I DON’T mean other games that let you build a car from scratch.
I’m looking for other complex open world games that throw you into the deep end without any explanation, and are completely unforgiving when you make mistakes.
Games that even actively hate the player, but give you a deep sense of satisfaction when you finally figure it out.
So no tutorial, no quest markers, no mini-map, no quick-saving, etc.
Bonus points if they also show you a glimpse into a niche culture, like My Summer Car does with rural life in Finland during the 90’s economic depression.
Other examples I can think of are Kingdom Come Deliverance in hardcore mode and Dwarf Fortress. Which ones do you know?
Noita may be close. It nails the no directions and unforgiving part.
Also made by Finnish people!
1000%
The La-Mulana series. They’re side scrolling metroidvanias that absolutely hate you. Getting hit is frequently fatal. Finding secrets aren’t just for fun, they’re a requirement. Puzzles range from pretty easy to “What in the actual fuck? How do I get there?” Hints are puzzles on their own. To top it all off, the lore is amazing and very well planned out. You’re basically setting out with nothing but a whip on a quest to look for your father and, in the process, you find god…
I’ve managed to beat both a few times and can say, they are, by far, two of the most difficult and well constructed games I’ve ever played.
I can’t believe it’s been a day and no one has said Kenshi yet.
Kenshi is an open world rpg where you control one or more characters in an enormous wasteland. It’s super complicated with a ton of systems and that game really hates you. When you start your first save, you’d be lucky if you only get captured and enslaved instead of killed. Your character is a regular person in the world, not the powerful main character (the real main character is Beep) and you’ll constantly feel it.
I’m looking for other complex open world games that throw you into the deep end without any explanation, and are completely unforgiving when you make mistakes.
UnReal World? It’s never really grabbed me when I’ve tried it, personally, but it might be up your alley.
Kenshi has a pretty difficult start, though it gets easier later in the game. I don’t think that it’s as complex.
Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead is quite complex and has a very steep learning curve, with a lot of hidden stats and the like and limited documentation.
All good games and I would think those are good suggestions too.
I would also like to know what games are like that, so I can avoid them.
I’m looking for other complex open world games that throw you into the deep end without any explanation, and are completely unforgiving when you make mistakes.
Games that even actively hate the player, but give you a deep sense of satisfaction when you finally figure it out.So no tutorial, no quest markers, no mini-map, no quick-saving, etc.
Boy have I got a game for you. I’m playing Darkwood right now and this should tick most of your boxes. It’s not a huge open world, more like several open zones as you progress through the story, but otherwise should do what you want. It’s also not just deeply unsettling but also genuinely terrifying despite being a top-down game.
“Don’t Starve”? Checks all your boxes and has a ton of dlcs. I’ve yet to find the will to play it again.
The Long Drive?
I mean, IDK about the gameplay being deep, but it is pretty unforgiving if you make a mistake that causes you to not be able to drive to the next location. Or sometimes you could do everything correctly and the game still says no because of RNG being bad.
Pacific Drive more or less stole this whole game’s idea pretty much.
Elex
Kenshi
Noita
Morrowind kinda does this. Unlike the other Elder Scrolls games that came later, you don’t have any quest markers, or anything really to help you find where you’re looking for. Most of the quests give directions like, “follow the road south till you get to the fork in the road with a big tree. Go on the eastern branch till you find a cave entrance. If you get attacked by cliff racers you’re either on the right path or you went too far. Good luck.”
Nethack, a very deep and actively obtous game. If you want to figure it out yourself, its complexity is nearly on a level with dwarf fortress.
Outer Wilds does not fit 100 % your description, as it doesnt hate the player. But it is a game all about exploration and figuring stuff out yourself. And if you do things wrong, you die.
If you don’t do things wrong in Outer Wilds, you also die ;)
Yep. And that is the difference between “not doing wrong” and “doing right”. Because in the latter’s case, you don’t die. Or at least… Its complicated
Project Zomboid has a tutorial, but it’s strictly optional to play. You can absolutely just dive straight in to it.
Knox County, Kentucky, 1993. The zombie apocalypse hits. As far as you know, you’re the last person alive on earth. It’s all up to you, and you alone, to keep going.
The game’s default settings are plenty brutal, but you can tweak them to an insane degree, and anything the settings don’t cover, someone’s probably made a mod for that. I highly recommend the Bandits mod, which adds hostile human NPCs in to the mix of all the things that will kill you.
One setting I recommend, though maybe not for the first time, is turning the infection timer, or whatever it’s called, to 0. In vanilla default settings you may be infected when bitten, but not always. There’s no cure, so you’re just waiting to find out if you’re infected, and it takes a while. At first it just looks like it could be a normal infected wound, but things keep getting worse. The standard “solution” at this point is to drink some bleach to die and start over. I prefer to skip all the waiting and have it instantly kill me if I get infected.
Stationeers. It’s a game about building and maintaining a station on another planet, with complex and realistic gas/liquid mechanics, properly recreating the refrigeration cycle and everything. You have to grow food and create oxygen and water, and manage the temperature of your station. It has one of the steepest learning cliffs ever, but there are guides for everything online.
(It’s being made by the same company making Kitten Space Agency.)
Rain World. Fucking struggling with this one. Animal Well, little easier than rain world. Tunic.
My Winter Car its the sequel
I know, and I also own it.
So the sequel doesn’t scratch the itch, how about Finnish Cottage Simulator it has actually a similar vibe but less focused on cars.
Or some dynastie games like Sengoku Dynasty, Lumberjacks Dynasty, Medieval Dynasty, Wild West Legacy.
Or from your description “unforgivable near hateful to the player but rewarding” you literally describe Dark Souls or souls like games how about Sekiro
Or some hard 2d platformer like Celeste combined with the aboth suggestion you can also try Hollow Knight or Rain World
Thanks for all the suggestions.
Medieval Dynasty is great, I already have it. Soulslikes and 2D platformers aren’t my thing.My Winter Car was too depressing. I liked the 90s summer vibe. In the sequel, the soulless gas station putting Teimo out of business, your fun uncle dying from cancer, grandma gone, pre-paying for gas with a card, getting a soul-crushing 9to5 job to pay the rent, and being an alcoholic was just too close to real life.
(I’ll check back in a couple years, and I hope Toplessgun adds a progressing story that lets you improve things…or fuck them up more)I’ll definitely check out Finnish Cottage Simulator.
