Seasonal Antidote

November 20, 2018 5:22 PM

The Christmocalypse is approaching and, due to some last minute shit, I am Not Dealing At All. My usual antidote to this sort of mood is to bury myself in a game and I'd like some suggestions as to what I should escape into next.

I've just played through The Witcher 3 (and two expansion packs) and loved it, although the expansion packs really didn't do much for me. I loved the rich world, the game-play, the violence and salty dialogue, and enjoyed the characters. Skyrim was also fun although eyerollingly clichéd at times. Fantasy is fine, so is Sci-Fi - I'm equal opportunity. :)

Given that I'm feeling kind of apocalyptic right now, can anyone suggest my next experience? What end of the world game would I enjoy? I have a Windows 10 PC with a good amount of grunt and a reasonable graphics card, and a Steam account.

posted by ninazer0 to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (19 answers total)

My partner and I enjoyed Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice recently, after loving the Witcher 3 and Skyrim. I’ll keep thinking on it!
posted by Illuminated Clocks at 5:27 PM on November 20, 2018

Maybe an adult Minecraft server? Intersnout is the direct successor to the 18+ server Wooden Axe, which in turn took a lot of the regular players when Metafilter's unofficial 18+ Aporkalypse server went dark several years ago.

Grand Theft Auto 5 and the Multiplayer variant FiveM is also pretty good... a good 18+ server is Revo Life which is focused on actual fun gameplay.
posted by crapmatic at 5:41 PM on November 20, 2018 [3 favorites]

Best answer: How well have you covered classics from a while back?
Because Fallout series and New Vegas in particular would probably be up your alley, also probably the Red Dead Redemption series.
posted by SaltySalticid at 5:43 PM on November 20, 2018 [4 favorites]

What about Civ V or VI where you can nuke the crap out of some other civs?
posted by Autumnheart at 5:44 PM on November 20, 2018 [1 favorite]

I'd recommend The Long Dark with a caveat: the game's "story mode" is getting a major overhaul in December, and the game's designers have recommended not starting prior to that, as all saves will be deleted when the new story mode goes live. That said, the game's "survival mode" saves won't be affected, and perrsonally I find survival mode far more engaging, anyway.
posted by lharmon at 5:59 PM on November 20, 2018

Best answer: Apocalyptic and gigantic timesink? Fallout 3 / New Vegas / 4 are calling you to the Wasteland!
posted by Making You Bored For Science at 6:24 PM on November 20, 2018 [2 favorites]

Borderlands! Kind of a Mad Max + sci-fi vibe with legitimately funny writing. It’s a shooter with RPG elements and a unique visual style.

Borderlands 2 is one of my favorite games of all time, but start with the first one.
posted by bdk3clash at 7:28 PM on November 20, 2018 [2 favorites]

On a different note, maybe I could recommend Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead. If you aren't familiar with rogue-like games it might take some getting used to, but I can't think of a more comprehensive apocalypse simulator. The one thing it won't give you is a pre-written story, but if you have enough imagination you won't need one.
posted by Alensin at 8:45 PM on November 20, 2018 [1 favorite]

Best answer: nthing Fallout: New Vegas as a great game to get lost in and Borderlands II for great heaps of cartoony violence.

If you really want to make things go asplode in a ridiculous way, then have a look at Just Cause 2. It's a game I return to over and over and it is a fucking joy to play ... it has tons of nicely differentiated vehicles, a super fluid always-on grappling cable + parachute movement system, oodles of side missions, lots of scavenger hunts, and a huge persistent environment to explore and detonate. Do note that the protag is the typical unreconstructed stubbly gruff American intelligence operator terrorist, assigned to destabilize the regime of a vile Kim Jong-Il type dictator using indiscriminate explosion, which I could see as a dealbreaker for a lot of folks. Also, the game is only tangentially about an apocalypse ... unless you regard the protag as an avenging angel pouring out great bowls of wrath, which he basically is.

The mainline Mass Effect series (1-3) has some warts, but it hits the apocalyptic themes and I'd still recommend it as an extremely well-developed sci-fi playground to get lost in, with wonderfully written NPCs and lots of RPGish action. You'd need to install whatever the EA game client is, though ... the ME games are not on Steam.

The XCOM games + all expansions have apocalyptic stakes and are great to get lost in -- there are a lot of RPGish details to track, a lot of goals to pursue, and they've kept me up all night several times when I get into a just-another mission cycle.

Lots of people recommend the Telltale Games Walking Dead series -- these are great low-twitch games with engaging persistent NPCs and branching storylines and obvs it's hitting the end-of-the-world vibe you're after.

I've just listed a bunch of highlights from the last console generation. Man, the 360/PS3 generation had some great games (tho don't worry, these are all available on Windows as well)
posted by Sauce Trough at 9:39 PM on November 20, 2018 [2 favorites]

I followed up The Witcher 3 with Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines. It's not as good as the Witcher 3 -- what is? But it's got solid writing and an end-of-the-world main plotline and atmosphere. I think if you buy it from the major stores like GOG or Steam you get the version that has the patches that make it not an unplayable mess. If not, make sure to apply them. And you love good writing, you absolutely must play it as a Malkavian.
posted by phoenixy at 10:30 PM on November 20, 2018

Best answer: Nth-ing the Fallout recommendations.

You might want to check out Dragon Age: Inquisition. It’s a big, well thought-out fantasy world featuring a struggle to prevent the apocalypse, starring a lot of fun and well-drawn characters.

Mass Effect: Andromeda is kind of the opposite of apocalyptic in that you’ll derive satisfaction from terraforming inhospitable worlds into places where human society can blossom anew. (Actually, that sounds pretty apocalyptic.)

I myself am about to dive into Horizon: Zero Dawn, which I have only heard good things about. It’s post-post-post-apocalyptic, and apparently you get to uncover the cause of the apocalypse over the course of the game.
posted by ejs at 11:02 PM on November 20, 2018

If you like Indiana Jones-like adventure, go for Uncharted. Great puzzles, humour and characters you can root for.
posted by Enid Lareg at 6:48 AM on November 21, 2018 [1 favorite]

Seconding the Uncharted series and Red Dead Redemption.
posted by DrAstroZoom at 9:20 AM on November 21, 2018

The Uncharted series is great, but they're exclusive to Sony and won't be available on Steam, only on the PSNow for PC streaming service ... which doesn't appear to be available in Australia, the OP's stomping grounds.
posted by Sauce Trough at 2:16 PM on November 21, 2018

(oh, and a correction, the first two Mass Effect games are available on Steam, they're pretty cheap too!)
posted by Sauce Trough at 4:30 PM on November 21, 2018

Response by poster: Fallout seems to be about right, although the Mass Effect:Andromeda suggestion is also sounding like a possible.

So, my question is - there are something like a gazillion Fallout "packs" on steam. I should just bother with the New Vegas pack, right? And I couldn't find anything listed as Mass Effect:Andromeda - I'm assuming its part of one of the main Mass Effect games? Or something not available to me as I live in the ass end of the Universe (Australia).

You can tell I buy one game a year, can't you... :|
posted by ninazer0 at 1:14 AM on November 22, 2018

Best answer: Here's a link to the basic Fallout New Vegas game.

Looking at that page from Seattle, I see a cart-add options for the basic game and for the FNV Ultimate Package which includes a bunch of DLC. No idea if the DLC has any value, I had plenty of fun with just the original game.

To get Mass Effect Andromeda, you'll need to create an account at Origin (that's the EA game store) and download their game client.
posted by Sauce Trough at 1:57 AM on November 22, 2018

Response by poster: Fallout: New Vegas it is! Also looking at Frostpunk as well, because I'd forgotten how much I like sims, but currently downloading New Vegas right now. Cheers all!
posted by ninazer0 at 5:29 PM on November 30, 2018 [1 favorite]

Once you're through F:NV you'll likely want to go through Fallout 3, and once you've done *that* it's time to install Tale of Two Wastelands, a mod that grabs Fallout 3 by the scruff of the neck and shoves it inside F:NV so that you can do all the DC stuff and then go to the Mojave using a merged, mushed-up weapons system and perk system.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 8:10 AM on December 27, 2018 [1 favorite]