Looking for games that feel like a summer adventure

Paradigm_shift@sh.itjust.works to Patient Gamers@sh.itjust.works – 117 points –

I have this loosely defined made-up genre I call "Summer Games".

It started a long time ago subconsciously. At some point I realized that during the hottest time of the year I gravitate to certain games that I mostly play on a small device (laptop/switch/steamdeck), laying in bed, late at night, when I have trouble sleeping because it's too hot. A friend of mine once said that the reason she loves super high temperatures so much, is that what you experience leaves more vivid, burned in, memories. I think she has a point.

The criteria aren't super rigid but I hope you get the "vibe" and might know some games that fit:

  • Low-stakes/chill gameplay. I'm already sweating, I don't need sweaty gameplay right now

  • a warm aesthetic/color palette and/or setting. My outside experience shouldn't feel too different to the games inside experience aesthetic-wise.

  • It feels like a road trip, adventure or vacation. I want to get a summery memory out of this.

  • the game leaves some kind of impact.

Games I played in the past that evoked that vibe perfectly:

  • Kentucky road zero

  • oxenfree

  • road 96

  • firewatch

  • sable

  • rime

  • steins: gate

  • life is strange

Games that have fit okay-ish

  • tunic

  • journey

  • citizen sleeper

  • nightcall

  • no umbrellas allowed

  • the talos principle

  • the solus project

  • the witness

  • the vanishing of Ethan Carter

If anyone has a recommendation, I'd be thankful. This year I have started to play chants of Sennaar and it seems to fit the criteria so far.

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If you haven’t played outer wilds yet, do it. Go in blind, read/watch nothing unless you are absolutely stuck. It truly is one of the best video games ever made, and it’s definitely a cozy adventure (for the most part).

Edit: the reason you need to go in blind is because all progress happens in your own head. Once you know something you can’t un-know it. Replayability is pretty much zero.

Also, controller is 100% mandatory. Not keyboard and mouse, not even HOTAS. Controller, preferably with axes for the triggers (not buttons like the switch)

Also it very much as a summer camping vibe, what with the banjos and marshmallows and rickety wooden cabin-spaceships

I just can't get into outer wilds, the ship controls drive me insane.

Yeah, I bounced off it once for the same reason. If you can get past that it’s worth it