Recommend me a game, again

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Recommend me a game, again

Eric the Mauve: May 8, 2012; Making you happy for a buck since 199X

Jack B Nimble posted:

Against the Storm seems good from the twenty minutes I played but I should have done any research at all before slam buying it because I heard "RTS is back baby!!" and thought I was getting the next C&C or Warcraft and oops this is a settler game.

Edit: Ok to make myself sound less like an idiot I watched the Steam add before I bought it, I had just spent the preceding however many weeks or months thinking it was a different kind of game.

You buy games without watching a couple LP videos of them first??

AtS is a game that either won't click with you in the first hour and you can safely just refund it, or will click with you and you will become obsessed with it and it will dominate your life for weeks or months. There seems to be no in between, it does a very specific thing but does that specific thing disturbingly well.

# ? Dec 22, 2022 16:45

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# ? May 23, 2024 09:31

Jack B Nimble: Dec 25, 2007; Soiled Meat

Eric the Mauve posted:

You buy games without watching a couple LP videos of them first??

AtS is a game that either won't click with you in the first hour and you can safely just refund it, or will click with you and you will become obsessed with it and dominate your life for weeks or months. There seems to be no in between, it does a very specific thing but does that specific thing disturbingly well.

Yes.

I know LPs largely invalidate traditional reviews and previews; if you want to understand a game, nothing beats just seeing the drat thing in action, but I both enjoy games journalism and value discovery in games so I tend to not watch twitch streams of games before I buy them.

I'm not often completely wrong about the genre though. Still, seems like a good game and I'm more than happy to add it to the pile of "good games I own and will play one day, I swear."

# ? Dec 22, 2022 16:50

Jack Trades: Nov 30, 2010

Eric the Mauve posted:

You buy games without watching a couple LP videos of them first??

To be fair, with Steam's refund policy, there's almost no need for that.

2 hours is almost always enough time to figure out what the gently caress you've bought and if you want to keep it or not.

# ? Dec 22, 2022 16:53

Danger - Octopus!: Apr 20, 2008; Nap Ghost

Jack B Nimble posted:

Need a game recommendation/theoretical question:

What's an highly accessible game that broadly matches Elden Ring's genre. And I mean very broadly, as in "a third person action game mostly focused on melee combat". This would encompass everything from Ocarina of Time, Arkham Asylum, Elden Ring, etc.

If someone is completely new to this, what's a game on steam that is bright, cheerful, funny, and will help ease someone into the absolute basics of "this analog stick moves your dude, this one look around with the camera, and you want to hit and not get hit" and is also very forgiving so someone can build up some fundamental familiarity with the conventions of the control scheme and basic "verbs"?

This is the kind of tjing I think games struggle with, there's a lot of assumed knowledge.

Immortals Fenyx Rising maybe?

# ? Dec 22, 2022 17:43

External Organs: Mar 3, 2006; One time i prank called a bear buildin workshop and said I wanted my mamaws ashes put in a teddy from where she loved them things so well... The woman on the phone did not skip a beat. She just said, "Brang her on down here. We've did it before."

Jack B Nimble posted:

Need a game recommendation/theoretical question:

What's an highly accessible game that broadly matches Elden Ring's genre. And I mean very broadly, as in "a third person action game mostly focused on melee combat". This would encompass everything from Ocarina of Time, Arkham Asylum, Elden Ring, etc.

I could see Sable being a nice entry point into this control scheme.

Edit: there's no combat. So maybe even proto-the other suggestions.

# ? Dec 22, 2022 17:47

Jack B Nimble: Dec 25, 2007; Soiled Meat

Ah, yeah, sable would he a great introduction, you basically can't lose from what I saw in the demo, and by the time you're done the basics of moving and controlling the camera should be completely internalized.

Edit: The non theoretical version of this question for me personally is that my girlfriend's gaming experience is still firmly rooted in Super Mario World; shes played and beaten Shantae: Half Genie Hero and is currently playing Guacamelee, and is comfortable with those because they're 2D, but when she tried Stray and Psychonaughts the fundamental genre conceits were a big hurdle. Of course she improves every time plays them but it's not fun to hit an absolute brick wall like struggling to complete a tutorial because twin stick 3D games are brand new to her and, unlike me, she didn't have the benefit of playing through the first titles like Super Mario 64 that assumed a lot less pre existing skill.

Like, I was replaying super mario 64 on switch and a LOT of the moment to moment gameplay is really basic stuff like "can you move Mario in a straight line across a narrow bridge", whereas a game made today just sort of assumes you're past that point.

Jack B Nimble fucked around with this message at 18:07 on Dec 22, 2022

# ? Dec 22, 2022 17:58

External Organs: Mar 3, 2006; One time i prank called a bear buildin workshop and said I wanted my mamaws ashes put in a teddy from where she loved them things so well... The woman on the phone did not skip a beat. She just said, "Brang her on down here. We've did it before."

If Switch is an option I think Kirby and the Forgotten Land really does a great job at introducing control concepts too. The camera movement exists but is very limited. Also, couch co-op. Has a demo available iirc.

Did A Short Hike have a fixed perspective or can you mess with the camera? I don't remember.

# ? Dec 22, 2022 18:25

Hwurmp: May 20, 2005

External Organs posted:

Did A Short Hike have a fixed perspective or can you mess with the camera? I don't remember.

iirc it's fixed

# ? Dec 22, 2022 18:30

External Organs: Mar 3, 2006; One time i prank called a bear buildin workshop and said I wanted my mamaws ashes put in a teddy from where she loved them things so well... The woman on the phone did not skip a beat. She just said, "Brang her on down here. We've did it before."

Ooo, Tinykin might be an awesome option.

# ? Dec 22, 2022 18:33

Shine: Feb 26, 2007; No Muscles For The Majority

Ornery and Hornery posted:

2) Recommendations for any chill-ish co-op game? Things we're looking for:

Co-Op

Cross platform across PC and Xbox

Can be enjoyably played in shorter chunks (like 30 minutes?)

The less expensive, the better

NOT Extreme - so no hyper twitch FPS's and such.

Streets of Rage 4! The lower difficulty settings are "get high and button mash until you win," but there is plenty of depth to the gameplay that you have to learn to make it through higher difficulties, should you desire. Each stage is like 10-15m long. It's one of my favorite co-op games.

# ? Dec 22, 2022 20:26

Nehru the Damaja: May 20, 2005

Is there a good skeleton-clicker out there right now? I played a ton of Marvel Heroes and Path of Exile and Diablo 3.

# ? Dec 23, 2022 05:43

Ornery and Hornery: Oct 22, 2020

Splicer posted:

Fot #3 more of an awareness than a recommendation because I haven't played it but Kingdoms Reborn is apparently very multiplayer focused and has a card pull gimmick for buildings.

e: if your coop request doesn't apply to #3 absolutely get against the storm.

Shine posted:

Streets of Rage 4! The lower difficulty settings are "get high and button mash until you win," but there is plenty of depth to the gameplay that you have to learn to make it through higher difficulties, should you desire. Each stage is like 10-15m long. It's one of my favorite co-op games.

Splicer posted:

They did ask for gimmicks

But yes, AtS is a kind of citybuilder roguelike where there's a point where a village is "done" and you move on to making the next one.

Eric the Mauve posted:

For #3 I would recommend giving Songs of Syx a try if 1995 level graphics aren't a deal breaker. The free demo is just the full game from a couple versions ago. It's medieval/fantasy not modern but has a lot of interesting systems and scratched the SimCity itch a lot better than Rimworld and its ilk for me.

thank you for the recommendations, my friends!

I have acquired Against the Storm and Timberborn. The latter is a city building game of beavers. Overwhelmingly positive reviews.

Streets of Rage 4 is a good cross platform game too! Still exploring other coop games for my friend group...

# ? Dec 23, 2022 07:34

Jack Trades: Nov 30, 2010

Streets of Rage 4 is easily the best game in the genre. There's no competition.

# ? Dec 23, 2022 08:39

Hwurmp: May 20, 2005

Nehru the Damaja posted:

Is there a good skeleton-clicker out there right now? I played a ton of Marvel Heroes and Path of Exile and Diablo 3.

Vampire Survivors

you click without clicking

# ? Dec 23, 2022 09:23

Nehru the Damaja: May 20, 2005

I'm not looking for a Survivorslike. I'm looking for a Skeleton Clicker.

# ? Dec 23, 2022 15:15

Jack Trades: Nov 30, 2010

I'm in the mood for an RPG (or something adjacent) with a good and interesting story but I'm having a hard time finding anything new that catches my eye. I'm pretty picky to how I like my stories.

Here's some games that I did enjoy for their story:
Witcher 3, Tales of Berseria, Disco Elysium, Nier series, Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous (couldn't stand the gameplay in this game but played it all the way through anyway because I got engrossed in the story).
Honorary mentions to Divinity Original Sin 2 and Mass Effect. I wouldn't have played those if they didn't have great gameplay but I found the storytelling to be fairly entertaining in those too.

Things that I don't like:
Persona games (ALL anime tropes and annoying teenagers), Final Fantasy X (played 30 hours of it and is easily my most disliked game I have ever played), Every single shōnen jrpger ever made probably.

Any recommendations?

# ? Dec 23, 2022 17:03

Mzbundifund: Nov 5, 2011; I'm afraid so.

Did you play Pentiment?

# ? Dec 23, 2022 17:10

LLSix: Jan 20, 2010; The real power behind countless overlords

Jack Trades posted:

I'm in the mood for an RPG (or something adjacent) with a good and interesting story but I'm having a hard time finding anything new that catches my eye. I'm pretty picky to how I like my stories.

Here's some games that I did enjoy for their story:
Witcher 3, Tales of Berseria, Disco Elysium, Nier series, Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous (couldn't stand the gameplay in this game but played it all the way through anyway because I got engrossed in the story).
Honorary mentions to Divinity Original Sin 2 and Mass Effect. I wouldn't have played those if they didn't have great gameplay but I found the storytelling to be fairly entertaining in those too.

Things that I don't like:
Persona games (ALL anime tropes and annoying teenagers), Final Fantasy X (played 30 hours of it and is easily my most disliked game I have ever played), Every single shōnen jrpger ever made probably.

Any recommendations?

Have you tried the other Tales games?

Maybe give one of the Spiderweb games a try? The Avernum series are classic heroic fantasy with a grim twist so somewhat adjacent to Witcher. The thread I linked above can point you to the "best" one to start with, but https://store.steampowered.com/app/208400/Avernum_Escape_From_the_Pit/ is a good example.

Open Sorcery is a fun little story. About 2 hours long, so it doesn't over-stay it's welcome and at $2 it's a good deal. If you like that, you might also enjoy Golden Treasure of the Great Green or I was a Teenage Exocolonist.

LLSix fucked around with this message at 17:39 on Dec 23, 2022

# ? Dec 23, 2022 17:14

Jack Trades: Nov 30, 2010

Mzbundifund posted:

Did you play Pentiment?

No but based on what I've seen and heard about it, it's just a historical drama and I don't enjoy neither the historical setting not the relationship drama.

# ? Dec 23, 2022 17:15

Jack Trades: Nov 30, 2010

LLSix posted:

Have you tried the other Tales games?

Maybe give one of the Spiderweb games a try? They Avernum series are classic heroic fantasy with a grim twist so somewhat adjacent to Witcher. The thread I linked above can point you to the "best" one to start with, but https://store.steampowered.com/app/208400/Avernum_Escape_From_the_Pit/ is a good example.

Open Sorcery is a fun little story. About 2 hours long, so it doesn't over-stay it's welcome and at $2 it's a good deal. If you like that, you might also enjoy Golden Treasure of the Great Green or I was a Teenage Exocolonist.

I've played a couple of hours of Tales of Arise and found it to be the exact kind of anime story I couldn't stand. Then I asked Tales fans about other Tales games and it seemed like Tales of Berseria was a unique game in it's series, so I ended up with an impression that I would probably not like any other game in the series.

I played I Was a Teenage Exocolonist already, it's great.

I'll look into your other recommendations.

# ? Dec 23, 2022 17:18

TooMuchAbstraction: Oct 14, 2012; I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.; Fun Shoe

Jack Trades posted:

Streets of Rage 4 is easily the best game in the genre. There's no competition.

This is one of those statements that can make you enemies from people who care very deeply about specific things. :v:

I know plenty of people who don't like it because the skills it emphasizes are more about maintaining combos instead of managing crowds of enemies. And that's a perfectly valid game to make, to be clear! They just want the other thing. In my experience, people like that play a lot of Final Fight 1 and Streets of Rage 2.

From an aesthetics and polish standpoint, Streets of Rage 4 is easily the best game on the market right now. And it has fantastic fun and accessibility. I would heartily recommend it to anyone interested in getting into beat-em-ups.

# ? Dec 23, 2022 18:05

Jack B Nimble: Dec 25, 2007; Soiled Meat

Hmn, Final Fight 1 is my GOAT beat em up, and I still consider SoR4 the absolute best today, the closest thing we've had to a AAA 2d beat em up since ... viewtifull Joe?? I take your point about combos vs managing enemies, but all I can say about that is that I focused on managing enemies over combos, and that's probably why I can't beat SoR4 on harder difficulties. It didn't stop me from enjoying the game, and I probably wouldn't even have any inkling that the combos were possible if I didn't see it posts online.

Edit: I mean, I guess even I would start sneaking in grand uppers and other special moves after knocking a boss into the air, but I barely dipped my toe in combos; I was always just shifting back and forth on the y axis looking for the right time to engage the mob of enemies swarming me - in that sense it feels exactly like final fight to me.

Jack B Nimble fucked around with this message at 19:08 on Dec 23, 2022

# ? Dec 23, 2022 19:06

Jack Trades: Nov 30, 2010

I'm not sure about SoR4 having huge focus on combos. Normal enemies, that aren't bosses die really quick and at higher difficulties it's way more important to be able to stunlock enemies with jabs and making sure you don't get surrounded.

The reason why I think SoR4 is the best in the genre, besides the obvious reasons like absolutely fantastic art and music, is simply because it gives every character a bunch of moves and allows you to actually use your whole moveset without treating your moves like consumables.
Instead of just using your hp every time you try to do something cool, it allows you to regain what you spent as long as you're good enough (and punishes you if you aren't).

# ? Dec 23, 2022 19:12

grate deceiver: Jul 10, 2009; Just a funny av. Not a redtext or an own ok.

Jack Trades posted:

I'm in the mood for an RPG (or something adjacent) with a good and interesting story but I'm having a hard time finding anything new that catches my eye. I'm pretty picky to how I like my stories.

Here's some games that I did enjoy for their story:
Witcher 3, Tales of Berseria, Disco Elysium, Nier series, Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous (couldn't stand the gameplay in this game but played it all the way through anyway because I got engrossed in the story).
Honorary mentions to Divinity Original Sin 2 and Mass Effect. I wouldn't have played those if they didn't have great gameplay but I found the storytelling to be fairly entertaining in those too.

Things that I don't like:
Persona games (ALL anime tropes and annoying teenagers), Final Fantasy X (played 30 hours of it and is easily my most disliked game I have ever played), Every single shōnen jrpger ever made probably.

Any recommendations?

Yakuza 7/LAD

# ? Dec 23, 2022 20:52

A Worrying Warlock: Sep 21, 2009

If we're talking chili coop beat em up, I've got to mention Dawn of the Monsters. Simple moves system, great combo mechanics and you're a massive robot or kaiju rather than a puny human.

You also get to play as not-Godzilla, not-Gamera, not-Ultraman or a giant mecha, rip another kaiju's head off and use it to beat the next monster so hard it flies through a skyscraper.

# ? Dec 23, 2022 21:55

Saintv77: Aug 5, 2008

Jack Trades posted:

I'm in the mood for an RPG (or something adjacent) with a good and interesting story but I'm having a hard time finding anything new that catches my eye. I'm pretty picky to how I like my stories.

Here's some games that I did enjoy for their story:
Witcher 3, Tales of Berseria, Disco Elysium, Nier series, Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous (couldn't stand the gameplay in this game but played it all the way through anyway because I got engrossed in the story).
Honorary mentions to Divinity Original Sin 2 and Mass Effect. I wouldn't have played those if they didn't have great gameplay but I found the storytelling to be fairly entertaining in those too.

Things that I don't like:
Persona games (ALL anime tropes and annoying teenagers), Final Fantasy X (played 30 hours of it and is easily my most disliked game I have ever played), Every single shōnen jrpger ever made probably.

Any recommendations?

Shadowrun: Dragonfall, Frostpunk and Immortal defense are three you might not have tried.

Saintv77 fucked around with this message at 22:19 on Dec 23, 2022

# ? Dec 23, 2022 22:16

SlothfulCobra: Mar 27, 2011

Jack Trades posted:

I'm in the mood for an RPG (or something adjacent) with a good and interesting story but I'm having a hard time finding anything new that catches my eye. I'm pretty picky to how I like my stories.

Here's some games that I did enjoy for their story:
Witcher 3, Tales of Berseria, Disco Elysium, Nier series, Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous (couldn't stand the gameplay in this game but played it all the way through anyway because I got engrossed in the story).
Honorary mentions to Divinity Original Sin 2 and Mass Effect. I wouldn't have played those if they didn't have great gameplay but I found the storytelling to be fairly entertaining in those too.

Things that I don't like:
Persona games (ALL anime tropes and annoying teenagers), Final Fantasy X (played 30 hours of it and is easily my most disliked game I have ever played), Every single shōnen jrpger ever made probably.

Any recommendations?

Bug Fables
Unrest
Underrail
The Technomancer
New Vegas if you haven't tried it yet

# ? Dec 24, 2022 03:38

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

Have you tried Tyranny?

# ? Dec 24, 2022 13:16

steinrokkan: Apr 2, 2011; Soiled Meat

SlothfulCobra posted:

Bug Fables
Unrest
Underrail
The Technomancer
New Vegas if you haven't tried it yet

Mandatory warning that while Underrail does have a great setting, atmosphere and story, it's VERY punishing and definitely not a game where you can coast along the gameplay while enjoying the sights.

# ? Dec 24, 2022 13:24

Fat Samurai: Feb 16, 2011; To go quickly is foolish. To go slowly is prudent. Not to go; that is wisdom.

Jack Trades posted:

I'm in the mood for an RPG (or something adjacent) with a good and interesting story but I'm having a hard time finding anything new that catches my eye. I'm pretty picky to how I like my stories.

Here's some games that I did enjoy for their story:
Witcher 3, Tales of Berseria, Disco Elysium, Nier series, Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous (couldn't stand the gameplay in this game but played it all the way through anyway because I got engrossed in the story).
Honorary mentions to Divinity Original Sin 2 and Mass Effect. I wouldn't have played those if they didn't have great gameplay but I found the storytelling to be fairly entertaining in those too.

Things that I don't like:
Persona games (ALL anime tropes and annoying teenagers), Final Fantasy X (played 30 hours of it and is easily my most disliked game I have ever played), Every single shōnen jrpger ever made probably.

Any recommendations?

I think Encased had a pretty good story (haven�t played) and it�s free on Epic for the next two hours.

# ? Dec 24, 2022 14:07

Gnoman: Feb 12, 2014; Come, all you fair and tender maids
Who flourish in your pri-ime
Beware, take care, keep your garden fair
Let Gnoman steal your thy-y-me
Le-et Gnoman steal your thyme

Kvlt! posted:

can anyone reccomend a switch game that you can play using only one hand (right hand). i had s bad injury and now have a lot of time to kill but only one hand to use (for a few months not permanent thankfully)

i like sports, rpgs, and strategy games but am open to anything

Dragon Quest XI has a built-in one hand mode. Not sure if you can set it to right-hand, but you can probably make do if you can't.

# ? Dec 24, 2022 16:42

Cicero: Dec 17, 2003; Jumpjet, melta, jumpjet. Repeat for ten minutes or until victory is assured.

ilmucche posted:

Ut99, ut2k3 and ut2k4?

Jack Trades posted:

Unreal Tournament 2004 has a pretty good campaign mode where you build a team of bots and do matches against other teams of bots.

Sobatchja Morda posted:

Not counting Unreal Tournament 2004 and Quake 3, you might also be interested in Dusk. Fun multiplayer and you get a great singleplayer FPS as well.

Fruits of the sea posted:

It admittedly isn't my favourite but Warsow is free, can run on just about anything and is well suited for some LAN shenanigans.

Thanks for the recs, yeah might have to try Dusk even though it's theme isn't my fave, the UT's aren't on macos and Warsow makes hosting complicated apparently.

# ? Dec 25, 2022 01:54

Jack Trades: Nov 30, 2010

Cicero posted:

Thanks for the recs, yeah might have to try Dusk even though it's theme isn't my fave, the UT's aren't on macos and Warsow makes hosting complicated apparently.

UT2004 has a good Mac port but I think they stopped selling it.
You could probably ask some sailors to help you.

# ? Dec 25, 2022 10:38

Party Boat: Nov 1, 2007; where did that other dog come from

who is he

# ? Dec 25, 2022 12:34

Lunchmeat Larry: Nov 3, 2012

Cicero posted:

Thanks for the recs, yeah might have to try Dusk even though it's theme isn't my fave, the UT's aren't on macos and Warsow makes hosting complicated apparently.

I was similarly hesitant on Dusk, I'm not really a fan of the style/aesthetic, but it's such a fantastic game it ended up not really mattering. Ended up liking it a good bit more than Amid Evil despite the latter being much more my vibe (still also a great game as well)

# ? Dec 25, 2022 14:46

A Worrying Warlock: Sep 21, 2009

Also worth noting that the Quake 1 remaster is really, really well done. It is easy to get running and you get to experience the grand daddy of all arena games. Also free on gamepass, if that matters.

# ? Dec 25, 2022 15:37

bawk: Mar 31, 2013

I'm getting the craving for a game where you incrementally improve on a place as time goes on, to expand out a business or town or something, but with very chill vibes. I've been playing Ixion lately and while it scratches all the itches for "managing resources in order to build a better and better place", the whole game has a constant streak of depressing locales and it seems to want to prod you along at a good clip. I stayed around gathering as much resources as I could/saving people in the first star system, and the game basically called me out on it and gave me a permanent debuff to my population. I just want to research new housing and extract minerals

I've seen quite a few management games through Steam, but I can't really tell which ones are a no-time-limit fun city-builder and which ones are going to put the pressure on. Lots of people compared Ixion to Frostpunk, so I don't know if that's going to be more or less stressful.

Doesn't necessarily need to be a citysim either, I moreso just want to be handed a piece of poo poo beginner's building/hub/city/ship/whatever and turn it into a really cool lived-in space. The only catch is I don't want it to disappear immediately after I'm done interacting with it, so not something like powerwash simulator or house flipper where you finish the job and then click "Job Complete" and never see the place again. I've played Portia, Cozy Grove, Animal Crossing, Bear and Breakfast, all of those hit pretty close to what I'm looking for but I haven't found something to capture my attention. I'm surprised nobody's made a proper Tavern or Blacksmithing fantasy shop game, i've seen a couple EA titles but nothing that's just done already.

# ? Dec 25, 2022 18:05

LLSix: Jan 20, 2010; The real power behind countless overlords

I haven't enjoyed the last couple of games I tried and have been musing on how to phrase what I'm looking for. I'm looking for games that give you tools to solve problems and then get out of the way.

Examples of games that do this well:
Factorio gives you a set of basic tools that you use to unlock slightly more complicated tools and then leaves the rest to the player. You also have a general goal (launch a rocket) but most of the minute to minute game play is building towards the next sub-goal that is player selected. Having some sort of over-arching goal or narrative is something I like, but I don't want it to be too heavy handed.

Pretty much all the zachtronics games.

Stardew Valley hands you a farm and leaves it up to the player to decide how much time to spend farming vs fishing vs taking care of animals. The villagers provide a motive to keep playing because you want to see all their stories - or maybe just spurn Pierre/Clint/Moris because they're dicks and deserve it. If you have to be nice to NPCs to progress the game, then there's no choice and no meaning. SV lets you at least ignore people you don't like. There are multiple systems, but also multiple options to bypass each system. You need coal to make metal, but you can get coal by fighting, by buying it, or even by burning wood which can either be gathered or purchased.

Honorable Mention: the original Halo: while the overarching story is completely out of player control so it would usually not qualify; it squeaks in due to a mix of high fun factor moment-to-moment gameplay and good storytelling. Most people make rational or at least understandable decisions based on the information they had at the time. They don't always make good decisions, but they do try to. Just as importantly, level layouts are (mostly) wide open and allow the player to come at problems from different directions. I've been replaying this game for years and I'm still occasionally finding alternate routes I missed the previous half-dozen times. Some weapons are better in some situations than others, which means that knowing which weapon to use against which enemies is a useful skill; but the balance is loose enough that you can make weapons work in situations the developers likely never expected.

Examples of games that do this poorly:
Halo 4 (The Prometheans/didact): Weapon design is so tightly balanced that you generally have to have the exact right weapon for the current fight. In particular, the new enemies take reduced damage from any weapon but the new weapons they carry. So player agency is greatly constrained. Just as frustrating, plot beats frequently left me scratching my head wondering how anyone could be so stupid.

Graveyard Keeper: Superficially similar to Stardew Valley and other farming/single character base management games, I found this game to be aggressively unfun. The game was clearly designed with "one right way" to play in mind. So much so that there are multiple opportunities to trap yourself in a dead end. All the npcs are designed to be actively unpleasant to interact with. There are multiple mechanics to throttle player progress and force the player to engage with every single system, no matter how unfun or poorly designed.

Many farming or base building games force the player to sit through lengthy and tedious tutorials to unlock basic mechanics. I prefer to have all the options right from the start, or at least have control of when new mechanics are introduced instead of being artificially constrained until I hit whatever arbitrary milestone a developer has hidden the mechanic behind.

Torment: Tides of Numenera - In a game that advertised heavily on how many choices and options it gives players, almost none of the choices matter. You end up going to the same places and doing the same things no matter what you say. For the choices that do matter, there are clear right and wrong choices and I frequently disagree with the message being sent (like many people still here, I'm pretty far to the left). To make matters worse, everyone is constantly interrupting the flow of gameplay to lecture at the player. I've tried to play this game several times and never got very far (Steam says I've got 80 hours in the game and my achievements say the farthest I've ever gotten is the first zone after the starter city).

Which is a long way to say I guess I'm not necessarily looking for a new farming or management game, but am hoping for recommendations of games that provides a similar feeling of agency in any genre.

I suspect I'll get recommendations for Divinity: Original Sin; so I'll mention I've tried both multiple times and neither ever hooked me.

LLSix fucked around with this message at 18:13 on Dec 25, 2022

# ? Dec 25, 2022 18:07

Jack Trades: Nov 30, 2010

bawk posted:

I'm getting the craving for a game where you incrementally improve on a place as time goes on, to expand out a business or town or something, but with very chill vibes. I've been playing Ixion lately and while it scratches all the itches for "managing resources in order to build a better and better place", the whole game has a constant streak of depressing locales and it seems to want to prod you along at a good clip. I stayed around gathering as much resources as I could/saving people in the first star system, and the game basically called me out on it and gave me a permanent debuff to my population. I just want to research new housing and extract minerals

I've seen quite a few management games through Steam, but I can't really tell which ones are a no-time-limit fun city-builder and which ones are going to put the pressure on. Lots of people compared Ixion to Frostpunk, so I don't know if that's going to be more or less stressful.

Doesn't necessarily need to be a citysim either, I moreso just want to be handed a piece of poo poo beginner's building/hub/city/ship/whatever and turn it into a really cool lived-in space. The only catch is I don't want it to disappear immediately after I'm done interacting with it, so not something like powerwash simulator or house flipper where you finish the job and then click "Job Complete" and never see the place again. I've played Portia, Cozy Grove, Animal Crossing, Bear and Breakfast, all of those hit pretty close to what I'm looking for but I haven't found something to capture my attention. I'm surprised nobody's made a proper Tavern or Blacksmithing fantasy shop game, i've seen a couple EA titles but nothing that's just done already.

Stardew Valley is probably perfect for what you're looking for.

# ? Dec 25, 2022 18:10

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# ? May 23, 2024 09:31

bawk: Mar 31, 2013

Jack Trades posted:

Stardew Valley is probably perfect for what you're looking for.

Shoulda mentioned I've done a lot of the farming sim games. I think I've started and ended at least four farms in Stardew alone :v:

That's pretty well in the right boat, though. I loved the fact that you start with a huge plot of land that's covered in junk and debris that you eventually can turn into a whole farm/ranch with a bunch of animals, but part of the fun was getting that lovely plot of land to start with and turning it into something worthwhile, that you interact with as a core part of the game. Expanding out and building new things that let you feel a real sense of progression.

# ? Dec 25, 2022 18:26

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