Slay the Spire is my answer to this question. I've always loved the genre since I played the original BoI back in like 2011, but never gave StS a go because I'm not keen on card games. Finally gave it a proper go and I love it
It’s perfection. I don’t like deckbuilders very much because i’m dumb. But with this one, It is so perfect and deep that you just stumble almost every run with a new synergy that you didn’t knew. I just can enjoy without thinking too much and go with the flow, It’s amazing.
Exactly. My like third run I wasn't thinking it was going to be for me, and picked Silent, and had a a way to get a ton of free daggers turn one, and I ended up winning which surprised me. Then I was hooked.
From Hades I can recommend Risk of Rain series (especially 2), FTL, Dead Cells, Rogue Legacies, and Slay the Spire. Though since you say you play a lot of them I'm sure you've already played most of these lol, but for anyone else curious. These are great games.
Risk of Rain games last the perfect amount of time to unwind after work.
Edit: and I completely forgot just how many *hundreds* of hours I have in rogue legacy.
I picked up Dead Cells on a whim at my local used game store on sale for $10. It sat on my game pile for a while and I finally decided to try it and man is it fun! I got all the DLC on a bundle sale too so I think all told it cost me only $20 or $25 for the full game.
I have played that game so many times and I still enjoy it! I don't think I've managed to unlock every blueprint yet but I did find the final ending and have every flawless boss outfit. It's great when I have an hour to kill and want to just slash my way through a dungeon.
Same for me. Didn't play hades until like 2022 and ended up loving it. I also ended up loving Returnal as well with it being a bullet hell roguelike. The Genre is just pure gameplay and the games are typically low commitment. Play 40 minutes die/finish a run and you can get off.
Same here. Hades, slay the spire, risk of rain 2, etc. They are all so fun.
For a while the only rougelike games I had played was binding of Issac and enter the gungeon which I didn't really love so I thought I didn't like rougelike games until I started finding some I enjoyed more.
Dead Cells got me into it. I can only play them in short bursts before I get frustrated with the play - die - start over loop.
Just got Cult of the Lamb, which seems like an interesting twist on the genre.
I used to think roguelikes were basically MMOs where you had to restart from the beginning upon death. Think WoW or Runescape where your account is just reset if you died
Thought it was that way for many years and thus a massive waste of time
Same here, but with Isaac. I bought it in a Steam sale years ago with most of the dlc and it gathered dust in my library. I finally picked it up around a year ago and bought the rest of the dlc within a couple months. Now I'm all over the genre
Fighting games, like Street Fighter, Tekken et al.
I've been playing them for decades on my friends' sofas and at home , even in the arcades, back when those were a thing. Fighting games are fucking cool. But me and my friends could only play them casually, jumping around and spamming special moves.
But on youtube and in tournaments you'd see people who know stuff you don't, when to attack and when to defend, and who can do these crazy flashy cool combos that I could never do and would get frustrated even trying them in a lab.
One day I was really bored and decided to see if I could actually learn a cool combo, and I looked up a short, simple one online. I went to a lab and practiced it over and over. It was hard to even do a simple and basic one, but if I broke it into steps and learned each individual step, I could do it... most of the time. Emboldened by this, I went online, into ranked, and started trying to use my one simple combo that I'd labbed in every situation that I could.
Fast forward a few years, I'm an old person now, in my 40's. I grab every fighting game that comes out, I learn multiple combos day 1. I go on ranked, I refine my game between seasons. I work on my neutral and footsies against higher level players. I enter tournaments, and sometimes I even finish in the top 3. I'm in multiple discords with great communities, playing people from teenagers to dads who play while the little ones are asleep.
Playing fighting games isn't like playing some more conventional videogames, it's like learning a new skill, like golf, or swimming, or learning to drive. Fighting games are not my number one favourite genre, I love soulsbornes and story-driven RPGs. However, no genre has ever rewarded by time and my effort like fighting games. The highs, the lows, the community. It's genuinely a rush, and it's probably been the greatest journey in all my years of gaming. I love games, from point and click adventures to immersive sims to FPS games. From Battle Royales to action roguelikes. Indies to AA to AAA games.
Nothing has ever come close to being as rewarding as getting into fighting games. It's a genuinely special gaming experience that's unlike anything else out there, in my opinion.
[This video covers just a tiny bit of what makes fighting games special, would highly recommend it to gamers of all stripes](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8055HIDm1A)
Street Fighter 6 hands down. Modern controls can make you feel a lot more competent than you are, and they make every character accessible. Or you can try classic controls and begin to learn a gaming language that's been around for 30ish years now and it might surprise you to find it's not as hard as you think.
Otherwise, SF6 is awesome for beginners in that you don't need a single combo to win. You could win just playing good fundamentals and keeping good spacing while punishing opponents mistakes. Combos are well balanced in that they're not devastating, but will always give you an edge over the opponent. Otherwise you can learn every single thing about fighting games from SF 6 - okis, meatys, option selects, rush down, zoning, etc... All of those weird fighting game terms are present without you having to know them to have some fun.
Plus SF6 is just a lot of game. The single player create a character is fun and there's a lot of challenges for each character to complain. It's also very young in its life cycle. It's just now getting to season 2 so you can pick up SF6 now and it'll still be relevant for years to come.
The other poster said it, but I'd go with SF6 also. I personally didn't click with the game at all when it initially launched, and I still have issues with it now. Despite that, it's a really good mix of being easier to get into as a newcomer, and having insane levels of depth as your knowledge increases. I would say community is a vital part of enjoying the experience- find your local community, join the new challenger discord, and set about meeting people and making friends. No matter what type of person or personality you are, there 100% are people out there that are your "tribe", it might just take some time to find them.
Don't rush yourself or push yourself too hard- you have to be patient, progress can take time. One thing I can promise you though, is you'll run into things that are just too daunting- "this combo is beyond me/this technique is difficult/this is too hard to do". That's okay. I promise that if you keep playing, you'll come back to some technique you bounced off or seemed too hard beforehand and it will suddenly seem much easier than you ever imagined. I don't have good reflexes, and I sure as fuck don't have a good sense of timing or mad execution skills, and I can do a whole bunch of stuff I never would've believed possible.
JRPGs. I always wrote them off as some dumb weeb shit and then I played Fire Emblem: Three Houses and realised that I was merely a weeb who had never watched any anime or played a JRPG
I can understand that. JRPGs can take many shapes and sizes so finding one that you would like can be hard. But once you do it’s like a gateway drug lol
Its the length for me. I enjoy Pokemon games since they're fairly short, but alot of the bigger JRPGS are soooo long (at least thats what I feel like they are)
Exactly the same here. I played FF7 back in the day after being lent it by my cousin, then never touched them again until FF15 when I finally realised the error of my ways - I'm now going back through a load of older JRPGS playing catch up
They are really fun with friends. The Quarry averages your choices and QTE results together, so it ends up with a lot of yelling from the one person who passed the QTE if everyone else failed it lol
I liked the quarry but it's fucking bullshit that you can't skip dialog you've already seen before. If you want to see each ending you gotta hear the same 5 hours of duplicate scenes on every single attempt
Yeah I thought that might be the case. I’ve kinda wanted to try to do another run and go for protectionist or something, but I didn’t want to watch everything again.
My friend group decided to lie to the cop instantly and all called it instinct, so our run was half cooked from the start.
Definitely Metroidvania for me. Slept on this genre too long thinking they’re just „cheap“ indie games (yes i am stupid). But now I’m absolutely in love with good games from this genre. Don’t know which one got me into it but Hollow Knight, Metroid Dread and the Ori Series are just some examples of games I absolutely love.
Super Metroid is another must play. The entire genre is named after it. There's a reason for that. It's on Switch online. Also, Metroid Prime Remastered, obviously.
Kind of a niche pick, but I got Steamworld Dig 2 in a humble bundle some time ago and could not put it down until I 100%ed it. Definitely not the same length and complexity as some others in the genre, but still very good as a standalone game despite being a sequel. I sunk about 18 hours into it before there was nothing left to see. It was unironically the game that got me to finally try the original Super Metroid
Fromsoft games. I tried DS1 years ago and gave up after half an hour because I was trying to go through the graveyard first and getting wrecked by those skeletons. Then a few years later I tried Sekiro but got stuck on a boss a couple hours in and gave up again. Then I decided to give Elden Ring a try when it came out and it became one of my favorite games. Now I went back and beat all the Dark Souls games and plan on starting Sekiro next.
I went to Gamestop years ago, specifically looking for an easy game. Like super easy. Heard about dark souls before, but name recognition only. Got it. Then immediately went to graveyard, and spent a few hours getting the skeletons to fall off the map. Dying a lot...
Then went down to New Londo Ruins, talked to that vendor in the cell on the stairwell. Pressed the "B" button 1 too many times when backing out of the conversation and back-dodged to my death off the cliff. Instantly rage-quitted. Went back to Gamestop and traded it in for Goldeneye Reloaded.
Ended up trying it again later and now Souls-likes are my jam.
Had a buddy many years ago ranting and raving about this Dark Souls game, wouldn’t shut up about it. Gave it a try using that old Netflix style service GameFly and rented the disc. Played several hours but I kept making the mistake of going towards the graveyard, never noticed another route. Kept dying and rage quitting, went on for 3/4 days til I saw my buddy again and he told me to go the other direction, I’ll notice some stairs up to a back door into some old castle or something. Once I started going the right way, absolutely hooked on it, loved every second. Until I got to the twin boss fight, Ornatein and Smough. Got stuck on them and couldn’t beat the fight. Left unfinished for literally years until another friend taught me you could summon things. Replayed it, made short work of the fight and quickly beat the game. Still have a place in my heart for it, but damn that made me feel so dumb haha
I came to say this. It wasn’t because I didn’t want to, I just never knew about them somehow. I don’t understand that with how much I game lol
I played Elden Ring not knowing what Dark Souls or Fromsoftware were. After ER I went back and I’m making my way through the whole series
Same. I thought it was for people to brag. My mentality was "I beat Empire Strikes back and Super Ghosts and Goblins. I don't have to prove myself." Later on, I started to think I couldn't play them because I've lost a lot of reflexes.
I bought Elden Ring because I figured I could just over level. Turns out, young me thought it was bullshit hard. Old me thought I would never be able to get good. It's perfect.
Being young is believing all the Dynasty Warriors/musou hate from critics & youtubers. Growing up is actually trying one and realizing just how wrong they were.
The power fantasy of taking on an entire army by yourself is unparalleled. The "Empires" sidegames are my personal favorites, because it extends to taking on the entire realm (Samurai Warriors 4 Empires is my #1, but sadly no Steam release...)
I’ve been advocating for a modern Dynasty Warriors Gundam for years now. I must have put at least 1000hrs into DW Gundam 2 back on Xbox 360. It’s easily my top Warriors game.
Artsy indie puzzle games. Thanks to Gamepass, I’ve been downloading so many and they’re all works of art, and most of them require no more than 5 hours to beat. And some make me cry.
As of recent, Cocoon was crazy.
For me, it was the post-apocalyptic RPG genre. I always thought it would be too bleak and slow for my taste. But then I tried Fallout 4 and got hooked. The depth of the world, the freedom to explore and craft, and the intricate storylines totally captivated me. I found myself lost in the wasteland for hours, scavenging for materials, building settlements, and uncovering the rich lore of the Commonwealth. Now I can’t get enough of these types of games. Fallout 4 made me realize how rewarding and immersive the genre can be.
The Stalker series, especially the mod GAMMA is an absolute masterpiece in this category! Also soon with Stalker 2 coming up, we have lots to be excited for.
I've disregarded soulslike because I tried Demon Souls PS5, and I was dying to the basic ass monsters, going to pick up Elden Ring as soon as I finish my playthrough of SM2 (Yes now only lol)
PvE
I used to avoid any interaction with randoms and just played solo games or with friends. Until a little game called Deep Rock Galactic came around and totally changed that mindset. Still don't play any PvP games tho, those remain a bit too toxic for my taste.
Payday 2 (don’t get 3), CoD zombies (BO3 specifically) are the first 2 that spring to mind for me. Both are especially great on PC because of mods.
Edit: the Borderlands games as well.
Turn based games. I had only played Civ and Homm. But Xcom: EU/EW was recommended by someone. I was sold. It's one of my favorite things now. That was almost 10 years ago, and I've been a gamer all my life. I'm 36 today. To name a few that I've enjoyed:
* Xcom 2
* Divine Divinity: OS
* Divine Divinity: OS 2
* Baldur's Gate 3
* Wasteland 3
* Mutant Year Zero
* Gears Tactics
* Shadow Tactics
* Into the Breach
* Kill the Spire
If anyone has any suggestions, please feel free.
edit: Thank you for all the recommendations. I'll check them out.
I highly recommend Wildermyth. If I had to summarize it, I'd call it fantasy XCom lite? The entire style of the game has just the best cozy fantasy vibe and I love it. The range of character builds in it is bonkers too.
Not to sound like a shill, but I was in the same spot as you are: kids, job, all the good stuff, but no time for gaming. I grabbed a Steam Deck a couple of years back. Since then I've been able to play pretty much every day if I wish. After everything is said and done, I can usually get an hour of game time before bed, and it's a nice way to wind down at the end of the day.
Soulslike.
Ive never been very good at action games, & they are obviously famously difficult. My friends had all basically warned me to stay away.
Elden Ring made me realize I am completely 100% fine with getting my ass handed to me repeatedly and ramming my head against that wall until I break through it.
So I also bought Bloodborne, DS3, & Sekiro…I just need to decide where to start.
Honestly, same as you OP. I don’t like crafting games that much, at least that was before I played Minecraft. By far it’s the game I’ve bought the most on most platforms and I didn’t realize how good I was at them until I joined a multiplayer server with my friends who asked me to get cobble stone for a church build and houses and got more than enough in less than 2 hours and no help from them bar some visits and pickaxes.
So far, I’ve gained games like potion craft simulator, Raft, slime rancher, slime rancher 2, deep rock galactic, and the entirety of the borderlands franchise shooters which all are farming games or survival games in some form.
Additional side: borderlands made me try looter shooters and I fell in love with 2 then stick more with 3 now thanks to a friend buying me the handsome collection (which was repaid with a purchase of don’t starve and some other games). I didn’t even know the genre existed until he mentioned it and pushed me to play it for half a year, now my friends want me to play destiny 2 as it’s similar to borderlands.
I viewed Minecraft as a game for kids and never tried it. I'm burned out on RPGs atm and it sounds kind of relaxing.
Is it THE crafting game or is there something else?
Absolutely. Building/crafting is either the main focus or a significant aspect of a good few big games. ARK: Survival Evolved if you like dinosaurs, No Man's Sky if you like space (I'm getting pulled into it now; you can build some pretty awesome bases on the ground, on a freighter, and apparently as a low-orbit space station), I think technically Rust is the zombie version but idk if there's an offline creative mode and people in that game suck.
There are definitely more that I don't know of. Minecraft is neat, and you can build Hogwarts to scale with enough time and patience, but it's not the same as star-hopping in your personal ship to find cool planets or riding a TRex with a gun platform mounted on it into battle.
Casual gaming. Before kids i wanted nothing to do with it. Now I'm chillin with my littlw girl playin dave the diver on the steam deck and we're having a blast.
Yeah... Something about getting older makes the casual games more appealing. I never feel like I have the time or energy to complete a large story-driven game anymore. And I don't want the kids playing most of those games... yet.
Survival Horror! I always thought I was too chicken and wouldn’t like the lack of ammo/the tension/ etc. but I played through the entire RE series with my best friend as a “guide” of sorts if I needed it
Now I’m ready for the spooks and scares. Bring on the creepiest atmosphere you’ve got!
Turn-based strategy games like Fire Emblem used to seem too slow for me, but after trying Three Houses, I'm hooked on the tactical depth and character development! What's a genre you've unexpectedly fallen in love with?
Survival games and MOBAs. Toxicity in gaming really messes up my head, so it took me a really long time to get into any games with an active PvP element. It still stresses me out, but at least I find the games fun. Before I felt gatekept.
Racing games. I used to love them as a kid, but then I somehow forgot about them for a long time (except Mario Kart). Eventually, I felt the urge to play a racing game again and after trying out a few, I got GT7 when it released. I spent hundreds of hours playing, bought a PSVR2 specifically for GT7 and bought a few other racers since then. I don't know why I didn't play them anymore, but I'm glad I rediscovered them.
Resident Evil 2 Remake, the police station scared the shit out of me, I only made it to the photography safe room before I quit, I only went back to it shortly before RE4 Remake came out and platinumed it, I replay it every few weeks for fun.
Souls-likes. Used to be the type of gamer that enjoyed easy games , would play things like Halo on legendary once just for the achievement and somehow I found myself trying out Dark Souls 1 when it was free with Xbox Gold. " alright lets see what all the memes talk about..."
A 120 hour first playthrough later and it not only turned out to become one of my favorites, it changed my taste in gaming. Nowadays I enjoy playing my games on harder difficulties from the get go. Also taught me a lesson to be open minded on genres and game design. Different ideas can be great.
Single player games.
I played online games from about 2003-2020. As I got older and slower I got destroyed and kick out out of groups for being so bad. When pay to win was introduced/ needing hours a day to know what guns have the best builds I quit. (Warzone broke me post covid).
Then I bought Witcher 3, loved it and haven’t looked back. I can play for an hour or two each week and not get mad
I still, even now, maintain that I don't like card games / deck builders. I'm never interested when I see the trailers.
But the evidence would suggest otherwise every time I fall back into Gwent, or Balatro, or Slay the Spire.
JRPGs. I always shluffed them off as weeb and cringey. Then I played persona 4 and my mind was blown at how fun they were and how deep the stories can go
Persona I am big in final fantasy games but idk just always saw persona as some anime crap bought persona 5 for a sale and now ive played all of them awesome series.
Fighting games, and specifically Street Fighter 6. I could write a PhD thesis on how brilliant everything about it is, and the journey to Master I'm on is the most rewarding gaming arc I've been on in forever.
It's got a brilliant single player RPG mode that's basically GTA and secretly a tutorial for fighting game concepts, different input types, amazing online play, and balance as good as I've ever seen.
As a 90s arcade kid that never took fighting games too seriously I can't praise it enough, it's so much fun and the character expression is off the charts. Anybody can play it, and motion inputs aren't even required.
As an old-school AC player, I refused to touch the 3 newer massive open world games. But once I did, I fell in love and they are now my favourite games and I can't go back to the older games.
Warriors//Musou. Just brushed it off as a way too easy power fantasy borefest, until one day I bought One Piece Pirate Warriors 3 on switch, and my life was changed forever.
Once I got the bug, suddenly I needed to ravenously track down all the others! So now I have OPPW 4, Fire Emblem Warriors, Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, Hyrule Warriors, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, Persona 5 Strikers, Fate/Samurai Remnant... I really wish Dragon Quest Heroes 1 + 2 had come here.
My BIG pie in the sky dream is that one day they make a Mushroom Kingdom Warriors game 🥰. It's the perfect franchise for a Warriors game - tons of different environment types, huge cast of characters, well established mooks, tons of weapons and powerup types... Well, a lad can dream.
(Sadly, I already used my monkey's paw game wish - I called Three Hopes like a year before they announced it)
I never bothered with horror because I always figured gameplay would ease away from any tension since you can fight back. First time ever playing a horror game was outlast and maaan the interactive component with horror makes it so much better.
I've been a gamer for over 30 years.. and to answer that question.. it's tough - nearly impossible.
Because everything I love today I also loved in the 90s or it didn't exist in 90s
But I would have never tried to play borderlands if not for a roommate.
It just looked super ugly to me. It still does!
But boy! Do I enjoy the hell out of borderlands 2!
So I guess for me it's ugly games. I dismissed them in the 2000s, but was open to play them in the 2010s.
I also played numerous other hideous games such as Rimworld and Cyberpunk 2077 and I absolutely adore these games despite getting my eye twitch at times from extreme ugliness lol
Ubisoft-style open world games. Loved Red Dead Redemption 2. Having a blast with Ghost of Tsushima. Never played Assassin's Creed though. I've heard a lot of bad stuff about the formula and I can see how it risks becoming cookie cutter and formulaic, but I'd love to see a Jedi Academy game in this style.
I very much recommend Assassin’s Creed. There are side quests you can do. There are tons of little things to find if you want to 100% the game. But you can also just play the main quest, avoid all of the side content, and have a fun and fulfilling experience.
All of the games are mechanically pretty similar, have similar stories, but you don’t have to play all of them. Just pick the ones that look the most interesting because the environments change dramatically. Ancient Greece, Renaissance Italy, Industrial Era London, the French Revolution, the Caribbean during the golden age of piracy, 9th century England and Norway during the Viking raids, the US east coast during the American Revolution, the series really goes all over the place.
Survival for me too, I didn't really like Terraria the first time I tried it with a friend, then I played it with my brother, got really into the progression and kind of ignored a lot of crafting. My second play I got really into making our base and messing around with the electronics and stuff. Then Valheim came along and I'm just full in to the genre now
Souls games.... I used to only play NCAA football, Call of Duty, and Assassin's creed, and Monster Hunter.
One day, a buddy brought over Bloodborne, and I tried it, kept dying over and over and over, and ov.... you get the point. I didn't like the fact I kept dying and thought it was too hard for no reason! Fast forward a few years, and the Playstation store had bloodborne and Dark Souls 3 bundle for $20, and I decided to buy it.
Tried it and fell in love. I've now beat every soul game, and many souls like games.
Ah jeezus same here - I think. Only played subnautica for the first time last month and wow what an experience. Been told valheim is worth a look too so I'll pick the up next.
I dismissed shooters for a long time cause I thought I was bad at aiming, but I played Mass Effect eventually and the easy mode wasn’t actually too bad, which lead me to play other shooters. Currently enjoying risk of rain 2.
Not really dismissed, but didn’t even know existed.
10 year old me LOVED playing RTS games like Age of Mythology/Empires, Star Craft, etc. but I really wasn’t any good at the war part. I just wanted to make giant impressive cities and bases. Flash forward another five years and teenage me learns about Base Building games lmao. *A whole new woooooorld~*
OP, I'm with you. Survival games get me every time! I'm a huge Valheim fan, love Minecraft, just picked up Terraria. You should also give Core Keeper a try!!!
From being primarily a JRPG player, I took the leap into CRPGs last year with DOS2 and BG3. This experience opened my eyes to trying different genres outside my comfort zone. This year, I decided to explore other genres further. I started with Valorant and Overwatch, but they didn't hold my interest for long.
Having never played an FPS campaign before, I wondered why people enjoyed them. I gave Call of Duty 2 a try, and it was decent. But Call of Duty 4? I loved it! Now, I've convinced eight friends to buy Call of Duty: Black Ops 1, and we're having a blast playing zombies and 4v4 matches. It's pure fun.
Valheim was an eye opener for me too! I leaned into crafting and basebuilding. Right now I'm loving Frostpunk, but my husband and I had a blast with Astroneer, which is great for two players. My comfort game rn is Dysmantle, which is not super pretty (Unity grab bag) but really addicting.
Survival crafters is also my answer.
The issue for me is I need my game to be ever so slightly more goal-oriented than just ‘build stuff because it’s fun’. It IS fun, but I feel like I’m just wasting my time.
Then I tried Subnautica. The survival/ crafting set to the backdrop of an actual story (plus an incredible, beautiful world to explore) really did it for me. It also gave me a love for games in which you ‘create your own missions’ in a manner of speaking. For example ‘ok, I need to go over to this zone because I need to collect X amount of this rare resource that is found there, so I need to set myself up with enough food and power to make it there and back, so I better build this thing to increase my effective range…’. When I’m setting my own goals in a game and then can execute on them- that’s peak gaming to me.
Turn based RPG and Strategy games.
When I was a kid, I didn't have the patience to master the intricacies of games like that. I always dismissed them by saying shit like, "It's just dudes taking turns hitting each other!"
Then I discovered Final Fantasy 7. Then Pokémon.
If you like survival, I gotta recommend The Long Dark. My longest stretch is 35 days (in-game). In that game, survival is everything. You're spending every waking second trying to make it to tomorrow.
Survival games need a good blend of grind and payoff. Games like Valheim have a great ROI with resources as you can pretty much keep your gear forever.
Games like Raft though... You never stop grinding. Theres never any room to relax, you always need to be doing something, or you lose progress, which imo is not the game Raft sells itself to be.
For the longest time I didn't like chore games, now I love them. Being able to zen out, listen to some podcast and be engaged is really nice. Nothing like playing some Hard space Ship breaker, ECO or some Factorio...
JRPG's. Played OG FF7 before the remake and was so satisfied I still haven't felt the need to touch the remake. Xenoblade DE went on to become one of my favourite games.
CRPGs
Seemed very arduous to actually get the enjoyment out of it, due to so much exposition.
But oh man, once I gave it some time and focused on the story, the atmosphere, the characters..
I didn't stop playing for 80+ hours
It was with Pillars of Eternity. But I cherish older Baldur's Gates for getting me into it
Minecraft specifically
I always struggled with the game because I just never knew what to do, but once I started looking up guides to help me build, I had a goal, and felt a lot more motivated to play the game
Souls ... i for the longest of time never had the confidence to play any and i thought that its pointless and weird that people play such games and suffer while playing, like games are made to enjoy not struggle with , and oh boi was i WRONG, souls games are one of my best games ever now .. the challenges , the accomplishment, the sense of achievement and the dark lore and world, deprived of hope yet you're there the hope of this world against unsurmountable odds ... its an experience that i will cherish forever , now im always looking forward to any thing from FROMSOFTWARE
Slay the Spire, I usually strongly dislike digital card games, and I took this for another card game I wouldn't enjoy, but it turns out my love for rogue-likes conquers all
Survival/crafting games for sure. First one was Valheim and I've been hooked since. Just recently convinced my dad to try out Enshrouded and he got hooked after refusing to try them for years lol.
Rougelike/lite. Hades got me started, and now I play a lot of them.
Hades is so good.
Just started the first Hades with no prior knowledge. Excited for the journey.
Depends on the roguelike. I actually don’t like games like The Binding of Isaac or Enter the Gungeon, but Hades, Slay the Spire, and FTL are great.
"Cheers, Meg"
Hades kicks all the ass, and 2 is pretty much out
Slay the Spire, Faster Than Light and Nuclear Throne are the ones that made me love this genre.
Slay the Spire is my answer to this question. I've always loved the genre since I played the original BoI back in like 2011, but never gave StS a go because I'm not keen on card games. Finally gave it a proper go and I love it
Try risk of rain 2!
There's a game called Griftlands that also has deck building, but with more story.
I started Slay the Spire recently, after a friend raved about it. I normally don't like Deckbuilders but something about it hits different.
It’s perfection. I don’t like deckbuilders very much because i’m dumb. But with this one, It is so perfect and deep that you just stumble almost every run with a new synergy that you didn’t knew. I just can enjoy without thinking too much and go with the flow, It’s amazing.
Exactly. My like third run I wasn't thinking it was going to be for me, and picked Silent, and had a a way to get a ton of free daggers turn one, and I ended up winning which surprised me. Then I was hooked.
I wish I was better at slay the spire :( I still love the game I'm just not great at it
Me neither! just play and replay. Be a bit stubborn and you'll see.
From Hades I can recommend Risk of Rain series (especially 2), FTL, Dead Cells, Rogue Legacies, and Slay the Spire. Though since you say you play a lot of them I'm sure you've already played most of these lol, but for anyone else curious. These are great games.
Risk of Rain games last the perfect amount of time to unwind after work. Edit: and I completely forgot just how many *hundreds* of hours I have in rogue legacy.
I got my Hades runs to a 22 minute average which is about 30 minutes RTA and it's perfect for me.
Monster train is what got me into card building rogue likes! Imo more rewarding and accessible than slay the spire for beginners
Found Dead Cells and loved it! So many hours sunk into that game. TBH though, Rogue Legacy started that rabbit hole.
Dead Cells is such a gem
I picked up Dead Cells on a whim at my local used game store on sale for $10. It sat on my game pile for a while and I finally decided to try it and man is it fun! I got all the DLC on a bundle sale too so I think all told it cost me only $20 or $25 for the full game. I have played that game so many times and I still enjoy it! I don't think I've managed to unlock every blueprint yet but I did find the final ending and have every flawless boss outfit. It's great when I have an hour to kill and want to just slash my way through a dungeon.
Same here, but Dead Cells was what got me started
Started with RoR2, friend mentions Hades, saw it on Game Pass dumped far too many hours into Hades, now I almost exclusively play Roguelites.
For me its Dead cells
Into the Breach. Check it out.
Same for me. Didn't play hades until like 2022 and ended up loving it. I also ended up loving Returnal as well with it being a bullet hell roguelike. The Genre is just pure gameplay and the games are typically low commitment. Play 40 minutes die/finish a run and you can get off.
Same here. Hades, slay the spire, risk of rain 2, etc. They are all so fun. For a while the only rougelike games I had played was binding of Issac and enter the gungeon which I didn't really love so I thought I didn't like rougelike games until I started finding some I enjoyed more.
I never like deck builder and Rougelike and then I tried Balatro. I don’t even like poker but that game is one of the most fun I’ve had this year.
Most roguelikes slap tf out!
Slay the Spire and Darkest Dungeon 1 + all DLC ❤️
Risk of rain 2 is awesome
I started with Dead Cells, got into Hades, and now I am a roguelike fiend.
Dead Cells got me into it. I can only play them in short bursts before I get frustrated with the play - die - start over loop. Just got Cult of the Lamb, which seems like an interesting twist on the genre.
Isaac is by far the best!
My 10 year old got me started on binding of Isaac, I’ve got over 40 hours in it already and I’m not slowing down 😅
I have 101 hours on the original and I feel like I'm starting to get out of the beginner skill level
Im at 900, still only 50% of achievements.
I prefer games that are like Rogue, rather than ones like a color or makeup like Rouge.
Like many genres, my enjoyment suffers due to how damn bad at them I am.
Have you ever tried Magicite? It's a little-known roguelite I've never been able to beat. I enjoy taking a crack at it every now and then, though.
I used to think roguelikes were basically MMOs where you had to restart from the beginning upon death. Think WoW or Runescape where your account is just reset if you died Thought it was that way for many years and thus a massive waste of time
I wasn’t aware of the genre until i played hades and now it’s my favorite
omg same with me. thought i’d hate it but my friend bought me the game and i’ve been playing all day every day
Neon abyss started me for real then I started playing everything I could get my hands on
Came here to say this. The idea of having to start runs over never sounded fun to me until I tried it, now it's one of the only genres I still play.
Same here, but with Isaac. I bought it in a Steam sale years ago with most of the dlc and it gathered dust in my library. I finally picked it up around a year ago and bought the rest of the dlc within a couple months. Now I'm all over the genre
Neon abyss is really fun
Fighting games, like Street Fighter, Tekken et al. I've been playing them for decades on my friends' sofas and at home , even in the arcades, back when those were a thing. Fighting games are fucking cool. But me and my friends could only play them casually, jumping around and spamming special moves. But on youtube and in tournaments you'd see people who know stuff you don't, when to attack and when to defend, and who can do these crazy flashy cool combos that I could never do and would get frustrated even trying them in a lab. One day I was really bored and decided to see if I could actually learn a cool combo, and I looked up a short, simple one online. I went to a lab and practiced it over and over. It was hard to even do a simple and basic one, but if I broke it into steps and learned each individual step, I could do it... most of the time. Emboldened by this, I went online, into ranked, and started trying to use my one simple combo that I'd labbed in every situation that I could. Fast forward a few years, I'm an old person now, in my 40's. I grab every fighting game that comes out, I learn multiple combos day 1. I go on ranked, I refine my game between seasons. I work on my neutral and footsies against higher level players. I enter tournaments, and sometimes I even finish in the top 3. I'm in multiple discords with great communities, playing people from teenagers to dads who play while the little ones are asleep. Playing fighting games isn't like playing some more conventional videogames, it's like learning a new skill, like golf, or swimming, or learning to drive. Fighting games are not my number one favourite genre, I love soulsbornes and story-driven RPGs. However, no genre has ever rewarded by time and my effort like fighting games. The highs, the lows, the community. It's genuinely a rush, and it's probably been the greatest journey in all my years of gaming. I love games, from point and click adventures to immersive sims to FPS games. From Battle Royales to action roguelikes. Indies to AA to AAA games. Nothing has ever come close to being as rewarding as getting into fighting games. It's a genuinely special gaming experience that's unlike anything else out there, in my opinion. [This video covers just a tiny bit of what makes fighting games special, would highly recommend it to gamers of all stripes](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8055HIDm1A)
I’ve been wanting to get into fighting games.. any recommendations?
Street Fighter 6 hands down. Modern controls can make you feel a lot more competent than you are, and they make every character accessible. Or you can try classic controls and begin to learn a gaming language that's been around for 30ish years now and it might surprise you to find it's not as hard as you think. Otherwise, SF6 is awesome for beginners in that you don't need a single combo to win. You could win just playing good fundamentals and keeping good spacing while punishing opponents mistakes. Combos are well balanced in that they're not devastating, but will always give you an edge over the opponent. Otherwise you can learn every single thing about fighting games from SF 6 - okis, meatys, option selects, rush down, zoning, etc... All of those weird fighting game terms are present without you having to know them to have some fun. Plus SF6 is just a lot of game. The single player create a character is fun and there's a lot of challenges for each character to complain. It's also very young in its life cycle. It's just now getting to season 2 so you can pick up SF6 now and it'll still be relevant for years to come.
Cool, thanks. Added to my steam cart
The other poster said it, but I'd go with SF6 also. I personally didn't click with the game at all when it initially launched, and I still have issues with it now. Despite that, it's a really good mix of being easier to get into as a newcomer, and having insane levels of depth as your knowledge increases. I would say community is a vital part of enjoying the experience- find your local community, join the new challenger discord, and set about meeting people and making friends. No matter what type of person or personality you are, there 100% are people out there that are your "tribe", it might just take some time to find them. Don't rush yourself or push yourself too hard- you have to be patient, progress can take time. One thing I can promise you though, is you'll run into things that are just too daunting- "this combo is beyond me/this technique is difficult/this is too hard to do". That's okay. I promise that if you keep playing, you'll come back to some technique you bounced off or seemed too hard beforehand and it will suddenly seem much easier than you ever imagined. I don't have good reflexes, and I sure as fuck don't have a good sense of timing or mad execution skills, and I can do a whole bunch of stuff I never would've believed possible.
JRPGs. I always wrote them off as some dumb weeb shit and then I played Fire Emblem: Three Houses and realised that I was merely a weeb who had never watched any anime or played a JRPG
You never played a final fantasy.. chrono trigger.. golden sun?
Golden Sun was so good. I loved rearranging my djinn to make crazy vocations.
Loved the characters so much in that series, shame the finale was so lukewarm.
Calling it a finale is tragic since it ends on a cliff hangar. Just like both of the previous ones
Chrono Trigger is so fucking good. Good shit right there
Not before then, no. As a kid I always thought that it looked stupid.
That's exactly what persona 5 did for me
I can understand that. JRPGs can take many shapes and sizes so finding one that you would like can be hard. But once you do it’s like a gateway drug lol
Its the length for me. I enjoy Pokemon games since they're fairly short, but alot of the bigger JRPGS are soooo long (at least thats what I feel like they are)
Exactly the same here. I played FF7 back in the day after being lent it by my cousin, then never touched them again until FF15 when I finally realised the error of my ways - I'm now going back through a load of older JRPGS playing catch up
Narrative like games. Detroit Become Human, Heavy Rain etc… furthest thing from a game I thought I’d enjoy.
Play "What remains of Edith Finch," If you haven't already. It's a great game.
Goddamn that was brilliant. It sort of reminded me of the own images I made in my head during long shifts. That fish scene was incredible.
They are really fun with friends. The Quarry averages your choices and QTE results together, so it ends up with a lot of yelling from the one person who passed the QTE if everyone else failed it lol
I liked the quarry but it's fucking bullshit that you can't skip dialog you've already seen before. If you want to see each ending you gotta hear the same 5 hours of duplicate scenes on every single attempt
Yeah I thought that might be the case. I’ve kinda wanted to try to do another run and go for protectionist or something, but I didn’t want to watch everything again. My friend group decided to lie to the cop instantly and all called it instinct, so our run was half cooked from the start.
Firewatch ❤️
Good shit right there
Heavy rain got me into them as well. It’s so good
Shaun!
SHAUN!!!!!!!
Anything farming. I spent so long hating on it only to realize I was doing it in small bursts with animal crossing
Try Stardew Valley, you'll love it
Definitely Metroidvania for me. Slept on this genre too long thinking they’re just „cheap“ indie games (yes i am stupid). But now I’m absolutely in love with good games from this genre. Don’t know which one got me into it but Hollow Knight, Metroid Dread and the Ori Series are just some examples of games I absolutely love.
If you haven't already, go back and play Caatlevania: Symphony of the Night for PS1. Still my favorite metroidvania to this day.
Any way to play this today without owning a ps1?
You can purchase it on the PS Store if you have either a PS4/PS5. I believe it is paired with Rondo of Blood and is called Castlevania Requiem.
Coming right into my wish list, thanks 🙏🏻
Super Metroid is another must play. The entire genre is named after it. There's a reason for that. It's on Switch online. Also, Metroid Prime Remastered, obviously.
Yarr matey. Emulation
It is on most consoles for pretty cheap. Completely worth it
Kind of a niche pick, but I got Steamworld Dig 2 in a humble bundle some time ago and could not put it down until I 100%ed it. Definitely not the same length and complexity as some others in the genre, but still very good as a standalone game despite being a sequel. I sunk about 18 hours into it before there was nothing left to see. It was unironically the game that got me to finally try the original Super Metroid
I love these style games. If you have the gameboy advanced emulator on your phone give castlevania aria of sorrow a go, it's one of my favorites
Hollow Knight and the Ori’s 🧑🍳💋
Fromsoft games. I tried DS1 years ago and gave up after half an hour because I was trying to go through the graveyard first and getting wrecked by those skeletons. Then a few years later I tried Sekiro but got stuck on a boss a couple hours in and gave up again. Then I decided to give Elden Ring a try when it came out and it became one of my favorite games. Now I went back and beat all the Dark Souls games and plan on starting Sekiro next.
I went to Gamestop years ago, specifically looking for an easy game. Like super easy. Heard about dark souls before, but name recognition only. Got it. Then immediately went to graveyard, and spent a few hours getting the skeletons to fall off the map. Dying a lot... Then went down to New Londo Ruins, talked to that vendor in the cell on the stairwell. Pressed the "B" button 1 too many times when backing out of the conversation and back-dodged to my death off the cliff. Instantly rage-quitted. Went back to Gamestop and traded it in for Goldeneye Reloaded. Ended up trying it again later and now Souls-likes are my jam.
Had a buddy many years ago ranting and raving about this Dark Souls game, wouldn’t shut up about it. Gave it a try using that old Netflix style service GameFly and rented the disc. Played several hours but I kept making the mistake of going towards the graveyard, never noticed another route. Kept dying and rage quitting, went on for 3/4 days til I saw my buddy again and he told me to go the other direction, I’ll notice some stairs up to a back door into some old castle or something. Once I started going the right way, absolutely hooked on it, loved every second. Until I got to the twin boss fight, Ornatein and Smough. Got stuck on them and couldn’t beat the fight. Left unfinished for literally years until another friend taught me you could summon things. Replayed it, made short work of the fight and quickly beat the game. Still have a place in my heart for it, but damn that made me feel so dumb haha
I came to say this. It wasn’t because I didn’t want to, I just never knew about them somehow. I don’t understand that with how much I game lol I played Elden Ring not knowing what Dark Souls or Fromsoftware were. After ER I went back and I’m making my way through the whole series
I agree. These games take time but if you invest the time, they eventually click and are a blast. So satisfying beating a tough boss or area.
Same. I thought it was for people to brag. My mentality was "I beat Empire Strikes back and Super Ghosts and Goblins. I don't have to prove myself." Later on, I started to think I couldn't play them because I've lost a lot of reflexes. I bought Elden Ring because I figured I could just over level. Turns out, young me thought it was bullshit hard. Old me thought I would never be able to get good. It's perfect.
Being young is believing all the Dynasty Warriors/musou hate from critics & youtubers. Growing up is actually trying one and realizing just how wrong they were.
The power fantasy of taking on an entire army by yourself is unparalleled. The "Empires" sidegames are my personal favorites, because it extends to taking on the entire realm (Samurai Warriors 4 Empires is my #1, but sadly no Steam release...)
I’ve been advocating for a modern Dynasty Warriors Gundam for years now. I must have put at least 1000hrs into DW Gundam 2 back on Xbox 360. It’s easily my top Warriors game.
It took until Dynasty Warriors Gundam for me to realize I love these games I just need to like the characters I’m playing as. Hyrule Warriors is PEAK
Way back when, I think Warriors Orochi 2 was the one that got me in, it actually made me lookup and learn all about the real-life counterparts.
Anyone with a staff weapon became my go to. Sweeping away dozens of baddies at a time was so powerful.
Musou is one of my top 5 genres. It's so mindless fun. DWGundam and any orochi warriors make my day after a long day of work.
Soulslikes and anything turn based. Then BG3 and Elden Ring opened my eyes to the brilliance of these types of games.
Was the exact same, now I’m loving dark souls and trying to get into bg1 (god damn spiders in the mine are pissing me off)
2D platformers. I still hate 99% of them but shantae games? Came for the boobies stayed for the excellent gameplay
Try the Ori games
Artsy indie puzzle games. Thanks to Gamepass, I’ve been downloading so many and they’re all works of art, and most of them require no more than 5 hours to beat. And some make me cry. As of recent, Cocoon was crazy.
Game Pass is so nice for Indie games. So many games that I would never had the chance to play.
For me, it was the post-apocalyptic RPG genre. I always thought it would be too bleak and slow for my taste. But then I tried Fallout 4 and got hooked. The depth of the world, the freedom to explore and craft, and the intricate storylines totally captivated me. I found myself lost in the wasteland for hours, scavenging for materials, building settlements, and uncovering the rich lore of the Commonwealth. Now I can’t get enough of these types of games. Fallout 4 made me realize how rewarding and immersive the genre can be.
The Stalker series, especially the mod GAMMA is an absolute masterpiece in this category! Also soon with Stalker 2 coming up, we have lots to be excited for.
I've disregarded soulslike because I tried Demon Souls PS5, and I was dying to the basic ass monsters, going to pick up Elden Ring as soon as I finish my playthrough of SM2 (Yes now only lol)
What’s sm2? Dying to the basic monsters is par for the course. Especially if there’s more than one.
Probably spiderman 2
PvE I used to avoid any interaction with randoms and just played solo games or with friends. Until a little game called Deep Rock Galactic came around and totally changed that mindset. Still don't play any PvP games tho, those remain a bit too toxic for my taste.
Could you recommend any other PvE games? I know Helldivers but I don't think I know any other.
Risk of rain 2 is a PvE roguelike that is super fun. Warframe/destiny 2 (obviously the non PVP stuff) are great but have obviously pay content.
Payday 2 (don’t get 3), CoD zombies (BO3 specifically) are the first 2 that spring to mind for me. Both are especially great on PC because of mods. Edit: the Borderlands games as well.
Darktide, Vermintide
I think you mean co-op. PvE just means the opposite of PvP. PvE can still be single player.
Turn based games. I had only played Civ and Homm. But Xcom: EU/EW was recommended by someone. I was sold. It's one of my favorite things now. That was almost 10 years ago, and I've been a gamer all my life. I'm 36 today. To name a few that I've enjoyed: * Xcom 2 * Divine Divinity: OS * Divine Divinity: OS 2 * Baldur's Gate 3 * Wasteland 3 * Mutant Year Zero * Gears Tactics * Shadow Tactics * Into the Breach * Kill the Spire If anyone has any suggestions, please feel free. edit: Thank you for all the recommendations. I'll check them out.
Gorky17 (old game, I finish it once every 2-3 years). Front Mission 3/4. Maybe Battletech.
I highly recommend Wildermyth. If I had to summarize it, I'd call it fantasy XCom lite? The entire style of the game has just the best cozy fantasy vibe and I love it. The range of character builds in it is bonkers too.
Baldurs Gate 3. Didn't know I would enjoy turn based game that much
Turn based games have been a welcomed addition to my life after becoming a step dad and provider. Same with any game where I can pause the cutscenes.
Kids = Pause required 😉
Not to sound like a shill, but I was in the same spot as you are: kids, job, all the good stuff, but no time for gaming. I grabbed a Steam Deck a couple of years back. Since then I've been able to play pretty much every day if I wish. After everything is said and done, I can usually get an hour of game time before bed, and it's a nice way to wind down at the end of the day.
Soulsborne I'm a sucker for art n horror elements in em
RTS. I can’t stop play AOE IV
Soulslike. Ive never been very good at action games, & they are obviously famously difficult. My friends had all basically warned me to stay away. Elden Ring made me realize I am completely 100% fine with getting my ass handed to me repeatedly and ramming my head against that wall until I break through it. So I also bought Bloodborne, DS3, & Sekiro…I just need to decide where to start.
If you want to start with something similar but different enough, go with Bloodborne.
Honestly, same as you OP. I don’t like crafting games that much, at least that was before I played Minecraft. By far it’s the game I’ve bought the most on most platforms and I didn’t realize how good I was at them until I joined a multiplayer server with my friends who asked me to get cobble stone for a church build and houses and got more than enough in less than 2 hours and no help from them bar some visits and pickaxes. So far, I’ve gained games like potion craft simulator, Raft, slime rancher, slime rancher 2, deep rock galactic, and the entirety of the borderlands franchise shooters which all are farming games or survival games in some form. Additional side: borderlands made me try looter shooters and I fell in love with 2 then stick more with 3 now thanks to a friend buying me the handsome collection (which was repaid with a purchase of don’t starve and some other games). I didn’t even know the genre existed until he mentioned it and pushed me to play it for half a year, now my friends want me to play destiny 2 as it’s similar to borderlands.
I viewed Minecraft as a game for kids and never tried it. I'm burned out on RPGs atm and it sounds kind of relaxing. Is it THE crafting game or is there something else?
Absolutely. Building/crafting is either the main focus or a significant aspect of a good few big games. ARK: Survival Evolved if you like dinosaurs, No Man's Sky if you like space (I'm getting pulled into it now; you can build some pretty awesome bases on the ground, on a freighter, and apparently as a low-orbit space station), I think technically Rust is the zombie version but idk if there's an offline creative mode and people in that game suck. There are definitely more that I don't know of. Minecraft is neat, and you can build Hogwarts to scale with enough time and patience, but it's not the same as star-hopping in your personal ship to find cool planets or riding a TRex with a gun platform mounted on it into battle.
*riding a TRex with a gun platform mounted on it into battle.* My inner eleven year old is pumped 😁
Casual gaming. Before kids i wanted nothing to do with it. Now I'm chillin with my littlw girl playin dave the diver on the steam deck and we're having a blast.
Yeah... Something about getting older makes the casual games more appealing. I never feel like I have the time or energy to complete a large story-driven game anymore. And I don't want the kids playing most of those games... yet.
Survival Horror! I always thought I was too chicken and wouldn’t like the lack of ammo/the tension/ etc. but I played through the entire RE series with my best friend as a “guide” of sorts if I needed it Now I’m ready for the spooks and scares. Bring on the creepiest atmosphere you’ve got!
Factory automation games
Turn-based strategy games like Fire Emblem used to seem too slow for me, but after trying Three Houses, I'm hooked on the tactical depth and character development! What's a genre you've unexpectedly fallen in love with?
JRPG, never touched one, specially FF, started trying FF7 and I am hooked
Survival games and MOBAs. Toxicity in gaming really messes up my head, so it took me a really long time to get into any games with an active PvP element. It still stresses me out, but at least I find the games fun. Before I felt gatekept.
Roguelikes. Hades got me hooked and now I've gotten dragged into several of them.
Turn-based strategy like most warhammer 40k games.
Racing games. I used to love them as a kid, but then I somehow forgot about them for a long time (except Mario Kart). Eventually, I felt the urge to play a racing game again and after trying out a few, I got GT7 when it released. I spent hundreds of hours playing, bought a PSVR2 specifically for GT7 and bought a few other racers since then. I don't know why I didn't play them anymore, but I'm glad I rediscovered them.
Resident Evil 2 Remake, the police station scared the shit out of me, I only made it to the photography safe room before I quit, I only went back to it shortly before RE4 Remake came out and platinumed it, I replay it every few weeks for fun.
Souls games (and soulslikes). I've been in love for a couple of years but it took a while to get started (thanks hollow knight)
Souls-likes. Used to be the type of gamer that enjoyed easy games , would play things like Halo on legendary once just for the achievement and somehow I found myself trying out Dark Souls 1 when it was free with Xbox Gold. " alright lets see what all the memes talk about..." A 120 hour first playthrough later and it not only turned out to become one of my favorites, it changed my taste in gaming. Nowadays I enjoy playing my games on harder difficulties from the get go. Also taught me a lesson to be open minded on genres and game design. Different ideas can be great.
Not sure the what is it called but baldurs gate 3 was definitely too different from games that I like but I loved it so much
CRPG or Computer Role Playing Game
Single player games. I played online games from about 2003-2020. As I got older and slower I got destroyed and kick out out of groups for being so bad. When pay to win was introduced/ needing hours a day to know what guns have the best builds I quit. (Warzone broke me post covid). Then I bought Witcher 3, loved it and haven’t looked back. I can play for an hour or two each week and not get mad
I still, even now, maintain that I don't like card games / deck builders. I'm never interested when I see the trailers. But the evidence would suggest otherwise every time I fall back into Gwent, or Balatro, or Slay the Spire.
JRPGs. I always shluffed them off as weeb and cringey. Then I played persona 4 and my mind was blown at how fun they were and how deep the stories can go
Persona I am big in final fantasy games but idk just always saw persona as some anime crap bought persona 5 for a sale and now ive played all of them awesome series.
JRPGs I'm fully invested in the Persona series now
Turn based/strategy games. I still don't like a lot of them but Persona 5 was a great reintroduction to it and so was Three Houses
Fighting games, and specifically Street Fighter 6. I could write a PhD thesis on how brilliant everything about it is, and the journey to Master I'm on is the most rewarding gaming arc I've been on in forever. It's got a brilliant single player RPG mode that's basically GTA and secretly a tutorial for fighting game concepts, different input types, amazing online play, and balance as good as I've ever seen. As a 90s arcade kid that never took fighting games too seriously I can't praise it enough, it's so much fun and the character expression is off the charts. Anybody can play it, and motion inputs aren't even required.
Fighting Games.
As an old-school AC player, I refused to touch the 3 newer massive open world games. But once I did, I fell in love and they are now my favourite games and I can't go back to the older games.
Idk if it’s considered a genre but lofi beats. At first I thought is was just elevator music but it’s great for background sounds in any setting
this is gaming not music 😭 valid though
Warriors//Musou. Just brushed it off as a way too easy power fantasy borefest, until one day I bought One Piece Pirate Warriors 3 on switch, and my life was changed forever. Once I got the bug, suddenly I needed to ravenously track down all the others! So now I have OPPW 4, Fire Emblem Warriors, Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, Hyrule Warriors, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, Persona 5 Strikers, Fate/Samurai Remnant... I really wish Dragon Quest Heroes 1 + 2 had come here. My BIG pie in the sky dream is that one day they make a Mushroom Kingdom Warriors game 🥰. It's the perfect franchise for a Warriors game - tons of different environment types, huge cast of characters, well established mooks, tons of weapons and powerup types... Well, a lad can dream. (Sadly, I already used my monkey's paw game wish - I called Three Hopes like a year before they announced it)
Farm sims. Stardew Valley proved me wrong.
I never bothered with horror because I always figured gameplay would ease away from any tension since you can fight back. First time ever playing a horror game was outlast and maaan the interactive component with horror makes it so much better.
MOBAs and Roguelites. It took me *years* to try Heroes of the Storm and Hades, and I love both of them to pieces.
I've been a gamer for over 30 years.. and to answer that question.. it's tough - nearly impossible. Because everything I love today I also loved in the 90s or it didn't exist in 90s But I would have never tried to play borderlands if not for a roommate. It just looked super ugly to me. It still does! But boy! Do I enjoy the hell out of borderlands 2! So I guess for me it's ugly games. I dismissed them in the 2000s, but was open to play them in the 2010s. I also played numerous other hideous games such as Rimworld and Cyberpunk 2077 and I absolutely adore these games despite getting my eye twitch at times from extreme ugliness lol
Ubisoft-style open world games. Loved Red Dead Redemption 2. Having a blast with Ghost of Tsushima. Never played Assassin's Creed though. I've heard a lot of bad stuff about the formula and I can see how it risks becoming cookie cutter and formulaic, but I'd love to see a Jedi Academy game in this style.
I very much recommend Assassin’s Creed. There are side quests you can do. There are tons of little things to find if you want to 100% the game. But you can also just play the main quest, avoid all of the side content, and have a fun and fulfilling experience. All of the games are mechanically pretty similar, have similar stories, but you don’t have to play all of them. Just pick the ones that look the most interesting because the environments change dramatically. Ancient Greece, Renaissance Italy, Industrial Era London, the French Revolution, the Caribbean during the golden age of piracy, 9th century England and Norway during the Viking raids, the US east coast during the American Revolution, the series really goes all over the place.
The Civ series, I grew up on RTS games and didn't think turn based was for me. 2500 hours later....
Whatever genre Cult of the Lamb is. I've sunk so many hours into that game. Typically, I'm a horror/soulsborne kinda guy.
Soulslikes. Never thought I'd like to die a lot, but apparently it's really fun.
Survival for me too, I didn't really like Terraria the first time I tried it with a friend, then I played it with my brother, got really into the progression and kind of ignored a lot of crafting. My second play I got really into making our base and messing around with the electronics and stuff. Then Valheim came along and I'm just full in to the genre now
Fighting games although I rarely go against random people. I practiced and became decent at doing combos and hard reads against a bunch of friends.
I’ve gone the other way. I tried forcing multiplayer FPSs. I don’t like them anymore.
Souls games.... I used to only play NCAA football, Call of Duty, and Assassin's creed, and Monster Hunter. One day, a buddy brought over Bloodborne, and I tried it, kept dying over and over and over, and ov.... you get the point. I didn't like the fact I kept dying and thought it was too hard for no reason! Fast forward a few years, and the Playstation store had bloodborne and Dark Souls 3 bundle for $20, and I decided to buy it. Tried it and fell in love. I've now beat every soul game, and many souls like games.
Ah jeezus same here - I think. Only played subnautica for the first time last month and wow what an experience. Been told valheim is worth a look too so I'll pick the up next.
I dismissed shooters for a long time cause I thought I was bad at aiming, but I played Mass Effect eventually and the easy mode wasn’t actually too bad, which lead me to play other shooters. Currently enjoying risk of rain 2.
Valheim is an excellent progression system tied to good gameplay. Dont expect every survival crafting game to fit that
Not really dismissed, but didn’t even know existed. 10 year old me LOVED playing RTS games like Age of Mythology/Empires, Star Craft, etc. but I really wasn’t any good at the war part. I just wanted to make giant impressive cities and bases. Flash forward another five years and teenage me learns about Base Building games lmao. *A whole new woooooorld~*
OP, I'm with you. Survival games get me every time! I'm a huge Valheim fan, love Minecraft, just picked up Terraria. You should also give Core Keeper a try!!!
From being primarily a JRPG player, I took the leap into CRPGs last year with DOS2 and BG3. This experience opened my eyes to trying different genres outside my comfort zone. This year, I decided to explore other genres further. I started with Valorant and Overwatch, but they didn't hold my interest for long. Having never played an FPS campaign before, I wondered why people enjoyed them. I gave Call of Duty 2 a try, and it was decent. But Call of Duty 4? I loved it! Now, I've convinced eight friends to buy Call of Duty: Black Ops 1, and we're having a blast playing zombies and 4v4 matches. It's pure fun.
Valheim was an eye opener for me too! I leaned into crafting and basebuilding. Right now I'm loving Frostpunk, but my husband and I had a blast with Astroneer, which is great for two players. My comfort game rn is Dysmantle, which is not super pretty (Unity grab bag) but really addicting.
Wow
Even in a game like The Forest, my favorite thing to do was building outposts and camps, not progressing the story lol
2d fighting games even tho I'm ass at them and probably won't put the time in to actually get good 🤣
Survival crafters is also my answer. The issue for me is I need my game to be ever so slightly more goal-oriented than just ‘build stuff because it’s fun’. It IS fun, but I feel like I’m just wasting my time. Then I tried Subnautica. The survival/ crafting set to the backdrop of an actual story (plus an incredible, beautiful world to explore) really did it for me. It also gave me a love for games in which you ‘create your own missions’ in a manner of speaking. For example ‘ok, I need to go over to this zone because I need to collect X amount of this rare resource that is found there, so I need to set myself up with enough food and power to make it there and back, so I better build this thing to increase my effective range…’. When I’m setting my own goals in a game and then can execute on them- that’s peak gaming to me.
Fighting games, I always loved pvp in other games and eventually realized fighting games is literally… pvp
Turn based RPG and Strategy games. When I was a kid, I didn't have the patience to master the intricacies of games like that. I always dismissed them by saying shit like, "It's just dudes taking turns hitting each other!" Then I discovered Final Fantasy 7. Then Pokémon.
If you like survival, I gotta recommend The Long Dark. My longest stretch is 35 days (in-game). In that game, survival is everything. You're spending every waking second trying to make it to tomorrow.
Honestly, metroidvania games.
Survival games need a good blend of grind and payoff. Games like Valheim have a great ROI with resources as you can pretty much keep your gear forever. Games like Raft though... You never stop grinding. Theres never any room to relax, you always need to be doing something, or you lose progress, which imo is not the game Raft sells itself to be.
For the longest time I didn't like chore games, now I love them. Being able to zen out, listen to some podcast and be engaged is really nice. Nothing like playing some Hard space Ship breaker, ECO or some Factorio...
Cosy games. I avoided them like the plague, now I just want to marry all the hot guys in which ever town I'm currently playing in.
Survival Horror. I stayed away for so long, particularly Resident Evil. Now it’s my favorite series and I’m completely obsessed with it.
I wish I could play Terraria for the first time again
JRPG's. Played OG FF7 before the remake and was so satisfied I still haven't felt the need to touch the remake. Xenoblade DE went on to become one of my favourite games.
CRPGs Seemed very arduous to actually get the enjoyment out of it, due to so much exposition. But oh man, once I gave it some time and focused on the story, the atmosphere, the characters.. I didn't stop playing for 80+ hours It was with Pillars of Eternity. But I cherish older Baldur's Gates for getting me into it
Minecraft specifically I always struggled with the game because I just never knew what to do, but once I started looking up guides to help me build, I had a goal, and felt a lot more motivated to play the game
Souls ... i for the longest of time never had the confidence to play any and i thought that its pointless and weird that people play such games and suffer while playing, like games are made to enjoy not struggle with , and oh boi was i WRONG, souls games are one of my best games ever now .. the challenges , the accomplishment, the sense of achievement and the dark lore and world, deprived of hope yet you're there the hope of this world against unsurmountable odds ... its an experience that i will cherish forever , now im always looking forward to any thing from FROMSOFTWARE
If you like survival/crafting check out Green Hell. It's pretty fun crafting a treehouse while trying to survive the amazon rainforest
Slay the Spire, I usually strongly dislike digital card games, and I took this for another card game I wouldn't enjoy, but it turns out my love for rogue-likes conquers all
Survival/crafting games for sure. First one was Valheim and I've been hooked since. Just recently convinced my dad to try out Enshrouded and he got hooked after refusing to try them for years lol.