One thing I have struggled with lately is finding good games to play. I bounce around from game to game trying to enjoy it but it just doesn’t scratch the itch like it used to. For example, one of my favorites was old school RuneScape, but it hasn’t really been giving me the same enjoyment that it used to. So then I would open up World of Warcraft, Destiny 2, just playing a little bit of each game. Think maybe I need some new games to play but it’s tough to find them these days.
So what are your favorite 1000+ hour games?
Factorio
The Factory Must Grow
I’m almost 100 hours into my new space age save, and I’ve played nearly 1k hours since I bought it 5ish years ago. By far one of the most enjoyable games I’ve ever played and I highly recommend it to everyone who enjoys sandbox games
Factorio. It’s the game I always come back to, and I’m always ready to spend 5 minutes playing here and there now that it works so well on steam deck.
You should try Brighter Shores.
The original RuneScape developers and owners (i.e. Andrew Gower and his brothers) are back with a new game, at a new company, with an industry shattering $5.99/mo subscription price for all content.
No micro transactions, no pay to win, no outrageous DLC pricing, no bull shit … just a fun game with many similarities to OSRS but also modernizations, formula improvements, and lessons learned.
You should try Brighter Shores.
I tried it, and it was really hard to get into. There are some pretty big glaring flaws of the game right now that make it simply unfun to play, in my honest opinion. One of them is the fact that it feels like RuneScape classic, rather than RuneScape 2. For example when you do activities like fishing, you have to click each individual fish over and over again to infinity. Which doesn’t feel enjoyable. Combat is also rather clunky, and there’s little dopamine involved. I also distinctly hate the fact that you cannot do what you want with combat, like you cannot be an archer. You only get like three arrows and then you have to use melee. Also it seems like skills are only usable in one area, once you move on to the next episode, there are no areas to practice those skills anymore. So it’s really not fair in my honest opinion to compare it to RuneScape at all. Once you get into the forest, there is no fishing spot as far as I’m aware… I can respect that people like it but it’s not for me
I mean, fishing is more comparable to mining in RS2, there are other skills (typically refinement oriented skills) that have more down time between clicks.
Combat I definitely feel needs refinement. Though, I actually do like the fact that combat is not “I have a bow and I’m shooting something 1 tile in front of me and/or safe spotting.”
The skills are only trained in one area, but they have interactions across areas. You use resources gathered in the forest in town and in the mines. The weapons you make in the mines can be tuned to any other location (etc…)
Andrew does a pretty decent job of explaining the thought process here if you’re interested: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2791440/view/4442331835939160237
A lot of this is to solve the long time MMO issue of “new content is released but it’s only for high level players and long time layers in general have a ton of advantages in the new area.”
I’ve only got a few. Several of them don’t really track hours, but I know I’ve put over 1000 into them. Games like Super Smash Bros. (Melee, Brawl, and 4) and Rock Band 2.
Other than those, the only one I’ve measurable put 1000 hours into is Skullgirls, but Guilty Gear Strive will likely get there in a few years. Skullgirls is a game with so much depth that I can’t imagine ever getting bored of it. If anything, I’d just lose motivation because I can’t see the path to improving, but I’ll definitely never see every permutation of strategies you can employ by combining characters together. Guilty Gear Strive has so many creative ways to use its expanded Roman Cancel system that any Evo highlight reel is full of creative ways out of situations that you’ve never seen before.
lol the problem with Destiny is they turned it into a treadmill and stopped putting the work into character and level design.
Elden Ring can easily take more than 100 hours on your first playthrough, and different builds significantly change your play style.
BG3, similar deal. Subsequent playthroughs are probably going to be accelerated, but there are a bunch of different story choices you can make that feel different, the party members have their own story lines, there’s a special custom character called Dark Urge that’s intended for a later playthrough that has it’s own twist, and you can change the strategy of encounters a lot with different party constructions.
Rimworld calls itself a story generator because you’re going to fail and have people die and whatever, but every game plays out different, there are a good couple scenarios, and there’s expansions and mods you can add on top of that for variety.
Just the first couple that come to mind. I’m not near 1000 hours on any of them, but they all have a lot of content.
Tetris.
X4 Foundations… This sucks people life: you start a game when the sun goes to sleep, one second later the sun wake up 😅
Why do they have to be 1000 hours? If you’re getting gaming fatigue you’re not going to fix that by sticking to the same genres you always play. Go onto Steam/gog/eshop/etc during the Black Friday sales next week and buy a big pile of 40 hour games for $3 each
(Mine is FFXIV, to answer your question)
Factorio, it’s fun from the first minute but you’ll still be learning new things after 1000 hours.
200 hours in for me and I just learned you can put gates over train tracks. 🤯 Found out by reading the in game manual that I was too proud to read beforehand. So uhm… read the manual.
Me: Ooooooohhhh, ok. I know how logistic networks work.
2 hrs later
Me: wtf? Production stopped. Why does this one belt have 5 different materials. Oh…idk how chests work. That’s OK I’ll simplify it until it works.
suns up and birds chirping
Me: ok, ok. So it’s working, but i dont know why.
800 hrs in and I still underestimate the space I need. Best 30 bucks I’ve ever spent.
I’ve been playing Tf2 for over 1.5k hours now. I recommend you to try it out There’s a reason why that game from 2007 is still not dead.
The best war themed hat simulator out there
Stellaris
Monster Hunter
Path of Exile.
I’d say I’m a fairly mid-tier player, get better with each season I play, the breadth of mechanics and depth of complexity is mind breaking. I’ve only played like 2000 hours though, I’ll get it all figured out eventually… Right?
Elder Scrolls Online, as long as you find a good group of friends.
I also nearly have 1000 hours in MGSV Phantom Pain.
terraria for me. i keep managing to find new stuff over a thousand hours later.
“Has this item always been here?! no way. REALLY?”
Well they keep updating it, so it may not have been there, unless you made a chest sphere and didn’t label the chests.
no its just there’s a lot of items in the game. and some you wouldn’t really find unless you were actively searching for them.
I have around 1700 hs in Destiny 2, and close to the same in Bloodborne. Over 1000 hours in the last 2 monster hunter titles. I’ve replayed resident evil 4 and castlevania sotn dozens of times.
So those are my most played games