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VIdeo games with no goals

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I was sitting here putting thought into different games I've seen over the years and how many (most) of them are plot/story driven, even the open world games. Then I thought about survival style games and a lot of them tend to also have some story or plot line you are expected to explore at some point. But a true survival game is just that, survival. You wake up in a unknown place and have to use what you find around you to survive, learning skills to do so (I understand the mechanics but shouldn't a lot of the skills be already known if you're an adult?).

So the question is, how many of you could enjoy a game that was just about survival with the occasional random encounter or event thrown in there? I mean, people play building games and farming simulators and other such things which are more for just watching and feeling accomplishment in what you've built than fighting and exploring.

Another question I had was if the average modern human today were dumped into the woods, how many could survive? How many of you could actually build a fire without tools and so on? That's why I think a game that is more like a anime isekai would be better, starting you off with some skills like life style magic (allowing you to start small fires, clean things, produce small amounts of water, ect.) and letting you move on from there. I don't really like games where its life or death every second and you're staring at your stats constantly always scared you need water or food or it's slightly too cold. Let the survival part be important but take a back seat to game itself, allowing you to explore the world and see every thing.

I know I'm just rambling at this point but I know out there some one else must feel the same way and want a casual survival game, even if its a zombie survival or some thing. I know there's games like ARK and others where you can build bases and stuff, Palworld looked good for this as you could automate a lot of the survival stuff but still, seems like there's a story and goals pushed on you to keep you engaged instead of giving you time to just sit back and look around, watch the creatures interacting, fish at the pond and so on.

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Added:	1 month, 2 weeks ago 25 Dec 2024 18:45 CET

14 Comments on this Journal

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Weiss

1 month, 2 weeks ago

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I absolutely detest games that are survival only, they are the most boring, generic and trashy games to me. I can not find a single good thing about them. And it's even worse when survival mechanics are forcefully shoved into other games just because the genre is popular.

Killjoy

1 month, 2 weeks ago

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@ Weiss

That's why I was looking for a casual survival system. I've tried some games you can add (through mods or DLC) survival elements but they seems clunky or take you away from the game play itself. Like Skyrim, using the creationclub survival mode makes playing the game miserable as your mage is always at a disadvantage and the limits on carry way are even worse and require you to keep leaving dungeons several times to sell off stuff so you are not over weight plus the cold system makes exploration a nightmare since the whole world is freezing. But a survival aspect adds some thing to the game so it's not just mindless quest/mission and level grinding. I don't want to have to constantly worry about my character starting to death or have to keep feeding NPCs but have some thing to do besides looting and escort missions is nice.

esanhusky

1 month, 2 weeks ago

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A game like that would probably be best for the casual gamer. I have a hard time getting into gaming, partially because it's sometimes a week or more before I can find the alone time to actually get into a game, between having to relearn game mechanics, remembering where I'm at in the game, and everything I've done and supposed to be doing, it might be nice to be able to sit down, f*ck sh*t up for a while, then walk away without having to worry about how long it's going to take me to actually be able to play net time.

As for how many people could actually survive in the woods, I'm thinking "Not many" would be a fair approximation :P

Killjoy

1 month, 2 weeks ago

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@ esanhusky

I keep making new characters/playthroughs in games so I'm constantly trying to remember what missions I've done, skills I've learned and so on and then getting bored when a character gets to OP/high level or I try to do a play style that's more challenging than I like. A lot of games let you be masters of every thing and others force you into roles that don't allow you to do every thing and be OP. The prob I find is getting into a mindset where every time you start a new character, you end up playing the same thing every time because you figured out the ins and outs of the game and how the rules work. That kills games for me to truly understand the mechanics so you can win every encounter, specially if its some Dumb glitch or some thing. Time is factor too and if the game is too grindy or time intensive, it gets tedious to play but I don't like things just handed too me or two easy.

MystBunny

1 month, 2 weeks ago

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Subnautica is one of my favorite survival games because there's an end goal to escape the planet. Survival does become easier, and you have goals, but all your goals lead to getting out, and back to civilization. But in games where there are no tangible goals except to survive indefinitely, such as 7 days and Don't Starve, once I survive the hardest part, am producing enough food myself that I don't have to worry about that any more, etc, then I'm just like "....okay, now what?" and my interest in the game dies. I've never been interested in just building for the sake of building. I want to be working towards something, and not just "I think I'll build a grand castle out of gold blocks" or some shit.

Killjoy

1 month, 2 weeks ago

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@ MystBunny

yes, thats always a issue, boredom or being OP. Another thing that can kill it is the realism. Like trees that regrow quickly so you can harvest and build massive forts or endless animals to murder for food that respawn in the same place all the time. Its nice to have NPCs to automate stuff for you but if they are a constant liability... Like fallout 4 is a good example. You can set up water and food and tell them to harvest it and defend the city you built and you are done. Or you could just build robots to do the same and never have complaints/worry about happiness of people. I think that might be sort of the appear of games like Palword where you have the Pals as villager and not people (unless you catch people). What might be interesting would be if the game had a ecosystem that changed over time so you'd have to hunt different areas or be nomadic moving across the map over time unless you were good at farming. If you set up a base, have rare attacks/raids but don't make base defense a focus.

LeoCuttridge

1 month, 2 weeks ago

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First question: I've been into The Long Dark since it was not quite a year old in 2015 and have ~2750 hrs into it. It's the best wilderness survival out there, no contest.

Second question: that really all depends on who the person is, what knowledge of survival they have and what the climate and environment is. By and large, knowing today's society and how dependent we've become on technology, I suspect a precious few if any at all would be able to keep themselves alive in almost all survival situations.

Killjoy

1 month, 2 weeks ago

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@ LeoCuttridge

turn off the power and internet and half our city dwelling population would die off in a month.

LeoCuttridge

1 month, 2 weeks ago

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@ Killjoy

Sadly, tis the truth. :(

MystBunny

1 month, 2 weeks ago

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@ LeoCuttridge

I'd be ded in a few days.

torchlight

1 month, 2 weeks ago

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As long as you got rid of the 'every animal wants you dead' trope that most survival games have, I'd probably enjoy it.
Seems like every game these days has a very short timer, is filled with drama, and/or is so hard only a very few people can win it. Personally I play games to relax, and get away from drama.

Killjoy

1 month, 2 weeks ago

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@ torchlight

I can't recall the name of the game but last year I heard about a mech-based farming game That sounded sort of interesting. You are on a alien planet with a farming mech (robot suit) and walk around looking for stuff to farm with. ZERO combat.... Let me look for it... Lightyear Frontier.
I also got a dino zoo/park simulator game a bit ago. Prehistoric Kingdom. which looked like it'd be fun but I never got the hang of the terrain shaping tool and if I get frustrated trying to do some thing in a game, I lose interest fast. Like Generation Zero. Looked like fun but by the second encounter I died and just gave up playing. Same went for one of the souls games... first thing you fight are skeleton archers and I said "That's enough of this" and quit. Starfield I put a hour into, killed a lot of innocent NPCs out of boredom and then never played it again (keep in mind I paid extra for the collectors edition or what ever it was called to get a few days head start on the release date).

torchlight

1 month, 2 weeks ago

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@ Killjoy

Best I've found is The Planet Crafter, probably not for everyone, but it was fun for a couple of play throughs.

dgtdgt

1 month, 2 weeks ago

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For Palworld rather than story goals it felt more like suggestions (though i do wish you could turn that window off). I am going to have to give it another whirl with that new update thats out.

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