For me it’s first person puzzle games. I can think of maybe a dozen off the top of my head that came out in the last decade. I especially enjoy when they’re open world. The ability to just quit a puzzle that’s stumped you and go try something else for a little bit is incredibly refreshing.
Games that are made for the sake of making the game insread of being made to squeeze as much retention and money out of you as possible
Now thats a style that is becoming increasingly rare
I contend that there are more games out there now that are made for the sake of making them than ever before. It’s just that fewer and fewer of these games are AAA titles. The indy scene is really what are making these games nowadays.
That or modding. Modded Minecraft is done purely because someone wanted to have the functionality of magic wands or engineering or resource processing in their lego game. It’s completely unmonetized and gets extremely involved very fast. I fondly remember my nuclear reactor exploding and having to work around the irradiated zone. Good times.
Just follow a YouTuber with similar tastes and play the indie games they play. AAA is creatively dead
Thank you but I trust youtubers opinions as much as a gaming “journalist” which is to say, not at all
- Willing to paint an entire swath of people with a broad, negative brush
- Unwilling to spend any effort finding media you might actually enjoy.
The problem might not be with the industry.
RPGs in the style of the Ultima games, specifically ones that use a keyword-based conversion system. Aside from the Ultima series itself, the only other examples I know of that use a system like this are Cythera - a 1990s Macintosh shareware game that was very similar to Ultima 6 and 7 - and The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind.
Rhythm Games like Guitar Hero, Band Hero and DJ Hero. Those were fun.
There are still plenty of them: DJMAX, Muse Dash, Spin Rhythm, Hatsune Miku Project Diva, Beatmania. Also there are tons of them on mobile.
Games like whatever tf Jet Set Radio Future is
Also collect-a-thon platformers like back in the day, I still really enjoy those.
I wish there were more stealth games being released, especially AAA.
God games: the whole genre basically peaked with Populous and B&W and then just went quiet.
Space adventure games like Freelancer or X are also very rare nowadays.
I’ve been thinking about the disappearance of God games. I think they didn’t disappear, but they evolved so much that we don’t recognize them anymore.
I feel some moved into the direction that we now call “simulators”, like RimWorld, the Sims, Two Point Hospital, and more. In my mind, the big difference between the God games of old and those new games is that in the older games your role as the player was explicitly defined, where in the new games it’s not. In the old games, you were “playing the role of a god in that realm”. The new games don’t bother to tell you “who” you are in this setting. You’re just the player, get on with it, play the game.
I feel like other God games moved in the direction of top down colony builders, like Against the Storm or Frostpunk. And again, I think the big difference between those games and something like Populous is that your role as the player doesn’t have an explicit name in the game world. You’re not a “God”. But most of the rest of the trappings are there, I think.
What do you think?
Erhh…I guess?
But when I think of a God game I really mean a game where you literally play as a god and can do god stuff.
In all of your examples the player either controls what each character does or just whoever is is command of the colony. You can’t do miracles and supernatural stuff at the click of a button, you don’t control nature itself, your character is a human like anyone else.
Sim games. Not THE sims but like SimTower, SimAnt, etc. There’s been some attempts over the years but everyones missed the mark.
Music games that are based around a story, like Parappa the Rapper/Um Jammer Lammy, Gitaroo Man 🎵💖
Gitaroo Man is fantastic. We need more games where you can defeat enemies using the power of your rock.
Brutal Legend also, although not the same genre by a long shot.
Tower Defense Games
Linear First Person Puzzle Games
We’re living in a golden age of tower defense games. Sanctum 2, elements td, dungeon of the endless/endless dungeon, rogue tower, dungeon defenders awakened, orcs must die 3, bug tdx, tiledeck td … Seriously there are so many. Even Path of Exile has a tower defense mode.
Grid-based, dungeon crawler RPG (a mouthful, I know). The most recent titles in this genre I remember are the Mary Skelter trilogy, but the first game is about 10 years old already.
Hi there! I saw someone mentioning this game on Cohost and was reminded of this old-ass post of yours
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1768650/Path_of_the_Abyss/
I’m not sure if there’s an english version yet (Its still in Early Access) but I think that’s your type of game?
I don’t mind necro as long as it isn’t obvious spam, so don’t worry. =D
(besides, Reddit also had a lot of this, where pertinent replies would only appear a long time after the posts were made)But thanks! The game looks pretty interesting, going by the promotional materials, and the store page also mentions it has both English and Japanese, so likely at least texts will be translated.
