i haven’t played it that much since my ping was atrocious, but i would say no. IIRC beside membership and cosmetics that you can buy with gold, i think you can covert it into silver which you can use to progress faster and even buy gear but you won’t gain an unfair advantage or get something that’s exclusive to the MTX shop.
you should read what experienced players have written if you want a more detailed explanation, im just sort of vaguely familiar with the game.
Albion online seems like a good fit for you, although based on your location your ping will massively vary since they only have a few centralised servers.
sorry i don’t know enough about multiplayer or local multiplayer games although if you’re looking for a Co-op game i would recommend It Takes Two. it’s simple but has its own charm. beware it’s a third person game and has some shooting sections in it but it’s beginner friendly enough.
i think city builders and management/tycoon games would be great for these situations cause if you like them there’s no upper limit on playtime. cities skyline and RollerCoaster Tycoon are both great. if you’re looking for something like factorio satisfactory could also work.
of course adventure games or puzzle games are also a great fit since most of them tend to have simple controls but great story and humor and hard puzzles that can keep you busy while solving them is satisfying. i’ve made a post recently on this community asking for people’s recommendations so definitely check that out.
there’s also this lovely little game called Townscaper. it’s really simple you just add or remove blocks on a non-rectangular grid on a sea and the game tries to generate a pleasant looking town. it might sound lackluster on paper but it’s fun and you can get some hours out of it developing your town and discovering the town style rules (there is also some hidden structures that can pop up discovering those is also fun).
thanks for your suggestions the frog detective series sounds like the exact kind of game i would like. and as for the manhunter i have to admit i haven’t played them. why are they overlooked though? it doesn’t seem that different from other games of that time.
i have played return of the obra dinn. it’s one of the greatest puzzle games i’ve played and i feel like most people that have played it say the same. actually solving all identities is legitimately hard, the story is interesting and the presentation is top notch. not an adventure game as i would define it but i highly recommended playing it to everyone that haven’t played it.
absolutely i’ve played a shit ton of their games when i was a kid. i was surprised to see their games are not that famous since where i live most young people have played at least Machinarium.
i’ve heard about wadjet eye through their blackwell series, but haven’t actually played any of their games. all of these sound interesting thank you for youe recommendations.
i’ve played stray and i quite enjoyed it as well although i really wouldn’t call it an adventure game. it has some of the elements of an adventure game but it just doesn’t feel like one to me. thanks for your recommendation anyway.
im ok with niche/janky as long as it doesn’t fry my laptop it’s fine, so hit me with your best.
heaven’s vault was great. i really liked it especially the new game+ and the story. the translation mechanic didn’t really impress me but it’ll sometimes produce some head scratchers.
the case of golden idol was a brilliant detective game no notes. one mistake i made was disabling automatic highlight of keywords, it doesn’t add anything to the puzzles you just spam click until you hit a keyword.
i didn’t like chants of sennaar that much. its art is good but it was too easy and it just didn’t click with me as much as it should have.
west of loathing is awesome, i’ve played the original kingdom of loathing and was glad to see it was as much silly and funny as its predecessor. i would also recommend shadows over loathing alongside west of loathing to anyone that hasn’t played these games. kingdom of loathing is a really old browser game and is more of a daily type of game so i wouldn’t exactly recommend it. all of them are set in the same universe but in different time periods so you don’t need to play all of them or play them in order in order to just play one of them.
haven’t played the rest so i’ll definitely check them out. thanks for the list!
unfortunately have access to neither, nor switch emulation capable hardware. im not really a fan of anime artstyles so it doesn’t look like much of a loss to me. thanks for your recommendation anyway.
tried playing it with my friend but our networks were so bad we gave up and i never tried out the game again. from the 5 minute i played it didn’t look like it has much of a story but maybe it’s time for me to actually play it.