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What are the best games to introduce to someone who normally plays casual games, in order to get them interested in hardcore gaming?

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Apr 15, 2020

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8 Games Considered

Best games to introduce to someone who normally plays casual games, in order to get them interested in hardcore gaming	Price	Genre	Platforms
-- Stardew Valley	$14.99	Farming Simulation, Role-Playing	Windows, OS X, Linux, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation Vita, Android
-- RimWorld	$30	Sandbox, Strategy, Survival	-
-- Celeste	$19.99	Platformer	Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Windows, Linux, macOS
-- SimCity	$29.99	-	-
-- Civilization 6	59,99€	-	-

Stardew Valley

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Top Pro

Weather system that forces the player to adapt

Each day in the game may feature different weather depending on the season in the game. From rain to snow to natural disasters, each forces the player to adapt their workload to that days forecast. This keeps the player on their toes and forces them to plan for events to make sure they have the needed supplies for when different disasters happen. See More

Top Con

Large amount of grind

While it is the bread and butter of the gameplay, the amount of work that needs done from the start is quite a lot and so you will be doing the same thing over and over again. The whole farm is dilapidated, meaning everything needs cleaned up, weeds need cleared, rocks need cleared, tress need cleared, the whole house needs rebuilt. this amount of what are basically chores may not appeal to all as it is quite a feat to take on. See More

Specs

Genre:Farming Simulation, Role-Playing

Co-Op:Online and Local, up to 4 players

Top Pro

You have freedom to choose to play one aspect of the game or all of them

Such as farming, fishing, mining, forestry, exploration and meeting people. This allows for many elements to explore in the game that expands the gameplay but also allows for freedom of choice in what to do and when to do it. See More

Top Con

Can get really repetitive

Living on a farm is a lot of work, so you'll have to repeat the same tasks quite often. This includes tilling land, planting seeds, chopping trees, and many other farm related activities. While it's normally pretty fun and relaxing, it can get incredibly tedious during long play sessions, especially if you're just trying to progress. See More

Top Pro

There is always more to do

Just like in the real world, operating a farm is a lot of work, especially if one is set on expanding said farm. The game works just like this in that the player is always driven to expand on what they have, be it growing more crops, raising more animals or just improving ones house and equipment. This makes for a game that drives the player to keep playing just a little bit longer to get just one more thing done. See More

Top Con

Lacks polish in some areas

Menus feel odd in that some controls work in some areas while not in other such as item management when using chests. There is also a lack of information in the game on how to do things, which means the player must figure it out through trial and error. While this is much like an old school game it would be nice to have a few things explained in order to not miss anything important in the game like certain festivals. See More

Top Pro

Great freedom in designing your farm

When creating your own farm you aren't just limited to plowing fields for planting crops. You can also dig wells, put down fences, and even build various structures such as barns or stables. This allows you to build a farm that firmly matches your goals and sense of aesthetics. See More

Top Con

Townspeople schedule is difficult to keep up with

The game asks the player to meet everyone in town, while there is mini map that shows where townspeople are, certain townsfolk are missing from this map such as shop keepers. This makes it difficult to keep up with who is where. See More

Top Pro

A great mix of genres

While Stardew Valley is primarily a farming simulator, it also has social interaction elements and combat elements. The social interaction elements allow you to interact with people around the town. You can befriend them, get quests from them, hang out with them, and even find a significant other to go out with and eventually marry. It can be very addictive to max out your relationship with everyone. The combat elements are introduced when you unlock the dungeon, allowing you to battle creatures such as slimes, golems, and even mummies. While the combat is pretty simple, having you just swing your weapon, it's very satisfying to whack away at enemies. If farming ever starts feeling stale you can try either of these to mix it up, allowing you to keep the game fresh for a longer time. See More

Top Pro

Great soundtrack

When you work on your farm, go fishing, explore or just walk around the town you'll be accompanied by a really nice soundtrack. It's sometimes upbeat, sometimes soothing, and sometimes even melancholic, with every track matching each location and season perfectly. There's also a wide variety of instruments used, including a piano, accordion, banjo, synths, and many others. This allows you to listen to the soundtrack for hours without getting tired of it. Sometimes it's very hard to believe Stardew Valley and its soundtrack was produced by just one person. See More

Top Pro

Very fulfilling to play

Stardew Valley is a very simple game where you're free to do anything and everything at your own pace. This includes building your farm, planting and harvesting crops, and exploring the world among many other things. It will feel enjoyable no matter how fast or slow you do it. This coupled with the colorful/pleasing art style and the great soundtrack makes it an extremely pleasing experience. See More

Top Pro

Convenient auto save feature

There is no manual saving in the game, it auto saves when sleeping or or moving on to the next day. This is convenient as the player does not need to remember to save, which could lead to accidental lost data. This system also prevents the player taking advantage of the randomly generated mines, as it could be too easy to exploit for rare items. See More

Top Pro

Long playtime

The game is reported to taking over 10 hours for one season in the game, of which their are four season in a year. Which means it can take 40 hours just to get though the first year in the game, of which there can be many. This means a user can easily sink in 100s of hours into the game, making for quite a bargain for a $15 game. See More

Top Pro

Catchy and relaxing music

For a game that is meant to have large amounts of time spent in it, the music is quite relaxing, which is nice as it does not get on the players nerves. See More

Top Pro

Good selection of game options

The games options see resolution support, controller and keyboard support, of which the controller support even has a rumble feature (for those that have controllers with rumble support). Keyboard support also has built in key-bind support, for those that do not have a separate key-bind support app. See More

Top Pro

Deep customization options

There is quite a lot that can be crafted in the game, from fence posts to chicken coops. Discovering how to build these and then deciding where to place them is one of the best parts of the game as you can build/design a farm to your liking. See More

Top Pro

May get Mac and Linux port

Currently the game only runs on Windows machines, but the developer has stated that a Mac and Linux port are among their top priorities. See More

RimWorld

Specs

Genre:Sandbox, Strategy, Survival

Celeste

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Optional assist mode for players who aren't good with platforming

For those who may not be so good at the platforming aspect of the game, Celeste offers an assist mode which allows players of all skill levels to experience the game in full. During gameplay, there are a few on-demand options available to do things such as become invincible (avoid spike traps and enemies), extend the air dash (jump further), and even slow the whole game down in 10% intervals. This is a great addition that makes the game accessible for all skill levels, and it's completely optional so that players who want the full challenge don't have to use it. See More

Top Con

You'll die a lot

Although dying in this game helps to reinforce the game's overall theme of never giving up in the face of a challenge, this can be a turn off to some players. Missing the same jumps and landing on the same spike traps constantly can only happen so many times before it becomes frustrating more than fun. See More

Specs

Genre:Platformer

Top Pro

The theme of overcoming anxiety and depression is tied into the gameplay

The game reinforces the attitude of never giving up, even in the face of a seemingly impossible challenge or self-doubt, and does this by tying this heartfelt theme into the gameplay itself. As Madeline sets out to scale to the top of the mountain, she will encounter a lot of depression, anxiety and self-doubt along the way, which literally manifests into an alternative version of herself simply called "Part of Me". A part of ourselves many of us are all too familiar with. During the more challenging parts of the game, this other self will appear to taunt, belittle, and even chase Madeline around telling her she's not good enough, and she'll never reach the top. She'll be a constant source of doubt throughout the duration of the game. But, after every player death, failure, and missed jump, the game will gently remind the player to "Keep going. You've got this!" and "You're learning!" along with other inspiring messages that encourage you to push past the doubt, and keep trying until you beat each challenging level. See More

Top Con

Wind mechanic can be unfair

During one level, there is wind that pushes and blows you around, but it doesn't always work in your favor. It may send you hurtling off a steep drop right into a spike trap or ruin your carefully timed midair dash. It's very random which way it'll decide to move you, and can therefore feel unfair at times. See More

Top Pro

Frequent checkpoints keep the game moving along

Checkpoints are encountered quite often, so when you inevitably die, you won't have to replay a huge portion of the level. This helps to keep the frustration to a minimum when tackling a particularly tricky section of a level, and lets you practice the part that's giving you trouble rather than making you replay the entire level. See More

Top Pro

"B side" collectibles for those who crave a deeper challenge

In each level, there is a single hidden cassette tape, often in a hard to reach area. The platforms in these areas move to the beat of the level's soundtrack, and have to be correctly navigated to reach the tape. Similar to how old school cassettes tapes had two sides, collecting this tape will unlock the "B side" of each level. This presents the player with a much more challenging version of the level, adding new jumps, traps, and dangers. These remixed levels are extremely difficult and will provide a challenge for even the most seasoned platforming veteran. So if you've beaten the base game, and crave even more of a challenge, you will be pleased with this feature. See More

Top Pro

The platforming consistently adds new movement mechanics

The platforming definitely isn't stale and consistently adds new movement mechanics to keep things feeling fresh throughout your run. Glowing red orbs will send you flying in a certain direction, jump pads will blast you high into the air, and diamonds will give you an extra dash in mid air. Jumping, bouncing, and climbing around the various levels just feels fluid and fun with all these extra goodies that are seemingly endless and continually add flavor into the platforming aspect. There's a lot of "oh, that's cool!" moments when playing and discovering something new for the first time such as using a group of diamonds to chain a jump that's not only fun to watch, but fun to perform. See More

Top Pro

Great variation in level mechanics to keep players on their toes

Each level features its own environmental hazard, which means players will have to adjust their strategies from time to time. One level is filled with winds that shift, sometimes assisting you across wide gaps and at other times stopping your progression forward or causing you to miss jumps. Another is shrouded in darkness with the area only illuminated when you're in mid-jump. Regardless of the hazard at play, they all add an extra level of challenge to keep players on their toes, even if they're seasoned platforming veterans. See More

Top Pro

Intuitive controls that “feel good”

Expressive and responsive controls and the ability to jump a few frames after falling off an edge make the game feel good. Game Maker's Toolkit made a video just about this part of the game. See More

Top Pro

Beautiful pixel art

Top Pro

Great for Speedrunning

There are advanced movement techniques in the game that allow you to complete a level in multiple ways and to built up a lot of speed. On top of that there is a speedrun timer built into the game. See More

SimCity

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Top Pro

Design any city you want

SimCity allows for users to play and build how they like. From small country or suburban towns to huge cities and all the perils and gains they bring. See More

Top Con

City to city resource sharing is limited

City to city resource sharing can only take place if both cities are able to provide said resource with one borrowing some from the other. There is no way to share resources with a city that for instance does not have a power plant and power is what the player wants to share. See More

Top Pro

Stable and runs well on lower end systems

SimCity runs well on mid range hardware with little to no crashing. See More

Top Con

Always on DRM

Simcity features always online DRM, even for it's single player campaigns. See More

Top Pro

City socialization

City socialization add in an extra element of story and advancement allowing user to specialize in certain fields that will allow for expanded options and buildings. See More

Top Con

Limited building space

SimCity limits the payers amount of building space which can ultimately prohibit the creativeness of a players city building. See More

Top Con

Takes a lot of dedication and time to learn the ins and outs of planning a city

Even after 100 hours users can still be learning about different features or plans on how to expand their towns from the earliest outsets. See More

Civilization 6

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Top Pro

Easy city planning

The new district system introduces sprawling cities for the first time in the series and makes city planning much more interesting. See More

Top Con

Exploits

There are many exploits that still need to be ironed out, giving players a lot of ways to gain infinite money. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Very Positive

Top Pro

Civics and government system

Replacing Civ5s Social Policies is a system of Civics, researched with culture unlocking policy cards of several categories and governments with different amounts of policy card slots. See More

Top Con

Bad AI

The AI is not very good right now, often building obsolete units and hating player in 9 out of 10 cases. See More

Animal Crossing: New Leaf

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Addictive town simulation and management

Animal Crossing: New Leaf puts you in the shoes of a mayor of a village of talking animals, where you get to manage the village's events and generally make decisions to make your neighbors happy. While you can make plenty of bureaucratic decisions like when and where to host village get-togethers and events, you also get to manage your own home, your character, and your finances. It gets more in-depth than what you may expect, providing some pretty addictive fun in getting everything just right. Finding the best ways to decorate your house with furniture you bought or received as gifts from your friendly neighbors, collecting new clothes to customize your character, and somehow earning enough money to pay off your home mortgage loan are all part of your daily life in Animal Crossing. You can easily get hooked from all the ways you can pick and choose from so many different activities. See More

Top Con

Can turn into a huge time sink

Because there's so much to do in the game, you can get caught up in wanting to do everything, all the time. Whenever you can finally afford that latest upgrade for your house, there's always something else to do, like staying on track with your mayoral duties, and then another thing and another thing. It's possible to become too addicted to Animal Crossing to the point where you prioritize a scheduled meeting with a villager at your house, for example, over real-life obligations. See More

Specs

Genre:Simulation

Top Pro

You have unlimited freedom to do whatever you want

There are next to no restrictions on when you can do things. You can go fishing, collect clams, dig up fossils, go shopping for clothes and furniture, chat with your neighbors and write them letters, participate in town events, and tons more whenever you feel like it. The only major thing is that the game runs according to the real world clock, so for example, there are some villagers that only show up at night, and you won't be able to interact with them during the day. But this is natural enough that it's not too much of a bother; you can always go off and do other activities until the right time comes up for your target goals. See More

Top Pro

Fun multiplayer options with StreetPass friends

The game opens up a lot with the multiplayer activities with your StreetPass friends through the Nintendo 3DS. You and a group can all join up in one of your friends' towns to hang out together at town events, play mini-games, or just generally get up to all kinds of trouble by terrorizing the villagers if you really wanted to. Anything you do here doesn't affect the host's actual town, so you can make the neighbors angry, cut down all the trees, or whatever else without worrying about your friend losing out on their own progress in single-player. See More

The Sims 4

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Emotions mechanic gives a feeling of realism

Emotions replaces the old system of traits. Using emotions to regulate how sims behave does feel more natural to a way a person would behave making for a more realistic feeling simulation. This allows the player to feel more immersed in the game. See More

Top Con

Too many loading screens

There are way too many jarring loading screens when trying to navigate The Sims 4 small world. See More

Specs

Genre:Life Simulation

Top Pro

Easy cloud sharing

A new feature, cloud sharing is very useful for those that like to share their designs or download other players. From other sims to house patterns and layouts all can be shared or downloaded for use in game. See More

Top Con

Missing features that were in previous versions

The Sims 4 is missing a lot of features and options that were in previous version making the title feel unfinished or rushed. Of course it all could be a ploy to sell these features to the consumer at a later date basically making the users pay for the games content piecemeal. See More

Top Pro

Build tools, best in the series

The Sims 4 offers the best build tools in the series making it even easier to design and furnish their homes. See More

Top Con

Clipping

Characters can sometimes clip each other when trying to navigate the same path, which results in a loss of immersion for the player and shows a laziness of design. See More

Top Pro

Customizable maps

Users can change plots on the map to build different kinds of building such as cafes. Giving the player more depth and customization options to their world creates a more enveloped playing experience. See More

Top Pro

Tone of silliness easy to manage

Depending on the players choices tone may be set to a degree. So players wanting a less silly story to their game may do so by making rational choices during the game. See More

Top Pro

Multiple active tasks in queue

Unlike previous versions, The Sims 4 allows for multiple active tasks to be performed from the queue at the same time as long as they are physically possible. See More

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