If you like rpgs and management I’d suggest Battle Brothers, a mercenary company management game. You basically travel the countryside fighting brigands and taking jobs from various cities all while building up your company with new recruits and equipment. It’s got a bit of a learning curve but once you get the basics down it’s oddly enthralling.
Factorio. If you enjoyed Satisfactory you should check out the game that created the genre. They have an excellent demo and although it’s relatively expensive compared to similar games, it’s the best one and runs like an absolute dream even when things get huge where a lot of similar games slow down.
It seems like you like games with a lot of replayability, as well as games that make you think a bit. I’m a bit of the opposite (I like shorter, unique experiences), but I also like games that make me think. So here are a few that I’ve enjoyed that I think fit the bill:
deck-building roguelikes, like Slay the Spire, Balatro, etc; you can get a lot of hours in it, they generally don’t have DLC, and they’re more on the “thinking” vs “combat” end of the roguelike spectrum
Planet Coaster or Parkitect - theme park themed “city builder”; Planet Coaster is a bit of a DLC-fest, but Parkitect only has 2 (and a soundtrack); look around the various “tycoon” games if you like the genre, they can have good replayability
"coding" games - Human Resource Machine, Opus Magnum, etc; these have poor replayability (mostly just optimizing solutions), but there’s a lot of thinking and you can get a lot of hours out of it if you don’t look up guides; they’re not for everyone, but if they are, they’re very satisfying
Dwarf Fortress - the management game, and perhaps the best in the world at replayability; the Steam version is a huge upgrade, but you can also get the classic version for free, though do be aware that the learning curve is a lot higher than the Steam version
Sid Meier’s Pirates - old game, but I get a lot of hours in it and find it absolutely fantastic; this is more combat than thinking, but it’s more thinking than something like Mount and Blade (combat is relatively slow)
Tropico series - they do have DLC, but you can frequently find a bundle on Humble Bundle or Fanatical or something with all the DLC included for the older games; not as sandbox-y as Cities Skylines, but still largely in that vein
That said, I want to echo what others have said and to recommend branching out. There are tons of great indie games that aren’t a total ripoff in a variety of genres, so look around for bundles or something to find something new to try.
As a fan since the first, and having played nearly every version of Far Cry, Far Cry 5 was the biggest disappointment for so many reasons. What a dud. I cannot comprehend the love people have for this mediocre pile of mush.
The Vietnam DLC was fun though.
Blood Dragon is the best Far Cry by the way. But truly Far Cry 2 is actually the best for what it aimed to achieve, which was lost in subsequent games.
I loved the first act. It was so much fun to be there and run around. Then I was so disappointed when the second area opened and I realized oh, so I just… Do the same thing again? Like exactly the same? By the end I was just bored
R.E.P.O is a better Lethal Company in almost every way. I would highly recommend it.
Lethal Company is also great and they’re both worth anyone’s time but I would recommend playing them LC -> Repo because I struggle to imagine going back to LC after Repo.
I'm the opposite. I find LC much more interesting, plus REPO's camera inertia gives me terrible motion sickness, even when the animation speed is reduced and all the other settings are changed. I can't even watch someone stream it, the inertia is so extreme.
I think they're fundamentally different games. The limited day length in LC gives a much more tense vibe, where repo is a bit more laid back and lets you really scour every level. LC also doesn't have the upgrade system present in REPO, meaning doing well on the harder moons is entirely skill based. I prefer skill over upgrades, but I know others don't. I've heard from people who are really into REPO that past level 6 or 8, the difficulty doesn't really increase, and getting too many strength upgrades can trivialize the game.
They both have their merits. You find REPO to be more enjoyable which is totally fair and valid.
Totally valid take. I just think the text to voice system is hilarious, the animations/models are more enjoyable, the actual item gameplay loop has more fun and interactive components in repo, I like the items in repo more although shout-out to the boom box in LC, and the monsters in repo are way more interactive imo - I miss the coil head and the turrets and the teleporting randomly into base but otherwise the monsters are really fun in repo. I agree that Repo’s difficulty doesn’t scale too well currently but I expect them to balance things as it goes on.
I think LC is a great game and I hope everyone tries it out as well. Repo just feels like a more polished iteration on the concept and I’m happy to see the genre expand.
Dark Souls, no sense of management besides managing to not die, but it’s single player (with optional online interactions) and is good. Hard but satisfying when you get it. Lots to explore in the world.
I can appreciate the personal part you added regarding losing faith. I left catholicism in my teens. Too many inconsistencies, too much abuse of power. It started by questioning how multiple christianities could have such different rules, followed by learning how most religion is abrahamic and even more diverse in interpretation, to finally saying fuck all this.
I got FC5 in 2020 and it became hard to stomach. It felt like a real potential reality of the US that year. Cults, vehement religious figures, gun fetish, and a classic Americana setting. The prior titles were all far away, imaginary lands offering even a small degree of dissociation. FC5 was just home. I’d relate it to Harry Potter villains in the sense that yeah, of course we know Voldemort is evil, but Umbridge is the most hated character. Not because she’s worse, but because we know a real-life Umbridge personally.
FC6 hit me kinda hard in a similar way. I got into it about a year ago, not long after the israel/Palestine conflict flared up. There’s a ton of genocidal themes there.
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