I've always played shooters, stealth games, third person adventure games, western RPGs, and light sidescrollers.
"Outside my comfort zone" would mean:
strategy games (enemy AI annihilates me)
turn-based games (they make me anxious)
anything isometric really, like CRPGs (too impatient to sit and read walls of text)
anything Japanese (they feel alien and confusing)
Overly-punishing games like Roguelikes, Dark Souls, FTL (I want to be challenged not severely punished).
unconventional indie games (they follow no familiar rules, and we fear change).
When, I, see, stuff, like, this, my jaw drops (in bewilderment) and I'm like what is this?? I want to try it so bad but I don't know if it's any good. And these games sometimes look very, complicated, and, intimidating.
Games I've already tried include:
Diablo 3, Torchlight 1, Don't Starve (too much grinding)
The Stanley Parable, Undertale, Invisible Inc (lost interest)
Age of Empires 1, Civ 5, XCOM 2012, World in Conflict (cannot wrap my head around the multiple intertwined systems)
Divinity Original Sin
Dark Souls, Bloodbourne, Super Meat Boy (frustrating trial & error)
Magicka
BUT NOW I'M GONNA GIVE IT A SHOT DAMMIT!
Please share your story of leaving your genre comfort zone and trying something you previously avoided, and how it worked out for you.
Please recommend games (for PC) outside of my comfort zone that DO NOT WASTE MY TIME with grinding, the illusion of progress (filler missions/collectibles), or filler story, but rather challenge me with tight well-crafted gameplay and a worthy, tightly-designed experience & story to indulge in. Something the developers put real effort into. [Good gameplay is the top priority]
P.S. Please do not recommend survival games, anime, or exploration games (like Dear Esther/Firewatch).
For 1, I have honestly never been afraid of any genre. Some I drift out of for a time but I can always get into it.
As for 2:
You should give XCOM 2 a shot. One of the best games this year. Tactical and turn based which will make you anxious but hell that's the point of it. Don't be afraid to sit there and think through moves. I don't think it's too punishing and the strategy layer of 2 is so much better than the first games.
I also recommend Dawn of War II. It's a great RTS but really a lot like an action RPG. You don't have to build a base or manage a ton and it's pretty friendly. Great fun too.
The best way, in my opinion, to get out of your comfort zone is to try an anything and everything approach and see what sticks. Be willing to try anything, even for 15 minutes, and I guarantee you'll find something outside of your usual preferences that really resonates. Services like Humble Bundle (and Games with Gold or Playstation Plus) are great for sending you games to try at a low cost. Maybe give that a shot.
Isometric: Diablo 2. You know the rpg mechanics. The abilities are fun, just look at a general guide of the class you want to play if you feel overwhelmed. But on normal it's easy, but really fun to experience it even today.
Sidescrollers: Ori. You got a good one there I think. It was my first Metroidvania and I think it's introduces a lot of those genre's mechanics well. I recommend getting a controller for this. Also the soundtrack makes this game totally worth your time.
Indie: Undertale. You have to avoid the weird fandom, but it's fun to see it once. The things you'll do are actually fun and some of the writing can be fun. After you finish it you can see if you are into whatever the tumblr fandom is into or not.
Kerbal, specifically: Watch Project B.E.A.S.T or play the science career. That starts you off with few parts and ramps up the more you learn by trial and error.
One thing though, there's lots of stuff out there and I think if you have the money to spare and feel like you're missing out you should give stuff a try. The best motivation I found is that holy shit I've discovered genres like Soulsborne and Metroidvania which I didn't even know I wanted! That feeling of not fully knowing the mechanics of a genre brings me back to playing games as a kid, where you test out everything and learn through exploration.
Edit: BTW, don't feel bad if something doesn't stick. I like the idea of Crusader Kings, but I think I have more fun watching someone like Austin or Dave play it. Though I never rule it out completely. I hated Dark Souls when I first played it for about half and hour. I came back to it later and I loved the trilogy since.
1. I tried playing Persona 3 earlier this year myself. Had never touched a JRPG before and I've barely ever played any RPGs in general, so it was a bit of a step. I think I just stopped after around 2-3 weeks of on/off playing, but it was interesting to at least try. Probably wouldn't have even done that if I hadn't watched the P4 ER and found this game's setting interesting enough.
2. Well, I don't know about the story part, but Ori brings Super Meat Boy to mind. That's a prime example of tight gameplay if there ever was one. There's no unfair bullshit thrown your way, just a proper challenge...plus it has probably one of the best soundtracks from the past ten years at least. That was actually the reason for why I bought the game, but I did really enjoy playing the game itself as well.
My lack of patience is definitely the biggest reason for why I don't bother with too many genres these days. Most of the time I just want to relax and float through my games, not break my brain or grit my teeth together and throw a controller through the screen. I think adventure games are the one type that I miss the most, I used to consume those back in the 90's. Had a bit of a spurt few years ago when I played through a handful of classics and then some news ones, but that also died out eventually.
Ha I've had the same problems of having trouble branching out. A game that helped me approach a new genre is Endless Legend. It's got elements of games you've struggled to get into in the past (it is a turn based strategy game) but unlike other games of its type it's got a ton of personality. There's a story for each of the factions, the art is fantastic and it's got one of the best soundtracks I've ever heard. It's also got surprisingly strong world building, and has gotten me invested in it's world in a way that usually only happens with my favorite RPGs.
The only concern is it maybe being a little more complicated than your usual. I was worried about the same thing so I did my first campaign on easy and found it to be almost impossible to fall behind at that level.
Anyway, hopefully that helps. You might also want to check out Divinity Original Sin for a PC RPG that's actually enjoyable to play.
I've avoided japanese games for a long time, too. Not totally on purpose and not all of them, but the japanese games I usually saw people bring up (FF, Lost Odyssey, Kingdom Hearts and pretty much every other jrpg) did not appeal to me at all, so I tended to discard everything that wore its japan-ness (or what I perceived as that) on its sleeves.
The game that made me interested in consciously seeking out more japanese games was Binary Domain. It looks and plays a lot like western games, but there's so much that's different (in a good way), too, and for the first time I positively attributed that to the fact it was made in Japan. Since then I've become a fan of Yakuza, Persona and the Zero Escape series.
I'll go ahead and suggest Dark Souls. Its reputation, to me anyway, is incorrect. Sure, it's hard, but it only feels punishing if you fail to pay attention. That's the whole draw, in a sense. It's a series that requires attention and problem solving to succeed. I wrote the games off as too hard for a long time, then was convinced to retry things with a mindfulness, and was flabbergasted with how much I loved the whole rhythm of the series. Some of the most rewarding gaming moments of my life.
I'll echos the XCOM and XCOM 2 recommendations for very good entry into turn-based tactics stuff. Darkest Dungeon is another good turn-based game with some roguelike elements. Also want to recommend Danganronpa just because, but they don't aren't gameplay focused.
I will drop in another vote for Dark Souls. I started with 3 and just worked my way through 2. They are tough but fair and the challenge is very rewarding.
Dark Souls was also very much outside my comfort zone, I took the jump and am very glad I did.
Definitely try Dark Souls. People blow the difficulty level of those games way out of proportion. I've recently played through Bloodborne and currently getting close to beating Dark Souls II. These are far from the most difficult games I've played.
The key to enjoying new experiences and learning new things is not being afraid to fail. You just have to accept failure as part of the process and then learn from your mistakes. I learned to drive a car with a manual transmission a couple of years ago and I've been driving for nearly a decade prior to that. I knew that I wasn't going to master it right away and just accepted that there would be plenty of stalling and grinding gears initially. I bought a used car that I wouldn't feel bad about beating on and just went for it. I got used to the car after a couple of weeks and after about a month it was second nature to me. Feels very satisfying having learned a new skill and it is the most fun I ever had driving.
Don't be afraid to try new things - fear is the mind killer.
XCOM/XCOM2 are certainly great turn-based games, but probably the lightest possible on the strategy side. Strategy is usually about hard decisions, and therefore the learning curve is steep, because you need to understand all the systems first to make decisions.
I'd still give Civ a shot. It is no coincidence the series is so old. With Civ 6 coming out this week I'd go with that, from the many hours of lets plays I have watched it seems very approchable. Then there is grand strategy and 4x. Stellaris comes to mind here. It was criticized for being relatively simplistic. That might be the way to go.
As a strategy gamer at heart almost everything discussed at GB is outside my comfort zone. Any action game really. I do enjoy WoW and FPS though, but I tried a lot of character action games and single-player RPGs, but I lost interest fast. Jumping in on the PC on BF3 was especially challenging.
Kerbal, specifically: Watch Project B.E.A.S.T or play the science career. That starts you off with few parts and ramps up the more you learn by trial and error.
Darkest Dungeon is another good turn-based game with some roguelike elements. Also want to recommend Danganronpa just because, but they don't aren't gameplay focused.
I also recommend Dawn of War II. It's a great RTS but really a lot like an action RPG. You don't have to build a base or manage a ton and it's pretty friendly. Great fun too.
A game that helped me approach a new genre is Endless Legend. It's got elements of games you've struggled to get into in the past (it is a turn based strategy game) but unlike other games of its type it's got a ton of personality. There's a story for each of the factions, the art is fantastic and it's got one of the best soundtracks I've ever heard. It's also got surprisingly strong world building, and has gotten me invested in it's world in a way that usually only happens with my favorite RPGs.
The only concern is it maybe being a little more complicated than your usual. I was worried about the same thing so I did my first campaign on easy and found it to be almost impossible to fall behind at that level.
This is the kind of suggestion I need, thanks guys I'll check em out.
Definitely try Dark Souls. People blow the difficulty level of those games way out of proportion. I've recently played through Bloodborne and currently getting close to beating Dark Souls II. These are far from the most difficult games I've played.
I will drop in another vote for Dark Souls. I started with 3 and just worked my way through 2. They are tough but fair and the challenge is very rewarding.
Dark Souls was also very much outside my comfort zone, I took the jump and am very glad I did.
I'll go ahead and suggest Dark Souls. Its reputation, to me anyway, is incorrect. Sure, it's hard, but it only feels punishing if you fail to pay attention. That's the whole draw, in a sense. It's a series that requires attention and problem solving to succeed. I wrote the games off as too hard for a long time, then was convinced to retry things with a mindfulness, and was flabbergasted with how much I loved the whole rhythm of the series. Some of the most rewarding gaming moments of my life.
I would recommend Dark Souls it has great gameplay,story ect and it is hard but not too hard. When it clicks it is the best game ever.
Sorry guys but the From Games train has passed for me. I tried Dark Souls when it came out on PC, then again a year later with a friend, and last year another friend invited me to play Bloodbourne on his PS4.
I seriously dislike everything about those games, I get sick to my stomach of dying so much, excessive trial and error is just the antithesis of fun in my opinion. I end up feeling like crap while playing.
I really appreciate your decision to jump in here and help me out though, perhaps look at the following paragraph and recommend similar games to the pictures I linked? here:
When, I, see, stuff, like, this, my jaw drops (in bewilderment) and I'm like what is this?? I want to try it so bad but I don't know if it's any good. And these games sometimes look very, complicated,and, intimidating.
You should give XCOM 2 a shot. One of the best games this year. Tactical and turn based which will make you anxious but hell that's the point of it. Don't be afraid to sit there and think through moves. I don't think it's too punishing and the strategy layer of 2 is so much better than the first games.
XCOM/XCOM2 are certainly great turn-based games, but probably the lightest possible on the strategy side. Strategy is usually about hard decisions, and therefore the learning curve is steep, because you need to understand all the systems first to make decisions.
I'll echos the XCOM and XCOM 2 recommendations for very good entry into turn-based tactics stuff. Darkest Dungeon is another good turn-based game with some roguelike elements. Also want to recommend Danganronpa just because, but they don't aren't gameplay focused.
I tried the first one for a few hours when it came out (was it in 2012?) and I always feel like I'm making the wrong moves, making too many taxing mistakes, and worrying that 10 hours into the game I will realize that I'm in very bad shape because I screwed up too much in the beginning and there's no going back. Is my concern a thing?
@howardian: With XCOM 1 your concern is definitely a thing. I think just about anyone should probably fuck up the strategy layer of the first game by not making enough satellites to start. However, the second game really made a way less frustrating and cheap strategy layer. That part of the game is almost maybe too easy if anything in 2, but I think it's hands down better. So I don't think you should be as worried by that aspect.
Dragon age origins might be isometric(not sure on the term) but it is like old crpgs. It's also turn-based, if you want to play it that way, I recommend playing it turn-based.
I've avoided japanese games for a long time, too. Not totally on purpose and not all of them, but the japanese games I usually saw people bring up (FF, Lost Odyssey, Kingdom Hearts and pretty much every other jrpg) did not appeal to me at all, so I tended to discard everything that wore its japan-ness (or what I perceived as that) on its sleeves.
The game that made me interested in consciously seeking out more japanese games was Binary Domain. It looks and plays a lot like western games, but there's so much that's different (in a good way), too, and for the first time I positively attributed that to the fact it was made in Japan. Since then I've become a fan of Yakuza, Persona and the Zero Escape series.
As someone who's always seen Japanese creations as very strange and inaccessible to me, this story makes me happy!
Too many rules for what I can and can't recommend... you seem to have a pretty good idea of what you want, so finding stuff to try should be easy.
My bad, let me clarify:
I need good accessible games with quality gameplay on PC that belong to these genres: strategy, turn-based, Japanese, Isometric games, unconventional indie games
But not these genres: survival, anime, exploration (like Dear Esther).
@howardian: With XCOM 1 your concern is definitely a thing. I think just about anyone should probably fuck up the strategy layer of the first game by not making enough satellites to start. However, the second game really made a way less frustrating and cheap strategy layer. That part of the game is almost maybe too easy if anything in 2, but I think it's hands down better. So I don't think you should be as worried by that aspect.
Just looking through my Steam library... have you played Bastion? At some point I think I assumed everyone who's made their way to this site had played it, but it does tick a few of your categories. It's isometric without being a complicated text-heavy RPG, and it does some neat weird indie things while still having fairly traditional (and tight) action. If you end up liking its style, Transistor might actually be a pretty accessible intro to turn-based stuff too, with its strategy-lite combat system.
anything isometric really, like CRPGs (too impatient to sit and read walls of text)
anything Japanese (they feel alien and confusing)
Overly-punishing games like Roguelikes, Dark Souls, FTL (I want to be challenged not severely punished).
unconventional indie games (they follow no familiar rules, and we fear change)
.....
Please share your story of leaving your genre comfort zone and trying something you previously avoided, and how it worked out for you.
Please recommend games (for PC) outside of my comfort zone that DO NOT WASTE MY TIME with grinding, the illusion of progress (filler missions/collectibles), or filler story, but rather challenge me with tight well-crafted gameplay and a worthy, tightly-designed experience & story to indulge in. Something the developers put real effort into. [Good gameplay is the top priority]
P.S. Please do not recommend survival games, anime, or exploration games (like Dear Esther/Firewatch).
Honestly, I think you don't want to leave your comfort zone with those stipulations and your gut reactions to these games. Which is ok, you don't have to but I applaud you for wanting to give a shot. And it's good you know this stuff about your tastes.
If you really want this to work, I think it comes down to mindset and you need to change that more than game recommendations . If you want to try something new, you gotta be curious and open minded. Go in without preconceptions as much as you can. And most importantly relax a bit if you can (your descriptions sound to me like games make you really tense in general) and don't get so wrapped in what the games do wrong. Just kick back and enjoy it for what it is. If it's crap in your opinion or you get your ass kicked by the AI, so be it.
What I'm saying to do is to play games like Vinny Caravella quick looks things if you catch my drift.
Fwiw I grew up in era where renting games was a thing, that's how I left my comfort zone. It was cheap to do so, so I tried everything that seemed new and different.
So if I were in your shoes, what I would do is this. Try to find to acclaimed semi-older games in "new to you" genres you are curious about and try to pick a few up on the cheap. I wouldn't necessarily fish for recommendations because none of us really know what you are going to like and it seems like you have strong reactions to what you play. Stuff that bothers you isn't going to bother me and I may not have noticed its' existence in the game.
Chances are you know what the classics are in other genres even if you don't play those. If you don't like the best of the best, chances are you won't like the rest. And there is nothing wrong with not liking a great game. Not everything is going to jive with you. E.g. with me FPS games are real hit and miss and I can't stand Clickers.
based on the anxiety you describe about some of these games, I'd suggest sticking Easy difficulty modes until you gain confidence in your ability to handle the new challenges. Then restart if it's too easy.
You could also do what @darth_navster suggested and get a cheap subscription to something like PSN or Humble Monthly. That's definitely a great way to get a firehose of new stuff to try, The downside to that imo, is that you have no control over what you'll get and it may not be the cream of the crop. Which means you might end up disliking the game for other reasons than the genre.
p.s. I don't know what an "Anime" game is, it's an art aesthetic and story telling style. Pretty much everything that's made in Japan qualifies from Mario to Dark Souls as Anime, and some Western stuff too. I'm assuming you mean stuff that looks like this
but I'd suggest not be close minded about this if you really want to give Japanese games a fair shot. If you've got access to any Nintendo consoles, their stuff is usually extremely approachable. It's usually a real easy way to dip your toe into Japanese games.
strategy games (enemy AI annihilates me)--Valkyria Chronicles is a strategy game. You have a squad of soldiers with different likes/dislikes (So-and-so is friends with this person, is comfortable with this type of environment; So-and-so does is not comfortable in the desert, happens to be racist and won't work well with these characters who have this ethnic background). There is an offensive phase and an enemy attack phase where you control all of your units and then you face off against the enemy's attack. There are different types of missions (attacking a base, destroying a specific enemy unit, etc.) which progressively get harder. There are a set number of missions based around a well told and engaging story, although you can run skirmishes that use the same maps again if you wish. If you are good enough, you probably don't need to replay any missions and you can just go through each numbered story mission. Each mission felt like it was designed with a specific purpose: introducing a character to your squad, revealing a new enemy threat in the greater war, a critical moment in the war, etc. There may be one or two filler missions, but the vast majority are unique either mechanically or narratively. You may have to retry a mission if you get ambushed or were not well prepared for a certain encounter (at least I did), but this isn't exactly a game that requires grinding.
turn-based games (they make me anxious)--As mentioned above, the battle system is turn based, where you attack all at once and then the enemy attacks all at once. It is similar to the new XCOM games if you are familiar with that, except it is on a grander scale. Instead of moving 4-6 units around, the number is closer to 12.
anything Japanese (they feel alien and confusing)--This is a Japanese game. It has some anime moments, but it is more grounded than a lot of the Japanese games over the past decade, with characters who are fairly realistic characters (they are all human, who look normal, who wear actual military uniforms, as opposed to bunny girls who wear corsets or armored bikinis)
A pretty realistic Japanese strategy game. May contain up to 33% anime.
As for your other points, the game isn't "overly punishing" although it is possible to permanently lose characters if they get caught in a really bad spot or you can end up in a position where you simply can't finish a mission. It's also not isometric (the main camera angle is third person), and it isn't a wacky, crazy indie game.
This is one of my favorite PS3/360 era games and it has a PS4 version and a PC port which is available on Steam.
I just wanna say FTL is not overly punishing. There is enough an element of randomness that it is possible you could run into a fight you just can't win, it's particularly possible you could get to the final ship and be unable to beat it with the equipment you have as that ship is a beast and definitely could be considered an unexpected difficulty bump at the very end the first time you get there. So you certainly will fail, and if you're new to the game you'll be more likely to fail. But the game isn't intentionally stacking the deck against you, kicking you while you're down at every turn, or torturing you for fun.
Like any game once you figure out some good strategies you can succeed. Some tactics are definitely are easier/more repeatable than others, but I don't think there are many times where you find yourself in a situation where you can't succeed, if you know what you're doing.
I played the game on easy at first, then once I had a better idea what I was doing I bumped it up to normal and had a pretty good time trying to beat the game a bunch of different ways. And I was able to do so without much trouble. And I'm by no means an overly skilled game player.
Feels like discovering things outside of your comfort zone kinda was easier in the early to mid 90's, with the massive shareware scene during that era. With the death of the game demos, you're pretty much relegated to cheap bundles or at least steam sales if you want to try titles you wouldn't check out otherwise. It also seems to be the case that it's mostly garbage that ends up in those bundles or with steep discounts, since developers that are aware that they're doing good games with a niche target group don't tend to discount their stuff and rather rely on word of mouth to have their games reach a wider audience.
As for suggestions on games for you, on strategy games, I would maybe suggest 8-Bit Armies/Hordes (or the upcoming 8-bit Invaders). They've got an awful art style, but they're really easy to grasp RTS games without all those layers of unit specific abilities and juggling with multiple resources that most other current RTS games are saddled with.
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