this post was submitted on 01 Oct 2023
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Patient Gamers

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I'm a casual gamer who's been largely inactive for the past few decades, and so I'm looking for some some good game recommendations. I don't mind if they're old as long as they came out after 2003 (because that's when graphics of many games really started improving), maybe between 2008-2019. I'm also quite a picky gamer.

Here is a list of games that I've played before and that I liked (in no particular order):

  • The Stanley Parable
  • Counter-Strike: Source
  • Counter-Strike Global Offensive
  • Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
  • Grand Theft Auto V (just started playing this one)
  • Freeways
  • The Wizard's Pen
  • Need for Speed: Most Wanted
  • Need for Speed: Heat
  • Shadow of the Tomb Raider
  • Simon Tatham's Puzzle Game Collection
  • Minecraft
  • Hamsterball
  • Sifu
  • Tekken 6
  • SuperHOT
  • Papers Please
  • Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3
  • Accelerator (by TenebrousP)
  • The Professional
  • Paraopticon
  • Socrates Jones: Pro Philosopher
  • ir:rational
  • Viewport
  • Lyxo
  • Shadowess (by playchilla)
  • Duet (by Kumobius)
  • Chain Reaction
  • Gumslinger
  • Intersectiion Controller
  • Little Alchemy
  • Magic Survival (by Leme)
  • Spy Tactics
  • Kick Buttowski: Suburban Daredevil
  • Cyclomaniacs 2
  • Learn 2 Fly 2
  • Piano Tiles 2
  • The Sims 3
  • Plants vs. Zombies
  • Tetris (on Facebook)
  • Solitaire on Windows 7
  • Space Cadet Pinball
  • Purble Place

Here are games that I've played that I didn't like:

  • Quake II RTX
  • Doom (1993)
  • Counter-Strike 1.6
  • Left 4 Dead
  • Half-Life
  • Speed Dreams
  • Assault Cube
  • Terraria
  • Minetest
  • Xonotic
  • Piano Tiles
  • Geometry Dash
  • Payback 2
  • Touchgrind Skate 2
  • Pixel Wheels
  • NBA 2K11
  • Defense of the Ancients
  • Dota 2
  • Sim City 2000
  • OpenRCT 2
  • OpenTTD
  • The Sims 4
  • Doki Doki Literature Club
  • Tetris (any other implementation I've tried)
  • Solitaire on Windows XP

Here are games I would like to avoid:

  • Battle Royale / Deathmatch- style games (Fortnite, PUBG, etc.)
  • MOBAs (League of Legends, Mobile Legends, etc.)
  • Hero shooters (Overwatch, Rainbow Six Siege, etc.)
  • Games with fantasy-based elements (Skyrim, The Witcher, Souls games etc.)
  • RPGs
  • Side-scrollers / Shoot-em-ups / Top-down games
  • Platformers
  • Horror/supernatural games (Resident Evil, Silent Hill, etc.)
  • Management games (Civilization, Cities: Skylines, etc.)
  • Artillery games
  • Outer-space/post-apocalyptic games (Halo, Fallout, etc.)
  • Cookie clickers / Walking simulators
  • Rhythm games
  • Sports games
  • Game adaptations of existing media (Star Wars games, Arkham games, etc.)
  • Board/card/gambling/collectible/gacha games\
  • Games that have microtransactions/required DLCs
  • Text adventures / Visual novels
  • Trivia games
  • VR games

Other than that, everything is fair game. I don't have any aversion towards graphic language/gore/sex.

My tastes might be too specific, but I hope someone here may be able to provide me with a recommendation!

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[–] GrammatonCleric@lemmy.world 23 points 1 year ago (1 children)

So you want to avoid most of the good games? Wow

[–] AlolanYoda@mander.xyz 28 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Good games? He's excluding pretty much all games!

[–] iheartneopets@lemm.ee 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I can kinda see why they've been out of gaming for decades. I'm also a bit confused by their qualifiers... They say they don't want top-down games, but listed liking pinball... Is that not a top-down pinball game?

[–] greenmed123@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Well, Pinball is a top-down game, but I've included it in the games I like because it's one of the first games I've played. If I played it now without any preconception or nostalgia, I probably wouldn't like it.

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[–] bionicjoey@lemmy.ca 12 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Outer Wilds and Return of The Obra Dinn are two that I would recommend. The latter was made by the creator of Papers Please.

Both are basically "solve a mystery by gathering clues and exploring" type games.

[–] iheartneopets@lemm.ee 4 points 1 year ago

The exact two I was thinking of. Any and everyone who enjoys games should give them both at least a solid hour if their time to see if it sticks. Two modern classics for sure.

Both of these games are so unique in their style and I love both of them. Great recommendations.

[–] greenmed123@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Yeah, these have already been recommended to me by other users. I'll be checking them out soon.

[–] Coasting0942@reddthat.com 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The Outer Wilds.

Probably in the top ten games I’ve ever played. Story focused, lite reading, almost no action, maybe some scary elements depending on your personality.

[–] greenmed123@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

Seems interesting, even though it has space/fantasy elements, it looks more like an outdoor survival game. I'll try to check it out.

[–] ExtraMedicated@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

It's not really a survival game. More of an exploration puzzle game. It doesn't explicitly tell you where to go or what to do. You're pretty much on your own to find clues and figure out what happened and how to end the time loop you're stuck in. It really is a fascinating game. I haven't played anything else quite like it.

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[–] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If you enjoyed Papers Please, you might enjoy Lucas Pope's other major work, Return of the Obra Dinn. It's a "solve the mystery" game, possibly the best one I'm aware of. It's very engaging, it'll make you feel like a genius, and it has basically no replay value.

One of my very, very favorite games is Subnautica. It is a survival game set on an ocean planet, and few games have captured me the way Subnautica did. I think you should go into Subnautica as blind as possible, but I will reveal a few things about it so you can decide if it's for you: Unlike most survival games it is not inherently open-ended; it has a story that has an end, there is a victory condition to work toward. I would not call Subnautica "a horror game" because horror/scariness isn't the point of the game, but it does have some scary things in it. By its nature it is also a trigger for thalassophobia aka fear of deep water.

You might enjoy Infinifactory by Zachtronics. It has Minecraft-like block placing gameplay, but you are given fixed immutable environments in which to build little assembly lines out of conveyors, welders, pushers, grinders etc. Of the Zachtronics games I think this is the most accessible, though like many of their games I think the difficulty curve is a little steep.

[–] greenmed123@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Among the three games you listed, Return of the Obra Dinn seems most interesting. Subnautica and Infinifactory still looks a little too sci-fi/alien-y for my tastes. Though regarding Infinifactory, I may seem to have played something like it before (which I forgot to include in the first list): 7 Billion Humans. I guess Infinifactory is more of a mechanical version of that...?

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[–] runjun@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] iheartneopets@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Ehhh, that one is kind of reading-heavy, as well as being top-down. It might not be what OP is looking for.

[–] runjun@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

All dialog is voiced and the OP excluded most games so I’m just recommending a banger game.

[–] Ashtear@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I agree with the rec here. I think at this point OP is just going to have to roll the dice on the recent hits and see if it can change some of their tastes. Or just drop the medium altogether.

Maybe it'll help a little that Disco Elysium is isometric, not top-down. Though it's an RPG. And text-heavy. 🤷‍♀️

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[–] iheartneopets@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago

Fair enough

[–] Seasm0ke@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

Its kind of a tough list you've made here friend. I am going to recommend outliers and games that break genre rules instead.

You seem to be split on card games but check out Inscryption and slay the spire to see what you think.

Cult of the lamb was also pretty good by the same publisher.

StarDew valley or my time at Portia or Palia (in beta) are nice casual games.

Hades is challenging and hack and slash roguelite but very good with a neat story. Bastion was really engaging but a platformer slash Action RPG and isometric.

Valheim might scratch an itch. It has a bit of fantasy but its mostly Norse mythology based. Survival and base building.

Strange horticulture was nice if you liked the potion master style of games.

Wildermyth is kind of a write your own story adventure and one of my most played, games but its kind of an RPG, just not in the classic sense.

Death and Taxes is kind of like papers please, but also very short.

Tails Noir is a bit if a linear story game. Less text heavy than Disco Elysium and I enjoyed the journey more than the destination but good game.

Anyway if any seem interesting shoot a reply

[–] Jakdracula@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)
[–] Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Oooo once I have my dedicated VR machine set up, I’ll give this a shot. I won’t run Facebook code on my main machine though lawl

[–] MartinXYZ@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You could buy a VR headset from another company?

[–] Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 year ago

I have an Index, I would never touch an Oculus.

The game is Facebook code. I uninstalled Beat Saber when FB bought it, I don’t touch anything Facebook…. I miss Beat Saber so much though.

[–] greenmed123@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Wow! This would have been right up my alley if it wasn't for the need of a VR headset! I'll try to revisit this game in a few months once I get myself some gear.

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[–] corrupts_absolutely@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] 4jPhcJByUbejC67TsVsn@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago

Tetris Effect

[–] sj_zero@lotide.fbxl.net 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If you liked the Stanley parable, I feel like spec ops: the line would be up your alley. Quite different games with a common narrative method.

Based on the puzzle games and games with character on your list, it seems like psychonauts would be a good choice. (Its technically a platformer, but so is tomb raider)

The Scribblenauts series is a fun puzzle game that's sort of unique, though it's a side scroller.

Beaming is a racing game that's heavy on the physics simulation side of things.

[–] greenmed123@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Judging by the name, I thought Spec Ops: The Line would be a Counter-Strike ripoff, but since it has The Line™ in its name, then surely it must be a The Stanley Parable ripoff./jk

Psychonauts seems to have a bit of cartoon/fantasy elements to it.

I've played a bit of the OG Scribblenauts way back, it was a bit fun.

I'll be checking out Spec Ops: The Line and BeamNG.

[–] Nindelofocho@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You might like Superliminal

[–] Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 year ago

Absolutely love that game.

[–] Cavemanfreak@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago

Seeing as you liked The Stanley Parable you might want to give Antichamber a try. It's also in the mindfuckery category of games. And I didn't see Portal 1/2 on your list, they are in roughly the same area of games, but focused more on the puzzle side of things.

[–] PotentialProblem@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

CounterStrike 2 came out last Wednesday. Basically the same game as CSGO but with some quality of life and graphical updates. Might be worth taking a shot at getting back into it.

There’s some platforming but Hollow Knight is an excellent game if you enjoy metroidvania types.

If you have someone to play with you may want to give local couch games a try. I’m ignoring a few of your thematic dislikes because they aren’t really a critical part of most of these games.

Games like:

Lovers in a dangerous space time

Boomerangfu

It takes two

Untitled goose game (single player is also fun if you enjoy harassing people as a goose)

Unravel

Duck game

Portal 2 (single player is great)

Cup head (single player is also great)

[–] Nindelofocho@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

duck game is an absolute ton of fun when you have friends to play it with

I agree! I’ve never been able to play the newer patch because I have the switch but I’ve spent many hours playing this game with the family!

[–] strongarm@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

From the looks of your lists of what you like and what to avoid I think you'd like games like the Dishonored series, Bioshock, and the System Shock remake.

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[–] mortalic@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago
[–] PM_ME_FEET_PICS@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Dredge is a pretty good casual game. Lots of fun to explore and really best played in short sessions.

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[–] hiramfromthechi@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

How bout some Naughty Dog games? The Last of Us us more thriller (not horror), and while it has some scary moments, it happens to be post-apocalyptic, so naturally, the scary thriller aspect is there.

The whole Uncharted series is also great. It's essentially a playable movie with dope character development and direction.

[–] 2xsaiko@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Since Dishonored and System Shock was already mentioned, I'll also recommend the Thief trilogy (Thief: The Dark Project, Thief 2: The Metal Age and Thief: Deadly Shadows). Thief along with System Shock is one of the series which started the Immersive Sim genre, which Dishonored belongs to also. The third game came out in 2004 but I also recommend the first two because despite a lot less detailed graphics they imo have a lot better atmosphere and objectively better gameplay (a lot of the gameplay depth was cut in the third one to make it more playable on consoles, but it's still a good game).

Another one I always tell people about is INFRA. It's a pretty unknown puzzle/exploration game with excellent atmosphere and very high on my top of all time list. Highly recommend if exploring crumbling or long forgotten urban environments sounds like your thing.

[–] greenmed123@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'll be checking Thief and INFRA out!

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[–] Lyricism6055@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Please play the souls games.

Dark souls 1,2, and 3. And sekiro.

They are all super good

No microtransaction, good difficulty, and just fun af to play

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[–] iheartneopets@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Have you played any of the Red Dead Redemption games? The second one is on PC and doesn't require digging out an xbox 360/Playstation 3 to play the first if you don't want to. You may find the story of the second slightly more rewarding if you are able to play the first, though, as the second game is a prequel to the first. Both are some of the best stories in video gaming, imo.

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