With gaming often bringing me into a really depressive headspace sometimes with how the markets are developing, whats a game you can always go to and just be lost in, or just be happy with?
Personally i would go for advance wars 1 and 2 on the gba (there is no remake and never will be)
the artstyle, the music, the game-play is just simple, yet effective, a sublime experience of very fun times.
Whats yours?
I haven’t seen anyone mentioning this gem:
Vampire Survivors
Try not to have an overly rosy retrospection about this. There were plenty of crappy, cash-grabby games in decades past. We just don’t remember them because they were crappy, cash-grabby, and not worth remembering. They hadn’t invented microtransactions yet, but that’s just one more flavor of crappiness.
TES Oblivion and Sonic Adventure 2. SA2 was a childhood favorite I got very good at, and the extra mission, game modes, and pet sim aspects makes it fairly re-playable without having to start a new game file. Oblivion is just whacky and fun, and if you know how to exploit mechanics you can get up to some pretty crazy stuff in a matter a minutes after starting the game. While grinding skills could be seen as… Well a grind, it’s a grind I personally enjoy. Both games let me dive straight into what I’m feeling like doing, and reward mastery (even if one of them is cheese mastery).
Stardew Valley is amazing for this. Minecraft was it for years and years, but Stardew is just like a nice hug. I adore it.
Hogwarts Legacy has also fallen into this category for me now.
Minecraft. It’s just a nice game to get lost in.
Anyone of my simulation/management games. Whether it’s running a hospital, creating an auto manufacturing assembly line or helping some brave adventurers find oxygen I’m always more at peace with a single player goal driven experience.
I can always go for a game of Age of Empires 2. That game takes me back to my childhood.
super Mario galaxy for sure
When I was very young I had something wrong with my nose and I couldn’t breathe so I had to get surgery
When I left the hospital my parents said I could get a game to play while I couldn’t go to school for a week and I chose super Mario galaxy
I played the shit out of that game and it just has such a calming positive vibe, like everything is gonna be ok
That game is a part of me, I love it so much
… that or left 4 dead 2
Oh yes! SMG was the game we bought the day we bought our Wii back then and it is a masterpiece. It is also the only Mario Game I ever “finished” (all Stars with Mario, not Luigi tough). We loved everything in this game. The Music, Level Design, Controls… and whenever we thought that we have seen all, they came up with a new game mechanic that surprised us and was super fun. It was truly a fantastic and memorable experience.
For me it’s No Mans Sky. I love flying around and checking different planets, it’s kind of calming for me.
XCOM 2 on the lowest difficulty. Sacrilege, I know, but there’s just no better feeling than waltzing through some aliens with my whole squad intact at the end while feeling like a tactical genius. And even the weird Chimera Squad is just fun at times for a bit of a changeup.
I am taking this as my permission to play on rookie!
You play however is the most fun to you! Gaming can become so much more fun when you realize that different difficulty levels are there to serve you and your enjoyment of the game, not the other way around!
Easily Path of Exile. There’s something so relaxing about blowing up the entire screen with one flick of my wrist, and it really gets my endorphins flowing to minmax my stats using third party tools like Path of Building and testing out items on the trade site / changes to my skill tree to see how they’d affect my build.
To some people it sounds like work, but for me it hits that sweet spot of minmaxing and complexity that no other game really can.
Edit: I should also mention that lately I’ve been mostly playing on Steam Deck which has been a revelation for me. Endgame “alch and go” mapping is so perfect for the pick up and play style, only enhanced by having access to it from the couch/toilet.
The map system is so good for this. If you manage to get the bewildering learning curve, it’s so nice to come home from work and spin a few maps to relax and pick up loot. PoE is so overwhelmingly easily my choice as well.
Honestly the learning curve isn’t that atrocious. I’ve always advocated for following a build guide then start looking at ways to personalize it at level ~70 (and with Exarch altars you can farm regrets to respec.)
Learning the skill tree is hard but it’s made much easier when you have a base to modify.
The learning curve gets really bad when you start trying to craft though. And expensive.
Morrowind and Mario Maker 2.
Stardew Valley comes to mind right away, but I think it applies to all titles after you get the hang of it, with the exception of heavily RNG-based games like Risk of Rain 2, Hades, Dead Cells where you have to be alert almost all the time. Currently I’m enjoying playing Red Dead Redemption 2. Definitely a comfort game just riding your horse around.
I tried Stardew Valley one time, and it killed me. I would probably call myself a completionist and all the stuff I have to remember from the get go and dates and times I need to be somewhere to don’t miss out just made me stressed out. But I haven’t looked into it if you really miss out or you can do the stuff later, too. It was I while ago… perhaps I will give it another try.
Euro Truck Simulator/American Truck Simulator
It quickly just becomes a virtual road trip simulator, and as someone who generally enjoys driving and road trips its very chill
Deus Ex, Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines, and Cyberpunk 2077. Like you said, they are games I like to get lost in, just walk/drive around in, soak in the ambience. I like to pretend I’m there; it’s a great escape, like you said, comforting.
