What game do you play to just chill?

Nowadays I find a lot of games feel like too much work and/or anxiety when I just want to relax for like, 30 minutes to an hour after a long day. On the other hand, the games specifically designed to help you unwind just feel boring imo.

In the past I’ve felt like Outer Wilds scratched this itch, cause the whole experience was engaging but generally relaxed. There was a mystery that kept me hooked and the exploration and movement was fun in and of itself. I also felt like Subnautica filled this role since it was very much at my own pace, with anxiety producing portions which could for the most part be avoided or minimized, and also there was a clear objective to fulfill, get off the planet.

So what games do you play when you just wanna relax?

oneiros,
@oneiros@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

The Talos Principle (+ DLC) and its just-released sequel really fit this niche for me. I’m fighting severe burnout and was specifically looking for a game without time pressure, reflex-based gameplay, or (because I keep bouncing off of turn-based strategy games even though I believe that I love them) complicated stats-based systems.

TTP is about first-person puzzles in the vein of Portal. While some of the puzzles can be difficult, you can work through them at your own pace. The level structure makes it easy to drop in and out of the game whenever, and the gorgeous environments and soundtrack make the world just a generally soothing and immersive place to walk around in.

Baizey, (edited )

Baba is you, is also great in this category

Fun puzzles that are turn based so you can sit and ponder however long you feel like

dm_me_your_boobs,

Try Noita by the same company who did Baba then. It’s one of those games that leaves you with “oh holy shit what the fuck just happened… Oh, that was my fault. Oops.” in an endless loop. I’m up to like 400 hours and have never gotten anywhere near that many hours out of another game. Not even FF7 (the OG, of course)

weew,

cyberpunk is actually great for that. Sometimes if I don’t wanna do anything in particular I’ll just… fight the police, lol. Or just randomly do some open world stuff, like drive around the badlands. Then if I’m feeling like doing something more “meaningful” I’ll jump into an actual story quest

dm_me_your_boobs,

The spiderman games are great for this as well. Yeah, I’ll go swing around aimlessly for 20 minutes. No problem.

Suzette_Helene,

Rim world on low difficulty

Thatsalotofpotatoes,

Can’t say I expected to see rimworld up here

RickyRigatoni,
@RickyRigatoni@lemmy.ml avatar

Low difficulty rimworld is underrated. Animal crossing with cannibalism.

pomodoro_longbreak,
@pomodoro_longbreak@sh.itjust.works avatar

Hmm you make a great pitch

dm_me_your_boobs,

It’s a great time. Highly recommended.

wildcardology,

Elder Scrolls Online for me.

pomodoro_longbreak,
@pomodoro_longbreak@sh.itjust.works avatar

Oh interesting. I’ve eyed it over the years, but I think this is the one and only instance of positive word-of-mouth I’ve heard for it.

I heard it has Elsweyr, which I’ve always wanted to see portrayed.

wildcardology, (edited )

I like it, it’s open world so you can grind or play as casually as you can. I like to explore the maps and kill enemies on my way. Some days I grind somedays I just chill.

Edit: I believe North and south Elsweyr are not in The base game. It’s available as a subscription to ESO+

swordsmanluke,

No Man’s Sky.

After the mildly stressful intro (which isn’t bad, just uses more sticks than carrots in the tutorial section), you basically just pick a direction and go.

If you wanna quest, there are quests available in (almost) every system.

If you wanna farm, pick a nice planet and get to building.

If you wanna fight, go find a planet with hostile Sentinel presence.

There’s always something interesting to do, but you can also just find a nice view on some planet, build a couch and just watch the iridescent grass blow in the wind for a bit.

DashboTreeFrog,

The more I hear about No Man’s Sky now the more I’m thinking that perhaps this will be one of the games I can chill out to. I generally love space games, and the idea of just kinda flying around doing random stuff is already appealing.

GenesisJones,

Its a vastly game than it was at launch. It’s on my list to play.

ICastFist,
@ICastFist@programming.dev avatar

As someone with almost 500h in NMS, get in fully aware that things get repetitive fast. Once you get off planet and can visit other stars the first time, it’ll likely take 2 hours to see all different kinds of planets.

Unlocking (“learning”) the 3 aliens’ languages is the absolute worst slog in the whole game.

Another ultra tedious chore is doing the daily missions for Quicksilver (special currency) to unlock some nifty cosmetics.

Also, combat sucks. It just plain sucks. The most annoying thing to me is: if you don’t fire your weapon for 1 or 2 seconds, your dude will put it down, which will create a small time window where you’ll have a significant delay between pressing the fire button and actually firing, because of the animation.

SVcross,
@SVcross@lemmy.world avatar

Tetris.

DashboTreeFrog,

I know for some people it’s super relaxing. I tried playing the free tetris on the official website recently, was into it until it started getting fast. I am not much of a quick reflex gamer

SVcross,
@SVcross@lemmy.world avatar

It helps me focus my mind into one thing. With just some minutes, all the noise on my head goes away, and even when I lose, the frustration does not build up, all there is on my mind is the current game.

The only con is that if I play to much I start seeing blocks falling when I try to fall sleep.

pomodoro_longbreak,
@pomodoro_longbreak@sh.itjust.works avatar

It might not be for you, but it got me at a young age and you do get used to it. There really is a “flow state” to Tetris, where it can feel like you’re just noticing the pieces and they’re almost moving on their own.

intensely_human,

I play high intensity first person shooters, mostly Battlefield, to unwind.

The faster paced the better because it allows me to escape.

It used to be I’d get so worked up over competitive games. I had to be doing PvE to relax. Not so any more.

Weirdly, this happened after I had a completely horrible medical experience that left me with permanent (figurative) scars on my nervous system. Like, I still have stress problems four years after the event.

But at that moment, suddenly competitive games became refreshing to me.

ohlaph,

Same here. I played COD up until the recent release. Looking for a better FPS to play now.

teichflamme,

Try CS2

ohlaph,

I just downloaded it actually, still need to try it.

sealhaslupus,

reckon XDefiant will be good?

ohlaph,

I’ll check that one out!

flop_leash_973,

Hitman: World of Assassination is what I usually go to when I just want to chill and not think much.

BrianTheeBiscuiteer,

This is probably one of the worst things you can say about a Hitman game.

Sir_Fridge,

Creeper world 4. Especially the community made play as creep levels.

BrianTheeBiscuiteer,

Haven’t played CW4 yet but 1 & 3 are awesome chillout games.

x2XS2L0U,

Brotato

fromaj_debite,

It is a chill drug

Tugboater203,
@Tugboater203@lemmy.world avatar

Honestly, I fire up the Xbox and play the original Halo on easy difficulty. It’s like hanging out with an old friend.

Quetzalcutlass, (edited )

Same, either Halo and the Silent Cartographer or Halo 2 and Metropolis. Those two levels are my video game comfort food.

AlexWIWA,

Halo on easy is so fun. I love fucking around in Halo 3

kratoz29,
@kratoz29@lemm.ee avatar

It’s like hanging out with an old friend.

Interesting analogy, as this can be taken as an anxiety trigger as well.

BmeBenji,

Burnout Paradise

There are few games where winning and losing are equally fun, but Burnout Paradise pulls it off flawlessly.

You hit that turn with the perfect drift? Hell yeah. Oh shit, there was a car waiting for you at that intersection and now you have to watch your car and their car get smashed, crumpled, and tossed like a bag of moldy tangerines in slow motion? Hell yeah.

DashboTreeFrog,

Your description alone is getting this put on my Steam wishlist

BmeBenji,

I got this game a week or 2 after it came out in 2008. There’s literally a whole open city to explore but I remember the first 30-45 minutes I played were spent literally driving up and down the same quarter mile road because I found a split ramp built for barrel rolls but I just wanted to see all the ways I could squish the top of my car with a failed barrel roll and still drive away lol.

15.5 years later it’s still just as satisfying

Alfaa,

+1 Burnout Paradise is such a great game for just mindlessly driving around. I think I have that entire map memorized in my brain now.

balderdash9,

Stardew Valley. It’s chill if you let it be. There aren’t really hard time limits and you can always farm things and complete challenges on your own time

PlasticPope,

Finally! I thought I was going to be the one to post StarDew Valley. :-))

qooqie,

RuneScape, really hard to beat how chill it is

Guster,

Hope you mean OSRS

qooqie,

I do lol, but I R3 can be a gateway drug too

tegs_terry,

Nah, you gotta move with the times a bit man.

PraiseTheSoup,

Why are there so many suggestions of Zelda BotW over TotK imo this thread? I’ve only played the latter but my understanding is it’s pretty much the same game with more to do. And since Nintendo games rarely go on sale you are probably looking at a very similar price tag.

cjsolx,

Maybe everyone’s a completionist and would rather play the games in order rather than jump into the story halfway through ¯_(ツ)_/¯

PraiseTheSoup,

TotK is literally the only Zelda game I’ve ever completed and I understood the story perfectly fine.

cjsolx,

Well yeah you can understand most stories without reading/hearing the first part and it’s not like Legend of Zelda is exactly Moby Dick.

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