I suppose I have to ask how linear. Like can it be mostly linear while having the chance to explore off the beaten path very briefly? Or like straight up hallway simulator.
Ive been using a site actually to rate games I’ve played so I’ll start listing some of my 5 and 4.5 star games that I would personally consider linear.
5 star games
Astrobot
Silent hill 2 (enhanced edition mod for PC, remake I’m still working through but it’s good)
Rayman origins
Mario and Luigi superstar saga (borderline linear)
Kingdom hearts 2 (you can pick the order of worlds at times and have the option to backtrack but not necessary
Mother 3
Re4 (og and remake both 10/10 to me)
4.5 star games
Chants of sennaar
Kirby super Star ultra
Halo 2
Rayman legends
WolfenStein the new order
Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney
Dead Space
The last of us
the last of us 2 (has one shortish open area section)
Alan wake 2 (has some open exploration areas at points)
Celeste
The case of the golden idol
I could go on, and some are borderline linear, but these are my faves that mostly involve going from one moment to the next
Earthbound / mother 2 is also 5 stars for me and can definitely be played before hand. There is overlap in the antagonist and references but otherwise mother 3 takes place an incomprehensible amount of time in the future. I didn’t include earthbound since its a tiny bit more backtracky and explory but tbh it’s about as linear as m&l superstar saga so I’d def recommend it if you want to play!
Strongly recommend playing Earthbound before Mother 3. Mother 1 is entirely skippable, I've tried to play it multiple times and never could get through it.
So, I’ll just go through my Steam favourites and list the ones that fit the bill.
I recently played I Am Your Beast and absolutely loved it. Not really a story focused game, but it’s it has some of it, the voice actors are better than you would expect and the gameplay is top notch.
Pretty much all Call of Juarez games (well, maybe not The Cartel), but start with Gunslinger. The others are old and clunky, but Gunslinger still holds up and is one of my favourite arcady shooters.
Mirror’s Edge is a classic, if you haven’t played it, you definitely should. You can skip the sequel, Catalyst. That one added open world and was mediocre at best anyway.
Speaking of classics, Dishonored is probably one of the best stealth games out there, in my opinion at least. I would consider the first one fairly linear, altho the game does expect you to explore the individual levels quite a bit.
Mafia 2 (I honestly recommend you play the classic edition, you get it when you buy the definitive. It just runs better and isn’t as buggy. The remaster barely improves anything anyway) and the remake of Mafia 1. Yes, they are open world, but only by technicality. The story is very linear and you barely need to interact with said open world. The games never expect you to explore or collect stuff and there’s fuckall to do on the map besides drive around anyway.
If you like Ace combat, Project Wingman would be right up your alley. I’m not sure if I would call it simple per se, but it’s linear, level based and great.
Tactical Breach Wizards is another recent favourite of mine. It’s slightly x-com-y altho more of a puzzle than a strategy game with some pretty decent humour.
Gunpoint is another indie puzzle game with great humour. It’s by the same guy as Tactical Breach Wizards.
Since you said you like Uncharted, I imagine you might enjoy the older Tomb Raider games, before the 2013 reboot when they went open world. Legend is my favourite of them altho I know it’s a bit clunky by modern standards.
Last but not least, SUPERHOT. You probably know it, but in case you don’t, play it. It’s short, it’s simple and it’s great.
Really been enjoying Guild Saga: Vanished Worlds. I haven’t found a TBS RPG that captured my interest for a long time, and this combines a lot of the things I like from Divinity: Original Sin (like elemental effects with the environment, and talking to animals), with nice pixel graphics and very classic DnD game feel. It reminds me of Icewind Dale, vibe-wise.
Do you know how to get xinput to work with Sands of thyme? I bought the game on steam but it doesn’t recognize my 360 controller and mouse + keyboard is not ideal
I’m currently playing through this game. At one point, it totally hit me that the non-linear structure and even the way secrets are scattered throughout the world is very reminiscent of Super Mario 64.
You are not wrong… I guess in both instance they came from the desire never to break the immersion through any kind of loading.
The weirder think to me is that it was made by the guys behing “Serious Sam”, that basically mastered the open field shooter genre, which is kinda like the opposite of this game?
Yes, exactly! Coming from one of the best-made mindless game series to essentially gaming high art is quite the transformation. There has always been a lot of talent at Kroteam, but I’m glad they have finally found their true calling.
The small handful of nods to Serious Sam in The Talos Principle are quite amusing, by the way. I almost got a heart attack from suddenly hearing the sound of the headless kamikaze…
Portal Pro I remember being great. So good that Portal 2 was a disappointment for me when it landed.
I needed to cheat (watch the YouTube solution video) on a few solutions, iirc, too; not because they’re badly designed, just because I couldn’t wrap my head around the solution.
It should be noted that a couple of the portal solutions need reasonably quick portal placement, so I don’t think it would be as good without KB+mouse. It took me a few tries to nail one of the techniques.
Then you build up stators to help comp for that, then you build some skywalks between the two… one of my favorite things is building cyberpunk style cities as the factory grows
I have a copy of the full Steins;Gate manga that I admit to not having read yet. I’ve seen the anime (movies(OVAs?) not included), alongside Zero. And I found something a long time ago that would allow me to download the app on my android device and play in English (not sure there was an official option for that back then or even now). Now I am absolutely thinking of getting back into visual novels of that style (the left click only gameplay style) and Steins;Gate is on my list. This also reminds me I need to finish Saya no Uta.
Most Kirby games. Skip Amazing Mirror I guess, and for Super Star you can play every mode except Great Cave Offensive.
Metroid Fusion (I do feel somewhat bad putting it on this list though)
OneShot
Persona series
Punch-Out!! series
Rhythm Doctor
Rhythm Heaven series
The World Ends With You
Any stage-based arcade(-style) game. I'll name Puyo Puyo (Tsu, 20th, Chronicle specifically), Panel de Pon, Puzzle Bobble 3, Twinkle Star Sprites just for a few.
For visual novels, it depends how you play them. If you’re happy with getting a single story/ending, then yeah. But if you want to 100% them, then there’s a lot of backtracking.
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