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
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.
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.
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.
I really liked running a server for 7 days to die once in a while, helldivers 2, Warhammer darktide and Warframe are my go to’s, Warframe might be too much investment though.
I didn’t play it in a group, but you guys might like Grounded. You’re tiny people exploring a backyard, and you’ve gotta harvest stuff like blades of grass, pebbles, and bits of candy/leftover food. Has a decent progression to it, I think.
Everyone’s recommending games but addressing steam recs, there’s Backloggd which is Letterbox for games. Sure there’ll probably be a similar overlap of games folks love that are not your jam but it’ll help you figure out what you like, find something new, and follow folks with similar tastes.
V Rising might be the best game my gaming buddy and I have played in the past year. It’s really well made with lots of stuff to do for a group. Plus there’s a big update right about to drop in a couple days.
I got no clue if this would count as something you’d be into, but I’ve been having fun with Skyblock Zero on Luanti.
Idon’t know how quickly you could finish it considering I play purposefully inefficiently, but it’s a space themed with a quest line to follow where the only limited resource is your time. Spawn on a voxel, keep clicking to gain resources, and build out from there. So far one of my only gripes is storage in the game is only drawers instead of chests, so I constantly have machines and my inventory filled.
Honestly I want suggest a fair few but I have difficulty grasping what you mean by progression based on your examples. I would argue nearly all games, ever, are “progression based”.
If I was looking to describe a kind of game, I would not use “progression based” to describe a game where you start from zero every time. I’m well aware that many rogue likes have permanent unlocks which facilitate progression, but then I’m back to my original point in that is not a very helpful descriptor because almost every game is progression based in that sense.
That first part is exactly what I’m saying. Many multiplayer games involve starting from zero every time, so that didn’t seem to be what OP is looking for. I wouldn’t recommend Vagante, for instance. It has a small handful of unlocks, but the lack of other progression is a feature, not a bug. Meanwhile, a loot game like Borderlands will have you continually upgrading your character and gear over many sessions, and that’s likely what OP is asking for.
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