After starting work, I feel so tired every day, so I just want to play some casual games. Recently, I’m playing survivor-like games like Vampire Survivors and Darkchaser. They’re simple and fun, but after a while, they get a bit boring. So, I’m looking for other casual game recommendations, preferably single-player games that can be paused at any time, like Plants vs Zombies. Thanks！
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First thing’s first: you’re allowed to play on easy mode if you want. Took me too long to realize this.
Emulators let you save anywhere, so if you wanna play Crono Trigger or Donkey Kong Country, go for it!
Holocure is a free bullet heaven with lots of characters to unlock. Recommend boosting your coins first.
Terra Nil (it’s like an anti Sim City) is only as stressful as you make it. Clean the planet and max out the flora and fauna, or just vibe. It even has an appreciation option once you’ve cleansed the area, zooming in to certain sections and letting you see the animals.
UFO 50
If you enjoyed arcade or NES style games
Factorio, it can be casual, but eventually it will steal your sleep
factorio is not casual. now that i have space age, I actually haven’t played because i know ill be sucked in.
Enter the Gungeon is another good bullet hell game. Slay the Spire if you like deck building. Both easy to pick up and stop.
Balatro in addition to Slay the Spire, gaming crack (and game of the year).
Gungeon is not casual though, one of the hardest games I’ve played!
Halls of Torment and Brotato are both similar to Vampire Survivors, but better in my opinion. Great art styles and the weapon system in Brotato is really fun.
Casual-wise, story-based games are nice, like Frog Detective, Florence and the like.
Dredge has been one of my favourites. Just be aware that the game starts harder than when it ends.
I tried playing it last night, and I really reaaaaally wanted to play through it. It’s really fun and original, but boy, does it stir up some primal fear in me when the fog rolled in. Also, it doesn’t help that murky water and things in said water just absolutely fuck me up. So, needless to say, I can’t play it unless I have people around me because my anxiety goes from 0 when I’m fishing and 100 when it gets spooky.
Sounds like you’re ready for the wonderful universe of TBS games (Turn Based Strategy). There a soo many sub genres but you can filter the steam shop for turn-based and read reviews and recommendations. Some personal highlights:
- Civilization (5 and 6)
- Heroes of Might and Magic (get HoMM 3 on GOG!)
- Old World
- Battle Brothers
- Dorfromantik
- Magic: The Gathering Arena
- RimWorld (with pause)
- Cities Skylines 2 (not rly TBS but you can pause)
- For The King
- Total War: Warhammer III (I do auto battles)
- Wartales
- The Last Spell
- Stoneshard
- Age of Wonders 4
- Mechabellum (semi TBS)
Is Rimworld chill though? It’s been sitting on my waitlist for a while, but I’m still a bit…afraid. Doesn’t each colony ultimately go to shit?
It can be. Lower difficulty and phoebe chillax as the storyteller. I highly recommend modding the game. Both the common QOL mods and tweaks to what you don’t like.
Things can get rough but I play mostly to have thriving communities with social drama. Deaths happen but that’s part of the challenge. Turn down the difficulty and play it like The Sims, it’s surprisingly chill.
There is an end goal apparently. But in my 40+ hrs played, never been able to build a spaceship. So In practice, yea that’s about right.
I mean cyberpunk2077 you can by and large pause at any time and you can generally save but there are sometimes where it tells you saving is not allowed. So there are certain points in the story where you can be playing for awhile without a save but its not a super lot. Can be sorta annoying though when you get to them though. Still its not much of the game. Its been awhile but I thought harry potter allowed pausing. Don’t recall it putting me in a difficult position where I could not put it down. Technically elden ring has a hidden pause if you go into a menu in a menu. There are youtube videos on it. Its stressful as heck though as a game. If you quite you are by and large fine to but any enemy that is damage will be at full health when you get back but dead ones will stay dead. Its really not much of an issue except for bosses. I think baldurs gate 3 and starfield allow saving pretty much at any time as well and pause, again its been awhile.
I will always recommend Into The Breach to everyone. Perfect mechanics, easy to jump in and out of, satisfying aesthetics, balanced difficulty
Isn’t that quite the hard game though?
Yeah. The Breach is fantastic. Ready to pick up and set down. Utterly fantastic tactical gameplay. Cool tech, interesting progression options.
All that said, it’s not my go-to cozy game, because it’s atmosphere is too well done.
They only thing about “The Breach” is that it’s so dang well done that I can’t take a turn not seriously. It regularly makes me make movie heroism level of decisions. Do I make the safe play, or try to save everyone? Am I willing to sacrifice my pilot for this win?
The vibe is fantastic, but decidedly not cozy.
Loved FTL, hated ITB.
I’m in the same boat. FTL is where it’s at (for me).
Puzzles games could be really great here. Tre Case of the Golden Idol
Depending on what you mean by casual, Terraria fits the bill. I love sitting down with a journey mode character and taking the game at my own pace. For the first playthrough I would probably point people to softcore normal mode as it’s the “proper” way to play, but once you’ve grinded out goals once then journey is a really nice way to take control of the game’s difficulty on the fly.
I think Burnout Paradise can be good for this, you can just start the game, drive around, have fun and leave whenever you want.
bloons td 6 and super auto pets (on mobile and PC)
also mindustry
Slice and dice, a rogurlite played with dice. Huge amount of modes like “demo mode” that makes each run like 40% shorter.
Not only can a run go by pretty fast they last roughly as long as a vs run.Voices of the Void has been my go to time waster for a couple years now. Dev is a little weird, but the game is amazingly well done and gets somewhat regular updates that expand the story and add new content. You are essentially a scientist sent to work at a SETI-like site in Switzerland. Your job is to maintain the site and search for signals in space, analyze them, and then ship them out to your colleagues, for which you get paid to buy supplies and other things. As you play, random events occur, some funny, some scary. There’s tons of items to buy and decorate your base with. Lots of locations to discover. Sooooooo many secrets to find. I’m constantly impressed by all the work they’ve done with a very small team.
My only complaint is having to reset my save when an update comes out. It’s generally worth it, as there’s usually new events that you’ll miss otherwise, but having to redecorate the base and lose collectables you’ve spent hours on is a bummer… That and I hate the new drive storage rack. I wish they’d bring back then old one as an additional storage item.
Also, the whole damn game is free.
