12mo ago

Do you know any singleplayer games that are infinitely replayable?

I recently booted up Half-Life 2 to replay it. I have played the absolute shit out of this game before, so 60% of it just feels like a drag to me now. It was such an amazing game but it's sort of spoiled for me after I've played it too much.

I also discovered ULTRAKILL a few months ago. I feel like I could play that game forever. It has tons of content, weapon combinations and higher difficulties with different enemy behaviour.

Do any of you have more game suggestions like Ultrakill? A really replayable singleplayer game.

!!BTW I don't mean online multiplayer games or games similar to candy crush!!

183 comments

Tons. There's an entire roguelike genre built around this; some of my favorites are Vagante and Streets of Rogue. There are games with procedurally generated worlds like Terraria, RimWorld, Dwarf Fortress, and Factorio. There are RPGs like Baldur's Gate 3 that have so many ways to spec your characters and so many permutations of how events could unfold based on what you did that you're unlikely to see them all.
- Another great roguelike is Hades, which may or may not have dominated my video game attention for the last 8 months.
  
  I didn't personally care for it, but I know I'm in the minority. In fact, one of the reasons I didn't care for it is because it felt far less replayable than many of its peers. Even Zagreus will call out "the butterfly room", because there are so few permutations to see.
- Tossing Song of Syx onto the pile of games. Even if you don't care for the art style, the game is immensely deep, and quite frankly, addictive.
  
  Any good tutorial videos you'd recommend?
- +1 for Factorio.
  
  At one point I was playing so much Factorio that I started seeing conveyor belts and assembly machines in my sleep
- Back in the day I played Hack until I noticed the sun had risen many times.
- If I had to choose a single game to play for the rest of time, it would be Dwarf Fortress. There's just so much variety in its world generation and how the game can be played that if I was limited to just that one game, I would still have things to do.
  
  And the awesome part of DF is that each time you start over (on the same world) you just add more to its history and the story continues. Losing is definitely fun when keeping that in mind.
- Three of my favorite roguelikes are cataclysm dda, caves of qud and cogmind, recommend them to everyone
  
  Have you checked out Tales of Maj'Eyal (tome)? Very highly praised roguelike, and lots of reviews consider it the roguelike.
  
  What's the hook to each one? I hear people mention Caves of Qud a lot, but the low-fi graphics aren't grabbing my attention on their own.

Minecraft?
Hard to do better than the OG endless sandbox.
- Definitely was my first thought. I think that I've spent way more time on that game than I'd like to admit.
- Even if one gets bored of the game itself, there's a practically infinite number of mods and community content out there. New game modes like skyblock, mods that turn it into an RPG with magic systems, mods that make it an in-depth factory building game, mods that take you to new realms and thousands of items to discover... There's a lot to enjoy.
  Adventure maps are also fairly underrated. There are tons of community-made maps that can turn it into a different game. Notably, there was a huge Hogwarts campaign with quests and spells that turns it into a harry potter game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKcsoE5X4fc
- OG endless sandbox is Dwarf Fortress.
  slowly retracts into bushes

FTL. It’s a simple fun cheap game. Steam says I’ve played this for over 3,000 hours!
https://subsetgames.com/ftl.html#_
- FTL is so much fun. Finally beating by first run felt amazing.

Rimworld, Terraria, Minecraft, Satisfactory, basically sandbox games, where each playthrough is different.
- Not sure about satisfactory, considering the map is always the same. So the only sources of randomness are starting at another location in the same map or playing differently yourself
  
  Then just go for factorio. Randomly generated map and recources. Highly adjustable for dificulty and a LOT of mods that add to the game. Concidering that the dlc , that seems to be as complex as the Base Game, comes out in Oktober you have a good Kandidaten for infinite replayability

Obligatory Rimworld shout out.
I've dumped more hours into this game than the rest of my game library combined.
Edit: typo
- A significant number of comments have mentioned Rimworld, guess I'll install it. Thanks for your recommendations!
  
  Dwarf Fortress, if you like rimworld but prefer gigantic learning curves
- Rimworld is a great answer. Every game us different, and you can take it different places with mods as well.

Rimworld would be my top suggestion, as others have noted.
I picked up Old World (excellent native Linux support BTW) during this summer sale and have not been able to put it down. If you're a fan of Civilization style strategy games I'd highly recommend checking it out. I haven't really enjoyed a Civ game since Civ 4, and Old World feels very similar but fresher and with less jank. it's got a Crusader Kings style dynasty system with randomized events that adds a layer of role playing your leader and securing their dynasty through heirs you can train/influence.
As for the repeatability, Old World has tons. Each culture plays significantly differently, and each leader has different bonuses that encourage an interesting style of play. Games don't play the same because of the mentioned event system, but also because learning new technologies is "randomized" as well. New techs are researched based off a selection of 4 drawn tech cards once you finish a previous technology. The card system makes it so you can't just rush straight to archers and dominate the early game to snowball into a power house every game, but its not truly random so you can "game" the system in your favor to get the techs you want with the tools the game gives you through either unique leader powers, or specific governor roles for example.
The game is super deep while not being off puttingly complex.

Minecraft, Hades, Solitaire, Civ, Gunfire Reborn, Vampire Survivor, Vampire Hunters, and Placid Plastic Duck Simulator,

I almost exclusively play single player games and honestly Elden Ring has been a huge time sink. There’s just something about mastering it that is satisfying. It has online features but they’re not required.
- I wish I could run it on my PC, though.
  (｡╯︵╰｡)
  Maybe someday when I can afford a better device.
  
  Ah yes it is rather poorly optimized. Before it I was playing Against the Storm which doesn’t have such high requirements.
  Also Mount and Blade provides some amazing single player experiences that are hard to find elsewhere. Get into a battle with hundreds of units, command a cavalry charge in first person while you personally lead a flank from the other side.
- Combat also varies heavily between weapon types and equipment weight. You have to approach combat completely differently with different gear, so you can play it again with less of a feel of exploration (probably not none; it's huge), but completely different battles.

My top ones I constantly replay are Factorio, rimworld and modded Minecraft java version, mainly because there's a incredible amount of mods For all of them, make themed runs for each one. Sometimes action adventure sometimes just pure automation.
Nearly 8k in Factorio and probably Minecraft, not as much in rimworld but only because I bought it about a year ago
- I'm seeing Rimworld and Factorio in a lot of the comments here. I have played Factorio already, great game. Guess I'll try Rimworld now.
  
  Dwarf Fortress!
  
  I'm a huge fan of Rimworld! Very excited to hear you're giving it a try. It really can become whatever you want. There is an abundance of Quality of Life mods too. I definitely have recommendations if you'd like.
- I would tatoo modded Minecraft on my body, I love it so much
  
  so I looked into modded minecraft via curse.... seems awfully clunky - and so many mods are really compilations of others.... can you recommend top few mods?
  The only one that seems interesting from a player perspective is trees falling when cut.

RimWorld. shit can go crazy with the mods a available or just vanilla.
- I dunno, I only have 3417 hours played in Rimworld, I'm not sure that qualifies as infinitely replayable. _/s
  
  Don't give up! You're close to finishing the tutorial!

Hades

Xcom, xcom2
- Welcome back, commander.
- X-COM with the Long War mod.

I think factorio is one, even when you launch your rocket (I have more than 100 hours and I don't think....) you still can restart in a new generated world and try do to it again in a better way.
- dude, after you launch the rocket is where the real game begins. You either go for a megabase or you start a overhaul mod. Restarting vanilla from scratch doesn't really make much sense.

Classic Doom 1 and 2. There's gotta be over 100 levels if you count TNT and Plutonia, which I think were sold as Final Doom? Anyway, if you just get the base games for 1 and 2, there are thousands upon thousands of community made maps, including some total conversions, so you can play new Doom content until it physically pains you to continue.
Of course, I feel obligated to mention that even though it would be super easy to pirate the WAD files and play with a free modern source port like GZDoom, like absolutely trivial to find copies of DOOM.WAD and DOOM2.WAD floating around the net, probably showing up easily on Archive.org, but... Um... Where was I going with this? Oh, right, don't pirate. Cheap on GOG last I knew.

Doom and all the other doom clones? Prodeus, dusk, forgive me father, there's a lot

Rainworld, Cult of the Lamb, Slay the Spire, Inscryption

I've played a lot of RimWorld, and I don't feel anywhere near done
- Rimworld, especially with mods is a game I can always come back to. Such an amazing game.

For me, it's Grim Dawn, honestly. (And Diablo before that) 10 classes to choose 2 from means a lot of new skills and builds. Tons of random loot, but also recipes to make and collect.
I mostly play with mods now. Grim Internals, full rainbow, some rep and exp gain ones, and the Item Assistant. I play solo, and have enjoyed every hour of it!

Kenshi is infinitely replayable, imo.
From the alternate starts, to the different ways you can even play the game (wanna be a lone trader, traveling from town to town buying and selling goods? Want to be the ultimate warrior who can go toe-to-toe with the Spider King? Wanna build a city/outpost where you can be totally sufficient and build up your own personal army to take over the world?), to the sheer size of the world. Plus all the awesome mods that can add so much to the game that already has a lot. You start off with your skills at 0 or in the low tens, and you will get your ass handed to you on an iron platter until you actually train up a bit; but even a high or max level character can still get fucked up by the wrong group of enemies.
I have mods that add a couple new factions (the fungoids are OP), flesh other factions out a bit more with more weapons and gear, and other building mods and some QoL mods so I can truly tailor my experience how I like it.
It plays kinda like an RTS with a mix of RPG elements.
- I really enjoy kenshi but if your like me and don't like losing at all then it can take a bit to get into. Still highly recommend
  
  Just save a lot, but yes. It does take a little getting used to it.
  Imo General Sam's Kenshi series is a fantastic introduction to the game, because it was mine lol

One I haven't seen mentioned (at a glance at least) is Noita.
Getting the "false ending" is achievable with some effort, but I dare you to actually finish the game. And as far as replayability, you'll be hard pressed to have two runs that go the same. The amount of Butterfly Effect in this game from all the combinations and systems is straight up insane.
I really can't recommend it enough.

Some single player games I've replayed often that aren't roguelikes would be...
Dishonored Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 1 and 2 Prey 2017 Hitman, but specifically the World of Assassination games Bethesda RPGs Grand Theft Auto/Rockstar, specifically for me 5 or Red Dead Redemption Dark Souls (I replay it on offline mode predominantly anyway) Dying Light Middle Earth Shadow of Mordor/War Halo MCC campaigns Mount & Blade series Katana ZERO Vanquish/other platinum games
- , , , . , . . , , , , , .
  I think you dropped these.
- Some incredible titles here, friend. Respect! I really need to play Knights of the Old Republic again.
  
  That's one that I was hesitant to include, because I feel like it's more to do with my love of the era Bioware made, and nostalgia than it is a promotion of how the game holds up nowadays. But I personally love KoTOR!
- +1 for Katana ZERO

Honesty I'm shocked nobody has mentioned Tales of Maj'Eyal or ToME for short. Extremely deep roguelike with story and it is getting expansions ans updates all the time.
Also it is open-source, so can be downloaded for free, but I would recommend you also buy it in steam for instance to support it.

Dead Cells! Made by a worker cooperative 🥳
- My son and I had a blast with this one. We took turns doing runs through all biomes and found tons of blueprints and secrets. So fun!
- Dead cells studio is a co-op? Wasnt aware, thats cool

Risk of rain and risk of rain 2

4x games tend to be functionally infinitely repayable, since a single game often takes an eternity and there are usually many factions to play.
I particularly like sword of the stars 1 & 2. Honestly don't remember which I preferred but I know I got an insane amount of time sunk into both of them.
- Whoah you are probably first person i encounter that enjoyed SotS 2. First one was one of the best 4x in history though.
- Currently looking for a new 4x game that will scratch my itch. Been going through tons but they all seem like watered down versions that "simplify" the process. Last game I played was SpaceEmpires (4&5), completely addicting but after over a decade of bugged games I've just completely given up on it. Definitely got my playtime out of it though, great game regardless.
  
  Have you played AI War? Or AI War 2?

Slay the Spire

Hades.
- Should be higher up, the best game designed to be replayed until the end of time.
  For rpg games, something like mass effect or Baldurs Gate could be the one
  
  I basically 100%ed Hades over a span of 2 weeks and never touched it again. Great game, but there is little reason to continue playing when you've unlocked everything.

Anything with procedurally generated levels, like roguelikes/roguelites. I can personally vouch for the longevity of Slay the Spire, for one specific example.

Closest I can think of to infinitely replayable games are rougelike games like Slay the Spire, Peglin, Shotgun King: The Final Checkmate, Backpack Hero, etcetera, and sandbox games like minecraft (or Minetest if you don't feel like spending money and/or don't already have a minecraft account).
Though, with the rougelike games I mentioned, there are upper limits to increasing difficulty levels.

I am currently in my like 90th run of Subnautica. I'm doing an "All Cuddlefish, no native food, save the Sunbeam" run.

The binding of isaac: rebirth and dlcs

Risk of Rain 2 and Robo Quest are probably up your ally because you like Ultra kill
But if you want to diversify genre, here are some that I would recommend
Card Games - Slay the Spire (Its like a card game and rogue like combined)
Rogue Like - Hades is currently one of the top tiers in rogue like dungeon crawler
RPG - Baldurs Gate 3, even if you end up finishing the game, how you ended up finishing it is what makes it so replayable. Each character has their own stories for you to uncover. Larian's other gem is Divinity Original Sin 2 too
Sandbox Games - Minecraft of Terraria
Arcade - Most arcade games are highly replayable because thats their whole selling point. Currently I am back to playing Temptest 4000
Hack n Slash - Grimdawn, nuff said

What you are describing is essentially the roguelike/lite genre, lol. Search up some of that, see if anything looks fun.

Shattered pixel dungeon
- I can vouch, damn good game

Look up project brutality or brutal doom. Those are great doom mods with a lot of fun gameplay. I used to play that for hours.
The Anno series is pretty cool. It's like playing crack. I've been playing 1800 recently and it feels like an instant classic.
The elder scrolls games are great for this. The further back you go the more replayability there is IMO. Morrowind is goated.
Dungeon keeper 1&2 are both a lot of fun, and have lots of custom maps. The original dungeon keeper even has a full engine rewrite which is really good.
If you want to try map painters, Crusader Kings 3, EU4, and Victoria 3 are all excellent and in depth games, with a lot of replayability stemming from all of the different ways to build up your nation in the sandbox.
Rimworld, dwarf fortress, etc. Have fun!

Kerbal Space Program, for sure. Skyrim is another.

If you don't mind top down colony managers, rimworld is an absolute gem. The base game itself is infinitely replayable because every game is basically a story. Think dwarf fortress with graphics (well, df has graphics now but). Also incredibly easy to mod to customize or completely change your game experience.

Basically any game that doesn't in itself follow a story, so you are the story (or make it). For me personally it's building and factory games, like Factorio, cities skylines (1 or 2), satisfactory, Kerbal Space program (1 only), Rim world.
This list is essentially endless.

Minecraft, especially with mods.
Roguelites in general. My favorite is FTL. Also has good mods.
- FTL!! It's hard as shit lol
- Ftl is awesome I really like it. Eventually I got the multiverse mod which is really well done and adds more events and aliens and things

The binding of Isaac
Tetris maybe (too close to candy crush)
If you into emulators the SNES has a lot of good arcade ports, those are high score based

Dyson Sphere Program is dangerously replayable to me. Hundreds and hundreds of hours sunk into it

Have to throw CK3 out as my personal favorite grand strategy game (though EU4 and the like are other options). There's nigh infinite content in weaving the story of your family and realm, and mods add a whole new layer to it.

Civilization.
- This. I’m still playing Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri.

How about a randomizer? Pick a game you like and see if there's a randomizer for it:
https://video-game-randomizers.github.io/rando-list/
- Was looking for this. The crossover randomiser of Link to the Past and Super Metroid is a masterpiece, and if you like one or both of the games it provides you with a new way to have the complete the game every time you play it.
  Add in the different flavours like entrance randomiser (where not only are the items shuffled but the doors you enter don't go where they normally go), or keysanity (where keys don't stay in their dungeons and can instead be anywhere) and it turns what was already a great SNES area game into something you can play over and over again.

This list is GREAT ... but if you'd be willing to venture back to the late 90s or early 00s I'll offer you three more names:
Fallout 2
Fallout
Mafia
All three are open world.
- I've Played both Fallouts and loved them! I will remember to try out Mafia, It looks similar to the old GTA games at a glance. Thanks!

Doom. No the originals. Doom, Doom 2, and Doom Final. I always go back every few years.

War for the Overworld (I have many thousands of hours in this)
Settlers 2 Gold
(Both the above have a lot of user generated maps, which has given them most of their longevity.)
Factorio

Borderlands 2 has a lot of replay potential without getting boring. It never plays the same way twice. The weapon drops are very different each time through. Don’t forget the DLC. The rest of the games in the series are fun too, but BL2 seems to be where it peaked for me.

Stellaris, Rimworld, the Sims, and a lot of stragedy games.

Planescape: Torment is extremely replayable. I've been playing it every few years since I got a copy in I think like the early 2000s. It may be that this has something to do with having gotten to play it a little bit in the 90s but not having gotten to play the whole thing. There was a lot of anticipation there.
But I don't think it's just that. It's incredibly responsive to choice, and it's one of the first games I can recall with things like faction reputations and alignments. There's a lot there to dig through, and even once you have, it's always cool to wander around Sigil. It feels very alive.
The other one I end up replaying over and over is Shadowrun for SNES. That's not so much infinitely repayable though as just a really great game that I'm happy to run through.

Fallout: New Vegas, Caves of Qud, Project Zomboid, Minecraft, Terraria, Morrowind, Skyrim, Dwarf Fortress, Kenshi, Rimworld, Elden Ring, and so much more.
- The detail in Kenshi is pretty amazing. I don't normally get sucked into single player games, but the design really does give the impression of nearly unlimited freedom, every different starting scenario feels genuinely unique. The slave start particularly was a ton of fun.
  It's pretty amazing that it was designed by basically one guy. He was really efficient in how he chose what game elements to invest his limited development time into and clearly had a really strong vision. I hope he can get a few more devs onboard to develop a second one, I feel like even two or three other people would make so much more possible.
  
  Absolutely, it's one of the few games that genuinely give the player absolute freedom, but does so in a hand-crafted world with detailed lore and worldbuilding. It's great.

183 comments