Some specific requirements for a PC game

July 1, 2022 9:16 AM

The Steam Summer Sale has reminded me that I haven't ever found a game that scratches the particular itch that Skyrim (and to a lesser extent Oblivion and Morrowind) did. After having a think about this, there are particular things which I think I'm looking for (under the cut)

I like:
- pretty and interesting world I can wander around in and discover things/secrets/quests
- stealing/looting/foraging literally everything which isn't nailed down
- intermittently smashing in the head of monsters with a big hammer
- not being an MMORPG

Obviously the perfect game for me may not exist, so I'm happy with suggestions that come close to this. I have tried ESO, but it falls down not just on the MMORPG front but also that theft/looting options are very limited. Thank you for your suggestions!

posted by Vortisaur to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (10 answers total)

7 Days to Die is a survival horror/crafting game that might meet your criteria. By default it's an MMORPG of sorts, but you can create and set up a unique world on your local computer and play by yourself. (Even on the shared server where I'm most active, I rarely see other players on at the same time, but we support each other by sharing items, so that facet might work for you too.)

The early stage of the game is a struggle to survive, as you start with practically nothing, and every seven days a horde of zombies attacks your base, but you can smash them with a big hammer (as well as other kinds of weapons).
posted by Gelatin at 9:27 AM on July 1, 2022

Horizon Zero Dawn and Fallout 3 /New Vegas / 4
posted by mrgoldenbrown at 9:35 AM on July 1, 2022 [5 favorites]

Ditto Fallout 3/4/New Vegas. WIth the various mods, including the recently launched mod Fallout 4 London there's a ton of playable value, and giant sledgehammer is one of the available weapons, but you will need high-strength to use it. :)
posted by kschang at 9:48 AM on July 1, 2022

Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead. It's zombie survival horror but has a ridiculously detailed crafting mechanic. Everything is procedurally-generated, and you can wander around and do almost anything you want, including smashing monsters with hammers, or fixing up a broken helicopter to shoot them from the air, or...
posted by Alensin at 10:55 AM on July 1, 2022

Witcher Wild Hunt (you don't need to have played any of the previous games) might suit you. Expansive and interesting world (after you get past the first area), a lot of things to loot and forage, lots of interesting side quests (they are dark), and lots of big bad monsters to go toe to toe with.

Note... It's not a really pretty world until you get to the fancier places, but it is thematically logical, e.g. there's a big war going on.
posted by ellerhodes at 11:15 AM on July 1, 2022 [4 favorites]

The Witcher games.

Red Dead redemption, especially 2.

If you don't mind the modern take, some of the later games in the Grand theft Auto series meet most of the criteria.
posted by Jacen at 11:34 AM on July 1, 2022 [1 favorite]

witcher 3 wild hunt!!!! don't fw witcher 1 and 2 unless you REALLY want to. seriously it's GOAT
posted by capnsue at 12:04 PM on July 1, 2022 [2 favorites]

Witcher as mentioned above for sure, I’ve heard Red Dead and Horizon Zero Dawn as well (though my poor laptop can’t handle them).

I’m going to throw in Subnautica - you don’t bash monsters over the head, but it scratched the same itch of exploration and harvesting.
posted by umwhat at 1:22 PM on July 1, 2022 [1 favorite]

Second Dragon's Dogma ($5 right now). I'd call it an open-world action RPG, but it makes a lot of adorably quirky design decisions. Like the ability to customize and level an AI-controlled companion character, which sort of blurs the line between NPC and PC. Or the ability to climb dragons. Or the part where you can tweak your companion's behavior so they climb dragons more often... There's a good amount of exploration/plundering (and a theft mechanic, iirc) as well.

Also, they just announced a sequel after 15 years, so if you like it there's more to come.

(Along similar lines, Elden Ring is fantastic and is just the sort of thing you describe, but system requirements are pretty steep and it's not on sale. It's a FromSoftware game, which means it's more of a "grim, lonely odyssey through the decaying ruins of a once-glorious civilization" mood piece than character-driven story.)

Witcher 3 has good production values (for 2015 at least) but the combat and exploration are a bit weaksauce for my tastes. It has a pretty well-told story if that's your sort of thing, but you don't mention the S-word at all so I assume it isn't.
posted by neckro23 at 8:01 PM on July 1, 2022 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thank you everyone! Loads for me to explore here, quite a few being under a fiver in the sale for extra bonuses :)
posted by Vortisaur at 10:18 AM on July 3, 2022