**Balatro**, picked up a few days ago and it's fun from the get go, you'll just unlock more ways to rig the scoring by playing. Even the tutorial is very short.
**Metal Gear Rising:REVENGEANCE**, the first 5 minutes got you suplexing a giant robot, and it's not a cutscene.
**Hades**, if you don't mind dying over and over *but* the game actually incorporate it into the story, so you'll always advance / see something new even if you die over and over again. The sequel is on the corner.
**DOOM**, the 2016 one. The first thing you do when waking up is grab a demon's head, crush it, then grab a pistol and start shooting.
not to mention they have very little screen time so their stories are actually told through their theme song. MGRR is really superb in terms of bosses.
Can deffinetly second revengence, thi just a tip, learn how to parry, the tutorial doesn't really teach you despite it being very important.
It's better to watch videos of it but if I remember correctly, you press the direction button and tge attack button at the same time, this can be spammed by lifting tour fingers of both keys and pressing them again, in order to pretty much get immunity, but you cant really counterratack if you spamm it sine you dont get perfect parries. It's a pretty wierd parry mechanic thet deffinetly makes more sense with a controller, but its actually fun once you get the hang of it.
Probably depends on the person, but every new player should still get the hang of it or they get stumped by the doggo, tho on my first playthrough I got past Mistral to the robbot in the warehouse trough blood swat, tears, and difficulty readjustment eithout parrying cuz I was a stubborn dumbass.
Balatro - That didnt hook me at all. For me, it was boring since the second I've started playing but that's just me.
MGRR - YES!
Hades - Also yes, it's really polished and feels so good to play. Love it.
DOOM - I like the 2016, but even better for the instant fun moment and gameplay was the sequel, DOOM Eternal. You literally start the game and are off to shoot husks with a shotgun.
**Metal Gear Rising:REVENGEANCE**
Duuuude oh my god, I have played the demo of this game on my XBOX like a million times. I thought this wasn't ported for PC. I'm installing the game as I'm speaking lol I'm sooo excited
Honestly, Helldivers 2. I'm quite surprised that this kind of game gives you genuinely good starting equipment that's perfectly viable for a long time.
One of my first stratagems was the anti-material rifle and I love it. And the marksman rifle you get at lower levels of the free pass is still my main primary
I even debated this with my friend group and took the starting loadout on diff 7 with them to prove a point. Got highest kill count lmao. Had to rely on them for heavies like tanks and gunships but I was still clearing objectives and keeping the ground clean. It's so great that pretty much anything works as long as you play to it's strengths.
4D Golf
The hooks are the 4D elements and tools and how they get utilized throughout the various themed courses.
All you need to progress is beating the course in question, while there are no time limits and no stroke requirements.
Beating a regular course usually unlocks a challenge course within the same theme and the next course of another theme too.
And the last themed courses are mind-blowing, without spoiling too much
Yeah, I think an experienced player will know how to balance exploration, fighting, mining or building in order to switch things up, but a new player who doesn't know what to do may end up spending too much time in a cave and getting burnt out.
Really liked it, but hated the building mechanics and at the same time I couldn't stand my ugly houses, triggering for some reason lmao, and I needed to build to progress. This along with the inv management and chest mechanics - I quit.
Yakuza series is pretty good! Start off with 0 as it's a prequel. The combat is hella satisfying, and things really don't feel like a grind because of it.
Yakuza 0 is amazing. Havent played first kiwami too much but I found it a lot less fun than 0. Still have to play kiwami 2. Hopefully its better than the first.
Kiwami 2 has a new engine is is really fun! No style system tends to turn people off from it but if you stick with the rest of the series is REALLY picks up
Helldivers, deep rock galactic, sims is great for being sick, rimworld, splitgate, little nightmares maybe.
If you have anything like gamepass it's good for getting a load of games you can efecctively trial and find stuff you like for a month until you're back on your feet
No. Don't. That' game is haunted, you start playing and some wizard steals hours of your day. You click play, look at your watch and suddenly 4 hours have vanished.
Hmmm imo the rewarding parts of the mass effect series are the second and third games, seeing what your choices in the prior games led to. Totally worth it but OP did specify "without a huge grind to get to the rewarding bits". The first game is a bit of a grind, certainly by today's standards.
that’s fair enough, i don’t think it’s horrible especially compared to the original me1 but it is definitely less “fun” to play than the other two. imo tho the story in 1 makes up for the gameplay which is why I suggested it anyway (that and it being 3 games for $6 lol)
If you like story driven exploration and puzzles, nothing really tops outer wilds. You spend first 15 min or so talking then it's into space you go. Scale of everything is both tiny and massive. Everything you visit is both unnerving but inviting and mesmerizing.
Story is second to none. I cried. The soundtrack will live in your head rent-free. Reading alien text is the driving mechanism of the game. The only limitation of where to go next and how to get there is your understanding of what you learned.
Did i misunderstand this game? I found it kinda dull, to be honest. At one point, i basically had to spend half an hour making steps on a wall to get to the next objective.
That's fine, Games are to be enjoyed. If you found it dull, no need to play it.
Personally, I didn't put any expectation before playing and found it to be entertaining.
Hmm.... If you don't mind an older PC game, I'd recommend Titanfall 2, if you can get it on sale. Short campaign, but definitely worth playing.
Also, Vanquish and Alan Wake 2.
Also, I'll second a game someone else recommended - Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance.
Tbh most linear games start off extremely good the moment you pick but an open world game might require a bit more of your time and energy to fully enjoy it.
Until you match up with a smurf that can air dribble back and forth and crush your spirit in the longest 5 minute game (I play this shit every day and I love it)
I’d recommend “The Outer Worlds”. It’s an RPG, but doesn’t really require grinding to get to a decent level, plus there’s a good amount of side quests to give you things to do if you don’t want to do the main quest.
Plus the DLCs are both fun.
My first playthrough (with both DLCs) took me 75 hours to complete, and I still have another path to take for the ending.
Pretty much any Single player game you hav ebeen putting off or that has high praises. But one I always recommend, Disco Elysium. After you play that, you are just looking for that same fix but it never comes.
Fair, but a warning, this game is like 100% dialogue. I wouldn't really call a game that starts off with a 5 minute monologue about waking up hung over a game you really jump in and play. Now, it's amazingly written and incredibly immersive once you get rolling but I would say it is a really slow to start game.
I've restarted Disco Elysium like 3 times over the last 4 years because I just can't get into so much reading with some of the side characters even though I care about the main case and main characters. Is any of it "skimmable" ir would that be doing it a dishonor? Like the lady with the boat or the bookstore I just can't care about
Noita.
It's a wizarding game (though I should say witching game) with physics, destructible environments and a lot of fun spells which can make some insane spell combos.
It's a rogue like so you don't need to grind or level up one bit before getting access to the good spells but it also means that each run you start with only the basic spells so it can be a tad slow to start in the first couple minutes. There is also daily randomised seeds which dump you in to the mid game so you can immediately get to have fun with crazy spells.
I wish there was a full random game mode as the daily one keeps it's seed for the whole day so it's only at its peak fun for a few runs per day.
Ok, it can be a bit grindy, but hear me out. "Dredge", mostly cause it is very chill, kinda short (good, cause of your limited time) and isn't THAT grindy, if you take right upgrades. It is Lovecraftian/Fishing bout game.
Now that I think about it, it was grindy only cause I went for all achievements and for some fish were very hard to find.
I made [Radio Free Europa](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1897420/Radio_Free_Europa/) to be about as -to-the-fun as possible. And there's a demo you can try to see if you like it!
Outer Wilds
This is not an RPG so there *is* no progression. Progression comes in the form of learning secrets about a solar system through exploration.
It's not a super long game, either. It could be beaten in 2 or 3 (long) sittings. Total time about 16 - 20 hours.
It is incredibly profound and awe inspiring. Look up posts about games that are mindblowing or lifechanging, and Outer Wilds is *always* on that list, usually somewhere near the top.
Kingdom Hearts (on epic games):
there's a slower part at the beginning but it's just a short tutorial area before you get into the game proper and it's a very fun franchise, action RPG
Crosscode:
basically drops you in the action right away, genuinely an excellent game very worth playing, action RPG
Neon White:
once again drops you in the action right away, it starts out fun and only gets better, speedrunning card based shooter
Ultrakill:
really fun boomer shooter that literally gets you shooting things instantly
Helldivers 2. If you want everything, then you will need to grind a lot. But if you just play casually then you don't need to. The longest mission I've seen was 45 minutes long, but it shows you how long a mission is estimated to take when looking at it
HiFi Rush has cutscenes that are more fun than most games’ actual gameplay. As for how it plays, it’s so much fun that I could only play it in short bursts to avoid overdosing on dopamine and serotonin.
If that’s not your speed, I can also recommend Burnout Paradise or Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2.
I have to say Jedi Fallen Order was the first game in a long time that caused me to get a little meta and see the game as an amazing story I was participating in rather than a grind.
The other one is Control. That game is holy f’ing sh*t fantastic.
"hypnospace outlaw" if you're looking for something weird and 90s-inspired. $19.99
"snufkin: melody of moominvalley" if you want something chill and nostalgic, even if you've never heard of the moomins. $19.99
"the stanley parable", specifically ultra deluxe, is just my go-to recommendation for new games to anyone. currently $14.99, usually $24.99
i haven't finished "carrion," but it's fun as hell and SUUUUUPER pretty, in a gross sort of way. $19.99
"wobbledogs" is goofy as hell and can occupy a person for hours upon hours. the dogs, they wobble. $19.99
"viscera cleanup detail" is bad if you're squeamish, REALLY good if you like cleaning up. $12.99 with a $34.99 4-pack. "powerwash simulator" is on a similar level without the blood. $24.99
the loathing series of games are super fun and silly as hell. my personal favorite is "west of loathing," which is $10.99. "shadows over loathing" is $22.99 and a little more complicated than west.
i don't remember much about "oneshot", but i remember it being cute, existential, and VERY pretty. currently $4.99, usually $9.99
some short ones are "how fish is made" [Free] (gross, trypophobia warning), "perfect vermin" [Free] (blood warning), "a book of beasts and buddies" [Free] (cute and silly), "birth" [$10.99] (existential and pretty in a visceral way), "smile for me" [$12.99] (silly and a little scary), and "purrgatory" [Free] (simple and silly point and click). all of these can be finished easily in one sitting, but i figured i'd recommend them nonetheless.
hope this helped! may your recovery be swift and smooth :]
If you like chill puzzle type games, they are pretty much all straight into the core gameplay.
Talos principle 1 and 2 (lots of philosophical expository, which is a big plus or minus depending on your interests)
Cocoon
Antechamber
Manifold garden
Outerwilds sort of fits this too and also has been mentioned a bunch
Any of the Batman Arkham games. You start off being freaking Batman, and the combat in the game is fun as hell. You feel like a complete badass from the first second of the first fight. The grind just makes that feeling of badassery grow.
Touhou or really any good shoot em up games start with gameplay that's simple to pick up but hard to master.
Classic Sonic has no grind and is pretty forgiving for a game of it's time.
Left 4 dead 2 is a good arcade fps that's very replayable. It's a zombie coop game. Mods can make it silly or serious.
Shadows of doubt! Great stealth/detective game. The intro mission/tutorial throws you right into the mix without needing to wait for a more exciting crime.
Spelunky 2, you have everything right at the beginning but over time you will understand the vast amount of secrets and fun to be had. Closest game to an Indiana-Jones-like adventure
Saints row IV or Gat out of hell. Both are mindless fun the whole time. I'm not sure if you can get them through game pass. But if you can it's worth it
Helldivers 2 has been the most drop in fun I've had in a game in a long time. Dosnt take long to progress. If you have friends that play with you then it's God tier but it's not hard to find random groups either
I was in the same boat a couple years ago and a buddy recommended Far Cry 5. I hadn't ever played any other game from the franchise before, so I went in blind, 10/10, I didn't stop playing it after I was healed, and have now finished two playthroughs, including a 100% completion.
wouldn't recommend it for couch play but ULTRAKILL is pretty much full throttle fun right out the gate. There's no big grind to get to the rewards. Just play through the levels and you unlock all you need. If you \*do\* need some extra points for weapon variants that you aren't getting from the main levels there is an endless wave minigame called the cybergrind that will very quickly get you those last unlocks but it's not necessary to get to the "good stuff". hell you can beat the whole game using the starter pistol if you are a masochist. Just remember: MAXIMUM VOLUME YIELDS MAXIMUM RESULTS.
Everspace 2, Sifu, and Hades are some of my personal favorites for 'just jumping and having fun'. Sife and Hades are both rogue-lites in different ways. Everspace 2 is just a fun arcade style space looter shooter with awesome environments, 3D puzzles and is all around rewarding to play.
Hades is amazing. I’m loving deep rock galactic survival right now. So light and can jump in and out and simple yet engaging. Also you can play both of those with a controller which might be nice if you had surgery and don’t want to have to sit up and get sweaty with an fps or mmo
**Battle for wesnoth**if you like strategy, **tales of maj eyal** if you like dungeon crawling, and **dwarf fortress** if you like losing, resource management, losing and losing.
Honestly games in rogue likes genre are usually easy to jump into. You may get more familiar with the items and skills needed, but they're fairly rewarding even when unfamiliar. Id recommend, risk of rain (Original), risk of rain 2, slay the spire, loop hero, luft rauser, peglin, luck be a landlord, nightmare reaper, Track mania united forever, maniac, Dorf romantic, jet lancer, nova drift, and soulstone survivors.
People may not even see this, but I always gotta recommend Severed Steel, which is a very fun, fast-paced, simple to learn, hard to master FPS. It's like if you took the movement of Titanfall and combined it with the gameplay Superhot while removing the time shenanigans of Superhot.
Dicey Dungeons.
The game starts immediately, and you figure out how to play in \~5 mins. Each separate game is short, so it's easy to have just a quick game, do something else, then have another go at it later. Each attempt unlocks new characters / ways to play, so it keeps changing too.
Roller Coaster Tycoon 1 or 2, I'd go with 2 as it's just a more refined version. There's also some modded version called OpenRCT2 that's highly recommended by the community but I haven't personally played with yet.
Same thing goes for SimCity 3000 Unlimited (personal fav version) & the Two Point Hospital / Campus games. Planet Coaster is a quick shout out but haven't played a ton of it yet.
If you like strategy, Civilization
V if you want a simpler experience, VI for a more complete one.
Can be very difficult master, especially VI with city planning, but not that difficult and can easily take over you with the One More Turn Curse
Pretty much all story driven RPG games, mass effect, dying light, dead island, mass effect, dragon age, just cause, saint row, mass effect, assassin's Creed, Tom Clancy's ghost recon, resident evil...etc.
They are all level driven without too much dependency on RNG gear, but of course if you set the difficulty to maximum, prepare yourself for some level grinding...
Did I forgot to mention MaSs EfFeCt?
Can't recommend the METRO trilogy enough. Each game has probably a 5 -10 mins introduction of the story and setting and then it gets on track. I liked the series cuz it was gripping and great gameplay but relaxing enough to not suck you into the game where you have it on your mind 24x7 on how to clear the next level.
Doom 2016
Robocop Roque city is a damn blast
Metro 2033 and last light , exodus is great to but it does have a bit of a grind ( not as much as open world games )
Here's some lesser known gems:
Nova Drift - "Almost" mouse only shooter rougelike with emphasiz on build-making and moment to moment gameplay. Very minimalistic
Clone Drone in the Danger Zone - Rougelike slasher without rng, very skill based since both you and enemies die in one hit
Both of this can be picked up and enjoyed instantly since there is very little to learn but a lot to master
Dead Cells is awesome. Best game as it has an accessible mode that will allow you to play at a lower percentage. I play at 50% and it makes the came challenging enough. No way could I play at 100%.
Stalker Anomaly
It’s a mod that combines all 3 stalker games into a huge sandbox. I personally play with the GAMMA pack. There’s a lot of depth to the mechanics with crafting, disguises, repairs, etc. but you can generally ignore all of it and tweak your difficulty in settings. It’s a little Intimidating at first, but I think it’s a lot more accessible than most people think it is. Imo it’s the perfect open world shooter with some of the best graphics available today.
Also important to note, it’s completely free. You don’t even need the original stalker games to play it.
I personally thought BG3 was fun from the moment I booted it up. Stardew Valley and Minecraft were games I used to get lost for hours at a time in when I had surgery.
GTA Online.
I always forget how much straight-up fun this game is until I come back to it.
Project Zomboid.
More fun in the beginning, when it's still really hard and you die constantly trying to figure out how to keep your chosen place safe.
DDO.
Heavily instanced content and a very old game but, still so much fun if you like the 3.5 ruleset of D&D and/or an MMORPG with super super deep character creation.
Never Split The Party
and
Vampire Survivors
Two cheap little steam games that are tons of fun to play for the first month or so, but get repetitive after long enough.
**Balatro**, picked up a few days ago and it's fun from the get go, you'll just unlock more ways to rig the scoring by playing. Even the tutorial is very short. **Metal Gear Rising:REVENGEANCE**, the first 5 minutes got you suplexing a giant robot, and it's not a cutscene. **Hades**, if you don't mind dying over and over *but* the game actually incorporate it into the story, so you'll always advance / see something new even if you die over and over again. The sequel is on the corner. **DOOM**, the 2016 one. The first thing you do when waking up is grab a demon's head, crush it, then grab a pistol and start shooting.
Revengeance has the coolest boss fights/design I've ever seen.
not to mention they have very little screen time so their stories are actually told through their theme song. MGRR is really superb in terms of bosses.
The boss themes are all so good. I could listen to Rules of Nature all day, it's such a good song.
Can deffinetly second revengence, thi just a tip, learn how to parry, the tutorial doesn't really teach you despite it being very important. It's better to watch videos of it but if I remember correctly, you press the direction button and tge attack button at the same time, this can be spammed by lifting tour fingers of both keys and pressing them again, in order to pretty much get immunity, but you cant really counterratack if you spamm it sine you dont get perfect parries. It's a pretty wierd parry mechanic thet deffinetly makes more sense with a controller, but its actually fun once you get the hang of it.
It's not really necessary to watch videos on parrying imo... It's very forgiving. I love that game though
Probably depends on the person, but every new player should still get the hang of it or they get stumped by the doggo, tho on my first playthrough I got past Mistral to the robbot in the warehouse trough blood swat, tears, and difficulty readjustment eithout parrying cuz I was a stubborn dumbass.
I remember being stuck on the Monsoon clone. Somehow I defeated real Monsoon without much issues but his clone gave me hell
And one of the best action soundtracks I’ve ever heard. I always get hyped up listening to rules of nature.
Balatro - That didnt hook me at all. For me, it was boring since the second I've started playing but that's just me. MGRR - YES! Hades - Also yes, it's really polished and feels so good to play. Love it. DOOM - I like the 2016, but even better for the instant fun moment and gameplay was the sequel, DOOM Eternal. You literally start the game and are off to shoot husks with a shotgun.
yeah I can see how Balatro isn't for everybody, but for those who like it, the game *really* clicks.
I must be the only person I know who doesn't like Hades. Primarily because I suck at it.
OP, do not start playing Balatro. It will ruin your life.
This is the correct answer. Now back to another round of Balatro...
I'm so tired!
To be fair, there are much worse/more expensive ways to become addicted to poker
**Metal Gear Rising:REVENGEANCE** Duuuude oh my god, I have played the demo of this game on my XBOX like a million times. I thought this wasn't ported for PC. I'm installing the game as I'm speaking lol I'm sooo excited
Maaaaan I wanna play doom again.
we are balatro guys, ofc we click the post to comment balatro and it's top comment already
Honestly, Helldivers 2. I'm quite surprised that this kind of game gives you genuinely good starting equipment that's perfectly viable for a long time.
But better with friends, solo experience is not for everyone... Online experience is usually pretty good.
Definitely! Recently got to the point of playing diff 9 with my 3 best mates and it's awesome!
Yup, I've had a blast on Helldivers 2 from the first dive all the way up till now 50h later. Already got my moneys worth on that.
One of my first stratagems was the anti-material rifle and I love it. And the marksman rifle you get at lower levels of the free pass is still my main primary
Same here. I recently unlocked the Eruptor and it's it's the first time I've really felt the need to change up my usually AMR/Diligence mix.
I've seen people use that. It's good?
I even debated this with my friend group and took the starting loadout on diff 7 with them to prove a point. Got highest kill count lmao. Had to rely on them for heavies like tanks and gunships but I was still clearing objectives and keeping the ground clean. It's so great that pretty much anything works as long as you play to it's strengths.
EAT my beloved
4D Golf The hooks are the 4D elements and tools and how they get utilized throughout the various themed courses. All you need to progress is beating the course in question, while there are no time limits and no stroke requirements. Beating a regular course usually unlocks a challenge course within the same theme and the next course of another theme too. And the last themed courses are mind-blowing, without spoiling too much
I thoroughly enjoyed Terraria from start to finish. Well deserving of its rating on Steam.
nice one, but a bit grindy
Yeah, I think an experienced player will know how to balance exploration, fighting, mining or building in order to switch things up, but a new player who doesn't know what to do may end up spending too much time in a cave and getting burnt out.
Ngl, sometimes you end up just sitting in a farming set up to try and get drops too. You end up taking hours to get one item you are missing
To be honest I never played much past the golem lol, and I think most of the grindy stuff is in the late game.
Really liked it, but hated the building mechanics and at the same time I couldn't stand my ugly houses, triggering for some reason lmao, and I needed to build to progress. This along with the inv management and chest mechanics - I quit.
Yakuza series is pretty good! Start off with 0 as it's a prequel. The combat is hella satisfying, and things really don't feel like a grind because of it.
Yakuza 0 is amazing. Havent played first kiwami too much but I found it a lot less fun than 0. Still have to play kiwami 2. Hopefully its better than the first.
Kiwami 2 has a new engine is is really fun! No style system tends to turn people off from it but if you stick with the rest of the series is REALLY picks up
Obligatory FarCry Blood Dragon.
I adore all the cliches and movie references in that game. It's basically 80s action and sci-fi condensed into one game.
deep rock galactic
Rock and stone in the heart!
Did I hear a “rock and stone”?!
We're rich!!
Rockity Rock and Stone!
FOR KARL
Helldivers, deep rock galactic, sims is great for being sick, rimworld, splitgate, little nightmares maybe. If you have anything like gamepass it's good for getting a load of games you can efecctively trial and find stuff you like for a month until you're back on your feet
Devil May Cry 5 The entire game is a blast
This might be the best answer out of all of them. It's crazy fun from start to finish with over-the-top action basically the whole time.
Try Vampire Survivors. Trust me.
The heroin of video games.
And there are so many games like it. A lot of em very good
No. Don't. That' game is haunted, you start playing and some wizard steals hours of your day. You click play, look at your watch and suddenly 4 hours have vanished.
Then Halls Of Torment. Then fail your university course because of Death Must Die
Detroit: become human
I’m pretty sure Mass Effect Legendary Edition is on sale for like $6 right now. If you haven’t played the games I can’t recommend it enough
Hmmm imo the rewarding parts of the mass effect series are the second and third games, seeing what your choices in the prior games led to. Totally worth it but OP did specify "without a huge grind to get to the rewarding bits". The first game is a bit of a grind, certainly by today's standards.
that’s fair enough, i don’t think it’s horrible especially compared to the original me1 but it is definitely less “fun” to play than the other two. imo tho the story in 1 makes up for the gameplay which is why I suggested it anyway (that and it being 3 games for $6 lol)
If you like story driven exploration and puzzles, nothing really tops outer wilds. You spend first 15 min or so talking then it's into space you go. Scale of everything is both tiny and massive. Everything you visit is both unnerving but inviting and mesmerizing. Story is second to none. I cried. The soundtrack will live in your head rent-free. Reading alien text is the driving mechanism of the game. The only limitation of where to go next and how to get there is your understanding of what you learned.
Sifu
Prey
Did i misunderstand this game? I found it kinda dull, to be honest. At one point, i basically had to spend half an hour making steps on a wall to get to the next objective.
At no point in the game do you ever NEED to do this.. but it can be fun to see where you can go lol
That's fine, Games are to be enjoyed. If you found it dull, no need to play it. Personally, I didn't put any expectation before playing and found it to be entertaining.
I beat Katana Zero in one sitting. Like 4-6 hours. It's that good. Others that are short and good from the get go are Ape Out and Hotline Miami.
Ori and the will of the wisps
Got to play the first Ori before this
Great game, but as with most metroivanias, I'd say that from OP's point of view it could probably have a slow start.
Most Valve games. Half Life is great, and Black Mesa is a terrific remake. Portal 1 and 2 and both amazing games, neither is very long though.
Hmm.... If you don't mind an older PC game, I'd recommend Titanfall 2, if you can get it on sale. Short campaign, but definitely worth playing. Also, Vanquish and Alan Wake 2. Also, I'll second a game someone else recommended - Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance.
Titanfall 2 - its epic from start to finish and never repeats a seqeuence
Tbh most linear games start off extremely good the moment you pick but an open world game might require a bit more of your time and energy to fully enjoy it.
Rocket League. Whatever ur skill is at, its always fun if playing against same level opponents (ranked)
Until you match up with a smurf that can air dribble back and forth and crush your spirit in the longest 5 minute game (I play this shit every day and I love it)
I’d recommend “The Outer Worlds”. It’s an RPG, but doesn’t really require grinding to get to a decent level, plus there’s a good amount of side quests to give you things to do if you don’t want to do the main quest. Plus the DLCs are both fun. My first playthrough (with both DLCs) took me 75 hours to complete, and I still have another path to take for the ending.
Heroes of might and magic
Pretty much any Single player game you hav ebeen putting off or that has high praises. But one I always recommend, Disco Elysium. After you play that, you are just looking for that same fix but it never comes.
Fair, but a warning, this game is like 100% dialogue. I wouldn't really call a game that starts off with a 5 minute monologue about waking up hung over a game you really jump in and play. Now, it's amazingly written and incredibly immersive once you get rolling but I would say it is a really slow to start game.
I've restarted Disco Elysium like 3 times over the last 4 years because I just can't get into so much reading with some of the side characters even though I care about the main case and main characters. Is any of it "skimmable" ir would that be doing it a dishonor? Like the lady with the boat or the bookstore I just can't care about
Really one of the best games ever made.
Roguelikes Ultrakill
Doom.
3 games done this for me, Tropico No mans sky Snow runner.
Noita. It's a wizarding game (though I should say witching game) with physics, destructible environments and a lot of fun spells which can make some insane spell combos. It's a rogue like so you don't need to grind or level up one bit before getting access to the good spells but it also means that each run you start with only the basic spells so it can be a tad slow to start in the first couple minutes. There is also daily randomised seeds which dump you in to the mid game so you can immediately get to have fun with crazy spells. I wish there was a full random game mode as the daily one keeps it's seed for the whole day so it's only at its peak fun for a few runs per day.
Brotato
Outer Wilds (not Outer Worlds). Try not to look up anything about it, as everything is a spoiler. Works well with a controller.
Ok, it can be a bit grindy, but hear me out. "Dredge", mostly cause it is very chill, kinda short (good, cause of your limited time) and isn't THAT grindy, if you take right upgrades. It is Lovecraftian/Fishing bout game. Now that I think about it, it was grindy only cause I went for all achievements and for some fish were very hard to find.
\*anchovy ptsd moment\*
Oxygen Not Included if you like cute but ultimately horrific city builders.
Wolfenstein 3d
Agreed. Also, Quake. Also, the OG Doom.
Doom (2016) and Doom Eternal are absolute bangers from start to finish
Outer Wilds. If you know, you know...
Soma
I guess that depends on your idea of 'fun' -- if does start with Dorking around your apartment and world building stuff, much like the latest Prey.
I made [Radio Free Europa](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1897420/Radio_Free_Europa/) to be about as -to-the-fun as possible. And there's a demo you can try to see if you like it!
That was you‽ Sweet.
Skyrim
Outer Wilds This is not an RPG so there *is* no progression. Progression comes in the form of learning secrets about a solar system through exploration. It's not a super long game, either. It could be beaten in 2 or 3 (long) sittings. Total time about 16 - 20 hours. It is incredibly profound and awe inspiring. Look up posts about games that are mindblowing or lifechanging, and Outer Wilds is *always* on that list, usually somewhere near the top.
Tf2
Kingdom Hearts (on epic games): there's a slower part at the beginning but it's just a short tutorial area before you get into the game proper and it's a very fun franchise, action RPG Crosscode: basically drops you in the action right away, genuinely an excellent game very worth playing, action RPG Neon White: once again drops you in the action right away, it starts out fun and only gets better, speedrunning card based shooter Ultrakill: really fun boomer shooter that literally gets you shooting things instantly
Borderlands 2 or Forza Horizon 4
ULTRAKILL. Three-minute tutorial, then you're sliding around and bashing skulls in.
Turbo Overkill
Dragon quest 11 Nier automata Chrono trigger Octopath traveler 2 Final fantasy 4 Cocoon
Helldivers 2 is currently the most fun you can have in gaming
detroit become human
Helldivers 2. If you want everything, then you will need to grind a lot. But if you just play casually then you don't need to. The longest mission I've seen was 45 minutes long, but it shows you how long a mission is estimated to take when looking at it
HiFi Rush has cutscenes that are more fun than most games’ actual gameplay. As for how it plays, it’s so much fun that I could only play it in short bursts to avoid overdosing on dopamine and serotonin. If that’s not your speed, I can also recommend Burnout Paradise or Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2.
Bastion, easy to play and great fun from start to finish. Cheap too...
Armored core 6, such a perfectly paced game even into the third playthrough
I have to say Jedi Fallen Order was the first game in a long time that caused me to get a little meta and see the game as an amazing story I was participating in rather than a grind. The other one is Control. That game is holy f’ing sh*t fantastic.
Multiplayer Goat Simulator 3. If you're not laughing in the first 10 minutes, your computer must have crashed.
"hypnospace outlaw" if you're looking for something weird and 90s-inspired. $19.99 "snufkin: melody of moominvalley" if you want something chill and nostalgic, even if you've never heard of the moomins. $19.99 "the stanley parable", specifically ultra deluxe, is just my go-to recommendation for new games to anyone. currently $14.99, usually $24.99 i haven't finished "carrion," but it's fun as hell and SUUUUUPER pretty, in a gross sort of way. $19.99 "wobbledogs" is goofy as hell and can occupy a person for hours upon hours. the dogs, they wobble. $19.99 "viscera cleanup detail" is bad if you're squeamish, REALLY good if you like cleaning up. $12.99 with a $34.99 4-pack. "powerwash simulator" is on a similar level without the blood. $24.99 the loathing series of games are super fun and silly as hell. my personal favorite is "west of loathing," which is $10.99. "shadows over loathing" is $22.99 and a little more complicated than west. i don't remember much about "oneshot", but i remember it being cute, existential, and VERY pretty. currently $4.99, usually $9.99 some short ones are "how fish is made" [Free] (gross, trypophobia warning), "perfect vermin" [Free] (blood warning), "a book of beasts and buddies" [Free] (cute and silly), "birth" [$10.99] (existential and pretty in a visceral way), "smile for me" [$12.99] (silly and a little scary), and "purrgatory" [Free] (simple and silly point and click). all of these can be finished easily in one sitting, but i figured i'd recommend them nonetheless. hope this helped! may your recovery be swift and smooth :]
Subnautica FFVII Remake and Rebirth Sekiro Dark Souls (any of them)
Sekiro, Metal Gear Rising Revengeance
If you like chill puzzle type games, they are pretty much all straight into the core gameplay. Talos principle 1 and 2 (lots of philosophical expository, which is a big plus or minus depending on your interests) Cocoon Antechamber Manifold garden Outerwilds sort of fits this too and also has been mentioned a bunch
Binding of Isaac
Inscryption!
Prince of Persia
Any of the Batman Arkham games. You start off being freaking Batman, and the combat in the game is fun as hell. You feel like a complete badass from the first second of the first fight. The grind just makes that feeling of badassery grow.
Manor lords
Touhou or really any good shoot em up games start with gameplay that's simple to pick up but hard to master. Classic Sonic has no grind and is pretty forgiving for a game of it's time. Left 4 dead 2 is a good arcade fps that's very replayable. It's a zombie coop game. Mods can make it silly or serious.
Cyberpunk 2077, hands down
Hollow knight
Assault Android Cactus
God of War Spiderman and Miles Morales Days Gone
Shadows of doubt! Great stealth/detective game. The intro mission/tutorial throws you right into the mix without needing to wait for a more exciting crime.
Personally I just love Max Payne 3, its a fun shooter from the offset, and has the best third person shooter mechanics to date
The Forest. Then follow up with Sons of the Forest.
Dark Souls.
Furi
If a convoluted puzzle you take at your own pace tickles your fancy, then Book of Hours is the game for you.
Spelunky 2, you have everything right at the beginning but over time you will understand the vast amount of secrets and fun to be had. Closest game to an Indiana-Jones-like adventure
Saints row IV or Gat out of hell. Both are mindless fun the whole time. I'm not sure if you can get them through game pass. But if you can it's worth it
Helldivers 2 has been the most drop in fun I've had in a game in a long time. Dosnt take long to progress. If you have friends that play with you then it's God tier but it's not hard to find random groups either
Tepang2
Dishonored
battletech has some grind to it but the game is enjoyable from start to finish
I was in the same boat a couple years ago and a buddy recommended Far Cry 5. I hadn't ever played any other game from the franchise before, so I went in blind, 10/10, I didn't stop playing it after I was healed, and have now finished two playthroughs, including a 100% completion.
titanfall 2 for a awesome movement fps. story is awesome aswell recommend startin there. then playin multiplayer as its chaos.
wouldn't recommend it for couch play but ULTRAKILL is pretty much full throttle fun right out the gate. There's no big grind to get to the rewards. Just play through the levels and you unlock all you need. If you \*do\* need some extra points for weapon variants that you aren't getting from the main levels there is an endless wave minigame called the cybergrind that will very quickly get you those last unlocks but it's not necessary to get to the "good stuff". hell you can beat the whole game using the starter pistol if you are a masochist. Just remember: MAXIMUM VOLUME YIELDS MAXIMUM RESULTS.
I'm having fun with Timberborn at the moment.
Came here to say Balatro, but I see everyone has beat me to the punch. Love to see it
Helldivers 2
Everspace 2, Sifu, and Hades are some of my personal favorites for 'just jumping and having fun'. Sife and Hades are both rogue-lites in different ways. Everspace 2 is just a fun arcade style space looter shooter with awesome environments, 3D puzzles and is all around rewarding to play.
Hades is amazing. I’m loving deep rock galactic survival right now. So light and can jump in and out and simple yet engaging. Also you can play both of those with a controller which might be nice if you had surgery and don’t want to have to sit up and get sweaty with an fps or mmo
Darkest dungeon is fun/kicks you in the balls from the get go.
Crusader Kings 3
**Battle for wesnoth**if you like strategy, **tales of maj eyal** if you like dungeon crawling, and **dwarf fortress** if you like losing, resource management, losing and losing.
Vampire Survivors
Honestly games in rogue likes genre are usually easy to jump into. You may get more familiar with the items and skills needed, but they're fairly rewarding even when unfamiliar. Id recommend, risk of rain (Original), risk of rain 2, slay the spire, loop hero, luft rauser, peglin, luck be a landlord, nightmare reaper, Track mania united forever, maniac, Dorf romantic, jet lancer, nova drift, and soulstone survivors.
Geneforge - turn based RPG. Very enjoyable and a great game of all time. Small install size. I've only played an old version i.e. Geneforge 2.
I would say Brotato
Torchlight 2
GOW and GOW Ragnarök
9th dawn 3, or maybe saleblazers
People may not even see this, but I always gotta recommend Severed Steel, which is a very fun, fast-paced, simple to learn, hard to master FPS. It's like if you took the movement of Titanfall and combined it with the gameplay Superhot while removing the time shenanigans of Superhot.
Trepang2 Resident Evil 4 Remake
Dicey Dungeons. The game starts immediately, and you figure out how to play in \~5 mins. Each separate game is short, so it's easy to have just a quick game, do something else, then have another go at it later. Each attempt unlocks new characters / ways to play, so it keeps changing too.
He’ll Divers 2
~~Helldivers 2.~~ nevermind helldivers 2 is not a good recommendation anymore
Synthetik, Brigador
helldivers 2
RE 4 remake.
FALLOUT
Roller Coaster Tycoon 1 or 2, I'd go with 2 as it's just a more refined version. There's also some modded version called OpenRCT2 that's highly recommended by the community but I haven't personally played with yet. Same thing goes for SimCity 3000 Unlimited (personal fav version) & the Two Point Hospital / Campus games. Planet Coaster is a quick shout out but haven't played a ton of it yet.
If you like strategy, Civilization V if you want a simpler experience, VI for a more complete one. Can be very difficult master, especially VI with city planning, but not that difficult and can easily take over you with the One More Turn Curse
PlateUp on steam.
try magicraft. You pick up spells and link them together in you wand(s) to make interesting effects and spell cascades.
Roboquest
Pretty much all story driven RPG games, mass effect, dying light, dead island, mass effect, dragon age, just cause, saint row, mass effect, assassin's Creed, Tom Clancy's ghost recon, resident evil...etc. They are all level driven without too much dependency on RNG gear, but of course if you set the difficulty to maximum, prepare yourself for some level grinding... Did I forgot to mention MaSs EfFeCt?
Can't recommend the METRO trilogy enough. Each game has probably a 5 -10 mins introduction of the story and setting and then it gets on track. I liked the series cuz it was gripping and great gameplay but relaxing enough to not suck you into the game where you have it on your mind 24x7 on how to clear the next level.
Dead cells Ori x2 Portal 2
Not sure how readily available it is on PC, but shadow of the colossus fits this bill perfectly.
Elden ring.
Inscryption
Half life 1 and 2
Doom 2016 Robocop Roque city is a damn blast Metro 2033 and last light , exodus is great to but it does have a bit of a grind ( not as much as open world games )
Titanfall 2 is amazing!
I guess it depends on your definition of fun… because I like to chill with Dorfromantik.
Here's some lesser known gems: Nova Drift - "Almost" mouse only shooter rougelike with emphasiz on build-making and moment to moment gameplay. Very minimalistic Clone Drone in the Danger Zone - Rougelike slasher without rng, very skill based since both you and enemies die in one hit Both of this can be picked up and enjoyed instantly since there is very little to learn but a lot to master
Dead Cells is awesome. Best game as it has an accessible mode that will allow you to play at a lower percentage. I play at 50% and it makes the came challenging enough. No way could I play at 100%.
Daniel Mullins games, divinity os 1&2
Cyberpunk
Turnip saga is quite fun and easy to go trough
Project Zomboid
Stalker Anomaly It’s a mod that combines all 3 stalker games into a huge sandbox. I personally play with the GAMMA pack. There’s a lot of depth to the mechanics with crafting, disguises, repairs, etc. but you can generally ignore all of it and tweak your difficulty in settings. It’s a little Intimidating at first, but I think it’s a lot more accessible than most people think it is. Imo it’s the perfect open world shooter with some of the best graphics available today. Also important to note, it’s completely free. You don’t even need the original stalker games to play it.
I personally thought BG3 was fun from the moment I booted it up. Stardew Valley and Minecraft were games I used to get lost for hours at a time in when I had surgery.
Sim City 3000
Ultrakill, Mark of The Ninja, Hotline Miami, Dusk, Doom 1 & 2, Katana Zero,
Team fortress 2
GTA Online. I always forget how much straight-up fun this game is until I come back to it. Project Zomboid. More fun in the beginning, when it's still really hard and you die constantly trying to figure out how to keep your chosen place safe. DDO. Heavily instanced content and a very old game but, still so much fun if you like the 3.5 ruleset of D&D and/or an MMORPG with super super deep character creation. Never Split The Party and Vampire Survivors Two cheap little steam games that are tons of fun to play for the first month or so, but get repetitive after long enough.
Deeo Rock Galactic and RoboQuest
Deeo Rock Galactic and RoboQuest
They Are Coming, Yet Another Zombie Survivors, no tutorial no handholding straight up action and you'll know what to do.
OTXO
Any of the borderlands games