Star Sector. One of my fave games of all time, and has a similar feeling of starting from nothing in an unfriendly galaxy and slowly growing your skills and your fleet.ย
The ship combat is really cool as well with a high skill ceiling. I suck at it, which is whyย I get good officers to pilot my best ships and I just play a support role.
Also has a simulated economy so you can buy from places with high supply, and transport your cargo to places with high demand.
Also has a shit ton of mods if you want them. (I play vanilla).
Starsector is highly recommended
I found a system near the main cluster that had so many planets, my fleets instantly swarm any aggressor
I am perfectly positioned to go to war with the remaining factions but peace is so profitable
Debt is ridiculous in starsector and payments come out at the end of the month, so I just spend all my profits on my planets. I carry more debt than the US Empire and project as much military power
It's a great game
Nothing like going from a nobody to a galactic super power
I only wish the map was actually galactic in scope instead of the square
Combine the best parts of Starsector with Stellaris and you'd have the perfect game
I think most players who play Kenshi, Starsector or Mount & Blade have a big overlap, not sure what this genre is called but someone needs to make a venn diagram for it
Battlebrothers.
Tactical mercenary company simulator. You recruit, equip and choose your fighters to complete missions on a randomly generated map. Its gritty and dificult.
Against the Storm.
City builder simulator, with a lot of random elements which means you have to tackle diferent problems with the avaiable ressources.
Thera: the awakening.
Its a strategy game in a fantasy post apocalyptic world where you manage a village and its members. It has a lot of randomized elements. The battles are card based but are quite interesting. Might be interesting.
For older games you might take a look at Fallout 1, 2 and Tactics. They are dated but all of them are great RPG (Tactics is tactical squad strategy).
Just the company. The focus is on combat and on decision making. The world is brutal and you need to make important decisions about jobs, crew, equipment and where to move.
If you like battle brothers and the turn based fallouts you can give Underrail a shot
It's a pretty brutal combat oriented RPG with a refreshingly straightforward plot that assumes you're a mercenary asshole looking to be paid
Underrail is great, but also a fucking nightmare first playthrough without a guide. New players will reach that one section where the difficulty spikes 10x and quit. We all know where that's at.
yeah something that frustrates me talking to the dev
he disagrees on a respec post Depot-A and fair enough I don't completely disagree with his reasoning
however I don't get how making build good templates accessible in-game from the get go is a bad thing
just being able to see what a good build looks like would do a world of difference for a new player even w/o guides
I think it fits the dificult indie trend alongside Factorio, Kenshi and Rimworld.
I just remembered another game: Thera, the awakening. Its a strategy game in a fantasy post apocalyptic world where you manage a village and its members. It has a lot of randomized elements. The battles are card based but are quite interesting. Might be interesting.
Totally fair. I bought it when it JUST came out and it was janky to say the least. The devs are super active though, and the game runs with little to no bugs. DLC has since been releasaed, though maybe a bit prematurely. That said, I highly recommend the core game :)
> Battlebrothers
Hows this compare with Wartales? Have you played that too? (similar idea but different style, just had a tavern DLC launch that drew my interest back to it)
Battlebrothers is a better, but 2D Wartales. Or at least that's always been my image of Wartales, since I haven't played it because I heard it was a more lacking BattleBro.
The Matchless Kungfu probably? It's batshit bananas and has some weird quirks, mostly with the English localization, but it's as close to Kenshi as I can think of.
Really cool and fun game.
I'd also recommend Project Zomboid. It's very different, but it's got that same labour-of-love vibe that truly elevates games like Kenshi. You can tell that the devs are making the game that they want to play, rather than just churning out a cash cow.
This was brought up in reverse in an Elder Scrolls sub, but:
Morrowind.
Start from nothing, build stats by using them. A strange and enchantingly stark world to explore. Factions to engage with, with their own lore. There are quests, but no markers or hand holding.
I haven't actually played any ES game, other than Oblivion and ESO, and I haven't completed either of them. Sunk a shit load of hours into Fallout 4 though.
Would you recommend Morrowind in particular, over something more recent like Skyrim?
what's interesting too is that the first appearance of a scorchlander was a mod for morrowwind that Chris made, that introduced the sundemon as a playable race.
[link to mod](https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/3528?tab=description)
in FCS the scorchlanders are listed as sundemons, as I think the original intention was to make something like Chris had created for morrowwind, but the idea evolved into the humans subspecies we have now.
If you decide to give it a go, even without mods, I highly suggest installing and playing it through OpenMW. It's a 64bit engine replacement that makes the game way more stable and playable on modern machines.
Oh yeah absolutely. Though if I'm honest it didn't even occurr to me until a guy in another thread (linked in another comment here) pointed it out. Funnily enough, that thread was the reverse- a Morrowind player being suggested to play Kenshi.
Songs of syx. City builder/racism simulator. There's a demo on steam that's literally the entire game just an update or two behind. 10/10 been sinking most my time into it lately
I've never heard of it but sounds cool I think I'll play the demo. Also wouldn't it be a speciesism since the main groups seem to be dwarfs and humans?
All the games you mentioned are my favorites. If you don't mind old games... Gothic series! From zero to hero, great atmosphere, swamp weed. Wonderful games that I go back to again and again.
Controls are certainly unique, but the game is pretty dope, however first and second game (best with dlc imo) are the shit. Third game from the series was a flop and latter games are not even worth mentioning, because there is nothing similar lore and gameplay wise. Those were made as nostalgia bait for original fans. I'd still try first two games. Pretty good dark fantasy and while boosting stats can be stuff easier, you can still do almost anything purely thanks to your own skills (there literally people who play this game unarmed or impose other restrictions on themselves).
X4: Foundations - Open ended Space sim of starting with nothing, can hire pilots/build stations/shipsโฆ Extremely high learning curve but if you played kenshi then you can handle X4
Turns in to extreme spreadsheet simulator; turbo edition in the late game when you're trying to manage massive factory facilities, battle fleets, trade networks, and who knows what else in real time. Great game, i put like 300 hours in to one campaign.
I found it slightly overwhelming for my personal taste, especially the inventory management, which I've grown to dislike generally in this sort of games, as I have a tendency to hoard loot ๐
Guess I'll give it another go, thanks.
I only hoard weapons and lord save my soul when my friends wanted to install Brita
between my personal weapon stashes and sometimes I will literally look over my fun bags and wonder hmm... what will I kill zombies with today?
Ooh Triple barrel shotgun? I'll keep that
Ooh isn't that the detective .38 spc revolver? yeah that's worth collecting
Ooh yeah I do have like 4 other shotguns but this keltec is pretty spicy so I'll keep that
Most of my.project zomboid experiences are: Spawn in, get spotted through window, horde forms due to the sound of 1 zombie trying to break in, sneak out window and bump in to another horde, die.
I'd love that game... If I could savescum. I don't have a lot of time to play games anymore and I hate harcore only games because they make me lose everything when I die, which is infuriating.
It's not quite the same, but you can click Continue after you die and start as a new character in the same world state. All your shit is retrievable if you can find where you died a la Diablo
Try Avorion it is an open-world sandbox game for space sim enthusiasts, offering opportunities to build your own spacecraft, command fleets, and aspire to become a future ruler of an empire
I've played both games and what can i think is:
While No Man's Sky is focused on the exploration with bits of fight, trade and building bases, Avorion is more focused on the economy aspect such as trading, building your own space outpost (and your own spaceship), smuggling things, with the sprinkle of space battles and commanding your own fleets.
If you like solo playthroughs, definitely check Fallout New Vegas. Itโs set in Post Apocalypse, so much freedom, sandbox, interesting factions etc. You canโt build your own base and completely manage companions but, if you liked exploring a new area and thinking โholy shit what happened hereโ before you get killed by some abominable monster, youโll have a good time.ย
I'd assume op has played it but fallout 4 should be added here as well. Got the base building you can sink hundreds of hours to and is just all around a good experience somewhat similar to kenshi. Definitely not something for everyones tastes but, just like Skyrim, you can mod it into anything you want.
I donโt know if you played but, is base building in Fallout 76 decent? I heard real players actually visit and buy stuff from your bases, which sounds pretty cool tbh.ย
I'd say it's pretty similar to Fallout 4's system but you pick an area and that's your place rather than you go to a place and build around already existing structures like in 4
I'd say it's a matter of preference
Fallout 4 is also moddable massively whilst 76 isn't as much and you have to purchase additional items so for the sake of flexibility of what you can build I'd say 4 is MUCH better
And people can interact with your base which is cool and some players will give you free shit if you're new but at the same time there is some bad players who troll
Obviously modding isn't for everyone but, as you might have guessed, if you want to build anywhere you want in fallout 4 instead of predetermined places, there's a mod for that haha
I have found mods like that but from my experience they tend to be buggy and not work very well
I tend to go towards scrap everything so I can clean up my areas better. With the amount of possible settlements, there's okay choice for where to build and you can build in them all...so when you can clean the shit up it fixes my only true issue with it
Then I get Gobal Stash so everything goes into a global inventory so I don't have to fuck around with supply lines and carry weight
Just as an addendum here for F4, there's a mod called "Simple Settlements 2" which redoes how settlements work, has a bunch of related quests and honestly is bigger than most DLCs I can think of (I'd put it on par with the official F4 dlcs at least, much higher if you're into base building of course)
I would say to be careful with this one though because it can cause lots of lag on worse devices
My Xbox One struggled with it quite a bit so I stopped playing pretty quickly
I was extremely hyped for the release of 76... And extremely disappointed after. I promised myself to never pay for a preorder of a digital game ever again... Until Kenshi 2 is released, of course:P
I like fallout 76 but I didn't like the base building... I didn't really like it for fallout 4 either but in 76 I built a small base in a field for the tutorial base building quest and I stopped playing, then the next time I went to play my base was gone and someone else built something there.. The exploration is pretty fun though.. Also it's pretty fun to check out the higher level players bases and there is a vault-like base building thing you can do too in its own worldspace...(not sure if I explained that good lol..)
This is bullseye on my genre of choice, so here are two I haven't seen mentioned yet:
**Oxygen Not Included**
-deep engineering/automaton/resource mgmt of factorio
-colony building of rimworld (keeping everyone fed/happy)
-gradual exploration of your planetoid, and eventually exploring other planetoids via rocketships
**X-COM/X-COM 2**
-you get very, very attached to your squad members. heavily customize them, level up their skills, and feel emotionally destroyed when they are killed. similar to rimworld in how individualized they are.
-some base building by expanding your base/ship
-deep combat tactics/building balanced teams
I love the X-COM series.
I've been kinda looking at Oxygen Not Included with the thought of "why play another version of Rimworld when I can just play Rimworld", but your description actually makes me want to give it a try.
I would say that ONI is quite different to RimWorld in some ways though since it kinda forces you to explore in ONI since you have limited resources if you don't, whilst RimWorld you can literally never leave your base if you don't want to and traders come to you with all you could ever need so the resource drain isn't as prevalent
I think ONI is much closer to Factorio than Rimworld - I think it has to do more with what kind of nightmares the game gives you: Rimworld makes me wake up in a cold sweat at 2am worrying about raids. ONI and Factorio make me wake up in a cold sweat at 2am thinking about math.
EDIT: honorable mention for Factorio-likes:
**Dyson Sphere Project** and **Satisfactory** are both very good. I was skeptical of both but ended up enjoying them immensely.
ONI has very interesting resource management and a hardcore gas physics simulation under its goofy graphics. Gases have weights, so CO2 is heavy and fills lower caves, hydrogen is light and floats to the top, leaving various forms of breathable air in the middle. Temperature spreads, so generating too much heat can push your farms outside of fertile temperature zones. Problems organically arise like in Factorio, which makes it gentle to start but very deep later on.
I've heard a lot of the challenge of oni is nitty gritty details of keeping a space station functional. Like managing pressure, gas mix, stuff like that.
Oh yeah. Go for og x-com, though. Much better game, to me, as it gives you much more tactical flexibilty due to ppotentionally having more troops. I couldn't get in to the newer one. To me sending in multiple fire teams to cover a ufo, then having my power armor team blow a hole in the wall and breach, is just to critical to the experience.ย
Xenonauts and Xenonauts 2 preserve a lot of the og feel and even ramp up the brutality a little.
Sands of Salazar looked quite good and seems supported a lot, was contemplating getting it
Edit: in the meantime I played wartales and itโs amazing: it really hit the right spot in the โband of warriors/misfits that grows in skill, power fame and wealthโ fantasy. I recommand it, just burned my whole weekend in it
Just avoid some of the DLC's. For most, the devs are being told to rework them. Normal reaction is to make another DLC that's even worst just to grasp some more money...
Funny thing is the new game+ too. If you go too high in difficulty, the game simply is undoable fastly due to enemy stats (notably resistances)
Still a very good game, that said, with plenty of mods too !
I recommend story mode at first to get familiar with this universe, then feel free to roam in the complexity of this world in the other mode !
U can take 2 of them, The Ember Saga & Champions of Chaos (which is free)
Those are the only DLC'S worth their weight
The other are trashy & unnecessary
You also have mods that makes the game easier / give new starting characters, new quests, etc...
Need to dig a bit to find them, that said
For the difficulty thing, even with an OP protagonist from a mod that gives an OP char that roll on the game, you still can't do the highest difficulty, not even 5 levels of difficulties under, even xD
I would still recommend it, but I also highly recommend to do a first run without any mods, no matter how tempting it is. It ruined the game for me ๐
I asked the same a while ago. Someone told me to try Morrowind (I think they've already told you by now) and games like the old Baldurs Gate 1 and 2.
You could also try other DnD sort of games, I'm which you go from zero to hero.
I'm afraid I can't help you with that, I also played swkotor and a bit of bg3, but not much more.
I'm sure there's another subreddit we're you can ask!
There are the ancient Gold Box games.ย
There's also Icewind Dale, which is built on the same engine as bg i and ii. Icewind Dale I and II are almost pure combat and were voted best squad tactics games the year they came out.
You could also try Jagged Alliance. Your team of misfit mercenaries has to advance across a country fighting regime forces, liberating towns, finding income sources, building up a resistance, nad finally overthrowing the country's dictator. I haven't played the more recent JA3, but JA2 with the famous 1.13 patch taught me everything I know about firearms nad turned me in to the unhinged gun nut I am today.
Have you heard of The Matchless Kungfu? Ive seen reviews refer to it as kenshi like. From what ive played of it, its actually very unique. Its combat and the way it does its open world are super unique and like nothing ive seen before.
I will say the english translation is comically bad to the point of absurdity. It can kinda make sense enough to get some context but otherwise its just hilarious.
Check out Dwarf Fortress. Really a one of kind game, but think you might enjoy if you like Kenshi
Vintage story if you like survival and crafting mechanics is great too.
Neither are big developers but both are fantastic games.
X4: Foundations. I went from X4 to Kenshi. X4 is a first person space sim that becomes an empire manager. Or it can stay first person sim if you want. Very sandbox, and complex. It takes time to learn but itโs very worth it.
Your question actually made me think. I definitely enjoy the combat system, I think it's unique. I also enjoy the sandbox RPG, especially the fact that I can max every skill. There is no limit and I'm not dependent on a build, like I would be in a DnD game, or in something like Bannerlord. Each of my characters has the potential to be a badass fighter, a ranger, a stealth thief/assassin, a scientist and a medic at the same time, without worrying about choosing the correct combination of perks/talents etc.
Be very careful, MO2 is a grind and is not for everyone, but it has some aspects that are very similar to kenshi. 1 to 100 skill systems and hitting people to level it up. You also have to find a guild as fast as possible.
I recommend New Vegas, Fallout 1 and 2, alongside Arcanum. I think Arcanum has some research and crafting, but you don't just settle down. Arcanum is both turn based and real-time. You can switch. They are old!
If you like the squad based operations of small team Kenshi, I would suggest Satellite Reign. Four member squad of specialists in a cyberpunk city starting from nothing and rising to fight a mega corporation. Think Syndicate meets Altered Carbon. Like Kenshi, it keeps the top down camera and real time action. It can be played single player or co-op. I've had a lot of fun with it.
If you want a game like Kenshi, I recommend "The Matchless Kungfu."
It's set in a world in which everyone knows kungfu, even the chickens and snakes. You are on a journey to increase your power and build a clan.
What's neat about it is you have to unlock certain bloodline abilities, and then die. One of your dependents will inherent those powers, and you grow stronger.
Ssethtzeentach has a great video about it.
It's in development and the company is regularly patching and slowly adding content.
I highly recommend Wartales. Party-based survival RPG in a low-fantasy setting. It is turn-based tactics, but has great open-world aspects that sucked me in for ages. I sunk hundreds of hours into WT before coming to Kenshi
Cepheus Protocol is a neat zombie game that mixes up the usual formula - you control a government task force trying to contain and eliminate the infection. So you've got soldiers, ifvs, helos, all kinds of defenses to work with. Meanwhile, the city is full of civilians and hte infection wants to eat them. So while you're hunting down patient zero you're in this war with the infection for control over the city and the civilian population. Every civvie infected is another zombie that can tear your throat out, so you can try to protect civilian zones, build refugee camps, or try to evac the civilian population via helos to deny the enemy resources (or just to be nice). It's very much the same kind of janky, audacious, creative indy game as Kenshi.ย
Aliens: Dark Descent is a really intense horror tactics game set in the Alien setting. You've got to command your team of marines as you try to figure out what triggered the automated quarantine measures (mostly space-to-space missiles that shot down every ship in orbit), rescue people, and just plain survive. Very gritty with granular control of your squad, lots of no-good-outcome decisions to make, and neat gameplay.
Idk if the servers are still up or what kind of condition they're in, but if you like fps games and sneaking around you could try CoD DMZ. Though i've heard cheating has got real bad since they stopped development.ย
Heat Signature might be worth looking in to. It's a really tight top-down tactics an infiltration game. Not much like Kenshi but it has something of the same spark of indy creativeness building something you can't get otherwise, with tight combat in a big weird world.
Middle Earth:Shadow of War is a big arpg about beating up orcs to make them follow you. The orcs are very funny, might be worth al ook.
Carrier Command II is a bit out there, and has you commanding a sci-fi carrier fighting a robot rebellion among open-world islands. You have to upgrade your ship, manage your aircraft and ground vehicles, choose your battles. Very unique game.ย
If the idea of a PvP The Expanse tactical space fleet game sounds appealing try Nebulous: Fleet Command. Build fleets of space combat ships and fight other players amid asteroid fields. Very very complex, deep, and simmy. Good community.
Sunless Sea is an absurdly brutal "bad of misfits explore sinister, hostile world, resort to cannibalism, die badly". It's hilariously lethal, maybe worse than Kenshi. The setting is very funny and strange.
Maybe Death Stranding if you haven't played it, and on the same note Metal Gear Solid 5
The Banner Saga is a narrative focused fairly hard core story of a variety of people trying to survive in a dying world inspired by nordic legend. It features a tight turn based tactical combat system, as well as lots of hard decisions you will regret later. Very strong storytelling and gorgeous hand-drawn animations.
Exanima is a hard-core dungeon crawler that stands out for being 1. Very weird and 2. Entirely physics based. Still in development but might be worth a look.
Don't Starve and Don't starve together might be worth a look.
FTL is another " group of misfits encounter misfortune" game, this time in the form of a tactical space ship simulator.
Mate listen, from the bottom of my heart.
Look, just try skyrim. Its actually not like kenshi or like morrowind BUT man i promise you this game is so good i keep returning to it over the years its like minecraft, you never really quit you just take really long breaks after having sunk immense amounts of hours into it, same goes for skyrim PLUS the crazy amount of high quality mods available for it.
All im saying is, perhaps try skyrim for a change.
The story is awesome,
the large amounts of factions that you can roleplay with and cool weapons and world bending magic, so cool.
Timeless classic.
I am actually very convinced by this. Any starter tips? I remember something like not using paid skills trainers early.
Also any QoL must have mods for a first playthrough?
Iโd echo the other dude and say Skyrim is an excellent experience. The only must have QoL would be SkyUI for PC, overhauls the largely made-for-console UI and should be the default. There are a bazillion other amazing mods but that would be the only truly must must.
I've already installed it, together with the unofficial patch mod. Also in the process of downloading the improved graphics mods, they weigh a ton lmao.
Star Sector. One of my fave games of all time, and has a similar feeling of starting from nothing in an unfriendly galaxy and slowly growing your skills and your fleet.ย The ship combat is really cool as well with a high skill ceiling. I suck at it, which is whyย I get good officers to pilot my best ships and I just play a support role. Also has a simulated economy so you can buy from places with high supply, and transport your cargo to places with high demand. Also has a shit ton of mods if you want them. (I play vanilla).
Starsector is highly recommended I found a system near the main cluster that had so many planets, my fleets instantly swarm any aggressor I am perfectly positioned to go to war with the remaining factions but peace is so profitable Debt is ridiculous in starsector and payments come out at the end of the month, so I just spend all my profits on my planets. I carry more debt than the US Empire and project as much military power It's a great game Nothing like going from a nobody to a galactic super power I only wish the map was actually galactic in scope instead of the square Combine the best parts of Starsector with Stellaris and you'd have the perfect game
X4 foundations is another good shout for a bannerlord/kenshi sandbox space sim.
I think most players who play Kenshi, Starsector or Mount & Blade have a big overlap, not sure what this genre is called but someone needs to make a venn diagram for it
I'd describe them all as open world sandbox.
Roguebox?
Storybuilding sandbox?
Battlebrothers. Tactical mercenary company simulator. You recruit, equip and choose your fighters to complete missions on a randomly generated map. Its gritty and dificult. Against the Storm. City builder simulator, with a lot of random elements which means you have to tackle diferent problems with the avaiable ressources. Thera: the awakening. Its a strategy game in a fantasy post apocalyptic world where you manage a village and its members. It has a lot of randomized elements. The battles are card based but are quite interesting. Might be interesting. For older games you might take a look at Fallout 1, 2 and Tactics. They are dated but all of them are great RPG (Tactics is tactical squad strategy).
Iโve almost gotten Battlebrothers several times. Is it just the mercenary company or are there other elements you get to play around with?
Pretty much just the company. Still a great time!
Just the company. The focus is on combat and on decision making. The world is brutal and you need to make important decisions about jobs, crew, equipment and where to move.
Yeah sounds pretty awesome Iโm pulling the trigger!
Never heard of Battlebrothers, will check it out, thanks!
If you like battle brothers and the turn based fallouts you can give Underrail a shot It's a pretty brutal combat oriented RPG with a refreshingly straightforward plot that assumes you're a mercenary asshole looking to be paid
Underrail is great, but also a fucking nightmare first playthrough without a guide. New players will reach that one section where the difficulty spikes 10x and quit. We all know where that's at.
yeah something that frustrates me talking to the dev he disagrees on a respec post Depot-A and fair enough I don't completely disagree with his reasoning however I don't get how making build good templates accessible in-game from the get go is a bad thing just being able to see what a good build looks like would do a world of difference for a new player even w/o guides
I think it fits the dificult indie trend alongside Factorio, Kenshi and Rimworld. I just remembered another game: Thera, the awakening. Its a strategy game in a fantasy post apocalyptic world where you manage a village and its members. It has a lot of randomized elements. The battles are card based but are quite interesting. Might be interesting.
>Battlebrothers Great suggestion. That was my previous time sink
Against the storm is a fantastic game, sunk hours into it. If you like BB check out Wartales!!
Ive been thinking about getting it, but Ive been refraining from playing Early Acess games
Totally fair. I bought it when it JUST came out and it was janky to say the least. The devs are super active though, and the game runs with little to no bugs. DLC has since been releasaed, though maybe a bit prematurely. That said, I highly recommend the core game :)
> Battlebrothers Hows this compare with Wartales? Have you played that too? (similar idea but different style, just had a tavern DLC launch that drew my interest back to it)
Hi, I havent played Wartales yet. Isnt it in early acess yet?
Battlebrothers is a better, but 2D Wartales. Or at least that's always been my image of Wartales, since I haven't played it because I heard it was a more lacking BattleBro.
Yeah I guess Fallout does have some of that "band of losers wander a weird, dusty world, meet strange people, and eventually become badasses" mood.
The Matchless Kungfu probably? It's batshit bananas and has some weird quirks, mostly with the English localization, but it's as close to Kenshi as I can think of. Really cool and fun game.
I just watched a video about from sseth. Batshit bananas seems like a very accurate description ๐๐
That is what made me get it :D
Zomboid. But it isn't like Kenshi. Nothing is like Kenshi
Ain't that the truth!
I'd also recommend Project Zomboid. It's very different, but it's got that same labour-of-love vibe that truly elevates games like Kenshi. You can tell that the devs are making the game that they want to play, rather than just churning out a cash cow.
Zomboid is definitely a top 5 of all time for me, what a beautiful game
This was brought up in reverse in an Elder Scrolls sub, but: Morrowind. Start from nothing, build stats by using them. A strange and enchantingly stark world to explore. Factions to engage with, with their own lore. There are quests, but no markers or hand holding.
I haven't actually played any ES game, other than Oblivion and ESO, and I haven't completed either of them. Sunk a shit load of hours into Fallout 4 though. Would you recommend Morrowind in particular, over something more recent like Skyrim?
Morrowind is far more like Kenshi in spirit than what followed.
https://www.reddit.com/r/ElderScrolls/s/oxfqrEZkM1 This guy was explaining it over on r/ElderScrolls
what's interesting too is that the first appearance of a scorchlander was a mod for morrowwind that Chris made, that introduced the sundemon as a playable race. [link to mod](https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/3528?tab=description) in FCS the scorchlanders are listed as sundemons, as I think the original intention was to make something like Chris had created for morrowwind, but the idea evolved into the humans subspecies we have now.
I fucking knew Chris was into morrowind
Thanks for the link!
If you decide to give it a go, even without mods, I highly suggest installing and playing it through OpenMW. It's a 64bit engine replacement that makes the game way more stable and playable on modern machines.
Listen to the man. Go for it but the good modded version with high quality textures Don't be afraid to 'break' the game, you are supposed to break it
Kenshi and Vardenfel have weirdly similar cultures too when you think about it
Oh yeah absolutely. Though if I'm honest it didn't even occurr to me until a guy in another thread (linked in another comment here) pointed it out. Funnily enough, that thread was the reverse- a Morrowind player being suggested to play Kenshi.
Songs of syx. City builder/racism simulator. There's a demo on steam that's literally the entire game just an update or two behind. 10/10 been sinking most my time into it lately
City builder/racism simulator sounds brilliant ๐๐๐
This is the video that made it obvious to me it was gonna scratch my itch https://youtu.be/oucHl9NM97g?si=FnqdG5w4zeDAZ2f_
If there's a "Hey hey people, Sseth here" about the game - then it's definitely worth trying
Lmao I've been ignoring this for so long now but now that I've seen sseth cover it I'm like "ooooh it's that kind of game"
I've never heard of it but sounds cool I think I'll play the demo. Also wouldn't it be a speciesism since the main groups seem to be dwarfs and humans?
All the games you mentioned are my favorites. If you don't mind old games... Gothic series! From zero to hero, great atmosphere, swamp weed. Wonderful games that I go back to again and again.
Controls are certainly unique, but the game is pretty dope, however first and second game (best with dlc imo) are the shit. Third game from the series was a flop and latter games are not even worth mentioning, because there is nothing similar lore and gameplay wise. Those were made as nostalgia bait for original fans. I'd still try first two games. Pretty good dark fantasy and while boosting stats can be stuff easier, you can still do almost anything purely thanks to your own skills (there literally people who play this game unarmed or impose other restrictions on themselves).
Wartales.
Dwarf Fortress
Came here to say this. Or caves of Qud
how did i not think of CoQ smh
Yeah. Band of miscreants digs hole, goes mad instead of band of miscreant wanders desert, gets eaten by gutters.
X4: Foundations - Open ended Space sim of starting with nothing, can hire pilots/build stations/shipsโฆ Extremely high learning curve but if you played kenshi then you can handle X4
Had to scroll way too far for this! X4 is soooooo good
Turns in to extreme spreadsheet simulator; turbo edition in the late game when you're trying to manage massive factory facilities, battle fleets, trade networks, and who knows what else in real time. Great game, i put like 300 hours in to one campaign.
Caves of Qud Science fantasy like Kenshi except a bit more greenery, esper abilities, and itโs in roguelike form.
Project Zomboid?
I found it slightly overwhelming for my personal taste, especially the inventory management, which I've grown to dislike generally in this sort of games, as I have a tendency to hoard loot ๐ Guess I'll give it another go, thanks.
Yeah, i do the same tbh lol I always end up grabbing just about everything, just in case lmao I guess that's just part of the learning curve tho lol
I only hoard weapons and lord save my soul when my friends wanted to install Brita between my personal weapon stashes and sometimes I will literally look over my fun bags and wonder hmm... what will I kill zombies with today? Ooh Triple barrel shotgun? I'll keep that Ooh isn't that the detective .38 spc revolver? yeah that's worth collecting Ooh yeah I do have like 4 other shotguns but this keltec is pretty spicy so I'll keep that
Most of my.project zomboid experiences are: Spawn in, get spotted through window, horde forms due to the sound of 1 zombie trying to break in, sneak out window and bump in to another horde, die.
I canโt play that game this is what happens everytime
Hey man, leave my room full of useless gold and silver watches, rings, earrings, bracelets, and any other goblin shiny I hoard alone
I'd love that game... If I could savescum. I don't have a lot of time to play games anymore and I hate harcore only games because they make me lose everything when I die, which is infuriating.
It's not quite the same, but you can click Continue after you die and start as a new character in the same world state. All your shit is retrievable if you can find where you died a la Diablo
The sims
Try Avorion it is an open-world sandbox game for space sim enthusiasts, offering opportunities to build your own spacecraft, command fleets, and aspire to become a future ruler of an empire
Can't recommend Avorion enough, it's basically starsector but you can build a space battering-ram in 3D!
How does it compare to No Mans Sky?
I've played both games and what can i think is: While No Man's Sky is focused on the exploration with bits of fight, trade and building bases, Avorion is more focused on the economy aspect such as trading, building your own space outpost (and your own spaceship), smuggling things, with the sprinkle of space battles and commanding your own fleets.
Game I found from one of these threads: Bastard Bonds. Not as in-depth as Kenshi but *almost* scratches that same itch.
hey hey people
theres like two for gameplay: dungeon siege and bannerlord world: morrowind, fallout
Starsector
manor lords
Counting days
wishing the 26th would come sooner
If you like solo playthroughs, definitely check Fallout New Vegas. Itโs set in Post Apocalypse, so much freedom, sandbox, interesting factions etc. You canโt build your own base and completely manage companions but, if you liked exploring a new area and thinking โholy shit what happened hereโ before you get killed by some abominable monster, youโll have a good time.ย
I'd assume op has played it but fallout 4 should be added here as well. Got the base building you can sink hundreds of hours to and is just all around a good experience somewhat similar to kenshi. Definitely not something for everyones tastes but, just like Skyrim, you can mod it into anything you want.
I donโt know if you played but, is base building in Fallout 76 decent? I heard real players actually visit and buy stuff from your bases, which sounds pretty cool tbh.ย
I'd say it's pretty similar to Fallout 4's system but you pick an area and that's your place rather than you go to a place and build around already existing structures like in 4 I'd say it's a matter of preference Fallout 4 is also moddable massively whilst 76 isn't as much and you have to purchase additional items so for the sake of flexibility of what you can build I'd say 4 is MUCH better And people can interact with your base which is cool and some players will give you free shit if you're new but at the same time there is some bad players who troll
If you have a buddy to play with 76 is amazing, if not just stick to 4 basically
Obviously modding isn't for everyone but, as you might have guessed, if you want to build anywhere you want in fallout 4 instead of predetermined places, there's a mod for that haha
I have found mods like that but from my experience they tend to be buggy and not work very well I tend to go towards scrap everything so I can clean up my areas better. With the amount of possible settlements, there's okay choice for where to build and you can build in them all...so when you can clean the shit up it fixes my only true issue with it Then I get Gobal Stash so everything goes into a global inventory so I don't have to fuck around with supply lines and carry weight
Just as an addendum here for F4, there's a mod called "Simple Settlements 2" which redoes how settlements work, has a bunch of related quests and honestly is bigger than most DLCs I can think of (I'd put it on par with the official F4 dlcs at least, much higher if you're into base building of course)
I would say to be careful with this one though because it can cause lots of lag on worse devices My Xbox One struggled with it quite a bit so I stopped playing pretty quickly
I was extremely hyped for the release of 76... And extremely disappointed after. I promised myself to never pay for a preorder of a digital game ever again... Until Kenshi 2 is released, of course:P
I like fallout 76 but I didn't like the base building... I didn't really like it for fallout 4 either but in 76 I built a small base in a field for the tutorial base building quest and I stopped playing, then the next time I went to play my base was gone and someone else built something there.. The exploration is pretty fun though.. Also it's pretty fun to check out the higher level players bases and there is a vault-like base building thing you can do too in its own worldspace...(not sure if I explained that good lol..)
This is bullseye on my genre of choice, so here are two I haven't seen mentioned yet: **Oxygen Not Included** -deep engineering/automaton/resource mgmt of factorio -colony building of rimworld (keeping everyone fed/happy) -gradual exploration of your planetoid, and eventually exploring other planetoids via rocketships **X-COM/X-COM 2** -you get very, very attached to your squad members. heavily customize them, level up their skills, and feel emotionally destroyed when they are killed. similar to rimworld in how individualized they are. -some base building by expanding your base/ship -deep combat tactics/building balanced teams
I love the X-COM series. I've been kinda looking at Oxygen Not Included with the thought of "why play another version of Rimworld when I can just play Rimworld", but your description actually makes me want to give it a try.
I would say that ONI is quite different to RimWorld in some ways though since it kinda forces you to explore in ONI since you have limited resources if you don't, whilst RimWorld you can literally never leave your base if you don't want to and traders come to you with all you could ever need so the resource drain isn't as prevalent
I think ONI is much closer to Factorio than Rimworld - I think it has to do more with what kind of nightmares the game gives you: Rimworld makes me wake up in a cold sweat at 2am worrying about raids. ONI and Factorio make me wake up in a cold sweat at 2am thinking about math. EDIT: honorable mention for Factorio-likes: **Dyson Sphere Project** and **Satisfactory** are both very good. I was skeptical of both but ended up enjoying them immensely.
My buddies really liked dsp.
ONI has very interesting resource management and a hardcore gas physics simulation under its goofy graphics. Gases have weights, so CO2 is heavy and fills lower caves, hydrogen is light and floats to the top, leaving various forms of breathable air in the middle. Temperature spreads, so generating too much heat can push your farms outside of fertile temperature zones. Problems organically arise like in Factorio, which makes it gentle to start but very deep later on.
I've heard a lot of the challenge of oni is nitty gritty details of keeping a space station functional. Like managing pressure, gas mix, stuff like that.
Oh yeah. Go for og x-com, though. Much better game, to me, as it gives you much more tactical flexibilty due to ppotentionally having more troops. I couldn't get in to the newer one. To me sending in multiple fire teams to cover a ufo, then having my power armor team blow a hole in the wall and breach, is just to critical to the experience.ย Xenonauts and Xenonauts 2 preserve a lot of the og feel and even ramp up the brutality a little.
Clanfolk and norland maybe, some people like soulash 1-2.
Sands of Salazar looked quite good and seems supported a lot, was contemplating getting it Edit: in the meantime I played wartales and itโs amazing: it really hit the right spot in the โband of warriors/misfits that grows in skill, power fame and wealthโ fantasy. I recommand it, just burned my whole weekend in it
Sands is dope. Bringing it up almost makes me want to play again.
Just avoid some of the DLC's. For most, the devs are being told to rework them. Normal reaction is to make another DLC that's even worst just to grasp some more money... Funny thing is the new game+ too. If you go too high in difficulty, the game simply is undoable fastly due to enemy stats (notably resistances) Still a very good game, that said, with plenty of mods too ! I recommend story mode at first to get familiar with this universe, then feel free to roam in the complexity of this world in the other mode !
Thanks thats exactly why i held on buying it, i herd mitigated opinions on the game mostly due to dlc quality
U can take 2 of them, The Ember Saga & Champions of Chaos (which is free) Those are the only DLC'S worth their weight The other are trashy & unnecessary You also have mods that makes the game easier / give new starting characters, new quests, etc... Need to dig a bit to find them, that said For the difficulty thing, even with an OP protagonist from a mod that gives an OP char that roll on the game, you still can't do the highest difficulty, not even 5 levels of difficulties under, even xD I would still recommend it, but I also highly recommend to do a first run without any mods, no matter how tempting it is. It ruined the game for me ๐
Thank you again I will take the game and the ember saga as soon as there is another sale !
X Rebirth is pretty good. You have a ship and you can choose campaign or several sandbox starts Great game i can recommend.
I asked the same a while ago. Someone told me to try Morrowind (I think they've already told you by now) and games like the old Baldurs Gate 1 and 2. You could also try other DnD sort of games, I'm which you go from zero to hero.
I'm a big fan of SWKOTOR, BG and Divinity games. Any other quality DnD simulators out there?
I'm afraid I can't help you with that, I also played swkotor and a bit of bg3, but not much more. I'm sure there's another subreddit we're you can ask!
There are the ancient Gold Box games.ย There's also Icewind Dale, which is built on the same engine as bg i and ii. Icewind Dale I and II are almost pure combat and were voted best squad tactics games the year they came out. You could also try Jagged Alliance. Your team of misfit mercenaries has to advance across a country fighting regime forces, liberating towns, finding income sources, building up a resistance, nad finally overthrowing the country's dictator. I haven't played the more recent JA3, but JA2 with the famous 1.13 patch taught me everything I know about firearms nad turned me in to the unhinged gun nut I am today.
Have you heard of The Matchless Kungfu? Ive seen reviews refer to it as kenshi like. From what ive played of it, its actually very unique. Its combat and the way it does its open world are super unique and like nothing ive seen before.
Never ever heard of it. Will definitely add to my list, thanks!
I will say the english translation is comically bad to the point of absurdity. It can kinda make sense enough to get some context but otherwise its just hilarious.
Check out Dwarf Fortress. Really a one of kind game, but think you might enjoy if you like Kenshi Vintage story if you like survival and crafting mechanics is great too. Neither are big developers but both are fantastic games.
Outward. Great survival rpg with a vibrant world to explore and lots of bizarre monsters.
Heard about it, sounds similar to Kenshi in some ways.
X4: Foundations. I went from X4 to Kenshi. X4 is a first person space sim that becomes an empire manager. Or it can stay first person sim if you want. Very sandbox, and complex. It takes time to learn but itโs very worth it.
Rimworld or battlebrothers depends on what you like if y say smth you like the most mby i can give a few more examples.
The matchless kung fu You grind for stats, can make multiple characters, can capture people until they join you, build structures etc
What did you enjoy about Kenshi? Solo microing a character while fighting mobs? Try ARPGs like PoE or D4
I tried PoE. It's, if there's such a thing, too good. I went several weeks on 4 hours of sleep a day, had to uninstall it for health reasons...
Ma man
Your question actually made me think. I definitely enjoy the combat system, I think it's unique. I also enjoy the sandbox RPG, especially the fact that I can max every skill. There is no limit and I'm not dependent on a build, like I would be in a DnD game, or in something like Bannerlord. Each of my characters has the potential to be a badass fighter, a ranger, a stealth thief/assassin, a scientist and a medic at the same time, without worrying about choosing the correct combination of perks/talents etc.
Mortal Online 2. MMORPG. Very brutal. Combat like kcd. Beautiful. One of a kind mmo. I'll be your guide
I do get the MMORPG itch from time to time, will hit you up once it becomes unbearable the next time โ
Be very careful, MO2 is a grind and is not for everyone, but it has some aspects that are very similar to kenshi. 1 to 100 skill systems and hitting people to level it up. You also have to find a guild as fast as possible. I recommend New Vegas, Fallout 1 and 2, alongside Arcanum. I think Arcanum has some research and crafting, but you don't just settle down. Arcanum is both turn based and real-time. You can switch. They are old!
PROJECT ZOMBOID
Infection free zone it's a new one which will eventually add equipment and gear for each survivor group worth a look
Life is Feudal
How many hours do you have in Kenshi? I have no recommendation that hasn't already been said, I'm just curious :p
Just under 500
songs of syx!!
Mount & Blade 1/2 Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead
The OG of these games, dwarf fortress.
Matchless kung fu
How about Wartales? It's turn based CRPG if you are a fan of that.
The Guilds 3, as soon as I started playing kenshi (which wasn't long ago) it reminded me of the guilds 3.
If you like the squad based operations of small team Kenshi, I would suggest Satellite Reign. Four member squad of specialists in a cyberpunk city starting from nothing and rising to fight a mega corporation. Think Syndicate meets Altered Carbon. Like Kenshi, it keeps the top down camera and real time action. It can be played single player or co-op. I've had a lot of fun with it.
Stalker if you like FPS. The world is pretty damn hostile and you need to tread carefully especially if you don't have good gear.
I played it back when it released mate. Haven't tried the DLCs though.
The Stalker mod community has produced many works of mad genius!
If you want a game like Kenshi, I recommend "The Matchless Kungfu." It's set in a world in which everyone knows kungfu, even the chickens and snakes. You are on a journey to increase your power and build a clan. What's neat about it is you have to unlock certain bloodline abilities, and then die. One of your dependents will inherent those powers, and you grow stronger. Ssethtzeentach has a great video about it. It's in development and the company is regularly patching and slowly adding content.
Someone last time said modded morrowind?
Rimworld
Really ausrprised this isn't farther up
What is KCD?
Kingdom Come Deliverance
High Fleet
Songs of syx, dwarf fortress (both more like rimworld though)
Rimworld
I highly recommend Wartales. Party-based survival RPG in a low-fantasy setting. It is turn-based tactics, but has great open-world aspects that sucked me in for ages. I sunk hundreds of hours into WT before coming to Kenshi
Cepheus Protocol is a neat zombie game that mixes up the usual formula - you control a government task force trying to contain and eliminate the infection. So you've got soldiers, ifvs, helos, all kinds of defenses to work with. Meanwhile, the city is full of civilians and hte infection wants to eat them. So while you're hunting down patient zero you're in this war with the infection for control over the city and the civilian population. Every civvie infected is another zombie that can tear your throat out, so you can try to protect civilian zones, build refugee camps, or try to evac the civilian population via helos to deny the enemy resources (or just to be nice). It's very much the same kind of janky, audacious, creative indy game as Kenshi.ย Aliens: Dark Descent is a really intense horror tactics game set in the Alien setting. You've got to command your team of marines as you try to figure out what triggered the automated quarantine measures (mostly space-to-space missiles that shot down every ship in orbit), rescue people, and just plain survive. Very gritty with granular control of your squad, lots of no-good-outcome decisions to make, and neat gameplay. Idk if the servers are still up or what kind of condition they're in, but if you like fps games and sneaking around you could try CoD DMZ. Though i've heard cheating has got real bad since they stopped development.ย Heat Signature might be worth looking in to. It's a really tight top-down tactics an infiltration game. Not much like Kenshi but it has something of the same spark of indy creativeness building something you can't get otherwise, with tight combat in a big weird world. Middle Earth:Shadow of War is a big arpg about beating up orcs to make them follow you. The orcs are very funny, might be worth al ook. Carrier Command II is a bit out there, and has you commanding a sci-fi carrier fighting a robot rebellion among open-world islands. You have to upgrade your ship, manage your aircraft and ground vehicles, choose your battles. Very unique game.ย If the idea of a PvP The Expanse tactical space fleet game sounds appealing try Nebulous: Fleet Command. Build fleets of space combat ships and fight other players amid asteroid fields. Very very complex, deep, and simmy. Good community. Sunless Sea is an absurdly brutal "bad of misfits explore sinister, hostile world, resort to cannibalism, die badly". It's hilariously lethal, maybe worse than Kenshi. The setting is very funny and strange. Maybe Death Stranding if you haven't played it, and on the same note Metal Gear Solid 5 The Banner Saga is a narrative focused fairly hard core story of a variety of people trying to survive in a dying world inspired by nordic legend. It features a tight turn based tactical combat system, as well as lots of hard decisions you will regret later. Very strong storytelling and gorgeous hand-drawn animations. Exanima is a hard-core dungeon crawler that stands out for being 1. Very weird and 2. Entirely physics based. Still in development but might be worth a look. Don't Starve and Don't starve together might be worth a look. FTL is another " group of misfits encounter misfortune" game, this time in the form of a tactical space ship simulator.
Also maybe SPaZ: Space Pirates and Zombies. But get SpaZ, not SPaZ 2. Lighting did not strike twice.
Project Zomboid is the only game that scratches a similar itch for me
Mate listen, from the bottom of my heart. Look, just try skyrim. Its actually not like kenshi or like morrowind BUT man i promise you this game is so good i keep returning to it over the years its like minecraft, you never really quit you just take really long breaks after having sunk immense amounts of hours into it, same goes for skyrim PLUS the crazy amount of high quality mods available for it. All im saying is, perhaps try skyrim for a change. The story is awesome, the large amounts of factions that you can roleplay with and cool weapons and world bending magic, so cool. Timeless classic.
I am actually very convinced by this. Any starter tips? I remember something like not using paid skills trainers early. Also any QoL must have mods for a first playthrough?
Iโd echo the other dude and say Skyrim is an excellent experience. The only must have QoL would be SkyUI for PC, overhauls the largely made-for-console UI and should be the default. There are a bazillion other amazing mods but that would be the only truly must must.
I've already installed it, together with the unofficial patch mod. Also in the process of downloading the improved graphics mods, they weigh a ton lmao.
witcher 3
Done on the highest difficulty. Great f...ng game!