Hello, in the recent years I find myself willing to spend much less time and energy on games, but I do still enjoy them. Oftentimes I end up quitting a new game I tried out relatively early on, because I’m encountering some block, grind, non-optional boring side quest, empty open world, uninteresting clutter or details that I have to manage, or similar. Like, I just wanna play the actual game play, see how the story continues, and visit those areas that were designed with care. Not worry where on the map I can sell the glimbrunses I collected so I can buy a 37% stronger glarpidifice that I’ll need to beat the next glutrey after which I’m allowed to continue the main story.
Sorry if this turned into some kind of a rant, but I hope it’s understandable what I’m looking for and what I meant by fluff. Some games that have fulfilled this for me during the last years:
- Stray
- Skyrim (there’s a lot of fluff you can worry about in Skyrim, but the thing is you don’t have to worry about it, you can also just walk in any direction and see what situation you wind up in, at least for the first 10-20h of a playthrough, which IMO is enough time for a game anyway)
- Life is Strange
- Some Pokémon ROM hacks where the difficulty spikes were not too harsh
Looking forward to hear your suggestions :) Games where there is some fluff but you’re allowed to just ignore it are also fine, but not having any fluff is preferred. Bonus points for anything on the Xbox game pass.
Factorio
I haven’t seen the Lego games mentioned here. (Lego Indian Jones, Lego Batman, etc.)
They tend to be story driven, and have excellent amounts of play-testing, resulting in an enjoyable playthrough that I’ve always been able to finish.
(Except Lego Dimensions, which was developed separately, and not to the same play-testing standards.)
I may have missed it, but Dave the Diver deserves a mention here.
Boss battles are very rare, and slow paced enough that I have not run into the dreaded “I understand the pattern but I lack the dexterity”. (I often have this problem with other games.)
I second this, although some of the bosses can be quite a challenge.
Titanfall 2 is a great shooter and story game. Don’t bother with Titanfall 1 if you are only in for singleplayer as it is multiplayer only.
Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
I only finished it for the first time this year, after about 20 years of giving it a go, getting part way through, then forgetting about it. ADHD is evil. Still, it was fun, there were no long boring parts, nothing was grinding or luck based, and it felt really tight as an experience. Very well thought out, honestly I would consider it a masterpiece.
The Wolf Among Us, and I imagine other Telltale games (but that’s the only one I played so far). It felt a lot like Life is Strange in gameplay and storytelling, even though it’s also a lot different.
In a similar vein, point and click adventure games like The Whispered World, The Book of Unwritten Tales, or Syberia. The modern ones usually don’t have a failure state (as opposed to the infamous Sierra games), but unlike LiS you may get stuck on a puzzle.
Any of the Naughty Dog games fulfill this criteria, especially the Uncharted games. They are mostly linear, all about exploration and combat, and very little fluff.
Indiana Jones & The Great Circle is pretty good too. You don’t unlock skills or abilities through experience but rather through finding books throughout the maps. The maps themselves are not too large and worth exploring.
Just started playing the indiana jones game, for fans of the movies its a love letter to them and a great game
One of the best games I’ve played in a while. Is it a technical masterpiece that will go down in history for anything, no. Is it fun af, yes. Can’t wait for the dlc.
Have you tried sandbox-like games, or just games that basically have no story line? Or is the more “adventuring” type of gameplay the one you enjoy the most? Personally I seem to find most games kinda boring outside puzzlegames and sandbox-things, since the typical stuff always has at least some form of grinding and I don’t really like fighting either.
If you liked Skyrim, check out Enderal - it’s a total conversion mod, but in Steam as it’s own game. It’s much more linear than Skyrim - the world still feels open, but it’s much more dense, and it’s scaled more like a traditional RPG, so if you wander off the intended path too far, you’ll get your ass beat by mobs that are much higher level than you.
Side quests are meh, with a notable exception of the Rhalata line, which is kind of like a combo of thieves guild and dark brotherhood. Main quest line is fucking wild.
If you skip the vast majority of side quests, you might have an issue with scaling, since you’ll be missing out on all that xp. If you run into that and don’t want to do the quests, just use the command console to cheat some in.
Dredge is a pretty unique one that I had a lot of fun with. Firewatch is good but short
I really like the Ys games, and I think Y’s Origin meets those requirements. The boss fights are difficult, but no crazy difficulty spikes, provided you’ve been killing things properly along the way. I only had to grind for a few min for one boss, and that’s back because I actively avoided the mobs and ended up underleveled.
Zelda games tend to also be really well designed, pretty much any will do.
Portal I and II.
Psychonauts I and II, with the caveat that there used to be a HUGE skill spike in the penultimate chapter of #1. I gather they’ve softened it, but don’t know how much.
I know Portal isn’t a shooter. But Portal made me think of them. I feel like a lot of FPSs would fit OP’s question. Half-Life 2 and most of the Halo games come to mind.
Portal I
Still suffering from the trauma of there being no cake
FF16 is not an incredible game. But it sure is easy to button mash your way to a win, especially considering how good some of the trinkets are (acquired at start of the game). The music is solid, the writing is interesting enough, and the visuals are great, provided you can run it well.
I did not like it at all. I thought the writing was bad, the cut scenes dragged on for way too long, and the characters and the world were uninteresting
OUTER WILDS!
- zero fluff. every piece of text and every setpiece is in service to the main story.
- no gating. you can go everywhere from moment one.
- no grinding. no combat at all, in fact.
- no time pressure. it may seem like it, but don’t worry.
- the big mystery requires understanding the world and the story, rather than fighting a difficult battle
- it will make you cry
I couldn’t bring myself to finishing it because “the timer” stressed me so much :( I loved everything else about it so much.
Timer? Can you elaborate a bit? I was thinking of getting it but I fucking loathe time limits in games.
Trying not to spoil too much, there’s a timer but it doesn’t really matter, you will almost never run out of time and retrying is encouraged. There’s almost no time pressure in this game, and the amount of time in that timer is over 20 minutes, which should be plenty of time to do what you have to, and if not you can reset the timer and try again.
i don’t think it’s a spoiler to say this because you learn very early in the game - physically everything in the worlds goes back to square one after 22 minutes (or if you die).
you do get to keep a log of everything you learn about the worlds and story but that’s all that persists. the log is actually helpful, so follow that if you get lost.
slight spoiler:
Tap for spoiler
also the 22 minute reset is not an arbitrary design choice, it’s part of the story and puzzle.
Oh okay. Thanks for the explanation that really helps. I was envisioning something more permanent from the initial description. That didn’t sound bad at all.
without spoiling the details, it’s a bit like groundhog day, or majoras mask.
i always encourage people to take it slow and drink in the world with ow, and that applies because of the “limit”. which isn’t a limit, you can play as long as you’d like. think of it more as a pomodoro timer. it’s also very well signposted.
understandable, it took me a few times for it to click. i have the same problem with games that count days; i can’t get myself to finish disco elysium or blue prince because the counter going up makes me think i will run out of time, even though you never do.
Its so interesting how different people perceive these things. Disco Elysium was so stress free for me, I didn’t really think the day counter did anything. With Outer Wilds I think its really the anticipation of what I know is inevitable to come. And then I nervously wait for all those cues that tell me how much time has passed already… And yeah, very stressy for me, haha. Still, I should really push myself to finish it sometime because I’m really curious how it all ties up.
Disco Elysium was so stress free for me, I didn’t really think the day counter did anything.
It didn’t bother me at all, because I felt like I did about everything I could every day.
maybe it’s reflective of the personality of the player. i can never get to bed at a reasonable hour and i’ve heard a theory that some people have that problem because the mind thinks that the sooner the next day begins the less time they have to themselves.
I got pretty far with this one and really enjoyed it, and then I spent days trying to get past those goddamn anglerfish and failing over and over again, so I just gave up at that point.
same. the trick is to float by doing literally nothing as slow as possible. it takes some trial and error to figure out when you can maneuver again but you do have to be a little patient.
You probably missed one entry that told you they were blind but not deaf
No, I got that, I just seem to be incapable of silently floating past them. Even when I’m not steering I end up getting too close and they attack.
Obvious spoiler ahead is obvious: Just let go of the controller when you enter that area, you’ll float peacefully (albeit very close to them) until the exit portal.
Unfortunately I tried that too and still kept dying.
That’s weird, that’s the solution, does your controller has some drift that could cause it to still be firing some thrusters?
I’ll see if I can find a different controller and try again. Thanks for helping either way :)
same! turns out you can make it a lot easier for yourself by observation. for example, there are only two of them you actually need to manoeuvre around. also, that entire section takes three to five minutes, but you have like twelve, so it’s fine to take it slow. finally, you can mark your destination from the log to get its location.
Just reading this somehow gave me goosebumps and made me tear up. Such an incredible and unique game.
This song is new to me, but I am honored to be a part of it.
T_T
Adding to this one. Incredible game.
