Oneshot. Absolute masterpiece of a story in my opinion, and no violence.
Ask HN: Non-violent video games with great stories?
241–250 of 452 posts
Re: Ask HN: Non-violent video games with great stories?
#242A Night In The Woods. Don’t let the cute art fool you: It’s a deep story that touches on mental illness, economic inequality, and other heavy topics… but not in a way that would be too much for a curious young teen. There’s a bit of violence in the story but this is basically 80s kid movie level intensity stuff.
Re: Ask HN: Non-violent video games with great stories?
#243Earlier quoted context omitted.
Exposure therapy! There aren't really any panic moments unless you're reckless, and you're sitting in safety while confronting the deep.
Ha, I loved the game but had friends who just could not take the Dread... There's significant portions of the game where you're trying REALLY hard not to be someone else's lunch, but it's dark and you're in a gigantic space and who knows what's behind you or under you or above you...
Absolutely! I finished it two years ago and still use the soundtrack sometimes to wake myself up if coffee doesn’t cut it
Re: Ask HN: Non-violent video games with great stories?
#244Undertale and Celeste. Shocked undertale was left out.
Probably because Undertale is not really non-violent. Even a perfect-pacifist playthrough requires the use of violence.
By "the use of violence", do you mean violence directed at the player, or violence perpetrated by the player?
Re: Ask HN: Non-violent video games with great stories?
#245A Night In The Woods. Don’t let the cute art fool you: It’s a deep story that touches on mental illness, economic inequality, and other heavy topics… but not in a way that would be too much for a curious young teen. There’s a bit of violence in the story but this is basically 80s kid movie level intensity stuff.
Some shorter/smaller games:
A Short Hike (haven’t played it but heard great things)
Signs of the Sojourner: A brilliant game about going on bus trips to trade and collect merchandise for a local store, but the core gameplay is conversation represented by collectible cards. The catch is that you can only carry a limited number of them, and the change in your deck over time represents the way leaving home for the first time changes a person… perhaps so much that when they return, they can’t relate to their old friends anymore.
Re: Ask HN: Non-violent video games with great stories?
#246Ace Attorney. You go through witness testimony and identify contradictions between their statements and the evidence. The stories are nuts and get a bit more nuts every game.
Re: Ask HN: Non-violent video games with great stories?
#247There's the opposite end of game mechanics in Visual Novel games.
I know having a great story was a condition but I would also recommend shallower stories in rhythm based games for playing with your kids or alone.
Once the mechanics are learned, you can indulge in a similar feeling of accomplishment as with those fun trick shots in fps games.
There's OSU!, Arcaea, Rhythm Heaven and a recent one that has a story that became really popular is Friday Night Funkin and associated mods.
There are classics like portal 1 and 2 for depth in story, but I don't see many puzzle games with strong stories.
Real time strategy like age of empires or mythology are violent but can be considered somewhat educational because it's based on history/myth.
And the following games are shooters but the story is so deep that it doesn't feel unreasonable, the Bioshock series and Control.
Re: Ask HN: Non-violent video games with great stories?
#248My kids and I had a great time going through the first 3 Monkey Island games. The Remastered versions of 1 & 2 with full voice acting helped keep my kids engaged. They we pretty stoked to see Ron Gilbert's announcement that he's making another game in the series.
I LOVED Secret of Monkey Island when I first played it, and I think I was maybe eight or nine years old.
Re: Ask HN: Non-violent video games with great stories?
#249Animal Crossing, Stardew Valley have a lot of great game mechanics and are also about discovery, trade, and building relationships. Factorio is probably a bit more advanced, but meets your criteria (except for story, maybe). There is a rabbit hole of games like that to go down. Assassins Creed Origins and Odyssey have “education” modes that are about exploring the world and not murder. The Mario-plus games (Tennis, R…
I loved playing ape escape on PS1 as a kid!
Re: Ask HN: Non-violent video games with great stories?
#250I got tired of first-person shooters because of the violence. I started playing exploration and building games: Subnautica, No Mans Sky, and others. There is a whole genre of these types of games.