Walking Simulators You Like?

Nasty term, ain't it? But it's not the end of the world. Walking simulators. I won't define them. You know what I'm talking 'bout. Any you like, or do you shy away from them in general?

I'll list two. Only two, not just to hog them all.

Beautiful game. Soundtrack, visuals. It's an absolute joy. Not even going for "muh deepness", but Journey was cool.

No idea what happened, but I dug the character convos and environments. Good stuff, mate.

Runner up: Decided to throw this one in, because it popped to mind: Firewatch. Brilliant character interaction between Henry and Delilah.

Now u post sumthing. Zero gameplay, please.

Journey - For a variety of reasons, but more so because it's story is all symbolic and told through the game perfectly. It's a circle of life type deal, the multiple partners, the way you communicate with another player was also pretty rad, even the light as hell platforming added to it. It wasn't built on pretentious over written writing like Dear Esther, or frankly ineffective the way Gone Home is. It's genuinely a good game, I don't exactly have an issue with someone calling it great. It's an actual mature, unique, and daring concept in this medium, something we don't get a lot of.

Firewatch - A lot of neat ideas in this game, bad ending though, but I liked it a hell of a lot more than the rest of them.

Otherwise the rest of them haven't been good, I've dug That Dragon, Cancer, but I don't know if that one applies.

@jg4xchamp: What was your issue with Firewatch's ending?

Mind you, for me, it was the fact that it all came down to nothing. Not much happening, going welp. At the same time, I've seen people justify it as 2 people trying to make their life look more exciting than it is, which, in the end, doesn't seem to be the case.

Limbo was cool

Stanley's Parable. The narrator is just so cool. You just wanna piss him off to see what he says.

The whole theme of doing everything he says to find "freedom of choice" is just brilliant.

journey is a game...i wouldnt refer to it as a walking simulator. you can (well i think you can..never tested the theory) get killed in journey. it gives a target, and presents challenges to get to that target. i would rate it a game before i would rate anything from quantic dream a game (though they are also games..as much as it sickens me to admit it). its perhaps not the greatest or most sophisticated game in the world but its a game.

journey is also awesome :).

flower is not a game...thats a floating in the wind simulator :P. also neat though.

firewatch is on y to play list...as soon as my linux box is up and running again.

my fav though is the stanley parable.

dear esther was also quite nice. bit meh at the end but nice up until then.

That and the mystery stuff having very little in the way of payoff, it's all built up, and even while being predictable you still come away from it going that's it? That's all you're going to do with that. The relationship aspect not going anywhere I get is the "point", but all of it wraps up so quickly with nothing really to say in the grand scheme of things.

A lot of the game is build up, and the payoff is just empty. That in it of itself was not the point, the point was that relationships don't work that way, and Henry isn't going to find an easy fix and all that stuff, but leaving the player empty? No, that's poor story telling.

I respect it because there is a maturity level to the story that you don't get in video games, but it botches it hard, and I like me some Delilia. Her pun game is on point, she's electrifying.

@jg4xchamp: Yeah, that's how I felt after finishing it. You're not wrong, but as I've stated many times before, I absolutely adore the going back-and-forth between Henry and Delilah. You want to go out of your way to get more dialogue going between the two.

Journey and Ethan Carter

Yandere Simulator was soooo much fun :P

@freedomfreak: dammit Freedom, i saw the thread title and immediately thought of Journey and Everybody's Gone to the Rapture, but you already mentioned them in the op :(. Now i have to use my brain!

Ok a few more i love:

Dear Esther

Until Dawn (does this count?)

Stanley Parable

Modern Warfare 3

Ethan Carter and Stanley Parable are very good.

Stanley Parable is the only one I can think of

I've stayed away from those. Im getting really annoyed by how many of those we get.

It's very difficult to make a mystery who's payoff is as interesting as it was not knowing, but I really enjoyed Firewatch for the interaction between the characters. Even though the ending wasn't a great payoff, the character interaction is what kept me coming back, as were the environments where I started to learn my way around by landmarks just as I might were I really there.

-Byshop

One time I played Limbo, it was awful.

Dear Esther

I want to play everyone's gone to the rapture but don't really want to bust out my PS4 just to play it. I enjoyed Limbo at first until I beat it realizing it didn't really every go anywhere nor even really explain any story to me other than I am here and I want to find sister...weeee

I recently got The Solus Project. Basically you crash down on some Gliese # planet and discover intelligent life once existed here at one time. Time travels a bit fast for a survival game but I guess it keeps it moving and it's more linear that I would prefer but it's quite beautiful. 2 large moons on the horizon, meteor showers fill the sky. Just wish the environment felt a little more alive than what it is but it's still a work in progress so...there's hope. It has that nice "mankind exploring for other life in the universe" feel in a realistic sort of way so it'll be interesting to see what the devs do with it.

Ethan Carter was flat out gorgeous and did an interesting job at letting you discover the story. But I enjoy exploration and would have loved to see a larger area to explore. Games like these should be quite interesting with VR.

I have little experience with them, nothing bad so far, I'm playing Gone Home and I like it but I don't play it for long periods. I'll play it a little in between sessions of more action-packed games. They seem to have a place in my world, so far so good.

Is this topic about "cinematic walking"?

I just finished the Uncharted collection. Uncharted 2 does it in an interesting way. There's some areas which are story walking, but the player is walking through an area which will be a gunfight level later in the game. Never paid attention to this before. To me that is creative and player involved.

Monopoly.

Walking sims or atmospheric generally refer to first person casual games where the player explores as a story unfolds itself. Many players find them relaxing to play and they typically have a serene or mysterious atmosphere but not limited to that of course. It's generically used for some stealth/puzzle or light action games such as horror games that require you to hide from your enemies and can apply to 2D games of similarity. Uncharted would be more like Action/Adventure/drama despite it's moments. Good examples would be Dear Esther, Kolat or even Soma and Penumbra.

Usually these kinds of games are basically the equivalent of modern day Adventure games like the old Myst series and are usually labeled under adventure.

Lots of adventure games are like it too, but still Ethan Carter comes to mind as best.

Metro 2033 had too much walking sections for my tastes, but I still managed to like it.

Cinematic walking is one of my biggest pet peeves, and one of the first things that will make me hate a game. Especially when they 'intro' the game with like 5-10 minutes of cinematic walking. Sometimes I can never recover from lazy garbage like that.

A mini tutorial doesn't bother me, but for shits sakes don't open a game with cinematic walking.

I really like Proteus

SOMA

Can't think of any great ones off the top of my head.

Firewatch was meh despite its interesting characters and gorgeous art style

Gone Home was super predictable. It had a cool detailed house and that's about it

Journey is garbage. Looks great but that shit was nyquil. Yeah, I get it. Circle of life and all that bullshit. Yawn

Those are the only ones I've beaten the last few years. Played about 20 minutes of Stanley Parable and that wins by default because it at least made me smile.

Edit: Soma is up there too when you mod out the stealth sections

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter. I never even finished it. Got stuck somewhere and eventually forgot about it. But really enjoyed the bit I played of it.

The only two are The Stanley Parable and Journey.

Didnt really like Jazzpunk, even though I'm all for stupid jokes and puns.

Gone Home had its surprises and a good setting, but I just never really found the experience all that satisfying or compelling.

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter I didnt like either. There are some good scenes and like 2 decent puzzles. But the twist was predictable and the 'gameplay' mechanic of ordering the scenes didnt really work the way it should have.

I thought the best part was in the mine where that creepy miner ghost would roam with his lantern, one of the creepiest things I've seen in a game. If you never made it to that part yet, you should check into again cause the mine level was great.

I thought it looked and sounded cool. The co-op stuff was also neat. The presentation of the entire experience is what makes that game amazing. The actual story is totally whatever. I didn't actually care about any of the writing in that game. I created my own personal story in my head that was far more interesting than anything that game had to offer.