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What's your favourite non-violent game?
- Thread starter 8bit
- Start date
Animal Crossing.
Tetris Effect.
Katamari Damacy.
All have pretty substantial followings but I hold Animal Crossing and Tetris Effect in particular up to the greatest games I've ever played. Katamari is super enjoyable too.
Tetris Effect.
Katamari Damacy.
All have pretty substantial followings but I hold Animal Crossing and Tetris Effect in particular up to the greatest games I've ever played. Katamari is super enjoyable too.
Animal Crossing
Overcooked 1/2
SSX Tricky
Katamari Damacy
My favourite game series are Dragon Quest, Fire Emblem, Pokemon and Earthbound, none of which I'd classify as 'violent' but all of which include combat so I guess that disqualifies them.
I honestly can't stand games that are built entirely around pointless violence and gore, I just don't get the appeal.
Overcooked 1/2
SSX Tricky
Katamari Damacy
My favourite game series are Dragon Quest, Fire Emblem, Pokemon and Earthbound, none of which I'd classify as 'violent' but all of which include combat so I guess that disqualifies them.
I honestly can't stand games that are built entirely around pointless violence and gore, I just don't get the appeal.
Some of my favourites over the years:
1. Subnautica - Great exploration/survival game where you for the most part just cruise around in a vast beautiful ocean in order to eventually craft the technology to escape the planet. It has a perfect rythm when you get into it which makes it impossible to lay down even after the credits start to roll.
2. Return of the Obra Dinn - Masterclass detective game where you investigate what happened to a ship where all the crew members vanished. The twist is that you have a magic item that lets you see everyones time of death. It's ultimately up to you to decide how they died exactly and by what or who.
3. Undertale - A wonderful little RPG where the players violent actions are put in question and where the game changes if you decide not to act out in violent ways. It's one of a few games that really has a unique idea when it comes to avoiding violent pathways.
4. Outer Wilds - One of the best space exploration games ever made. You play as an alien that travels around a solar system where a time loop is occuring and you have to figure out why. Each planet you visit has it's own very unique set of physical laws and mysteries.
5. Eliza - Great visual novel where you follow a young woman who begins to work for a tech company that uses an AI to help people in need of therapy. It's up to you to guide the main character through her moral choices as you learn more about her background and the various people she interacts with.
6. Two Point Hospital - Charming strategy game with lots of quirky humour where you're playing as a manager in the hospital business. It's very harmless and uplifting to play, basically a spiritual successor to Theme Hospital.
7. GT Sport - Really good racing game with lots of content nowadays. It's also a blast online if that's your thing. Also great controller/wheel support.
1. Subnautica - Great exploration/survival game where you for the most part just cruise around in a vast beautiful ocean in order to eventually craft the technology to escape the planet. It has a perfect rythm when you get into it which makes it impossible to lay down even after the credits start to roll.
2. Return of the Obra Dinn - Masterclass detective game where you investigate what happened to a ship where all the crew members vanished. The twist is that you have a magic item that lets you see everyones time of death. It's ultimately up to you to decide how they died exactly and by what or who.
3. Undertale - A wonderful little RPG where the players violent actions are put in question and where the game changes if you decide not to act out in violent ways. It's one of a few games that really has a unique idea when it comes to avoiding violent pathways.
4. Outer Wilds - One of the best space exploration games ever made. You play as an alien that travels around a solar system where a time loop is occuring and you have to figure out why. Each planet you visit has it's own very unique set of physical laws and mysteries.
5. Eliza - Great visual novel where you follow a young woman who begins to work for a tech company that uses an AI to help people in need of therapy. It's up to you to guide the main character through her moral choices as you learn more about her background and the various people she interacts with.
6. Two Point Hospital - Charming strategy game with lots of quirky humour where you're playing as a manager in the hospital business. It's very harmless and uplifting to play, basically a spiritual successor to Theme Hospital.
7. GT Sport - Really good racing game with lots of content nowadays. It's also a blast online if that's your thing. Also great controller/wheel support.
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The top ones would be...
Journey
What Remains of Edith Finch
The Unfinished Swan
I've yet to play Gris, but based on what I've read it sounds like a similar fantastic gaming experience.
EDIT: Oh, I forgot one of my older favorites, Shadow of Memories. I wish I could play that game again.
Journey
What Remains of Edith Finch
The Unfinished Swan
I've yet to play Gris, but based on what I've read it sounds like a similar fantastic gaming experience.
EDIT: Oh, I forgot one of my older favorites, Shadow of Memories. I wish I could play that game again.
I loved life is strange but I agree with some of the posters. Violence is not the gameplay but the story is still full of violence
Outer Wilds
Fantastic game, amazing story and world building, and while being kind of a walking simulator in theory, you do enough of actual ship flying and area traversal that it made it really engaging for me.
The Witness
One of my favorite games of all time honestly. Just incredible puzzles and the way it teaches you as you go is one of the most satisfying feelings I've ever gotten from a game.
Some puzzles could get a bit hard from a technical level and I needed to look up a guide, but for the most part it's not about the puzzles being "hard", but about you figuring out the "trick" or the twist on the puzzle to solve it.
Banjo Kazooie Nuts and Bolts
The vehicle building is so much fun in the game and it makes doing the various challenges really fun and unique.
There might be a handful of "fighting" challenges, but not really in a violent way if I remember right (mostly just bumping other people with your vehicle I think), and if you're really clever with vehicle building I think you can do stuff like make cages to trap people rather than slamming into them.
The Myst series.
Pretty much just all puzzle solving and exploring areas.
Picross DS
All Nintendo Picross games are pretty great, but Picross DS was the first one I played and I loved it. It had SO much content and even had free downloadable puzzle packs while the online was still active.
Picross 3D is also great.
Fantastic game, amazing story and world building, and while being kind of a walking simulator in theory, you do enough of actual ship flying and area traversal that it made it really engaging for me.
The Witness
One of my favorite games of all time honestly. Just incredible puzzles and the way it teaches you as you go is one of the most satisfying feelings I've ever gotten from a game.
Some puzzles could get a bit hard from a technical level and I needed to look up a guide, but for the most part it's not about the puzzles being "hard", but about you figuring out the "trick" or the twist on the puzzle to solve it.
Banjo Kazooie Nuts and Bolts
The vehicle building is so much fun in the game and it makes doing the various challenges really fun and unique.
There might be a handful of "fighting" challenges, but not really in a violent way if I remember right (mostly just bumping other people with your vehicle I think), and if you're really clever with vehicle building I think you can do stuff like make cages to trap people rather than slamming into them.
The Myst series.
Pretty much just all puzzle solving and exploring areas.
Picross DS
All Nintendo Picross games are pretty great, but Picross DS was the first one I played and I loved it. It had SO much content and even had free downloadable puzzle packs while the online was still active.
Picross 3D is also great.
I don't know, one of my favorite things in that game was shoving other racers over with the right analog stick, haha.
Yep a true gem. CTRL+F'ed and I'm glad there's at least one mention, game should've gotten way more attention. Takes only 2 hours to beat but it's something you'll never forget. Guess I can mention my favorite puzzlers then as well: The Witness, Talos Principle, Swapper and Antichamber. The Witness in particular will suck you into its world for hours if the concept and puzzles click for you. After replaying it recently it's become one of my all-time favorites, the design is out of this world.
There's also a long list of point and click adventures you can choose from, Thimbleweed Park is a recent good one.
A lot of good indies have already been mentioned, but I'd like to give a shoutout to Hypnospace Outlaw, can't be missed if you're into 90's internet and wouldn't mind an entire game in that time capsule.
Also has a surprisingly good soundtrack and story.
Rhythm games are your friend here.
- Rez HD
- Child of Eden
- Any Hatsune Miku game (the one that just came out for Switch is great; Project DIVA X is the worst one)
- Sayonara Wild Hearts
- Groove Coaster for Switch
Can't go wrong with any of those.
- Rez HD
- Child of Eden
- Any Hatsune Miku game (the one that just came out for Switch is great; Project DIVA X is the worst one)
- Sayonara Wild Hearts
- Groove Coaster for Switch
Can't go wrong with any of those.
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Was a PS plus game in May 2015 and I still think about it.
I could do with some recommendations, I am looking for games with exploring and traversing ancient ruins, thinking Uncharted but without the shooting. Supernatural / mystical or not is fine.
I've played RIME but can't really think of much else right now.
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Have you even played any? I mean it's obvious you haven't...
Wandersong is an amazing story-focused platformer about a bard who'd rather change the world with singing rather than fighting.
I can't recommend this one enough, it's one of my favorites of the last few years.
It's like Paper Mario, but funnier, more moving, and without the tedious battling!
I can't recommend this one enough, it's one of my favorites of the last few years.
It's like Paper Mario, but funnier, more moving, and without the tedious battling!
Maybe Heaven's Vault? It's in my Steam library but haven't played it yet, heard very good things.
I guess I view violence as a wildly different thing than most. Life is Strange isn't violent? So many people get murdered in that series, it's not a pretty universe at all. You as a player don't necessarily actively partake in violence (the sequel though...) but there's a lot of it throughout the games. What Remains of Edith Finch too, some fucked up shit happens in that, I consider that pretty violent.
Even the Outer Wilds is pretty violent, you read about it all the time in the game and ecnounter it everywhere you go (dead bodies), you can crash and die, you can choke to death, get eaten by giant space-woms if you make but a sound. Hell, every 22 minutes everyone dies including you. So yeah, kinda violent.
Even the Outer Wilds is pretty violent, you read about it all the time in the game and ecnounter it everywhere you go (dead bodies), you can crash and die, you can choke to death, get eaten by giant space-woms if you make but a sound. Hell, every 22 minutes everyone dies including you. So yeah, kinda violent.
OP
OP
It was Rez that kind of put me into this mindset, I had been playing the beta version of Rez (K-Project / Vibes) on the Dreamcast out of curiosity and it's got different music, using elements of Underworld tracks such as Rez, Cowgirl & Born Slippy. However, I seem to remember that Underworld didn't want to be associated with any game involving shooting, even in a fairly abstract form and it had me wondering about how deeply ingraining into gaming does conflict go.
Anyway, thanks all, looks like I've got a few leads to pursue!
The Witness for sure is my number 1. It's very rare a game makes me see elements of it everywhere irl.
No Man's Sky is a close second, if it counts. There are elements of violence, but they're very rare, and escaping them is usually the easiest solution rather than engaging (whether that's aggressive fauna on planets, or pirates in space).
Finally, I'll always have a soft spot for Journey. Because I remember it releasing around the same time as Spec Ops: The Line - a game which received a lot of praise for pointing out video games are obsessed with shooting galleries where the player is just asked to murder people and not ask questions. But while Spec Ops was weirdly keen to point out that problem while still... releasing a shooting gallery video game, Journey's devs clearly recognized the same problem but actually took it upon themselves to create a fantastic non-violent video game.
No Man's Sky is a close second, if it counts. There are elements of violence, but they're very rare, and escaping them is usually the easiest solution rather than engaging (whether that's aggressive fauna on planets, or pirates in space).
Finally, I'll always have a soft spot for Journey. Because I remember it releasing around the same time as Spec Ops: The Line - a game which received a lot of praise for pointing out video games are obsessed with shooting galleries where the player is just asked to murder people and not ask questions. But while Spec Ops was weirdly keen to point out that problem while still... releasing a shooting gallery video game, Journey's devs clearly recognized the same problem but actually took it upon themselves to create a fantastic non-violent video game.
Equilinox is a super peaceful nature godsim where you just place plants and animals and watch ecosystems grow (the animals hunt each other sometimes but I wouldn't call it violent at all)
Factorio is a game about optimization and industrialization from manually mining resources to industrializing the planet, just disable the alien bugs to remove any need for violence.
Factorio is a game about optimization and industrialization from manually mining resources to industrializing the planet, just disable the alien bugs to remove any need for violence.
So.. did you just turn this thread into a violent one? I mean, nothing that considerably disturbing happened within the game, so yeah it's peaceful :p
