"Walking Simulators": Puzzle/Exploration games

Sorry I sound really ornery. Good thread! Keep it up!

in the end elder scrolls games are walking simulators

i have the exact puzzle box from that video

i bought the vanishing of ethan carter ages ago in a steam sale and still haven't got around to playing it, but i think that fits the bill here right?

Definitely. Ethan Carter, Dear Esther, Rapture are all more similar to each other than to anything else on that list, because they're walking simulators in the sense that they convey some of the feeling of going for a walk. Nice views, countryside settings, realist visuals. I love all three and would happily play a lot more similar stuff.

Far cry 3 and 4 are kind of ruined walking simulators, in that sense. Nice walks around lovely areas spoiled by shooty fuckers and chompy animals.

btw my big hope for Rift/Vive/Morpheus is that they encourage a lot more of this kind of content. Just people saying "hey, we made a nice environment, go and have a look round it".

Actually Into Blue Valley looks like it might fit the same category, hadn't heard of it before but am interested.

I'd also include Epic Citadel on iOS, which was just meant to be an unreal engine tech demo but was really enjoyable (I thought) as one of these.

Going by one of the definitions here, almost every adventure game during the 80s and 90s was a "walking simulator" simply because you didn't shoot anyone. The only difference now is the use of a first person 3D engine

Still quite a way aways from Holodeck territory

which of these should i play if i liked gone home?

by definition there's very little walking in them but the two Endless Ocean games on the Wii totally fit this bill and are also two of my fave games. given the debt they owe to collect 'em ups like Pokemon i'd argue that the latter are essentially walking sims too?

http://houseofwire.itch.io/trawl?mc_cid=e740484eac&mc_eid=3038c35d82

i would say the ultimate endstate of the Dark/Demons' Souls games are to turn them into walking simulators DID I JUST BLOW YOUR MIND

totally agree on endless ocean
katamari often has elements of this as well

http://store.steampowered.com/app/375950/
^Viridi, a real-time potted plant simulator

good point on the souls series, forks - i guess part of the appeal of those games for me is exploring these beautiful, lonely ruins and uncovering the story of how they came to be, which is basically the point of walking simulators too. the amount of lore those games contain is amazing, even more so since it's possible to play through from start to finish and only scratch the surface fo what is happening and why.

i'd definitely play a modded dark souls where you could just wander round at your own leisure, taking in the sights. much as i wasn't hugely keen on the way enemies in dark souls ii would stop spawning if you killed them often enough, i did occasionally clear a section of an area and spend some time just admirning the details of the environment.

It may be stretching the definition a bit (since it appears that you're in a car most of the time, although I still haven't played the game so I'm not positive), but I gather that Afrika basically fits this bill? You travel around and take pictures of animals.

do the portal games fit this category? there's no combat per se and the environment is important in telling the story indirectly, but something about the presence of glados and wheatley keeps me from saying the portals fit the bill. is a feeling of loneliness a built-in part of walking simulators?

Should you be able to die in a walking simulator? Aside from something like walking off a cliff?

yeah, good point - i think maybe not? like gone home would feel very different if there was a real threat of death rather than the creepiness of exploring an abandoned house.

so by that metric portal definitely isn't one

Datura and Goat Simulator might count.

Portal is a straightforward puzzle game, surely? With some manual dexterity tests (I bloody love these games but can't get that far in them because a combo of natural maldexterousness and trackpad means I fail half the jumps)

it's built around a cool puzzle mechanic for sure, but it's not exactly tetris in its straightforwardness - it has an interesting story which is revealed both through dialogue and close inspection of the environment, which are both key elements of the walking simulator genre.

you're totally right that it's way more challenging than a straight-up walking simulator though - there's no element of frustration caused by wrestling with the controls in proteus, for example.

i played Ecco the Dolphin like this as a kid. never got very far in pursuing the 'story' or exploration, it was enough fun just to swim around and see how high you could jump out of the water.

Ecco was shockingly difficult, iirc

wow that Afrika game looks great. wish I had a PS3.

I think I play a bunch of games like Assassins' Creed b/c what I really want is to explore, if only virtually, interesting environments? I don't much care how much game there is if the environment is appealing enough.

but I am not sure that this is what we're talking about here.

i'd maintain that Assassin's Creed is much more fun as a historical, scenic climbing simulator vs. the actual assassinating/plot. well, at least the first one, not sure how it holds for the sequels

only found out about Afrika today and funnily enough not thru this thread. needless to say i v much want it, but even more i now apparently want an English version of Aquanaut's Holiday: Hidden Memories

yes I've only played the first AC & was thinking of it; have a couple of the Italian ones but uh they're in my queue. obv I really want to play the Paris one too.

along the same lines I played the Saboteur mostly as a way to engage with the environment of occupied Paris during the 2nd WW. I did blow up a bunch of stuff too as a partisan, but even that was environmental interaction. I can't get into any GTA b/c I don't enjoy the amorality they seem to encourage, where shooting pedestrians is a key way to engage with the environment.

so let's divvy these up:

games where the non combative narrative exploration of the game world is more or less the entirety of the game but with an aim toward an end state: gone home, dear esther, everyone's gone to the rapture, proteus, among the sleep

games where the exploration of the game unearths intentionally simple puzzles that once solved unlock additional narrative, rinse repeat until you get to end state: the stanley parable, talos principle, brother, journey, thirty flights of loving, GROW, superbrothers, windosill, monument ... maybe portal at the upper reaches of this sliver of gaming

pet rock /sim style games where you are caring for / photographing / capturing / collecting game elements with no definitive end state but with a strong personal narrative throughout... call them "open sims" - afrika, endless ocean, pokemon snap, viridi, animal crossing, cart life, papers please

no end state crafting worlds or god sims where combat is second to exploration/world expansion: Minecraft, terraria, darwinia

"puzzle box" games where each step forward in the narrative is accomplished by figuring out a self contained brainteaser leading to a definitive end game state- the room, her story, little inferno, year walk, amnesia

punishing survival games with combative play where mastery of play results in rendering a complex game world open to painless joyful exploration - don't starve, dark souls, spelunky, super meat boy, octodad

strange mobius strips of minimal (but satisfying) game play that release tiny droplets of world/character development through infinite replayability - desert golfing, crossy road, flappy bird

thoughts?

maybe a category for the on rails/minimal interaction kind of Interactive Fiction that is borderline Not Interactive Fiction in disguise? stuff like Photopia, Digital: A Love Story almost

and Myst et al belong somewhere in your second category too i think and might be grandparents of the genre

Myst/7th Guest/CD-ROM era definitely making a comeback these days

watched some Talos Principle at a friend's house and it looks really interesting, also really huge?

SHENMUE

Gone Home available on PS+ this month. Have never played any of these games but am kinda psyched to give this a spin.

It's fun! Not earthshaking, but it's well-written and deft at environmental storytelling.

Hadn't heard of this one until very recently:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ol4OSIGGukA

Here are ones I've played recently:

Jalopy. I'm a big fan of the driving games that aren't actually racing games and require minimal effort. Also search My Summer Car and The Long Drive

Burning Daylight. Nice story driven dystopian cyberpunk looking game, not even a game tbh.

Signal Simulator. Just sit around in a satellite base checking and decoding signals from space. Sometimes go outside and fix broken things, and get freaked out. Sublime.

Scanner Sombre. Wander around a huge cave network in complete darkness armed with a laser that shoots coloured dots to draw the landscape. Nice in vr

The Coin Game. spend money on arcade token games, or bumper cars and stuff. roam freely around the small island at night catching buses.

Diaries of a Spaceport Janitor. Beautiful looking game, very odd. Pick up litter and sell some of it. Change gender every now and again.

Angler's Life. super-sim, in early development. A bit crappy at the moment but the fishing mechanic is impressive.

Recommend me some story driven games please!

Florence is very short but very good at what it does (document a failing relationship using some (mini-, frankly) games).

kentucky route zero was my favorite of the initial crop of these but i can't fully recommend it until the final act comes out, cmon its been like 4 years

i didn't get too far in it but Eastshade is nice, sort of an elder scrolls-esque world but with no combat or rpg stuff mucking it up, just lore and side quests

A friend of mine has been raving about Return of the Obra Dinn.

Obra Dinn is good as hell but not a walking simulator really, the walking is paired with a very crunchy logic puzzle mechanic.

obra dinn is a mystery/detective game, dunno if it counts here. i guess theres kinda thin lines between this genre and point-and-click adventure games on one side and puzzle games on another side and visual novels on another

All generic line-drawing is corrupt and irresponsible so yeah who knows, it’s a family resemblance

yes Obra Dinn is far too head taxing to be counted as a nice numb walking sim for me. It's a good game though, my first play through I flew through and failed at everything, I should retry really

I searched for walking simulator on steam and this made me lol

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1201840/MAN_STANDING/

haha

Amazed no one has mentioned 'The Witness' yet! It's great.

I watched someone stream firewatch and it seemed pretty good as far as these things go (not a huge fan of the genre)

the witness is an incredible puzzle game but i wouldn't put it anywhere near the walking simulator genre.

bumping, i'm sort of feeling the walking simulator thing lately. i love exploring environments without a lot of time pressure or involved cut scenes; immersive environments, tchotchkes to find without stupid logic puzzles to solve first, playing around and experimenting with things. i really enjoyed breath of the wild - not a lot of plot or voice acting (the voice acting there was, i thought was atrocious) or hand-holding. games like that?

A Short Hike is a small & simple & pleasant one

also Eastshade as i mentioned upthread is kinda like an elder scrolls game with the combat and rpg system removed if that appeals

yeah, of the ones i browsed eastshade, a short hike, scanner sombre looked nicest

think i'd have to play eastshade on the wife's computer, though, she's got a much more swank machine than i do

yeah it ran kinda choppy on my pretty good machine but they might have optimized it more since release

i picked up A Short Hike on the Epic giveaway and it's nice and runs fine. not as immersive as a bigger title but pleasantly aggro free so far