Welcome to the largest gaming community on Lemmy! Discussion for all kinds of games. Video games, tabletop games, card games etc.
Submissions have to be related to games
No bigotry or harassment, be civil
No excessive self-promotion
Stay on-topic; no memes, funny videos, giveaways, reposts, or low-effort posts
Mark Spoilers and NSFW
No linking to piracy
More information about the community rules can be found here and here.
Factorio. If you like satisfactory and w&r then cracktorio is right up your alley.
There is also a free demo on Steam.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/427520/Factorio/
If you enjoy the base game I would 100% recommend the expansion called Space Age with adds 4 more planets and space flight between them.
Factorio. Aka cracktorio.
Factorio. If you enjoyed Satisfactory you should check out the game that created the genre. They have an excellent demo and although it's relatively expensive compared to similar games, it's the best one and runs like an absolute dream even when things get huge where a lot of similar games slow down.
I see no mention of Starsector, there should be mention of Starsector.
Try Starsector.
Not on steam, early 2000's website, gameplay looks nice. This is a win for me. Thanks!
Outer Wilds
Kenshi.
If you can get past the kind of... weird control scheme...
The game is basically a single player mmorpg.
You start off as an absolute weakling, and there is no ... scaling, the way most other rpgs either generally have certain levelled enemies in certain areas, that you progress through linearly or unlock sequentially, or just an outright whole world spanning dynamic level matching kind of system.
You can be battling a small beast... and then a herd of very, very much more dangerous beasts, or slavers, will just happen to pass by, and royally fuck up your day.
Every character in the game, including you, plays by the same rules.
All major NPCs can be killed, the game is also full of varying factions with varying alignments towars other factions, and they will treat your character differently based on your race, the kinds of actio s you do, your reputation with other factions.
The storytelling is ... a sandbox/emergent approach. Not in the sense of 'there are no story lines or quests'... but in the sense of... a whole lot of stuff is out there, but you have to self direct yourself to go out and find it, or randomly encounter it.
Also, you can gain allies, make your own faction, and control a small army... and you can even build your own settlement, and economically interact with the rest of the world.
... Its... kind of hard to describe.
There really aren't any other games quite like Kenshi.
Its got a good sized modding scene, and it incorperates at least some elemenrs of... every game you mentioned.
If you use a mod to up your max follower/faction member count... you can basically play the game as an RTS (with pause). Build a settlement, recruit followers (or enslave them), arm them, fees them, train them up, and go take over a city if you want.
... Or play basically solo, just you and your bonedog, maybe as a bounty hunter for hire, or a hashish smuggler, or get a pack animal and run a trade caravan.
Stellaris is a great realtime 4x strategy game. They have a lot of paid DLC, but you can pick and choose which modules you want. Some are purely cosmetic options while others make gameplay changes, and they go on sale pretty often. Worst comes to worst, you can usually find the DLC on key sites as well for pretty cheap. Paradox also started a subscription based service that gives you access to the DLCs, maybe you can subscribe for a month and try out which DLCs you like.
Project Zomboid is an incredibly hard resource management survival game. It is also very detailed, meaning you need to maintain everything about your character from their hydration, to their weight and fitness. Its a slow burner type game, but when the action picks up, it gets tense. Its also a "forever" game, in that theoretically, if your character never dies, the game never ends. The map is huge, big enough to feel different pretty much every time you play. Its also multiplayer, which is pretty fun.
Farming Simulator can be a fun, chill game to play. Its not as resource management intensive as a game like Project Zomboid, but it can be a good game to relax with.
Ragnarok Online is an older (2003) MMORPG that I recently discovered, and while I am not much of an MMO Enjoyer (I hate the "Disneyland" or theme park feeling most have where I have to wait in line at NPCs and bosses), Ragnarok Online's player population is consistently low enough to not feel like that while also being high enough to feel like the game is not dead. Just don't play on the official servers from the Steam client. Use a client that connects to private servers, the economy is really bad in the official servers.
King Arthur: Knights Tale is a pretty fun Strategy RPG. I haven't been able to play that much of it, but what I have been able to play was pretty fun. Check it out, it might be interesting to you if you liked Divinity and games with combat like XCOM or Fire Emblem.
X4 foundations is a sandbox RPG in space where you do whatever you want.
I am a big fan, as you can see :D
Have you considered Rimworld or 4x games? Stellaris, in particular, might be up your alley.
Have you tried Oxygen not included? I'm usually not into management games, but it pulled me in.
Balatro.
You think it's simple until it's suddenly 1 am and your brain is mush trying to remember what strategy you're currently using -oops lost, ok one more run...
Soma.
If you're in the mood to be hooked on a story. Scary stuff happens, and youll question life a few times.
Pathfinder.
Wrath of the Righteous is the only tabletop pc rpg you'll need agian. Baldergate 3 is the tutorial mission for this monster game.
Rain World.
If you enjoy metroidvanias with new mechanics.
Tunic.
If you enjoy zelda and dark souls. Theres more to it than it looks. I couldn't put this one down either.
Horror/action: Dead Space.
FPS/time manipulation: Singularity.
Factory/combat(optional): Dyson Sphere Project
Singularity still stands up as it's graphics are decent. Super cheap on GoG. Dead Space if you get the original would be cheap. HD remaster would be more. If you love factory games but have never played DSP god damn do I wish I was you. Recommend playing without combat enabled on first run to just enjoy how gorgeous the game is and to help with learning everything before throwing in combat management
Often when I am sick of all the things I’ve been playing or feeling uninspired I go for a genre switch. To that end I will always recommend Neir: Replicant and Neir: Automata—I feel like a failure and a fool to have sat on them for so many years. Those are both games that feature very approachable gameplay with the whole deep story and cross genre mechanics that the split fiction devs seem to be good at (and are both single player), just be sure to continue playing after the first (and second and third, etc) credits roll.
Other random suggestions:
Bellwright is a really good colony sim / survival craft combo (although I’ve not played it single player so not sure how great it is in that mode).
Cyberpunk 2077 is just fucking great if you haven’t played that.
Disco Elysium if you’re really looking for some Get Stick Bugged content. (and a fantastic drunk cop RPG)
Just don't buy Disco Elesium, the thieves that stole it don't deserve that.
The Bioshock games are really fun in a very dark way. They are incredibly unique—I haven’t played anything else quite like them. Personally, I liked the first two better than the third one. The first two take place underwater, which sort of creeped me out from the get-go. The third is in a city in the sky.
It seems like you like games with a lot of replayability, as well as games that make you think a bit. I'm a bit of the opposite (I like shorter, unique experiences), but I also like games that make me think. So here are a few that I've enjoyed that I think fit the bill:
That said, I want to echo what others have said and to recommend branching out. There are tons of great indie games that aren't a total ripoff in a variety of genres, so look around for bundles or something to find something new to try.
dwarf fortress?
Everyone's recommending games but addressing steam recs, there's Backloggd which is Letterbox for games. Sure there'll probably be a similar overlap of games folks love that are not your jam but it'll help you figure out what you like, find something new, and follow folks with similar tastes.
Pillars of Eternity 1 and 2.
Check out Dome Keeper. Mine resources to buy upgrades and protect your dome from waves of aliens. There are lots of game modes and modifiers to get different experiences each run.
Stardew valley. Sea of stars. Kingdom come 2. The anno series. Metaphor re fantazio. The Case of the golden idol. Baldur's Gate 1 &2 enhanced. Planescape torment. Against the storm. Star wars Galactic battlegrounds (it's basically start wars age of empires 2, same engine). Civilization 5 or 6 (I prefer 5 but plenty of people prefer 6, and seems like no one prefers 7). Command and conquer (except 4). Crusader Kings. Europa universalis.
Have you tried Against the Storm (based on your mentioning of RTS style games)
Seconding Yakuza. There's about 10 games in the series, all are pretty great to amazing. The older ones are all dirt cheap and often go on sale by 50%
Yakuza 0, Yakuza Kiwami or Like a Dragon are all good starting points
Played them all already :)
Always gonna recommend Project Zomboid. Yeah it may look like the Sims (which oddly is where TIS got their art influence from), but it's pretty darn unforgiving. Hell, I lost my last character without realizing how, chalking it up to some strange drug interaction (aka don't drink and take sleeping pills, kids). Resource management, while not a direct focal point for PZ, is still important as you are watching every aspect of your character's health and wellbeing.
The latest beta build 42 has incorporated some new mechanics and a nicer lighting system so things feel proper spooky when slinking around in the darkness. And don't even get me started on the modding community. Infinite possibilities and a constant influx of new content, some which gets so popular it's adding into the base gameplay. Look up Week One if you want more than just a zed simulator.
I also second Stardew if you are also looking to scratch that cozy gaming itch.
Always gonna recommend Project Zomboid.
It does have a sandbox aspect, but much as I want to like the game, I always find myself dropping it and playing Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead instead, which is a similar "zombie survival" genre game, but has vastly more stuff and game mechanics. The big selling point for Project Zomboid, in my book, is the far gentler learning curve and lower barrier to entry; it's got an adorable tutorial racoon, and doesn't hit you with too much at once, but...
The combat in Project Zomboid frustrates me. It's very simple, not a lot going on, but because a zombie infection is incurable, a single mistake in timing can have catastrophic effects, so it requires no errors.
The character builds. Project Zomboid has a lot of perks and such. Cataclysm's got vastly more, plus mutations, bionics, all that stuff.
I prefer the Cataclysm turn-based play to the Project Zomboid real-time play. I don't have to wait in the real world for actions to complete, and I can stop and think about what my next move is.
To try to illustrate the game complexity difference, take firearms as an example. Project Zomboid has six handguns, four shotguns, and four rifles. Each has one type of ammunition. There are ten weapon mods, each of which can be placed on some of those weapons. There is a firearms skill.
Cataclysm has, to look at just one firearm class and caliber category, 41 rifle-class weapons chambered in .223 (and that's by default, as chambering can be modified). Each of these can take something like six different classes of weapon mods (replacing the stock, sticking things on the barrel, adding secondary weapons like underbarrel grenade launchers or flamethrowers, etc), multiple fire modes. There are 18 sight mods alone, and it's possible to have multiple sights on a weapon. Recoil is modeled. Firearms can fit in various types of back/ankle/hip holsters, and draw time and encumbrance is a factor; these also have volume and longest-dimension characteristics, so that a large revolver can't fit in a small holdout holster. For those .223-caliber rifles alone, there are 13 types of ammunition, including handloads, tracer rounds, armor-piercing rounds, etc. There are 63 different calibers of weapons. Energy weapons, flamethrower/incendiary weapons, chemical weapons, explosive projectile weapons, flechette weapons, illumination rounds, EMP weapons. There are multiple-barrel weapons, including some with barrels in different calibers. You can load specialized ammunition in a specified order. Different types of reloading mechanisms (revolver, tube magazine, detachable magazine, belt) are modeled. Some weapons use compatible magazines, and high-capacity and drum magazines exist. Speedloaders for revolvers exist. Weapons can be installed mounted on vehicles (fired manually from a mount position, or with an automated weapons targeting system installed, set up to fire automatically). NPCs (friendly, and hostile) can be armed with them. Bore fouling is modeled. When you fire a weapon without hearing protection, you're temporarily deafened to some degree. There are multiple stances one can take when firing those weapons. Some of the game's martial arts forms permit use of firearms. There are firearm melee modifications, like bayonets. There are skills for different types of weapons. The game has all sorts of exotic real-world firearms (e.g. to pick a random one, the American-180, a submachine gun firing .22 rounds with a 180-round pan magazine); the game probably has more real-world firearms than any other video game out there; my current source tree says that there are 555 in total.
And that's before getting into stuff like sandbox vehicle design and construction (land, water, air, amphibious), power generation and storage, nutrition (weight and its various effects on physical capabilities, body fat, vitamins, calcium intake), artifacts, magic (if you turn on some of the various magic or psionic mods), bionics, mutations, local weather systems, temperature (air and body; you can set up heaters and air conditioners in vehicles), vision in various spectra, monsters tracking scent/vision/noise, fires and building structural failures, brewing, the ability to recruit NPCs and create faction camps, quests, aliens, disease modeling, various types of parasites, fungal infections, various types of poisonings and envenomings, various types of lights, devices with removable batteries, internal-batteries, USB-style (UPS) charging and power that can run off static, vehicle, bionic, or power stations. Solar/wind/gasoline/diesel/jet fuel/nuclear power generation. Multi-fuel engines. Multiple-engine vehicles (or, with appropriate electronic systems, hybrid vehicles that can automatically toggle an ICE engine to charge a battery to run electric motors). Seatbelts and harnesses (and being ejected from vehicles in crashes). Folding, portable vehicles. Bike and motorcycle racks on cars. Stimulants, depressants, alcohol. Acetylene and electrical welding. Tons of types of food to cook (looks 547 recipes currently available). The thing is just huge.
If you like factory designing games, I can recommend anything by Zachtronics.
They're all esoteric programming/automation type puzzle games, and they all have their own unique solitaire games built-in for whenever you get tired of the main game.
My personal favourites are SpaceChem - scifi molecule factories - and Opus Magnum - steampunk alchemical molecule factories. Something about the molecules just works for me, don't know why. Plus the Opus Magnum solitaire game is really unique and fun, and it has a user-made level feature, so you can keep playing.
Last Call BBS is a collection of minigames they made as their final release before shutting up shop, so it's a lot more casual than the others, but a lot of fun.
Slay the spire is really fun and different than what you've listed.
It was the first rogue like deck building game. Fantastically done.
Hardspace Shipbreaker.
This thread is actually huge, so apologies if this has already been recommended, but take a look at Against the Storm. It's an indie city-builder with a bit of a rogue-like spin. You can usually get it on fairly deep sales, and the rogue-like elements combined with some meta-progression gives it a real play length, even though a single city-building session is a ~45-60 minute experience.
Not on steam, but Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup is pretty good, and free.
If you like rpgs and management I'd suggest Battle Brothers, a mercenary company management game. You basically travel the countryside fighting brigands and taking jobs from various cities all while building up your company with new recruits and equipment. It's got a bit of a learning curve but once you get the basics down it's oddly enthralling.
Try a different genre than you usually play.
Tetris Effect Connected
A Short Hike
Cult of the Lamb
What Remains of Edith Finch?
I just restarted playing fallout 4. Can give that a shot if you can catch it on sale
Grim Dawn was pretty sick too if you like Diablo style games. I was pretty impressed
Try Shroom and Gloom! It's a roguelike deck builder on itch.io, completely free if you want it to be. Very challenging and really fun