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.
I discovered Prey (2017) a few years back. It is so my shit.
It’s probably the worst named game of all time. It’s essentially a sequel to System Shock 2 and Bioshock. Should have been called Xenoshock or something because it’s generic name is nothing like the really original game underneath.
You are fully in the driver’s seat, with a crazy amount of freedom in how you want to get from one section of the space station to the next.
The opening scene, once I discovered the reality behind the scenes, I was hooked.
Super Mario Bros Wonder. Probably all the Mario platformer games. Those games are mostly just pure gameplay. Sure there is fluff in the beginning to setup the story and setting but than it gets out of your way
Fahrenheit (2005)
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.)
Lego games are great for just putting on and playing. So very little intro tutorials and learning. They just are fun.
I’m in the same boat where I don’t want anything that takes too long to get into. I don’t have the time to learn complex mechanics anymore.
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.
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.
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.
Have you played any other loz games? They are all amazing like that
I have played a bunch of them, Twilight Princess was an absolute no for me for some reason, but I liked Ocarina and Majora when I was younger. I plan to play a decompilation of both of those soon, native resolution and performance etc. I enjoyed Link’s Awakening as well, finished that on my original Gameboy back in the 90s, and Windwaker looks fun though I have only recently gotten onto a computer able to render it nicely, so that is on my play list.
Alright not every game was 100. Twilight Princess was meh. Windwaker was pretty fun
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.
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.
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.
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.
Shattered Pixel Dungeon on fdroidorr Linux or Windows
Hearts
