Do you know any singleplayer games that are infinitely replayable?
I recently booted up Half-Life 2 to replay it. I have played the absolute shit out of this game before, so 60% of it just feels like a drag to me now. It was such an amazing game but it's sort of spoiled for me after I've played it too much.
I also discovered ULTRAKILL a few months ago. I feel like I could play that game forever. It has tons of content, weapon combinations and higher difficulties with different enemy behaviour.
Do any of you have more game suggestions like Ultrakill? A really replayable singleplayer game.
!!BTW I don't mean online multiplayer games or games similar to candy crush!!
Tons. There's an entire roguelike genre built around this; some of my favorites are Vagante and Streets of Rogue. There are games with procedurally generated worlds like Terraria, RimWorld, Dwarf Fortress, and Factorio. There are RPGs like Baldur's Gate 3 that have so many ways to spec your characters and so many permutations of how events could unfold based on what you did that you're unlikely to see them all.
I didn't personally care for it, but I know I'm in the minority. In fact, one of the reasons I didn't care for it is because it felt far less replayable than many of its peers. Even Zagreus will call out "the butterfly room", because there are so few permutations to see.
If I had to choose a single game to play for the rest of time, it would be Dwarf Fortress. There's just so much variety in its world generation and how the game can be played that if I was limited to just that one game, I would still have things to do.
And the awesome part of DF is that each time you start over (on the same world) you just add more to its history and the story continues. Losing is definitely fun when keeping that in mind.
Even if one gets bored of the game itself, there's a practically infinite number of mods and community content out there. New game modes like skyblock, mods that turn it into an RPG with magic systems, mods that make it an in-depth factory building game, mods that take you to new realms and thousands of items to discover... There's a lot to enjoy.
Adventure maps are also fairly underrated. There are tons of community-made maps that can turn it into a different game. Notably, there was a huge Hogwarts campaign with quests and spells that turns it into a harry potter game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKcsoE5X4fc
Not sure about satisfactory, considering the map is always the same. So the only sources of randomness are starting at another location in the same map or playing differently yourself
Then just go for factorio. Randomly generated map and recources. Highly adjustable for dificulty and a LOT of mods that add to the game. Concidering that the dlc , that seems to be as complex as the Base Game, comes out in Oktober you have a good Kandidaten for infinite replayability
Rimworld would be my top suggestion, as others have noted.
I picked up Old World (excellent native Linux support BTW) during this summer sale and have not been able to put it down. If you're a fan of Civilization style strategy games I'd highly recommend checking it out. I haven't really enjoyed a Civ game since Civ 4, and Old World feels very similar but fresher and with less jank. it's got a Crusader Kings style dynasty system with randomized events that adds a layer of role playing your leader and securing their dynasty through heirs you can train/influence.
As for the repeatability, Old World has tons. Each culture plays significantly differently, and each leader has different bonuses that encourage an interesting style of play. Games don't play the same because of the mentioned event system, but also because learning new technologies is "randomized" as well. New techs are researched based off a selection of 4 drawn tech cards once you finish a previous technology. The card system makes it so you can't just rush straight to archers and dominate the early game to snowball into a power house every game, but its not truly random so you can "game" the system in your favor to get the techs you want with the tools the game gives you through either unique leader powers, or specific governor roles for example.
The game is super deep while not being off puttingly complex.
I almost exclusively play single player games and honestly Elden Ring has been a huge time sink. There’s just something about mastering it that is satisfying. It has online features but they’re not required.
Combat also varies heavily between weapon types and equipment weight. You have to approach combat completely differently with different gear, so you can play it again with less of a feel of exploration (probably not none; it's huge), but completely different battles.
Ah yes it is rather poorly optimized. Before it I was playing Against the Storm which doesn’t have such high requirements.
Also Mount and Blade provides some amazing single player experiences that are hard to find elsewhere. Get into a battle with hundreds of units, command a cavalry charge in first person while you personally lead a flank from the other side.
My top ones I constantly replay are Factorio, rimworld and modded Minecraft java version, mainly because there's a incredible amount of mods
For all of them, make themed runs for each one. Sometimes action adventure sometimes just pure automation.
Nearly 8k in Factorio and probably Minecraft, not as much in rimworld but only because I bought it about a year ago
I'm a huge fan of Rimworld! Very excited to hear you're giving it a try. It really can become whatever you want. There is an abundance of Quality of Life mods too. I definitely have recommendations if you'd like.
so I looked into modded minecraft via curse.... seems awfully clunky - and so many mods are really compilations of others.... can you recommend top few mods?
The only one that seems interesting from a player perspective is trees falling when cut.
I think factorio is one, even when you launch your rocket (I have more than 100 hours and I don't think....) you still can restart in a new generated world and try do to it again in a better way.
dude, after you launch the rocket is where the real game begins. You either go for a megabase or you start a overhaul mod. Restarting vanilla from scratch doesn't really make much sense.
From the alternate starts, to the different ways you can even play the game (wanna be a lone trader, traveling from town to town buying and selling goods? Want to be the ultimate warrior who can go toe-to-toe with the Spider King? Wanna build a city/outpost where you can be totally sufficient and build up your own personal army to take over the world?), to the sheer size of the world. Plus all the awesome mods that can add so much to the game that already has a lot. You start off with your skills at 0 or in the low tens, and you will get your ass handed to you on an iron platter until you actually train up a bit; but even a high or max level character can still get fucked up by the wrong group of enemies.
I have mods that add a couple new factions (the fungoids are OP), flesh other factions out a bit more with more weapons and gear, and other building mods and some QoL mods so I can truly tailor my experience how I like it.
It plays kinda like an RTS with a mix of RPG elements.
Classic Doom 1 and 2. There's gotta be over 100 levels if you count TNT and Plutonia, which I think were sold as Final Doom? Anyway, if you just get the base games for 1 and 2, there are thousands upon thousands of community made maps, including some total conversions, so you can play new Doom content until it physically pains you to continue.
Of course, I feel obligated to mention that even though it would be super easy to pirate the WAD files and play with a free modern source port like GZDoom, like absolutely trivial to find copies of DOOM.WAD and DOOM2.WAD floating around the net, probably showing up easily on Archive.org, but... Um... Where was I going with this? Oh, right, don't pirate. Cheap on GOG last I knew.
For me, it's Grim Dawn, honestly. (And Diablo before that) 10 classes to choose 2 from means a lot of new skills and builds. Tons of random loot, but also recipes to make and collect.
I mostly play with mods now. Grim Internals, full rainbow, some rep and exp gain ones, and the Item Assistant. I play solo, and have enjoyed every hour of it!
One I haven't seen mentioned (at a glance at least) is Noita.
Getting the "false ending" is achievable with some effort, but I dare you to actually finish the game. And as far as replayability, you'll be hard pressed to have two runs that go the same. The amount of Butterfly Effect in this game from all the combinations and systems is straight up insane.
Some single player games I've replayed often that aren't roguelikes would be...
Dishonored
Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 1 and 2
Prey 2017
Hitman, but specifically the World of Assassination games
Bethesda RPGs
Grand Theft Auto/Rockstar, specifically for me 5 or Red Dead Redemption
Dark Souls (I replay it on offline mode predominantly anyway)
Dying Light
Middle Earth Shadow of Mordor/War
Halo MCC campaigns
Mount & Blade series
Katana ZERO
Vanquish/other platinum games
That's one that I was hesitant to include, because I feel like it's more to do with my love of the era Bioware made, and nostalgia than it is a promotion of how the game holds up nowadays. But I personally love KoTOR!
Honesty I'm shocked nobody has mentioned Tales of Maj'Eyal or ToME for short. Extremely deep roguelike with story and it is getting expansions ans updates all the time.
Also it is open-source, so can be downloaded for free, but I would recommend you also buy it in steam for instance to support it.
Risk of Rain 2 and Robo Quest are probably up your ally because you like Ultra kill
But if you want to diversify genre, here are some that I would recommend
Card Games - Slay the Spire (Its like a card game and rogue like combined)
Rogue Like - Hades is currently one of the top tiers in rogue like dungeon crawler
RPG - Baldurs Gate 3, even if you end up finishing the game, how you ended up finishing it is what makes it so replayable. Each character has their own stories for you to uncover. Larian's other gem is Divinity Original Sin 2 too
Sandbox Games - Minecraft of Terraria
Arcade - Most arcade games are highly replayable because thats their whole selling point. Currently I am back to playing Temptest 4000
4x games tend to be functionally infinitely repayable, since a single game often takes an eternity and there are usually many factions to play.
I particularly like sword of the stars 1 & 2. Honestly don't remember which I preferred but I know I got an insane amount of time sunk into both of them.
Currently looking for a new 4x game that will scratch my itch. Been going through tons but they all seem like watered down versions that "simplify" the process. Last game I played was SpaceEmpires (4&5), completely addicting but after over a decade of bugged games I've just completely given up on it. Definitely got my playtime out of it though, great game regardless.
If you don't mind top down colony managers, rimworld is an absolute gem. The base game itself is infinitely replayable because every game is basically a story. Think dwarf fortress with graphics (well, df has graphics now but). Also incredibly easy to mod to customize or completely change your game experience.
Look up project brutality or brutal doom. Those are great doom mods with a lot of fun gameplay. I used to play that for hours.
The Anno series is pretty cool. It's like playing crack. I've been playing 1800 recently and it feels like an instant classic.
The elder scrolls games are great for this. The further back you go the more replayability there is IMO. Morrowind is goated.
Dungeon keeper 1&2 are both a lot of fun, and have lots of custom maps. The original dungeon keeper even has a full engine rewrite which is really good.
If you want to try map painters, Crusader Kings 3, EU4, and Victoria 3 are all excellent and in depth games, with a lot of replayability stemming from all of the different ways to build up your nation in the sandbox.
Have to throw CK3 out as my personal favorite grand strategy game (though EU4 and the like are other options). There's nigh infinite content in weaving the story of your family and realm, and mods add a whole new layer to it.
Anything with procedurally generated levels, like roguelikes/roguelites. I can personally vouch for the longevity of Slay the Spire, for one specific example.
Basically any game that doesn't in itself follow a story, so you are the story (or make it). For me personally it's building and factory games, like Factorio, cities skylines (1 or 2), satisfactory, Kerbal Space program (1 only), Rim world.
Was looking for this. The crossover randomiser of Link to the Past and Super Metroid is a masterpiece, and if you like one or both of the games it provides you with a new way to have the complete the game every time you play it.
Add in the different flavours like entrance randomiser (where not only are the items shuffled but the doors you enter don't go where they normally go), or keysanity (where keys don't stay in their dungeons and can instead be anywhere) and it turns what was already a great SNES area game into something you can play over and over again.
Fallout: New Vegas, Caves of Qud, Project Zomboid, Minecraft, Terraria, Morrowind, Skyrim, Dwarf Fortress, Kenshi, Rimworld, Elden Ring, and so much more.
The detail in Kenshi is pretty amazing. I don't normally get sucked into single player games, but the design really does give the impression of nearly unlimited freedom, every different starting scenario feels genuinely unique. The slave start particularly was a ton of fun.
It's pretty amazing that it was designed by basically one guy. He was really efficient in how he chose what game elements to invest his limited development time into and clearly had a really strong vision. I hope he can get a few more devs onboard to develop a second one, I feel like even two or three other people would make so much more possible.
There are a couple dozen or so working on the sequel, which has been in the works for a while now. As of last week they were still looking to hire more.
Absolutely, it's one of the few games that genuinely give the player absolute freedom, but does so in a hand-crafted world with detailed lore and worldbuilding. It's great.
Closest I can think of to infinitely replayable games are rougelike games like Slay the Spire, Peglin, Shotgun King: The Final Checkmate, Backpack Hero, etcetera, and sandbox games like minecraft (or Minetest if you don't feel like spending money and/or don't already have a minecraft account).
Though, with the rougelike games I mentioned, there are upper limits to increasing difficulty levels.
I've been recently playing the "so called" sequel to ftl, ftl multiverse. I have gotten the standard and old secret endings, but there are hints of a third even harder to find ending.
For me, Noita. I don't recommend it unconditionally, but for me that game will forever be the only permanent game in my library. I expect it's possible that I could finish Elden Ring. I know I will never finish Noita.
For the most enduring single player experiences, you really should give some grand strategy games a try, like older Total War entries, Crusader Kings, Civilization, Swords of the Stars, etc. Stuff like Factorio or Cities Skylines can also become addictive, but none of these games is action oriented.
Also, Age of Empires 2. I haven't played 4 yet, but I think it speaks volumes that, at least on steam, AoE2 has more players at any given time than 3+4 combined.
Ziggurat might be an interesting pick, as it's a roguelike FPS with magic weapons, though it might feel super neutered compared to Ultrakill. Risk of Rain 2 is 3rd person and roguelike, so every run you start from scratch and enemies will keep spawning at certain intervals, but it's a fine shooter
Fallout 4 might have a rather clunky shooting, but if you get into it, you can spend many, many hours blasting a variety of enemies, finding all sorts of places and weapons. Skyrim is a close second, while better played in 1st person, it's medieval sword and sorcery.
If you're into boomer shooters, you can't go past the original doom for infinite playability. Literally 30 years worth of user created content and mods.
Many ppl suggest rougelike/lite and sandbox games I want to also add games with a good mod community and have a lot of side quest like Skyrim, they fit the replayability criteria because when it starts to feel the same can you add mods that change things up. I have done thousands of hours in Skyrim and never finished the main quest 😂 I think Balders gate 3 will also live for a long time. Many rpgs seem to get a lot of mods and games like Balders gate change a lot depending on what you do and how you play.
But you seem to want some kind of fps so warframe would be better, you can play alone or with friends.
Just like ultrakill do you jump around killing, you can use, swords, guns and magic depending on your build (there are many). Doom would also fits your style of playing I think.
Otherwise management games is a time sinker. But most do not have fighting elements where you yourselves fight. Cult of the lamb tries to be all of it, it has action/fighting and management you can even decorate if you are into that. Pretty good for those who want it all. The devs still updates it too.
Borderlands 2 has a lot of replay potential without getting boring. It never plays the same way twice. The weapon drops are very different each time through. Don’t forget the DLC. The rest of the games in the series are fun too, but BL2 seems to be where it peaked for me.
Honestly, Skyrim. With so many great mods available these days, you can literally turn it into a whole different game. And with modpacks on Nexus, Wabbajack or similar sites, it's easier than ever. I'm just getting back into it myself after 3 years, but I'm still a big fan of getting into the nitty gritty of it and configuring everything myself.
My most played games outside of actually multiplayer games are arpgs. Diablo(mostly 2 and 3), path of exile, last epoch. Diablo2 and last epoch can be played offline, PoE can't. And yes, they're technically online multiplayer games but most people play them alone so they might as well be single player games to me.
After that my most played games are RPGs and rogue likes. Plenty of good suggestions for that already
The one I never get tired of replaying is Mafia 2. Maybe a weird choice since it's very linear and every play through is pretty much the same. But the story is just perfect for me. The gameplay perfectly suits the story, nothing especially clever, just well executed.
Then there's games like Binding of Isaac or Dead Cells where every play through is different.
I don't know how much is truly infinitely replayable outside of tetris, but for what it's worth I have 250 hours into dead cells and I still haven't beaten 5 cells or even reached the final biome. You'll definitely get replay value out of it, the game is fantastic.
Factorio and RimWorld immediately come to mind. Even with the base unmodified game, you’ll likely get several weeks of gameplay out of Factorio. Then if you dive into modding, you’ll never put it down. Multiplayer is really nice too. And their big DLC just got announced, and is planned to drop in a few months. So now would actually be a great time to dive in, because you’ll get access to the DLC about the same time that you’ve burned through the content on the base game.
I want to throw out Mario Bro 3, Tetris, Dr Mario, and Sonic Mania. Just pick up and go, no long term commitment, always fun solo but you can add a friend anytime. Simple but rewarding game play loop.
Football Manager 2016 was the first version I tried. I put 1,500+ hours into it and only stopped because I decided to upgrade to Football Manager 2018. I'm on 2024 now at ~400 hours.
So maybe don't take this as a real suggestion because it doesn't make sense to be a game with lots of replayability, but I've replayed the everything shit out of FF8. I don't think it's because of the game. It's because of me. Maybe it might do the same for you?
It's really not as complicated as you might think. If you just start playing you will understand the basics very quickly. The game also mostly drip feeds you the new mechanics as you play and unlock them, and you start with a single planet so it's not overwhelming at first.
The only thing that gets really complicated in my opinion are the ship armament matchups. But if you autogenerated or specialize your ships you don't need to know much about it, just look up a basic fleet comp for numbers of frigates, destroyers, etc.
The only time that really matters is if you're taking on the end game crisis or sleeping empires or whatever, because specializing your craft against that threat will give you at least double your fighting efficiency or more. Feels fucking awesome.
I recommend you dont play a hivemind or robots on your first playthrough. I really enjoy interacting with the different species and cultures as my civilization expands, and you can do that with an iron fist or with an open hand.
The basics are really as simple as the 3 point supply chains in Settlers 1, 30 years ago. Also you can try on easiest difficulty level and set up something like tutorial galaxy with almost no enemies to learn.
Besides what people have mentioned, you also have simulator type games like SimCity. Though with SimCity, I got bored of the "new" SimCity they released.... in 2013. Either play something like SimCity 4000, or try Cities Skylines.