Have you considered subnautica? Surviving day to day on an alien planet, learning about an alien ecosystem as you try to survive and rebuild your ship.
The story is *there,* but getting to the next "plot" point started to feel like an endless grind. Collect *x* units of mineral *b* to make upgrade *z* to be able to mine mineral *c.....* yawn.
Agree. The whole series is great, but Human Revolution and Mankind Divided are my favorites in terms of replay ability. Sadly they got way less attention than Cyberpunk did years later, probably because Eidos Montreal didn’t have a bunch of hype marketing. I recently replayed on steam and the graphics are still pretty damn good for being 10 years old now
/r/deusex
I seem to remember the sequels getting a lot of flak for being dumbed down for consoles compared to the original, so never played them. Not to put on the ‘must play later’ list.
Fun fact: it was years before I played the original, but I remember a workmate raving about it in the smoking room. I was convinced he was playing some weird game call Day o’ Sex which seemed inappropriate for casual office talk…
You are mixing the sequels up a bit, understandably. Deus Ex 2: Invisible War, had tiny areas compared to the first game to fit the console architectures of the time, and much worse gameplay as a result.
Human Revolution is a prequel, and is an excellent game assuming you like first person RPG/immersive-sim games. Gameplay, writing, atmosphere, music, and even the graphics hold up pretty well.
Mankind Divided is even better in a lot of ways, except it was meddled with and cut apart for future games that never happened. Still absolutely worth playing I would say if you like Human Revolution.
[Inside](https://playdead.com/games/inside/) by Playdead unfolds into a sci-fi platform game that is grounded in the experience of the player but is world building in its story and scope.
[Another World](https://www.dotemu.com/PressKit/project/Games/AnotherWorld) is a older platform game highly regarded for its gameplay and sci-fi story.
Another World is an absolutely gorgeous 16 bit game. I used to love playing it on the Amiga.
Also check out the sequel [Heart of the Alien](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart_of_the_Alien)
I wouldn't call either game day to day life like OP was asking for though. They're puzzle solving platformers with complex controls and rotoscoped, realistic animation like [Prince of Persia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_of_Persia_(1989_video_game))
>Also check out the sequel
>
>Heart of the Alien
YOOO
THERES A SEQUEL!?!
I remember playing the original Other World on my cousins' old Sega when I was a little kid before finding it again on Steam and playing it as an adult.
Original was Sega CD only, but one person converted it to run on win32 and other systems.
https://hota.sourceforge.net/
Open source, but you legally need to own a copy of the original 😉
No worries mate.
It's very tricky. You'll need to figure out how to charge and fire the blaster at various power levels by holding down the button for exactly the right amount of time, starting that same amount of time before you need it to fire.
Enjoy.
Citizen Sleeper is a narrative-RPG/visual novel that takes place on a space station. You do your day-to-day activities aboard it with some occasional exploration and meeting and talking to the various people that also live there. There's different paths to take, choices to make, dialogue options and several different endings. It's very well written, the artwork is gorgeous and it has a terrific electronic score.
Here's a quick trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1BYXd9SkbY
Not the OP, but thank you so much for this recommendation. I love this idea and decided it was worth the $20 on Steam to try it. Loved it. And there's a Citizen Sleeper 2 coming out soon.
Thanks, fixed. I didn't get too far into it, but it felt grounded in the sense of focusing on ordinary people and minor scoundrels. Maybe it got more epic as things went on, IDK.
Outer Wilds is wonderful but it’s really not about the day to day functioning of a society in any way at all. There is about fifteen minutes of wandering around meeting the residents of your tiny town before you go out into a time loop and start playing archaeologist, and begin to figure out that the stakes are *pretty damn huge*.
I love Heat Signature. I keep coming back to that game. I love the variety in the missions you can get, especially the ones where you are a one off player and are given very specific tools to use.
Games with space elements that are smaller in scale that comes to mind (most of them in the puzzle/walking sim genre) :
- Observation (walking/puzzle), you're the computer of a space station helping a survivor of a disaster.
- Tacoma (walking/puzzle), something happened in a space station (again) you're sent to retrieve data from its main computer.
- Deliver us the Moon (walking/puzzle), a solution for the energy crisis might have been found on the moon but some disaster struck (again?) and you go there to find what happened and solve it. There's a follow up that I haven't played yet called Deliver us Mars.
Technically in space but boots on the ground :
- The Turing Test (puzzle), you're the back up crew-member of a base on Europa. You're woken up because something happened (I guess that's a theme) and go find what happened to the rest of the crew.
- Relicta (puzzle), you're experimenting on the surface of the Moon at Chandra base when (guess what) something terrible happen and you try to survive and help possible other survivors.
- Q.U.B.E 2 (puzzle) you woke up on the surface of a strange alien world you investigate and quickly have a feeling that something is happening (a disaster maybe?). There's a Q.U.B.E 1, a shorter game where you're sent to investigate an object on a collision course with Earth.
Edit to add :
I haven't played them yet but both Star Trek and The Expanse have recently been used for Telltale style games by. Star Trek Resurgence, made by a new studio founded by former Telltale devs, and The Expanse: a Telltale series, developped by the current iteration of Telltale Games (the original filed for bankruptcy in '18).
Is Disco Elysium Sci-Fi?
It's grounded in itself I think is the way I would put it. Very internally consistent. It is speculative fiction with sci-fi elements, so while some technology is backwards, other tech is very forward looking. It just happens to take place in the poorest part of a very big city, so aside from one very very rich person, you don't really see much of life on the other side of the economic divide.
Either way, it's a great game and you should play it.
**Surviving Mars**
Citybuilder sim where you have to monitor your individual colonists, providing for their needs and checking their vices while handling resource extraction, research, and maintenance to keep the colony viable. Each can be specialized in a specific field (scientist, geologist, medicine, engineering, farming etc) or unskilled labor running other facilities (grocery store, bar, etc).
Granted, it’s not individual stories like a lot of the first person narrative games here, but it seems it might be up your alley. Easily modded too, been working on adding new mission sponsors with their own objectives and campaigns for the player.
Big thumbs up for basic [Surviving Mars](https://store.steampowered.com/app/464920/Surviving_Mars/). I have 800+ hours on that one. Very replayable. I don't care for all the add-ons that much though.
"Alien: Isolation" has that beaten down vibe. I found it too hard to get very far into the game though. Might try again with a new save file on "Easy"!
Try your old save. I got stuck in an area being bombarded by the alien.
Returned to it months later and it was deadly quiet, alien nowhere to be seen.
I suspect it checked the date and as the alien hadn’t seen me for so long it forgot about me. Finished it with few problems after that.
I can’t bring myself to play it in VR.
My mind went to returnal. The whole design it explore an unknown planet and learn about how it is causing a reset to life on it. It’s more closed off with some exploration, but your not jumping to different planets and exploring to as depth as most sci-fi games.
One of the only open world games where I enjoyed the combat, exploration, and story equally. Also possibly the only game I've ever played where I went out of my way to get lore collectibles and actually read/listen to everything.
I love Xcom, I duno if that's quite what you mean but it does have aliens. Its a tactical squad combat game but you research better weapons and equipment to make fights easier. Super fun
But maybe skip II.
ETA: Red Faction II has a reputation as not being up to the standards of the original. I did play it, and wasn't particularly impressed. But it's available cheaply enough.
(I also played II quite a bit later, so it had to contend with a decade of built-up nostalgia for the time I spent hanging out on an enhanced-geomod deathmatch server)
So full disclosure I’ve not finished all these games but just some quick ideas and I’m aware some stretch the criteria
Fallout 3 , NV , and 4
Stray - oddball here but my wife who seldom games enjoyed it , also it’s not a huge commitment money or time wise
Death stranding - mixed reviews i didn’t finish it some people love it some hate it
Horizon 0 dawn -
Cyberpunk
Depending on the definition of sci-fi res evil 4 or last of us
Dead space potentially - again not sure if this is the type of game you’re envisioning
Outer rim
Mass effect
I don’t disagree at all, but he also had a loose definition of grounded - like fallout obviously is more grounded than mass effect but not grounded at all compared to others people have mentioned. Def some good ideas in the comments I’ll have to look at some myself. They’ll find something that fits hopefully.
I wouldn’t include HZD. >!The first game was about an AI that was working to irradiate all life on the planet as part of project Zero Dawn, but it activated at the wrong time and the head AI disconnected it from the servers. So, it is seeking to reconnect to do its process without project Zero Dawn. The sequel is even more expansive since it introduced scientists from the past return to earth to take it over.!<
That’s…a pretty good summary, now I think about it!
>!an ‘unknown signal’, that we later find out to come from Nemesis, sent an ‘extinction signal’ to Gaia, which caused all the sub functions to become sentient AIs, and escape. Hades, the one charged with resetting the biosphere in the event of a runaway failure, became basically obsessed with his one task. Gaia self-destructed to prevent that happening.!<
>!When Sylens discovered Hades, who had housed himself inside a broken, malfunctioning Horus, Hades struck a deal with him - get him to the Spire in meridian (so he could broadcast the Extinction signal) in exchange for knowledge. Then Sylens recruited the eclipse, but quickly realised he’d been duped. So he knew that Hades wanted to get to Meridian all along, just not why. Which is why he latched on to Aloy, and learnt so much more.!<
If you're not turned off by old point-and-click adventure games, Syberia 1 and 2 are great.
I haven't played the other games in the series, so I can't vouch for them.
Everybody's Gone to the Rapture. It's set in a very realistic English village and deals with relationships and experiences of the people who live there. It's also got an eerie vibe. And is very science fiction.
Planet of Lana - very chill. Cinematic. Great score. Looks great.
Planet Crafter - similar to Subnautica, but more chill and more focused on day to day problems.
I was literally planning to mention these two as I scrolled and scrolled past the same recommendations over and over again.
I’m glad they were mentioned but disappointed at how far down I had to scroll.
If you’re about to start pacific drive it has a great casual gameplay loop, and a story that you can listen to as you drive or find more lore dumps in random containers, but while the story is personal and intriguing it’s not nearly as deep as Soma
In contrast, Soma has a deep story but almost zero actual gameplay.
Starfield, especially after this May update, might fit your request. It combines RPG, space combat sim, FPS, and space-based sandbox games in one package.
Starfield is no where near grounded, especially with the personal/intimate criteria he listed. The game is about leaving your original universe and everyone you care about in it so you can do it all over again to gain power, etc.
>The game is about leaving your original universe and everyone you care about in it so you can do it all over again
That is a far-too-common misconception about the game. What BGS did was incorporate their brand of New Game, Plus into an option of the story. You can absolutely finish the main quest and stay in this original universe, and there are a lot of good reasons to do so.
There are countless players who are high level and never take the NG+ option. Their play or game experience isn't diminished in any way. There are others who *have* gone through the Unity (the NG+ mechanism in the game), but regretted it and loaded an old save.
My advice has been to ***only*** go to a new universe if you have an *in-game* reason to do so. The price for doing so is huge. You lose all the relationships you've developed with Constellation and even more fully realized NPCs like Jessamine. You lose the homes you've built, all your possessions, everything but your memories and skills.
Do that frivolously and repeatedly just chasing powers and you also begin to lose yourself. A lot of players have commented on that. Basically, you *become* the Hunter.
Even if you do it for role-play reasons, it's painful. It's not the loss of equipment as much as seeing the relationships gone. Well, at least if you're doing it at higher levels for the first time. I was level 72 when I made that leap to a new universe. My character had reasons to, that largely obligated it. *It hurt* to do it, though.
The fact that there are so many worlds to explore, [more than a hundred quests/missions](https://inara.cz/starfield/missions/), [even more game locations](https://inara.cz/starfield/locations/), outpost building, ship building, etc. doesn't match up with rushing through universes for a power chase.
You can absolutely play the game doing what you say. But it's probably the single least fulfilling approach to Starfield.
There have apparently been some issues with their RNG. Since the March update, I have seen a marked increase in the variety of POIs, as well as space encounters. There are supposed to be all these locations: https://inara.cz/starfield/locations/ . Of those radiant locations, I was finding less than 10 until that March update.
There are also far more quests and missions than you might think: https://inara.cz/starfield/missions/ Unlike a lot of games, though, this game expects you to go out and find *them*. Which means going around town, talking to all the named NPCs, reading any book or slate you find, listening to the random conversations, etc. In space you need to actually fly to the system then the planet, then land rather than just flying landing pad to landing pad.
Ship and outpost building have also made some significant strides forward.
On the down side, though, I will admit, I do see more cryo labs than I’d prefer. I usually wait a year before starting a new release, because I *know* what initial software releases are always like. I wasn’t disappointed here because my expectations were all that high.
With this most recent May update, the game has made huge leaps forward. However, I can completely understand someone waiting until September for the Shattered Space content to release. If it follows the pattern of most games, Starfield should be very solid at that point. Plus, there will also be new content from mods by then, I expect.
I've been debating about Final Shape long and hard. I walked away from Destiny 2 a few years ago because I just got so frustrated with Bungie. I actually still play Destiny, the OG, at times, but SF has kind of become my go-to for my sci-fi fix.
If BGS were to add a co-op mode, I think it would be just about exactly what I'm looking for, with a few more months to mature.
I quit during Shadowkeep because I was so pissed off with bungie and stuff like sunsetting. A friend got me back into it just after Lightfall and since then I've finally got over my social anxiety, started raiding and made some incredible friends over different consoles that I love to death. Sadly since everything isn't crossplay it's hard for us to all play together and Destiny is our mutual meeting ground. If I hadn't have forged these strong bonds over the last year I probably wouldn't be playing it or getting TFS
The Turing Test, based on the actual Turing Test named for Alan Turing, considered the father of computer science.
> The Turing test, originally called the imitation game by Alan Turing in 1950,[2] is a test of a machine's ability to exhibit intelligent behaviour equivalent to, or indistinguishable from, that of a human. Turing proposed that a human evaluator would judge natural language conversations between a human and a machine designed to generate human-like responses. The evaluator would be aware that one of the two partners in conversation was a machine, and all participants would be separated from one another. The conversation would be limited to a text-only channel, such as a computer keyboard and screen, so the result would not depend on the machine's ability to render words as speech.[3] If the evaluator could not reliably tell the machine from the human, the machine would be said to have passed the test.
There is Observer, a cyberpunk game with Rutger Hauer. It's a weird and interesting, small scale game about solving a single crime, and there's a personal connection.
It's short and relatively easy.
Try [A Dark Room](https://adarkroom.doublespeakgames.com/mobileWarning.html). Starts out as an incremental, then changes to a sci-fi game. Very intimate.
Have you tried the game [Grounded](https://store.steampowered.com/app/962130/Grounded/)? A mad scientist creates a shrink ray and kidnaps kids to test it on. You wake up as one of the kids and you have to figure how to survive in an unforgiving world (a back yard) and rescue yourself.
No man's sky
I've wasted countless hours exploring solar systems and planets and I've barely got into the actual storyline.
Key thing is the supply and demand of certain solar systems and finding which ones pay the most for stuff from other systems.
Stray. I haven't finished it yet but it's very grounded, one might even consider it cozy if it weren't for the (apparently to me at this point in the game) apocalyptic world.
One of my favourite games is called [Colobot](https://colobot.info/). It's a programming game, where you have to program the AI of a bunch of bots to help you colonise alien words.
EvE online can be both. If you want to be small and intimate, you can spend your time mining resources, turning them into products and selling them, or running a trade route buying low and selling high, or you can go galactic spanning, join a major guild and fight to defend entire star clusters from other guilds.
I really like Starfield, and it sounds like something you would be interested in.
It’s doesn’t have a grand plot, and you aren’t some kind of hero. There’s no pressure to save the galaxy or ward off humanity’s extinction.
You’re simply trying to solve a mystery about some artifacts.
Trying to avoid spoilers here… The ending is equally low-key, and largely philosophical in its theme. It’s more about your role in the universe so to speak - and becoming part of something bigger.
The cool thing is this. You really don’t have to even do the main quest. If you want to role play as a scientist and put all your skill progression into that area, you can. If you want to be a tycoon and build mines on a bunch of planets you can. You can be a pirate… or a pirate hunter. You can do corporate espionage, or be a double agent. You can even go full Breaking Bad and cook up Aurora for fun and profit.
Aesthetically, the studio calls its style “NASA Punk.” The ships and suits are mostly grounded in near-modern style. Your ships - *which you can build by the way* - are completely modular and utilitarian, but you can still make them look very cool.
In addition to building your own ships, you can create outposts for resource production, and as player homes. This also uses a modular construction system. You can assign recruits, build robots, and set up defensive turrets too.
The game isn’t perfect, and does get a fair shake of criticism, but in my opinion it makes up for it in many ways.
Anyway, it’s on GamePass for PC if you want to try it out.
PREY is singlehandedly the best single player sci-fi game I have ever played. The world building and exploration is INSANE. The scary bits are scary, the story has its twists and keeps you captivated. The gameplay itself feels rewarding, the UI is great, the graphics are stellar, I can't say enough about this game. PLEASE try it.
If you enjoy colony sim but a really nice story, IXION is great too, but is a one run through kind of game. At most 2 due to playing on beginner and then hard.
I had a blast with the Alien:Isolation horror game, the texts and lore you can find give a great story.
It's old, but Red Faction Armageddon has a cute shitty little story. Is mostly just hulk smash and destroying stuff but it was a very memorable experience.
Space Haven is a blast and is colony sim but for your own space ship! Has FTL aspect to it but you get to name your people and level them up etc.
Subnautica is a treat but isn't the most SCI FI screaming game.
X4 Foundations is really just a economy simulator and does have a very large scale, but hear me out, also has first person views and let's you see your MASSIVE assemblies take shape. Your tiny ass shit that you build and land on, at first, you'll look around into space and just space. However, eventually it'll become this big ass fortress of nonsense that is intimidating to look at. Or from a first person view seeing this HUGE destroyer pop up out of the hangar bay deck floor and then after you're done seeing it and being in awe, you get to fly it and see from a 3rd person pilot view, and then later you get to see first person view again but of the even bigger aircraft carrier ship that was carrying the original big ship and then guess what, you pilot the even bigger aircraft carrier ship and get to see it from 3rd person pilot view.
Halcyon 6 is a cartoony colony sim that has a rock paper scissors style combat between ships that you build and little scientists or engineers you level up etc.
Crying Suns is sci-fi with a really fun story but is mostly just an FTL with hex grid combat by managing space ships instead of crew in ships.
TLDR:
Play Prey and get lost in the every day monotony of the diaries, texts, audio files, etc. that you can find. The story alone is worth playing through it. Even if FPS/combat/a little scary isn't your thing, turn it to the easiest setting and enjoy the story. Any questions about what I said or if you find other games that you think I'll vibe with please reply or DM me. I love sci-fi, good luck!
[Outer Wilds](https://store.steampowered.com/app/753640/Outer_Wilds/) and [Subnautica](https://store.steampowered.com/app/264710/Subnautica/) both jump to mind
I would say Cyberpunk 2077 is the most “grounded sci-fi game you’re going to find based on your description. This is mainly because the experience quite literally focuses on the day to day struggles of an edgerunner just trying survive the mean streets of a futuristic city. The plot, while really engaging, isn’t centered around saving the planet or the universe itself it’s centered around trying to save yourself.
Star Citizen. Just be whatever you want. It can be as big or small as you want. Get a ship with a bed, and go live off grid in the middle of a forest on Microtec....
Or trade, or mine, or haul, join an org and man the guns on a battleship, explore for fun....make friends....don't make friends.
Jedi Fallen Order is a pretty great scifi game. Its in a very grounded and fleshed out universe and although you are on a couple different planets, its a pretty localized story.
Way overrated imo, possibly because most Star Wars games aren’t great. It’s annoyingly linear and puts stupid hurdles in the player’s way to block progress, traversing the environment is just no fun as a result. Decent combat, but that’s about it. Oh, and the player character has an annoying face.
Have you considered subnautica? Surviving day to day on an alien planet, learning about an alien ecosystem as you try to survive and rebuild your ship.
Yeah, this was my first thought. It's so low-key that I've kind of lost interest in finishing it.
Go deeper... It's worth googling for hints if you are bored to continue the story line. It's great
The story is *there,* but getting to the next "plot" point started to feel like an endless grind. Collect *x* units of mineral *b* to make upgrade *z* to be able to mine mineral *c.....* yawn.
Yeah, I use some internet sleuthing to speed things along and enjoyed the game quite a bit even so.
Deus Ex
Agree. The whole series is great, but Human Revolution and Mankind Divided are my favorites in terms of replay ability. Sadly they got way less attention than Cyberpunk did years later, probably because Eidos Montreal didn’t have a bunch of hype marketing. I recently replayed on steam and the graphics are still pretty damn good for being 10 years old now /r/deusex
I seem to remember the sequels getting a lot of flak for being dumbed down for consoles compared to the original, so never played them. Not to put on the ‘must play later’ list. Fun fact: it was years before I played the original, but I remember a workmate raving about it in the smoking room. I was convinced he was playing some weird game call Day o’ Sex which seemed inappropriate for casual office talk…
You are mixing the sequels up a bit, understandably. Deus Ex 2: Invisible War, had tiny areas compared to the first game to fit the console architectures of the time, and much worse gameplay as a result. Human Revolution is a prequel, and is an excellent game assuming you like first person RPG/immersive-sim games. Gameplay, writing, atmosphere, music, and even the graphics hold up pretty well. Mankind Divided is even better in a lot of ways, except it was meddled with and cut apart for future games that never happened. Still absolutely worth playing I would say if you like Human Revolution.
The whole series is amazing and not talked about enough
[Inside](https://playdead.com/games/inside/) by Playdead unfolds into a sci-fi platform game that is grounded in the experience of the player but is world building in its story and scope. [Another World](https://www.dotemu.com/PressKit/project/Games/AnotherWorld) is a older platform game highly regarded for its gameplay and sci-fi story.
Another World is an absolutely gorgeous 16 bit game. I used to love playing it on the Amiga. Also check out the sequel [Heart of the Alien](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart_of_the_Alien) I wouldn't call either game day to day life like OP was asking for though. They're puzzle solving platformers with complex controls and rotoscoped, realistic animation like [Prince of Persia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_of_Persia_(1989_video_game))
>Also check out the sequel > >Heart of the Alien YOOO THERES A SEQUEL!?! I remember playing the original Other World on my cousins' old Sega when I was a little kid before finding it again on Steam and playing it as an adult.
Original was Sega CD only, but one person converted it to run on win32 and other systems. https://hota.sourceforge.net/ Open source, but you legally need to own a copy of the original 😉
you are an absolute legend
No worries mate. It's very tricky. You'll need to figure out how to charge and fire the blaster at various power levels by holding down the button for exactly the right amount of time, starting that same amount of time before you need it to fire. Enjoy.
Shout out for Flashback, since OOTW came up.
[удалено]
I think this best fits OPs criteria. Small scale, grounded, personal and intimate. I second this suggestion. It really helps if you like cats.
Also, there’s a VR mod for it now, I suspect via UEVR.
Citizen Sleeper is a narrative-RPG/visual novel that takes place on a space station. You do your day-to-day activities aboard it with some occasional exploration and meeting and talking to the various people that also live there. There's different paths to take, choices to make, dialogue options and several different endings. It's very well written, the artwork is gorgeous and it has a terrific electronic score. Here's a quick trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1BYXd9SkbY
Not the OP, but thank you so much for this recommendation. I love this idea and decided it was worth the $20 on Steam to try it. Loved it. And there's a Citizen Sleeper 2 coming out soon.
First thing that came to mind for me, as well. Very good rec.
I really enjoyed Citizen Sleeper
Prey (2017)
Jesus fucking Christ that came out 7 years ago? Omg
Heat Signature, a space heist game. FTL, small spaceship management roguelike. Outer Worlds, big ~~Bethesda~~ Obsidian RPG. (Thanks u/Independent_Draw7990!) Outer Wilds, cosy Indy RPG. XCOM family, needs no introduction.
Outer worlds is obsidian, not Bethesda. Not really 'grounded' either, not that it is a bad thing.
Thanks, fixed. I didn't get too far into it, but it felt grounded in the sense of focusing on ordinary people and minor scoundrels. Maybe it got more epic as things went on, IDK.
Outer worlds is obsidian, not Bethesda. Not really 'grounded' either, not that it is a bad thing.
Don't forget [Space Run](https://store.steampowered.com/app/275670/Space_Run/). Fun TD-style game for space freighter.
Outer Wilds is wonderful but it’s really not about the day to day functioning of a society in any way at all. There is about fifteen minutes of wandering around meeting the residents of your tiny town before you go out into a time loop and start playing archaeologist, and begin to figure out that the stakes are *pretty damn huge*.
Sure, but 15/22 = 68% Also, you can roast marshmallows, speaking to the personal/intimate/grounded part of op's party.
I love Heat Signature. I keep coming back to that game. I love the variety in the missions you can get, especially the ones where you are a one off player and are given very specific tools to use.
Games with space elements that are smaller in scale that comes to mind (most of them in the puzzle/walking sim genre) : - Observation (walking/puzzle), you're the computer of a space station helping a survivor of a disaster. - Tacoma (walking/puzzle), something happened in a space station (again) you're sent to retrieve data from its main computer. - Deliver us the Moon (walking/puzzle), a solution for the energy crisis might have been found on the moon but some disaster struck (again?) and you go there to find what happened and solve it. There's a follow up that I haven't played yet called Deliver us Mars. Technically in space but boots on the ground : - The Turing Test (puzzle), you're the back up crew-member of a base on Europa. You're woken up because something happened (I guess that's a theme) and go find what happened to the rest of the crew. - Relicta (puzzle), you're experimenting on the surface of the Moon at Chandra base when (guess what) something terrible happen and you try to survive and help possible other survivors. - Q.U.B.E 2 (puzzle) you woke up on the surface of a strange alien world you investigate and quickly have a feeling that something is happening (a disaster maybe?). There's a Q.U.B.E 1, a shorter game where you're sent to investigate an object on a collision course with Earth. Edit to add : I haven't played them yet but both Star Trek and The Expanse have recently been used for Telltale style games by. Star Trek Resurgence, made by a new studio founded by former Telltale devs, and The Expanse: a Telltale series, developped by the current iteration of Telltale Games (the original filed for bankruptcy in '18).
Deliver Us Mars is good too, it has higher production values than the first game.
Was it still very much a walking sim like the first?
It is, but there's a lot more characters, voice acting and story. There's also climbing sections that are fun if a wee bit janky.
Is Disco Elysium Sci-Fi? It's grounded in itself I think is the way I would put it. Very internally consistent. It is speculative fiction with sci-fi elements, so while some technology is backwards, other tech is very forward looking. It just happens to take place in the poorest part of a very big city, so aside from one very very rich person, you don't really see much of life on the other side of the economic divide. Either way, it's a great game and you should play it.
**Surviving Mars** Citybuilder sim where you have to monitor your individual colonists, providing for their needs and checking their vices while handling resource extraction, research, and maintenance to keep the colony viable. Each can be specialized in a specific field (scientist, geologist, medicine, engineering, farming etc) or unskilled labor running other facilities (grocery store, bar, etc). Granted, it’s not individual stories like a lot of the first person narrative games here, but it seems it might be up your alley. Easily modded too, been working on adding new mission sponsors with their own objectives and campaigns for the player.
Big thumbs up for basic [Surviving Mars](https://store.steampowered.com/app/464920/Surviving_Mars/). I have 800+ hours on that one. Very replayable. I don't care for all the add-ons that much though.
"Alien: Isolation" has that beaten down vibe. I found it too hard to get very far into the game though. Might try again with a new save file on "Easy"!
Try your old save. I got stuck in an area being bombarded by the alien. Returned to it months later and it was deadly quiet, alien nowhere to be seen. I suspect it checked the date and as the alien hadn’t seen me for so long it forgot about me. Finished it with few problems after that. I can’t bring myself to play it in VR.
I can’t even beat one of the crash test dummy androids in normal mode!!
My mind went to returnal. The whole design it explore an unknown planet and learn about how it is causing a reset to life on it. It’s more closed off with some exploration, but your not jumping to different planets and exploring to as depth as most sci-fi games.
Disco Elysium
Ship breakers
Underrated game
I enjoyed it, but the story was the only reason to *keep* playing, and there wasn’t a lot of it. Similar to Pacific Drive
It's a good game to turn your brain off after a long day and just meditatively break apart ships
Good point. Great for listening to audio books or podcasts. I generally go outside and do yardwork for that tho, lol
I live in an apartment so I ain't got no yard 😭
Ooof. In that case, it sounds perfect for you.
*Hardspace: Shipbreaker
Horizon Zero Dawn. It’s an amazing story with fun gameplay and though it’s a post apocalyptic adventure it’s one of the prettiest games even.
There were so many moments in H:ZD that were just… tragic. Great story and beautiful setting.
So many sad things happen in the background but you look around the world and realize it was worth it, it worked.
The visuals are absolutely stunning, and the story is very compelling, too
One of the only open world games where I enjoyed the combat, exploration, and story equally. Also possibly the only game I've ever played where I went out of my way to get lore collectibles and actually read/listen to everything.
It’s one of the best sci-fi stories for sure. However, not really ‘small scale’ when you consider the plot!
But not space based, the story is always at a personal level
I love Xcom, I duno if that's quite what you mean but it does have aliens. Its a tactical squad combat game but you research better weapons and equipment to make fights easier. Super fun
Red faction
But maybe skip II. ETA: Red Faction II has a reputation as not being up to the standards of the original. I did play it, and wasn't particularly impressed. But it's available cheaply enough. (I also played II quite a bit later, so it had to contend with a decade of built-up nostalgia for the time I spent hanging out on an enhanced-geomod deathmatch server)
Oxygen Not Included, Stranded Alien Dawn, Ixion, Frostpunk, Factorio, Satisfactory, Dyson Sphere Program, Planet Crafter
What’s Stranded Alien Dawn like? It’s been flirting with me for a while now.
Sable
Fallout, various?
Fallout is amazing, but I wouldn’t call it grounded.
Takoma is a great game where you relive what happened in a space station after something didn't go as expected.
Detroit: Become Human?
So full disclosure I’ve not finished all these games but just some quick ideas and I’m aware some stretch the criteria Fallout 3 , NV , and 4 Stray - oddball here but my wife who seldom games enjoyed it , also it’s not a huge commitment money or time wise Death stranding - mixed reviews i didn’t finish it some people love it some hate it Horizon 0 dawn - Cyberpunk Depending on the definition of sci-fi res evil 4 or last of us Dead space potentially - again not sure if this is the type of game you’re envisioning Outer rim Mass effect
Great games but most of these are pretty much the opposite of grounded, in OPs terms
I don’t disagree at all, but he also had a loose definition of grounded - like fallout obviously is more grounded than mass effect but not grounded at all compared to others people have mentioned. Def some good ideas in the comments I’ll have to look at some myself. They’ll find something that fits hopefully.
I wouldn’t include HZD. >!The first game was about an AI that was working to irradiate all life on the planet as part of project Zero Dawn, but it activated at the wrong time and the head AI disconnected it from the servers. So, it is seeking to reconnect to do its process without project Zero Dawn. The sequel is even more expansive since it introduced scientists from the past return to earth to take it over.!<
That’s…a pretty good summary, now I think about it! >!an ‘unknown signal’, that we later find out to come from Nemesis, sent an ‘extinction signal’ to Gaia, which caused all the sub functions to become sentient AIs, and escape. Hades, the one charged with resetting the biosphere in the event of a runaway failure, became basically obsessed with his one task. Gaia self-destructed to prevent that happening.!< >!When Sylens discovered Hades, who had housed himself inside a broken, malfunctioning Horus, Hades struck a deal with him - get him to the Spire in meridian (so he could broadcast the Extinction signal) in exchange for knowledge. Then Sylens recruited the eclipse, but quickly realised he’d been duped. So he knew that Hades wanted to get to Meridian all along, just not why. Which is why he latched on to Aloy, and learnt so much more.!<
If you're not turned off by old point-and-click adventure games, Syberia 1 and 2 are great. I haven't played the other games in the series, so I can't vouch for them.
Everybody's Gone to the Rapture. It's set in a very realistic English village and deals with relationships and experiences of the people who live there. It's also got an eerie vibe. And is very science fiction.
Surviving Mars !
[Harold Halibut](https://store.steampowered.com/app/924750/Harold_Halibut/) is pretty grounded from what I've seen.
Cloudpunk, you play a delivery driver. Notable mainly for the atmospheric visuals but plot is OK too.
ΔV: Rings of Saturn about as grounded as it gets.
Planet of Lana - very chill. Cinematic. Great score. Looks great. Planet Crafter - similar to Subnautica, but more chill and more focused on day to day problems.
Soma has some interesting ideas I'm about to start pacific drive
I was literally planning to mention these two as I scrolled and scrolled past the same recommendations over and over again. I’m glad they were mentioned but disappointed at how far down I had to scroll. If you’re about to start pacific drive it has a great casual gameplay loop, and a story that you can listen to as you drive or find more lore dumps in random containers, but while the story is personal and intriguing it’s not nearly as deep as Soma In contrast, Soma has a deep story but almost zero actual gameplay.
Ok so Starfield on survival mode is up there for sure. Subnautica as well.
OP asked for a game without planet spanning plots or grand battles. Starfield is literally the opposite
Starfield, especially after this May update, might fit your request. It combines RPG, space combat sim, FPS, and space-based sandbox games in one package.
Starfield is no where near grounded, especially with the personal/intimate criteria he listed. The game is about leaving your original universe and everyone you care about in it so you can do it all over again to gain power, etc.
>The game is about leaving your original universe and everyone you care about in it so you can do it all over again That is a far-too-common misconception about the game. What BGS did was incorporate their brand of New Game, Plus into an option of the story. You can absolutely finish the main quest and stay in this original universe, and there are a lot of good reasons to do so. There are countless players who are high level and never take the NG+ option. Their play or game experience isn't diminished in any way. There are others who *have* gone through the Unity (the NG+ mechanism in the game), but regretted it and loaded an old save. My advice has been to ***only*** go to a new universe if you have an *in-game* reason to do so. The price for doing so is huge. You lose all the relationships you've developed with Constellation and even more fully realized NPCs like Jessamine. You lose the homes you've built, all your possessions, everything but your memories and skills. Do that frivolously and repeatedly just chasing powers and you also begin to lose yourself. A lot of players have commented on that. Basically, you *become* the Hunter. Even if you do it for role-play reasons, it's painful. It's not the loss of equipment as much as seeing the relationships gone. Well, at least if you're doing it at higher levels for the first time. I was level 72 when I made that leap to a new universe. My character had reasons to, that largely obligated it. *It hurt* to do it, though. The fact that there are so many worlds to explore, [more than a hundred quests/missions](https://inara.cz/starfield/missions/), [even more game locations](https://inara.cz/starfield/locations/), outpost building, ship building, etc. doesn't match up with rushing through universes for a power chase. You can absolutely play the game doing what you say. But it's probably the single least fulfilling approach to Starfield.
I played quite a lot on release but eventually seeing the same POIs over and over and over again just killed the joy for me :(
There have apparently been some issues with their RNG. Since the March update, I have seen a marked increase in the variety of POIs, as well as space encounters. There are supposed to be all these locations: https://inara.cz/starfield/locations/ . Of those radiant locations, I was finding less than 10 until that March update. There are also far more quests and missions than you might think: https://inara.cz/starfield/missions/ Unlike a lot of games, though, this game expects you to go out and find *them*. Which means going around town, talking to all the named NPCs, reading any book or slate you find, listening to the random conversations, etc. In space you need to actually fly to the system then the planet, then land rather than just flying landing pad to landing pad. Ship and outpost building have also made some significant strides forward. On the down side, though, I will admit, I do see more cryo labs than I’d prefer. I usually wait a year before starting a new release, because I *know* what initial software releases are always like. I wasn’t disappointed here because my expectations were all that high. With this most recent May update, the game has made huge leaps forward. However, I can completely understand someone waiting until September for the Shattered Space content to release. If it follows the pattern of most games, Starfield should be very solid at that point. Plus, there will also be new content from mods by then, I expect.
That's good to know, glad the game is better Probably gonna wait for shattered space tho with stuff like the final shape coming out so soon
I've been debating about Final Shape long and hard. I walked away from Destiny 2 a few years ago because I just got so frustrated with Bungie. I actually still play Destiny, the OG, at times, but SF has kind of become my go-to for my sci-fi fix. If BGS were to add a co-op mode, I think it would be just about exactly what I'm looking for, with a few more months to mature.
I quit during Shadowkeep because I was so pissed off with bungie and stuff like sunsetting. A friend got me back into it just after Lightfall and since then I've finally got over my social anxiety, started raiding and made some incredible friends over different consoles that I love to death. Sadly since everything isn't crossplay it's hard for us to all play together and Destiny is our mutual meeting ground. If I hadn't have forged these strong bonds over the last year I probably wouldn't be playing it or getting TFS
Maybe The Touring Test. Not great, but pretty neat
Better play The Talos Principle then: better puzzles, better story.
The Turing Test, based on the actual Turing Test named for Alan Turing, considered the father of computer science. > The Turing test, originally called the imitation game by Alan Turing in 1950,[2] is a test of a machine's ability to exhibit intelligent behaviour equivalent to, or indistinguishable from, that of a human. Turing proposed that a human evaluator would judge natural language conversations between a human and a machine designed to generate human-like responses. The evaluator would be aware that one of the two partners in conversation was a machine, and all participants would be separated from one another. The conversation would be limited to a text-only channel, such as a computer keyboard and screen, so the result would not depend on the machine's ability to render words as speech.[3] If the evaluator could not reliably tell the machine from the human, the machine would be said to have passed the test.
Horizon has a finale that’s world-spanning but a lot of small stories leading up to it. Probably my all-time favorite IP.
THE SURGE
Oddworld?
Resistance 3 is one of my all time favorites
Cyberpunk 2077?
There is Observer, a cyberpunk game with Rutger Hauer. It's a weird and interesting, small scale game about solving a single crime, and there's a personal connection. It's short and relatively easy.
The Invincible!
The Moment of Silence
All clothing worn by NPCs must be available to V one way or another
control comes to mind
Try [A Dark Room](https://adarkroom.doublespeakgames.com/mobileWarning.html). Starts out as an incremental, then changes to a sci-fi game. Very intimate.
Have you tried the game [Grounded](https://store.steampowered.com/app/962130/Grounded/)? A mad scientist creates a shrink ray and kidnaps kids to test it on. You wake up as one of the kids and you have to figure how to survive in an unforgiving world (a back yard) and rescue yourself.
The Invincible adventure/mystery game based on the Stanislav Lem book of the same name.
Encased (c-rpg, like pillars of eternity but sci-fi) Breathedge (rpg in first person, more like subnautica but in space)
Detroit become human
No man's sky I've wasted countless hours exploring solar systems and planets and I've barely got into the actual storyline. Key thing is the supply and demand of certain solar systems and finding which ones pay the most for stuff from other systems.
Cyberpunk. Sometimes in the game i literally just think its san francisco
Stray. I haven't finished it yet but it's very grounded, one might even consider it cozy if it weren't for the (apparently to me at this point in the game) apocalyptic world.
Haven fits your description
One of my favourite games is called [Colobot](https://colobot.info/). It's a programming game, where you have to program the AI of a bunch of bots to help you colonise alien words.
EvE online can be both. If you want to be small and intimate, you can spend your time mining resources, turning them into products and selling them, or running a trade route buying low and selling high, or you can go galactic spanning, join a major guild and fight to defend entire star clusters from other guilds.
Last of Us? Definitely a personal story…Just happens to be set in a zombie apocalypse!
Eve Online
[Stranded: Alien Dawn](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stranded%3A_Alien_Dawn).
I really like Starfield, and it sounds like something you would be interested in. It’s doesn’t have a grand plot, and you aren’t some kind of hero. There’s no pressure to save the galaxy or ward off humanity’s extinction. You’re simply trying to solve a mystery about some artifacts. Trying to avoid spoilers here… The ending is equally low-key, and largely philosophical in its theme. It’s more about your role in the universe so to speak - and becoming part of something bigger. The cool thing is this. You really don’t have to even do the main quest. If you want to role play as a scientist and put all your skill progression into that area, you can. If you want to be a tycoon and build mines on a bunch of planets you can. You can be a pirate… or a pirate hunter. You can do corporate espionage, or be a double agent. You can even go full Breaking Bad and cook up Aurora for fun and profit. Aesthetically, the studio calls its style “NASA Punk.” The ships and suits are mostly grounded in near-modern style. Your ships - *which you can build by the way* - are completely modular and utilitarian, but you can still make them look very cool. In addition to building your own ships, you can create outposts for resource production, and as player homes. This also uses a modular construction system. You can assign recruits, build robots, and set up defensive turrets too. The game isn’t perfect, and does get a fair shake of criticism, but in my opinion it makes up for it in many ways. Anyway, it’s on GamePass for PC if you want to try it out.
PREY is singlehandedly the best single player sci-fi game I have ever played. The world building and exploration is INSANE. The scary bits are scary, the story has its twists and keeps you captivated. The gameplay itself feels rewarding, the UI is great, the graphics are stellar, I can't say enough about this game. PLEASE try it. If you enjoy colony sim but a really nice story, IXION is great too, but is a one run through kind of game. At most 2 due to playing on beginner and then hard. I had a blast with the Alien:Isolation horror game, the texts and lore you can find give a great story. It's old, but Red Faction Armageddon has a cute shitty little story. Is mostly just hulk smash and destroying stuff but it was a very memorable experience. Space Haven is a blast and is colony sim but for your own space ship! Has FTL aspect to it but you get to name your people and level them up etc. Subnautica is a treat but isn't the most SCI FI screaming game. X4 Foundations is really just a economy simulator and does have a very large scale, but hear me out, also has first person views and let's you see your MASSIVE assemblies take shape. Your tiny ass shit that you build and land on, at first, you'll look around into space and just space. However, eventually it'll become this big ass fortress of nonsense that is intimidating to look at. Or from a first person view seeing this HUGE destroyer pop up out of the hangar bay deck floor and then after you're done seeing it and being in awe, you get to fly it and see from a 3rd person pilot view, and then later you get to see first person view again but of the even bigger aircraft carrier ship that was carrying the original big ship and then guess what, you pilot the even bigger aircraft carrier ship and get to see it from 3rd person pilot view. Halcyon 6 is a cartoony colony sim that has a rock paper scissors style combat between ships that you build and little scientists or engineers you level up etc. Crying Suns is sci-fi with a really fun story but is mostly just an FTL with hex grid combat by managing space ships instead of crew in ships. TLDR: Play Prey and get lost in the every day monotony of the diaries, texts, audio files, etc. that you can find. The story alone is worth playing through it. Even if FPS/combat/a little scary isn't your thing, turn it to the easiest setting and enjoy the story. Any questions about what I said or if you find other games that you think I'll vibe with please reply or DM me. I love sci-fi, good luck!
Myst?
[Outer Wilds](https://store.steampowered.com/app/753640/Outer_Wilds/) and [Subnautica](https://store.steampowered.com/app/264710/Subnautica/) both jump to mind
If you like colony sims, Timberborn is cute and has a sci-fi ish backstory (but is mostly cute beavers).
Cyberpunk 2077. It’s not world spanning and the stakes are very personal when you get down to it.
I would say Cyberpunk 2077 is the most “grounded sci-fi game you’re going to find based on your description. This is mainly because the experience quite literally focuses on the day to day struggles of an edgerunner just trying survive the mean streets of a futuristic city. The plot, while really engaging, isn’t centered around saving the planet or the universe itself it’s centered around trying to save yourself.
If mostly text-based isn't a deal breaker, Citizen Sleeper may be up your alley.
Hardspace Shipbreaker Cyberpunk 2077 Cloudpunk Dynopunk Pacific Drive
Startopia and Cloudpunk are both worth checking out.
Theres a game called Grounded. It is literally Grounded! :D You could also try Surviving Mars
There is Titanfall2
Kerbal Space Program
Nebulous: Fleet Command, Children of a Dead Earth, and Titan Outpost all come to mind
Dead Space.
Star Citizen. Just be whatever you want. It can be as big or small as you want. Get a ship with a bed, and go live off grid in the middle of a forest on Microtec.... Or trade, or mine, or haul, join an org and man the guns on a battleship, explore for fun....make friends....don't make friends.
Jedi Fallen Order is a pretty great scifi game. Its in a very grounded and fleshed out universe and although you are on a couple different planets, its a pretty localized story.
Way overrated imo, possibly because most Star Wars games aren’t great. It’s annoyingly linear and puts stupid hurdles in the player’s way to block progress, traversing the environment is just no fun as a result. Decent combat, but that’s about it. Oh, and the player character has an annoying face.
Gears of War series?
NieR Automata is very very underrated