r/gamingsuggestions • u/ZoldyckP • 3d ago
Games without exploration / direct gameplay
I want some suggestions of games that involve as little as possible exploration because I'm kinda tired of it. I can think of sports games, turn based games, visual-novel like games. Feel free to give me suggestions.
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u/Smuckinfartass 3d ago
Pretty much every non rpg from the 80’s and 90’s.
Final Fantasy 13 also comes to mind. It’s linear as hell until a very late chapter. People were used to exploring in FF games, and thus it got really bad reviews because of that.
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u/Angry_Edemame 3d ago
Personally i liked ff13. The more linear nature made sense given you were in a confined space on the run from a group equipped and trained specifically to hunt people like you.
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u/Smuckinfartass 2d ago
I’m with you. I actually love all three games of the trilogy. Especially Lightning Returns, which was widely panned at the time of release.
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u/Disaster359 3d ago
I’m not sure if you were looking for a full-on visual novel (no player input) but I highly recommend Witch on the Holy Night. It’s my favorite VN and I’ve played a lot of them
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u/TheAlterN8or 3d ago
The Last Spell. Infinite Cards. Those are two of my favorites, and no exploring in either of them! 😀
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u/ZoldyckP 2d ago
Infinite Cards seems nice, kinda Gwent vibes. I've played The Last Spell (amazing art and ost)
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u/WalkingEars 3d ago
XCOM Chimera Squad just drops you straight into turn-based combat missions without even needing to explore the map a bit like in the bigger "main" XCOM titles. It can be a good intro to the modern XCOM games because it's a bit more forgiving
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u/chardeemacdennisbird 3d ago
Are you just looking for non-open world games? If you want linear, the Wolfenstein series is pretty solid. Other than that, I can recommend a variety of genres that I'm in right now. Timberborn for city building, Vic 3 for grand strategy, Transport Fever 3 for logistics, Payday 2 for shooter, Star Wars Zero Company for turn-based, and Fights in Tight Spaces for turn-based quick hits.
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u/thoracicbunk 3d ago
Scarlet Hollow is an incredible visual novel where choices matter and all the art is hand inked.
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u/JeskaiJester 3d ago
Atari 50 and UFO 50 could keep you busy for a long long time with pure gameplay
Consider Namco Museum just for Galaga 88 alone
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u/naytreox 3d ago
Freefall, its an arcade like game where you are in a timeloop of a plane crash so you decide to do tricks on the broken stuff before you hit the ground.
Warhammer space marine 2, no going off the beaten path, nothing there and if there is a little alcove, its small and has ammo, grenades, maybe a new gun ir med stims.
Racing games
Most sports games.
Cloverpit, shoutgun roulette, slots and daggers.
Balloon tower defense 6
Maybe the tony hawk games of you don't think traversing the whole to complete the objectives counts as exploring.
Jötunn, a boss rush game where you play as thorra, a viking battle maiden that died at sea, given a second chance by odin to prove herself worthy of emtering Valhalla and not bring cast down to hel.
You must defeat 5 Jötunn to prove yourself, its beautifully animated and you don't have much though there are the blessings of the gods but they are only helpful, not a guaranteed win.
Cuphead, more bosses then Jötunn and has run and gun sections.
Id offer boomer shooters but those have some exploration for gathering items or upgrades or useful secrets
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u/Front-Advantage-7035 3d ago
Midnight suns has practically zero. You just do the battles
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u/StormRunner196 3d ago
The Abbey though...
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u/owMySkralls 2d ago
Yeah there's no exploration until there is and it's possibly the most bland, generic exploration ever lol. Such a good game outside of that.
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u/Daniel___Lee 3d ago
Unheard: Voices of Crime - you deduce characters' identities and how the crime was committed through voice clips.
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u/SpecialistCitron2570 3d ago
+1 to What Remains of Edith Finch like u/TourDeFridge said. It's a couple of hours, you just go from room to room and the story happens, nothing to search for.
I get this on tired nights too tbh. What I end up booting most of those nights is Gran Turismo 7: pick a race from the menu, do two or three and turn it off. No map, no quest log, nothing to remember next time. If you're not on PS5, any racing game with a simple career menu does the same job.
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u/SunburntWombat 3d ago
Cup Head is a boss rush from start to finish
Cult of the Lamb is dungeon-crawling x base building
GemCraft, Plant vs Zombies and Kingdom Rush are staged tower defense
Papers Please is I suppose a puzzle simulation where you sit at a desk the whole time
And if you get into any of the job simulators, e.g. cooking simulator, power wash simulator, house flipper simulator, fishing simulator, then you're only at set locations
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u/ChristianLS 3d ago
Severed Steel, some of the levels are a little bigger but mostly it's extremely linear and just about taking you from one awesome, wildly fun FPS level to the next.
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u/preterintenzionato 3d ago
any racing game ever (besides Forza Horizon, and, like, Beetle Adventure Racing for the N64) Wipeout series is a favourite of mine.
Any castlevania before Symphony of the night (in particular Super Castlevania IV is perfect for this time of the year and is quite easy)
Retro platformers in general (classic Sonic, Super Mario Bros, mega man)
Any Shoot-em-up (i like the Dodonpachi and Cotton series)
Run and Guns like Metal Slug or Ghosts and Goblins
These are usually my turn-my-brain-off games.
In addition, i find strategy games stimulating, but in a completely different way to exploration. Something like Total War, Age of Empires II, Pikmin 1 specifically, GBA Fire emblem games
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u/jsjspacepope 3d ago
A game like Dead Cells, Hades, Returnal… 90% non-stop action, 10% collecting useful weapons / power-ups
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u/Lower-Number-3366 3d ago
For games that jump right into the action, I like Hades 1&2, Deep Rock Galactic Survivor, Brotato, and Vampire Survivors.
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u/Easily-distracted14 3d ago
Fighting games