Please recommend me a video game
I've never really been that into video games. When I was young, I played a lot of RPGs on the SNES and PS1. Within the last couple of years, I dipped my toes back in the water and tried a few out. I tried Skyrim on a friend's recommendation, but it was just a little too involved and open-world for me. I got Cities:Skylines, which I love because I love city builder sims, but that game just does not run well on any of my underpowered computers. And I loved Ori and the Blind Forest, a beautiful platformer, and I'd play it again right now if it wasn't Windows-only.
Here are my requirements. First, it needs to run well on a low-powered machine without making the fan go insane. I've got a MacBook Air 2012 and a ThinkPad x250 (Linux). Neither of these are the ideal gaming experience, I know, but I'm not looking for amazing graphics or bleeding edge technology or something super immersive. Pixel graphics are fine with me. It reminds me of my youth, anyway. I played both Skylines and Ori on my Intel NUC 4th Gen and while it worked, they both really taxed that little machine. I was able to finish Ori, but once a city reaches a certain size in Skylines, it gets unplayable.
I'm not looking for stress. I like RPGs and sims. But it doesn't have to be really hard or frustrating. I don't want to feel chased in a game. I prefer to feel that I'm driving the action and I can go at my pace. I want to feel like if I look away for a moment, I'm not going to lose everything. I'm a casual. I also don't mind if there's no defined ending of a game. For me, I'm more looking for a diversion and a slow build over some kind of constant progression/achievement type scenario.
If it has full controller support, that would be ideal. I've got a Steam controller, and I prefer using a controller to play a game. I've never liked using the keyboard to play. I'm not totally against it, but I guess I just never got into computer gaming. I pretty much always played on consoles in the past.
Linux or macOS only, please. I did have Windows installed once so that I could play games, but I'm not bothering with that anymore. I don't want to have to boot into another operating system just to play a game. I want to be able to hop in and out of a game while using my daily driver computer.
So in my research, I've looked into Terraria and Stardew Valley. These might be what I'm looking for. But I really don't know. Do either of these scratch my itch? Is there another game that I would enjoy based on what I've told you? Thanks in advance for any advice you can offer.
EDIT: Thank you everybody for your awesome suggestions. I'm still happy to hear more, as I plan to add the ones that really interest me to my wishlist and revisit later. I ended up getting Hollow Knight yesterday and I spent the whole day playing it. It's very engrossing, and it's the perfect game for me. It's so much like Ori, and that game blew me away. Chilled out, go at your own pace, exploring dungeons, challenging but not impossible (though the first Hornet fight was pretty tough for me). The game runs fine on my ThinkPad x250 (i5-5300U) in Pop!_OS Linux, apart from the initial movie scene stuttering--I just had to skip past it, unfortunately. It's such an awesome game, and I'm glad to see they've already announced a sequel. If you know of any other games that are like Ori and Hollow Knight, let me know.
Terraria and Stardew Valley are both great choices for you based on what you've shared here. If I had to suggest one over the other I'd say go for Terraria only because you shared that you wanted to go at your own pace, and while you certainly can in Stardew, it does have a built in (but very mild) time-pressure with its daily clock and calendar.
Both are great games however, and both of them offer the kind of chill, open-ended progression you identified. I will say that it's been a while since I've played Terraria but I don't know how well it would work with the Steam controller? I recall mouse precision being a pretty important part of the game, since the difference between hitting one tiny block versus the one next to it can have a pretty big impact.
I'll also mention Slime Rancher, which is very similar to Stardew Valley. It's in cartoony 3D so it has less of an SNES feel and more of an N64 one, and it might be too taxing for your hardware. Nevertheless, it does have a native Linux build and is also in line with what you're looking for, so I figured I'd mention it here.
The time pressure on Stardew Valley is horrible. I played that game and enjoyed it, but I don't need a game to guilt me for wasting my day. That's getting WAY too meta.
Haha. Okay, so maybe Stardew isn't for me if the time pressure is as bad as you say it is.
It's not that the time pressure is necessarily bad, it's that the game gives you a lot to do and finite resources each day with which to do it. It doesn't ever really punish you for not doing anything, it's just that eventually you'll need to handle farming, fishing, mining, social relationships, foraging, ranching, crafting, and so forth, which is a lot for one person.
I tried the game single player and enjoyed it, but I felt like I was trying to juggle too much with too little. I don't necessarily feel that's a fault of the game but more my strong desire to min/max gaming experiences. Stardew is not the type of experience you want to optimize, as you'll end up frustrated by its limitations.
That said, my husband and I started up a farm together and I loved the game considerably more. Being able to divide and conquer tasks and work together made it much more enjoyable. I could take care of the farming and fishing while he went to spend a day in the mines, for example. It took away a lot of the optimization pressure and let us focus on the elements that were more fulfilling to each of us.
Sounds like a second job! Thanks for this more in-depth summary about the game. It does sound like it might be a lot for one person who's trying to be casual about it could handle.
Stardew is a game you'll know whether you like within the first 30 mins of gameplay. Give it a shot. There is a time pressure and it can absolutely be ignored depending on your playstyle.
Eventually you get enough infrastructure built up to where the farming mostly takes care of itself and you just need to pick the weeds and come around for harvest/planting cycles. You get loads more time for fishing and meeting people and dungeon diving at that point.
It's self inflicted, but absolutely present. If you can 'let it go' and be happy with things as they are, it's probably fine. Me though, I had my heart racing and was mentally screaming at my character to move faster to get to bed before the 2am limit...
I played it with a cheat mods and had a blast. As long as you can restrain yourself to only a few mechanical cheats (pause time, run speed, etc) it’s great.
Thank you. I guess I'm not totally married to the controller, and a little time-pressure isn't that bad. The way you put it, chill, open-ended progression is pretty much what I'm looking for.
I actually just watched the trailer for Terraria and looks a little less chill than I thought. It's great that it's a Metroidvania style game, but it might not be exactly what I'm after at this point in time. I also just looked at Slime Rancher, and it might be a little too 3D for me. It's something I'd rather sit down in front of my TV and play on a console. My partner and I have actually talked about getting a Switch, but it's too much money to drop right now. I would like to play some of the new Mario games. But for the purposes of this conversation, I'm trying to get a chill game on my laptop.
I'm leaning toward Stardew Valley right now. I'm still poking around Steam to see if there's anything else that might be similar.
Since you enjoyed Ori, have you checked out Hollow Knight? It's a bit more challenging since it's a) bigger, and b) combat-focused, as opposed to Ori where it was mostly about platforming.
It shouldn't take more than Ori took to run (it may even be lighter), and it's on every OS. It's low-priced and huge, so great value. It also has wonderful hand-drawn art, and a surprisingly compelling world and story.
Thanks again for recommending Hollow Knight. This is just my kind of game. Laid back, chill, dungeon-exploring, go at your own pace. It's a perfect platformer just like Ori. It feels very similar. The music and vibe are great. It's dark without being gory or violent. I'm really getting into it. I've been playing for a couple hours now and I'm only stopping to pop in here and give an update. I love it!
Whoa... that's awesome. It's just like Ori. I don't have a dedicated GPU. Will it tax my on-board graphics pretty heavily?
I don't believe so, both it and Ori have pretty low minimum requirements. 2D games tend to be pretty easy for all systems now.
That's great. I think Hollow Knight looks perfect. That's definitely right up my alley. Thanks!
Oh you are so lucky to experience Hollow Knight for the first time! :)
The soundtrack alone. Hngh.
Yes, I'm absolutely loving it.
Word of advice from A Hollow Knight fan - this game can be very challenging at times. I spent two hours last night trying to beat a semi late game boss. Just thought I'd give you fair warning since you mentioned that you didn't want anything too difficult or stressful. Amazing game but a definitely a challenge.
No, these are the kind of challenges I like. I've been playing Hollow Knight for a couple hours now. It's awesome.
Excellent! Glad your digging it! I've already put thirty hours in and still have quite a lot left to do.
Yeah, I spent some time yesterday trying to get through that first Hornet battle. And I was so perplexed trying to figure out how to bounce on the mushrooms that I just had to go look it up online. There's very little guidance on how to accomplish things, apart from the occasional abilities you get. But I don't mind this kind of challenge. It can be frustrating at times, but when you finally figure it out it feels rewarding.
It's interesting... in the narrative, the game tells you that it's all about exploring. And it really is. Yesterday, I had explored pretty much the entirety of the Fungal Wastes before I got my map of it. So it can be challenging in a "where the hell do I go?" kind of way. You find yourself going back and forth so much. But it feels like the game really forces you into this position so that you learn the map, rather than rely on your actual map to get around.
Yep - Hornet is quite the skill check. I spent a few play sessions trying to get past her. I ended up looking up how to use the mushrooms too! I had no clue that there was a "pogo" ability. You can use it on enemies too! There are a few platforming segments where you absolutely have to master the technique.
I love that feeling of reward after struggling with a fair challenge. That's one of the reasons why I'm a huge FROMSOFTWARE fan too. You should check out the Soulsbourne/Sekiro games if you ever have a chance. They're not for everyone but if you like a good challenge then they're worth checking out imo.
I'm a little bit of the opposite when it comes to exploring. I'm limited on my play time so I strive to make as much progression as possible when I do have time to play. I love the exploration but try to minimize backtracking so I usually seek out the map for an area ASAP and then use it heavily to navigate.
If you didn't know... there is a sequel coming out in the near future. Probably this year if I had to guess. It's called Hollow Knight: Silksong.
Hollow Knight is such a treat to play. Enjoy - I recently finished it!
Get ye an emulator. Mednafen plus a healthy dose of piracy via https://www.emuparadise.me/ (I paid Nintendo for their games as a child, why on earth do I need to buy them twice?).
Hey, so it looks like EmuParadise is no longer hosting games. EDIT: Not sure I should be asking what I just edited out, depending on what Tildes' rules are concerning this topic.
Huh - that sucks. There's more than plenty of other places to get them though, it's a hydra. romsmode.com, romsmania.cc, coolrom.com. And then anywhere you get other stuff of questionable title is going to have roms too.
Yeah, I realized after I posted that I'm confident I can find where the ROMs are hiding.
I've definitely run emulators in the past and I'm not against it. However, most of those old SNES I played as a kid don't offer a ton of gameplay. I mean, sure I could play FFIII or ChronoTrigger again but they would only take like 25 hours. Are there any specific games I could emulate that fill what I'm searching for?
Move your sights up a bit. Why not emulate a PS1 and play FF7-9? Or an N64 emulator and play Ocarina? Or a gameboy emulator and Pokemon? (Mednafen does all of these btw)
Hmm, yeah, that's true. I did really enjoy FF7, but stopped playing RPGs after that so I never played 8 or 9. And Ocarina would be nice, too. I'm install Mednafen right now to check it out.
This was the opening to the demo for FF8 from back when you could get demo disks for games. Needless to say I went right out and bought it. Not as good gameplay as 6/7/9/10, but I would put the story as second only to 7. And it introduced us to gunblades.
Gunblades.
I would give the DS game Infinite Space a recommend, insofar that I really enjoyed it with some light cheating to reduce the grind. It’s a space RPG with a large cast of characters and a, to me, highly engaging story.
In any event, if the game is for you it should be pretty clear within the first twenty minutes or so, so not a huge time sink.
If not that, I’ve wanted to play the SNES game Bahamut Lagoon for decades but haven’t seemed to find the time, so you could be my best self and give it a go.
Awesome, I'll check Infinite Space out. I'm installing Mednafen to begin poking around. Bahamut Lagoon looks really familiar, and while I don't remember playing it there's a very good chance I did. I played every RPG I could get my hands on in the SNES days. The FFs, Chrono, Earthbound, Secret of Mana, Illusion of Gaia, Breath of Fire. Those were the good ol' days for me and gaming.
I'd suggest Rimworld. Fantastic "Human colony on alien planet" sim with a huge fan base and mod community.
Rimworld looks pretty good. I like that it's sort of a 2D city builder. System requirements are good for me. The pricetag is a little steep. I'll add it to my wishlist and revisit it. Do they have sales often?
I've never seen one sadly. While I think it's worth the price, if you want to try something similar, Dwarf Fortress is what Rimworld is based on, and it's free, if more than a little arcane.
They never have sales. At least I don't think so. They never did when it was still early access.
But it's worth paying full price.
Some possibles for you:
FEZ
Undertale
Papers, Please
SteamWorld Dig 2
Baba Is You
Prison Architect
Machinarium (on sale for 2.99)
I believe these all work on Linux, and most with Steam controllers. Also, I strongly second Bastion and Stardew Valley.
The only one I've heard of on that list is Machinarium, which I played years ago and loved. I'll check out your other recommendations. Thank you!
The java version of minecraft would almost always be a good recommendation.
With Optifine and properly configured settings Minecraft isn't that bad.
1.7 should run on a literal potato.
The Walking Dead, it's available on mac OS and should run on a potato computer.
I'm not really into zombie games. I could never get into Resident Evil when friends were playing it. Zombie games are the epitome of things jumping out at you and setting the pace for you. Also not really into gore.
It's not really about zombies, it's more about the interaction with the other humans. It's definitely a landmark in adventure games. It is gory at times though.
Bastion. It's a sweet little game: a simple platformer with elements of RPG and a tiny bit of base-building. Ran smoothly on my cheap laptop. Plus: great soundtrack and great story.
I'd also like to recommend Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead, even though you might find it too involved and maybe stressful. It's a zombie apocalypse sim with a handful of sci-fi thrown in; you may choose to exclude some of the weirder aspects of the gameplay or the world with mods.
I play it rather unfairly by the in-game standards – maxing out stats and skills of my character, plus spawning items via the cheat menu from time to time – because that's how I want to enjoy the game. I reckon you can do the same, if you're so inclined. There's plenty of challenge to be found in this game, but you can also make the experience easier on yourself.
Speaking of low-res zombie apocalypse: try Rebuild 3. It's a Flash game coated well-enough in the app skin that it works just fine, at least on Windows. It's upbeat, bright, and not daunting, though not a cakewalk, either. You loot, recruit survivors, build, craft, and train your people. You can play the campaign, with persistent characters, or randomly-generated skirmishes.
There's also Craft the World – a little gem of a game from Russian developers. It's a 2D side-view base-building, crafting, and colony-management-esque game. It has few features compared to, say, Minecraft, but it's been satisfying to play for me, so I'm recommending it.
I like the look of Bastion. I would have never found that one I bet, if I hadn't asked. It looks like a traditional RPG that I'm used to, but with some nice platformer elements. I'll definitely add that to my list.
For some reason, I just can't get into zombie games. I've never enjoyed them. Maybe it's because the zombie enemies are usually programmed to be relentless. I hate FPS shooter zombie games where zombies just surprisingly jump out at you. I guess it's the same reason I don't like horror movies. I don't like violent surprises that relentlessly try to attack. When it comes to a platformer with enemies, I much prefer to have the ability to backtrack a bit or get out of an enemies way if I need to recharge or figure out my plan of attack. With zombies, at least in the games I've seen or played, they follow you.
In Cataclysm, this is often the case. At higher speed stats, you can easily outrun the zombies – or, really, use the stairs, since they can't use them yet. Generally speaking, the Cataclysm zombies (at least the "mundane" ones: it has some crazy variants) are slow, and may be configured to be slower or faster during world generation stage.
In Rebuild 3, zombies will try to attack you if you're far from the fort, and they will try to attack the fort from time to time, presenting a time-sensitive "defence" challenge (you have to put a strong-enough fighter character at or next to the tile being attacked to come out victorious, lest the tile is taken out of your control).
If you end up enjoying Bastion, you might wanna try Transistor, from the same developer. Transistor follows a similar platformer idea, but is some mix of fantasy and cyberpunk in nature: your character has a technomagical sword that hosts the soul of her loved one, and you're able to cast spells which are programs.
If you like Bastion Supergiant's other games might also be up your alley. Transistor and Pyre are both quite good. They're similar in tone and art style, but the gameplay is different. Transistor is a hybrid real-time/turn-based RPG system. It's done well in that it blends them together and the pausing/entering turn based mode is integrated as a mechanic in the game.
Pyre is a "sports" game but it's more like a strategy game with light rogue-like elements.
I would recommend you Mass Effect 1, but sadly there is no official controller support.
Portal 2 on the other hand has controller support and the system requirements shouldn't be a problem.
You can take your time exploring the aperture science laboratories and whilst enjoying the beautiful backstory (which is one of my favourite). You don't need to have played portal 1 before this one.
If you want to save some money, portal 2 is often on sale (steam), also if you decide to buy it, don't forget to get the free mod "Portal Stories: Mel". This community-made mod takes place between Portal 1 and 2 and explains a bit what happened between them.
Another game I would recommend is "Star Wars: Knights of the old republic II" (I haven't played the first one yet). This game allows you to decide, how good/bad you want to be and lets you build your character. As a side note, the battle is actually turn based and doesnt need much input (only choosing targets and type of attack)
Last but not Least "Moon Hunters". You can play it solo, or up to 4 local players. This game is made to be played several times (One playthrough takes around 1h). It also has extremely relaxing music.
I've definitely thought about Portal, but that's kind of a FPS isn't it? I know it's more about puzzles and such than killing. I used to be good at those style of games a long time ago. I was pretty good at Goldeneye (dating myself, here). But I kind of fell off with that style of game for a long time, and when I came back to it with Skyrim, it just sort of made me dizzy. I know the style is probably the most popular, but moving and strafing and trying to do an action is perhaps too much for me. I much prefer a side scrolling platformer or an overhead building sim to maneuvering around in a 3D world.
Moon Hunters looks like a nice RPG, but it seems short. If you play it multiple times, is it because there are tons of different outcomes? One reviewer said they were finished after 15 hours. I like the look of it, but I'm a bit confused about the game play. Some people seem to think it's a grind unless you're doing multiplayer.
If Skyrim gives you motion sickness problems Portal may not be for you. Very few challenges there are timing or twitch based, but you are going to be flung around a lot and it messes with your sense of orientation. It is something you get used to fairly quickly though if you give it a chance. Skyrim is particularly weird with their engine because of the head bobbing and the way it handles movement.
Portal is first person and you shoot portals to solve puzzles, but to me its much more than that (I don't play a lot of puzzle games myself). The puzzles, in my experience, are only a way to entertain the player, while you are exploring the laboratories for a way to escape. For me, the main point of the game is to dive into the story, with very enjoyable dialogue.(On a side note, the skyrim puzzles are not really good).
If you don't really like that genre thats fine, I can only encourage you to give it a try.
In moon hunters, it always starts the same: you take part at the moon festival, the moon does not appear and you start your quest to bring back the moon. For that you have 5 (?) days to achieve it. Each day you choose which path you take on a map, to solve the mystery. On your journey you can do certain action, which can give you traits, to develope your character further and give you access to more actions (for example: being patient gives you the ability to interact with a specific tree).
On your journey you learn about other ways to solve the game, which you most likely need a new playtrough to try it (because certain stats are needed). Also the people you can meet remember your old characters and compare your current character to past ones.
Grinding only makes the last battle easier, but depending on your character it is not always required.
Another game i forgot is "Am2R" (Another metroid 2 remake),s a community made remake of metroid 2 and free to download. It is a a fun side-scrolling platformer (which requires a bit of skill).
There isn't? I thought it was designed as an X-Box game? Does the interface really not work with a controller on PC?
The first one does not have controller support. If you search online, you can find mods which help you with that, but otherwise your stuck with keboard and mouse. Same with 2 and 3, only Andromeda has a controller support, but sadly i can't recommend it.
I have been having great fun with ATOM RPG
For a game with a classically clunky Fallout(1 and 2)-adjacent isometric Action-Point-Economy-Engine, ATOM RPG has a refreshing quest focus on maintaining the necessary mundanity of the new, delicate framework of civility, which helps keep the action grounded, along with the great storytelling, lending to NPC depth, which gives the more impactful decisions a helping of gravitas.
My level 10 post-a-punk-alyptic-junker / sly-karate-rogue-warrior is doing very well for himself. Most characteristic moment so far: there was a puzzle involving noticing a hidden clue in a cryptic book and using it to open a secret passage. After a lot of meaningless headbanging and not-quite-getting-it, he decided to just set a timed stick of dynamite in the barricade and busted his way though.
Meaningful choices, astringent dark humor, and great stories to experience abound in the wastes on the outskirts of Otradnoye.
(Currently 25% off ($11.24, from $14.99) on Steam, until 09-July-2019!)
Oh no, my italics...
Fixed
Regarding Cities:Skylines: try Simcity 4. It's a little dated at 16 years old but it's still a good game and the best of the series imo. It's modding community is still very active and has a very broad selection of addons.
SimCity 4, despite its age, doesn't look half bad. I'm sure it would run a lot better on my machine than Skylines. It would be interesting to see what kind of mods people are still working up on that one.
It's probably not as casual as you want, but since you said you used to play a lot of RPGs, I'd recommend Fallout 1 and 2. They are my favorite games, and for me there is no other game with better story. You really feel that you are part of the world.
Bloodstained.
Its the spiritual successor to Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.
Im about 10 hours in and loving it.
Bloodstained: Curse Of The Moon? That looks so much like old-school Castlevania, it's crazy. Sadly, it appears to be Windows only.
Bloodstained: Ritual Of The Night looks really good, too. But that price is a bit steep, and I can't tell from Steam whether or not it's Linux compatible. But I am digging how it looks!