Outerwilds is a beautiful game and quite short, try to go in as blind as possible. It’s space archaeology.
Gris is an art game that’s about 3hrs long. Very pretty, very zen.
Into the breach, is a puzzle game (chess vibes) where you are time travellers saving the world from insect aliens. has a long time to beat, but play sessions are fairly short. I think it’s a great game for when you are taking short breaks between something else. it might be a tad too on the roguelike side for you, but it’s primarily about solving puzzles.
Carrion is a puzzle-horror game that took me about 5hrs to beat, it’s extremely satisfying
Nauticrawl is a very esoteric game, you pilot a sub at the bottom of the ocean and have to learn from scratch how to pilot it. If you like doing stuff with no instructions you’ll enjoy it.
Not for broadcast is a shortish (~20hrs) game where you control a live action broadcast and get points for how well you do cuts… or censor people
Superliminal is a 3hr puzzle game that plays with size and perspective.
Witcher 3 is perhaps a good option. The combat style is relatively complex I’d say, and quite fun. The story is very engaging and super well written. And it’s available on both Steam and in fact on Switch too. I’ve played the whole game on Switch, and it runs well.
Yes, the title has grind right in it, and yes it’s for that reason. But, the way grinding works is handled pretty well. The longer you stay in a combat area, the faster the enemies keep respawning on kill, until there is almost no delay and you are just murdering hundreds of them per minute. Of course when you first get to a new zone, you won’t be able to handle grinding it like that.
But yeah, grinding mechanic aside, the game is also a pretty good narrative and has a really good sense of humor and is well-made. I recommend looking it up despite grind being right in the name, lol.
Super Mario RPG and Chrono Trigger, I think strike a good balance regarding random encounters.
On the other end of the spectrum would be something like the Front Mission or Final Fantasy Tactics series - where the narrative is all handled through set battles.
RPGs are such a board term nowadays that anything can be an rpg if you market it as such. But that’s not the time for it.
If you like Undertale, you might enjoy its deranged post apocalyptic cousin released near the same time, Lisa the Painful. A turn base rpg with plenty of tangible choices.
If you like more narrative stuff, play Disco Elysium or Planescape Torment.
I'd like to recommend Pentiment. Narrative-driven game set in the Middle Ages, or rather at the end of the Middle Ages. It has an interesting story and according to some historians it's historically accurate. I loved the story, the setting, the art...
Watch a review or something and give it a try if you find it of your liking.
Baldur's Gate 3.
I can probably count the number of games I've paid full price for in the past 15 years on one hand, and this is one of them. No regrets whatsoever.
Looking back on Steam, last time was GTA V. Prior to that Skyrim, and prior to that Portal 2.
In those places, the games are differently priced. Regional pricing is on Steam, epic, and a few other stores. Also, I only buy games, I don’t pirate and I rarely buy games for 60 dollars. I typically just wait a bit and pick them up for 30 or less. That said I understand, pirating is easier and for AAA games it might truly not matter if you do or not. Indie games are certainly a different story and each purchase, even extremely discounted, gives the developer that little bit more which can mean a lot.
I live in one of those places and we don’t have regional pricing. When Steam starts offering competitive pricing in Africa I’ll start buying games at full price but for the moment I’ll stick to buying games on sale and piracy.
Ah, okay. Yeah, looking at Steam’s pricing it doesn’t give me the option to regionally price for shillings of any kind. The most I can regionally price is the South African Rand. Do prices on Steam then just show in USD for you or do they actually sell stuff in shillings?
I play with a friend. If it works out anything like Divinity: Original Sin 2 we'll be finished maybe around April or something.
We usually play about 1 hour at a time, almost never more than 1.5 hour... and about 2-4 times a week. So it'll take a long while, but it's a lot of fun.
As a new dad I don’t have the time for games that I used to, but I’ve been playing BG2 for a few hours every week, and now BG3 has taken over, it’s actually a perfect game to play whenever you just have a short time on your hand.
It’s one of those game experiences where I think of my character all the time when not playing. Can’t wait to get back, when the little one is sleeping again.
Haven’t played observer, but the aesthetic and horror aspect remind me of SOMA.
If you want something more action focused with a cyberpunk aesthetic, I can’t recommend Distance enough. (If you need a pitch: racing game with horror and your car can fly). I also just started playing Severed Steel and I’m enjoying it a lot so far.
I will also concur with the other person who recommended Outer Wilds. Don’t look up anything about it, go in as blind as possible, and try to see it through to the end. You will not regret it.
I wanted to love Soma, I tried playing twice now. I live for the ocean, so this should be right up my alley. But to be fair I never passed the apartment at the start.
I reaaaaally should stick with it and try again. Thanks for reminding me of my shame!
Observation is one I really enjoyed. Mild puzzling, tension but not really the sort that kills you, and a fun, mind-bending story. Also the title track is just amazing.
The only thing I don’t like about Deep Rock Galactic is having to watch both the publishers, and the studios logo sequences every time I start the game.
Go to steam, right click the game and browse local files.
Navigate to something like Deep Rock GalacticFSDContentMovies and delete (or move) them.
I’ve played other games with annoying intros. Normally, deleting the files means the don’t play on startup.
Where they are depends on the game. A quick Google found this solution.
You will probably have to re-delete them after an update, and after running a “verify local files”.
I’ve done this with EAC games without issues (incase you are worried)
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Aktywne