I’m a casual gamer who’s been largely inactive for the past few decades, and so I’m looking for some some good game recommendations. I don’t mind if they’re old as long as they came out after 2003 (because that’s when graphics of many games really started improving), maybe between 2008-2019. I’m also quite a picky gamer.

Here is a list of games that I’ve played before and that I liked (in no particular order):

  • The Stanley Parable
  • Counter-Strike: Source
  • Counter-Strike Global Offensive
  • Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
  • Grand Theft Auto V (just started playing this one)
  • Freeways
  • The Wizard’s Pen
  • Need for Speed: Most Wanted
  • Need for Speed: Heat
  • Shadow of the Tomb Raider
  • Simon Tatham’s Puzzle Game Collection
  • Minecraft
  • Hamsterball
  • Sifu
  • Tekken 6
  • SuperHOT
  • Papers Please
  • Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3
  • Accelerator (by TenebrousP)
  • The Professional
  • Paraopticon
  • Socrates Jones: Pro Philosopher
  • ir:rational
  • Viewport
  • Lyxo
  • Shadowess (by playchilla)
  • Duet (by Kumobius)
  • Chain Reaction
  • Gumslinger
  • Intersectiion Controller
  • Little Alchemy
  • Magic Survival (by Leme)
  • Spy Tactics
  • Kick Buttowski: Suburban Daredevil
  • Cyclomaniacs 2
  • Learn 2 Fly 2
  • Piano Tiles 2
  • The Sims 3
  • Plants vs. Zombies
  • Tetris (on Facebook)
  • Solitaire on Windows 7
  • Space Cadet Pinball
  • Purble Place

Here are games that I’ve played that I didn’t like:

  • Quake II RTX
  • Doom (1993)
  • Counter-Strike 1.6
  • Left 4 Dead
  • Half-Life
  • Speed Dreams
  • Assault Cube
  • Terraria
  • Minetest
  • Xonotic
  • Piano Tiles
  • Geometry Dash
  • Payback 2
  • Touchgrind Skate 2
  • Pixel Wheels
  • NBA 2K11
  • Defense of the Ancients
  • Dota 2
  • Sim City 2000
  • OpenRCT 2
  • OpenTTD
  • The Sims 4
  • Doki Doki Literature Club
  • Tetris (any other implementation I’ve tried)
  • Solitaire on Windows XP

Here are games I would like to avoid:

  • Battle Royale / Deathmatch- style games (Fortnite, PUBG, etc.)
  • MOBAs (League of Legends, Mobile Legends, etc.)
  • Hero shooters (Overwatch, Rainbow Six Siege, etc.)
  • Games with fantasy-based elements (Skyrim, The Witcher, Souls games etc.)
  • RPGs
  • Side-scrollers / Shoot-em-ups / Top-down games
  • Platformers
  • Horror/supernatural games (Resident Evil, Silent Hill, etc.)
  • Management games (Civilization, Cities: Skylines, etc.)
  • Artillery games
  • Outer-space/post-apocalyptic games (Halo, Fallout, etc.)
  • Cookie clickers / Walking simulators
  • Rhythm games
  • Sports games
  • Game adaptations of existing media (Star Wars games, Arkham games, etc.)
  • Board/card/gambling/collectible/gacha games\
  • Games that have microtransactions/required DLCs
  • Text adventures / Visual novels
  • Trivia games
  • VR games

Other than that, everything is fair game. I don’t have any aversion towards graphic language/gore/sex.

My tastes might be too specific, but I hope someone here may be able to provide me with a recommendation!

2 points

Rimworld

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3 points

From the looks of your lists of what you like and what to avoid I think you’d like games like the Dishonored series, Bioshock, and the System Shock remake.

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0 points

No, Dishonored seems to have supernatural elements, while Bioshock and System Shock seem to have some sci-fi elements.

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7 points

Disco Elysium

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3 points

Ehhh, that one is kind of reading-heavy, as well as being top-down. It might not be what OP is looking for.

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7 points

All dialog is voiced and the OP excluded most games so I’m just recommending a banger game.

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3 points

I agree with the rec here. I think at this point OP is just going to have to roll the dice on the recent hits and see if it can change some of their tastes. Or just drop the medium altogether.

Maybe it’ll help a little that Disco Elysium is isometric, not top-down. Though it’s an RPG. And text-heavy. 🤷‍♀️

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3 points

Fair enough

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24 points

So you want to avoid most of the good games? Wow

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29 points

Good games? He’s excluding pretty much all games!

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11 points

I can kinda see why they’ve been out of gaming for decades. I’m also a bit confused by their qualifiers… They say they don’t want top-down games, but listed liking pinball… Is that not a top-down pinball game?

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2 points

Well, Pinball is a top-down game, but I’ve included it in the games I like because it’s one of the first games I’ve played. If I played it now without any preconception or nostalgia, I probably wouldn’t like it.

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1 point
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Please play the souls games.

Dark souls 1,2, and 3. And sekiro.

They are all super good

No microtransaction, good difficulty, and just fun af to play

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1 point

I’ve seen my friend play Sekiro before, and it did look pretty and fun. It seems similar to Sifu,. but with swords (?). I’d love to play it if it wasn’t so difficult.

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1 point
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It’s really not too bad once you figure it out. There are active subreddits for each game as well so u could probably find someone to Co op with you.

Sekiro is hard af to me but so rewarding. Probably my favorite game of all time

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