Good singleplayer games without any story?

GrimReaperCZ@lemmy.zip to Gaming@beehaw.org – 55 points –

Players usually want a good story in their games. I can enjoy a good story too, but sometimes I just want to get going and do stuff without listening to several minutes of dialog in-between action.

Do you know any games where there's no story (or very minimal/skippable one), and the game mechanics alone carry the game?

EDIT: Thank you all for the suggestions. There are some that I've never heard of and look very interesting. Will definitely pick some of them up.

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Factorio. All about letting the factory grow.

I also started playing wizards of legend recently. It takes maybe 20 minutes to get through the tutorial, then it's just game. I'm enjoying it so far

Oh no there's a stoty all right. It's the story of thinking you're in Castaway, then finding out you're actually in The Lorax...as the Once-ler.

Tetris, along with most puzzle games.

It's seriously hard to beat Tetris.

Tetris effect is insanely good for the music alone, and with ve the whole thing was an experience

This is such a hard question to answer without more information. There are a literal ton of mechanically good games with minimal/no story across a massive variety of genres. What are you into? Surely your interests run deeper than "don't make me read, don't show me a movie".

I'd start to look into rogue-lites; games that kill you rapidly are less inclined to lore-dump before they get to it, instead either hiding the story around the game world, or giving you snippets between runs. Dead Cells, Bullets Per Minute, Crypt of the Necrodancer, Rogue Legacy, Into the Breach, Enter the Gungeon. That should cover a wide birth of genres, anyway.

Be more specific and we can give you far better recommendations.

Rogue-lites are probably a good suggestion, considering I played and enjoyed Bullets Per Minute and Rogue Legacy. Also Dead Cells is probably one of my favourite. If there's at least some form of progression then I think I'll like it so I'll look into the others you mentioned. Thanks.

Nova Drift is one of my favorite rogue-likes, highly recommended. Check out the youtube channel "Ultra C" for a ton of different rogue-likes.

If you liked Bullets Per Minute, pick up Metal: Hellsinger. Not a roguelite, but a very well-structured single-player story-minimal (~10-15 second voiced introductions to each level, occasionally a 1-2 minute, voiced cutscene between stages) game. It's more like Doom - set arenas, with set encounters across varying difficulties - with a more refined, BPM-style "shoot on the beat" system. And it sports an insanely good original soundtrack with guest vocalists from across the spectrum of metal.

Hades deserves to be in this list if you've not played it.

Hades for sure has a story. Probably the best implementation of story in the whole genre.

Yeah it does, but I wouldn't say it's the main attraction. It's good, but I wouldn't call it story driven.

The gameplay loop uses getting to interact with the characters and to advance the various subplots as part of your reward/consolation at the end of each run. I'd call that story-heavy.

Kenshi is a post-apocalyptic sandbox open-world RPG / base-building game with a bunch of lore but absolutely no plot for you to follow.

Vampire Survivors

I keep hearing about this one. I need to try it one day.

It's $5 and brilliant 40+ hour game with excellent mechanical complexity

I just discovered this game this past weekend and it is sooo good. I wanted a fairly mindless "kill a bunch of guys and keep my hand busy" type of game, and that's exactly what I got.

Rogue likes usually have very little story getting in the way. Binding of Isaac, Slay the Spire, Nova Drift, Darkest Dungeon are a few of my top played. I also really enjoy the make your own adventure Creative Survival type games like Minecraft, Astoneer, Terraria, Starbound, Empyrion Galactic Survival etc. City builders, colony sims and Farming Sims are always a good choice too. Some of my favorites are Cities: Skylines, Banished, Timberborn, Forager, The Anno series, Stardew Valley. Then there's the pure building games. I really enjoy just building stuff and testing my creations out with games like Scrap Mechanic, Instruments of Destruction, Main Assembly, Cosmoteer, Reassembly, Kerbal Space Progam (the first game, Id wait on the second until all the bugs are fixed). Hack and Slash ARPGs are always fun for turning the brain off and most of them dont have a ton of story, save for a few cut scenes here and there. Path of Exile, Torchlight, Diablo 1 and 2 (I don't like 3 and 4 personally) Grimm Dawn, Cronichon, Fate, Last Epoch are some of my favorites.

Minecraft. Cities Skylines. RimWorld. Helldivers.*

*You're going to need to co-op to have any chance in the mid to late game.

Vampire survivor? 20 Minutes Till Dawn?

Vampire Survivors has more story than vampires. Which is a low bar to clear but it just about does.

Trackmania. Any of them. TMNF/UF, Trackmania^2^, Trackmania Turbo, Trackmania (2020)

You mean the post-apocalyptic, self driving car game?

Elden Ring is apparently good. And the dark souls games as a whole. Almost no story

Most roguelikes either have no story or keep it out of the way.

Factorio, one opening cinematic that takes 30 seconds and that's it. The factory must grow!

Lots of posts here, so maybe you won't see this, but i think the ___ Simulator games are mindless task-oriented fun (if you enjoy that sort of thing). I have been playing House Flipper lately, which has basic task lists and skippable emails if you don't care about the job's context. Clean up trash, paint, build outdoor furniture. There's just something satisfying about it for me, but it won't be for everyone. I have heard good things about PowerWash and Gas Station Simulators as well.

It's think I would enjoy it for a while but got bored pretty fast. But maybe some type of this genre could surprise me.

Risk of Rain 2 is probably my favorite rouge like, easily recommended if you like FPS games

ULTRAKILL is a really fun movement shooter with minimal story except between chapters I guess, but there's also an infinite wave mode that is a great time killer

100% Risk of Rain 2. I've dumped so many hours into doing silly runs in that game, just because I feel like it - not even attempting to unlock anything or make specific progress. The game is fantastic.

Mount and Blade 2: Bannerlord. Even the main campaign is basically just the sandbox.

Ready or Not is basically just a swat game with no story or dialogue that matters to gameplay.

Or a building or strategy game. Something like Cities: Skylines would maybe be good if you like that sort of genre.

Since you didn't specify a genre I will just recommend, from my most played games which have no explicit story (as in, there probably is some lore or story but you don't see it unless you watch for it like in Dark Souls), try to see if there is anything you are interested in.

Risk of rain 2, 3d tps roguelike where you stack items until the game breaks, the game gets more difficult each minute you spend on a stage.

Factorio and satisfactory, both are part of the factory building genre, the first one is 2d and the second 3d. I recommend starting with factorio, seriously these are pure crack despite jow unappealing the genre seems at first.

Slay the spire, a deck building roguelike.

Dirt rally 2, it is a single player game but there are leaderboard just in case ypu consider that "multiplayer".

Crypt of the necrodanncer, rythm roguelike where you move and attack on each beat

Descenders, bike game where you usually go downhill fast.

I'm glad I didn't specify a genre, because you wouldn't suggest Descenders, and it's very different from the others mentioned so definitely seems interesting to me.

Kenshi. The story is basically what happens during a play through. But there is plenty of lore to discover.

Interstellar Pilot 2. It’s admittedly a mobile game, but genuinely the best one I’ve ever played.

TLDR: It’s a sandbox spaceship pilot simulator where the “goals” are to dominate laissez-faire capitalism

Essentially, in the game, you start with one small starship, and travel the universe completing missions, buying and selling goods, and fighting off bandits.

Other games have this premise, but they’re mostly point-and-click games that take place universally in menus. Not so for Interstellar Pilot.

In Interstellar Pilot, the UI really matches the thing that you’re doing. When you’re at a station trading, it’s an ordinary menu, but when you’re in your ship, the UI is much more reminiscent of an actual ship’s dashboard, and you can pilot your ship anywhere you like in the 2.5d space, rather than just clicking buttons. Even in stations, where the UI is more menu-ey, the buttons you can select are on the peripheries of your screen, while the center is occupied by a view of the station and the area around it, as it updates in real-time.

Anyway, once you get enough money you can build up your empire sandbox style, buying ships and having them run automated scripts in the background—and eventually building stations that can let you manufacture goods and military ships to further your plans.

And what are those plans? They can be anything! IP is a sandbox game, so you can make as much money as possible, set up a self-sufficient economy, hunt bandits, or attempt to conquer the galaxy to your heart’s content.

And that’s not even getting into how good and layered the combat is. From light but reliable lasers, to stronger but less accurate plasma pulses, to slugthrower-style guns and guided missile, to ECM’s, which interfere with missile guidance, to mines that deter chasing another ship, to the hexagonal shield system, in which you can only take so many hits from each direction before they start to damage your hull, to the fact that your weapons themselves sometimes take damage randomly, to the space dust and cloaking devices that ships can use to hide and the echolocation mines that can be used to find such ships.

That said, for all the complexity the combat has, it never feels overwhelming. At any point, the player can pause the game at any time, freezing the entire universe, but still allowing the player to manage their stuff in it—activating weapons on ships (that will fire right when the player resumes time), buying and selling goods and ships, giving their ships new orders, etc.

Honestly, the game’s combat is both intuitive and spectacular and rarely gets talked about just because of how simple it feels. It’s also integrated perfectly with the trade and cargo systems. If your ship gets hit without it being blocked by a shield, some cargo might fall out of it, and you’ll have to pull it back in with your tractor beam before your opponent grabs it with theirs. Artillery shells, missiles, mines, and ECM’s have to be stored in your cargo bay, so you have to keep track of how many you have and balance that with how much cargo you’d like to carry.

And the ships are crazy customizable. There’s over a dozen different ship models, each with its own stats for things like maximum speed, turning rate, hull strengh, and weapon turret placement. As for weapon variation, each ship model has a couple of different variations with different turret placements, but that’s just the beginning. At military outpost stations, any weapon can be swapped out into any turret (as long as it’s compatible with the ship model), and ships be upgraded with a variety of other components too (better generators and shields, cloaking devices, passenger modules, etc.)

And for what it’s worth, the art and animation kicks ass. (Admittedly the old IP1 models more than IP2, but the creator (yes, singular) is planning to add custom paint jobs in the future, allowing for even more ship customizability). The space scenery looks stunning and seamless, and the ships all feel unique control-wise.

Anyway, Interstellar Pilot is a phenomenal game, and a (rare) credit to the entire mobile gaming industry. If you’re going to get it, I recommend getting Interstellar Pilot 2, which is the one currently in development (by the way, this entire game was made by one person in their spare time). (I think it’s also on Steam now for PC but it did originally start as a mobile game so I’m still counting it as one)

How the heck is this game free? It doesn’t even capture any data (on iOS) except identifies and they aren’t used to track players. Gonna give it a try.

Well you convinced me to try it, and it's even free. Thanks for the recommendation!

Ratchet & Clank games are solid and approachable if you're into casual platformers. The main focus is the huge array of different weapons which often get hilariously over the top in the late game, and story is just there for a backdrop.

Rogue Legacy was going to be my suggestion. Such an easy (as in no stories/puzzles to keep track of) game to pick up and play. It's something that was lost a bit on the second game. But it looks like you've played it.

Dungeon Encounters is a pure turn-based RPG with almost no story.

Theatrhythm is a fun music game.

Sound Shapes is a platformer.

Immortal Redneck is a FPS rogue-like.

That's just what's in my games list that might be what you're looking for.

Is there a particular genre? I dont pay attention to most game stories. Some of these suggestions have an online mode but ive only played single player.

age of empires 4 (1v1 against ai), 7days to die, vampire survivors, valheim.

I mostly play action games of any kind really. But will try games outside of that too, for example card games, or some strategies. But generally I prefer more action oriented games.

if you are feeling adventurous i would recommend slay the spire for the card games category

Mount and Blade 2: Bannerlord. There is a small background storyline that you can choose to follow, or completely ignore. When I play, I create a story in my head.

I amassed a huge amount of gold and then wasn't sure what to do. The story said I had to find some guy but I kept just chasing him around the map and could never catch him.

Earth Defence Force 5

There's mostly only some really funny voice over during the missions. EDF6 is already there but the developer always takes his time to translate the game into English.

Nuclear Throne

How would you say is different from Enter The Gungeon?

  1. If you love enter the gungeon you'll probably love nuclear throne. I certainly love both and both are firmly in the bullet hell genre.
  2. Fewer weapons and a more minimal game loop.
  3. Faster paced.
  4. You level up in a run as you kill things and select perks that change the gameplay a bit.
  5. More emphasis on dodging (without rolling) and killing, it's super fast paced.
  6. Both have fun secrets and hidden levels.

Thanks for the summary. I didn't play Enter the Gungeon much, but enjoyed the little what I played.

If you’re looking for something arcadey and replayable, the Touhou series might be worth looking into. Great music, too.

Return to Castle Wolfenstein? The new Wolfensteins have quite a bit of story, but the old one is all skippable.

I finally got superhot: mind control delete during the summersale. Very simple but engaging combat mechanic, and story is kept to a minimum

Dredge. I think there’s a bit of a story but really you’re just going out fishing.

Another unusual game. I like this suggestion, thank you.

So, so many. You're going to have to narrow it down a bit. Vagante is a great challenging roguelike platformer that's equal parts Spelunky and Dark Souls. There are recommendations for Factorio and Civilization here, which I wholeheartedly endorse. Mercenary Kings has minimal act break cut-scenes that are pretty short, but the gameplay loop is Mega Man crossed with Monster Hunter, and it works really well. Streets of Rogue is a highly systemic roguelike that really lets you go nuts with the sandbox, and it's got a great sense of humor at that.

As a bonus, all of those games are also fantastic to play co-op.

I played all you mentioned, except Factorio, and liked them, but never heard of Vagante. Looks interesting so I'll check it out, thanks.

I’d have to recommend Untitled Goose Game, Goat Simulator, the Karamari series, and music based (do the thing to the beat) games like Dance Dance Revolution, Taiko Drum Master, Guitar Hero, etc.

Ultrakill. Sometimes guys will talk to you, but its rare (only before bossfights), can mostly be ignored, and can be skipped after listening to it the first time.

Victor Vran's not much for story but the game is fun. You can even find a weapon that launches exploding chickens.

I hear ya, I hate when games have too much story. The stories are never any good and usually outright eye-rollingly bad. I particularly hate when they do "..."

Legend of Zelda, the very first one. Yoshi's Island. FIFA.

I know Axiom Verge has a Speedrun mode that cuts out all the cutscenes, I don't know if that qualifies though, and you do kind of have to know what's going on outside of that. The story itself isn't necessary to enjoy the game though.