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Ask HN: Non-violent video games with great stories?

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Re: Ask HN: Non-violent video games with great stories?

#411

Post by mcphage »

spoiler wrote: post #314
mcphage wrote: post #283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah, interesting—it might have gone over my head as well. I did at least pick up that it was coping with loss, but I don't remember picking up any specifics beyond that. What did I miss? And does it involve picking up all of the collectables? I've tried repeatedly, but whenever I start playing, my kids want to play too, and inevitably restart the game.

Hmm, the way I used "deep" is in the sense that it's meaningful, not that there's a deep/rich storyline. The depth I was talking about is that it shows going through stages of grief. [SPOILERS AHEAD] [SPOILERS AHEAD] [SPOILERS AHEAD] (no username pun intended) As she is grieving, the world is bland and she's lost her voice in the world. As she processes grief, her voice and powers come back to her. The world represen…

Ah, okay... in that case, yes, I agree with you completely. It reminded me more of a tone poem, rather than an actual narrative. I think you hit it all right on the head.

Re: Ask HN: Non-violent video games with great stories?

#412

Post by Matthias247 »

aedocw wrote: post #100

I can't believe nobody else has mentioned It Takes Two. It's one of the most imaginative games I have ever played, and my kids and I had a fantastic time playing it. Excellent story, creative mechanics, and teamwork is required through the whole game.

Even if might not be exactly what the op is searching, I can heavily recommend it. It's such a well done game: Incredible worlds, great gameplay, and great storytelling. I played it coop with a friend, and even though we both don't seem to be in the target market as 40 year olds we totally enjoyed it.

Re: Ask HN: Non-violent video games with great stories?

#413

Post by jholman »

klodolph wrote: post #120
aedocw wrote: post #100

I can't believe nobody else has mentioned It Takes Two. It's one of the most imaginative games I have ever played, and my kids and I had a fantastic time playing it. Excellent story, creative mechanics, and teamwork is required through the whole game.

It is absolutely not a non-violent game. Here’s a scene from the game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12FNU8bNEbE

Wow, thank you for linking that.

I've been meaning to buy this game, and in fact I just about bought it today (it's on sale right now). Now I'm not sure I want to.

If I understand correctly, this is a game in which great pains are taken to make you take the emotions and ethics seriously, in which you are railroaded into making an unethical choice (murdering an innocent thinking creature for the sake of personal convenience)?

I don't know of anything less ethical in storytelling than convincing players that sometimes murder is the only reasonable choice, in situations when clearly it is not the only reasonable choice.

Re: Ask HN: Non-violent video games with great stories?

#415

Post by scioto »

pablodavila wrote: post #273

I haven't finished it but I started playing Sable for a bit. There's no attack mechanics at all and it's fun to explore. The art style is also very nice to look at IMO.

I'll second the vote for Sable. No violence. A youth on a journey, with unique graphics (debugged since the initial release). A story to uncover. Not the largest open world, and it'll take 20+ hours if you complete all the tasks. Steam.

Re: Ask HN: Non-violent video games with great stories?

#416

Post by JeremyNT »

sio8ohPi wrote: post #386
Wowfunhappy wrote: post #10

Portal and Portal 2 are absolute classics which I cannot recommend highly enough. The story in the second game is fairly detailed, and the way that it tells that story through gameplay is absolutely phenomenal. Life Is Strange is a well-done adventure game. It's not quite *zero* violence in that the story takes some turns, but you're fundamentally a high schooler in a relatively normal setting, I wouldn't expect you…

Life is Strange was fantastic, but I wouldn't recommend it to OP. While it's not a game that revels in violence, the violence in it feels especially heavy.

Agreed. This game starts off great, but it features terrible acts of violence and gets incredibly dark towards the second half. Very much not kid friendly.

I enjoyed the game, mostly, but I found myself wishing it skewed more towards "slice of life" and less towards sci-fi crime thriller.

Re: Ask HN: Non-violent video games with great stories?

#418

Post by joeycodes »

I recently played FixFox, an adorable top-down game where you go around fixing robots and machines in a quirky world where some of the sentient robots formed an anti-repair religion, thereby causing the population to slowly die out. No guns or violence, very wholesome and enjoyable story.

https://www.fixfoxgame.com/

Re: Ask HN: Non-violent video games with great stories?

#419

Post by somat »

adamrmcd wrote: post #70

I loved playing The Witness with my daughter. "Where are the bad guys?" "No one is here, honey. Just us." Reminds me I should revisit Myst and Riven.

my 6 year old nephew loves myst and riven, I suspect he does not really understand the puzzles but likes the atmosphere and spending time with me as we talk about it.

Based on this I picked up Obduction to play with him and he loved it, still I suspect not really understanding the puzzles. heck, I loved it, I had forgotten how much I enjoy cyans brand of puzzles(Apparently I have a real soft spot for puzzles based on strange base number systems). I had to keep stopping myself from playing when he was not around so we could enjoy it together.

Re: Ask HN: Non-violent video games with great stories?

#420

Post by rockwotj »

kwyjibo1230 wrote: post #305
rockwotj wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I loved playing ape escape on PS1 as a kid!

Same! I just got an emulator working this weekend for my PC and realized I can run the game directly from my original Ape Escape disc and use an Xbox controller. It's really bringing me back.

Oh which emulator are you using? I'd love to be able to boot this back up someday
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