Looking for some lightweight, but grindy PC games for my wife
Looking for some lightweight, but grindy PC games for my wife
I'm on the hunt for new PC games for mrs simo to enjoy as shes going through an ADHD phase of not enjoying anything. Her favourite is Bloons TD 6 (2600 hours!).
She doesn't really like heavy games like FPS, RTS, ARPGs or anything toooo involved. She'll try something for 10 minutes and that's the window for hit or miss [sadly in most cases].
Historically old school Pokemon games and those RPGmaker style games are good if they are well put together and have a nice story (such as Little Witch in the woods, Cult of the Lamb). Siralim Ultimate was good for a while - hopefully that gives an idea of rough genres for suggestions.
Oh and we had a good little run with Vampire Survivors and Army of Ruin too.
For whatever reason Bloons TD6 was a massive hit, and she recently got bluestacks to try some PVZ 2 again, as that was her previous 'bloons' hook. I think it's the nature of the Games as a service, with the weekly battles n unlocks and stuff. Granted, that game is really good too.
Hoping other people who struggle to 'hook' into various games on PC, or have similar ADHD spouses who go through 'ahhh i dunno' phases of gaming can shed some random offbeat suggestions.
Random mention: She loved elden ring! The exploring n shit was cool. Tempted to get Games Pass for Fable 2 streaming, but I think our internet will be shit and it'll be a total bust.
Stardew Valley would be my vote. Some others that come to mind are Slay the Spire or Skyrim. My adhd wife plays cracked sims 4 with every mod known to mankind. She doesn't even play the game. Just creates characters and builds houses.
https://store.steampowered.com/recommended/morelike/app/960090/
2Stardew valley is definitely a good choice here I would think. Also Starbound, also by Chucklefish, might fit the bill too.
1Yeah, honestly Stardew should be higher up. It's the most chill grind you can have and is perfect for ADHD as you can do so many different things: fish, forage, garden, farm, dungeon brawl, decorate and so much more. Plus all the hidden little secrets.
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My time at Portia has that hook, I bet she will like that, I've seen slay the spire suggested too that took 500hours from me, my most played casual game is the Battlegrounds on hearthstone, it's free too
2Might take a look at Temtem and Cassette Beasts to get that Pokemon fix.
The Creeper World series, or Kingdom Rush for tower defense a la Bloons... possibly Mindustry or Factorio as well. Start with Mindustry and if it does it for her then you can grab Factorio as well.
She might also vibe with roguelikes considering she liked Vampire Survivors so Enter the Gungeon, Binding of Isaac, Realm of the Mad God, Slay the Spire, or 20xx/30xx might be up her alley as well.
2Some games that flip that focus switch and suck me in without heavy gameplay :
-Stardew Valley (honestly, probably the most fitting recommendation here)
-Factorio (turn off the bugs for a more casual experience), alternatively there's Satsfactory
-OpenTTD or Transport Fever 2
Diverging from the top-down style:
-Oddly enough, Farming Simulator 22 (there's always that next thing to do so you can build up)
-Space Engineers
-Minecraft
1Every few years I download a windows 98 emulator and install my copy of the 90s Blade Runner game, and see if I can replay it. But it always crashes at the same point early on (using the "enhance!" thingy) and is unplayable. When I search it up there's all kinds of posts of people stuck at the same point and somehow nobody has been able to find a way to fix it.
It's too bad, that game was a lot of fun. The branching plot and randomization of who turns out to be a replicant made each playthrough unique.
Okay this is weird. This post was about a new Blade Runner game when I started typing it but it turned into someone asking about grindy games for his wife? Is Lemmy like hogwarts staircases?
1Blade Runner was re-released with two versions not too long ago.
The Enhanced Edition:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1678420/Blade_Runner_Enhanced_Edition/Largely disliked by the community because they changed too much.
The Original Version:
https://www.gog.com/en/game/blade_runnerThe original version is the same old game that you remember but now powered by ScummVM, so no more loading up emulators.
Since you own the game, you can just download ScummVM and point it to the folder where you have it installed. More info here.
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Monster Hunter Rise might be good. It's more simplified compared to other Monster Hunters, so it's perfect for someone new to the series. The basic gameplay loop is pick a monster to hunt, go find it, fight it, loot it, go back to town, upgrade gear, repeat. But it's single player or 4 player co-op, so you're completely free to enjoy at your own pace. No need to worry about grinding for the best gear or anything like that, but you can spend hours getting the meta armor too if that's your thing. Plus, jumping around like a ninja is pretty cool
1Lots of great suggestions but one that I haven't seen is rimworld. It's difficult to explain but it's sort of like a mix between a base builder and a story generator. It's incredibly addictive once you get going though.
1I can recommend backpack hero
of course, if you wanna maximize grindiness and low intensity, oldschool runescape will top the chart. Just mouse clicking.
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1She doesn't like ARPGs, she's not going to like Dragon's Dogma. And that's from someone who put well over 500 hours into the game.
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Dave The Diver.
Currently gets quite some hype, rightfully so IMHO. Neat diverse gameplay loops, fantastic mood & humor, all around good game. Has several progression mechanics that tickle the Pokémon receptors. Also very light RPGish upgrade paths.
Might be worth a look.
1Started Valley, for sure.
If she wants a grundy, but casual game, get her playing a MMO like Guild Wars 2. It's horizontal progression so you are not competing to get better gear all the time. It's just casual grind to get fashion, new titles, achievements etc. I am sure she will be addicted.
0Sadly Started Valley didn't get started, it got the 'meh' treatment (Even i was surprised!). I think it may of been the heart-fuckery and talking she wasn't too invested in, despite the game being amazing.
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As someone with ADHD Pokemon fan games have been my thing, especially side loading them to my phone.
Pokemon Infinite Fusions has by far been the stand out, filled with endless "ooh, but what about this?!" Moments. It's a new, fun twist on the classic Kanto story, and even features Johto as an absolutely massive post game. It's the only one I have to play on my PC though.
Pokemon XenoVerse is great as well, unique designs, a compelling story and a surprisingly well balanced new type. This one works very well on phones except for Pokemon centers becoming T H E V O I D.
Pokemon insurgence has been the latest to join my collection. It's far and away the most maturely themed Pokemon game I've played (though I've heard uranium is more mature) I'm not finished yet so I can't comment on quality. In lieu of fakemon they opted to instead create a massive number of Delta species, a take on regional variants which have all been interesting at the very least. It's the one that runs best natively on my phone, with only the occasional glitched text
0Slay the Spire and Monster Train get my votes. She likes strategy like BTD so I think she'll like these ones too. I think both are free on Game Pass.
Also Monster Sanctuary is a great Pokemon -like
0Oh yeah she loved StS. I think Monster Train might of been on the shit list, i'll double check. There were some other popular pokemans rip offs too that we looked into but they were also on the shit list. It's like trying to roll a max on d20 :P Thanks
0Another card-based one that I don't see getting a lot of attention is Cultist Simulator. I find it really fun/cool.
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a bit of an investment but i've had fun with the 3D PvZ games!
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