I’ve had a great time playing some of the ‘smaller’ games lately: Dredge (adore this game so much), Dave the Diver, Cloudpunk, Stray, Octopath II, Observer.
What else would I like? That aren’t roguelikes or crafting-building games (don’t hate me, I tried to love Subnautica…as a diver I should love it, but the genre just isn’t for me!).
Would love any suggestions!
How far did you get into Subnautica and what turned you off about it? I understand it’s not for everyone. It can be a little bit obtuse in the way it gates your progress behind radio transmissions, and if you don’t find the right blueprints your journey can be made much harder or easier respectively. I’ve been replaying it recently and I can see how it’d be hard to get into. One thing to note is that as you advance a lot of the annoyances of finding food, water & power to upkeep everything get eased through different technologies, so you slowly get more freedom from the grind, and the story is worth seeing to the end. In fact every new tech makes the game easier and faster and opens up the world that much more, either by making it easier to traverse long distances or go deeper, or carry more, etc. The early game is slow and frustrating in comparison.
I could cosign a bunch of suggestions already, but Outer Wilds is one of my favourite games of all time. I’ll try to explain it without any spoilers: It doesn’t gate your progress behind anything but your own curiosity and acquired knowledge. It also gives you a sense of freedom that you get from fully simulated physical movement in space. It is also deeply emotional and if you’re halfway to the end wondering, “How could they possibly stick the landing on this and end it well?” the answer is just trust, omg it’s so good. You can’t really experience it twice - it’s designed such that when you possess the right knowledge, you can finish the game extremely quickly, but also to do so you must truly understand and master the ideas you are being taught - so you can only experience it again by watching blind let’s plays. I’ve watched 4 so far and each one was a moving experience watching the person go through their own process of understanding over many, many hours.
If you like platformers, Teslagrad is a beautifully illustrated and impeccably designed metroidvania which I’ve played through many times. All the story is delivered through puppet shows rendered within the levels themselves and gorgeous collectible cards. They’ve just released a remastered version with a number of QoL changes that I’ll be playing again, and the sequel is out. I believe they’re still available in a Fanatical bundle right now.
The metroidvania that got me into the genre is actually a free game by the maker of Celeste, from many years ago. It’s called AnUntitledStory and I’ve played it through many times. Some quite hard platforming challenges but the whole aesthetic is extremely cute, and as you’d imagine from the dev of Celeste the controls are crisp and precise.
Hollow Knight is another incredible metroidvania/souls like. You play as a bug in the ruins of an ancient civilisation of bugs and it is quite haunting. Again, amazing aesthetic.
And if you want something chill instead, I’d go with Spiritfarer. You build your boat and travel the spirit world helping souls on their journey to the afterlife, except each soul is unique and has their own personal needs and closure you help them achieve before they’re ready to pass. Most importantly you can pet your cat whenever you want, which every game should have.
Wow, thank you so much for this! So much in this I wanted to see, I really appreciate the time you took!
I adore diving. I actually moved around the world for 11 months to teach diving after my PADI IDC. So you’d think Subnautica would be tailor-made for me.
It just didn’t really explain what I needed to do. I don’t need my hand held in games, but by the time I figured out what I needed, the realization was a whole lot of upkeep and ‘menial tasks’ to progress. If that makes sense. I couldn’t pass the early game to get to the story and progress. This is all on me, but I never enjoyed Minecraft, so that whole genre is maybe not for me. I wish I did, it looks so lovely.
Abzu though, that was amazing!
I’ve got Outer Wilds downloading right now. I keep reading and seeing comments and posts telling me how much I’ll love it, so I have to have faith (like Dutch kept telling me -_-), thanks for reminding me about this one. It seems quirky and to have its own style, I think I’ll like this!
(P.s. is Spiritfarer harrowingly sad? I see a lot that this game needs a box of tissues and a teddy bear nearby when playing through, that’s why I haven’t jumped to it yet!)
Outer Wilds is a masterpiece, but based on this comment about Subnautica, be warned that it also doesn’t make clear what you’re supposed to do. Unlike Subnautica though, there are no menial tasks to keep up with once you figure it out.
Just don’t be afraid to check a walkthrough to give you a boost if you need it (but also don’t rely on one, the joy of exploration and discovery is the best part!).
Ooh enjoy! Outer Wilds is one of my favourite things, ever.
Counter-point to ConstableJelly (they’re not wrong, play however you enjoy, this is just my opinion) - DO avoid guides even when stuck.
The whole game is about figuring things out, looking at the info you have from different angles, or heading out in brand new directions to see if any new discoveries will tie in with where you’re stuck. Looking something up will rob you of that discovery and maybe other ones that tie in to it.
There’s a great subreddit for the game that is set up with very specific rules to avoid spoilers. You can ask questions there, and people will expertly nudge you in the right direction based on what you’ve already discovered and figured out. There are communities here also but I don’t think they’re set up in quite the same way yet (especially as spoiler tags are not reliable in Lemmy yet across different apps etc)
You can definitely do it without resorting to any of the above, but if you get so stuck you’re going to drop the game, I’d say ask in that subreddit. Or, feel free to DM me! I’ll help you without ruining anything as best as I can.
I mean, fair enough. If you don’t like grind then Subnautica isn’t going to be for you. A lot of these grindy games I use as podcast games - I listen to stuff while I’m doing the boring bits, then when shit gets real I pause the sound to focus.
Again, you can get past some of the grind, but if you don’t enjoy the process to get to that point it’s maybe not worth it. Even once the worst grind is gone… I mean there’s still grind. The actual story is pretty fascinating, it’s all about conservation and responsible stewardship and working with the ecosystem and not against it. Oh and also you’re virtually a slave in a hypercapitalist company town structure.
Anyway, I think Spiritfarer is very bittersweet, although I would consider myself very at peace with the concept of death, so I understand others may feel differently. If you’re a big crier it will definitely do that for you. A big theme is letting people go when it’s their time. I played it on a week when I was particularly sick and didn’t have the energy to do something more active, and it was the perfect thing for that time for me. I personally think it’s very wholesome and healing in many ways. The ambience is very soothing, you spend time tending your gardens on the ship and keeping everybody happy whilst you travel. One of the things they sometimes need is hugs. It never feels like a grind imho, but again I’m happy with minecrafty/subnautica type games. I have to admit I haven’t finished it, it was very much an experience limited to that time I was sick, which is weird. I’ll have to try it again.