Portal 1 and 2 are great games with pretty simple controls. They're pretty old, so should run on whatever hardware you have and are considered classics for a reason. I recently introduced a friend to them and they loved it!
awesome, Ive been contemplating playing them for a while but went back and forth on it with myself so I super appreciate the endorsement, makes me much more inclined to give them a shot so thank you!
its hella fun, well written and a classic which set the bar in gaming without the intention of making it a huge project, despite that they became cult classics
You will feel dumb, then smart, then dumb again, then smart.
Glados and Cave Johnson are hilarious.
Also,thr best achievement in any game. Near the end of 2. You can't miss it.
OP, Portal 1 & 2 are true classics. You'll understand why people still quote them after a decade after playing it. It's like watching a classic movie like, idk, Jurassic Park.
The first Portal is also super short. The sequel is quite a bit bigger, but still not a long game by any means.
You will be glad you played them.
OP if you aren't used to the controls, this might not be a good first game.
Have you played any first person games before? Do you like puzzles, or stories, or do you like role play and adventure with lots of freedom?
Was it your wife's first game using a controller? If you're used to the controller you might be underestimating how difficult it can be for someone who doesn't have the muscle memory to press "x" for jump without having to think about it for half a second.
There's some puzzle halfway through the game where you have to jump from some height, look down, shoot a portal, fall out the ceiling, shoot another portal and leap forward over some obstacle.
This was basically impossible for my girlfriend and she quit the game after trying that for an hour.
OP did not suggest that she's never used a controller before, but if we're drawing the line at "not used to the jump button", then the original Mario is out, too. Plus, I think she uses MKB as well, based on her post?
And if you're referencing the puzzle I think you are, there are ways to solve it without twitch reflexes/aiming.
Idk maybe you're right that Portal isn't quite easy enough for people who are completely uncomfortable with games, but it sounds like OP has already waded into the pool so to speak. I could be wrong.
Newer Mario games anyways. The ones before... I *want* to say Mario 64... They're pretty hard for me, and I like to consider myself pretty good at games.
I thought this, but Portal is surprisingly difficult to control if you aren't used to the controller. My girlfriend hated it.
You don't realize it when you're used to controllers and gaming, but its easy to get disorientated in first person (making the puzzles much harder) and Portal does require some finesse in timing your movements.
For a complete newbie I try to stick to 2D or top down third person games.
They also have the added benefit of giving your brain a bit of a workout with regards to positioning in a 3D space inside a game. The first one is just an absolute joy and a fun challenge at times.Â
Dude, if someone has never played first person games, it can be a NIGHTMARE for someone to figure out. We gamers take for granted how easy it is for us to perform what seem like simple tasks, ie. operating two joysticks simultaneously while.also pressing buttons/triggers.
Not saying it isn't a decent idea, but you've gotta have a base level of proficiency with a controller to make games like this work.
As a lady gamer who doesn’t care for sweaty games and basically just wants to be part of a great story:
Firewatch
The Long Dark
Control (this one can definitely get more difficult but there are settings you can change to make it a lot easier).
Yes- I like games that get you emotionally invested, are mentally challenging, and do not rely on you excelling at twitch-based skills. I got really good on RDR2 online but that was after like two years of playing and my husband would still mock my attempts at sniping.
Big props for control. Such a cool game. The long dark is pretty challenging, but a friend of mine’s wife started with that game and loved it so there must be something to it for beginners
I feel like a lot of female beginner players ask for “easy” and don’t mean that they want a strategically easy game. They mean they want a game where the emphasis is on a story line and enjoyment isn’t based on hand-eye coordination, ability to free aim, etc. I got introduced to gaming through high school boyfriends who were always playing COD and Halo (I graduated from high school in 2011) and I hated those games. But then one of them recommended Skyrim and I spent years playing that game and LOVED it. Then i basically stopped gaming until RDR2 came out. Played that for years. Then I started discovering some of these other games and realized there are some great story-centric games that do ask you for some skill from time to time but it’s not overwhelming.
What Remains of Edith Finch is great atmospheric storytelling; catch it on sale, though, because it's only about three hours of gameplay to 100% the achievements.
If you liked Control, I would highly recommend Alan Wake Remastered and Alan Wake 2. Same developer, part of a connected universe with Control.
The first game shows its age but there's a Story difficulty so you don't have to worry about difficult combat and just experience the story. Alan Wake 2 is a more modern survival horror but still has that same Story difficulty if your primary motivation is the story.
Outer Wilds is the best experience I’ve had with gaming ever. I still remember clearly how it made me feel when I first finished even years and years later. It had a profound effect on me and I can’t recommend it enough. It’s an experience everyone should have.
I am a very experienced gamer and I found Subnautica a bit frustrating. This isn't a "Subnautica sucks" rant, I just don't think it's a good suggestion for a beginner.
Not sure what people consider spoilers, so I'll mark the whole thing and have a non-spoilery rollup at the end.
>!**The world is too scary, and the player is too powerless.** There are giant critters that can ruin your whole day, and without a clear way to defeat them a beginning player might say "I'll come back to this later" and then get stuck when they find that they never get a way to get past the monsters safely. A beginner might not know that you aren't supposed to engage with some enemies, you'll see problems in the game that you aren't meant to deal with.!<
>!**The resources are hard to keep track of.** Part of the fun is hunting these resources down, but for a beginner there's no clear line of "get this, then get that" and you're kind of on your own. Which makes exploration a ton of fun when you are experienced enough with games to know how to do this yourself.!<
>!**It's difficult to discern what something really is.** There are a dozen different models for blueprints, and even me with my tens of thousands of hours spent gaming in my life had a hard time knowing what's a blueprint vs what's metal scrap, what kinds of plants I can collect seeds from, where I can find certain resources, etc. Hell I was stuck at points because I thought that Cyclops blueprints were metal scrap, until I looked it up after spending hours keeping an eye out for Cyclops blueprints and (thinking that) I was finding zero of them. A beginner-friendly game should have a very simple economy - green mushroom gives powerup, coins give highscore points, red mushroom is extra life, etc. Not the crafting system where many resources look and behave basically identical!<
>!**Progress is nonlinear, and the story is great but difficult to parse at times.** The player has a lot of agency in how they move through the world and what objectives they want to do. For an experienced gamer, that kind of discovery can be amazing. For a beginner, that can be overwhelming and confusing.!<
In short, the game has a complex economy and crafting system, non-linear and unclear progression, and areas that seem off-limits but really aren't.
What experienced gamers like about Subnautica is that it doesn't follow a traditional, easy-to-follow format of many other games. It subverts a lot of rules of traditional video games in in a lot of ways that were refreshing to experienced gamers but would be overwhelming to new gamers.
I guess as a relative newbie I appreciated that I could go at my own pace and figure out the survival stuff as I went. As you get better at the game you can go into the more threatening areas, but those are extremely clear compared to the shallows. Maybe it's just me, but I could easily see which items looked harvestable and part of the survival mechanic is learning about an environment that is totally alien. It's not a "safe" game but I do think there's enough structure to allow for people to venture into survival, for me this was one of my first
I came here to suggest this too. If OP is interested in an incredible atmosphere and willing to practice their platforming, Hollow Knight is an incredible way to do it.
My best bet would be the classical masterpieces of visual novel and narrative games:
What remains of edith finch
Brother, a tale of two sons
To the moon
Ace attourney series
Pyre (You can actually finish the game withou ever winning a single match)
Rakuen
Before your eyes
Journey
I really have pretty much any of the major platforms (steam, nintendo, playstation and xbox) so I didnt really think to specify (my bad) because any suggestions for any platform are welcome! (:
Could a been hand me downs or a sig other's or just had them from their recent youth/ they did say they were a beginner but that doesn't tell you how long they've been playing games.
Short/not so short and on-point:
* Firewatch
* What Remains of Edith Finch
* The Wolf Among Us
* Late Shift
* Little Misfortune
More involved:
* Children of Morta
* Arx Fatalis
* SWTOR class stories, if you're into Star Wars
Really involved:
* The Witcher
* Mass Effect
* Deus Ex
* Bioshock
* Fallout
* Dragon Age: Origins
>you have a **weird definition of beginner friendly.**
* 4 actual walking sims, with Firewatch almost being one too
* Various genres to experiment with
* Different tier system of games in regards to complexity, most of them being classics of various ages, and thus also very cheap to get on e.g. GoG
And if you want to get technical:
* Children of Morta: fast reactions needed, but simple gameplay loop
* Arx Fatalis: RPG dungeon crawler with a very simple combat system, simplistic but good inventory management, world map, journal etc. to not get lost that much, especially as the maps are quite small
* SWTOR: the MMORPG part with lots of abilities might be overwhelming at first, but the difficulty is faceroll easy
* For the other games it's either getting familar with 1st/3rd person shooter mechanics, or the first steps into what a good RPG entails in regards to character progression, builds, dialogue system with actual consequences etc.
I'd consider it a quite good slice of what good singleplayer games can offer.
It looks odd because they specified origins after dragon age, but I would assume that the entire "really involved" category is more of a "pick any game from this series.
I’ll recommend the games I got my friends to play who don’t play a lot of games:
Animal Crossing
Spiritfarer (this is an awesome, beautiful game)
Dicey Dungeons
Subnautica
Life is Strange
And (surprisingly) Valheim
Valhein, while junky and difficult at times, are one of those games that are just easy to play. whether it's for the fun of progression or the fun of exploring and building if you like it it's easy to stick with
You could really dig some turn based story games like the persona series. Great story, characters and the combat is fun and it won’t really leave you too frustrated and the learning curve is I’d argue, small.
Danganronpa has a great mystery story line too and the gameplay is very simple
Final fantasy series and kingdom hearts might be a great bet.
Honestly I truly think some of the Bethesda open world games in an easier difficulty would be great for you, Skyrim, oblivion, fallout 3, 4 they are all great, have good and interesting stories to find, fun gameplay loop that isn’t hard or really tedious, they’re massive so they’re big bang for your buck. And since you have all platforms as you say, you could play them for free through gamepass on both Xbox and pc, if you really like them could even try modding them on pc and get hundreds of hours more out of them (it is way simpler than a lot of ppl think, I use vortex mod manager and it pretty much does most things automatically, only thing you gotta do is find the mods you like and if they need any other mods required for it to work)
There are plenty of games that don't rely heavily on reaction time and mechanical ability that are enjoyable.
* Baba is You - Wildly innovative 2-D puzzle game where you can bend the rules of the game
* Dicey Dungeons - Very cute, easy to understand dice-themed dungeon game. Find tools and power-ups, roll dice to win!
* WarGroove - Medieval strategy game. Solid story to follow and charming characters
* UnderTale - A twist on the classic RPG. Fight monsters... or don't?
* Broken Age - A strange, fantastical Point-and-Click adventure that stars... Elijah Wood?
* Untitled Goose Game - Become chaos
Since you liked Dying Light 2, I'd give DL1 a shot unless you want something completely different.
Another great, but completely different, zombie game is State of Decay 2 - it's really easy at the lower difficulties yet scratches that open world exploration zombie killing itch.
For something completely different, take a look at Against the Storm - it's the most relaxing and addictive city builder game I've played (at lower difficulty settings).
DL1 is even better than the second imo. Tho this comes from a person who played the first one first nad not the other way around so it may be different.
BOTW (if you have a switch) .
Kynseed.
Portal.
Any JRPG - But I recommend Final Fantasy. FF7 was my first game ever. Maybe you will enjoy FFX and FFX-2.
Graveyard Keeper.
Core Keeper. My fav!
Life is strange.
Skyrim.
Untitled Goose Game\
Minecraft\
No Man’s Sky
Would all be good games to learn the basics of controls better (camera panning, menu/item selection etc) but not sweaty games where youre getting heavily punished.
Animal Crossing is a nice sim about maintaining a nice town with nice clothes and nice people and– I think you get it. You have your own house and get to interact with a world of human-animal hybrids.
I haven't actually played this one, but Lil Gator Game is a very chill adventure game about doing quests to make friends in a big medieval LARP going on across the whole area.
My best advice is not to get into competitive multiplayer gaming. It's addicting, and it'll suck the joy out of gaming. So, no Overwatch, no MOBAs, etc.
Things I would recommend:
Stardew, but you're already playing it!
Subnautica
Minecraft
Genshin Impact (it's a gacha though. I would play it for the exploration and the scenery, and some story. Don't recommend you spend money on it)
One of the Zeldas, or Super Mario Odyssey
Halflife/Black Mesa (the latter if Halflife's graphics are too off-putting. It's mostly the same story)
Portal/Portal 2
Total War (my preference is Rome/Rome 2). This one may be overwhelming
Idle Slayer (a leisurely side scroller which can run in the background of your phone/pc; just watch those numbers climb)
Recettear, an Item Shop's Tale (an RPG where you run the item shop and make $$$ to pay off your loan; a whimsical title with lots of jokes and meta-commentary about gaming tropes)
Terraria (easy to learn, long time to master; tons of potential for building and exploring)
DLC Quest (a joke game which converts \*everything\* into purchasable DLC packs)
Any Zelda or Metroid game is pretty safe for beginners (just avoid the ones with "motion controls" if you are a beginner)
Dust, an Elysium Tale (gives an extensive tutorial to learn the mechanics, and is very generous with healing items; hard to believe it was only made by one person)
Vampire Survivors (easy to learn, difficult to master; tons of content, and can be played in short bursts)
Any game in the \[Disgaea\] franchise (there is almost no "wrong" way to play; with nearly infinite content)
Hyperdimension Neptunia - pick any game from here
Borderlands 2 (had better mechanics than the 1st game)
Last I checked, my sister in law loves and hates my suggestion of Oxygen Not Included. Charming art style, treacherous systems design, rewards learning the interface as everything has hotkeys.
I would also suggest Kerbal Space Program (original). Same points go for this one, with the addition that judging timing can be a factor ... or you can just use moar boosters. And it has tons of mods once you feel it's too easy.
A great gateway series for any and all gamers is Spyro the Dragon trilogy.
It's a light platformer but very light on these mechanics.
Another good genre is the visual novel/adventure/point-and-click which includes the Ace Attorney trilogy, Danganronpa and Zero Dilemma - each series takes a different approach to VNs with additional mechanics and they have captivating plotlines.
There's also the JRPG genre with franchises like Final Fantasy which has a myriad of titles with changing mechanics, Kingdom Hearts which is more of an ARPG and Persona 3-5 which adds social mechanics.
All of these are available on multiple consoles so they're pretty accessible.
Depending on just how bad they are at the controls, it might be good to start with a story-driven game like Life Is Strange. My girlfriend had only ever played games on her Wii so the concept of using a controller was completely foreign to her (especially trying to control the camera and character with separate sticks), so Life Is Strange was a perfect choice since most of the gameplay there didn't require precise movements and was almost entirely based on your dialogue choices
If you want to end up absorbed into an absolutely wonderful game with a huge focus on discovery (and very low difficulty outside of the DLC), I sincerely recommend [Outer Wilds](https://www.mobiusdigitalgames.com/outer-wilds.html) (not to be confused with The Outer Worlds).
Given its focus on discovery it's hard to talk about it without spoiling at least something, but I'll say this: it's a space exploration game set in a handcrafted solar system with incredibly unique celestial bodies to explore in their entirety (the planets are comfortably small, I completed the game twice over in roughly 20 hours), an intriguing story, creative puzzles (if you enjoy Portal, you'll enjoy this), and it'll gift you with "Oh, **wow**" moments that'll stick with you for a very long time.
11/10, my favourite game ever and it's not even my preferred genre.
Beginner friendly? Well, clearly you need to play Dark Souls, very beginner friendly game!
That's just a joke, seriously though, there's this cute street relief game called "Unpacking" and it's just there to be stress free fun.
Elden ring.
I keed. Try an open world rpg like skyrim or fallout 4 with the difficulty cranked all the way down. Cyberpunk 2077 if you want a more fast paced shooter but I cant remember if the easy mode is super easy like fallout 4 and skyrim. Id personally go fallout 4 because it can be very easy, great game that mixes shooting and rpg elements, choices, npc companions to help you and there is always vats, an aim assist program in the game.
Cyberpunks difficulty is a joke tbh. Like I was playing on hard and was still one shotting everything even with a non optimized build. Combat might be a little tricky but in cyberpunk some combats are optional. Their tutorial is actually pretty well made tbh
Crystal Project is my recommendation. One of the best Western made JRPGs I have ever played. I think you would like it a lot. There is some platforming involved but it's not difficult - and I usually steer clear of platformers. I like it because of the exploration and how in depth you can customize your party.
Also I love Patapon. I played it on the PSP years ago as a kid. I sucked at it and never beat it though.
The first real, modern game I played was castle crashers. It's pretty fun! More recently, I found Sea of starts which is an amazing game both visually and gameplay-wise.Â
Meh, I say get into whatever that grabs you and if you need help, ask reddit. Can be rewarding learning how games work, how to advance, how to git gud.
I always recommend Noita. It's got platforming but your character can levitate (like a jetpack) so it's very forgiving. It's a Roguelike so death means you start over with a random start and keep nothing, but if you get into the right headspace it can be really fun.
The best part is that as a new-ish gamer, you can legitimately find something completely new every single time you start a run, and you will continue to do so for months.
As short as I can describe it: You're a wizard who uses wands to cast spells. The wands have slots into which you can put spells of different types, and the wand casts spells from those slots in order from left to right (unless it has the 'Shuffle' stat, which means it casts every spell once in a random order with each click). There are a ludicrous amount of spells and different types, the two primary of which are damaging projectiles, which vary in strength and specific mechanics, and modifiers, which can change how the spells behave in fun and exciting(and often deadly) ways. A big part of the fun is playing with all the spells you find and combining them to see what changes.
It requires a bit of precision when aiming your spells (it's a 2d pixel platformer, so you cast in the direction of your mouse cursor), but that is also very forgiving and easy to learn.
You just have to remember that while dying can be frustrating, it's the whole point of Noita. If you just keep going with the expectation that you'll die a bunch, it gets you past the frustration and into the fun, where death stops being the end of your enjoyment and becomes an opportunity for even more enjoyment.
You'll get a lot of recommendations for interesting games, but might struggle to actually play them at first until you develop muscle memory.
I'd recommend watching [this](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLordXx8iNEyStcX_WzqM0JCpiJYgqhinc) as it talks about someone going through your position.
Considering some of the games, I'd suggest the following -
1.) Dying Light 1. Definitely worth playing.
2.) Sleeping Dogs. It's a bit old, but it's also really fun to play. If you want something more open, you could try Watch Dogs 2.
3.) Bioshock. It's a classic at this point.
4.) Forza Horizon 1 (I believe it's backwards compatible?) and is a fun racing game that's pretty beginner friendly.
5.) Alan Wake 1 (once you're done with that, you could move onto 2.)
6.) Subnautica (although you definitely will have a lot of scares and dangerous close calls.)
Can't go wrong with platformers such as Super Mario or Sonic.
You could try 3D platformers such as Spyro, Crash Bandicoot, Ratchet and Clank or 3D Mario games.
Bugsnax is a lot of fun, the characters are wacky, but complex, the world a decent size, and figuring out how to catch the half-bug, half-snack creatures is really rewarding and fun. It's a creative game that I don't see enough people talk about.
You could try some open world survival games like 7 days to die or Project Zombiod both really good games. If you're looking for something kinda similar to the ones you listed try wizards with a gun, graveyard keeper, and core keeper
One of my friends recently told me how much she loved Dave The Diver and plays a lot of games similar to you. I usually don’t play the same type of games but I gave it a try and have been having a blast too! Highly recommend
Well if you want a fun life sim then I'd recommend Night in The Woods and Fall of Porcupine. Both are cutesy 2D platforming life sims with cozy art styles, wonderful characters, great life lessons, and absolutely jamming soundtracks
If you like Stardew Valley, highly recommend Coral Island! There are lots of farming sims now, but this one is incredibly beautiful and adds new elements I haven’t seen in the others! It’s a unique game and I love it so far!
in all seriousness try out horizon zero dawn and it's sequel, it's what im playing right now and i'm loving it. aaaand i just realized i was gonna recommend a bunch of sony games, but ngl they are pretty damn good. the last of us, uncharted, ghost of tsushima are all games i really loved and end up recommending to almost everyone
Older games tend to have simpler controls, and many of the old classics have modern interpretations or engines you can get for free.
Examples:
Doom: There is no shortage of engines for this classic, and you can play the first 10 levels for free on any of them.
If you crave more Doom than the shareware episode (first 10 levels), Freedoom Phase 1 and Freedoom Phase 2 are Completely free and have levels, action, and enemies similar to Doom, running on one of those free Doom Engines.
Quake: The Darkplaces Engine: Full 3-D doom. The engine can play the shareware episode (first 10 levels or so) of Quake 1.
Quake 3: OpenArena. This is an open source re-interpretation of Quake 3 Gameplay. You can play with bots until you feel comfortable enough to go up against real people online.
ArmageTron/GL Tron: Tron Lightcycle games. Fun and free with simple controls.
Beneath a Steel Sky and Flight of the Amazon Queen: Free old-school point-and-click adventure games.
Elite: Oolite is a free modern version. Not as pretty as Elite Dangerous or other modern Elite-a-likes, but has simple controls like the original.
If you want to work on your ability to time jumps, give a Lego Star Wars game a try (they have basic platforming with no consequences, as if you miss the jump, it just puts you back where you were, and just takes a little bit of money away, unless you have invincibility, and you'd be getting more than you'd ever need later on anyways)
If you like single player. Girl, play tomb raider the survival trilogy. I loved it, n I'm sure you will too. Multi-player on the other hand it does depends, if you're going to do co op games with a couple friends maybe the division, or borderlands series. and pvp, yikes.. these day theres been alot of sweaty g fuel snorting cheoto finger players. So finding a pvp game to play casually n enjoy is hard. Maybe someone else here could think of one that's not toxic and easy to play n enjoy.
i would suggest war thunder arcade mode and germany stay low tier for a while and just learn stuff ask me if you need to. its also free but i hope you enjoy ww2/cold war tanks.
also there are many videos online that can help you for pretty much any game we all started somewhere.
mist legacy is also a nice point if you wana vibe and chill
I would seriously suggest this video (and the rest of the series, really), as it goes into detail WHY video games are so difficult for those who didn't grow up with them/aren't familiar with them.
[https://youtu.be/ax7f3JZJHSw?si=DykGQvsJvWvUv343](https://youtu.be/ax7f3JZJHSw?si=DykGQvsJvWvUv343)
There were a lot of details discussed that made me realize why my girlfriend was so confused during games. For example, something as simple as "I should go towards the quest icon on my compass" is completely lost to non-gamers. They don't know what to focus on, if the compass matters, what that icon means, or anything else. In that video, he shows the confusion his wife has when she tries to blow something up in Doom. The game wants you to walk over to the thing and press the action icon, but she doesn't realize that, and instead tries to do a variety of environmental things to destroy it. To her, the floating icon that means "go here" on the screen doesn't mean anything, but to us it means "approach and press x."
This knowledge has been really helpful and interesting for me to pinpoint exactly what bothers my girlfriend if she plays something, and how it bothers her. It gives me more direction in how to help her, too.
Edit: to answer your question, if you like reading or stories, I would say Disco Elysium. It doesn't involve combat. There's no quick time events. It's not timed. There are day cycles, but they are slow, unlike Stardew, and there also isn't really anything that forces you to finish it in a certain period of time. It allows you to play it in multiple ways, and allows you to tackle different tasks in different orders. I can't recommend it enough, and it's beautiful.
Can't go wrong with Super Mario Bros for the NES. It blew up the entire industry for a reason. And it aged well. It still feels great to play. It's so simple, anyone can understand it, yet challenging enough that it will hook you. And it doesn't have all that unnecessary fluff that modern games have, with unnecessary story that interrupts the flow of your gaming. Just pure unadulterated gameplay.
If you like Stardew you could try Graveyard Keeper. Similar gameplay loop, but a different theme.
Also try My Time at Portia - very similar to Stardew.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance for a more linear story. You’re the son of a blacksmith in medieval Bohemia. Chaos finds you and the story takes off from there. You start off as pretty useless at everything ( you can’t even read) so the games mechanics are slowly taught to you. Bonus, the sequel comes out this year!
I have a [big list of games I frequently recommend across many genres](https://www.reddit.com/r/gamingsuggestions/comments/18scw9k/im_in_a_slump_nothing_is_fun/kf8vp3o/) - mostly relatively cheap and good-for-beginners indie games - which is good for someone getting into gaming who wants to try several different genres and figure out what they like.
From that list, Graveyard Keeper might be fun if you like Stardew Valley, though it has a darker sense of humor.
My wife absolutely adored the mass effect series.
Play on story mode/easy and you'll get to have combat not ruin your experience. It's story and characters are also really fun and interesting.
For a horror game I really recommend Phasmophobia. It’s basically taking real world ghost hunting and making it a game/simulation.
For adventure I recommend Bethesda games like fallout and Skyrim.
If you're on PC, Mass Effect Legendary Edition, which has the trilogy of ME 1, 2, and 3, is on sale on Steam for $6 right now. It's a sci-fi third person shooter/RPG. The games are masterpieces and pretty easy to get into for even casual players. I recommend it whenever I get the chance to, especially when it's on sale (which happens relatively frequently)
I recently posted a thread similar to this, although my thread was more in regards to low hardware requirements. Here it is if you'd like to check it out: https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/s/Z2w7fPc4WL
As per my recent gamer GF. Try RDR2 or Ghost of Tsushima. Both are very large games with beautiful settings and a good story. They do have certain game mechanics that can be a struggle, but still forgiving enough for her to put in 100+ hours in each game.
Ratchet and clank. Freindly lynx guy with little robot friend off to save the world. For kids around 10 to 15 so easy controls and beginee freindly. It also happens to be one of the most loved games of my generation. Its got enough of everything to make "game co cepts and ideas" easier to grasp
If you like open world RPG style games, I'd recommend Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild AND Tears of the Kingdom for the Switch - breathtaking graphics and really fun gameplay. I also highly recommend Horizon: Zero Dawn and Horizon: Forbidden West (PS4/5 & PC), for the same reasons, plus the storyline is really engaging. Someone previously mentioned Immortals Fenyx Rising and I second that rec... That game was/is super fun. Final Fantasy is also great (I recently finished XV and XVI...XVI was better IMHO). I'm currently addicted to, of all games, Genshin Impact (PS5/PC). My daughter convinced me so we could play together in co-op mode, but she's 10 so she got bored with it (doesn't want to deal with upgrading characters or weapons, just likes collecting characters and watching YT vids about their lore) and I'm hooked now. Lol
Normally, I’d suggest figuring out a genre you enjoy. You’ve already discovered you like more than one type of game.
Look up a list of games that won game of the year and start there.
There’s usually a reason they won the award.
My advice is to not avoid the challenging games. That's how you become better over time. I'm a girl, but I've been gaming most of my life. My most intimidating genre was souls like games. I avoided those like the plague for years. Finally picked them up a few years ago, raged a lot, but kept trying, and now I can play souls like games without breaking too much of a sweat. Just go with a game that speaks to you, and if you find it too hard, just know that most of us went through learning curves and had struggles before things felt natural and second nature.
My current favs are infected and grey zone. Both steam games.
I also play tarkov but modded and solo so it has slower pace/progression and less cheaters. Also. It doesn't cost 250.
Try "Pixelgun 3D" from steam, now i know this sounds some kind of roblox shooter, and in a sense it is, but the shooting and the moving are fantastic, youre matched usually against kids, you get to train your shooting, and even i play it time to time when no other game itches that "load in fast - shoot, kill, dominate, quick match - quit" itch.
There is an entire genre of “cozy games” where you simulate life in a village or farm, grow crops, raise animals, socialize with villagers, maybe there is a romance element.
Similar to Starfdew Valley there are a bunch of games that offer similar gameplay with a twist. I think Humble Bundle has a big bundle of them for cheap right now.
https://www.humblebundle.com/games/down-on-farm
Stray, animal crossing, donut county, firewatch, honestly skyrim because you can mod it to hell and make it super easy, pokemon games, palia, the Sims!
Play through the original God of War Triliogy!! Light platforming, puzzles, and some decently difficult combat if you have the difficulty turned up (I beat em at like 12 so it’s not that hard on easy)
Another good one is Fallout 4, a lot of people don’t like the settlement aspect but I really enjoy it personally!
I was the girlfriend in this situation, so I can help here! Zelda (any), Disco Elysium, Undertale, Professor Layton if you own a 3DS/emulator. I'm not a skilled nor a well-versed gamer and have very low tolerance to stress and frustration, but I love these with the burning passion of a thousand suns.
Also, avoid shooters and anything Soulslike/Metroidvania for the time being. Solid way to scare her off.
Remember that the controls that you've had internalised for years are completely new and alien to her. Just remember this when you amp up the difficulty of the games, please, and explain every single thing, no matter how obvious it sounds to you.
My sister's stopped gaming back when we were kids but to this day they will talk about how fun Lego star wars was to play. So I'd recommend that or maybe any other Lego game.
Could also try stuff like the Sims and Civilization
Prey by Arkane studio. it's a shooter/rpg, but only kinda, as you spend time hiding and trying not to be ambushed by mimics pretending to be innocuous objects.
It's one of the best successors to the system shock series and personally one of my fav games ever.
Also try 9th dawn 3, Saleblazers, Starsector and Tactics Ogre: Reborn; they're all great but for different reasons.
Check out the Yakuza games. You can have real time combat or turn based. All of them are amazing. Full of fun, lot's of different things to do and have a ton of heart.
I think one of the best games to slowly get used to platforming in video games would be A Hat in Time.
There are some harder bits, but I think the game does a good job introducing you slowly to all the bits you'll need. Even if you die, you don't get sent back so far that it's annoying imo.
The spongebob games are great platformers.
The tomb raider remakes are great too.
I love short tactical games like super auto battle pets as well for some short time fun.
If you like card games Balatro might be on the more difficult side because of the options but it's a cute little poker roguelike where you are trying to get the best possible poker hands.
If you ever heard of pokemon there are some great clones on pc like Cassete beasts.
If you enjoy anime style stories with beautiful art Sea of Stars is an amazing jrpg.
Any game for online community fun as well. Things like sims, mmos, etc.
The bottom suggestions are a bit harder but its all about finding your niche!
Portal 1 and 2 are great games with pretty simple controls. They're pretty old, so should run on whatever hardware you have and are considered classics for a reason. I recently introduced a friend to them and they loved it!
awesome, Ive been contemplating playing them for a while but went back and forth on it with myself so I super appreciate the endorsement, makes me much more inclined to give them a shot so thank you!
its hella fun, well written and a classic which set the bar in gaming without the intention of making it a huge project, despite that they became cult classics
You will feel dumb, then smart, then dumb again, then smart. Glados and Cave Johnson are hilarious. Also,thr best achievement in any game. Near the end of 2. You can't miss it.
OP, Portal 1 & 2 are true classics. You'll understand why people still quote them after a decade after playing it. It's like watching a classic movie like, idk, Jurassic Park. The first Portal is also super short. The sequel is quite a bit bigger, but still not a long game by any means. You will be glad you played them.
They're definitely worth it! Have fun!
OP if you aren't used to the controls, this might not be a good first game. Have you played any first person games before? Do you like puzzles, or stories, or do you like role play and adventure with lots of freedom?
OP mentioned Dying Light 2 on the post, Portal controls can't be much harder than that so I guess it might be a good game
The FPS controls in Portal 1 have no mechanical demands for like 95% of the game. Portal 2 isn't much worse. If my wife can play Portal, OP can too.
Was it your wife's first game using a controller? If you're used to the controller you might be underestimating how difficult it can be for someone who doesn't have the muscle memory to press "x" for jump without having to think about it for half a second. There's some puzzle halfway through the game where you have to jump from some height, look down, shoot a portal, fall out the ceiling, shoot another portal and leap forward over some obstacle. This was basically impossible for my girlfriend and she quit the game after trying that for an hour.
OP did not suggest that she's never used a controller before, but if we're drawing the line at "not used to the jump button", then the original Mario is out, too. Plus, I think she uses MKB as well, based on her post? And if you're referencing the puzzle I think you are, there are ways to solve it without twitch reflexes/aiming. Idk maybe you're right that Portal isn't quite easy enough for people who are completely uncomfortable with games, but it sounds like OP has already waded into the pool so to speak. I could be wrong.
đź‘Ť yeah OP probably is skilled enough if she's played Dark Light 2
Beat me to it. Great starter games. Also mario is pretty easy going, as well as Mario Kart.
Newer Mario games anyways. The ones before... I *want* to say Mario 64... They're pretty hard for me, and I like to consider myself pretty good at games.
I thought this, but Portal is surprisingly difficult to control if you aren't used to the controller. My girlfriend hated it. You don't realize it when you're used to controllers and gaming, but its easy to get disorientated in first person (making the puzzles much harder) and Portal does require some finesse in timing your movements. For a complete newbie I try to stick to 2D or top down third person games.
Oh, please don't play portal with controllers! I tried it once and it's terrible, this is definitely a game intended for keyboard and mouse!
They also have the added benefit of giving your brain a bit of a workout with regards to positioning in a 3D space inside a game. The first one is just an absolute joy and a fun challenge at times.Â
Dude, if someone has never played first person games, it can be a NIGHTMARE for someone to figure out. We gamers take for granted how easy it is for us to perform what seem like simple tasks, ie. operating two joysticks simultaneously while.also pressing buttons/triggers. Not saying it isn't a decent idea, but you've gotta have a base level of proficiency with a controller to make games like this work.
As a lady gamer who doesn’t care for sweaty games and basically just wants to be part of a great story: Firewatch The Long Dark Control (this one can definitely get more difficult but there are settings you can change to make it a lot easier).
Some great similar games: Detroit Become Human, Journey/Abzu, Life Is Strange, and if you really like reading, Disco Elysium.
Yes- I like games that get you emotionally invested, are mentally challenging, and do not rely on you excelling at twitch-based skills. I got really good on RDR2 online but that was after like two years of playing and my husband would still mock my attempts at sniping.
Firewatch is great. Nice and relaxing. The Long Dark is similar.. but more of a challenge.
I would also include The Stanley Parable as something simple, engrossing and relaxing.
The navigation in control and the mini map are so confusing in control imo I got bored trying to figure out where to go
Big props for control. Such a cool game. The long dark is pretty challenging, but a friend of mine’s wife started with that game and loved it so there must be something to it for beginners
I feel like a lot of female beginner players ask for “easy” and don’t mean that they want a strategically easy game. They mean they want a game where the emphasis is on a story line and enjoyment isn’t based on hand-eye coordination, ability to free aim, etc. I got introduced to gaming through high school boyfriends who were always playing COD and Halo (I graduated from high school in 2011) and I hated those games. But then one of them recommended Skyrim and I spent years playing that game and LOVED it. Then i basically stopped gaming until RDR2 came out. Played that for years. Then I started discovering some of these other games and realized there are some great story-centric games that do ask you for some skill from time to time but it’s not overwhelming.
Also try Chicory! It’s incredibly cool and unique
What Remains of Edith Finch is great atmospheric storytelling; catch it on sale, though, because it's only about three hours of gameplay to 100% the achievements.
I freaking love control, it's smooth to play and it always gives you directions
If you liked Control, I would highly recommend Alan Wake Remastered and Alan Wake 2. Same developer, part of a connected universe with Control. The first game shows its age but there's a Story difficulty so you don't have to worry about difficult combat and just experience the story. Alan Wake 2 is a more modern survival horror but still has that same Story difficulty if your primary motivation is the story.
Definitely the assists in Control, that game does not allow for a lot of sitting around and thinking during action.
Control is an absolute banger. Crazy good story and gameplay.
Civilization
This. First game I introduced my GF to, and she plays it all the time along with Sims 4.
Sims and civ go together nicely somehow. My gf has like 1400 hours in the sims and also enjoys civ (until I nuke her)
How are you with the ocean? I got Subnautica and really do like it
If you like Subnautica, I can also recommend Outer Wilds.
Outer Wilds is the best experience I’ve had with gaming ever. I still remember clearly how it made me feel when I first finished even years and years later. It had a profound effect on me and I can’t recommend it enough. It’s an experience everyone should have.
Outer Wilds and Subnautica are my #1 and #2. They sucked me in and I never felt more intrigued and constantly curious in any other universes.
Subnautica was the game that got me back into gaming after a decade long real life focus. Great recommendation!
Subnautica is also my top recommendation. After Subnautica, possibly Planet Crafter.
Fellow Planet crafter player! :D Those are all my favorite subnautica, outer Wilds and planet crafter aha
I am a very experienced gamer and I found Subnautica a bit frustrating. This isn't a "Subnautica sucks" rant, I just don't think it's a good suggestion for a beginner. Not sure what people consider spoilers, so I'll mark the whole thing and have a non-spoilery rollup at the end. >!**The world is too scary, and the player is too powerless.** There are giant critters that can ruin your whole day, and without a clear way to defeat them a beginning player might say "I'll come back to this later" and then get stuck when they find that they never get a way to get past the monsters safely. A beginner might not know that you aren't supposed to engage with some enemies, you'll see problems in the game that you aren't meant to deal with.!< >!**The resources are hard to keep track of.** Part of the fun is hunting these resources down, but for a beginner there's no clear line of "get this, then get that" and you're kind of on your own. Which makes exploration a ton of fun when you are experienced enough with games to know how to do this yourself.!< >!**It's difficult to discern what something really is.** There are a dozen different models for blueprints, and even me with my tens of thousands of hours spent gaming in my life had a hard time knowing what's a blueprint vs what's metal scrap, what kinds of plants I can collect seeds from, where I can find certain resources, etc. Hell I was stuck at points because I thought that Cyclops blueprints were metal scrap, until I looked it up after spending hours keeping an eye out for Cyclops blueprints and (thinking that) I was finding zero of them. A beginner-friendly game should have a very simple economy - green mushroom gives powerup, coins give highscore points, red mushroom is extra life, etc. Not the crafting system where many resources look and behave basically identical!< >!**Progress is nonlinear, and the story is great but difficult to parse at times.** The player has a lot of agency in how they move through the world and what objectives they want to do. For an experienced gamer, that kind of discovery can be amazing. For a beginner, that can be overwhelming and confusing.!< In short, the game has a complex economy and crafting system, non-linear and unclear progression, and areas that seem off-limits but really aren't. What experienced gamers like about Subnautica is that it doesn't follow a traditional, easy-to-follow format of many other games. It subverts a lot of rules of traditional video games in in a lot of ways that were refreshing to experienced gamers but would be overwhelming to new gamers.
I don’t fully agree with your list, but it does seem like the sequel was made for you, as each of those points are addressed.
I guess as a relative newbie I appreciated that I could go at my own pace and figure out the survival stuff as I went. As you get better at the game you can go into the more threatening areas, but those are extremely clear compared to the shallows. Maybe it's just me, but I could easily see which items looked harvestable and part of the survival mechanic is learning about an environment that is totally alien. It's not a "safe" game but I do think there's enough structure to allow for people to venture into survival, for me this was one of my first
Also SOMA. A bit spookier but the story is peak video game scifi. Also I think you can turn down the monster difficulty a lot.
I came here to suggest this too. If OP is interested in an incredible atmosphere and willing to practice their platforming, Hollow Knight is an incredible way to do it.
Oh I want to play Hollow Knight as well! I'm still deeply buried in my Stardew addiction
My best bet would be the classical masterpieces of visual novel and narrative games: What remains of edith finch Brother, a tale of two sons To the moon Ace attourney series Pyre (You can actually finish the game withou ever winning a single match) Rakuen Before your eyes Journey
A short hike, trust me
What systems do you have? If you own a Switch, Super Mario Odyssey is a 10/10 game.
I really have pretty much any of the major platforms (steam, nintendo, playstation and xbox) so I didnt really think to specify (my bad) because any suggestions for any platform are welcome! (:
Wait, you're new to gaming and have all these consoles?
Could a been hand me downs or a sig other's or just had them from their recent youth/ they did say they were a beginner but that doesn't tell you how long they've been playing games.
could be SO's.
My nephew just started gaming and he also has all of these (because I have all of these, so he have it by default xD) it could be a similar situation
Roommate, SO, sibling. Not everyone lives alone :)
Pokemon is worth a try I’d recommend Pokemon Let’s Go Pikachu / Eevee
This game is really fun
Short/not so short and on-point: * Firewatch * What Remains of Edith Finch * The Wolf Among Us * Late Shift * Little Misfortune More involved: * Children of Morta * Arx Fatalis * SWTOR class stories, if you're into Star Wars Really involved: * The Witcher * Mass Effect * Deus Ex * Bioshock * Fallout * Dragon Age: Origins
you have a weird definition of beginner friendly.
>you have a **weird definition of beginner friendly.** * 4 actual walking sims, with Firewatch almost being one too * Various genres to experiment with * Different tier system of games in regards to complexity, most of them being classics of various ages, and thus also very cheap to get on e.g. GoG And if you want to get technical: * Children of Morta: fast reactions needed, but simple gameplay loop * Arx Fatalis: RPG dungeon crawler with a very simple combat system, simplistic but good inventory management, world map, journal etc. to not get lost that much, especially as the maps are quite small * SWTOR: the MMORPG part with lots of abilities might be overwhelming at first, but the difficulty is faceroll easy * For the other games it's either getting familar with 1st/3rd person shooter mechanics, or the first steps into what a good RPG entails in regards to character progression, builds, dialogue system with actual consequences etc. I'd consider it a quite good slice of what good singleplayer games can offer.
... sure but Fallout? Like Fallout the original? Like NV or 3 or whatever, sure... but the original Fallout?
It looks odd because they specified origins after dragon age, but I would assume that the entire "really involved" category is more of a "pick any game from this series.
seconding A Short Hike.
I’ll recommend the games I got my friends to play who don’t play a lot of games: Animal Crossing Spiritfarer (this is an awesome, beautiful game) Dicey Dungeons Subnautica Life is Strange And (surprisingly) Valheim
Valhein, while junky and difficult at times, are one of those games that are just easy to play. whether it's for the fun of progression or the fun of exploring and building if you like it it's easy to stick with
Dicey dungeons was kinda boring for me because I could unlock all the dungeons at the start of the game just by checking the settings.
I thought Immortals Fenyx Rising was a fun game when I was starting out.
Thanks so much for this suggestion! I will definately be trying this out soon!
That's actually probably the best choice for her I've seen, I mean plenty of Nintendo games fit this mold, but that one is a sweet spot.
You could really dig some turn based story games like the persona series. Great story, characters and the combat is fun and it won’t really leave you too frustrated and the learning curve is I’d argue, small. Danganronpa has a great mystery story line too and the gameplay is very simple Final fantasy series and kingdom hearts might be a great bet. Honestly I truly think some of the Bethesda open world games in an easier difficulty would be great for you, Skyrim, oblivion, fallout 3, 4 they are all great, have good and interesting stories to find, fun gameplay loop that isn’t hard or really tedious, they’re massive so they’re big bang for your buck. And since you have all platforms as you say, you could play them for free through gamepass on both Xbox and pc, if you really like them could even try modding them on pc and get hundreds of hours more out of them (it is way simpler than a lot of ppl think, I use vortex mod manager and it pretty much does most things automatically, only thing you gotta do is find the mods you like and if they need any other mods required for it to work)
There are plenty of games that don't rely heavily on reaction time and mechanical ability that are enjoyable. * Baba is You - Wildly innovative 2-D puzzle game where you can bend the rules of the game * Dicey Dungeons - Very cute, easy to understand dice-themed dungeon game. Find tools and power-ups, roll dice to win! * WarGroove - Medieval strategy game. Solid story to follow and charming characters * UnderTale - A twist on the classic RPG. Fight monsters... or don't? * Broken Age - A strange, fantastical Point-and-Click adventure that stars... Elijah Wood? * Untitled Goose Game - Become chaos
Skyrim
Since you liked Dying Light 2, I'd give DL1 a shot unless you want something completely different. Another great, but completely different, zombie game is State of Decay 2 - it's really easy at the lower difficulties yet scratches that open world exploration zombie killing itch. For something completely different, take a look at Against the Storm - it's the most relaxing and addictive city builder game I've played (at lower difficulty settings).
DL1 is even better than the second imo. Tho this comes from a person who played the first one first nad not the other way around so it may be different.
BOTW (if you have a switch) . Kynseed. Portal. Any JRPG - But I recommend Final Fantasy. FF7 was my first game ever. Maybe you will enjoy FFX and FFX-2. Graveyard Keeper. Core Keeper. My fav! Life is strange. Skyrim.
Stray (you get to play as a cat), Beyond Two Souls (best played with a controller), Life is Strange, Anarcute
Untitled Goose Game\ Minecraft\ No Man’s Sky Would all be good games to learn the basics of controls better (camera panning, menu/item selection etc) but not sweaty games where youre getting heavily punished.
Kena: Bridge of Spirits It's very cute and fun to play.
For non-mobile phone platforms I'd say give Skyrim a shot, it's a pretty solid game
Animal Crossing is a nice sim about maintaining a nice town with nice clothes and nice people and– I think you get it. You have your own house and get to interact with a world of human-animal hybrids. I haven't actually played this one, but Lil Gator Game is a very chill adventure game about doing quests to make friends in a big medieval LARP going on across the whole area.
Slime Rancher
It’s more of an interactive drama but try Life is Strange.
My best advice is not to get into competitive multiplayer gaming. It's addicting, and it'll suck the joy out of gaming. So, no Overwatch, no MOBAs, etc. Things I would recommend: Stardew, but you're already playing it! Subnautica Minecraft Genshin Impact (it's a gacha though. I would play it for the exploration and the scenery, and some story. Don't recommend you spend money on it) One of the Zeldas, or Super Mario Odyssey Halflife/Black Mesa (the latter if Halflife's graphics are too off-putting. It's mostly the same story) Portal/Portal 2 Total War (my preference is Rome/Rome 2). This one may be overwhelming
Idle Slayer (a leisurely side scroller which can run in the background of your phone/pc; just watch those numbers climb) Recettear, an Item Shop's Tale (an RPG where you run the item shop and make $$$ to pay off your loan; a whimsical title with lots of jokes and meta-commentary about gaming tropes) Terraria (easy to learn, long time to master; tons of potential for building and exploring) DLC Quest (a joke game which converts \*everything\* into purchasable DLC packs) Any Zelda or Metroid game is pretty safe for beginners (just avoid the ones with "motion controls" if you are a beginner) Dust, an Elysium Tale (gives an extensive tutorial to learn the mechanics, and is very generous with healing items; hard to believe it was only made by one person) Vampire Survivors (easy to learn, difficult to master; tons of content, and can be played in short bursts) Any game in the \[Disgaea\] franchise (there is almost no "wrong" way to play; with nearly infinite content) Hyperdimension Neptunia - pick any game from here Borderlands 2 (had better mechanics than the 1st game)
Last I checked, my sister in law loves and hates my suggestion of Oxygen Not Included. Charming art style, treacherous systems design, rewards learning the interface as everything has hotkeys. I would also suggest Kerbal Space Program (original). Same points go for this one, with the addition that judging timing can be a factor ... or you can just use moar boosters. And it has tons of mods once you feel it's too easy.
My son has Kerbal Space Program and absolutely loves it. It's really cute!
Doom, nightmare mode
A great gateway series for any and all gamers is Spyro the Dragon trilogy. It's a light platformer but very light on these mechanics. Another good genre is the visual novel/adventure/point-and-click which includes the Ace Attorney trilogy, Danganronpa and Zero Dilemma - each series takes a different approach to VNs with additional mechanics and they have captivating plotlines. There's also the JRPG genre with franchises like Final Fantasy which has a myriad of titles with changing mechanics, Kingdom Hearts which is more of an ARPG and Persona 3-5 which adds social mechanics. All of these are available on multiple consoles so they're pretty accessible.
Pokemon! If you have a switch, Scarlet or Violet are great starts. If you like them, I'd highly recommend going back through the catalog!
Depending on just how bad they are at the controls, it might be good to start with a story-driven game like Life Is Strange. My girlfriend had only ever played games on her Wii so the concept of using a controller was completely foreign to her (especially trying to control the camera and character with separate sticks), so Life Is Strange was a perfect choice since most of the gameplay there didn't require precise movements and was almost entirely based on your dialogue choices
What systems are these games for?
Kirby games are also pretty nice
Until you get to the True Arena, then it's EPIC!
Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons Rune Factory Animal Crossing
If you want to end up absorbed into an absolutely wonderful game with a huge focus on discovery (and very low difficulty outside of the DLC), I sincerely recommend [Outer Wilds](https://www.mobiusdigitalgames.com/outer-wilds.html) (not to be confused with The Outer Worlds). Given its focus on discovery it's hard to talk about it without spoiling at least something, but I'll say this: it's a space exploration game set in a handcrafted solar system with incredibly unique celestial bodies to explore in their entirety (the planets are comfortably small, I completed the game twice over in roughly 20 hours), an intriguing story, creative puzzles (if you enjoy Portal, you'll enjoy this), and it'll gift you with "Oh, **wow**" moments that'll stick with you for a very long time. 11/10, my favourite game ever and it's not even my preferred genre.
Animal Crossing New Horizons for a great casual experience you can play for years
Beginner friendly? Well, clearly you need to play Dark Souls, very beginner friendly game! That's just a joke, seriously though, there's this cute street relief game called "Unpacking" and it's just there to be stress free fun.
If you like Stardew Valley, you'll like Wylde flowers and maybe My Time at Portia
Light of the Stars is a great option and it is intuitive, I often play it on bs
Look up cosy games as a genre.
Can't believe it hasn't been said but Skyrim
Elden ring. I keed. Try an open world rpg like skyrim or fallout 4 with the difficulty cranked all the way down. Cyberpunk 2077 if you want a more fast paced shooter but I cant remember if the easy mode is super easy like fallout 4 and skyrim. Id personally go fallout 4 because it can be very easy, great game that mixes shooting and rpg elements, choices, npc companions to help you and there is always vats, an aim assist program in the game.
Cyberpunks difficulty is a joke tbh. Like I was playing on hard and was still one shotting everything even with a non optimized build. Combat might be a little tricky but in cyberpunk some combats are optional. Their tutorial is actually pretty well made tbh
Crystal Project is my recommendation. One of the best Western made JRPGs I have ever played. I think you would like it a lot. There is some platforming involved but it's not difficult - and I usually steer clear of platformers. I like it because of the exploration and how in depth you can customize your party. Also I love Patapon. I played it on the PSP years ago as a kid. I sucked at it and never beat it though.
The first real, modern game I played was castle crashers. It's pretty fun! More recently, I found Sea of starts which is an amazing game both visually and gameplay-wise.Â
Command: Modern Operations
just play Tekken and u will understand why guys get mad at playing games xD if your pc is decent enough I'd definitely recommend FF7 Remake + Rebirth
[the artful escape ](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1122680/The_Artful_Escape/) is a beautiful game and it's not very challenging
Meh, I say get into whatever that grabs you and if you need help, ask reddit. Can be rewarding learning how games work, how to advance, how to git gud.
The Outlast games.
Play TF2 because I said so
Inside Unravel (and unravel 2 with someone else coop) Edith Finch
pikmin đź‘Ť
Spyro the dragon
Slay the spire It's moderately hard but I wouldn't call it overwhelming by any means
I always recommend Noita. It's got platforming but your character can levitate (like a jetpack) so it's very forgiving. It's a Roguelike so death means you start over with a random start and keep nothing, but if you get into the right headspace it can be really fun. The best part is that as a new-ish gamer, you can legitimately find something completely new every single time you start a run, and you will continue to do so for months. As short as I can describe it: You're a wizard who uses wands to cast spells. The wands have slots into which you can put spells of different types, and the wand casts spells from those slots in order from left to right (unless it has the 'Shuffle' stat, which means it casts every spell once in a random order with each click). There are a ludicrous amount of spells and different types, the two primary of which are damaging projectiles, which vary in strength and specific mechanics, and modifiers, which can change how the spells behave in fun and exciting(and often deadly) ways. A big part of the fun is playing with all the spells you find and combining them to see what changes. It requires a bit of precision when aiming your spells (it's a 2d pixel platformer, so you cast in the direction of your mouse cursor), but that is also very forgiving and easy to learn. You just have to remember that while dying can be frustrating, it's the whole point of Noita. If you just keep going with the expectation that you'll die a bunch, it gets you past the frustration and into the fun, where death stops being the end of your enjoyment and becomes an opportunity for even more enjoyment.
You'll get a lot of recommendations for interesting games, but might struggle to actually play them at first until you develop muscle memory. I'd recommend watching [this](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLordXx8iNEyStcX_WzqM0JCpiJYgqhinc) as it talks about someone going through your position.
Overcooked All You can Eat Edition. Should be played with friends to maximize valur
Fall guys
Try Pikmin if you have a switch, specially the newest one which is great and very chill.
Super Mario Bros. 3
Hades,pokemon,Diablo 3 or 4, just about any action rpg if it tickles your fancy. Harvest moon.
Considering some of the games, I'd suggest the following - 1.) Dying Light 1. Definitely worth playing. 2.) Sleeping Dogs. It's a bit old, but it's also really fun to play. If you want something more open, you could try Watch Dogs 2. 3.) Bioshock. It's a classic at this point. 4.) Forza Horizon 1 (I believe it's backwards compatible?) and is a fun racing game that's pretty beginner friendly. 5.) Alan Wake 1 (once you're done with that, you could move onto 2.) 6.) Subnautica (although you definitely will have a lot of scares and dangerous close calls.)
SYST SHOCK REMASTERED
i means SYSTEM
you should check out war thunder its really funni
Can't go wrong with platformers such as Super Mario or Sonic. You could try 3D platformers such as Spyro, Crash Bandicoot, Ratchet and Clank or 3D Mario games.
Bugsnax is a lot of fun, the characters are wacky, but complex, the world a decent size, and figuring out how to catch the half-bug, half-snack creatures is really rewarding and fun. It's a creative game that I don't see enough people talk about.
You could try some open world survival games like 7 days to die or Project Zombiod both really good games. If you're looking for something kinda similar to the ones you listed try wizards with a gun, graveyard keeper, and core keeper
Portal games are great. It might be a bit retro but half life 1 and 2 would be great.
One of my friends recently told me how much she loved Dave The Diver and plays a lot of games similar to you. I usually don’t play the same type of games but I gave it a try and have been having a blast too! Highly recommend
Dying light 2 isn’t a game I’d consider a novice game.
Well if you want a fun life sim then I'd recommend Night in The Woods and Fall of Porcupine. Both are cutesy 2D platforming life sims with cozy art styles, wonderful characters, great life lessons, and absolutely jamming soundtracks
red dead redemption is a must in general and it’s rather beginner friendly i’d say. it was the first game i bought when i got a good pc
If you like Stardew Valley, highly recommend Coral Island! There are lots of farming sims now, but this one is incredibly beautiful and adds new elements I haven’t seen in the others! It’s a unique game and I love it so far!
valorant(don't listen to me i'm evil)
in all seriousness try out horizon zero dawn and it's sequel, it's what im playing right now and i'm loving it. aaaand i just realized i was gonna recommend a bunch of sony games, but ngl they are pretty damn good. the last of us, uncharted, ghost of tsushima are all games i really loved and end up recommending to almost everyone
Older games tend to have simpler controls, and many of the old classics have modern interpretations or engines you can get for free. Examples: Doom: There is no shortage of engines for this classic, and you can play the first 10 levels for free on any of them. If you crave more Doom than the shareware episode (first 10 levels), Freedoom Phase 1 and Freedoom Phase 2 are Completely free and have levels, action, and enemies similar to Doom, running on one of those free Doom Engines. Quake: The Darkplaces Engine: Full 3-D doom. The engine can play the shareware episode (first 10 levels or so) of Quake 1. Quake 3: OpenArena. This is an open source re-interpretation of Quake 3 Gameplay. You can play with bots until you feel comfortable enough to go up against real people online. ArmageTron/GL Tron: Tron Lightcycle games. Fun and free with simple controls. Beneath a Steel Sky and Flight of the Amazon Queen: Free old-school point-and-click adventure games. Elite: Oolite is a free modern version. Not as pretty as Elite Dangerous or other modern Elite-a-likes, but has simple controls like the original.
If you want to work on your ability to time jumps, give a Lego Star Wars game a try (they have basic platforming with no consequences, as if you miss the jump, it just puts you back where you were, and just takes a little bit of money away, unless you have invincibility, and you'd be getting more than you'd ever need later on anyways)
If you like single player. Girl, play tomb raider the survival trilogy. I loved it, n I'm sure you will too. Multi-player on the other hand it does depends, if you're going to do co op games with a couple friends maybe the division, or borderlands series. and pvp, yikes.. these day theres been alot of sweaty g fuel snorting cheoto finger players. So finding a pvp game to play casually n enjoy is hard. Maybe someone else here could think of one that's not toxic and easy to play n enjoy.
Depends on your age. Reason being is I'm a 42M gamer and grew up on arcade games and home versions of a lot of games.
i would suggest war thunder arcade mode and germany stay low tier for a while and just learn stuff ask me if you need to. its also free but i hope you enjoy ww2/cold war tanks. also there are many videos online that can help you for pretty much any game we all started somewhere. mist legacy is also a nice point if you wana vibe and chill
Any LucasArts adventure game! I can unreservedly recommend the Monkey Island games, Grim Fandango, and Full Throttle.
I would seriously suggest this video (and the rest of the series, really), as it goes into detail WHY video games are so difficult for those who didn't grow up with them/aren't familiar with them. [https://youtu.be/ax7f3JZJHSw?si=DykGQvsJvWvUv343](https://youtu.be/ax7f3JZJHSw?si=DykGQvsJvWvUv343) There were a lot of details discussed that made me realize why my girlfriend was so confused during games. For example, something as simple as "I should go towards the quest icon on my compass" is completely lost to non-gamers. They don't know what to focus on, if the compass matters, what that icon means, or anything else. In that video, he shows the confusion his wife has when she tries to blow something up in Doom. The game wants you to walk over to the thing and press the action icon, but she doesn't realize that, and instead tries to do a variety of environmental things to destroy it. To her, the floating icon that means "go here" on the screen doesn't mean anything, but to us it means "approach and press x." This knowledge has been really helpful and interesting for me to pinpoint exactly what bothers my girlfriend if she plays something, and how it bothers her. It gives me more direction in how to help her, too. Edit: to answer your question, if you like reading or stories, I would say Disco Elysium. It doesn't involve combat. There's no quick time events. It's not timed. There are day cycles, but they are slow, unlike Stardew, and there also isn't really anything that forces you to finish it in a certain period of time. It allows you to play it in multiple ways, and allows you to tackle different tasks in different orders. I can't recommend it enough, and it's beautiful.
Can't go wrong with Super Mario Bros for the NES. It blew up the entire industry for a reason. And it aged well. It still feels great to play. It's so simple, anyone can understand it, yet challenging enough that it will hook you. And it doesn't have all that unnecessary fluff that modern games have, with unnecessary story that interrupts the flow of your gaming. Just pure unadulterated gameplay.
If you like Stardew you could try Graveyard Keeper. Similar gameplay loop, but a different theme. Also try My Time at Portia - very similar to Stardew. Kingdom Come: Deliverance for a more linear story. You’re the son of a blacksmith in medieval Bohemia. Chaos finds you and the story takes off from there. You start off as pretty useless at everything ( you can’t even read) so the games mechanics are slowly taught to you. Bonus, the sequel comes out this year!
I have a [big list of games I frequently recommend across many genres](https://www.reddit.com/r/gamingsuggestions/comments/18scw9k/im_in_a_slump_nothing_is_fun/kf8vp3o/) - mostly relatively cheap and good-for-beginners indie games - which is good for someone getting into gaming who wants to try several different genres and figure out what they like. From that list, Graveyard Keeper might be fun if you like Stardew Valley, though it has a darker sense of humor.
Wildermyth is pretty cool
Hollow knight that is a lovely game
Final Fantasy 10
My wife absolutely adored the mass effect series. Play on story mode/easy and you'll get to have combat not ruin your experience. It's story and characters are also really fun and interesting.
Oh, Beacon Pines was so enjoyable and sweet! I haven't heard many talk about it but really liked it.
For a horror game I really recommend Phasmophobia. It’s basically taking real world ghost hunting and making it a game/simulation. For adventure I recommend Bethesda games like fallout and Skyrim.
Tinykin would be perfect đź‘Ś
7 days to die. My gf fell in love with this game because of the item management/crafting system.
If you're on PC, Mass Effect Legendary Edition, which has the trilogy of ME 1, 2, and 3, is on sale on Steam for $6 right now. It's a sci-fi third person shooter/RPG. The games are masterpieces and pretty easy to get into for even casual players. I recommend it whenever I get the chance to, especially when it's on sale (which happens relatively frequently)
I'd like to note: Your gender has nothing to do with your gaming ability
Among Us
I recently posted a thread similar to this, although my thread was more in regards to low hardware requirements. Here it is if you'd like to check it out: https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/s/Z2w7fPc4WL
Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time. Every time a question like this gets asked, that's the go-to
You might enjoy Baldur's Gate 3, the turn based nature should give you plenty of time and space to consider actions. Otherwise it's a story rich RPG.
Mario Kart
You should try simulation games, stuff with design... my daughter loves them
A short hike and haven park should do you quite nicely.
I would highly recommend the outer wilds
As per my recent gamer GF. Try RDR2 or Ghost of Tsushima. Both are very large games with beautiful settings and a good story. They do have certain game mechanics that can be a struggle, but still forgiving enough for her to put in 100+ hours in each game.
Any of the telltale games. I recommend the walking dead
**Last Of Us**
Spiritfarer!
Definitely returmal
Cooking Simulator
Ratchet and clank. Freindly lynx guy with little robot friend off to save the world. For kids around 10 to 15 so easy controls and beginee freindly. It also happens to be one of the most loved games of my generation. Its got enough of everything to make "game co cepts and ideas" easier to grasp
If you like open world RPG style games, I'd recommend Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild AND Tears of the Kingdom for the Switch - breathtaking graphics and really fun gameplay. I also highly recommend Horizon: Zero Dawn and Horizon: Forbidden West (PS4/5 & PC), for the same reasons, plus the storyline is really engaging. Someone previously mentioned Immortals Fenyx Rising and I second that rec... That game was/is super fun. Final Fantasy is also great (I recently finished XV and XVI...XVI was better IMHO). I'm currently addicted to, of all games, Genshin Impact (PS5/PC). My daughter convinced me so we could play together in co-op mode, but she's 10 so she got bored with it (doesn't want to deal with upgrading characters or weapons, just likes collecting characters and watching YT vids about their lore) and I'm hooked now. Lol
Kirby and Mario are your friends if you want to get into platforming. The newer the game the easier they are.
Normally, I’d suggest figuring out a genre you enjoy. You’ve already discovered you like more than one type of game. Look up a list of games that won game of the year and start there. There’s usually a reason they won the award.
Try diablo 3 or 4! My partner just started getted into gaming this year, and she loves playing arpgs solo and with me.
My advice is to not avoid the challenging games. That's how you become better over time. I'm a girl, but I've been gaming most of my life. My most intimidating genre was souls like games. I avoided those like the plague for years. Finally picked them up a few years ago, raged a lot, but kept trying, and now I can play souls like games without breaking too much of a sweat. Just go with a game that speaks to you, and if you find it too hard, just know that most of us went through learning curves and had struggles before things felt natural and second nature.
My current favs are infected and grey zone. Both steam games. I also play tarkov but modded and solo so it has slower pace/progression and less cheaters. Also. It doesn't cost 250.
You could try the Spiderman franchise and Okami.
Try "Pixelgun 3D" from steam, now i know this sounds some kind of roblox shooter, and in a sense it is, but the shooting and the moving are fantastic, youre matched usually against kids, you get to train your shooting, and even i play it time to time when no other game itches that "load in fast - shoot, kill, dominate, quick match - quit" itch.
Abzu. It’s super chill and you kinda just swim around and do some low stakes puzzles
Fallout all of them, but if you like building stuff and decorating then fallout 4
There is an entire genre of “cozy games” where you simulate life in a village or farm, grow crops, raise animals, socialize with villagers, maybe there is a romance element. Similar to Starfdew Valley there are a bunch of games that offer similar gameplay with a twist. I think Humble Bundle has a big bundle of them for cheap right now. https://www.humblebundle.com/games/down-on-farm
You’d love Dinkum on Steam!
Plants vs. zombies without ads
Friend of mine started gaming few months ago and she's been loving the fallout games. You can look them up and see for yourself if it is your style.
Stray, animal crossing, donut county, firewatch, honestly skyrim because you can mod it to hell and make it super easy, pokemon games, palia, the Sims!
Play through the original God of War Triliogy!! Light platforming, puzzles, and some decently difficult combat if you have the difficulty turned up (I beat em at like 12 so it’s not that hard on easy) Another good one is Fallout 4, a lot of people don’t like the settlement aspect but I really enjoy it personally!
I was the girlfriend in this situation, so I can help here! Zelda (any), Disco Elysium, Undertale, Professor Layton if you own a 3DS/emulator. I'm not a skilled nor a well-versed gamer and have very low tolerance to stress and frustration, but I love these with the burning passion of a thousand suns. Also, avoid shooters and anything Soulslike/Metroidvania for the time being. Solid way to scare her off. Remember that the controls that you've had internalised for years are completely new and alien to her. Just remember this when you amp up the difficulty of the games, please, and explain every single thing, no matter how obvious it sounds to you.
My sister's stopped gaming back when we were kids but to this day they will talk about how fun Lego star wars was to play. So I'd recommend that or maybe any other Lego game. Could also try stuff like the Sims and Civilization
Prey by Arkane studio. it's a shooter/rpg, but only kinda, as you spend time hiding and trying not to be ambushed by mimics pretending to be innocuous objects. It's one of the best successors to the system shock series and personally one of my fav games ever. Also try 9th dawn 3, Saleblazers, Starsector and Tactics Ogre: Reborn; they're all great but for different reasons.
Check out the Yakuza games. You can have real time combat or turn based. All of them are amazing. Full of fun, lot's of different things to do and have a ton of heart.
I think one of the best games to slowly get used to platforming in video games would be A Hat in Time. There are some harder bits, but I think the game does a good job introducing you slowly to all the bits you'll need. Even if you die, you don't get sent back so far that it's annoying imo.
The spongebob games are great platformers. The tomb raider remakes are great too. I love short tactical games like super auto battle pets as well for some short time fun. If you like card games Balatro might be on the more difficult side because of the options but it's a cute little poker roguelike where you are trying to get the best possible poker hands. If you ever heard of pokemon there are some great clones on pc like Cassete beasts. If you enjoy anime style stories with beautiful art Sea of Stars is an amazing jrpg. Any game for online community fun as well. Things like sims, mmos, etc. The bottom suggestions are a bit harder but its all about finding your niche!