What's the latest video game genre rabbit hole you jumped into?

For me it was minesweeper clones. I got frustrated one day and decided to learn how to be good at minesweeper. After beating the medium and large boards a couple times I looked on Steam for minesweeper versions, and turns out there's a whole genre of clones. Some of them are direct clones of the game, while others are very heavily inspired by minesweeper. The two best I played were Hexcells and Tametsi. Hexcells is stylish and is only hexagons (as opposed to the minesweeper squares), while Tametsi has squares, rectangles, and hexagons and is a lot more barebones. However I found Tametsi to be much harder. There were some levels on there that took me an entire day, and I think there's like 500 levels. 150 levels

holgersson,

Damn Paradox strategy games. I still had CK2 laying around on my disk, back from when they gave it away for free, and one day I decided to learn the game. Fast forward a handful of games and I just bought CK3 and am playing every evening.

unsunny,
@unsunny@beehaw.org avatar

Really enjoying roguelikes right now; picked up Hades and Cult of the Lamb when they were on sale and really enjoyed the gameplay. Nothing’s the same every time, which definitely keeps me from getting bored.

Looking into branching out into horror/horror-adjacent games, but I have to pick ones without frequent jumpscares. I’m very, well, jumpy, so I’m leaning towards something more heavy on dread than shock factor. Already looking at getting The Stanley Parable during the summer sale.

thgs,

Hades was really good. Also Bastion from the same developers.

RiseAndShine,

My last few adventures have been: J-RPG > Farm sim > City Builder.

It's been really fun to explore genres and games that I had not really touched before, both new and old games. It made gaming a lot more fun again

m_talon,

After many years I've gone back to Assassin's Creed games. Got some of the classic ones on sale and whoops...several hours gone again.

On the topic of minesweepers, you've probably already seen Hexceed on Steam. That one has gobble up a chunk of my time in the past as well.

Kellamity,

Apparently 'peggle-like rouge-likes' are a thing. So thats been a fun time for me

mdwhite999,

It's such a random genre for there to be more than one game in.

fen,

Ooh, could you share a couple examples? Very intrigued.

bigoofn,

I got a VR headset recently and have been having a ball with VR modded games (Subnautica w/ submersed, Gunfire Reborn, Deep Rock Galactic, Fallout 4, etc).

PEnorman,
@PEnorman@beehaw.org avatar

Deep Rock Galactic has a VR mod?? Woah

Gert,

How's Gunfire? That game seems like it would be nauseating in VR because of the fast pace and amount of effects.

bigoofn,

It's fantastic! My biggest gripe about the flat version is how rigid movement feels, which is completely remedied by motion tracking controls.

Steeve,

Just picked up Subnautica so I could play VR! What's this submersed mod? Is it suggested?

bitseek,
@bitseek@beehaw.org avatar

Been very addictive to traditional roguelikes for some time now. Enjoy the learning and mastering experience.

Boomzilla,

Do you have any favorites? I love roguelikes, I recently have been really enjoying Tape to Tape which is a Hockey roguelike which sounds weird but it's the most fun sports game I've played in ages.

bitseek,
@bitseek@beehaw.org avatar

Roguelite. :)

Have a great many traditional roguelike that I like a lot.

to name just a few. :)

Boomzilla,

I've always heard the terms roguelike and roguelite interchangeably... Thanks for the list, I will be looking into them!

DarbyDear,
@DarbyDear@beehaw.org avatar

From an admitted non-expert, the way I understand it is this: A roguelike is turn based, procedurally generated to some extent, has some form of time/turn crunch tied to a carried resource (food/hunger is pretty common), and has leveling involved as part of the core gameplay loop. The idea being that you try to balance out luck (with the items/equipment you find, enemies that spawn, how well you're doing in a particular combat, etc) with skill (knowledge of the game systems, knowing how to build, knowing when to cut your losses and run, when you have enough resources to gain some levels, etc.). There is also perma-death: Once you die, your run is over and you have to start fresh.

A roguelite involves some of these aspects, but plays things much looser. Typically there's some level of perma-death in that a run is over when you die, but there's also a meta-currency to allow for progress/power upgrades between runs (like increasing starting health per run by using items that have a chance to drop during a run). They are often not turn-based, and don't necessarily have the same time crunch. The similarities lie in the fundamental idea: balance luck introduced by randomization/procedural generation and skill from game mastery, and if you fail then you have to start a new run. Different folks will have different criteria for the two terms (I saw a purist say that it's not a real roguelike if it has anything other than ASCII graphics), but that's how I summarize them.

dill,

Great list! Thanks

Xanvial,

Soulslike (well the souls game itself), After playing Nioh last year and Dark souls 1 a few months ago, currently trying to finishing up Dark Souls 2 DLCs

Gert,

Elden Ring was my first SoulsBorne. Then I did the Dark Souls trilogy, Sekiro, and now I'm trying Bloodborne. I'm liking it so far, but the framerate is making it hard to continue.

timba,
@timba@beehaw.org avatar

I’ve always been convinced that I’m too wimpy to play scary games, even though I got a decent way through Alien: Isolation.

After hearing rave reviews for the Resident Evil 4 remake, I thought I’d give it a try, and I’m super glad I did. It’s probably one of my top 5 games of all time. I immediately beat it in New Game+, then played the Dead Space remake, and am currently working through RE Village. I’m having an amazing time.

HectorBarbossa99,

I too, am too scared for Alien Isolation. May check out the other ones you listed though

timba,
@timba@beehaw.org avatar

I definitely think Alien: Isolation is the scariest of them all. Resident Evil 4 is more of an action/adventure game with some scary bits sprinkled in. Only one section really got me spooked, and by that point you've sort of developed some calluses.

I would recommend that RE4 demo. It's a great place to start IMO.

ZoeyCutieshy,
@ZoeyCutieshy@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

I've been almost exclusively playing immersive sims and metroidvanias, from all of Arkane's titles and the System Shocks to Haiku the robot and Lone Fungus. In both these genres there's a very satisfying loop of exploring everything, collecting items/looting, having some sort of abilities and in the case of imm sims, extensive lore through notes and audio logs. Feels like I can't play most other genres anymore.

TheMightySloth,

City/settlement builders have been in heavy rotation. Cities Skylines, Frostpunk, Foundation and Timberborn all scratch a specific itch for me.

timba,
@timba@beehaw.org avatar

You gotta try Anno 1800. I think it’s the best the genre has to offer

TheMightySloth,

I have tried some of the Anno series, including 1800. I'll admit they're not my favorite, but still fun if you're trying to get into the economics a bit more.

Kellamity,

I just got into Timberborn. Its very chill, i like it a lot

iNeedScissors67,
@iNeedScissors67@kbin.social avatar

16 bit RPGS. Not a genre I'm typically a fan of, but I'm playing Chained Echoes on Steam Deck and now I can't get enough and I'm sitting here waiting impatiently for Sea of Stars.

delcake,
@delcake@kbin.social avatar

Sea of Stars is jumping straight to the top of my To Play list once that drops. I've heard great things about Chained Echoes too. I should make some time for it.

bitseek,
@bitseek@beehaw.org avatar

Steam Deck is so good for these kind of games. Also having a look at Sea of Stars, looks pretty cool.

sim_,

I’ve been loving the surge of reverse bullet hells/vampire-survivor-likes that have been coming out. Between feeding my addictive personality and being able to play on the couch while watching tv with my partner, they’re perfect for some weeknight relaxing. Brotato and 20 Minutes Til Dawn are two of my favorites but Halls of Torment is a new one with OG Diablo-inspired visuals that I’m excited to see grow.

Stellario,
@Stellario@pawb.social avatar

I've been playing older gen pokemon games since I jailbroke my 3Ds a while ago.

TechnologyClassroom,

Antimine on F-Droid is good for a mobile fix.

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