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?

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.

Surdon, (edited )

FTL, Stardew valley, No mans sky, Minecraft, Old rpgs like Chrono Trigger

shamrt,

I don’t exactly experience a tonne of chill while playing FTL

DashboTreeFrog,

FTL is a great chill out game for me. The only problem is I’ve put in so many hours that I’ve practically seen everything! I looked into some interesting mods but just haven’t tried them out yet. When I think about it, FTL shouldn’t be that chill, but there’s a certain simplicity in the gameplay, and the ability to pause all the time, even during combat, gives me the ability to take my time thinking through what I’m gonna do.

Underrated chill out game, agreed, maybe I’ll finally get around to trying some mods.

Surdon,

Yeah I haven’t tried the mods either and I kinda suck at the game but I’ve always felt like it has a low cost to entry, which is why it feels chill to me. A lot of death anxiety in games is due to time investment and, frankly, like BOTW, fear of long loading screens more than any in game punishment.

Ftl has such a satisfying and similar gameplay loop and allows so much pausing that it doesn’t really feel stressful for me. I still hate dying and do it a lot in the game, but I can play ftl with a sort of soft mental focus that many other games don’t allow me to do

FleetingTit,
@FleetingTit@feddit.de avatar

Dorfromantik

mwproductions,

This is my favorite chill game.

FontMasterFlex,

I can’t suggest this game enough.

monkeytennis, (edited )
@monkeytennis@lemmy.world avatar

I got deeply into this (genre?) when I burned out on a combination of playing big/tough games and the stresses of life. I also enjoyed the pace of Outer Wilds and Subnautica. Some other favourites:

  • Supraland 1/2 (low combat, light hearted metroidvania, I loved it)
  • Psychonauts 2 (amazing adventure game, big but not hard. I loved collecting everything, it was a great balance)
  • Tinykin (similar adventure, a bit like Pikmin, which is also great. Lots of chilled collecting)
  • Spiritfarer (lots of freedom, loose plot, not overwhelming)
  • Breath of the Wild (do what you want, very nice discovery elements)
  • TOEM, A Short Hike, GRIS and Cocoon (light adventure / puzzle games, peaceful but could be boring if you want action)
  • Yokus Island Express (lovely metroidvania, chilled gameplay, not overwhelming)
  • It Takes two (humour, light combat - played with my young son)
  • Unravel 1/2 (easy-ish puzzles)
  • Weirdly, I found Sniper Elite 4/5 fairly chill, lots of scoping out areas
  • Overcooked 2 (zero stress if you play practice mode a ton before attempting a level. I found it a very zen/flow game)
  • Peggle 1/2 (can be frustrating, but is very low stakes and arcadey. Lovely for short sessions)
  • Wilmots Warehouse (can be stressful if you take the timer seriously, but I loved all the organising. Very satisfying)
  • Vampire Survivors (can get a bit much, but pretty simple and disposable)

There are tons more, I deal with a lot of anxiety!

Some games I was recommended for this purpose that didn’t land for me:

  • Powerwash sim / other simulators (these feel like a second job for me. Constant grind and focus on perfection wasn’t helpful)
  • Tetris Evolution / Lumines (either gets too fast / hard, or gets boring)
  • Stardew / Terraria (in theory these look great, but I find huge sandboxes too overwhelming. Always feels like I should be doing more stuff / doing it better)
  • Roguelikes (I like Hades, Dead Cells, etc, but they’re very stressful and frustrating when so much hinges on survival)

Finally, I’d suggest trying a solo board game. More tactile and relaxing alternative to screen time.

Ashen,

Might I recommend Alba and Lil’ Gator Game? Both will fit fairly well into your list.

jacksilver, (edited )

I saw you mention peggle and rouge lites. If you haven’t checked it out yet you should try peglin - store.steampowered.com/app/1296610/Peglin/.

Its a great peggle based rouge lite with a good amount of replay ability (plus there is an excellent android app too).

ohlaph,

I have a few.

Zelda on the switch. (BotW and TotK)

Terraria and Stardew Valley are pretty fun to play for relaxing.

Valheim with console options enabled so I have unlimited resources and can kill any enemies if I’m feeling lazy. I mostly like to just build and I’m slowly building an entire island with buildings, and other features.

AAA,

Factorio, Minecraft, and… Counter Strike. I exclusively play with a full squad of friends and even if we have a bad game, at least I’m spending time with my friends. Keeping contact with your friends is super important and getting harder every year. So it’s quality time.

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.

Presi300,
@Presi300@lemmy.world avatar

Warframe, it’s my “no thought, head empty, just shoot things” game

CluelessDude,

As a veteran of the game I keep coming back to it from time to time it’s a really nice way to relax.

Presi300,
@Presi300@lemmy.world avatar

What MR are you?

CluelessDude,

I stopped at L1, I play on and off nowadays.

Presi300,
@Presi300@lemmy.world avatar

Damn, how many hours didit take you to reach LR1?

CluelessDude,

Well I’ve been playing since closed beta so like 10y and something at this point, but you can definitely go over my MR fairly easily, MR is about collecting things not really skill related, of course there’s still some time invested.

Presi300,
@Presi300@lemmy.world avatar

Damn, I’ve been playing semi-consistently since 2021 and just cannot bring myself to rank MR above 16 lol

CluelessDude,

Easiest way would be to go to your codex, select a category, melee for example and make and level up every single weapon there, sentinels, warframes you get the idea, anything you can level up gives mastery, even completing the star chart by unlocking every mission, somethings will be harder or expensive to get or behind multiple days of farm aka most of stuff in open world but that’s how everyone does it.

littlecolt,

Weirdly, Satisfactory, a game about thanklessly building a factory for a faceless corporation to exploit an alien wilderness.

But you get a coffee mug and there are lizard doggos.

FontMasterFlex,

I just tried this game. While i ‘get’ it now, i really wish there was just a ‘creative mode’.

JakenVeina,

There is. Just released last week.

FontMasterFlex,

really? i’ll have to dig into it then.

littlecolt,

Yep! There’s a box you click for advanced options or something like that when creating your world, and you can enable the use of various cheat toggles such as flying, God mode, all tech unlocked, zero cost everything

SheDiceToday,

Lol, you sold me. That’s been on my backburner for a while. Now I just need to download it.

Abnorc,

Lately I have been playing Crypt of the Necrodancer. It was quite chill until I reached zone 4. It doesn’t get me worked up or anything, but the last level of zone 4 does get me a bit tense with the speed.

In general, Deep Rock Galactic is pretty chill. If I really just want to take it easy I can pick up a mission on Hazard 3 or 4.

pixeltree,

I second deep rock

mycatiskai,

Third. Just go in play a quick mission or two with a friend on the weekend then have some crazy beers.

SheDiceToday,

Completely agree. The first few zones are so fun because you’re just engaging with the game. Then it gets nutso.

BowserBasher,

Animal Crossing. I still play NH for 15 minutes a day just to go round my island and see what’s happening. My island is pretty much how I want it and I have collected nearly everything I want, but to take 20 minutes out the day just to walk around catch a bug or two and talk to an islander is a great way to relax.

toastiewarm,

Farming simulator 22 or Euro truck simulator 2, just driving my tractor around plowing some fields, or driving my truck through Europe to drop off something relaxes me well.

russjr08,
@russjr08@outpost.zeuslink.net avatar

Agreed, I quite enjoy playing ATS/ETS2 and just listening to a podcast on the side as well.

cyberpunk007,

Witcher 3, I love riding roach around and exploring and listening to the music. I like cruising in cyberpunk 2077 listening to the radio stations. There’s also spiritifarer.

Poringo,

Roguelikes.

I played Rogue Legacy 1 and 2 for the longest time. Some dead cells. Enter the gungeon, and currently testing the humble roguelikes bundle, really digging Wall World.

ragica,
@ragica@lemmy.ml avatar

Could someone please cure me of my Dredmor addiction? 12 years later and I’m still rolling random builds. Diggles are my only friends.

balderdash9,

I’m just getting into Enter the Gungeon. I heard it was good but I had no idea

RogueBanana,

Are roguelikes chill? I haven’t played much in that genre but hades made me situp and focus every time.

KeenFlame,

Hades is an action game most roguelikes aren’t

ace_garp, (edited )
@ace_garp@lemmy.world avatar

Yes, Shattered Pixel Dungeon is chill.

Once you learn to surprise attack from behind doors and kite the mobs, it is pretty much on rails.

Calm and Zen.

f-droid.org/…/com.shatteredpixel.shatteredpixeldu…

shadowSprite,

Skyrim. I played vanilla a bunch and now I’m working through the Living Skyrim 4 mod. I had to tweak a bunch of the settings, but I really enjoy it. I also love the Witcher 3, both actively playing quests and just wandering across the map listening to the howling wind and the soundtrack. I’ve loaded into that game after a long day with every intention of playing and just sat there with my headphones on and stared into space while the trees crackle together in the wind and the music plays.

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • asklemmy@lemmy.world
  • localhost
  • All magazines
    •
    Loading…
    Loading the web debug toolbar…
    Attempt #