What are your favourite single-player games without much fluff, grinding or difficulty spikes?
from benni@lemmy.world to games@lemmy.world on 28 Jun 13:09
https://lemmy.world/post/32162871

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:

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.

#games

threaded - newest

Uff@lemmy.world on 28 Jun 13:10 next collapse

Dragon Age, the first one.

Maestro@fedia.io on 28 Jun 14:07 collapse

Yes, Origins is by far my favourite of the series

duchess@feddit.org on 28 Jun 13:14 next collapse

What are some ROM hacks you can recommend?

There is Mass Effect on the Game Pass.

Vinny_93@lemmy.world on 28 Jun 13:18 next collapse

I enjoyed the Star Wars Jedi games.

Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world on 28 Jun 13:19 next collapse

If you haven’t already tried Oblivion Remastered, that’s a no brainier.

Avowed was pretty straight forward with a decent story. It’s more linear than Skyrim, and sometimes I had to reload a save because I walked into a situation I wasn’t ready for, but all in all, I made quick consistent progress.

I played both on Gamepass.

Also, there’s no shame in turning that difficulty bar down when it’s available. I’m in the same boat as you. I don’t want to master the game, I just want to enjoy it.

BeigeAgenda@lemmy.ca on 28 Jun 13:27 next collapse

Maybe the Half-life games? You go through the game on rails, the most challenging part is the final bosses but you can skip those or use cheats.

Kevo@lemmy.world on 28 Jun 13:30 next collapse

I know exactly what you’re talking about with the burnout and decision anxiety for new games that take hours to complete a tutorial or have paragraphs of menu text. It’s not exactly the open world you’re talking about, but I found Hard Space Ship Breaker to be a great alternative to that. It’s got excellent lore and storytelling while still being a very simple game. Think power wash simulator, but breaking apart spaceships in a space trucker stop. It’s simple, and each “day” is a hard 15 minutes, so you’ll always have a stopping point in a reasonable time.

truite@jlai.lu on 28 Jun 13:31 next collapse

I don’t understand fluff in this context, what does it mean? I searched in dictionary but I’m still not sure.

Anyway:

  • Spiritfarer: I don’t remember so much grinding in this game, and it’s a beautiful game, not too long, not too hard
  • The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood
  • Slay the Princess, but you don’t really play, you make choices. It’s a masterpiece of narration. If you dislike body horror, don’t play it.
alaphic@lemmy.world on 28 Jun 13:56 next collapse

Obviously I’m not OP, but I took them to mean content that might be considered superfluous or otherwise not as meaningful to the overarching narrative in and of itself

truite@jlai.lu on 28 Jun 14:01 next collapse

Thanks!

benni@lemmy.world on 28 Jun 14:10 collapse

Yes, that’s exactly what I meant.

iAmTheTot@sh.itjust.works on 28 Jun 16:04 collapse

Spiritfarer is awesome and I also recommend it, but I think I would concede there’s some “grinding” aspects. You’re going to be going out of your way to collect certain things.

JeeBaiChow@lemmy.world on 28 Jun 13:37 next collapse

Death’s door. Didn’t think the difficulty spikes were that bad, and after doing the umbrella run, the bosses were almost easy the next playthrough

Edit: also just played Arranger and the cat quest trilogy.

Schwim@lemmy.zip on 28 Jun 13:42 next collapse

It sounds like you’ve found some games you like but are turned off of by some difficulty bottlenecks. If that’s the case, considerWeMod. It’s a trainer for a ton of games that allow you to “cheat” in singleplayer games(god mode, speed hacks, etc.)

I still love playing games but as I get older, my tremors get worse, making it impossible for me to get through one on my own. WeMod allows me to explore all of the game world without being stopped by something as simple as clicking on something quickly.

[deleted] on 28 Jun 14:08 next collapse

.

greybeard@feddit.online on 28 Jun 16:14 next collapse

A neat feature in the new Death Stranding game is a "Pretend I Won" button on the death screen for bosses. It's nice when games recognize that skill checks can be a problem, and what makes some games fun for some users isn't being challenged.

It does, however, have a ton of fluff and filler.

Coelacanth@feddit.nu on 28 Jun 16:21 next collapse

Doesn’t RDR2 do the same thing if you die repeatedly in a mission?

Schwim@lemmy.zip on 28 Jun 20:32 collapse

I’m trying to work through Death Stranding right now. I’ve started it 3 or 4 times but I’ve gotten farther this time than any of the past attempts. I’m definitely playing care-bear(no aggro, mostly) but the world is very interesting.

FenrirIII@lemmy.world on 29 Jun 15:07 collapse

I love WeMod, been using it since it was created

Dreamchiever@lemmy.world on 28 Jun 13:44 next collapse

If you want more Skyrim, Starfield will give you lots of that. I know people give it a hard time, but it really is just more Skyrim in space.

Kyle_The_G@lemmy.world on 28 Jun 13:58 next collapse

mass effect, cyberpunk, clair obscur, baldur’s gate 3 all super fun and have difficulty options. Doom is pretty fun too. I’ve just been ripping through game pass single-player campaigns and RPGs.

Talaraine@fedia.io on 28 Jun 14:16 collapse

All of these are top notch

Kyle_The_G@lemmy.world on 28 Jun 16:06 collapse

Ya I’m a big single-player story-driven player. Other recommendations are red dead 2 (never played 1, I’d like to), lies of P, sekiro, elden ring, bloodborne, uncharted series, death stranding (I love this game but completely get why people bounce off it), alan wake 2 (also not for everyone), control, and I’ll always have a soft spot for halo 1-3+reach. Theres probably a bunch more i’m forgetting but I loved all of those games. I just love a really good story.

ampersandrew@lemmy.world on 28 Jun 16:15 next collapse

I would describe Red Dead Redemption II as having significant fluff, not just in how much time it wastes getting from A to B a lot of times but also in that whole island chapter, Act 4, I think.

Kyle_The_G@lemmy.world on 28 Jun 16:51 next collapse

ya thats fair

nyctre@lemmy.world on 29 Jun 12:58 collapse

Time spent riding during missions has never felt like fluff to me. As it’s usually filled up with dialogue and stuff. Plus the nature and views and stuff are relaxing.

For the in-between missions riding you can just get one of those cheat menu mods and use the teleport feature.

ampersandrew@lemmy.world on 29 Jun 13:05 collapse

It’s the in between missions riding that I was referring to. The previous game was much more lenient about giving you opportunities to fast travel. Also, when I played the game, mods weren’t an option, and OP might be looking for Xbox games.

nyctre@lemmy.world on 29 Jun 13:49 collapse

Oh, you’re right, I missed that part. Shit.

dylanmorgan@sh.itjust.works on 28 Jun 17:31 collapse

Sekiro? I guess it’s less of a difficulty “spike” if it’s just a difficulty cliff from the jump.

Kyle_The_G@lemmy.world on 28 Jun 18:24 collapse

these are my favourite games, thats why I put them in the second comment I realize they’re a little on the more difficult side. My bad I didn’t clarify.

dylanmorgan@sh.itjust.works on 28 Jun 20:42 collapse

That’s fair, I may have been traumatized by spending 3 hours trying to get through the first section in Sekiro before calling it 😅

Kyle_The_G@lemmy.world on 28 Jun 21:06 collapse

One thing i’ll say about sekiro is that it demands you learn “the dance”. You need to play the game on its terms and learn the rhythms, essentially you just need to “git gud” but it is absolutely worth it once it clicks. Its an incredible game once you finally get a feel for it.

bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de on 28 Jun 13:58 next collapse

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 could be what you’re looking for. The main story areas are significantly easier than all the side content.

You’ll want to do the side quests because how can you not play that game with cool sunglasses and a baguette on your back?

But you can easily get through the game without doing any side quests. And if you are afraid of being overpowered when you do play the side stuff, they recently added some nice controls to bump up the difficulty.

elvis_depresley@sh.itjust.works on 28 Jun 16:54 collapse

I second this one, this is a 11/10 game

bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de on 28 Jun 16:55 collapse

33/10

bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de on 28 Jun 14:02 next collapse

Oh, and I just remembered the old Thief games. They had pretty consistent difficulty. At least for the first two. I cannot remember if that was retained with the third because it was a little more open in terms of what you acquired in the hub world and took on missions. And we don’t talk about the fourth (which was a reboot nobody wanted, not even the dev team).

rumschlumpel@feddit.org on 28 Jun 14:04 next collapse

I usually have a good time with isometric fantasy rpgs in the vein of Baldur’s Gate. They don’t really have grind, the world is generally well-filled with a relatively dense story and interesting quests (denser than Skyrim at least), and if the game becomes too hard you can turn down the difficulty. Though you do need to actually be interested in the combat mechanics (which are much more complicated than e.g. in Elder Scrolls games) to really enjoy these games, IMO. One downside is that these types of games are usually really long; I’ve dropped a couple of them halfway because they overstayed their welcome.

Some examples:

  • Baldur’s Gate 3 (don’t really need to have played 1+2 to enjoy this one, though they’re still very good)

  • Divinity: Original Sin 1+2

  • Pillars of Eternity 1+2 (2 has much better combat, but the first one is pretty important to understand the world)

  • Tyranny (this is a relatively short one)

  • Pathfinder: Kingmaker 1+2

For more Skyrim-style games, I really enjoyed the Gothic series. I think their level of grind is about the same as Skyrim (probably a little less, but it’s been a while), and if you can get past the outdated graphics of the early titles they’re quite fun. Especially the dialogues, they aren’t as serious as Skyrim’s.

cyberpunk007@lemmy.ca on 28 Jun 14:33 next collapse

Half life 2?

Metro 2033?

New doom games

Witcher 3 if you stick to the main quest line only

DickFiasco@sh.itjust.works on 28 Jun 14:39 next collapse

Slightly old by now, but Portal and Portal 2 remain two of the best games I’ve ever played. Gameplay is intuitive and linear, and doesn’t require grinding or building up resources. I thought the difficulty increased appropriately as well.

Flagstaff@programming.dev on 28 Jun 16:47 collapse

Fun fact: Portal was originally a university student project called Narbacular Drop that got hired by Steam. In a sense from its limited narration and story, it felt a bit more like a proof-of-concept than almost a full-fleshed game to me at times, which, for me, was hands-down Portal 2.

They’re great fun to stream and watch, too.

tacosanonymous@lemm.ee on 28 Jun 17:09 collapse

The third party add-on levels are awesome too.

Novamdomum@fedia.io on 28 Jun 14:44 next collapse

I feel exactly the same as you. I have ADHD so fluff is painful and pointless grind is just depressing. I thought the most obvious way to recommend my favourites would be to go by hours played, so here's my top four:

My Time At Portia - 594hrs
Hardspace Shipbreaker - 498hrs
Kingdom Come Deliverance - 370hrs
Just Cause 3 - 255hrs

Special mention too for Assassin's Creed Odyssey (164hrs) because that is one well made game in almost every respect. Very little fluff, grind and you're always in control of how big a challenge you feel like facing. To my mind it makes all the other AC games look clunky and drab.

Also I hate difficulty spikes so much that whenever they happen and just seem to be there so the devs can grind a few more hours of playtime out of you for their analytics, I just reach for WeMod. Big shout out to WeMod in fact :) It's made so many games I'd abandoned fun again.

Echo5@lemmy.world on 28 Jun 16:23 collapse

I feel like ACO has a lot of fluff & repetitive gameplay but I played it for over 400 hours so I can say I enjoyed it 😬 it feels like going outside without having to

[deleted] on 28 Jun 19:53 collapse

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teft@lemmy.world on 28 Jun 15:05 next collapse

Baldur’s gate 3 would be my suggestion. It has difficulty settings from easy to insane. No quick time events. And the whole world was designed with care.

The combat system is very deep since it is based on DnD.

You can ignore side quests and still see the whole main game but even after 1500 hours in the game i was still finding new questlines and hidden caves to explore.

dylanmorgan@sh.itjust.works on 28 Jun 17:30 collapse

I loved BG3 but there are serious difficulty spikes. I couldn’t make it to the third act because the second act boss kept wiping the floor with me and I couldn’t adjust my party to make the fight winnable.

TheOakTree@lemm.ee on 29 Jun 06:04 collapse

If you can get your hands on a misty step scroll, invis potion + longstride/jump spell, speed potion, or dimension door, you can free Aylin in turn 1 (provided you freed her). Granted, that doesn’t make the fight a free win, but she sure can eat a lot of hits. Also, putting sanctuary on a full healer is very useful.

NaibofTabr@infosec.pub on 28 Jun 15:08 next collapse

Live for the adventure, not the grind:

Journey (if you play one game on this list it should be this one)

Far: Lone Sails and the sequel Changing Tides

Jazzpunk

Master Reboot

Manifold Garden

Sable

Fract OSC

Chants of Sennar

The Red Strings Club

The Stanley Parable

Rime

Superliminal

Naissancee

Soul Axiom

Contrast

Flagstaff@programming.dev on 28 Jun 16:48 next collapse

Sable is on a giveaway this week by Epic Games. Use the free-&-open-source Heroic Games Launcher to play it without having to download their platform.

I got bored by FAR’s puzzles and didn’t finish it but I guess I should persist, huh?

NaibofTabr@infosec.pub on 29 Jun 08:45 collapse

I really enjoyed both Far games. I never felt like any of the puzzles were large enough to get tedious. When I finished Lone Sails I just wished there had been a longer section of driving the ship… it kind of felt like you never got to really go before there was some interruption that you had to stop and get out for.

whotookkarl@lemmy.world on 28 Jun 18:28 next collapse

Jazzpunk is not a game I’ve heard of in a long time, great silly surrealism

Manifold garden is great too

NaibofTabr@infosec.pub on 29 Jun 08:40 collapse

Jazzpunk was one of those games that left me wishing there was more of it.

Manifold Garden is just such a perfectly executed atmosphere, it’s hard to do it justice with description - like walking around inside an Escher drawing.

Arkhive@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 29 Jun 06:05 collapse

Red Strings Club!!! Woah!! Been a minute since I thought about that game. Very, VERY, good. Sort of a precursor to Potion Craft in a way, that really didn’t over stay its welcome. The pacing was great, difficulty curve was great, and it had a distinctly finite story that still left you satisfied. I’ve bounced off potion craft a few times because at a point the scale, and subsequent grind, is a bit much for me. Red Strings Club nails the middle ground with good increasing complexity without becoming a chore.

NaibofTabr@infosec.pub on 29 Jun 08:50 collapse

I totally agree on the pacing. The Red Strings Club is a masterclass of storytelling in a video game format.

I think it’s hard to describe as a game to gamers… the actual gameplay is pretty vague, the various minigame activities are almost inconsequential, but taken as a whole it’s a perfect experience.

lime@feddit.nu on 28 Jun 15:14 next collapse

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
Glide@lemmy.ca on 28 Jun 15:53 next collapse

Adding to this one. Incredible game.

Peter_Arbeitsloser@feddit.org on 28 Jun 18:24 next collapse

I couldn’t bring myself to finishing it because “the timer” stressed me so much :( I loved everything else about it so much.

lime@feddit.nu on 28 Jun 18:34 next collapse

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.

Peter_Arbeitsloser@feddit.org on 28 Jun 18:56 collapse

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.

lime@feddit.nu on 28 Jun 18:59 next collapse

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.

agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works on 29 Jun 03:12 collapse

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.

njm1314@lemmy.world on 28 Jun 23:41 collapse

Timer? Can you elaborate a bit? I was thinking of getting it but I fucking loathe time limits in games.

lime@feddit.nu on 29 Jun 00:13 next collapse

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.

acosmichippo@lemmy.world on 29 Jun 05:49 next collapse

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.

njm1314@lemmy.world on 29 Jun 18:58 collapse

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.

Nibodhika@lemmy.world on 29 Jun 05:54 collapse

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.

saimen@feddit.org on 28 Jun 19:56 next collapse

Just reading this somehow gave me goosebumps and made me tear up. Such an incredible and unique game.

apprehensively_human@lemmy.ca on 28 Jun 23:34 collapse

This song is new to me, but I am honored to be a part of it.

saimen@feddit.org on 29 Jun 09:24 collapse

T_T

El_Scapacabra@lemmy.zip on 28 Jun 23:04 collapse

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.

lime@feddit.nu on 29 Jun 00:12 next collapse

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.

Nibodhika@lemmy.world on 29 Jun 05:47 next collapse

You probably missed one entry that told you they were blind but not deaf

El_Scapacabra@lemmy.zip on 29 Jun 10:21 collapse

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.

Nibodhika@lemmy.world on 29 Jun 11:47 collapse

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.

El_Scapacabra@lemmy.zip on 29 Jun 11:56 collapse

Unfortunately I tried that too and still kept dying.

Nibodhika@lemmy.world on 29 Jun 12:01 collapse

That’s weird, that’s the solution, does your controller has some drift that could cause it to still be firing some thrusters?

El_Scapacabra@lemmy.zip on 29 Jun 12:11 collapse

I’ll see if I can find a different controller and try again. Thanks for helping either way :)

Nibodhika@lemmy.world on 29 Jun 13:05 collapse

Good luck, and let me know how it goes, it should be just that really, just don’t touch the controller until you’re through

acosmichippo@lemmy.world on 29 Jun 06:02 collapse

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.

capuccino@lemmy.world on 28 Jun 15:22 next collapse

The Stanley Parable and The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe. I’m getting the no play for 5 and 10 years achievements with no cheating.

Coelacanth@feddit.nu on 28 Jun 15:41 next collapse

Classic corridor shooters fill this niche pretty well for me, if that kind of on-rails experience is what you’re looking for. I recently played F.E.A.R. and it’s first expansion Extraction Point (don’t play any later expansions or games in the franchise though) and they’re some of the best, tightest and most satisfying FPSes out there. Metro 2033 is also good for this.

If you want a no-nonsense RPG I want to put in a good word for Skald: Against the Black Priory which is very tight and linear with minimal fluff, focused on telling its story and doing a few things well rather than spreading too thin.

wide_eyed_stupid@lemmy.world on 29 Jun 08:19 collapse

F.E.A.R. has such good enemy AI. It’s an amazing shooter.

Still, I’ve only ever played it once, because I’m a big wuss and scary is not my thing, I just can’t do it again. Alma is fucking creepy and the entire atmosphere gives me nightmares.

But yeah, for anyone who enjoys shooters, F.E.A.R. is a great one.

Glide@lemmy.ca on 28 Jun 15:53 next collapse

Bugsnax. Substantially better game than I anticipated.

chunkystyles@sopuli.xyz on 29 Jun 03:51 collapse

I adored the details they gave the characters in that game. I accidentally

Tap for spoiler

got the good ending just because I wanted to see the story of each character

It also had such nice and natural-feeling LGBTQ characters.

LordGimp@lemm.ee on 28 Jun 15:55 next collapse

You want the Outer Wilds. NOT Outer Worlds. That’s Bethesda trash.

iAmTheTot@sh.itjust.works on 28 Jun 16:02 next collapse

Outer Worlds wasn’t made by Bethesda.

ampersandrew@lemmy.world on 28 Jun 16:13 collapse

Nor is it trash. That game rules.

Flagstaff@programming.dev on 28 Jun 16:50 collapse

Ironically, I couldn’t get into Outer Wilds, myself; it sucks to get stuck.

lime@feddit.nu on 28 Jun 18:15 collapse

there is no shame in asking for help; the OW community is extremely careful about spoilers so you would have gotten some very delicate pointers.

Nibodhika@lemmy.world on 29 Jun 06:03 collapse

Both are good games, but they’re very different from each other. Also neither is made by Bethesda.

Smoogs@lemmy.world on 28 Jun 16:21 next collapse

Fe

I loved that game so much. Haven’t had quite an experience like it since

callouscomic@lemm.ee on 28 Jun 16:45 next collapse

This is why I sometimes enjoy Ubisoft trash. Especially Ghost Recon Wildlands and Breakpoint. Just the same old shit on a massive map, an okay story, fun gameplay. Easy. Simple. Nice for mindless bullshit.

For an RPG, try Kingdoms of Amalur Re-reckoning.

mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 29 Jun 16:55 collapse

Yeah, Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry are great “no difficulty curve” games. Just the same shit on a massive map.

Flagstaff@programming.dev on 28 Jun 16:52 next collapse

Let me offer a spin on this: the point-&-click adventure Technobabylon, which is more a staggeringly creative and massive series of escape rooms, and not that much of an open world to explore and revisit.

Perceptibly, it has zero grinding and is to the point with what you’ve gotta do. It is one of the only point-&-click adventure games that I’ve beaten; I normally dislike the genre, which speaks volumes to how incredible it is.

B0NK3RS@lemmy.world on 28 Jun 17:30 next collapse

Citizen Sleeper

Flamekebab@piefed.social on 28 Jun 22:51 collapse

What a soundtrack!

nyctre@lemmy.world on 28 Jun 17:32 next collapse

I mean, if you’ve enjoyed Skyrim, honestly you can just google “best RPGs of all time” and play any that will show up. I’m gonna go against the grain here and say that Skyrim’s world is beautiful and the combat is cool but there’s nothing special about the story or the quests. Try enderall, fallout London, gothic 1+2 + archolos, mass effect 1-3, disco Elysium, Witcher 1-3, Baldur’s Gate 1-3, Neverwinter nights 1+2, dragon age origins, fallout new Vegas, pillars of eternity1+2, Kotor 1+2, south park stick of truth + fractured butthole, cyberpunk, fable the lost chapters, divinity original sin 1+2, dark messiah of might and magic(fun and underrated, imo), etc.

If at any point you feel like the combat is too hard or whatever you can use cheats and just enjoy the story. All of these have pretty good ones. At least all of these have less grinding and better story than Pokemon games, in my experience.

Beyond that, just go for popular, widely acclaimed games such as rdr2, bioshock, whichever doom you want, portal 1+2, etc.

gccalvin@lemmy.world on 28 Jun 17:45 next collapse

+1 for Enderal

RightHandOfIkaros@lemmy.world on 28 Jun 18:41 next collapse

Definitely don’t recommend Enderal. OP mentioned they didn’t want a game with difficulty spikes, and Enderal is pretty notorious for difficulty spiking. Playing Enderal on Normal difficulty is like playing Skyrim on Hard.

It might be okay on its own, but it’s not what OP is looking for.

nyctre@lemmy.world on 28 Jun 19:28 collapse

Yeah, that’s fair, had forgotten about that. Then again, that’s one of the games where cheats can make it playable.

Trail@lemmy.world on 28 Jun 20:11 next collapse

Planescape Torment.

nyctre@lemmy.world on 28 Jun 20:35 collapse

Definitely. Thought I put it there, but guess not.

zerofk@lemmy.zip on 29 Jun 10:54 collapse

A “best RPGs of all time” list will inevitably include Baldur’s Gate 2, and likely other Infinity Engine games, most of which are definitely not games without difficulty spikes or required side content.

nyctre@lemmy.world on 29 Jun 12:39 collapse

Which is why I suggested using cheats to make the game easier.

HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club on 28 Jun 17:40 next collapse

Recently, I’ve been playing a lot of Brotato. However, there is no story.

lime@feddit.nu on 28 Jun 18:19 next collapse

oh also, a less popular one: Wandersong! non-violent adventure platformer about a bard who wants to make the world a better place. a beautiful, mostly linear story in a colorful world. very easy to get sucked into.

AceFuzzLord@lemm.ee on 28 Jun 19:26 next collapse

  • Some Pokemon ROM hacks where the difficulty spikes were not too harsh

There are definitely some good pokemon fangames on PC that aren’t super difficult from what I remember.

  • Pokemon Hidden Place ( Spanish fan game with English translation IIRC )
  • Pokemon Bizarre ( another Spanish/maybe Portuguese ( I don’t fully remember ) one with English translation ). Has some memes here and there but it’s manageable.

Most other fan games I could think of are either too long, have a good amount of difficulty, or have some sort of QOL thing preventing me from recommending it.

swordgeek@lemmy.ca on 28 Jun 20:00 next collapse

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.

catty@lemmy.world on 28 Jun 21:48 next collapse

Portal I

Still suffering from the trauma of there being no cake

Omegamanthethird@lemmy.world on 28 Jun 23:21 collapse

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.

nova@lemmy.world on 28 Jun 20:16 next collapse

If you liked Life is Strange, I strongly recommend Lost Records: Bloom & Rage. Made by the same team.

ijedi1234@sh.itjust.works on 28 Jun 20:49 next collapse

Visual novels fit this rather closely. They’re a mixture of book and game, so any fluff you encounter tends to be skippable.

Other than that, I propose The Pegasus Expedition. I found it to be fairly fast-paced.

You don’t have many opportunities to grind in Reverse Collapse. The game is hard, though it mainly depends on your ability to strategize than raw numbers. For example, there’s one boss early on who’s completely unbeatable unless you can exploit her AI into running on some plants.

captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works on 28 Jun 21:00 next collapse

Subnautica comes to mind. It’s a survival game with a heavy focus on exploring and a very structured story. Fluff text and the obligatory random documents and audio logs are mostly optional, though the game does have a mystery to solve so some of those you want to pay attention to. No real spikes in difficulty, it’s honestly an easy game.

chiliedogg@lemmy.world on 29 Jun 05:07 collapse

And you can turn off some of the survival elements that some people find annoying. For instance, having to spend half your time early on hunting a specific type of fish for freshwater.

captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works on 29 Jun 05:13 collapse

spoiler

I’ve done entire runs of this game only salvaging water. No bladderfish, no coral + salt, no stillsuit, no water reclaimer. You can easily make it through to the endgame on the water you spawn with plus what you find in wrecks.

catty@lemmy.world on 28 Jun 21:48 next collapse

look back to some of the games for the 8 and 16-bit consoles. They tended to be about fun rather than shock factors. So check out the larger games for the megadrive for example.

Also, I kinda thought borderlands was good in that it adapted to how you prefer to play and the difficulty seemed consistent.

Kolanaki@pawb.social on 28 Jun 21:54 next collapse

Dark Souls (any) and Bloodborne.

The others don’t pass muster because they do have some insane difficulty spikes. These don’t, really. Smough & Ornstein is really the only spike I can think of in the entire DS series and BB actually felt pretty even through the whole game.

Grinding isn’t necessary and there is essentially zero fluff in all of them, tho.

billbasher@lemmy.world on 29 Jun 02:30 next collapse

Dredge is a pretty unique one that I had a lot of fun with. Firewatch is good but short

sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works on 29 Jun 03:31 next collapse

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.

LovableSidekick@lemmy.world on 29 Jun 04:11 next collapse

Hearts

BCsven@lemmy.ca on 29 Jun 04:54 next collapse

Shattered Pixel Dungeon on fdroidorr Linux or Windows

TheOakTree@lemm.ee on 29 Jun 06:08 next collapse

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.

gt5@lemm.ee on 29 Jun 09:57 collapse

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

Sterile_Technique@lemmy.world on 29 Jun 06:26 next collapse

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.

carlossurf@lemmy.ca on 29 Jun 08:29 next collapse

Just started playing the indiana jones game, for fans of the movies its a love letter to them and a great game

Bieren@lemmy.world on 29 Jun 12:12 collapse

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.

Tonava@sopuli.xyz on 29 Jun 10:32 next collapse

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.

zerofk@lemmy.zip on 29 Jun 10:50 next collapse

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.

rowinxavier@lemmy.world on 29 Jun 12:08 next collapse

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.

RexWrexWrecks@lemmy.world on 29 Jun 13:10 next collapse

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.

EarMaster@lemmy.world on 29 Jun 16:33 next collapse

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.

pinball_wizard@lemmy.zip on 29 Jun 17:22 next collapse

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.)

chronicledmonocle@lemmy.world on 29 Jun 17:59 collapse

I second this, although some of the bosses can be quite a challenge.

pinball_wizard@lemmy.zip on 29 Jun 17:25 next collapse

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.)

brygphilomena@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 30 Jun 00:43 collapse

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.

Denjin@lemmings.world on 29 Jun 18:23 next collapse

Factorio

cyclingsnake@lemmy.zip on 29 Jun 23:32 next collapse

Fahrenheit (2005)

SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world on 30 Jun 07:32 next collapse

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

CurlyWurlies4All@slrpnk.net on 30 Jun 09:49 collapse

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.

FooBarrington@lemmy.world on 30 Jun 13:31 collapse

It pissed me off when I went through the intro cutscene, and after jumping into the helicopter blades, it started the whole cutscene again.