PC Game Recommendation for a Broken Arm?

cabhan@discuss.tchncs.de to Games@lemmy.world – 93 points –

So, yesterday I broke my dominant arm. Yay! For the next 6 weeks, I have a cast, and at least for now, I can't use my right hand or arm at all (I am typing this with my left hand).

I'm looking for suggestions what I can play. Some thoughts:

  1. On PC, of couse
  2. Can be played only with the keyboard
  3. No time limits or need to respond quickly (e.g. many RTSes)
  4. I like puzzle games, RPGs, and good storytelling. I want to like sim games, but haven't yet found one that I love.
  5. Nothing too difficult

Here's a link to my Steam profile, if that helps: https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198028619119/games/?tab=all

Thank you all for any advice!

75

If all else fails, Vampire Survivors.

Or many of the other games in the genre as long as they have auto-aim. Brotato and halls of torment are worth checking out, imo.

Slay the Spire and Monster Train are great singleplayer card games that can be played with just the mouse.

Pretty much any turn based RPG is on the table, I can easily recommend Octopath Traveler 2.

You can also play story-driven games like Telltale games and Pheonix Wright, those are pretty fun.

Slay the Spire works great on a touchscreen as well. It runs great on my Surface.

However, there is a weird bug if playing on a Surface, that I feel obligated to let other know when recommending this game. You have to have the keyboard attached for the touchscreen controls to work in Slay the Spire. But you can flip it around the back and still play with the touchscreen.

Slay the spire would make a broken arm recovery feel like time travel, lol.

I also play civ 5/6 with the next action button bound to an extra button on my mouse.

Probably a good time for OP to invest in a multi button mouse as well

The recently released Baldur’s Gate 3 can be played with one hand perfectly fine. Your arm will likely heal before you finish it.

Edit: just noticed that you said you want keyboard only, in which case BG3 might not be ideal since it’s mostly mouse based. I think you can customize it to play with keyboard only since it has gamepad support, but don’t know what that’d be like.

There’s no fast paced clicking required though, so you could try to adapt to left handed mousery if you really want to play that one.

I second BG3. And just do mouse with off-hand. Or set up keyboard to act as mouse.

Peglin is fun and can be done with one hand. You have to like peggle kind of games. It's in early access, but to me it's already complete.

Coromon is like classic Pokemon but has some really cool little tricks up it's sleeve.

Rise of the third power is kinda like final fantasy. Lots of great story telling and music.

Halcyon 6. It's a spoof off of space games except it's in rpg form. Used references from a lot of space series. Most startreck.

Into the breach is a great game.

All of these are indie games that I really enjoyed.

Almost Any visual novel.

There are some really decent ones that have just come out, are are on sale with the current Visual Novel fest on steam. Videoverse - VN set in a Miiverse style social network that is about to be shut down Hypnospace Outlaw - Another one set in a computer, this time it's an alt reality internet based around old Geocities pages. Very fun/weird Analogue: A hate story ( on sale)- You're investigating what happened to a Korean generation ship found abandoned in space by talking to its AI Long Live the Queen ( on sale) - On of those VNs where you pick activities etc to raise stats, but parodied/put on its head because you'll die various horrible deaths until you get it right.

Good luck hope you heal fast!

I played through 'One Finger Death Punch" with a broken arm.

Would recommend.

Some of the best old school turn based RPGs are on sale at Humble Bundle at the momemnt. Those should be playable with a broken arm. Get well soon!

Even Baldur's Gate 3 should be playable with one hand if you're after something more modern.

True

I actually think BG 1&2 might be harder because of Real Time with Pause, come to think of it. Though if you have a mouse with rebind-able extra buttons it'd be alright, just set pause to a thumb button and you're good to go.

Right, I totally forgot about the Real Time with pause system. It's been years.

It's easy to overlook because of the graphics, but Caves of Qud is a really interesting game that fits your criteria.

It's hard to explain just what it really is or what makes it great, but it has a good mixture of generated and written content that keeps it interesting.

Crypt of the NecroDancer can be played with one hand. Inputs are timed (due to it being a rhythm game), but you should be fine because the only inputs are WASD (or arrow keys if you prefer). It's a roguelike, so there's not much in the way of storytelling and it's pretty challenging, but I feel like the gameplay is pretty puzzle-esque. If it's any argument, I'm a huge fan of puzzles and I really enjoyed NecroDancer

Anything that is turn-based will work really, or doesn't rely on a real-time mechanic.

I do suggest looking at a small trackball that you can use in the meantime. It'll be useful for the times when you need a pointing device in a smaller space, for whatever reason.

If you are into VR, Beat Saber has some one-handed songs and Pistol Whip is mostly one-handed. The exercise of playing those games improves overall circulation which helps the healing of fractures.

Caves of Qud is a really neat turn based roguelike that kinda focuses on exploration. It's a bit hard to get into but if you do it's really neat. Very very keyboard friendly, its my go-to game on my laptop.

It has difficulty modes that are... Less hard lol

Oh god I know too much about this. Long comment. Sadlol.

What kind of cast? Above or below the elbow?

I had above the elbow for 9 weeks once and below 3 times for 3-6 weeks on my right arm. Only below the elbow on my left but 5 times. My bones aren’t so good.

Above the elbow I played a lot of Warcraft 3(long time ago lol), Civ, AoE etc. Games that only required simple clicking but lots of hot keys to control. Above the elbow cast prevents a lot of you ability to rotate your arm so switching the mouse to your left doesn’t help much.

Below the elbow it depends if your thumb is immobile or not. If your thumb is free then it’s a matter of buying a cheap small mouse that will fit in your palm with the giant cast bulge. FPS and fast movements will be painful and not recommended but slower games and general use isn’t much impeded.

Immobile thumb is maybe the worst. Grab a cheap number pad and place it under your hand so you can use four fingers on the buttons. Mouse in your left hand. This severely limits what you can do with a computer.

Look up some brain exercises to ease the transition between sides of your brain and handedness. Also hold on to the skills you develop in these few weeks. Being able to work right or left hand helps with a lot of manual tasks with weird angles like using a drill under a sink or what have you.

Oh wow! That sounds rough.

I have a nice full arm cast from my elbow to my wrist (Oberarmschiene). I just learned that I will have it removed next week already, because they don't want to immobilize it for too long, but I was told it will hurt a lot after it's removed, so we'll see how that goes...

My thumb is indeed mobile, but my wrist is locked in place, so it is indeed quite uncomfortable to grip a mouse.

Baulders Gate 3 is prettt mouse heavy. Dont need to use the keyboard much at all. You can also set the screen to scroll with the mouse.

Not to mention its the biggest game out now

BG3 is such an easy recommend. Not only is it easy to play mouse only, it is also turn based combat, hugely story and decsion driven, and very very capable of giving you choice paralysis so you have plenty of reasons to come back with something different.

A good suggestion, and I've heard a lot about it over the past week :). I haven't played Baldur's Gate since the first one, and I was a bit too young for itr back then. Just bought it and it's downloadin now

I know you said your right arm is broken, but The 7th Guest (and the sequel, The 11th Hour, but the puzzles are very difficult) would be easy to play with your off-hand mouse anyways

just make sure you use ScummVM for them, because the versions that Steam/GOG are selling aren't very stable

similarly, the first 3 Monkey Island games, or Myst/Riven

Oh wow, there's some nostalgia.

I've done Monkey Island already, and enjoyed the new one too. I haven't played Myst sine I was 8 and my uncle had it on his computer and I had absolutely no idea what I was doing.

Myst is a very tough game. Very much a 90s game where you're supposed to play it for months, not just blitz through it in a weekend.

For more point and click games, check out ScummVM, they support a ton of them

Slay the Spire and Darkest Dungeon can be played with only a mouse and you don't need any reaction, maybe when you configure the overlay in the settings for the games it's then playable with only the keybord. Maybe you can also play Dredge in the passive mode with only one hand and only keybord I havent tried it out with this restriction

XCOM and Shadowrun returns! Just use the mouse with the other hand. Both games give you all the time you need. Battletech is a goog one handed game, too.

I second XCOM, if we are talking about the original two, Enemy Unknown/UFO Defense and Terror from the Deep. I heard good things about the more recent ones, but I never played those.

XCOM is a great idea. I played it years ago, but never made it to the end.

1 more...

Cannot view the link without signing in, but Peglin can be played with just the arrow keys and space bar as the minimum amount of keys needed. I cannot say whether WASD works, but it's pretty simple to play.

I recommend playing the final fantasy games in order. Most of the older ones are only the dpad and two buttons.

I'd second this. The full collection of pixel remaster games is actually phenomenal and a really good way to jump into the early titles.

Even just the originals on nes are still a good time.
I prefer the PS1 anthology releases though.

Darkest Dungeon is all about the mouse.

One of my go-to games when trying rock a baby to sleep with one arm.

Are you sure it has to be keyboard-only? Would a mouse or cheap touchpad work with your off hand, so long as the games don't require fast response or fine accuracy?

Slay the Spire is a mouse-driven deck-builder.

Crypt of the Necrodancer is a rhythm-based roguelike that uses only four keys to play.

Both are excellent.

Steins;Gate and then Steins;Gate0

Oh definitely, if OP likes visual novels at all then there are tons of those to play, particular you'd have to pick ones with untimed gameplay or only choices like Steins;Gate, Phoenix Wright, or Raging Loop

First thing that came to mind was FTL: Faster Than Light. I used to play on a laptop with no mouse and a lousy touchpad, so I became familiar with the hot-keys.

You can pause the game at any point to stage your attack / defense. Most commands have hot-keys you can press, rather than point and clicking. You might need to use the mouse for a few parts, but given the ability to always pause the game (I think it’s game mechanic really) you shouldn’t have too much trouble since you’re under little pressure to do so quickly.

You can play Earthbound on an emulator with one hand pretty easily. (bSNES is pretty good)

Might I recommend the timeless classic Heroes of Might and Magic III? Most of the campaigns are not too difficult after you get the hang of things, if I remember correctly. And you can get a hundred hours out of it even if you only play the official campaigns.

I recently enjoyed playing yet another zombie survivors and it was a blast, cheap and at least a weeks worth of grinding to unlock all the goodies. Also you only need the WASD keys so you should be set with your broken arm.

Do you like rpg card games? It's on my android but tavern rumble has been super fun for me recently. I wonder if you can find it on pc

Maybe some point and click adventure games? Those tend to have great stories. The Longest Journey, Syberia, stuff like that.

Racing games in general, personally I like Forza Horizon 5, you could play it with WASD and a spacebar

FFXIV can be played with just a mouse. Free to level 60 (mmo)RPG with good story telling. But using the mouse in your left hand might feel strange tbf.

The Curse of the Golden Idol is a detective-puzzle game that is easily played one handed, is cheap, and is great.

Invisible Inc is like a stealthy XCOM (which I see on your profile), and again, easily played one handed.

Total War. The campaign is turn based; although battles are real-time, you can auto-resolve them instead, which will remove any real-time elements from the game.

Dang. Would have recommended One Finger Death Punch as it can be played with only one finger but the whole game is essentially QTEs. xD

If you have a tablet or a large phone, maybe board games? Some boardgame apps have excellent campaign modes. My go to for this is Galaxy Trucker, but it has a time pressure component.

Darkest dungeon dungeon should be playable with only one hand available.

Anything that is turn-based will work really, or doesn't rely on a real-time mechanic.

I do suggest looking at a small trackball that you can use in the meantime. It'll be useful for the times when you need a pointing device in a smaller space, for whatever reason.

You might have some luck with a controller, using only a half of it, and re-mapping all controls there. Steam Controller might be great since it has touchpads. That might make some mouse-requiring games playable.

Using only keyboard, damn that's difficult to find something, haha. I think these might work, just going by my memory: FTL, Toki Tori, Undertale, VVVVVV, Braid, Dome Keeper. Basically that kind of simple 2D games. Then almost any racing game.

You could also try some eye tracking solution, can't help with that though.

If you're willing to bend on the RTS thing, Tooth and Tail is an RTS game that is almost completely played with your left hand in keyboard mode - it's an RTS designed for gamepads so it only uses wasd and like 6 action buttons (rally selected, rally all, cycle selection forward, cycle back, build, sell). It uses the mouse buttons to click for the rally commands but not the pointing by default, you could rebind the mouse click rally commands to like lshift and ctrl or something like that and it should work well. But the single player campaign does get difficult towards the halfway mark

FTL: Faster Than Light, an incredible rouge-like in space

Pros:

  • All actions have a leyboard shortcut

  • you can pause anytime and plan ahead

  • will satisfy your analytical brain that needs puzzles

  • randomized, each game will be different

  • can be played in short bursts should you get tired with the cast or whatever on

  • is amazing

  • randomized

  • dirt cheap

Cons:

  • you still need to use the mouse to aim weapons, albeit no need to be ultra precise...most of the time
  • randomized...will punish you sometimes so you just have to take it on the chin. Part of the fun and all that.