Edit
Sorry I haven’t replied to anyone, life got a little crazy. I did not expect this many replies on lemmy! Thank you everyone, and I will be checking out a bunch of these! Thank you so much. :) I really appreciate it.
So, I hope this allowed, if not, I’ll remove.
I have a small problem, y’all. I’m a filthy casual, and don’t game often. But right now, due to a lot of very stressful things going on, I’m having trouble sleeping. I’d like a game I can play on the deck for an hour or two at night to get sleepy. Here’s where the hard part comes in:
It’s gotta be cheap (25 or less)
It needs to be not-stressful to play, as in, it works well on the deck, with no fiddling, because I am a dumb and don’t understand things
I don’t actually know what kind of game I want. I don’t care for FPS games, I don’t have the time/patience/money for online multiplayer stuff, and I’m not super in super heavy action games.
I like puzzles, platformers, laid back games. Open world is great. Very small games are fun, but I need something that I can play pretty much every night for a while. I loved portal and the Stanley parable, but I’m burnt out on TSP and I’ve played both portal games several times. I need something with a little more longevity.
Can anyone help with this not at all reasonable request?
Outer Wilds.
Open World - Puzzle - Exploration - Mystery - Space
Outer Wilds is not small (15-25 hours, + about 10-15h for DLC), but it is a great game to be enjoyed in shorter gaming sessions (30-60min) each night if that’s your requirement. Although if you get hooked I expect you to think about the game during the day as well out of session.
OW is not too mechanics-intensive, nor is it action-based. Most of your time is spent exploring the nooks and crannies of a solar system and following your leads to uncover an ancient mystery. The puzzles are genius, differ between small and large in scale and figuring them out feels rewarding. For the most part, it is far from stressful, maybe excluding certain few parts of the game.
The game is very curiosity driven. Your hand is not held after the first hour or two - it’s only you, your ship and the tools at your disposal. Progression is unlocked via knowledge, not power-ups or new tools, so you need to thirst for new pieces of information.
The game is on sale right now. If you’re intrigued, give it a go!
Outer Wilds can be very intense so I wouldn’t recommend it to play before going to bed
I played through OW mostly right before bedtime last year, and IIRC I slept well, but of course your mileage may vary! I wouldn’t call it “very intense” by any means, but certain sequences can be creepy or tense depending on the person playing.
You will know when the game is going to get tense, so you explore something else instead and save that part for daytime.
Maybe it is because I am an anxious person but I’d often be in a rush to try explore something quickly and I was really bad at controlling the ship. haha
I think it it wasn’t for certain things the game would be pretty chill.