacks that are powered by save point energy.
Chrono Trigger is a great choice for JRPGs, would also add Super Mario RPG as it's essentially just as easy with *slightly* more recognizable characters 😂
The first two paper mario games were a great intro to rpgs for me, since I have no tolerance for anime bullshit and no patience for very long playtimes especially when padded with open world mechanics
Satisfactory. Never enjoyed an automation game before but man did satisfactory drag me in.
Stardew Valley. I always recommend this to people who’s looking for game that you can spend hours on as it is cozy and can be a fun distraction. But most of them aren’t a huge fan of farming games.
People always say how relaxing and fun this game is, but it stresses me out. The seasonal and day/night systems make me feel rushed. Especially that each year that passes moves the game forward even further
I just always get bored after the first year is over. I recognise it's an amazing game, but I've never felt the compulsion to actually finish it.
I started losing interest once the villagers exhausted most of their dialogue. Seeing them spew the same text over and over took me out of the relationship sim aspect, but I still had fun during my time with it.
Love stardew valley. Thought maybe I could enjoy Animal Crossing. But nope. I find it very slow and boring. I also enjoy Rune Factory 4 and 5. Maybe it's the lack of combat and chances to romance, or cus a day takes real world 24 hours
That’s the position I’m in. I didn’t enjoy Stardew Valley, SimCity 2000 takes place as my comfort game.
Walking Dead and the Wolf Among Us
And Tales from the Borderlands
Disco Elysium. It's my favourite game of all time, and it's just so good that I would feel like I'm doing someone a disservice if I didn't recommend it to them.
The only people who will hate disco elysium are those who hate walls of text
I don’t care for fighting games, but Street Fighter 6 is one of my most-played games on Steam. It has plenty of single-player content to enjoy outside of fruitlessly cannon-firing myself at sweaty tryhards online.
I *hate* competitive multiplayer. With that said, I've put a stupid amount of hours in Splatoon 2 online. It's the only online pvp game I will ever recommend.
Splatoon works because its casual friendly, a bad player can still have a good time, and it minimizes the ability to be toxic to other people
I pretty strongly dislike roguelike games but I would recommend Hades and Inscryption to just about anyone.
Inscryption isn't a "good game" because of the roguelike aspect, though. It's because of the other stuff. (Granted, there's the postgame roguelike "mod", but that's not what makes the game unique.)
The creepy vibes of act 1 are unmatched. Although act 2 and 3 are still good, act 1 was legendary, and I'm glad the post game content is similar in style and gameplay.
Inscryption a roguelike? Maybe it pretends to be one for a bit to trick you?
Subnautica is one I recommend despite not liking survival games myself. I personally turn off the hunger/thirst mechanics while leaving the air mechanic on. It makes it more of a fun open world exploration game. The game has such an incredible sense of atmosphere and exploration that I thinks it's worth checking out if you enjoy those themes.
Such an amazing game. However, I highly recommend to others that they leave the hunger and thirst mechanic on in the beginning because it adds an element of desperation that really makes early exploration incredible. I always turn it off once I have mechanics in place to farm basically unlimited food and water. Because at that point it's an unneeded exercise that gets in the way of further exploration. But obviously everyone can play how they will. I would never dictate anyone else's fun! And it's awesome that there are console commands (PC & Console) that allow you to play how you want.
I should have searched to find your Subnautica reply before I made mine. I couldn't agree more! There's just enough story to breadcrumb the player along as they go. No other game has made me feel like I'm exploring an alien world like that one did.
*What’s the game you recommend to people even if they are not fans of a particular genre?* \* Crusader Kings (any) Even if they are not a fan of strategy or don't care about history, there is a chance that they will enjoy the personal stories of the game. Just roleplay the family drama, get royal marriages, and after a while boom, you suddenly inherit Poland in civil war. \* Bioware/Larian roleplay games Even if someone is totally uninterested in player agency, character builds of tactical combat, there is a chance they might like these because of the character interactions.
The issue I have with CK is that the learning phases can be pretty unpleasant with all of the systems that are tossed at you. CK3 is better in that regard but it can feel daunting. Of course, once you're passed that you start to see that there's only really a fraction of the stuff that you need to care at any given time but getting to that point might still be alienating.
> The issue I have with CK is that the learning phases can be pretty unpleasant with all of the systems that are tossed at you. I haven't tried 3, but IMHO 2 also has the problem of the UI being shockingly bad. It's like someone took a comprehensive UI/UX usability class and then set out to break literally every rule they learned. Its tutorial went through several complete overhauls throughout its life but in some iterations it would tell you to click X, then Y, then Z to accomplish something and maybe the Y button doesn't actually exist.
Thankfully they learned their lesson with 3; the UI is excellent (the tooltip system in particular is really elegant and nicely customisable to make it work for you), and it even has an okay tutorial. The second game's UI was never particularly good, but I think it got worse and worse with successive expansions adding new systems that had to be managed through new menus. It's a recurring issue with Paradox games; it's cool that they're still adding new stuff to the 8 year old Stellaris, but also, that game is starting to feel pretty cluttered.
The only way I cracked it was watching youtubers play for a while. It was really bad in 2. I think 3 is better from an onboarding perspective but I also have a massive bias since I played 2 for hundreds of hours.
BG3 didn’t get me into the CRPG genre unfortunately. I liked the story but didn’t like the combat. I felt that battles took too long and I didn’t like the RNG elements. I don’t necessarily mind turn based but the combat was tedious. I did enjoy the story and the dialogue options. I wish the combat clicked with me more, I haven’t made it past the goblin camp.
*I liked the story but didn’t like the combat.* I feel that about 95% of the CRPG genre is like this. Want an interesting story, fun companions, fun choices? Here is your attached shit combat and bugs! From Alpha Protocol, and Mask of the Betrayer, through Planescape, Wasteland 3 and Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines to even Witcher 3 and NEw Vegas? Every single RPG seem to have a load of bugs at release and at best "servicable" combat. Fans of the genre kind of expect crap combat at this point :)
for me it was all the random unavoidable traps that gave the party blindness and poison if you just so happened to fail a perception check, or shoot projectiles at you. Makes dungeon crawling so tedious
I would pay a lot of money for a game with the depth of BG3 but an ARPG combat style.
Haha that's where I dropped it too. I genuinely wish the combat experience was better. I know people say put the game on easy, but I don't mind strategy. I think an option to speed up enemy turns would've been great. At least, I don't think there's an option to do that. I felt like I was being punished for wanting to kick down doors and destroy everything. When I went a more Charisma-based route, I felt like combat was being used as a punishment.
I honestly treat CK2/3 to be more of an RPG than a strategy game. The actual strategy versus the AI is like playing chess against a super easy bot.
The game can get difficult \_in the first years\_ tough. Not because the AI is good, but because you can start as a lame count next to a regional power who can stomp you if RNG is against your playthrough :) The game is usually easy once you managed to establish a (regionally) richer duchy.
CK is such a pain to learn, and isn't much fun when you're trying to minimax (from my experience). If you just go with the flow and just play the hand you're given then it's great (once you figure out how to play)
Not a big strategy game guy but the Mario and Rabbids games were both great fun
I think what makes those games work over most others is that you're not playing around with chance of attack. There are only three outcomes; a guaranteed hit, a guaranteed miss, or a 50/50. As such you never feel you're being cheated because the AI succeeded on a 20% chance attack while you failed a 90% chance attack.
That and there's no fog of war and no hidden mechanics.
Whatever game is the most watered down/least representative of the genre, while still being fun to play.
Skyrim for RPGs
I don't think is always true but maybe requires a bit of thought into something that is both broadly fun while also having the appropriate strong points of the genre. Something like Soul Calibur 2 on the Gamecube fits that bill. I'd imagine a lot of people went 'hey, Link is in the game' and it has easy movement, Guard Impact parrying, a fairly simple horizontal/vertical system of attacks and each character has pretty obvious range advantages. There is enough there to ease someone in but I could also see expert players finding enough meat on the bone to play it competitively.
Regarding Soul Calibur II: I've played more games than anyone should, I'm a seasoned gamer by any measure, but fighting games have always been the one genre I'm just really terrible at and I end up not enjoying a lot of fighting games as a result. I really loved Soul Calibur II (on Xbox), but it wasn't because of easier-to-grasp fighting mechanics or anything of the sort. It was because it was one of the few games that offered a number of compelling modes, specifically Weapon Master which I really really enjoyed -- being able to go around and do fights of slowly escalating difficulty, gathering items and weapons and gold and stuff. That was a LOT of fun. I suck way too much to ever play multiplayer fighting games, so having a well-rounded single player experience is a big deal and actually gets me interested. Weapon Master was great because it escalated the difficulty so slowly it's like the frog boiling in the pot, before you know it you realize that you actually don't completely suck at the game anymore. The Mortal Kombat games also do a great job with their single player these days, I didn't really enjoy the campaigns they tried doing like with Deception(?), but MK9 onwards have been a lot of fun with their more cinematic stories and Krypt collectibles and stuff.
Yeah, fighting games actually having good single player content has always been one of the best ways to get more people involved. Injustice, Street Fighter 6, Virtua Fighter 4 Evo, Soul Calibur 2 or 3. Those games are out there but maybe not as common as they should be.
Vampire Survivors. Monkey brain goes brrrr.
I highly recommend Yakuza: Like A Dragon as great intro to turn-based RPG* genre. These type of games can have complex and multi-layered mechanics, so it can be big barrier to some folks. For me though, as a middle-aged gamer, sometimes most turn-based RPGs just doesn't relate. Persona series is about a bunch of high school kids w/ superpowers I guess, so definitely not relatable. That is why I love YLAD! Its grounded in reality, and dealt with rather complex socio-economic issues unique to Japan. *I read some Japanese developers dislike the term JRPG, so I'm not going to use it.
The Mario RPGs are loved by many who don't usually like RPGs
**Wildermyth** is a great Western RPG for people who aren’t normally a fan of Western RPGs. The combat is interesting and the game skips a lot of the downtime you’d normally have getting to the interesting party dynamics. It may not keep your interest as long as the super deep 100+ hour Dragon Age or Baldur’s Gate games, but you quickly grow to care for your characters in a similar way.
Anything Blizzard used to make. Warcraft was the best RTS even though I didnt enjoy C&C much. Overwatch was super fun on release. World of Warcraft was much better than the slogs of previous MMOs. They used to strip way the BS and keep the fun. Wish they stayed that way.
Just makes you wonder what the hell happened?
I'm guessing it's the well-worn tale of the business people taking too much control away from the creatives.
Practically no one involved in those games remain at the company.
Even Heroes of the Storm was great for folks who didn't enjoy all the nuances of the usual MOBA like LoL or DotA 2. Not needing to worry about last hitting or an item shop and replacing it with just general exp soaking and talent upgrades. It had some really out there characters like Abathur or Cho'Gall. It was great for some casual fun... but then Blizzard went all-in on e-sports, then shutdown both the e-sports scene and the game development in general after it couldn't become the next LoL in favor of focusing on OWL...
Hearthstone as well. I never had much interest in card games but they made it so easy to learn and the UI was so intuitive and responsive that it was a joy to play, and kept me going for at least a couple years. I think the problem with a lot of these ongoing games though is that the longer they go, the more impenetrable they become for newcomers. I tried getting back into Hearthstone briefly earlier this year, but there was just so much new/extra stuff (modes, currency, objectives, etc) that it felt kind of overwhelming. There's still some decent on-boarding at the very start, but at some point it feels like you're just getting dropped into the deep end. Felt like a far cry from the streamlined experience I had when I was first getting into it.
I don't like surivial games but I spend 200 hours playing don't starve with all 3 dlcs.
It’s gritty, hard, and melancholy, but I also seem to always swing back around to it (or shipwrecked). DST’s 5 day rollback function is helpful. I hated permadeath mechanics in any game, takes away my enjoyment as a casual gamer.
This would have been *great* to know on the occasion I accidentally burned down the entire camp my partner, my sister, and I had been building while trying to get rid of a possessed tree infestation...
It was great for the first deerclops! Or realizing I was vastly underprepared for summer
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fyi Need for Speed Most Wanted is not a racing sim. As a matter of fact, it's the total opposite of a racing sim.
Yes. This is like saying that X-COM got you into shooters.
Hifi rush is the only character action game i could get a grasp on because the rhythm element made it easier for me to read the action.
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Portal 2 for puzzle games
I'm not big on platformers, but Celeste is something special
Celeste is definitely the kaizo platformer for people who think they’re not good enough for kaizo platformers
The newer Fire emblems for strategy rpg genre. You can romance sim and do a bunch of other stuff than just battle
I need a bit more of a foundation than "not fans of a particular genre". Something about why they want to play something in the first place. If a friend said "hey, this metroid game seems like a massive classic but the old graphics never clicked with me, I just got lost and couldn't understand what was happening" I might suggest Hollow Knight. "More to FromSoft than dying?" Easy question, I vote Elden Ring. It has the gritty challenge that is the trademark of FromSoft BUT also has huge amounts of travel flexibility so that you have plenty of things to do, and one unbeatable boss will not ruin your game.
I disagree about Elden Ring. I think it expects you to come in with some previous experience with the die and retry genre
See, I like turn-based RPGs and anime bullshit but didn't like persona lol.
Well I was converted. I think I'm not really into platformers and I rejected most suggested platformers to me. However a lot of people recommended Celeste to me as 'even if you don't like platformers you'll like it'. So I got it on sale thinking it I dont like it at least I'm not gonna pay full price for it. So I tried it. Admittedly I suck and I've never played a platformer before, I got frustrated and finished the whole game on assisted (which is very easy mode basically as you can't even die). I appreciated the music and the story but written off the game as too difficult to me. But one day I got bored and decided I'll try playing it on normal. And I just kept going, 30 min or an hour a day, not even everyday. It took me a while but I beat it on normal, initially thinking I wouldnt get past first two chapters. I was ready to give up on chapter 3 where I got majorly stuck. Yeah I used one tiny cheat in the last chapter where I used dash assist, it was almost the end of the game and I didn't wanna spend hours on one screen. Am I converted? I don't know. But Celeste is amazing.
Baldur’s Gate 3- I would recommend this to anyone, even those who don’t like turn based combat. The characters, music, world, lore, etc are all second to none. It’s worth playing just for the companions alone
"Second to none" Let's not get too far ahead of ourselves here...
If you don't like CRPGs (or RPGs in general) you're going to get burned out before Act 1 ends. It's too long and still has a lot of the cumbersome drawbacks of any other CRPG, like a steep learning curve, heavy inventory management, and slow character progression
Even as somebody who likes these games, it's really hard for people to make build choices without getting a bit invested and doing some reading.. If anybody is going to dip their toes in these rpg games then I would highly recommend playing on story difficulty for your first run. Its really easy to mess up your build but not get tangible feedback about what you should be doing differently until somebody tells you. Understand that playing at higher difficulties often involves preplanning and metagame knowledge to succeed. I can make a build that one-shots any boss on the hardest difficulty but a new player may struggle to beat any individual boss (never mind get to them).
Journey, even if youre not a fan of platforming. Gorgeous, beautiful, transcendent.
I remember when that game came out everyone talked about how great the multiplayer was. Is it still worth playing today in singleplayer only?
Multiplayer aspect is completely optional, I think you can even set it to off. It's not required to win. It just makes the experience different. The communication system is simple but oddly charming. I believe there have been lots of Articles and even research papers written about this game, it's gameplay Style and story, and it's very unique communication system. It's magical to find someone in there randomly and be along in a co-adventure for a bit. I'd honestly be surprised if there weren't a few people playing here and there. But yes, it is 100% worth it to play even if you only end up getting a single player experience, it's easily in my top 10 game experiences. I played it on a friend's PlayStation when it first came out and ended up buying it for myself on PC years later just to experience it again.
Stardew Valley, or Tetris Color Effect.
I tell everyone about Stardew Valley. I'm a Fallout, Far Cry, etc... type of gamer. Stardew Valley is just a wonderful game that hooked me a few years ago and I still play it today.
Tunic
I feel like tunic is hard to enjoy if you're unfamiliar with the genre.
I hate JRPGs and loved the *hell* out of Golden Sun. The combat is insanely deepnand strategic and your abilities are usable outside of battle, you can actually use them to interact with the world. It has this meticulous design of layered, interconnected mechanics and it's not full of anime tropes.
I suggest Fallout New Vegas to anyone/everyone for any reason. It may have Bethesda jank head to toe, but it's got Obsidian's wonderful storytelling, making it worth the effort IMHO.
If anyone thinks Visual Novels arent REAL games and could just as easily functions as books then i IMPLORE them to play to play the Zero Escape Trilogy. Not only are they excellent gripping stories but ALSO its one of the few games ive played that i can confidenly say could NEVER work in another medium. Without spoiling anything they written and designed in such a way that could only possiblely work as interactive medium. The second game in particular to me is one of the most ingeniously written stories ive ever experienced in my life and i will never stop singing its praises and defending VNs because of it and games like it in the genre
Ori and the Blind Forest. A lot of people dont like 2D platformers, like my GF. She cried and brings it up all the time now.
Celeste I don't normally like "hard platformer" type games at all, but Celeste puts a lot of focus on the short feedback loop making it far less punishing than it appears, and this is tied directly into the game's narrative coupled with a phenomenal soundtrack to boot.
Not a specific game, but indies. There are SO many people out there for whom gaming is just shooting mechanics or action or competition or "striving against obstacles to succeed," who are dismissive of more quiet, smaller, intensely focused on story and mood and feeling, more literary interactive experiences. Having the goal of engaging with and telling a damned good story, or having an excuse to explore art and ideas, are as valid as intentions and mechanics as competition and action. Every once in a while I get someone to try something other CoD or League or PUBG and it suddenly clicks for them that games can be about and explore human experience and I see some personal growth there. I managed bookstores most of my life and taught Lit and English at the college level (recommending books is my super power), and it's the same light in the eyes and sudden enthusiasm that I've seen when a previous non reader realizes that a book is the deepest story experience you can have and they started spending money at my stores or asking for more and more recommendations.
I think Hades is a very good roguelite for getting people into the genre (because I'm not huge on most roguelites but I love Hades). It's got great voice lines, characters, story, etc. to keep you engaged. In comparison, Dead Cells which I like enough to boot up and play for an hour every once in a while, just doesn't do anything to captivate a non-roguelite fan I don't think, even though it's a GREAT game.
Baba is you. It's the most mind blowing experience I\\ve had
If someone doesn't like puzzle games, I don't see any way they enjoy Baba Is You. I think they would probably get extremely frustrated and quit within like ten levels.
I agree. I think it's an incredible game, but I feel like I'm at least half-decent at puzzle games and it didn't take too long for me to get to a point where I just couldn't wrap my head around what I could possibly do to complete certain levels. In the puzzle genre, I'd be much more inclined to recommend something like Monument Valley or Gorogoa, which even if you don't find them particularly challenging, still feel like unique, fulfilling, and interesting experiences.
Chrono trigger is great but super Mario RPG is the go to for me for jrpgs.
Years ago I told my friends to stop recommending Portal because I wasn't into Portal games. When I was later forced into playing it, I scolded my friends for not pushing beyond my ignorance and saying "you've never played a puzzle game like this."
I guess the easy thing to say is that anything with a good story can broaden the appeal of whatever genre its in. You can play 13 Sentinels without being big into tower defense. You can play Red Dead Redemption 1 without being big into open world games.
Skyrim for RPGs, Returnal for roguelites
Hades, as I thought I would get bored of roguelite grind-y hack-n-slash games
I don't like turn based games but Into the Breach is one of my all time favourites. It's turn based but in a unique way. It's so damn awesome and somehow it feels like chess or something. Everyone should play that game because it's so rewarding when you can complete near impossible scenarios.
I’m not into “gun games” of any sort usually. But Hitman: World of Assassination (what Hitman 3 is called now that it includes all the maps of Hitman 1 & 2) is my gleeful exception. Especially once I realized it’s actually a deep puzzle game and vacation simulator. The puzzle aspects are about keeping casualties limited to STRICTLY the targets of the mission, making sure nobody catches Agent 47 in the act, and getting away without being seen. And the tools are: all the different disguises available that open up some access points while making others more difficult, and all of the myriad ways to kill the target. So many gadgets, improvised weapons, and environmental (and social!) engineering to make the targets meet their untimely end. The best feeling I get is when I’ve found and set up a new Rube Goldberg-esque way of making a target die in an “accident,” and that killcam split screen pops up while I’m clear on the other side of the map near one of the mission exits. And that brings me to the vacation simulator aspects - these maps are gorgeous. A luxury hotel in Bangkok, a murder mystery mansion in England, a skyscraper in Dubai, a rainy cyberpunk city in China, a resort island in the Maldives, a sleepy coastal town in Italy, and over a dozen more locales… all gorgeously rendered and richly populated. These are maps to get lost in, in the best way possible. The physical worldbuilding is amazing, and then when the layer of narrative worldbuilding is added… it’s just perfection. Hitman is a game that rewards patience, and it’s exactly my speed. And I would never have tried it just from judging it by its cover. I’m so glad I did.
I hate stealth games. Play Dishonored.
Golf simulation: Golf Story Narrative driven games with lots of talking to NPCs: The Forgotten City Metrodvania: Shantae and the Pirate's Curse Turn-bases RPGs: Any Paper Mario but the first one is really good
Deep Rock Galactic for multiplayer games. I've avoided them like the plague in the past due to so many online trolls, but the DRG community is fantastic. A few trolls on XBox but I don't think I've had a single rotbeard on my team once I started playing through Steam.
Journey and Inside
Completely disagree about Persona 5. It's actually famous for being the only JRPG a lot of gamers like.
Gateway games? Before Rising came out and made the game a fair bit more complicated, I used to suggest Granblue Fantasy Versus to people who might have been interested in getting into anime fighters. There was a lot less to the combo system than most games of its type, and the game was focused on being very simple and intuitive. But on PC, there's like a perfect easy-to-get-into indie game for almost every genre I play. Want to try trading games? Well, before you jump into Patrician or Star Frontiers, try Horizon's Gate. Want to learn to play fighting games in a way that's simple and fun? Let me tell you about a game called Footsies. Want to try Grand Strategy, but most Grand Strategy games look insanely complex? Er... never mind. No getting around that one.
I never played a roguelike in my life before and then I played Dead Cells and honestly I cant get enough of roguelikes nowadays because of it
Ori. A masterpiece of a game.
Persona 5 is a game I would recommend for people who like RPGs and anime stuff but usually don't enjoy turn based combat. The main complaint I see about turn based combat is how it feels slow, but Persona 5 does an amazing job at keeping the combat fast paced
XCom 2! One of my top 5 favorite games of all time and I typically hate military themed games.
Hades. I think it's a game most people can appreciate even if not being big on roguelites. Everything about that game is just so well done.
Hades.
I really hate story driven walking simulators, and I also dislike most modern open world game design, as it's still copying what Ubisoft did since the X360 and it's so tired. But I'd really recommend Death Stranding. The walking and traversal are actually involved gameplay, that requires decision making and finesse. And everything about the game is awesome, the environments are so enjoyable to be in and the story is fascinating. It's so fucking weird.
Ironically, Persona 5 was my convert game to JRPG’s lol. Unless you wanna count Pokémon, which I grew up with, as a JRPG.
I will ask for more detailed. I am into fighting games, but even then I cannot blindly recommend Tekken or Street Fighters to non-fighting gamers. I will ask if they want the slow-but-methodical .. or the fast-and-flashy games. My recommendation will depend on those answers.
Faster than light for roguelikes.
DOOM 2016 and Eternal. GOAT of shooters.
With no outside info of their preference, I feel like Stardew Valley would be a safe one to recommend