What kinds of games might you recommend with deep worldbuilding and interaction that aren’t RPGs?
I like worldbuilding and stories, and I like when they’re mixed with the interactivity of games, so RPGs seem like they should be a natural fit. Problem is, I dislike the stat-heavy, grindy progression of many RPGs.
I enjoy point & click adventures and visual novels but they’re often more limited in their interactions. What kinds of game might I be missing combining the two?
The Outer Wilds might be the kind of games you’re looking for.
And if you are open to a more linear structure there is FPS like bioshock which have amazing world building and have very light RPG elements.
There is also the “walking simulator” genre, with games like firewatch, gone home or SOMA. But it’s also quite linear.
You may enjoy Control, I personally couldn’t get past the rather uninteresting gameplay and mechanics, but the lore and snippets of story you find scattered around are something else
That’s interesting. Did you stop early on? I guess if you just know it as a basic shooter it’d be boring, but once you start incorporating powers it really expands a lot, imo.
I think you’re right, I was about to “leave” the early parts of the game, I had already unlocked some powers but not leveled them up too much, I should really try to get back to it though, despite feeling a little bored when playing, I just can’t forget the aesthetics
Arkane’s immersive sims are fantastic. Dishonored 1 and 2 and Prey (2017). Brilliant worldbuilding and interesting stories that you can interact with. I don’t think either is particularly stat heavy or grindy, but I have an extremely high tolerance for that sort of thing so maybe my perspective is skewed.
These are solid suggestions for sure! I still need to get around to the rest of the Dishonored series past the first and finish Prey.
Immersive sims I think are pretty close to what I might be wanting, but they’re unfortunately not that common, and some have RPG elements I don’t find enjoyable. The Arkane games you mention pretty much avoid them last I checked though, and I dig’em for it
Yeah, I also really enjoy immersive sims. Shame that there’s not more of them. I will mention that Dishonored 2 is somewhat hit or miss with people. I think everyone tends to agree that it’s at least decent, but how it holds up to the first game is a pretty divisive topic in my experience.
Hmm let’s see. So the Subnautica games are survival games with a lot of exploring, uncovering mysteries, finding logs, figuring out what happened to you, the alien civilization, the ecosystem, etc.
If you like Obra Dinn, recommended elsewhere in this thread, The Case of the Golden Idol has some similar energy of looking at scenes and solving who’s who and what’s what and how this person died.
Chants of Sennaar is a game where you decipher fantasy languages and learn about the peoples that speak them while progressing up a tower and solving puzzles.
Viewfinder is a surreal-perspective puzzler with lots of narration and backstory from the characters
Sable is an exploration game with puzzles to solve, in a fancifuil sci-fi desert world with towns and NPCs and crashed spaceships to explore
The old Escape Velocity trilogy (though nowadays you’ll need a classic Mac emulator to play them) are top-down ship captain games where you fly your ship around, trade, fight, do missions, usually have multiple storylines going on at once, lots of planets, ships, stations, factions, etc. The modern game Endless Sky is explicitly molded on the EV series.
Sunless Seas and its sequel Sunless Skies have some similarity to EV mechanically, but with a lovecraftian, steampunk aesthetic to the world, and lots of world-building.
Beyond Good and Evil is a third-person action game that has good plot, characters, and worldbuilding, and there are updated versions available that run on modern hardware.
Bastion is an isometric action game a little like Diablo in the combat mechanics but with no numbers for you to worry about. Explore the aftermath of a most peculiar apocalypse and discover the world that was and the peoples who lived there. Good characters and worldbuilding.
Subnautica has a pretty interesting world to explore. If you don’t like the survival elements, you can can turn them down or off.
Hardship space breaker had a somewhat interesting story. Not deep world building and definitely more focused on the game play, but still pretty good lore.
Another vote for the outer wilds. That’s really the best game in this area.
Another vote for hardspace shipbreaker, though the gameplay can be a bit repetitive. If you don’t like the first ship you take apart, then the game probably isn’t for you. The Outer Wilds is a game that I’d recommend to anyone and everyone who wants a unique and positive experience.
