Just Cause 3 is great for shenanigans. The bases are fun to blow up, but you can just shoot a couple of bad guys, anywhere, and the AI will fairly quickly start sending helicopters & tanks, which you can just grapple & steal for even more mayhem. JC4 adds a bunch of powers to the grappler and mines that seem like they’d make for fun adventures, but I could never get into it…maybe the pacing of skirmishes was wrong for me or something - it just wasn’t as fun as JC3
Saint’s Row - SR 4 adds superpowers which are just the right combination (for me) of ridiculous & overpowered. And the ‘store vehicle’ system basically lets you respawn any vehicle you’ve ever stolen at will. SR3 is more conventional but still fun.
What I took away from your writing is that you like the freeworld aspect, and Subnautica has plenty to fuck around with. It has a main story line, but the game is so good, you can kinda forget about it and just build your underwater palace. No stealibg cars or planes, but you can craft pretty amazing vehicles and ‘fly around’ underwater with them.
Sunset Overdrive is a fun little game to mess around. Very silly and has some laughs. There is a zipline and other movement options. I forget if you can drive cars tho. I want to say no but I don’t remember. Get it on sale and its a fun little 30 hours or so. I think about replaying it but haven’t yet.
These two indie games, both set in a nature park, are more about enjoying their worlds than actually completing quests. With no quest tracker or map, you’re free to roam around and talk to characters. Or just pick up sticks and swing them.
I guess it depends on how you want to screw around. In A Short Hike, you can go fishing, which has no gameplay function. Or gliding around in air currents.
I just recently got Spider-Man on sale and I’ve not once used fast travel except in the tutorial because it’s too much fun swinging around the city. And there’s like 50 types of collectibles/ side missions to do while you’re fucking around.
Also you should definitely try Grand theft Auto v if you had that much fun in San Andreas
If your heart holds even the tiniest itch for adventure, you’ll probably want to play this game. I don’t game as often anymore, because the older I get, the fewer experiences can really captivate me.
Outer Wilds did. I have a friend who told me he teared up during the end game, without understanding why, and I remember someone on Reddit comparing it to a religious experience.
I can STILL remember the entire game and all the feelings that came with it. Every planet, every realization was chapter in my memory and sometimes I find things in the real world that reminds me of a part of the game. It’s one of the only consumed media that can remind me of the game from visual, audio, or emotional triggers.
If you enjoy driving games, I’d suggest Forza Horizon 5. Beyond the racing, you can just drive around in different cars and enjoy the scenic views. Plus they have a Hot Wheels dlc that’s a lot of fun.
To answer part of your question: Cyberpunk is a pretty good game for just wandering around aimlessly, but because of the balance, from my recollection, you can’t really just steal planes and blow everything up. You can make some fun builds to tear through enemies, and the world is gorgeous to drive around in, but there are some limits on your ability to cause total mass destruction.
Put off the DLC for so long (4 years now? 5?) that I’d have to relearn a fair bit to get back into it.
I remember being chased by a creature and noping out. I’m not built for horror games and that was a huge shift in tone from the idyllic feeling of the base game. I get that the thing I’m avoiding is basically a sprite with eyes and some music cues designed to feel a little stressful but I don’t know.
IIRC there’s an accessibility option that makes things less dark, so probably less scary. Doubt you’ll get back to the game after so long (even though it’s really worth it!), but it might help other people
They have a mode to turn off the creatures for exactly that reason. I haven’t tried it, but other than the spooky factor the creatures don’t add a ton to the game, so it probably wouldn’t lessen the experience. (There is a small thing, but it’d spoil some story elements if I were to say them here)
I did have reduced frights on and it didn’t work for me. I’ve even read some anecdotes about it being worse than having it off. It doesn’t remove the creatures I think it just makes them walk slower and makes the sounds less jumpy, I think.
spoilerSorry if this spoiler text doesn’t work. The only records left behind by the Nomai were their writings, save for a few pictograms, which left a lot to the imagination. The Owlks did have writing, but it was clear that visual story telling was much more important to their culture so we got to see for ourselves what they went through. Seeing the prisoner at the end would not have hit so hard had we just read about them.
I understand you. The DLC is scary af but not really horror. There is nothing more malign there than the anglerfish i the base game and as you may have noticed this creature chasing you doesn’t even make you die.
I fully understand. But if it helps (without major spoilers), the horror elements are not permanent, and as you learn to progress you learn to work around them and through them.
But yeah, if they’re too deal-breaky upfront, I totally get that. You do spend a lot of time, pun intended, in the dark.
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