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DuckWrangler9000 @lemmy.world

What are your favorite 1000+ hour games?

One thing I have struggled with lately is finding good games to play. I bounce around from game to game trying to enjoy it but it just doesn't scratch the itch like it used to. For example, one of my favorites was old school RuneScape, but it hasn't really been giving me the same enjoyment that it used to. So then I would open up World of Warcraft, Destiny 2, just playing a little bit of each game. Think maybe I need some new games to play but it's tough to find them these days.

So what are your favorite 1000+ hour games?

192 comments

  • I've been playing Tf2 for over 1.5k hours now. I recommend you to try it out There's a reason why that game from 2007 is still not dead.

  • Warframe. Inching closer to 3.000h currently.

    It does come in waves, but every once in a while I go all in again and lose myself in the infinite things you can do.

  • Not a favourite anymore but still beats my second most played games by a factor of 4... Warframe was fun at the beginning and really clicked at about 200hrs. I left after about 2200hrs because I burned out but it still has a place in my heart.

  • There was a moment in my life when I thought that perhaps I was outgrowing games... that they were just not really designed for the entertainment of adult human beings in a way that could satisfy me. Not one of my old stand-bys could, as you said, "scratch the itch" or provide "the same enjoyment that it used to." I found myself spending more time with films and books.

    Then I got into FromSoft games and indie titles, and within a year I realized games still held incredible experiences for me. I hadn't outgrown games. I had only outgrown the bland slop represented by most AAA releases, and especially by online multiplayer releases. Personally, I'd recommend giving up on looking for a new 1000+ hour obsession. Instead I'd recommend seeking a broad array of 10-100 hour loves. If you haven't already tried them, for me a love of gaming was saved primarily by: Dark Souls, FTL, Spelunky, and Hollow Knight.

  • Monster Hunter. The first one I played, MH4U back in the 3DS days, I put 1,000 hours into. That was nearly 10 years ago, and I'm still playing the franchise to this day. Currently finally going through the Sunbreak expansion of Monster Hunter Rise on the PC, and noticing a marked improvement in my mental health over playing other games.

    • Also came here to recommend Monster Hunter. If these games grab you, there's many hours of play in it for you.

  • X4 Foundations... This sucks people life: you start a game when the sun goes to sleep, one second later the sun wake up 😅

  • Why do they have to be 1000 hours? If you’re getting gaming fatigue you’re not going to fix that by sticking to the same genres you always play. Go onto Steam/gog/eshop/etc during the Black Friday sales next week and buy a big pile of 40 hour games for $3 each

    (Mine is FFXIV, to answer your question)

  • Dota 2.

    I've played Dwarf Fortress, Stellaris, yet I still find Dota to be the most complex game ever.

    It sucks that it's a multiplayer game, and you need people to play it well with you, but when it works, it's amazing.

    Everything in it has layers of usability, usually componded by the everything else in the game - hero abilities, items, map, neutrals, even the stupid trees play a large role in the game.

    I've spent hundreds of hours studying the mechanics, and I still don't grasp everything.

    I played a lot of DotA too, but that doesn't have a playtime counter. But I have over 3000 hours in Dota 2.

    My second favourite game is OpenTTD. It's just so satisfying to optimize the train network and add another 100 trains to it. I've tried Factorio, but for some reason that did not scratch that itch.

    Or some roguelites, like Slay the Spire (or the Touhou: Lost Branch of Legend), Synthetik (haven't tried second one yet), they are always fun.

    • Great list! I've tried Dota 2 as well, it's definitely extremely complex and addictive but not my kind of game, I just cannot thrive and enjoy that sort of game. Same goes with League of Legends. Just not my cup of tea.

      I am a little curious about Stellaris though. That game seems so incredibly complex, like, what about it is The draw for people? I've heard so many people talk about it and has so many freezy steam reviews but when I first tried it as a demo, it seemed so absurdly complex That my head was spinning. Like I had no idea what the heck was going on. I'm not sure how to enjoy it I guess

      • LoL sucks, it's like a shallow copy of DotA. I've played around 300 hours, it's very silly in comparison.

        Stellaris is kinda easy once you figure out that expanding is the No1 priority for the entire game. Expand, build ships - nobody will be able to stop you.

        There was always a need for a 'tall' empire - so you don't expand, but focus on your small part of the galaxy - but so far it's always crushed by the expanding ones.

        Once you get stargate tech, it's 24/7 war. For even more territory.

        Right now I remembered a game that never was really finished, Stardrive, where you could design your own ships down to the electrical wiring. It had layouts with sections, and you could fill it up to your liking. It was a shame that ground troops could finish the game in minutes.

        Sometimes I feel like 4X games are usually more suited for roleplaying than actual challenge of micromanagement.

        Anyway, I have a huge jam on my main line in OpenTTD, gotta fix my intersection again.

      • It's a mix of strategy and role-playing. Sure if you want to survive on higher difficulties, you probably need a build that is meta. But on medium difficulties or lower you can pretty much roleplay your empire as you like and there's many mechanics in the game that help with this. Your empire can be a democratic haven for all, a mega corporation, a machine hivemind forcefully assimilating organics into its network...and much more.

        There's also a great exploration aspect of the game. Your exploration vessels regularly find anomalies that tell a neat little story and provide bonuses to your empire (which can range from a small resource bonus to making one of your leaders immortal).

        Of course, there's also the power fantasy. You start with just one planet, but you will quickly expand throughout the galaxy. You can then wage war against other empires, build a federation together with them or convince the galactic community to crown you as Emperor of the entire galaxy. But the game also regularly throws adversaries at you if the AI empires are starting to become no match for you, may it be one of the space fauna suddenly becoming extremely hostile or a Great Khan uniting a marauder horde and demanding everyone to become their vassal.

        It is also rare that a bad outcome leads to a straight loss. Losing a war (usually) does not doom your empire but you only lose a bit of territory or get vassalized, both giving you ample opportunities to build up your strength again or make allies to stand together against an enemy.

  • Regarding the question itself, Starbound and Minecraft. Maybe Final Fantasy XII if I was to play it multiple times, as I take at the very least 100+ hours to finished it, and 250+ if I'm not in a hurry.

    But regarding gaming fatigue, perhaps it could be a symptom of playing too much of only a handful of game styles? If you wouldn't mind, may I suggest to check some smaller games in length and scope, specially indies? Those tend to be rather diverse in their scopes and executions.

    • XII is so much fun to explore. I didn't even beat it on the original PS2 version because I kept getting distracted.

      Although my personal favorite to replay is VIII because there are multiple different ways to build your magic up (to actually get stronger).

  • Caves of Qud has nearly infinite replay value with all the random generations + mods. You can do nearly anything you set your mind to. Same with Project Ozone 3 (Minecraft mod). If you like goal orientated games that are multiplayer try Space Station 13. That shit is nuts, and I mean 13 not the 14 on Steam it doesnt have half of what the old one does. But the launcher is about to go out for 13 so get it while you can.

    I found that Two Worlds had a lot of fuck around potential. You can infinitely combine weapons that are duplicates to strengthen them. I once killed every NPC in the entire game and used the resurrection spell on them so everyone was completely loyal to me even monsters.

    If you can still find it. There was this online Pokémon game that was somehow realistic. You controlled your character typed ccommands for your Pokémon. And they were always alongside you when out of their ball. It was hardcore as shit. I got my cheeks clapped multiple tines trying to run to a different village by gangs of mankeys and caterpies. Nintendo is just drooling on the floor not doing this officially. It took forever to level, it was an extreme challenge to find stuff to evolve your Pokémon. Ugh I hope thats still out there somewhere.

    A less spoken one nowadays that is also very fun is still the original Morrowind. Absolutely mind blowing how expansive that game is to this day. It is still just as legendary as it was back then even if it is a little dated. I actually come to like it when a game isn't guiding me on what to do in an RPG. It feels more immersive when I'm supposed to know what a Guar looks like.

  • Elite Dangerous. Well over 1,000 hours, especially with friends to explore the black with. Hard to get into, but it has so much stuff to do. It made me passionate about space! (And it's always fun reading articles about a far-flung star and thinking "hey! I've been there!")

192 comments