I want to play an easy shooter where you feel like you’re in a flow state aiming at targets, the only time I’ve ever felt like that was in the PS2 Medal of Honour, kneecap, helmet shot, head shot or up till MW4 original.
I’ve tried the latest CoD and the cinematics and cutscenes are just overblown.
Borderlands would be a kind of turn off your brain type but they haven’t made a new game in awhile.
Helldiver had great shooting but the grind, limited levels and multiplayer means I wasn’t too invested in it after a hard days work
What about Extraneum? It’s cute as a button and very chill with plenty of things to shoot. It feels a bit like a modern wolfenstein since there aren’t any stairs. Gunplay feels nice and the secrets are rewarding. Plus between levels there are funny data discs to read.
payday 2 was kind of a cosy game where me and my friend would do heists whilst making tea and ffetching snacks
Well, as others have noted I think “cozy” is probably a loaded term in this context. However, I will throw these recommendations into the ring also: The first couple of Serious Sam games, and also Painkiller. Both of them are firmly in the “murdering tons of dudes” genre, and are significantly less tactical than the likes of Medal of Honor/Call of Duty/Battlefield.
That is to say, not at all.
There is none of that sucking your thumb to regenerate health, popping out from the chest-high walls inexplicably strewn everywhere taking potshots with your gun like a hillbilly jack-in-the-box. Rather, their gameplay loop involves herding and managing a massive horde of enemies, prioritizing your targets, and keeping yourself moving. Like a sheep dog with a chaingun.
People try to call the original Doom games a horde shooter. They really aren’t. These two, however, definitely are.
You’ve convinced me to finally play Serious Sam. I’ve had it on Steam for years.
It can be charitably described as above, and uncharitably described as “Hold down S and LMB for an hour at a time”. I kind of bounced off these. They aren’t bad games, in fact they were pretty popular but most of your gameplay loop is going to revolve around getting the attention of a horde of goons and then backpedaling while you whittle the group down from 80 dudes to none.
I mean, I played several other horde shooters. Firing continually while backpedaling is the most vintage of infantry tactics, after all. I get that these games are old and simpler, but their base gameplay must still be fun if they were so popular back in the day. I’ll at least give it a shot, since I already have them anyway…
also, just noticed your username. Cool Eragon reference, took me a second to remember that it meant “dragon” in the elven language.
Doom 1 and, to some extent, 2. Honestly.
I know exactly what you are looking for and the classic Doom games are perfect for this, because they are simple, yet they still feel good to play.
Not too fast, not too slow. No jump scares, only some light puzzles if you want to hunt secrets. There is almost a rhythm to the combat, especially if you play with the shotgun. Try them.
See also: Chex Quest
2016 too. I wouldn’t call it “cozy” though.
I’d say Eternal actually fits the bill more. Once you get all the mechanics down every encounter becomes this deadly ballet of high speed chess where you really can enter a flow state of just reacting and acting.
2016 can be like that but it’s a little bit more forgiving, funnily enough managing to keep your brain more in the foreground.
Depending on your definition of cozy 2016 could win, because it is not as taxing as Eternal. At least I could manage 2016 much better than Eternal with my Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. But if you manage to stick with Eternal I think it’s more conducive to get you into a meditative state.
To add over it Quake 1 and 2 are also perfect complementaries to DOOM
No cutscenes, just throw you into the game and let you go wild, while still having a progression
Maybe check out Roboquest? I was looking for a mindless FPS a few weeks ago (my usual go-to is UT2004, I’m old :]) and the Roboquest demo scratched the itch pretty well. Planning to pick up the full version when I see it go on sale
Came here to say Roboquest. Replaced Destiny 2 for me when I finally ditched windows for Linux. Though I would love a harder difficulty coop PvE shooter that has similar feel to Destiny. Roboquest has coop but I will always of raiding with my team.
Roboquest actually kind of kicks ass. It’s a way better game than I expected it to be when I picked it up. I think those guys deserve more attention than they’ve been getting.
Also, shout out to Gunfire Reborn as well, I’ve been a big fan of that one for a couple years. Similar style to Roboquest. It’s a Chinese game and some parts of it are a little poorly translated but the gameplay is very fun and solid.
Is slime rancher technically a shooter game?
Is Portal technically a shooter game?
It has a gun that makes holes.
All guns make holes.
A caulk gun fills holes.
It’s a farming sim. You’re just farming with a gun
Gun/vacuum *
but are you shooting the gun? if yes then I might fit the bill
Well it’s not bullets but you do shoot objects/creatures out of it
I’ve been replaying Borderlands 3, so honestly I’d recommend any of those games for a cozy shooter. The stories don’t take themselves too seriously, if you die you can just respawn immediately in the vicinity, and it can be pretty relaxing to just mow down waves of bandits or whatever other enemies.
Give GUN JAM a try. It’s a rhythm shooting game, the stakes are as high or as low as you want them. There’s only a minimal story and you just focus on the music, aiming and staying on the beat. Can be a lot of flow state fun.
Ravenfield with some mods on Workshop maybe? Or Operation Harshdoorstop with some Workshop.
Even though they’re not traditional shooters, the Ratchet and Clank games are really fun. There’s a pretty big genre difference in the games in the franchise, with generally the earlier games being more platform-ey, especially 1 & 2. A lot of the humor from the original trilogy still holds up today.
There’s definitely some “unfun” parts in the games (giant mech fight from rac2 and the hacker from rac3 come to mind) but overall cozy imo. Some of the most unique and fun guns in any game.
If you’re looking for strictly more shooter, check out Ratchet Deadlocked. There’s barely any platforming and no mini games that I can remember, it’s pretty much all shooting. NG+ makes it super cozy. It’s really nice to play emulated.
I’m now imagining something like a gardening game where you shoot seeds/water/fertilizer into the dirt or something… or an Animal Crossing game where you fire furniture out of a gun for the animals to collect…
In that vein, maybe Power Washing Simulator?
Maybe Destiny 2? The gunplay is unmatched and popping alien heads off in an explosion of alien blood or exploding robots in an explosion of robot blood is very satisfying.
Some parts are free to play too.
Cyberpunk on easy with aim assist is pretty chill. Popping heads and blowing off limbs. It’s a comfort game for me.
Really not sure how to interpret ‘cozy’ here, but tbh the Farcry series are great for me in that they’re my casual shooters. I say this meaning that I do the shooting when I want to do the shooting – otherwise I’m off paragliding or picking flowers or something else low stress and soothing. To me, in that regard, they’re very cozy.
Combat Master, a free to play CoD like.
