Ask HN: Non-violent video games with great stories?
I am looking into video games which I can play myself or with my kids! Reason is: In real life, I don’t like guns, war or aggression. But when I play games, I often go for FPS or other, violent games.
I wondered why, but it turns out, I am more drawn to the story of these games than anything else.
So I wondered if there are more games which have a great gameplay and deep story to keep me engaged and are fun to play which don’t have gun or violence involved.
451 comments
[ 0.29 ms ] story [ 378 ms ] threadThe whole story can be summed up with "evil dragon captures the princess. Mustachio'ed hero braves danger to save her. Plot twist: our princess is in another castle".
Just the opening sequence can be so alienating for the casual and female audience, while being almost alone in its accessibility to them
Though the author declines connections between book and game. Name of the main character is the same as in game ;)
https://www.gog.com/game/thief_gold
https://www.gog.com/game/thief_2_the_metal_age
There were also later installments in the series but I've understood that they didn't quite stand up to the originals.
It might not be young kids' material (due to the patience it requires, and a bit of a dark story or at least ambience). There's also some violence, as it's probably hard to finish without resorting to absolutely any, and the various enemies can attack you regardless, but it's kind of in the spirit of the game that you can opt for avoidance of combat or non-lethal means.
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 to run into any issues.
Journey may be more abstract than what you're looking for, but it's a fantastic experience.
But also one thing you can do is play the two player co-op mode on Portal 2, which as far as I know is pure puzzle solving.
The stories in Portal are great though, especially Portal 2 which is rich and funny. You could just skip the end of the game and I think that would be pretty non violent? I don’t know if destroying a machine counts as violent.
(I originally thought GP was making a Companion Cube joke, but now I’m not sure.)
It goes on and on. It wouldn't give it to kids that aren't old enough to handle complex and subtle emotional situations.
Not to say it isn't a great game, but the subtle violent atmosphere building up is a very core part of it.
Portal is a great game, with a good story.
But part of this greatness is the psychological games it plays with you.
Hence people need to have enough maturity to deal with this.
Hence this is not a good game for playing with younger kids, even if there is almost no graphical violence in it.
That's what he's saying, some kids might not get the humor aspect of Portal and just perceive the paranoia and violence.
I enjoyed the game, mostly, but I found myself wishing it skewed more towards "slice of life" and less towards sci-fi crime thriller.
Psychonauts
Full throttle (gritty tone, one scene of bike fighting)
Point n click adventures e.g. Monkey island and Indiana jones series
There's a lot of nonviolent puzzle games. Like portal, superliminal, antichamber, stanley parable, ect.
If you’re OK with that though the Lucasarts point and click games are really good.
Hardly a game for kids though, perhaps mostly because they wouldn't be able to relate to the world or its characters.
It's a philosophical treatsie thinly disguised as a game about a cop with a mid life crisis.
Yes, when someone asks for games that don't involve violence, guns, war and is suitable for playing with children, the answer is not 'something that's not Doom' but a game that doesn't involve violence, guns, war and is suitable for playing with children.
A core thread of disco is a gun. and meticulously scheming violence.
And it’s also not for kids in that medium. Very obtuse words.
- Portal & Portal 2
- Outer Wilds
- The Talos Principle
- Antichamber (I haven't finished this)
- Quern - Undying Thoughts
- Myst Remastered
- Infinifactory
Platformers:
- Braid
- FEZ
I don't even know:
- TIS-100
- EXAPUNKS
- World of Goo
Violent but in a different way:
- Inscryption (do not look anything up about this game)
- Stone Story RPG
- Hollow Knight
Pretentious story but extremely fun puzzles (except one.... you know which one it is jblow):
- The Witness
Yes. That message about the pets, oof.
> except one.... you know which one it is jblow
I found several to be un-fun, but yes, that's part of how Jon explores the conceptual space of a puzzle. If he didn't include those puzzles then he feels the exploration would be incomplete. The player would be left wondering "What if..." and I think these puzzles are sort of Jon's way of saying "That would suck. Trust me, I checked.".
Yes, truly that WOULD suck
I think the critiques in this video [0] sum up my main feelings about the game. The puzzles are fantastic. The <spoiler> puzzles are fantastic. The movement, environment, graphics, etc are all fantastic. But, the "story" and "message" of the game can be interpreted in many ways. It is art in the sense that everyone gets something different from it. But it is pretentious because, if everyone gets something completely different from your "experience", you really didn't convey anything. That's what most people (I think) are talking about when they say "<art> is pretentious".
[0] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZokQov_aH0
It would be pretentious if Jon's intention had been to throw a bunch of crap out there and then say "it means what you want it to mean", but I don't think that's what Jon did. Jon did what artists do: they take ideas that can be difficult to express simply and they try to express them in art. That any individual can come away from the work with one experience or another is just how the world is. We all exist in our own contextual bubbles that inform our interpretation of the things around us, and while an artist can try to communicate the meaning more clearly they will find, like Heisenberg, that precision in one aspect ensures imprecision in another. And yes, these are all themes expressed in the game itself, though by no means the only ones.
When I see criticism like this, I can't help but feel like some people just can't stand that there isn't some definitive documented interpretation, some twist ending that makes it all makes sense. Like it's a twilight zone episode or something.
[0] Actually, I've only ever seen people link to it and try to claim its ideas as their own. I don't know about you, but I'm especially disinclined to take "here, read this link" seriously if it is the sum totality of an argument.
so fun
They we pretty stoked to see Ron Gilbert's announcement that he's making another game in the series.
Portal doesn’t have guns or violence as such, but not much of a story either - quite fun.
[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 represents human perception, while her voice and her powers represent how we interact with the world. Eg, as we grieve our perception is diminished, and our ability to handle/do things is also diminished.
The little cute creature that come and help you are a metaphor that it's okay to let friends in and that they can help you through your grief.
The "enemies" are the dark side of grief, the ones that tries to pull us down and makes recovery harder. So, depression, anxiety, and just "brain demons" (eh dark thoughts) in general.
[END OF SPOILERS]
There's other elements that I think also act as good metaphors, but I don't want to make the post too long.
Also, I discovered the game during a difficult time, so I could just be looking into it too much. Lol
Edit: wordsmithing
- The Talos Principle
- Portal (1/2)
Soma, a science fiction horror game around the idea of transplanted consciousness. It's a common sci-fi theme but Soma handles it much better than most and adds a very interesting setting.
What Remains of Edith Finch, not scary, it's a "walking sim" that explores a family's surreal curse over generations. It's actually really touching.
Disco Elysium, a detective RPG in an interesting fictional "post-soviet style" setting. The world building and writing are incredible. While it has a sense of melancholy, it can also be incredibly funny.
Honestly, I thought I'd have an easier time coming up with some other suggestions to throw in but there's usually some ass-kicking in my favorite story driven games.
The Oni platformer games are a little bit fight-centric but not really violent or cruel, and the story is great. Worth looking at.
Another decent one I just thought of is Outer Wilds, it's kind of a myst-like puzzle game where you just explore the world and discover the story as you go.
W.r.t violence, it is indeed present as a murder is the center of the story, but it's always in service of a story about self-discovery, exploration and a talking tie.
Also, if you like Disco, check out The City & The City [0], it inspired DE and is a great time.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_City_%26_the_City
I'm reading The City and The City now and there are moments and plot lines where it feels like DE is the game adaptation of the book.
Or Ori? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ori_and_the_Blind_Forest
I recently finished The Age of Decadence, which is a turn based story-heavy RPG. This game is what actually got me into Disco Elysium.
stardew valley has some violence but it's not the focus of the game (it's a farming simulation), you only has to fight if you go to the caverns with monsters, but you can play the game without doing this (you just won't have minerals for tools and cash)
i will second the suggestion of world of go