[HN Gopher] Ask HN: Non-violent video games with great stories?
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Ask HN: Non-violent video games with great stories?
I am looking into video games which I can play myself or with my
kids! Reason is: In real life, I don't like guns, war or
aggression. But when I play games, I often go for FPS or other,
violent games. I wondered why, but it turns out, I am more drawn
to the story of these games than anything else. So I wondered if
there are more games which have a great gameplay and deep story to
keep me engaged and are fun to play which don't have gun or
violence involved.
Author : recvonline
Score : 213 points
Date : 2022-06-04 10:58 UTC (12 hours ago)
| gleenn wrote:
| Untitled Goose Game has a pretty funny (nonverbal) story and is
| fun for kids and not particularly violent.
| sillysaurusx wrote:
| Undertale and Celeste. Shocked undertale was left out.
| slim wrote:
| undertale is ugly
| AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote:
| Probably because Undertale is not really non-violent. Even a
| perfect-pacifist playthrough requires the use of violence.
| sterlind wrote:
| technically true, but the "violence" is like, pressing a
| button when one abstract line overlaps another. it's like
| playing Super Hexagon. about the only thing that makes it
| "violent" is the fact you have to press a button labeled
| Fight, once in the entire game.
| AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote:
| I mean technically all the violence in any video game comes
| down to pushing a button labeled "fight" when you remove
| several layers of complexity and abstraction. That's why
| violence in games isn't such a big deal. Point being, if
| someone specifically asks for a 'non-violent' game, I
| wouldn't recommend a game where the abstraction is
| explicitly attacking and killing characters.
| weavejester wrote:
| By "the use of violence", do you mean violence directed at
| the player, or violence perpetrated by the player?
| bytehowl wrote:
| <spoiler>Asgore destroys your Mercy button.</spoiler>
| laserdancepony wrote:
| Armikrog. Claymation point and click adventure with heck of a
| story and nice riddles.
| teddyh wrote:
| I preferred _The Neverhood_ , its (spiritual) predecessor.
| azalemeth wrote:
| Some (mostly gog.com-based and linux friendly) suggestions:
|
| Astrologaster - essentially an interactive visual novel about a
| Tudor doctor who diagnoses people by looking at the stars.
| Cracking (tudor choir music) tunes.
| https://www.gog.com/en/game/astrologaster
|
| The Talos Principle - a puzzle-em-up which uses the FPS
| perspective but entirely for solving rather hard logic puzzles
| and with little reference to war, but a surprisingly engrossing
| plot - https://www.gog.com/game/the_talos_principle_gold_edition
|
| To the Moon - another essentially visual novel, but in the style
| of a 16 bit RPG - https://www.gog.com/game/to_the_moon. Also, A
| Bird Story, its sequel: https://www.gog.com/en/game/a_bird_story
|
| A Short Hike - a very cute, adventure/exploration game with no
| combat at all - https://www.gog.com/game/a_short_hike
|
| Slipways - a strategy game that scratches the RTS itch, but isn't
| RT and has no combat - https://www.gog.com/game/slipways
|
| Superliminal - a puzzle game entirely based on perspective, again
| with an excellent (if creepy) plot -
| https://www.gog.com/game/superliminal
|
| Gorogoa - an absolutely beautiful visual puzzle game with a
| charming, graphically told plot -
| https://www.gog.com/game/gorogoa
|
| Obduction - an excellent Myst-like puzzle experience that tells a
| lot with no combat - https://www.gog.com/game/Obduction
|
| The Witness - a really surprisingly varied difficulty, excellent,
| puzzle game that has lots of hidden secrets -
| https://www.gog.com/en/game/the_witness
|
| An "honourable mention" would be Caesar III and its open-source
| engines (Julius and Augustus) which, whilst not being combat-
| free, is an entirely combat-optional town-building RTS game where
| the economic-only missions are far, far harder than those where
| you defeat a military enemy. This is arguably true of Roman
| society, as it happens...
| georgefrick wrote:
| The Thief series. It technically has violence... but I play the
| game on the hardest settings and the most you can do is sneak up
| and knock someone out.
| yieldcrv wrote:
| Shadow of the Colossus?
| zach_garwood wrote:
| The point of the game is to brutally murder the colossi.
| yieldcrv wrote:
| and the story is also mediocre, although I liked it a lot
|
| I was thinking that the tranquil nature of the game the
| majority of the time and ambience would help
|
| It is basically a great combination while only partially
| fitting the bill on any prong
| turing_complete wrote:
| I love video games, but consider reading books to you children.
| Much better, deeper stories and less violence!
| ryneandal wrote:
| Reading is great, but there's nothing wrong with kids playing a
| reasonable amount of video games -- numerous studies indicate
| they aid in cognitive development as well.
| [deleted]
| bongobingo1 wrote:
| +1 to this idea. The Halo novels are a great read and you'll do
| some ground work in introducing them to the lore before they
| play the games.
| mysterydip wrote:
| My daughter has really taken to (child-appropriate) graphic
| novels. More engaging as she's learning to read than just
| pages of text. If you have a barnes and nobles nearby, they
| have a whole section just of kids graphic novels now. Way
| better than when I was a kid.
| agentultra wrote:
| Moonglow Bay, Stardew Valley. Full of cute, sad, and lovely
| character vignettes along the way to building your own story.
| awildfivreld wrote:
| * This war of mine.
|
| While it does take place in a war zone, you play from the
| perspective of the civilians that are trapped within a besieged
| city and struggle to survive. Violence here is incredibly
| dangerous for survival, and should be avoided at all costs.
|
| * Papers please
|
| You play as a border control employee that must validate that all
| people crossing the border have the correct documentation. Due to
| the nature of the environment there will be some guns/violence
| involved, but it is by far not the main focus of the game. Glory
| to Arstotzka.
|
| These games may not be to your liking, depending on how hard you
| are on the "NO gun/violence" requirement. These approach the
| topics from a more civilian view than other games.
| [deleted]
| DonBarredora wrote:
| Duke Nukem 3D, superb story.
| noasaservice wrote:
| "Yer face, yer ass? Whats the difference?"
|
| Definitely a classic!
| b0bb1z3r0 wrote:
| yewenjie wrote:
| Monument Valley
| adamrmcd wrote:
| I loved playing The Witness with my daughter.
|
| "Where are the bad guys?" "No one is here, honey. Just us."
|
| Reminds me I should revisit Myst and Riven.
| Night_Thastus wrote:
| If you enjoy myst-likes I'd also recommend Quern. Very good.
| MobileVet wrote:
| Does Not Commute is an absolute stitch. The story is often
| overlooked as the game mechanic is fairly novel as well. One of
| my favorite mobile games of all time.
|
| https://apps.apple.com/us/app/does-not-commute/id971756507
| krallja wrote:
| The same group made PinOut!, which is a quite good "infinite
| runner" pinball game.
| elil17 wrote:
| "Stacking" is a fun little game about Russian dolls fighting
| against child labor. There is violence, but more in a slapstick
| sort of way (it's rated E10+).
| dustymcp wrote:
| My little pony: A Maretimebay adventure is a platformer with a
| story for the younger kids, its very much liked here now.
| mwcampbell wrote:
| Depending on how old your kids are, text-based interactive
| fiction (that is, games in the style of 80s text-based games from
| Infocom and the like) could be fun and also educational.
| Thaumistry [1] is a particularly easy commercial game in that
| genre. When it comes to non-commercial IF, I particularly had fun
| with Counterfeit Monkey [2], and it has a good story IMO. There
| may be a little killing in both of these games; I don't remember
| for sure. But there certainly isn't copious violence as in an
| FPS.
|
| [1]: http://www.thaumistry.com/
|
| [2]: https://ifdb.org/viewgame?id=aearuuxv83plclpl
| karlwilcox wrote:
| Try "Lake", I found it really absorbing and the greatest peril is
| driving a mail truck that can't hit anything.
| drusepth wrote:
| I just started Lake a few days ago and love it so far. It's
| free to claim on Stadia Pro right now.
| Fire-Dragon-DoL wrote:
| Dyson Sphere Program.
|
| Like Factorio, in space, no combat.
|
| From my perspective better than factorio and traveling in space
| is always amazing
| barrysteve wrote:
| To the moon
|
| Psychonauts
|
| Full throttle (gritty tone, one scene of bike fighting)
|
| Point n click adventures e.g. Monkey island and Indiana jones
| series
|
| There's a lot of nonviolent puzzle games. Like portal,
| superliminal, antichamber, stanley parable, ect.
| egypturnash wrote:
| Psychonauts is gorgeous and magical but also has a _huge_
| number of little dreamland inhabitants who want to beat the
| snot out of you, and whom you must defeat with your various
| psychic powers.
| awildfivreld wrote:
| To the moon is one of the two games where I legit shed some
| tears at the end. That game (and its sequel, Finding paradise)
| are hands down the best story games I have ever played.
| evan_ wrote:
| Full Throttle is one of my favorite games of all time but there
| is a fair bit of gunplay and a scene that gets revisited
| several times where a man beats an elderly man to death with
| his own cane
|
| If you're OK with that though the Lucasarts point and click
| games are really good.
| bullen wrote:
| I helped make Meadow, a non toxic MMO where you basically run
| around as different animals.
|
| It has maybe around 10 players during the evening in Europe now
| so it pretty empty (designed for worlds of 50 players max) but
| it's very calm and wholesome.
|
| You only communicate with emoticons and the story is none unless
| you count role playing as story.
| yieldcrv wrote:
| Death Stranding
|
| Although having grim theming, the creator specifically wanted a
| game not focused on violence and instead for a symbol of
| "togetherness".
| b0bb1z3r0 wrote:
| antlermouse wrote:
| There are a fair amount of good mobile games that are nonviolent
| with good, resonant stories. As a bonus, touch controls are
| usually simple enough to pass back and forth. These games are
| usually smaller; Apple Arcade is a good way to sample many of
| them without any free-to-play upselling.
|
| A few nice examples of story-rich games on mobile:
|
| Monument Valley, Assemble with Care, Guildlings, Alba: A Wildlife
| Adventure, Pilgrims, Mutazione
| bananaoomarang wrote:
| Outer Wilds I think has a great story, and is a modern evolution
| of a Myst point and click sort of thing with more physics. The
| base game I think is suitable for kids but may be difficult to
| play, the DLC on the other hand is pretty creepy so maybe not for
| kids!
| gwinsyth wrote:
| I haven't played the DLC, but base game can be really creepy -
| especially the fog planet (with those fishes or how to call
| them)
| brynet wrote:
| I played through "Forest's Secret" by bynine which is a non-
| violent game, reminiscent of classic adventure games.
| [deleted]
| cricalix wrote:
| Machinarium is a puzzle solver. No major violence (bullying by
| another robot happens).
|
| Cities: Skylines - tell your own story as you build a city.
|
| Farming Simulator - again a "tell your own story" setup, since it
| has no storyline.
|
| Braid is a platformer with neat mechanics, not sure about deep
| story, since I never got far in it.
| shagie wrote:
| > Braid is a platformer with neat mechanics, not sure about
| deep story, since I never got far in it.
|
| This one gets interesting. I believe it safe to say that it
| isn't going to be what you expect. It's not so much a deep
| _narrative_ story but rather a philosophical one.
| yieldcrv wrote:
| Hollow Knight
|
| Although sure, it is 2D Platformer with lots of critters being
| killed.
| Night_Thastus wrote:
| * Buddy Simulator 1984 (has some, but it's not the core)
|
| * The Fall Part 1 and 2. (has some, but again, not the core)
|
| * Later Alligator (very sweet)
|
| * SOMA (horror)
| armcat wrote:
| Gone Home is a beautiful coming of age game, 1st person,
| completely story driven, no violence at all, and some 90s
| nostalgia to go with it.
| pablodavila wrote:
| I haven't finished it but I started playing Sable for a bit.
| There's no attack mechanics at all and it's fun to explore. The
| art style is also very nice to look at IMO.
| soulchild37 wrote:
| Highly recommend Undertale, this game thought me compassion
| andrei_says_ wrote:
| Braid, a platformer based on manipulating time, is great.
|
| Baba is you, a puzzle game having the player change the rules of
| the game is also great. Not a lot of story in this one.
|
| Both have won a bunch of awards - look them up.
| arminiusreturns wrote:
| Check out Abzu and Journey. I almost always play fighting games
| and found Abzu such a breath of fresh relaxing air that I started
| digging into the makers and realized they had been doing really
| cool things like tying in the lore from other videos games they
| made into each other, releasing their orchestral compositions,
| etc.
|
| Another one I haven't played but I've seen a lot of; Stardew
| Valley.
| annnoo wrote:
| Maybe not the greatest story but definitely one of the loveliest
| games I've played was A Short Hike.
|
| It is a kinda short (~5-6h) feel good game in which you more or
| less just have to explore a holiday island and meet different
| other Animals
|
| The developer held a talk on the GDC how he made the game:
| https://youtu.be/ZW8gWgpptI8
| enduser wrote:
| It's on sale right now at GOG.
| SteveNuts wrote:
| Dreamfall: The Longest Journey
| chaosbutters314 wrote:
| spiritfarer
| jaggs wrote:
| Stray is out next month. You play a cat in a distopian world of
| robots. Looks very interesting.
| professorsnep wrote:
| Bit late but:
|
| To The Moon (and the subsequent A Bird Story, Finding Paradise,
| and Imposter Factory): Wonderful series of games that focuses on
| narrative. Amazing soundtrack and good recurring cast of
| characters.
|
| Firewatch: Beautiful game set in the wilderness with pretty much
| your only interactions being over the radio with your boss who
| you never meet face to face. Focuses on the relationship with
| your boss and the theme of escapism.
|
| Heaven's Vault: Great game that focuses on exploration and
| discovery. It shines with the small, focused stories you'll run
| into on different planets while piecing together an ancient
| language and the mysteries of the universe.
| cassac wrote:
| I find most of these are for older kids maybe, Outer Wilds and
| Witness may be too much for younger kids. One game my kids became
| entranced watching me play is The Last Guardian.
| planckscnst wrote:
| What Remains of Edith Finch is a waking sim that includes a
| series of stories, each from the viewpoint of members of a
| family. It is one of the most memorable games I've ever played.
| trasz wrote:
| This. Also Ethan Carter and Everybody's Gone to the Rupture.
| egypturnash wrote:
| Major caveat: the fish-slicing sequence.
|
| Also it is a series of little vignettes about how an entire
| family died.
| constexpr wrote:
| Carto was a blast and really well made. Loved the humor and world
| building, and the puzzles were satisfying.
| Mumps wrote:
| I think Limbo might fit the bill (albeit you "fight" a monster in
| it. Maybe give the trailer a look). It's about 3 hours of
| beautiful gameplay, nonetheless.
| tobr wrote:
| Wow no? Limbo is extremely violent. It's death scene after
| death scene.
| krallja wrote:
| You have to throw the corpse of a child into a pool so the
| monster won't kill you. This is a fucked up game to play with
| kids.
| optimiz3 wrote:
| There's a lot of stuff that can scare kids in Limbo. Worms
| falling out of the sky burrowing into your skull and taking
| control of your body come to mind. Deaths are gruesome too.
| mcphage wrote:
| Spiritfarer. You play a character ferrying spirits around the
| afterlife, building up your boat and crafting items to meet their
| needs, until they're finally ready to move on. There's no
| violence, and the dialog is beautiful and sad. I highly recommend
| it.
| sterlind wrote:
| Spiritfarer absolutely gutted me. my partner and I couldn't
| finish it, it was so heavy.
| mcphage wrote:
| I was surprised early on in the story--I expected it to be
| about helping these characters find peace before they move
| on, but so often they don't.
| bemmu wrote:
| I play a lot of games with my 6yo, our top suggestions:
|
| 1. Chuchel (point&click about a funny creature in pursuit of a
| cherry)
|
| 2. Donut County (drop things into a hole that gets bigger)
|
| 3. The Henry Stickmin Collection (classic multiple choice 2D
| animated Flash game extended, funny)
|
| 4. Superliminal (very imaginative space distortion puzzle, adult
| help needed)
| aaronblohowiak wrote:
| +1 to donut county!!!
| myfonj wrote:
| Along the Chuchel, the rest of the production of Amanita design
| comes to mind: Machinarium, Botanicula and the Samorost series
| especially.
|
| https://amanita-design.net/games.html
| eps wrote:
| Machinarium is a masterpiece.
| sogen wrote:
| Be a hole
| wly_cdgr wrote:
| I suggest you re-examine your taste as violence is a big part of
| every good story ever told
| croo wrote:
| A very good point&click adventure/crime game is Raven:legacy of a
| master thief. The Broken Sword series are very good story wise.
| Monkey Island series and Indiana Jones & the Fate of Atlantis are
| great games (even if a little dated.)
| piersj225 wrote:
| I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the Lego games, Harry Potter
| and Marvel variations are a lot of fun
| bombcar wrote:
| The Lego games humor is surprisingly good, and they're quite
| forgiving to playing _with_ children.
| AtlasBarfed wrote:
| It's cartoon violence, but the gameboy ones I played had
| plenty of violence.
|
| Vader can force choke other minifigs to death.
| jonnycomputer wrote:
| I was going to recommend Star Control UrQuan Masters, an old
| classic with great story telling, but it does feature combat
| between space-craft, so I'm not sure it meets your criteria.
|
| http://sc2.sourceforge.net/
| Fire-Dragon-DoL wrote:
| I'm struggling myself to find videogames for my daughter (almost
| 4). She played Kirby star allies and Yoshi's Crafted World (both
| finished now), but after that I've been struggling to find any
| meaningful game that had the right difficulty, right theme and
| didn't have the requirement of being able to read.
|
| I avoid all tablet games because there is too much garbage.
|
| Anyway, depending on the age of your kids, those two have
| "cartoon violence", yoshi throwing eggs, not sure if you would
| count it as that.
|
| Does super mario count as violent with jumping on monster heads?
| kule wrote:
| FYI some games my son has enjoyed that had reasonable
| difficulty and/or co-op so we can play together:
|
| * Super Mario Odyssey
|
| * Sackboy: A Big Adventure
|
| * Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker
|
| * Paw Patrol Games (gameplay maybe a bit too simple though)
|
| * Overcooked 1 & 2
|
| * Untitled Goose Game
|
| * Ultimate Chicken Horse
|
| * Astro's Playroom
| indrora wrote:
| Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania: Don't get Banana Blitz HD, the
| camera controls suck. If you're unfamiliar with Monkey Ball:
| Monkeys in balls navigate puzzles to get from the start to the
| finish in as little time as possible. Originally an arcade
| game. Sponsored by Dole, the banana people.
|
| Tetris Effect: It's Tetris! With lots of shiny colors! I'm not
| the hugest fan of how they set up the grading system, but it
| has lots of replay value and has lots of no-fail modes.
|
| Abzu: Somber, deep, with bright colors and lots of fish. A
| little eerie in places. No dialog/words.
|
| Journey: Possibly a little mature (despite its Everyone rating)
| for how eerie it is, Journey contains no words. There's spoken
| dialog in a language that nobody knows anymore. [2] reviews.
|
| Offspring Fling: You're a momma fluff who's gotta get her
| little fluffs home! Very little penalty for failure, it's a fun
| sidescrolling platforming game. A few spots might need help
| from a parent to get right.
|
| Echochrome: Think MC Escher, but as a perspective puzzle game.
| PSP/PS3 only, though...
|
| Do you read to your daughter? If she's got the basics of words
| down and you want to work on words being read, heard, and
| having meaning, I have some suggestions!
|
| SkateBird: BIRBS! TECH DECKS! Heckin TRICKS! There's story,
| told in birbish. The difficulty can be turned to super low, the
| assists turned up super high. There's very few "big words"
| anywhere -- most of them are maybe two syllables, and the story
| revolves around "Big Friend". The whole first part of the
| adventure is cleaning up Big Friend's room. You can customize
| the bird you play as. You can, in fact, pet the bird.
|
| Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX: Pokemon, but with a
| focus on... the pokemon? Yeah it's an RPG, and there's fighting
| (like any pokemon game), but it has just enough plot that
| you'll be able to read for your daughter and help her along.
| [1] reviews it.
|
| PIKMIN 3: It's Pikmin, there's really nothing else to say. It's
| cute, it's teamwork, but beware: There's a lot of (vaugely
| useful) dialog.
|
| Katamari Damacy: Not super recommended, but worth a try if
| you're not familiar. The king of all cosmos has gotten himself
| "one with nature" (read: drunk off his petard) and dumped all
| the stars outta the sky. Lots of colors, but the difficulty
| curve is tough for a 4yo. Also there's a loud siren at the end
| of each level as you run out of time that spooked me the first
| time I was playing it.
|
| Here Comes Niko!: You're Niko! Your goal is to make friends!
| Dialog-heavy in places, but with a little adult help,
| definitely doable!
|
| The Unfinished Swan: perhaps a bit artsy, give it a glance and
| see if it's something you and your daughter would enjoy.
|
| [1] https://youtu.be/qrvRbKiLZKI [2]
| https://www.gameinformer.com/games/journey/b/ps3/archive/201...
| mynameishere wrote:
| Here's some unrequested parenting advice, but almost-4 year
| olds do not need video games in their lives.
| Fire-Dragon-DoL wrote:
| OR, you could play videogames and have great bonding moments.
|
| The hand-eye coordination my daughter has is incredible too,
| her creativity is incredible. A lot of in-the-park games are
| a consequence of what we play: one time she grabbed a short
| stick (a wand) and a huge stick (I assume a two handed sword)
| and invited me to go around and defeat monsters and bosses.
| Never played a game like that in the park with her, we
| actually had a great time.
|
| Treat videogames like any other toy.
|
| EDIT: Sorry I'm very bitter on this. People keep treating
| videogames like a special case, but it's like any other toy.
| TV included. Just keep careful eye on your child and
| constantly re-evaluate how toys are impacting them
| gwill wrote:
| TrailMakers is super fun for all ages. You build
| vehicles/contraptions and go around collecting new parts. I
| highly recommend it.
| khyryk wrote:
| Civilization games can have you craft your own story as they're
| really engaging, and you can opt for peaceful victories.
|
| Geneforge games have combat as a mechanic but there are very
| often ways of avoiding or running away that allow for almost
| entirely pacifist completion, and the stories are great.
| somat wrote:
| It may not meet your criteria for non-violent, or I suspect your
| kids requirement for interest but... you never know.
|
| "Return of the Obra Dinn" has some of the finest game story
| telling I have ever experienced, the story it told was ok, a good
| serviceable story, but nothing exceptional. However the way it
| was told was amazing, I found it a highly satisfying experience.
|
| Made by Lucus Pope who also made "Papers Please"
| anotheryou wrote:
| It's pretty graphic (nothing for the kids), but also came to my
| mind immediately.
| germinalphrase wrote:
| I was really enjoying Obra Dinn until I took a break from it. A
| few weeks away, I simply couldn't find my place in the
| story/puzzle/mystery and was too stuck to move on.
| somat wrote:
| I had to binge it for that reason. I kept telling myself to
| slow down, take the time to enjoy it, while actually going,
| hurry up or you will forget important details.
|
| I also find I have to read books in one or two settings, I
| just loose the plot if it takes longer than that.
| WalterGR wrote:
| Games really, really need something to solve this. I can't
| tell you the number of games I've had to start over.
| bluefirebrand wrote:
| More and more games nowadays have a little recap during
| the loading screens when you load a save file.
|
| I've even seen games that explicitly say "you haven't
| loaded this save in a while. Do you want a refresher?"
|
| It's a cool idea and seems to me to solve the problem of
| "where was I" after a break, but it hasn't caught on
| fully yet.
| beebmam wrote:
| The FFXIII series did this really well. I took a year to
| finish FFXIII, and even with its complicated plot I was
| able to follow it because of the recaps that would be
| presented to me every time I'd start the game up. I think
| it's the best Final Fantasy ever made.
| scott_s wrote:
| Dragon Quest 11 did a great job with these recaps.
| Someone else already gushed about how great they are:
| https://www.usgamer.net/articles/dragon-quest-xi-recap-
| featu...
| kadoban wrote:
| A lot of games I feel like just need a way to place
| custom notes and pictures on the map. Kind of like
| pins/stamps in Breath of the Wild, except better.
| jtr1 wrote:
| Obra Dinn is fantastic! I've not encounter anything similar to
| its mechanic elsewhere and I totally agree on the storytelling.
| It is definitely a bit gruesome at parts (although in a lofi
| way), but in service of unraveling a mystery in retrospect
| rather than enacting any sort of violence.
| yieldcrv wrote:
| Journey
| quadcore wrote:
| Myst and its sequel Risen. Myst used to be the most sold game
| ever.
| rgrs wrote:
| Age of Empires series. It is like taking History lessons with
| strategic thinking skills.
| skyfantom wrote:
| Wow, I used to play Age of Mythology a lot. Apart from god plot
| it had cool god's fighting scenes.
| indrora wrote:
| I wrote [1] targeting some younger audiences, but here's some
| more "mature" (teens and up, I'd wager) ones for you, OP:
|
| Tacoma: I saw this mentioned but it's absolutely worth a shot.
| The gameplay is distinctly well built and the story is superb.
| Tacoma is best experienced with one person playing the game and a
| few others trying to figure out what's going on silently, or
| collaboratively.
|
| Gone Home: From the same people that did Tacoma, a story that
| explores what happens when you have to unravel a few family
| secrets you didn't realize you had to conquer.
|
| Oxenfree: Something is wrong, and the story doesn't let on what
| exactly. I had to play this
|
| 2067: Read Only Memories. Point and click adventure game that
| covers some extremely mature topics in an approachable way.
| Racism, classism, the pressure of being a minority, all these
| come up. You're a writer turned unwitting detective when a rogue
| AI breaks into your house and begs you to help find the killer.
|
| Opus Magnum, and any of the other Zaktronics games: They're
| absolutely nerdsniping, with deep techincal lore that makes you
| think long and hard about an answer. Opus Magnum is absolutely a
| game that you will spend some time trying to optimize down to a
| tee.
|
| Orwell: You, civilian, have been tasked with assisting the
| training of an online learning AI to help categorize and assist
| in law enforcement. How much free will you have in that
| process... well, that's not for you to decide. (n.b. I had to set
| this one down for a while; There came a time where I felt like I
| was fighting the central conceit of the game before I let it go)
|
| Snakeybus: you are bus. you collect passengers. More deliveries
| of passengers = longer bus. You see where this is going. The
| physics engine is... part of the charm.
|
| Snapshot: What if cameras could transpose a whole world? Side
| scrolling platformer, but where you can snag a snapshot of the
| world to grab items out later.
|
| Slipstream: A classic OutRun Arcade title, thrown in since it's
| cheap and a great mind-melter. Unlike OutRun, however, it doesn't
| make things unfair... Any failures are your fault, not because
| the game wanted to screw you over.
|
| Later Alligator: A slightly paranoid alligator is worried
| someone's taken out a hit on him. The question: Who?
|
| Eversion: Mario clone but with the warning that not all is right.
| Cute turns to creepy.
|
| VVVVVV: vvvvvv
|
| Night In The Woods: There's no way around recommending this game,
| it's just so well written. Not a lot of action but some
| definitely mature conversations about accepting growing up.
|
| Verlet Swing: Vaporwave speedrunning game where you catapult
| yourself off things by leveraging momentum.
|
| The Stanley Parable: This is the story of a man named Stanley.
| The narrator of this story is not Stanley.
|
| [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31625287
| marginalia_nu wrote:
| Disco Elysium perhaps? Like there is some rare instances of
| violence, but the point of the game isn't to be a violence
| simulator.
|
| Hardly a game for kids though, perhaps mostly because they
| wouldn't be able to relate to the world or its characters.
| pvg wrote:
| A dead person hanging from a tree a few minutes in. There's
| lots of violence in the game.
| marginalia_nu wrote:
| Violence isn't the point of the game, but the gritty
| backdrop.
|
| It's a philosophical treatsie thinly disguised as a game
| about a cop with a mid life crisis.
| pvg wrote:
| Sure but it permeates the whole thing. It's a violent game,
| you just don't happen to be the agent of the violence.
| Still the opposite of 'non-violent game'.
| marginalia_nu wrote:
| Right, but if you actually read the OP and not just the
| title, you'll find they're not actually looking for non-
| violent games for the sake of non-violence, but that they
| don't particularly enjoy that shooty-stabby aspect of
| game-play and prefer a more narrative experience.
|
| Disco Elysium is one of the better examples of such an
| experience. You're quite literally debating your way
| through every problem in the game, from gunfights to the
| failure of communism to self-loathing and crippling
| alcohol addiction.
|
| It's a fascinating diametrical opposite to Doom 2016,
| where your singular mode of interaction is violence.
| Doors, buttons, even quest objectives are all smashed and
| crushed and ripped and torn.
| pvg wrote:
| _but if you actually read the OP_
|
| Yes, when someone asks for games that don't involve
| violence, guns, war and is suitable for playing with
| children, the answer is not 'something that's not Doom'
| but a game that doesn't involve violence, guns, war and
| is suitable for playing with children.
| marginalia_nu wrote:
| Are we reading different threads? I can't find any of
| those specifications.
| yieldcrv wrote:
| They're looking for a game with a great story that
| doesn't have a gun or violence involved.
|
| A core thread of disco is a gun. and meticulously
| scheming violence.
|
| And it's also not for kids in that medium. Very obtuse
| words.
| marginalia_nu wrote:
| Right, but guns and violence and aggression aren't
| portrayed as fun things in Disco Elysium. They are
| portrayed as bad things. I don't understand why people
| are so caught up on kids games when the OP is looking for
| games to play themselves OR with their kids. That "or",
| while not a long word, makes a huge difference.
| yieldcrv wrote:
| the OR is important, maybe I'll suggest Death Stranding
| after all then. Kojima specifically wanted a game not
| focused on violence and instead of symbol of
| "togetherness".
| [deleted]
| ninepoints wrote:
| Oneshot. Absolute masterpiece of a story in my opinion, and no
| violence.
| troon-lover wrote:
| jessetemp wrote:
| Lightmatter is a great first person puzzler that I haven't seen
| anyone here mention. The story is good enough, and if I remember
| correctly, told through audio recordings you pick up along the
| way. Non-violent, but you can die. I really liked the art style
|
| Creature in the Well is a pretty fun adventure/breakout/pinball
| game. Light story. There is some conflict, but it's about as
| violent as pinball
|
| Probably not for the kiddos, but Little Nightmares is great. The
| story is entirely told through ambience, which is dark and
| creepy. A sequel came out recently, but I haven't played it
| aedocw wrote:
| I can't believe nobody else has mentioned It Takes Two. It's one
| of the most imaginative games I have ever played, and my kids and
| I had a fantastic time playing it. Excellent story, creative
| mechanics, and teamwork is required through the whole game.
| anotheryou wrote:
| It involves physical harm and shooting though, even if in a
| child safe manner
| Otek wrote:
| It's not even in child safe manner. There is a character that
| is literally sucking his eyes out.
| out_sider wrote:
| I kinda agree with this , I mean, it would be perfectly
| fine if it wasn't the elephant part. I played this with my
| brother and a friend , we are in our 30s, and I though
| "when I have a kid I'll play this with them"... and then we
| got to the elephant part
| klodolph wrote:
| It is _absolutely not_ a non-violent game. Here's a scene from
| the game:
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12FNU8bNEbE
| henning wrote:
| Mario Odyssey on the Nintendo Switch. Basically any of the major
| Mario games like Mario 64, Sunshine, Galaxy.
| cybg wrote:
| Life is Strange
| shmde wrote:
| It has adult themes. OP is asking for a kid.
| yieldcrv wrote:
| Age range ? Its a teenage game.
| aaronblohowiak wrote:
| Unravel two
| thewebcount wrote:
| You don't say what platform you're on, but if you have Apple
| devices, I've been pretty happy with what's available on Apple
| Arcade. It's not Steam, but there are some real gems there. I was
| really surprised by Stranded Sails, for example. There are a
| bunch of racing games, adventure games, multiplayer party-style
| games, music games, puzzlers, etc.
|
| I will also second the recommendations for the Portal series
| (yes, there are unmanned gun turrets, so take that into account),
| The Witness, Talos Principal, etc. All very good, fairly non-
| violent, interesting and fun.
| llimllib wrote:
| FWIW, my kids (5 and 7) loved Portal until the gun turrets were
| too scary for them
| whateveracct wrote:
| Paper Mario 1 & 2
| christkv wrote:
| Journey, flower, Minecraft, Astroneers
| Night_Thastus wrote:
| They mentioned a good story though. Do those first 3 have any
| at all? It's been awhile and I loved Journey, but I don't
| remember a story. MC definitely doesn't.
| awildfivreld wrote:
| Journy does not explicitly tell a story, but it allows you to
| try to figure it out for yourself.
|
| What is the character? What is it doing? What are those?
| During gameplay, you might reason to possible answers.
| christkv wrote:
| Depends the Minecraft store has a ton of story driven content
| dougmwne wrote:
| Subnautica is fantastic. A very nice mysterious story and amazing
| atmosphere. I think you might be able to kill the sea creatures,
| but I didn't as it is really not the point. If you don't have
| Thalassophobia yet, you will by the end!
| gpanders wrote:
| Seconded, Subnautica was an amazing experience. One of my all
| time favorites, though I'm not sure if it's a good fit to play
| with your kids (or even with other people in general). The best
| part of the game is the atmosphere it creates, which means the
| best way to enjoy it is to really immerse yourself in the
| experience.
| shog_hn wrote:
| Another vote for subnautica. Best non-violent game that comes
| to mind first for me.
| uejfiweun wrote:
| Agreed. And highly recommend playing with music turned off for
| the most immersive experience IMO. I have some unforgettable
| moments from that game.
| user3939382 wrote:
| The 7th Guest
| swivelmaster wrote:
| A Night In The Woods. Don't let the cute art fool you: It's a
| deep story that touches on mental illness, economic inequality,
| and other heavy topics... but not in a way that would be too much
| for a curious young teen. There's a bit of violence in the story
| but this is basically 80s kid movie level intensity stuff.
| swivelmaster wrote:
| Some shorter/smaller games:
|
| A Short Hike (haven't played it but heard great things)
|
| Signs of the Sojourner: A brilliant game about going on bus
| trips to trade and collect merchandise for a local store, but
| the core gameplay is conversation represented by collectible
| cards. The catch is that you can only carry a limited number of
| them, and the change in your deck over time represents the way
| leaving home for the first time changes a person... perhaps so
| much that when they return, they can't relate to their old
| friends anymore.
| addled wrote:
| My kids and I had a great time going through the first 3 Monkey
| Island games. The Remastered versions of 1 & 2 with full voice
| acting helped keep my kids engaged.
|
| They we pretty stoked to see Ron Gilbert's announcement that he's
| making another game in the series.
| swivelmaster wrote:
| I LOVED Secret of Monkey Island when I first played it, and I
| think I was maybe eight or nine years old.
| bombcar wrote:
| They technically have a bit of cartoon violence, but they're
| very good.
|
| Portal doesn't have guns or violence as such, but not much of a
| story either - quite fun.
| bongobingo1 wrote:
| Portal has machine gun turrets that shoot you until you are
| dead. The entire end is pretty violent, probably act 2-3
| really.
| bombcar wrote:
| Yeah, depends on if you count "enemy violence" vs violence
| you inflict yourself ( though if I recall getting a turret
| to shoot another turret was sometimes an option even in
| Portal ).
| wild-eep wrote:
| The Last Guardian
|
| Inside
|
| Journey
|
| Kentucky Route Zero
|
| Firewatch
| nskvortsov wrote:
| "It takes two" has marvelous story and definitely is not violent
| the_svd_doctor wrote:
| Just discovered it yesterday. Had an awesome time playing it
| with my wife. Can only recommend
| rzimmerman wrote:
| "Unpacking" (on Switch - not sure where else) is a really
| beautiful game where you unpack a young woman's things into her
| new living space at different points in her life (moving in to
| college, with roommates, a boyfriend, etc) and learn her life
| story. It's quick but we'll worth it.
| alisonatwork wrote:
| Most point and click adventure games fit the bill, assuming you
| are okay with occasional slapstick or cartoon violence when
| solving a puzzle. Some of the more serious adventure games
| feature murder/detective storylines, which may or may not work
| for you.
|
| Walking sims also rarely feature you, the player character,
| committing acts of violence, although - again - they often they
| take place in an environment where violence is a backdrop. I
| think this happens in a lot of games, because violence is an easy
| way of creating drama. However, I generally prefer these games
| that feature a violent backdrop to games where you are actually
| doing the violence, because they tend to address it in a way that
| better reflects how we deal with trauma in real life.
|
| Some suggestions: Deponia series, Dreamfall series, Life is
| Strange series, Edna and Harvey series, The Inner World series,
| Nelly Cootalot series, Space Pilgrim series, Blackwell series,
| The Journey Down, Anna's Quest, Jenny LeClue, Sumatra: Fate of
| Yandi, Milkmaid of the Milky Way, Firewatch, Tacoma, Draugen,
| Everybody's Gone to the Rapture... There are tons of games like
| this. Some of these might have a death or two along the way that
| you might click into or through, but none of them felt like
| gratuitously violent games per se, at least nothing close to
| shooters and RPGs.
| jrussino wrote:
| > In real life, I don't like guns, war or aggression. But when I
| play games, I often go for FPS or other, violent games
|
| An old friend of mine is working on a game called "Air Hares",
| motivated by a very similar concern to the one you've expressed.
| You might appreciate this:
|
| "Why I Created a Non-Violent Shmup Video Game"
|
| https://www.gamedeveloper.com/production/why-i-created-a-non...
| bitL wrote:
| Mirror's Edge might be close, it's basically a parkour game with
| a nice story with some restricted violence (the whole game can be
| done without killing anyone).
| hnthrowaway0315 wrote:
| Syberia is a good one.
| btschaegg wrote:
| If you deem beating up three bosses and the occasional exploding
| snail still tolerable, I'd like to nominate Yoku's Island Express
| :)
| nyoomboom wrote:
| Gris is my go-to favourite for a relaxing, non-violent adventure
| mcphage wrote:
| I love this game, it's absolutely beautiful. Although in
| regards to the original question, the story is much more
| abstract.
| spoiler wrote:
| The story is abstract in the sense that it might go over a
| child's head, but there's definitely a deep story in it about
| coping with loss
| mcphage wrote:
| Ah, interesting--it might have gone over my head as well. I
| did at least pick up that it was coping with loss, but I
| don't remember picking up any specifics beyond that. What
| did I miss? And does it involve picking up all of the
| collectables? I've tried repeatedly, but whenever I start
| playing, my kids want to play too, and inevitably restart
| the game.
| spoiler wrote:
| Hmm, the way I used "deep" is in the sense that it's
| meaningful, not that there's a deep/rich storyline. The
| depth I was talking about is that it shows going through
| stages of grief.
|
| [SPOILERS AHEAD]
|
| [SPOILERS AHEAD]
|
| [SPOILERS AHEAD]
|
| (no username pun intended)
|
| As she is grieving, the world is bland and she's lost her
| voice in the world. As she processes grief, her voice and
| powers come back to her. The world represents human
| perception, while her voice and her powers represent how
| we interact with the world. Eg, as we grieve our
| perception is diminished, and our ability to handle/do
| things is also diminished.
|
| The little cute creature that come and help you are a
| metaphor that it's okay to let friends in and that they
| can help you through your grief.
|
| The "enemies" are the dark side of grief, the ones that
| tries to pull us down and makes recovery harder. So,
| depression, anxiety, and just "brain demons" (eh dark
| thoughts) in general.
|
| [END OF SPOILERS]
|
| There's other elements that I think also act as good
| metaphors, but I don't want to make the post too long.
|
| Also, I discovered the game during a difficult time, so I
| could just be looking into it too much. Lol
|
| Edit: wordsmithing
| DonHopkins wrote:
| The Sims has always been about TELLING great stories.
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjuOSgPdtS0
|
| >Emergent Storytelling Techniques in The Sims: In this 2018 GDC
| session, Maxis EA's Matt Brown examines the various techniques
| employed across all four generations of The Sims to empower
| player-driven and emergent storytelling.
|
| https://forums.thesims.com/en_us/discussion/862499/the-art-o...
|
| >The Art of Sims Storytelling
|
| >@CathyTea and I were talking, and we thought we'd try making a
| thread that would be focused solely on writing, especially Sims
| story writing. The writers' lounge thread is great for being a
| lounge, but a separate space for more in-depth discussions with a
| slower pace and less immediate burying of posts could be good
| too. :)
|
| >I'm not good at making lists and rules, but here are some
| suggestions for things to talk about here:
|
| >the process of writing Sims stories
|
| >the Sims story community
|
| >how Sims literature fits into the greater literature community
|
| >how we use the game as a medium for storytelling
|
| >the imagery and themes in our work, and also possibly how they
| are influenced by the game
|
| >what it means to be a reader of Sims literature
|
| >the expectations or lack thereof that we have of Sims stories
|
| >the history of Sims storytelling and all the genres and their
| relationships to each other
|
| >and really just anything else you can think of that has to do
| with writing and reading and community and art and literature
|
| http://www.digra.org/digital-library/publications/simulating...
|
| >Simulating the Storytelling Qualities of Life: Telling Stories
| with The Sims
|
| >The stories vs. games debate has been prominent during the early
| years of game studies, and few other perspectives have been
| introduced to the discussion. In the paper, Game Researcher and
| Concept Designer Satu Helio from Sulake Corporation introduces
| new concepts with which to approach the supposed divide. She
| argues that concepts such as narrative mindset and social schema
| provide better means to understand game features and player
| motivations regarding such game genres as role-playing games and
| popular game series such as The Sims.
|
| https://www.reddit.com/r/thesims/comments/bchvj6/how_do_you_...
|
| >How do you tell a story in Sims?
|
| >It may seem like a stupid question but people have said before
| what makes Sims 4 better for them is storytelling, which is
| great.
|
| >However whenever I try to think of a storyline or character, I
| initially follow it then I forget and just end up with the same
| old gameplay.
|
| >I think about youtubers who talk about how their sims are
| feeling and what they're thinking but talking to myself whilst on
| the computer doesn't sound all that appealing when there's no one
| listening lol.
|
| >So I was just wondering how do you guys keep your storyline
| going? Do you literally play with it in mind or do you capture it
| somehow?? Please share!
| shawnb576 wrote:
| I really enjoyed The Long Dark. There is some violence and it has
| some adult (non sexual) themes, but it's not primarily about
| fighting, it's a wilderness survival game.
|
| I played it for months and am anxiously awaiting the last
| chapter.
|
| It's rich, engaging, and the visuals are gorgeous.
| sdenton4 wrote:
| I spent a /lot/ of time wandering around in survival mode back
| before they started releasing the story chapters... I should
| give it another run.
| sogen wrote:
| Haven Park
| samstave wrote:
| World of contraptions.
|
| Planet crafter is a grind, but still fun.
| netule wrote:
| Eliza, a visual novel about morality and AI, set in the near
| future. I usually don't play these types of games, but it was
| amazing.
|
| Secondly, The Beginner's Guide. It's a first-person "walking
| simulator" type game with a great story.
| [deleted]
| lukaszkups wrote:
| The Gunk - while the violence there is really marginal, the game
| itself is really charming.
| scott_s wrote:
| Outer Wilds. (Not to be confused with Outer Worlds which came out
| around the same time.) While the game is non-violent in that you
| never actively harm anything, your character will die, a lot, in
| maybe concerning ways (crushed, out of air, crashed, etc). It
| also has a story with themes that may be over your kids' heads.
| Look up reviews to see more.
| Fire-Dragon-DoL wrote:
| Just finished this game and recommend it. There is one spot
| which is somewhat spooky.
|
| Also, skip the DLC together.
|
| Dying is not depicted in bloody ways, should be acceptable even
| for kids of certain age.
|
| A masterpiece indeed
| hesdeadjim wrote:
| This game was an amazing experience and I can't recommend it
| highly enough.
| scott_s wrote:
| I've been playing games most of my life, and it quickly
| became an all-time favorite. Exploring that solar system and
| piecing together the story was an incredible experience that
| I still think about, over two years later. The ending was
| also profoundly moving for me.
| cableshaft wrote:
| Just chiming in to concur. A technical masterpiece and lots of
| fun piecing together the knowledge needed to progress. Blew me
| away that such games exist. Only other game that gave me a
| similar feeling was The Witness.
| the__alchemist wrote:
| Tangent: The Witness is an outstanding non-violent game as
| well, but unfortunately for recs here, doesn't fit due to
| lack of story.
| mattbaker wrote:
| I loved it too. I actually don't agree there's a lack of
| story, but it's certainly subtle. More "poem" than "novel"
| in a way.
| uejfiweun wrote:
| I loved the Witness, but the story seemed straight up
| pretentious. I just stopped listening to the audio logs
| after a while because they were just too long and the VAs
| went too hard, it was distracting and had 0 to do with
| the gameplay.
| loevborg wrote:
| The cassette tapes and clips in the movie theater were my
| favorite part of the game (still haven't unlocked them
| all)
| uejfiweun wrote:
| That's fair - to each their own. For me personally my
| favorite thing was finding those lines of "tutorial
| puzzles" that teach you how certain rules work, and
| suddenly realizing how other puzzles could be solved - I
| got goosebumps from that a lot of times. One thing can be
| said for certain, it's a great game - unfortunately not
| the best replay value though IMO, because you tend not to
| forget the puzzle rules once you figure them out (similar
| to Outer Wilds in this aspect).
| PheonixPharts wrote:
| It's hard for me to express just how incredibly brilliant this
| game is and how beautiful it is to play.
|
| What's incredible to me is that the successfully make a game
| where all of the progress is through information gained while
| exploring, there are absolutely zero artificial barrier to
| progress. Once you know the world, you can finish in one play
| through.
|
| Most games cheat regarding exploration by tying exploration to
| unlocks in the game. As a huge metroidvania fan, this is can
| still be amazing.
|
| It's just nearly unbelievable that the team behind Outer Wilds
| achieved this all through clever construction of the world they
| build.
|
| On top of this you get a very emotionally compelling narrative
| and music that instantly gives me chills when I hear it.
|
| Honestly the _perfect_ game.
| UnchartedSystem wrote:
| Riven is another brilliant game that shares the structure of
| using information about the world as both the purpose and the
| means to exploration.
|
| Outer Wilds excels with creative planets full of adventure,
| while Riven is a slow paced affair that is impressively
| dedicated to creating an intricate world wordlessly.
|
| Without written aids ala the logs in Outer Wilds, gleaning
| insights from disparate information in Riven often means
| scrawling down notes & looking for patterns.
|
| While I highly reccomend Riven for fans of the structure of
| Outer Wilds, Riven is now a dated game that operates at a
| glacial pace. I played it recently at a time that I was
| taking a break from more modern games and I think that did
| wonders for helping me adjust to its conventions & pace. If
| you give it a shot know that it'll demand your patience
| before it'll absorb you into its world.
|
| https://youtube.com/watch?v=bsh_vyAfMuE
| baxuz wrote:
| Just wanted to say this. Probably one of the top 3 games I've
| ever played and I started back in 91.
| Elinvynia wrote:
| To make the confusion a bit worse, there is also a game called
| "Outer Wonders".
| rizoma_dev wrote:
| Damn, I was about to write this
| gww wrote:
| I wish I could forget this game and play through anew.
|
| It does contain spoilers but the games creator wrote a masters
| thesis on this game[1].
|
| [1]
| https://digitallibrary.usc.edu/Share/o7d2vbuapqgd2mkjke8j752...
| NikolaNovak wrote:
| Wow, so that was six years before release date. It's
| fascinating to think that a such a single dedicated endevour
| can be one's focus for a decade + :)
| orangecat wrote:
| I seem to be the only person who was less than thrilled with
| it. The concept is clever, but always being on the clock
| quickly became frustrating. I kept spending half the available
| time getting to the area I was investigating, then frantically
| running around trying to find something new, and if at any
| point I made a wrong turn or the timing wasn't right I'd have
| to wait until the next cycle and redo everything.
| slim wrote:
| Since we're here any recommendations for a two player
| collaborative game I can play with my 4yo son ? I would be
| preferably able to assist/protect him. Right now we are playing
| twinbee and arkanoid for snes
| krallja wrote:
| Bowser's Fury. In this game, Bowser Jr. is immortal, so great
| for a younger player. Also, most of the Super Mario games since
| the Wii have all featured respawn bubbles, where you can't lose
| unless everyone dies at the same time.
| aaronblohowiak wrote:
| Unravel two
| bombcar wrote:
| Check out the Lego games - they're perfectly designed to let a
| good player assist a weaker player without the weaker feeling
| they're doing nothing.
|
| If you emulate - Super Mario Galaxy had "pointer mode" for an
| assist player.
| causality0 wrote:
| You should try A Story About My Uncle.
| Rounin wrote:
| Ico? Although it's got mild violence in it.
| px1999 wrote:
| Although it's kinda buggy, I found Eastshade to fit your
| description well. Its a bit slower than an FPS but has a solid
| story in a well fleshed out world and doesn't involve any
| violence
| jdrek1 wrote:
| - Subnautica
|
| - The Talos Principle
|
| - Portal (1/2)
| 2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote:
| It's difficult to make a video game that's engaging without
| conflict. It's difficult to make conflict compelling without at
| least aggression. I'd consider sports games to have aggression.
| Stardew Valley or Mario Tennis don't even reach this lofty bar.
| yieldcrv wrote:
| and maybe other Harvest Moon games
|
| The earlier things in that franchise are like Stardew Valley
| but they went so far off the rails that the guy made Stardew
| Valley
| mwarkentin wrote:
| A couple I've enjoyed with my young son are Sneaky Sasquatch on
| Apple Arcade and https://chicorygame.com/
| obphuscate wrote:
| The Swapper is a unique experience that has stayed with me for
| years. I think of it often and the feelings it evoked in me.
| Everything is just absolutely perfect: the puzzles aren't so hard
| as to be annoying but challenging enough to get a good dopamine
| kick after completing. The music is calming, ethereal, moving and
| tense all at the same time. The story and endings are
| contemplative and ask deep questions about identity. It is
| amazing. I can't recommend it enough.
| swozey wrote:
| Do you like adventure/point-n-clicks? There are a ton of
| new/modern ones on Steam like Norco:
| https://store.steampowered.com/app/1221250/NORCO/
| Robotbeat wrote:
| Kerbal Space Program doesn't have story, but is amazing.
| Astroneer is less technical, more driven based on manipulation of
| the terrain, and also doesn't have much story but is fun with
| kids.
| joveian wrote:
| Even counting only killing violence can come up in stories that
| aren't generally violent. For example, the Wingspan board game
| adaptation is great but could be seen as fairly violent
| considering the fish and mice shown as food, although even as a
| vegan I find that a quite different feel than the "shoot and kill
| stuff" games (although there is one more graphic card that is a
| bit disturbing). Of course that one doesn't have a story, so not
| really what you are looking for, but I find it relaxing to play
| music plus the bird sounds and it is a fairly quick game once you
| get used to it (AI is a bit slow, though).
|
| I would also say something like Trails in the Sky, while violent
| in a number of different ways, has a quite different feel from
| FPS style violence and has an extremely extensive story (just the
| Sky series is likely 200-300 hours, so not the best
| recommendation when you have kids :/).
|
| I avoid any kind of game with blood (unfortunately no blood
| options are not that common these days), although I find non-red
| blood much less disturbing. In addition to the story there is
| often a strategic element connected to the violence that and I
| appreciate games that try to do more complex stuff without
| violence. Card City Nights is one where there are card game
| battles instead of fighting (there are a few bits of the story
| that make it less enjoyable than it could have been but mostly it
| is wacky in a good way). If there is violence I much prefer it to
| be more cartoony and ideally not involve killing. The old SNES
| Donkey Kong Country games are great at that, not very violent to
| begin with IIRC and the violence is very cartoony.
|
| Story could be considered in maybe four aspects: plot, world
| building, symbolism, and interpersonal interactions. IMO, games
| almost never have a decent plot. I find good world building and
| symbolism to be the most common.
|
| Anyway, enough rambling and to repeat the above suggestions and
| more (with a note that my memory isn't great so I could easily be
| forgetting something):
|
| Good less violent games with some kind of story:
|
| * My Brother Rabbit - hidden object puzzle with minigames
|
| * A Short Hike - platformer with flying mechanic and parkour
| racing
|
| * Rime - finding stuff and light puzzles, heavy symbolism
|
| * Little Bug - two-stick platformer again more symbolism heavy
|
| * Card City Nights - wacky story with card game battles
|
| * NyxQuest - another good platformer with unusual mechanics,
| minimal story
|
| * SNES Donkey Kong Country series - excellent platformers with
| mostly environmental obstacles, minimal story
|
| * Beatbuddy - music synchronized platformer, minimal story
|
| * Calico - cat cafe and a magical island, lots of bugs but cute,
| minimal story
|
| * The Witness - puzzle game, symbolism but not much story
|
| * Botanicula - music heavy adventure game with cartoon violence
|
| * Creaks - puzzle + adventure game with some cartoon volence
|
| Good less violent games with no or almost no story:
|
| * 140 - music synchronized platformer
|
| * Timberborn - sim game with beavers
|
| * Ostriv - traditional Ukranian village sim
|
| * Wingspan - boardgame adaptation
|
| * Cyber Hook - 3d grappling platformer
|
| * Kerbal Space Program - can be quite violent if you aren't
| careful or don't retry when things go wrong :/
|
| Not low volence but good story or setting:
|
| * 8doors - gameplay similar to Hollow Knight with an afterlife
| setting inspired by Korean folktales
|
| * Trails in the Sky - likely most extensive story in a game
| series with turn-based battles and some volent themes in the
| story
|
| There is a DRM-free game store focused on story heavy games
| called Fireflower Games. I think it is run by one person in
| Sweden and has a small selection of mostly adventure games (and
| not necessarily low violence but generally less violent). I
| haven't purchased anything there (not a big fan of adventure
| games) but it might be worth a look.
|
| https://fireflowergames.com
|
| Everything I mentioned is available on GOG, although Calico isn't
| kept up to date there unfortunately.
| rhn_mk1 wrote:
| Most of my choices have already been mentioned, except for The
| Blackwell Series.
|
| Point-and-click adventure games are typically heavy on the story
| side and low on violence, and the biggest problem with them is
| the level of difficulty of puzzles. Blackwell doesn't have
| anything you're going to get stuck on, the actions follow
| logically.
| j7ake wrote:
| Soma: a little creepy because you explore dark underwater
| vessels. But there are no violence, but you may have to run away
| from some enemies that chase you.
|
| Story is amazing. Themes include the identity of "self",
| sacrifice, and future of humanity.
| areoform wrote:
| I am surprised that no one has mentioned Kerbal Space Program.
| Send little green women (and men) into space! You learn about
| physics, celestial bodies etc
| eps wrote:
| It's a good game, but no story line, which is what the OP's
| asking for.
| sambapa wrote:
| Yeah, but sometimes their spaceship explodes with them still in
| it, and OP didn't want any violence /s
| dagmx wrote:
| Flower and Journey by thatgamecompany are short but masterclasses
| in telling story.
|
| Limbo and Inside might also fit your definition. They're dark but
| non violent.
|
| Sackboy, Tearaway and Little big planet do have you defeat some
| baddies but they're also avoidable for the most part.
| onlyrealcuzzo wrote:
| +1 for INSIDE - super dark, but extremely creative.
| JoeyBananas wrote:
| Mario for the NES
| ravenstine wrote:
| Doesn't he stomp on mushroom-men and kick tortoises? That's
| pretty violent.
| babarock wrote:
| And, while it is a great game, I wouldn't call it a great
| story.
|
| The whole story can be summed up with "evil dragon captures
| the princess. Mustachio'ed hero braves danger to save her.
| Plot twist: our princess is in another castle".
| bombcar wrote:
| If you want story get the _Paper Mario_ games - they have a
| much more detailed story line (even if it's still
| relatively simple).
| messe wrote:
| Also probably not a good idea to encourage kids to eat any
| strange mushrooms they find.
| skhr0680 wrote:
| You don't have to kill anything to advance, I try not to
| considering how harmless the chestnut men and how friendly
| the turtles become in later games
| thatjoeoverthr wrote:
| Ace Attorney. You go through witness testimony and identify
| contradictions between their statements and the evidence. The
| stories are nuts and get a bit more nuts every game.
| abetusk wrote:
| I tend to not like story, so the following might fall short of
| the story aspect:
|
| * Fez
|
| * Overcooked
|
| * Animal Crossing
|
| * Untitled Goose Game
|
| * Baba is You (maybe?)
|
| * Snakebird
|
| * Stephen's Sausage Roll
|
| * The Witness
|
| * Rock Band (or it's ilk)
|
| * Bernband (haven't played but looks interesting)
|
| * Slime Rancher
|
| * Mini Metro
|
| * Journey
|
| I would recommend "Unrailed" but there is a bit of violence with
| the robbers that come in that you can kill.
| onion2k wrote:
| Slime Rancher is great. The sequel should be out soon.
| shmde wrote:
| Definitely not Baba is you. Kid is gonna lose his damn mind.
| Trasmatta wrote:
| Or alternatively, they might play it and become super
| interested in programming / logic / automation.
| myself248 wrote:
| Rocky's Boots was aimed at young children, many of whom did
| grow up and do just that.
| abetusk wrote:
| One of the best programmers I know grew up on Rocky's
| Boots.
|
| IA has a playable version [0].
|
| [0] https://archive.org/details/Rockys_Boots_1982_Learnin
| g_Compa...
| craigching wrote:
| Second Fez, such a good game!
| goopthink wrote:
| Animal Crossing, Stardew Valley have a lot of great game
| mechanics and are also about discovery, trade, and building
| relationships.
|
| Factorio is probably a bit more advanced, but meets your criteria
| (except for story, maybe). There is a rabbit hole of games like
| that to go down.
|
| Assassins Creed Origins and Odyssey have "education" modes that
| are about exploring the world and not murder.
|
| The Mario-plus games (Tennis, Racing, Party) tend to be not
| violence oriented, are collaborative, but have super hokey
| stories.
|
| Old school point and click games are definitely up there (Monkey
| Island, Myst) as people have mentioned.
|
| Ico and Shadow of the Colossus do have violence and battle as
| central elements, but not in a COD type of way.
|
| A challenge is that most games rely on competition and conflict
| as core drivers of both the story and the game mechanics. I think
| something like Tomb Raider could easily minimize conflict while
| still retaining a lot of really interesting puzzles, game
| mechanics, and story elements... sometimes playing that game (and
| uncharted) you feel like a mass murderer with the body counts you
| rack up. But other games like Metal Gear Solid are designed to
| allow you to get through them without needing to kill anyone
| (subdue/knock out though). It's also hella hard to do that.
|
| Death Stranding is an interesting one to consider as well. There
| is some violence and extremely dark themes, but aside from the
| boss battles it's really minimal on guns and violence.
|
| Ape Escape for PS1 kind-of fits the mold as well - capturing
| escaped monkeys is a really fun.
|
| Katamari Damacy (spelling?) is really fun as well- you roll up
| things under your magic rolling ball becomes planet sized.
|
| The Ace Attorney series is also almost entirely narrative and
| puzzle.
| y-c-o-m-b wrote:
| > Death Stranding is an interesting one to consider as well.
| There is some violence and extremely dark themes, but aside
| from the boss battles it's really minimal on guns and violence.
|
| Seconded. This "walking simulator" - as they say - unexpectedly
| turned out to be one of my favorite games of all time. The
| story is just magnificent.
| rockwotj wrote:
| I loved playing ape escape on PS1 as a kid!
| kwyjibo1230 wrote:
| Same! I just got an emulator working this weekend for my PC
| and realized I can run the game directly from my original Ape
| Escape disc and use an Xbox controller. It's really bringing
| me back.
| DougMellon wrote:
| > Stardew Valley
|
| Excerpt from Ultralearning by Scott H. Young[0]:
|
| Eric Barone had just graduated from the University of
| Washington Tacoma with a degree in computer science when he
| thought, Now's my chance. He had decided that he wanted to make
| his own video games and that now, before he got comfortable in
| a salaried programming job, was his opportunity to do something
| about it. He already had his inspiration. He wanted his game to
| pay homage to Harvest Moon, a charming Japanese series of games
| in which the player must build a successful farm: grow crops,
| raise animals, explore the countryside, and form relationships
| with other villagers. "I loved that game," he said about his
| childhood experience with the title. "But it could have been so
| much better." He knew that if he didn't follow through with his
| own vision, that improved version would never be a reality.
| Developing a commercially successful video game isn't easy. AAA
| game companies budget hundreds of millions of dollars and
| employ thousands of people on their top titles. The talent
| required is similarly broad. Game development requires
| programming, visual art, musical composition, story writing,
| game design, and dozens more skills, depending on the genre and
| style of game developed. The breadth of skills required makes
| game development much harder for smaller teams than other art
| forms such as music, writing, or visual arts. Even highly
| talented independent game developers generally have to
| collaborate with a few people to span all the skills required.
| Eric Barone, however, decided to work on his game entirely
| alone.
|
| Deciding to work alone came from a personal commitment to his
| vision and an indefatigable self-confidence that he could
| finish the game. "I like to have complete control over my own
| vision," he explained, saying that it might have been
| "impossible to find people who were on the same page" regarding
| the design. However, that choice meant that he would need to
| become proficient in game programming, music composition, pixel
| art, sound design, and story writing. More than just a game
| design project, Barone's odyssey would entail mastering each
| aspect of game design itself.
|
| Pixel art was Barone's biggest weakness. This style of art
| harkens back to the earlier era of video games when rendering
| graphics was difficult to do on slow computers. Pixel art is
| not done with fluid lines or photorealistic textures. Instead,
| a compelling image must be created by placing pixels, the
| colored dots that make up computer graphics, one at a time--
| painstaking and difficult work. A pixel artist must convey
| movement, emotion, and life from a grid of colored squares.
| Barone liked to doodle and draw, but that didn't prepare him
| for the difficulty. He had to learn this skill "completely from
| scratch." Getting his art skills to a commercial level wasn't
| easy. "I must have done most of the artwork three to five times
| over," he said. "For the character portraits, I did those at
| least ten times." Barone's strategy was simple but effective.
| He practiced by working directly on the graphics he wanted to
| use in his game. He critiqued his own work and compared it to
| art he admired. "I tried to break it down scientifically," he
| explained. "I would ask myself, 'Why do I like this? Why don't
| I like that?'" when looking at other artists' work. He
| supplemented his own practice by reading about pixel art theory
| and finding tutorials that could fill gaps in his knowledge.
| When he encountered a difficulty in his art, he broke it down:
| "I asked, 'What goal do I want to reach?' and then 'How might I
| get there?'" At some point in his work on the game, he felt his
| colors were too dull and boring. "I wanted the colors to pop,"
| he said. So he researched color theory and intensively studied
| other artists to see how they used colors to make things
| visually interesting.
|
| Pixel art was just a single aspect Barone had to learn. He also
| composed all of the music for his game, redoing it from scratch
| more than once to make sure it met his high expectations. Whole
| sections of the game mechanics were developed and scrapped when
| they failed to meet his rigorous standards. This process of
| practicing directly and redoing things allowed him to get
| steadily better at all of the aspects of game design. Although
| it lengthened the time it took to complete the game, it also
| enabled his finished product to compete with games created by
| an army of specialized artists, programmers, and composers.
|
| Throughout the five-year development process, Barone avoided
| seeking employment as a computer programmer. "I didn't want to
| get involved in something substantial," he said. "I wouldn't
| have had the time, and I wanted to give game development my
| best shot." Instead, he worked as a theater usher, earning
| minimum wage so that he wouldn't get distracted. His meager
| earnings from his job, combined with support from his
| girlfriend, allowed Barone to get by as he focused on his
| passion.
|
| That passion and dedication to mastery paid off. Barone
| released Stardew Valley in February 2016. The game quickly
| became a surprise hit, outselling many of the big-studio titles
| offered on the computer game platform Steam. Across multiple
| platforms, Barone estimates that within the first year of its
| release, Stardew Valley had sold well over 3 million copies. In
| months, he went from an unknown designer earning minimum wage
| to a millionaire named one of Forbes' "30 Under 30" stars
| within game development. His dedication to mastering the skills
| involved played no small part in that success. Destructoid, in
| its review of Stardew Valley, described the artwork as
| "incredibly endearing and beautiful."6 Barone's commitment to
| his vision and aggressive self-education had paid off
| handsomely.
|
| [0] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44770129-ultralearning
| remram wrote:
| I don't think Factorio counts as non-violent. You might be able
| to make it so via some settings but that would remove a big
| part of the gameplay and challenge.
| Trasmatta wrote:
| My favorite way of playing Factorio is turning off the
| Biters. It's much less stressful and enjoyable for me that
| way.
| KaoruAoiShiho wrote:
| Dyson Sphere Program is similar but definitely non-violent.
| capableweb wrote:
| > that would remove a big part of the gameplay and challenge
|
| That's subjective! Personally, having the biters enabled
| removes a big part of the gameplay for me as suddenly I need
| to focus on being able to defend myself, while for me that
| game is about building as effective factory as possible.
| burnished wrote:
| Oh, you'd lose a challenge certainly but you'd have many more
| remaining besides. Biters provide a nice clock for advancing
| your base by forcing you to progress your military industrial
| complex, but like all Factorio problems you solve it by
| automating the solution. I think the presence or absence of
| biters changes the game less than choosing between default
| worldgen and train worlds.
| crabbygrabby wrote:
| Earthbound snes. Yes you fight things with frying pans, yoyos,
| etc but the only violent scene in the whole game is a fly dies in
| a very dramatic way. All of the fights are turn based without
| violent animations. The story is great, but don't be afraid to
| use a guide the first time through.
| sterlind wrote:
| Undertale too, in a similar genre. You don't have to fight
| almost anyone ever, and that's how you get the best ending.
| Filligree wrote:
| They will fight you, however. There's no shortage of
| violence, you just aren't allowed to fight back.
| wolfram74 wrote:
| I wouldn't say you aren't /allowed/, just that there is
| some attempt to make you feel like there are consequences
| for it.
| VHRanger wrote:
| I would especially playing it on a SNES emulator with both save
| state and fast forward features.
|
| The game is great, but some design elements are really rough.
| It can be brutally difficult at times and at others cringingly
| slow. Both emulator features fix that - I wouldn't play it
| without.
| hoherd wrote:
| Rewind is the best feature to make roms casual. It can be
| configured in a lot of the retroarch emulators. I've been
| using it on snes lately and it's so much better than freezing
| and loading states.
| stevenfoster wrote:
| Assassins Creed Origins has an explore Egypt mode where there are
| no weapons and fighting just seeing things like the Pharohs
| Lighthouse, Library of Alexandria, pyramids of Giza, and the Nile
| River. It's quite nice.
| zagrebian wrote:
| Wandersong
| piceas wrote:
| Never Alone
|
| A puzzle-platformer adventure video game based on the traditional
| Inupiaq tale, "Kunuuksaayuka". Single and two player swapping
| between an Inupiaq girl named Nuna and her Arctic fox companion.
|
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Never_Alone_(video_game)
| knaik94 wrote:
| There's the opposite end of game mechanics in Visual Novel games.
|
| I know having a great story was a condition but I would also
| recommend shallower stories in rhythm based games for playing
| with your kids or alone.
|
| Once the mechanics are learned, you can indulge in a similar
| feeling of accomplishment as with those fun trick shots in fps
| games.
|
| There's OSU!, Arcaea, Rhythm Heaven and a recent one that has a
| story that became really popular is Friday Night Funkin and
| associated mods.
|
| There are classics like portal 1 and 2 for depth in story, but I
| don't see many puzzle games with strong stories.
|
| Real time strategy like age of empires or mythology are violent
| but can be considered somewhat educational because it's based on
| history/myth.
|
| And the following games are shooters but the story is so deep
| that it doesn't feel unreasonable, the Bioshock series and
| Control.
| eulenteufel wrote:
| Anodyne 2 has a unique enjoyable story and is not very violent.
| apgwoz wrote:
| Untitled Goose Game is something my girls (11, 9), played
| collaboratively, and could not put down.
| fold3 wrote:
| This is the best casual game I ever played, it is a really good
| choice for people that are new to video games. In the same
| spirit, I also liked piku niku. The graphics reminds me of a
| cool british illustration magazine called Anorak.
|
| Some other things that comes to my mind are the Katamary Damacy
| series (must play!) and Wattam by Keita Takahashi.
| tapoxi wrote:
| My favorites from the past decade:
|
| Soma, a science fiction horror game around the idea of
| transplanted consciousness. It's a common sci-fi theme but Soma
| handles it much better than most and adds a very interesting
| setting.
|
| What Remains of Edith Finch, not scary, it's a "walking sim" that
| explores a family's surreal curse over generations. It's actually
| really touching.
|
| Disco Elysium, a detective RPG in an interesting fictional "post-
| soviet style" setting. The world building and writing are
| incredible. While it has a sense of melancholy, it can also be
| incredibly funny.
| smolder wrote:
| Disco Elysium is not exactly devoid of violence and aggression,
| even if they aren't central mechanics. It's great storytelling
| but with some mature themes.
|
| Honestly, I thought I'd have an easier time coming up with some
| other suggestions to throw in but there's usually some ass-
| kicking in my favorite story driven games.
|
| The Oni platformer games are a little bit fight-centric but not
| really violent or cruel, and the story is great. Worth looking
| at.
|
| Another decent one I just thought of is Outer Wilds, it's kind
| of a myst-like puzzle game where you just explore the world and
| discover the story as you go.
| ChoGGi wrote:
| Oni? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oni_(video_game)
|
| Or Ori?
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ori_and_the_Blind_Forest
| smolder wrote:
| I meant Ori, yeah! Sorry.
| jszymborski wrote:
| I let it be known to all my close friends that I'll buy them
| a copy of Disco if they ask at a drop of a hat. Easily my
| favourite game.
|
| W.r.t violence, it is indeed present as a murder is the
| center of the story, but it's always in service of a story
| about self-discovery, exploration and a talking tie.
|
| Also, if you like Disco, check out The City & The City [0],
| it inspired DE and is a great time.
|
| [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_City_%26_the_City
| infotropy wrote:
| I have not played Disco yet, but have been tempted. Thanks
| for the comparison to The City & The City, easily one of my
| favorite books and such a mind bend. If you've not watched
| Counterpart with J.K. Simons is very similar in feel, to me
| at least. Shame it was never finished.
| jszymborski wrote:
| I'll take a look at Counterpart! I heard the TV
| adaptation of The City & The City was pretty boring.
|
| I'm reading The City and The City now and there are
| moments and plot lines where it feels like DE is the game
| adaptation of the book.
| vagab0nd wrote:
| Like the other comment said, these are not exactly kid-friendly
| games. But! You just listed 2 of my all time favorite, and the
| other one is on top of my to-play list. Please list more games!
| silisili wrote:
| Turing Test isn't necessarily a great story, but is interesting
| to play.
|
| The Trine games are pretty fun if you like platformers.
|
| Get Packed is a hilariously fun couch coop.
|
| Sorry if I'm not specifically hitting the nail on the head, every
| game I can think of with an awesome story has some amount of
| violence in it.
| nextaccountic wrote:
| there's grim fandango remastered on steam, it's a blast
|
| stardew valley has some violence but it's not the focus of the
| game (it's a farming simulation), you only has to fight if you go
| to the caverns with monsters, but you can play the game without
| doing this (you just won't have minerals for tools and cash)
|
| i will second the suggestion of world of go
| jamal-kumar wrote:
| Grim Fandango was such a beautiful game. I played it when it
| came out in the 90s and was just incredibly impressed by how
| artful it was.
| bombcar wrote:
| Grim Fandango is great, though it does have people getting
| "sprouted" by the flowerguns.
| nextaccountic wrote:
| oh, if you have a playstation, journey is AMAZING. it can also
| prompt age-appropriate conversations about life and death
| magpi3 wrote:
| Stories involve conflict, and almost all conflict in video games
| are going to resemble violence in some way. Even the Super Mario
| games are violent if you want to look at them that way. If
| fantasy violence is okay, then Nintendo Zelda and Mario games are
| probably the best route.
|
| Although a game like Mario Party might be the most fun non-
| violent option to play with kids (disclaimer: I have never played
| it).
|
| EDIT: And Mario Kart of course. One of the greatest games to play
| with kids of all time. No story of course.
| belfalas wrote:
| It is quite old school at this point but I loved The Longest
| Journey for a classic adventure throwback.
| jtode wrote:
| Obvious classic is the Myst series, or rather, the first three of
| the series that were created by the Miller brothers. The less
| said about 4&5 the better.
|
| Cyan, their company, has been producing new titles, Obduction was
| quite good.
|
| Your character is in danger but you don't shoot or kill, at least
| not excessively.
| gravypod wrote:
| First person:
|
| - Portal & Portal 2
|
| - Outer Wilds
|
| - The Talos Principle
|
| - Antichamber (I haven't finished this)
|
| - Quern - Undying Thoughts
|
| - Myst Remastered
|
| - Infinifactory
|
| Platformers:
|
| - Braid
|
| - FEZ
|
| I don't even know:
|
| - TIS-100
|
| - EXAPUNKS
|
| - World of Goo
|
| Violent but in a different way:
|
| - Inscryption (do not look anything up about this game)
|
| - Stone Story RPG
|
| - Hollow Knight
|
| Pretentious story but extremely fun puzzles (except one.... you
| know which one it is jblow):
|
| - The Witness
| teddyh wrote:
| Superliminal seems to belong in that list.
| AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote:
| I don't think The Witness is pretentious. Pretentious means
| "attempting to impress by affecting greater importance, talent,
| culture, etc., than is actually possessed", but The Witness
| really is as deep and meaningful as it acts like it is if one
| bothers to be open to all it is saying in all of the ways it is
| saying it.
|
| > except one.... you know which one it is jblow
|
| I found several to be un-fun, but yes, that's part of how Jon
| explores the conceptual space of a puzzle. If he didn't include
| those puzzles then he feels the exploration would be
| incomplete. The player would be left wondering "What if..." and
| I think these puzzles are sort of Jon's way of saying "That
| would suck. Trust me, I checked.".
| VHRanger wrote:
| What would suck is a 1hr long puzzle forcing you to listen to
| a lecture and if you misclick at any point being forced to
| restart the whole hour
|
| Yes, truly that WOULD suck
| AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote:
| Yes, exactly. Hmm... maybe, and hear me out here, just
| maybe there isn't a lot of value in completionism for
| completionism's sake?
| [deleted]
| db48x wrote:
| Which is why it's optional.
| gravypod wrote:
| > "attempting to impress by affecting greater importance,
| talent, culture, etc., than is actually possessed"
|
| I think the critiques in this video [0] sum up my main
| feelings about the game. The puzzles are fantastic. The
| <spoiler> puzzles are fantastic. The movement, environment,
| graphics, etc are all fantastic. But, the "story" and
| "message" of the game can be interpreted in many ways. It is
| art in the sense that everyone gets something different from
| it. But it is pretentious because, if everyone gets something
| completely different from your "experience", you really
| didn't convey anything. That's what most people (I think) are
| talking about when they say "<art> is pretentious".
|
| [0] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZokQov_aH0
| AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote:
| I haven't watched that video, although many people do
| reference it[0], in part because its clickbaity nonsense
| title leaves me with a poor impression of the creator.
|
| It would be pretentious if Jon's intention had been to
| throw a bunch of crap out there and then say "it means what
| you want it to mean", but I don't think that's what Jon
| did. Jon did what artists do: they take ideas that can be
| difficult to express simply and they try to express them in
| art. That any individual can come away from the work with
| one experience or another is just how the world is. We all
| exist in our own contextual bubbles that inform our
| interpretation of the things around us, and while an artist
| can try to communicate the meaning more clearly they will
| find, like Heisenberg, that precision in one aspect ensures
| imprecision in another. And yes, these are all themes
| expressed in the game itself, though by no means the only
| ones.
|
| When I see criticism like this, I can't help but feel like
| some people just can't stand that there isn't some
| definitive documented interpretation, some twist ending
| that makes it all makes sense. Like it's a twilight zone
| episode or something.
|
| [0] Actually, I've only ever seen people link to it and try
| to claim its ideas as their own. I don't know about you,
| but I'm especially disinclined to take "here, read this
| link" seriously if it is the sum totality of an argument.
| anotheryou wrote:
| + for "World of Goo"
|
| so fun
| Freak_NL wrote:
| _The Talos Principle_ is also quite relaxing. The puzzles,
| which are clever and interesting, could have been implemented
| in any setting, but I found the 'roman/egyptian ruins in the
| sun' atmosphere quite soothing.
| nextaccountic wrote:
| The lore of The Talos Principle is incredible (though you only
| get to know most of it in the end, and finishing this game is
| hard). Unlike The Witness, it has earned the right to be
| pretentious (but actually isn't)
| orangecat wrote:
| _The lore of The Talos Principle is incredible_
|
| Yes. That message about the pets, oof.
| junon wrote:
| I can second Talos Principle. One of my favorite games of all
| time.
| gordon_freeman wrote:
| A few years ago I played 'Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons' [0] and
| it was a great experience. The game design centers around pretty
| good storytelling and with a single player you co-op two
| brothers.
|
| [0]
| https://store.steampowered.com/app/225080/Brothers__A_Tale_o...
| onlyrealcuzzo wrote:
| I thought the game was designed for two people to share a
| single controller??
| gordon_freeman wrote:
| it works that way too! ;)
| eismcc wrote:
| Broken Age
| ropeladder wrote:
| Seconding this! Broken Age is a really solid adventure game
| that got a bit of a bad rap because of Kickstarter delays etc.
| It's a (dual) coming of age story that kept my partner and I
| fully engaged, and my partner has pretty high standards for a
| good story. I think it would be great for kids.
| chupchap wrote:
| I love everything by Nintendo for this reason. I would also look
| at genres like racing and sports where you have a lot of non-
| violent options.
|
| Then there are platformers like Ori and fun games like
| Overcooked.
|
| If you're looking for games with a creative spark there's always
| Minecraft and if you want to throw in some problem solving into
| the mix, checkout Cities Skylines or any of the games in the
| Tycoon series. These games might be single player but it can be
| played by a committee if you know what I mean
| vq wrote:
| - Photopia - The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
| - Kerbal Space Program (less deep story, more fun, engaging and
| educational)
| brycewray wrote:
| There are lots of good ones on Apple Arcade, if that's an option
| for you.
| skyfantom wrote:
| Siberia.
| idrios wrote:
| Syberia*
|
| I was going to say this game so I'm glad I'm not the only one.
| skyfantom wrote:
| Also I like spend evenings playing Civilization where I prefer
| to see achieve cultural or money wins.
| timwaagh wrote:
| Shooting is fun. But life is strange.
| mattlondon wrote:
| Tacoma was a fun FPS adventure story thing without killing.
|
| Infinifactory is kinda like factorio-meets-minecraft and is
| enjoyable.
|
| System Shock 2 is an oldie - there can be some combat if you
| want, but you can also avoid it depending on your style. Good
| story.
|
| Talos Principle was also special. So atmospheric. Highly
| recommended. I guess kinda "adult themes" though that might not
| be suitable for kids (not porn, not sex, not violence - more like
| existentialism)
| jjj123 wrote:
| What Remains of Edith Finch is a pretty amazing ~3 hour
| experience. It's not necessarily violent but it has dark themes
| so I would read a synopsis to see if your kids are ready for it.
|
| The Life is Strange series is pretty good as well.
| andrewstuart wrote:
| Firewatch
| Adraghast wrote:
| Not particularly fun as a game, but it's the best narrative in
| the medium by a large margin.
| yieldcrv wrote:
| There is such a huge opportunity for a game like that with a
| female perspective
|
| Just the opening sequence can be so alienating for the casual
| and female audience, while being almost alone in its
| accessibility to them
| havblue wrote:
| I was happy I played Firewatch but was a bit let down by the
| ending. It's like the story bent over backwards to prevent you
| from meeting anyone because it just wasn't in the game design.
| Freak_NL wrote:
| _Dear Esther_ also falls broadly in the same category of what
| is somewhat derogatorily known as 'walking simulators'.
| peterkos wrote:
| I really liked the story of Celeste, not super deep but the
| gameplay is super smooth, and the art is gorgeous. It has the
| perfect balance of being difficult but not difficult enough to
| get mad at (except a few levels...).
| t0astbread wrote:
| The storytelling of Celeste is great! You build quite a
| connection to the characters when you grind through levels for
| hours...
|
| And I'm pretty sure I cried at the end.
| MrYellowP wrote:
| The Space Quest series, Kings Quest ... basically all games from
| LucasArts and Sierra, at least assuming the thousands ways to die
| in Sierra adventures don't count as violent. And in case you
| didn't know, _thousands_ is an understatement.
|
| Generally you should be really fine with adventure games. Also
| text adventures, if you can handle that.
|
| There's also this, which is quite the change from usual games:
| https://adarkroom.doublespeakgames.com/
|
| Maybe you like it. I actually did! Enjoy!
| mortenjorck wrote:
| Among the so-called "walking simulator" first-person
| story/exploration games, What Remains of Edith Finch stands out
| as easily the best in my view. Aside from having more involved
| gameplay than its contemporaries, its greatest success is its
| storytelling: a set of beautiful, tragicomic vignettes told
| through a magical realist lens.
|
| If you're looking for a compelling story, I can't recommend it
| highly enough.
| DonHopkins wrote:
| How about a "running simulator"?
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrUWFo2D1Xs
|
| >Game Helpin' Squad: Severe Running
| willyt wrote:
| Outlanders (iOS) Sim city (pc/mac) Transport fever (pc/mac)
| bombcar wrote:
| Let's step back and look at this a bit objectively - there are
| various forms of "gameplay" but many involve violence of some
| sort as that's one of the easiest to "figure out what to do". But
| there are others - off-hand I can think of:
|
| * puzzle solvers (Portal, Phoenix Wright, etc)
|
| * simulations (city builders, etc)
|
| * driving games (racing, boats, etc)
|
| * discovery (often a form of puzzle game, but there are things
| like the whale petting game - Endless Ocean - Animal Crossing
| could be one of these)
|
| * RPG (though most involve violence for some it is very stylized,
| Pokemon could go here)
|
| * Collection (usually an aspect of another game, such as Pokemon
| or animal crossing - the drive to complete the sets)
|
| * High-level army simulations (Things like Age of Empires, Heroes
| III et al - games that technically have violence but it's more
| like chess, you're maneuvering armies against other armies. The
| Heroes storyline was pretty decent and I love the gameplay)
|
| * Sports (Madden, FIFA, many have a career or dynasty mode
| focusing on a player or team)
|
| So something like a racing RPG with collection aspects might be
| perfect - though most have a relatively weak "story mode".
| tintor wrote:
| Age of Empires is far from being abstract like Chess. It is
| heavy on violence.
| loeg wrote:
| Portal has turrets that shoot at you, though.
| indrora wrote:
| Counterpoint: there is no penalty for failure other than the
| puzzle restarting.
| loeg wrote:
| No penalty for failure other than that in most shooter
| single-player campaigns, either, but OP asked for "non-
| violent."
| speedgoose wrote:
| [spoiler] and the AI wants to kill you.[/spoiler]
| derstander wrote:
| One potentially useful search term is "cozy games".
| Alternatively, "wholesome games". [0][1]
|
| With that said, this thread has been a treasure trove for me
| because my friend group often defaults to co-op FPS games so
| it'll be nice to have some alternatives to mix things up a bit.
|
| [0]
| https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedesign/comments/tmlmp8/what_are...
| [1] https://store.steampowered.com/curator/35411526-Wholesome-
| Ga...
| aaronbrethorst wrote:
| Kentucky Route Zero is beautiful, weird, and more or less non-
| violent. However, its themes may be too mature for your kids,
| depending on their ages.
|
| Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR has done a couple video game
| recommendation episodes. I bet you'll find some suitable
| recommendations from them:
|
| https://www.npr.org/transcripts/1068592935
|
| https://www.npr.org/2021/05/11/995825684/three-of-our-favori...
| holonsphere wrote:
| The Last Guardian
| Kapura wrote:
| Outer Wilds - Explore a solar system. Time loops. Disco Elysium -
| Explore a city in a dying world. Extremely active inner dialogue.
| Stardew Valley - Build your farm. Help the local community. Opus
| Magnum - Puzzle game where you manufacture different alchemical
| compounds (secretly a programming game)
| huachimingo wrote:
| Eh, what about cartoon violence? Like Rayman, Mario, Sonic,
| Pokemon, Worms...
|
| If you want more story, you could try with visual novels, like
| Ace Attorney, Professor Leyton, or any DS game.
| hypertexthero wrote:
| See https://yinindie.com/ for a curated list of mostly peaceful
| video games.
|
| Here are some I have played that I enjoyed:
|
| Balsa Model Flight Simulator -
| https://store.steampowered.com/app/977920/Balsa_Model_Flight...
|
| Celeste - https://store.steampowered.com/app/504230/Celeste/
|
| Everything -
| https://store.steampowered.com/app/582270/Everything/
|
| Hollow Knight -
| https://store.steampowered.com/app/367520/Hollow_Knight/
|
| Lego games, starting with Lego Star Wars: The Video Game -
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lego_Star_Wars:_The_Video_Game
|
| No Man's Sky -
| https://store.steampowered.com/app/275850/No_Mans_Sky/
|
| SteamWorld Dig 2 -
| https://store.steampowered.com/app/571310/SteamWorld_Dig_2/
|
| Valheim - https://store.steampowered.com/app/892970/Valheim/
|
| Zelda: Breath of the Wild -
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Legend_of_Zelda:_Breath_of...
| krallja wrote:
| Zelda: Breath of the Wild is so violent there is a game
| mechanic that resurrects all the bad guys you have killed, just
| so the game doesn't have to keep track of so much state.
| asiachick wrote:
| it has nothing to do with saving state and everything to do
| with the fact the world would be boring if it stayed empty
|
| meaning it was a design decision not a technical one
| krallja wrote:
| https://zelda.fandom.com/wiki/Blood_Moon
|
| > Mechanically, Blood Moons are a way to refresh Breath of
| the Wild's long-term memory and appear to purge the game's
| cache. Consequently, data stored within the game's long-
| term memory is reset, including the presence or lack of
| Materials and Weapons.
| jrmg wrote:
| There's quite a lot of violence in your list of nonviolent
| games there...
| ekianjo wrote:
| Hollow Knight peaceful? Where did that come from? And let's not
| even talk about Valheim which is about slaughtering beasts and
| monsters.
| ehnto wrote:
| I hear you, it's not that I don't like combat games, it's just
| that they're overdone and the medium has so much potential. The
| story and atmosphere are usually what draw me into a game, and
| the gameplay mechanics are usually just a means to an end of
| progressing through the story.
|
| I'm going to focus entirely on first person non-combat games
| because I prefer first person and it's more rare for them to be
| non-combat. First up are FP games with interesting game premises
| or mechanics:
|
| The Occupation, absolutely zero other games like this. You are a
| journalist during a politically charged period in history, and
| you wander about beautifully crafted old institutional buildings
| in order to find documents and clues that you can use during your
| interviews with various people. The story you are putting
| together centres around a murder, but it's really a story about
| political manipulation, immigration and corruption in
| policymaking. Sounds a bit dry, but it is both relaxing and
| thrilling.
|
| Hardspace: you're a ship-breaker in an orbital space ship
| breaking yard, and you float around using tools to slowly pull
| apart ships for scrapping. It's got a comical dystopian sense of
| humour and a decent story line.
|
| INFRA: Absolute hidden gem. You are a structural engineer, sent
| out on an inspection job. As you follow the path of
| infrastructure degredation, a series of mishaps pull you deeper
| and deeper into the cities hidden infrastructure, through dams,
| power stations, water processing plants, steel mills or
| underground water infrastructure. The game has a good, dry sense
| of humor, and the story is good. Each location has some system or
| facility you can take the time to fix, or you can just keep
| moving through the story.
|
| Jazzpunk: A spy game, but as if it were written by a 17 year old
| on mushrooms.
|
| Outer Wilds, others have mentioned it, but you can't miss this
| one!
|
| Portal 1, 2, though I suspect you would know of these already.
|
| The Witness, a fantastic atmospheric exploration and world-puzzle
| game, I think watching a bit of it on YouTube probably shows it
| off well but it's just a great world to spend time in.
|
| Event[0], your only friend is a well scripted space station AI,
| it uses a natural language typing interface and you have to talk
| to him while you wander around the station trying to figure out
| what happened and how to get back home.
|
| The Stanley Parable, a very funny exploration of choice in
| videogames. I'm really underselling it.
|
| Teardown, voxel based demolition game where you have puzzles and
| objectives to achieve with the tools and vehicles of construction
| and destruction at your fingertips.
|
| Superliminal, a game where each object you grab changes in size
| to match the perspective of where you are looking. Great sense of
| humor as well.
| ehnto wrote:
| Broken into a second comment so my other wasn't impenetrable:
| more notable walking sim, puzzle and first person story games:
|
| The Amnesia games and SOMA games don't technically have combat,
| but they are very spooky. Perhaps for playing on your own, SOMA
| especially is a once in a lifetime gaming experience story and
| world wise.
|
| The Solus Project
|
| The Talos Principle
|
| ADR1FT
|
| Aporia
|
| The Assembly
|
| Alien: isolation (minor combat, very spooky)
|
| Close to the Sun
|
| Dear Esther
|
| What Remains of Edith Finch
|
| Deliver Us The Moon
|
| Dr. Langeskov, The Tiger, and The Terribly Cursed Emerald
| (short and funny, would be great half hour journey with the
| kids)
|
| Eastshade (admittedly never finished it, but it's about
| wandering a unique world and painting commissions for people)
|
| Escape Simulator is a decent escape room game
|
| Ether One Redux, pretty sad actually
|
| Firewatch, a must play in the genre
|
| Call of the Sea, unique story adventure
|
| The Myst games, some recent remakes are really well done and
| modern adaptions.
|
| Quern - Undying Thoughts, probably the best myst-like I've
| played.
|
| Haven Moon, Myst-like story puzzle game
|
| Obduction
|
| Pollen
|
| Stories Untold
|
| Tacoma
|
| Tartarus
| NoamR wrote:
| Check out `A Short Hike` and `Alba`.
| [deleted]
| oneoff786 wrote:
| What are these fps games with great stories?
| recvonline wrote:
| Bioshock for example.
| oneoff786 wrote:
| I feel like bioshock (all of them) have mediocre stories and
| then a single fun twist at the end personally
| db48x wrote:
| Oxygen Not Included
| de_nied wrote:
| Super Monkey Ball, Sonic Adventure 2
| jordanpg wrote:
| Thank you for this post!
|
| Violence in video games, if it must be present, should be a like
| a garnish: in vanishingly small quantities and hyper-realistic.
|
| The fantasy (as in ludicrous, not swords and sorcery) violence of
| modern gaming is just a skin on underlying game mechanics. The
| imagery, sound, and themes of ultra-violence are not really
| necessary.
|
| It is ultimately laziness on the part of studios; understandable,
| though, since the violence sells. Still, I hope studios take note
| of this thread. There is a thirst out there for non-violent
| games. And studios hold an awful lot of power in what they
| contribute to the culture these days.
| ksec wrote:
| Age of Empires as History Lessons.
|
| Or get a Nintendo Switch. If Gaming is a necessary evil for kids
| ( I wouldn't say that but some people do ), Nintendo is trillion
| times than anything on the market. No stupid Mobile Games Pay to
| Win or 30 sec Ads. ( Those companies should pray, someday,
| somewhere, someone will take revenge on them in the market ),
| Playstation and Xbox gets you _Serious_ Gaming which isn 't
| really good for kids.
| spywaregorilla wrote:
| I remember being surprised when, contrary to what I learned in
| aoe2, the aztecs did not defeat cortez and his conquistadors.
| sb057 wrote:
| Adding to what hasn't already been mentioned:
|
| Frostpunk
|
| Hypnospace Outlaw
|
| 80 Days
|
| Classic LucasArts point'n'clicks in general
|
| The Paper Mario games (specifically the original and The
| Thousand-Year Door) technically have violence, but it's obviously
| rather cartoonish
|
| Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective
| mepian wrote:
| Came here to recommend Ghost Trick, it's one of the best games
| ever.
| aerovistae wrote:
| Subnautica. You have a knife for self-defense against creatures
| but that's it, 99% of the game is just exploration of the ocean.
| It's wonderful.
| eps wrote:
| Subnautica is such an eye candy with a good dollop of mystery
| and wonder. It _is_ absolutely amazing.
|
| > _exploration of the ocean_ ...
|
| ... and what happened there, all tied to a story line, which is
| what the OP wanted.
| db48x wrote:
| Cities: Skylines! Really great game; totally stomped SimCity
| flat, but I must admit that EA did a lot of the work for them. On
| the other hand, I guess there's not much of a narrative there.
|
| Hack N' Slash was great. Not a very long game, but a charming
| setting and a fun story. It starts out looking like a standard
| swords-and-sorcery adventure game, but it is actually about
| programming. Instead of killing monsters, you reprogram
| everything, and use debug tools to delve into the source code of
| the game itself. I don't want to give too many spoilers, but the
| final boss attacks you by randomly deleting bits of source code
| from the game. Don't take too long to fight him, or you might
| really regret it!
| YesBox wrote:
| You might be interested in my game. I'm working on Archapolis,
| a city builder with real time traffic simulation and interior
| views of your citizens homes (which you can customize/build
| yourself if you want), so you can watch them live their lives.
| I'd like the player to have a more hands on approach to
| managing the city as well.
|
| Here's a tech demo of what I've been working on:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7q0l87hwmkI
|
| I created a path finding algorithm that can simultaneously path
| 300,000 units to random destinations at a comfortable frame
| rate. Units can choose from any of the shortest paths between
| two points (there are many in a grid), and from those paths,
| can also choose the path that matches any preferences they
| have.
|
| Very early stages of development still!
| dontbenebby wrote:
| Animal Crossing has a story-ish, when I get my affairs in order I
| want to get a switch and a nice tv so I can rejoin the community.
| I never got as into online gaming as I'd have liked since the DS
| wanted you to put your wifi on WEP, and I wanted to at least use
| WPA since some people are very... nebby.
| polyterative wrote:
| The Turing test is a portal like
| joshuaheard wrote:
| I got tired of first-person shooters because of the violence. I
| started playing exploration and building games: Subnautica, No
| Mans Sky, and others. There is a whole genre of these types of
| games.
| uptime wrote:
| I am not a gamer at all, and the story is thin but I liked
| Splatoon on switch. You team up to paint a complex space in a
| given color, with another team trying to do the same.
| pcthrowaway wrote:
| In addition to seconding a few recommendations others have
| already made (Earthbound, Undertale, Monkey Island, Life is
| Strange), I'd also recommend Alan Wake (https://www.imdb.com/titl
| e/tt0466662/parentalguide/#advisory...).
|
| It's a thriller/horror though so perhaps not what you're looking
| for (but someone else mentioned Soma which is far more horrific
| in my opinion)
| Sohum wrote:
| Thomas Was Alone and To The Moon. Both absolute masterpieces.
| nosianu wrote:
| A real classic from C64 times - remastered for up to date
| graphics:
|
| Day of the Tentacle
|
| https://store.steampowered.com/app/388210/Day_of_the_Tentacl...
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_of_the_Tentacle
|
| PS: There also is
| https://store.steampowered.com/app/32360/The_Secret_of_Monke...
| password4321 wrote:
| Might not have story:
|
| $0 https://store.steampowered.com/app/1580970/Samorost_1/
| +sequels
|
| $7
| https://store.steampowered.com/app/730820/The_Curse_of_Monke...
| +sequels
|
| $8 https://store.steampowered.com/app/323320/Grow_Home/ +sequel
|
| $10 https://store.steampowered.com/app/207690/Botanicula/
|
| $10
| https://store.steampowered.com/app/303210/The_Beginners_Guid...
|
| $10 https://store.steampowered.com/app/224760/FEZ/
|
| $10 https://store.steampowered.com/app/711660/CHUCHEL/
|
| $15 https://store.steampowered.com/app/413150/Stardew_Valley/
|
| $15
| https://store.steampowered.com/app/225080/Brothers__A_Tale_o...
|
| $15 https://store.steampowered.com/app/716500/Eliza/
|
| $15 https://store.steampowered.com/app/22000/World_of_Goo/
|
| $15 https://store.steampowered.com/app/40700/Machinarium/
|
| $15 https://store.steampowered.com/app/26800/Braid/
|
| $15 (60% off = $6)
| https://store.steampowered.com/app/232430/Gone_Home/
|
| $17 https://store.steampowered.com/app/448510/Overcooked/ +sequel
|
| $20 https://store.steampowered.com/app/383870/Firewatch/
|
| $20 https://store.steampowered.com/app/421120/Samorost_3/ (is a
| sequel)
|
| $20 (60% off = $8)
| https://store.steampowered.com/app/343860/Tacoma/
|
| $20
| https://store.steampowered.com/app/501300/What_Remains_of_Ed...
|
| $20 https://store.steampowered.com/app/1049410/Superliminal/
|
| $20
| https://store.steampowered.com/app/837470/Untitled_Goose_Gam...
|
| $25 https://store.steampowered.com/app/753640/Outer_Wilds/
|
| $25
| https://store.steampowered.com/app/512790/Quern__Undying_Tho...
|
| $25 https://store.steampowered.com/app/774201/Heavens_Vault/
|
| $30 https://store.steampowered.com/app/1255560/Myst/
|
| $30
| https://store.steampowered.com/app/848350/Katamari_Damacy_RE...
|
| $30 https://store.steampowered.com/app/255710/Cities_Skylines/ or
| $1 'til 20220614: https://www.humblebundle.com/games/cities-
| skylines-colossal-...
|
| $30 https://store.steampowered.com/app/361420/ASTRONEER/
|
| $30 https://store.steampowered.com/app/264710/Subnautica/
|
| $40 https://store.steampowered.com/app/210970/The_Witness/
|
| $40
| https://store.steampowered.com/app/1158850/The_Great_Ace_Att...
|
| $40
| https://store.steampowered.com/app/220200/Kerbal_Space_Progr...
|
| Violent / Not for little kids:
|
| $0
| https://store.steampowered.com/app/319630/Life_is_Strange__E...
| +sequels
|
| $10 https://store.steampowered.com/app/400/Portal/ +sequel
|
| $14 https://store.steampowered.com/app/246070/Hack_n_Slash/
|
| $15
| https://store.steampowered.com/app/252110/Lovers_in_a_Danger...
|
| $15 https://store.steampowered.com/app/251430/The_Inner_World/
|
| $15 https://store.steampowered.com/app/221260/Little_Inferno/
|
| $15
| https://store.steampowered.com/app/228360/Full_Throttle_Rema...
|
| $15
| https://store.steampowered.com/app/316790/Grim_Fandango_Rema...
|
| $20
| https://store.steampowered.com/app/653530/Return_of_the_Obra...
|
| $20
| https://store.steampowered.com/app/6300/Dreamfall_The_Longes...
| +sequels
|
| $20 (80% off = $4)
| https://store.steampowered.com/app/959000/Edna__Harvey_The_B...
| +sequels
|
| $20 (50% off = $10)
| https://store.steampowered.com/app/417880/Everybodys_Gone_to...
|
| $30 https://store.steampowered.com/app/427520/Factorio/
|
| $30 https://store.steampowered.com/app/282140/SOMA/
|
| $40
| https://store.steampowered.com/app/1850570/DEATH_STRANDING_D...
|
| $40
| https://store.steampowered.com/app/632470/Disco_Elysium__The...
|
| $40 (50% off = $20)
| https://store.steampowered.com/app/1426210/It_Takes_Two/
|
| $40
| https://store.steampowered.com/app/257510/The_Talos_Principl...
|
| $60
| https://store.steampowered.com/app/582160/Assassins_Creed_Or...
| (explore)
|
| $60
| https://store.steampowered.com/app/812140/Assassins_Creed_Od...
| (explore)
|
| $70 (94% off = _$4_ )
| https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/18569/Deponia_Full_Scr...
| (4 games)
| kpozin wrote:
| The new King's Quest (2015) is great action/puzzle game, with
| some fairy tale mischief but no significant violence. It's framed
| as a narrative by an elderly king and his granddaughter, and
| clearly intended to be kid-friendly.
| udev wrote:
| Overcooked is an amazing game for all ages.
| acosmism wrote:
| world of goo
| smolder wrote:
| Did you find the story compelling, though? I don't remember
| there being one. It's kind of a tough request.
| travisporter wrote:
| Subnautica. Specifically designed to be nonviolent
| junon wrote:
| Except for killing tons of fish.
| eps wrote:
| You can switch off hunger.
| daemonna wrote:
| epic game unless you have phobia from water.. i know few people
| that would be horrified to play it :)
| rhn_mk1 wrote:
| Exposure therapy! There aren't really any panic moments
| unless you're reckless, and you're sitting in safety while
| confronting the deep.
| sdenton4 wrote:
| Ha, I loved the game but had friends who just could not
| take the Dread... There's significant portions of the game
| where you're trying REALLY hard not to be someone else's
| lunch, but it's dark and you're in a gigantic space and who
| knows what's behind you or under you or above you...
| travisporter wrote:
| Absolutely! I finished it two years ago and still use the
| soundtrack sometimes to wake myself up if coffee doesn't
| cut it
| joshuaheard wrote:
| I got tired of first-person shooters because of the violence. I
| started playing exploration and building games: Subnautica, No
| Mans Sky, and others. There is a whole genre of these types of
| games. Kids love Minecraft.
| psvv wrote:
| Heaven's Vault is the perfect game for this. Especially if your
| family likes stories, mysteries, and puzzles.
|
| I recommend playing together and reading the dialog out loud,
| giving each character a unique voice if that's your wont.
|
| The story and investigation are the main draw, but the core of
| the game is an ongoing puzzle about deciphering an ancient
| language that's a slick blend of the game mechanics helping you
| along and the slow, free-form expansion of your own
| understanding. It's a great group activity.
| bigconzman wrote:
| Thomas was alone
| ta-run wrote:
| Celeste
| beardyw wrote:
| I used to enjoy Thief. Not sure if it is available still.
| Delk wrote:
| Depending on which installment you played:
|
| https://www.gog.com/game/thief_gold
|
| https://www.gog.com/game/thief_2_the_metal_age
|
| There were also later installments in the series but I've
| understood that they didn't quite stand up to the originals.
|
| It might not be young kids' material (due to the patience it
| requires, and a bit of a dark story or at least ambience).
| There's also some violence, as it's probably hard to finish
| without resorting to absolutely any, and the various enemies
| can attack you regardless, but it's kind of in the spirit of
| the game that you can opt for avoidance of combat or non-lethal
| means.
| skyfantom wrote:
| There is a book called "Thief" written by Alexey Pechov -
| https://www.librarything.com/nseries/17743/%D0%A5%D1%80%D0%B...
|
| Though the author declines connections between book and game.
| Name of the main character is the same as in game ;)
| dpcan wrote:
| Minecraft!
|
| Lots of Nintendo games. Mario anything really.
|
| I LOVE playing old King's Quest games with my kids and they do
| too. Got them on Gog.
|
| Totally reliable delivery service.
|
| Most racing games are fine (Mario kart)
|
| Heave Ho!
|
| Ultimate chicken horse
|
| But to be honest, I love playing Fortnite with my kids too.
| rasz wrote:
| >Minecraft!
|
| Zombies, not to mention you can kill anything that moves
|
| >Lots of Nintendo games. Mario anything really.
|
| Mario murders indiscriminately
|
| >I LOVE playing old King's Quest games with my kids and they do
| too. Got them on Gog.
|
| Sierra = death on every screen
| adg001 wrote:
| Syberia 1, 2, 3 from the late master Benoit Sokal. Or Spore, come
| to my mind as some of the most striking examples.
| subhajeet2107 wrote:
| Play Life is Strange
| NikolaNovak wrote:
| Single player games fun to play around tv / switch controls :
|
| Firewatch - about 6 to 10 hours narrative walking exploring
| adventure with beautiful scenery. Teens and up probably.
|
| Outer wilds : astonishing space exploration game. So many
| mysteries and puzzles and wonders and connections to be made.
| Cannot recommend highly enough.
|
| Tale of two brothers. There's sadness in this game but handled
| very well. If you're ready to discuss life and death with your
| kids. Beautiful graphics and fun puzzles.
|
| Machinerium / Botanicula / Samorost, of course. Beautiful and
| lovely and happiness inducing.
|
| Tons of point and click adventures.
|
| Coop
|
| It takes two - might be super fun for your kids to play as
| parents! Beautiful graphics and fun gameplay.
|
| Lovers in dangerous space time - technically there's guns but
| nothing with people or anything recognizable.
|
| Overcooked - if no guns is really a strict mandate :)
| beebmam wrote:
| Tacoma is similar in gameplay style to Firewatch, both amazing
| games.
| cblum wrote:
| Overcooked 2 has been a huge relationship builder for my wife
| and me.
|
| If you put your heart in it, you learn to communicate
| effectively under pressure (especially when trying to conquer
| those 4th stars), tolerate/move-on from each other's mistakes,
| and control your temper around each other.
|
| We've been recommending the game to every couple we know.
| SnooSux wrote:
| Is "Tale of Two Brothers" supposed to be "Brothers: A Tale of
| Two Sons?"
| NikolaNovak wrote:
| Hah; yes; that'll teach me to do stuff from memory on phone
| :D Thx!
| lloeki wrote:
| That list above is what I was mainly thinking of. Here's a few
| more with great storytelling, done in various ways (sometimes
| non obvious but they all have a story to tell that kept me
| hooked)
|
| I don't recall any physical violence in the following games,
| although psychological violence can be very personal and some
| may run you in a mood or facing events that can be unsettling
| at times. Some of these have neither. Gone
| Home The Swapper Fez Day Of The
| Tentacle VVVVVV You Have To Win The Game
| Braid Shelter 1 & 2 Her Story Portal 1
| & 2 Thomas Was Alone One Night Stand
| The Stanley Parable Antichamber Carto
| RiME Oxenfree Never Alone Life Is
| Strange
|
| Soma and the Amnesia series could be of interest as well. I
| seem to recall it's all about fear, but not violence.
|
| Mirror's Edge has punching but you don't kill anyone and you
| can avoid most encounters, with parkour style. Definitely not
| COD.
|
| Limbo and Inside have gore but clearly not the COD one.
|
| While enemies have guns and the setting may subscribe to "war-
| like", I seem to recall you can also complete Deus Ex Human
| Revolution Director's Cut without lethal action (in the
| original non DC bosses have to be killed) which is rewarded
| with an achievement at the end of the game.
|
| Heavy Rain is also a great game with original mechanics. Don't
| attempt to play with PS Move, use a controller.
|
| Some of these are good for kids, some aren't, depends on kid
| age and how you want to raise them!
| riezebos wrote:
| Although they are less violent than COD, I think your memory
| might be a bit off on some of these. 2 examples:
|
| In Portal 1 & 2 there are quite a lot of robots that trying
| to kill you with guns.[0] In Mirror's Edge there is a lot of
| parkour but there's also killing people with various guns.[1]
|
| [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NBDulvHYr8 [1]
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbcaMnQD7G8
| lloeki wrote:
| > In Portal 1 & 2 there are quite a lot of robots that
| trying to kill you with guns
|
| Correct. I should have put it aside, although the player
| only throws portals around to solve puzzles using his
| brain. And we can definitely describe GLaDOS as being a
| violent being.
|
| > In Mirror's Edge there is a lot of parkour but there's
| also killing people with various guns
|
| Wow I completely forgot about that in Mirror's Edge. I
| think I completed the game without ever using a gun and
| then forgot they ever existed in the game.
| bytehowl wrote:
| Little Inferno - a short game about burning your toys in a
| fireplace; I found the narrative interesting and it actually has
| some relevant life messages; non-violent, but young kids might
| find it a bit disturbing
|
| Grow Home - a 3D platformer about growing plants into space;
| story-light, but very chill and fun to play
| mcphage wrote:
| > Little Inferno
|
| I was amazed playing through Little Inferno for the first time,
| that it had such a strong anti-materialism message. Releasing
| as a launch title for a new console seemed an incredibly balsy
| move :-)
| Freak_NL wrote:
| _The Stanley Parable_ (2013) is quite popular, and recently got
| updated and expanded as _The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe_.
| AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote:
| However, it should be noted that The Stanley Parable is best
| enjoyed by someone already well versed in the narrative tropes
| of video games and may, therefore, be unsuitable for children.
| junon wrote:
| Stardew Valley
| alphanumeric0 wrote:
| I wonder what are the perceived outcomes if you did let your kids
| play violent video games?
| jeramey wrote:
| I haven't seen Rime mentioned yet and you might check that out.
| It is a little bit of a puzzle game and a little bit of a walking
| simulator and has a surprisingly heart-wrenching story in the
| end.
| sweetheart wrote:
| Psychonauts! Both the first and the recent sequel. Great
| hilarious games for all ages. Definitely my favorites.
| Wowfunhappy wrote:
| Portal and Portal 2 are absolute classics which I cannot
| recommend highly enough. The story in the second game is fairly
| detailed, and the way that it _tells_ that story through gameplay
| is absolutely phenomenal.
|
| Life Is Strange is a well-done adventure game. It's not quite
| *zero* violence in that the story takes some turns, but you're
| fundamentally a high schooler in a relatively normal setting, I
| wouldn't expect you to run into any issues.
|
| Journey may be more abstract than what you're looking for, but
| it's a fantastic experience.
| sio8ohPi wrote:
| Life is Strange was fantastic, but I wouldn't recommend it to
| OP. While it's not a game that revels in violence, the violence
| in it feels especially heavy.
| notriddle wrote:
| Does Portal really count as "non-violent"? You commit murder at
| least once.
| TaylorAlexander wrote:
| Well you never kill biological things, just an artificially
| intelligent machine at the end.
|
| But also one thing you can do is play the two player co-op
| mode on Portal 2, which as far as I know is pure puzzle
| solving.
|
| The stories in Portal are great though, especially Portal 2
| which is rich and funny. You could just skip the end of the
| game and I think that would be pretty non violent? I don't
| know if destroying a machine counts as violent.
| Wowfunhappy wrote:
| I mean, I'm trying to avoid spoilers, but even counting
| machines in the main story, evidence would seem to indicate
| the body count was zero.
|
| (I originally thought GP was making a Companion Cube joke,
| but now I'm not sure.)
| havblue wrote:
| I'm pretty sure she's still alive at the end.
| nurettin wrote:
| Portal 1/2 has a lot of non-violent levels, but a demented AI
| is passive-aggressively trying to murder you throughout the
| game. You may also end up under a laser, a press machine, an
| oven, at the bottom of an abyss, melt in acid or get riddled
| with bullets. What really is violence anyway?
| HPsquared wrote:
| A good legal question to ponder for when the first time an
| AI murders a human. Who's to blame, and what is the crime?
| [deleted]
| hyperman1 wrote:
| Portal is an interesting case study in psychological torture.
| The cake (is a lie). The weighted companion cube(that you kill
| faster than any other test subject). The test result saying you
| are a horrible person and we weren't even testing for that.
|
| It goes on and on. It wouldn't give it to kids that aren't old
| enough to handle complex and subtle emotional situations.
|
| Not to say it isn't a great game, but the subtle violent
| atmosphere building up is a very core part of it.
| aerovistae wrote:
| I'm not sure I understand this comment. For the record I
| downvoted it because I don't think it makes any sense.
| hyperman1 wrote:
| OK retry:
|
| Portal is a great game, with a good story.
|
| But part of this greatness is the psychological games it
| plays with you.
|
| Hence people need to have enough maturity to deal with
| this.
|
| Hence this is not a good game for playing with younger
| kids, even if there is almost no graphical violence in it.
| Wowfunhappy wrote:
| I was trying to make recommendations that I'd be
| comfortable playing with a young child in the room. I
| wouldn't recommend giving them to a small child to play.
| aerovistae wrote:
| That's much clearer, thanks.
| jtode wrote:
| When I was young but not too young I watched Monty Pythons
| Meaning Of Life movie. There's an extremely violent scene
| in that movie that I find very funny, now, but which
| disturbed the hell out of me as a kid.
|
| That's what he's saying, some kids might not get the humor
| aspect of Portal and just perceive the paranoia and
| violence.
| aerovistae wrote:
| Which scene was it? The dinner scene? (Out of curiosity)
| omnibrain wrote:
| I would guess the organ donation scene.
| jtode wrote:
| That's the one. My little friend was laughing his ass off
| right next to me, I was just horrified.
| pcthrowaway wrote:
| I can second Life is Strange, though it gets a bit dark towards
| the end (though you as the player never engage in violence
| directly)
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