My girlfriend has never really gamed. But she’s now forced to move less than she would like to (health problem) and she’s getting bored.
I was thinking of introducing her to a game or two that we could play together. She’s not the real action game type, and seeing as she has no experience with controller/mouse and keyboard I was thinking starting simple.
I can’t think of anything else than Factorio, as she likes organizing/keeping track of stuff.
Would you recommend against that or have anything better in mind? Let me know!
I played a lot of Terraria with my sister. It’s 2D, so she did not get motion sickness. There’s a lot of costumes we could collect. (This was probably our favourite part of the game.)
Adding to the cliche list, Animal Crossing is another game to consider since it’s very chill and can be cozy. Has collections she can work on filling out, she can make a dope island, and make her house into a perfect living space.
Another recommendation that might sound counter-intuitive but could work is Vermintide 2. It’s an action game that does have mechanical depth to it for the higher difficulties, but the game is very forgiving on the two easiest difficulties where you can just use whatever is fun and do decently well. The melee combat is very satisfying even when just going unga bunga, and it goes on sale frequently for like $5, so you both could pick up copies and have fun in a coop game where you’re bashing the heads of ratmen in with ease.
Turned based on pausable stuff can reduce stress by allowing for thoughtfulness, and even single player games can be done together through strategizing, while also not requiring the 2nd person if they aren’t available. To that end, I’m going to recommend Slay the Spire, Dicey Dungeons or Broken Age. Then probably some kind of tactical game, Darkest Dungeon, Loop Hero or Shadowrun. After that, maybe some kind of management game, Cities: Skylines, SimCity, Stardew Valley, Humankind or Against the Storm. If you want to go deeper, Crusader Kings, Dyson Sphere Program or Wartales.
Real-time games that require using multiple sticks/buttons/aiming+moving at once are inherently more difficult to start without the muscle memory, so I’d look to build that up with games that have simpler controls starting with Vampire Survivors or Brotato. Then I’d probably do some kind of non-shooter first or third person game, thinking of Escape Academy, Firewatch or Superliminal, Amnesia (maybe). Then a combat first/third person game Assassin’s Creed, Battlefield (Campaign), Mass Effect. Then maybe something that’s got combat plus extra stuff, Atomic Heart, Deep Rock Galactic, Dead Space (maybe), Doom, Prey, Wo Long, Remnant. After that is really PvP stuff.
If you just want more readably accessible stuff, A Short Hike, Disneyland Adventures, Peggle, Plants vs Zombies, Bejeweled, The Walking Dead from Telltale (maybe).
I also pulled every game on this list off of Xbox Game Pass, so that might be a good way to try a bunch of different games for cheaper.
Maybe Timberborn once she’s slightly more familiar with keyboard controls? It’s a cute city builder type game with beavers and the big thing with that is building dams and redirecting water, but it’s still in early release and I don’t think it does an amazing job of explaining its mechanics, but at the moment it still has a fairly straightforward resource management and supply chain mechanic.
My partner wasn’t into video games, but I got her into them. One she was really into is stardew valley. It’s really chill and low stakes. Might be a good one to try.
I’m really surprised I haven’t seen them mentioned here (and apologies if someone did suggest it and I missed it!).
The Monkey Island games. Super simple controls, as most of it is point and click. Not expensive to get into, so no big loss if it ends up not being her thing. They are silly and clever, and reward the player for being silly and clever. They are puzzle games that require some attention to detail and curiosity to solve, but there isn’t any “fail” condition. You just don’t progress if you can’t solve the puzzle. It doesn’t assume any prior game knowledge or habits; a lot of games will expect the player to be familiar with certain controls or tropes commonly used in games, but Monkey Island is more similar to a “choose your own adventure” style story.
My partner used to be a teacher. There was a period of like a year when she would get home from work looking insanely stressed. Then she’d boot up Stardew Valley on her laptop from the couch and I could see her mood change immediately. She’d play for hours too.
At one point it was like Stardew Valley was her real life while the actual outside world was some horrible nightmare she had to wake up from.
It Takes Two would be my introduction for a partner who doesn’t game very much. Co-op, easy to play, fun in a really low stakes way with a great story. I had tons of fun with the game playing with an ex.
Raft is another I played with an ex that was a lot of fun. It’s a very chill co-op survival game where you build up your boat.
I tried It Takes Two with my SO, and they hated it because of the need to control the camera - so we went to 2d platformers after that.
I finished It Takes Two with my sister, small warning: the game is mostly feel good at the beginning, but in the end you’re gonna have to do some horrible things.
I didn’t mind - I’ve done a lot worse in other games where I didn’t have to - but she did not enjoy these parts of the game.
Take a look at “Lovers in a dangerous spacetime”. It’s a cute, fun coop game with fairly simple controls. And I’m pretty sure it was developed with non-gamer partners in mind.
Yeah, totally no stress fighting the moonlord or any of the bosses…
Terraria is fun, but doubt a non-gamer will be able to jump right in and understand the fiddly build, mine and jump mechanics. They’ll get overwhelmed.
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Fall guys has been great and getting anybody at least slightly interested in playing
This is a cliche, but a lot of women I know play the Sims. Your girlfriend might like it as well.
Wilmot’s Warehouse is a cool game about organizing a warehouse.
I played a lot of Terraria with my sister. It’s 2D, so she did not get motion sickness. There’s a lot of costumes we could collect. (This was probably our favourite part of the game.)
Adding to the cliche list, Animal Crossing is another game to consider since it’s very chill and can be cozy. Has collections she can work on filling out, she can make a dope island, and make her house into a perfect living space.
Another recommendation that might sound counter-intuitive but could work is Vermintide 2. It’s an action game that does have mechanical depth to it for the higher difficulties, but the game is very forgiving on the two easiest difficulties where you can just use whatever is fun and do decently well. The melee combat is very satisfying even when just going unga bunga, and it goes on sale frequently for like $5, so you both could pick up copies and have fun in a coop game where you’re bashing the heads of ratmen in with ease.
Mine loves Cook Serve Delicious and Stardew Valley. Also Starbound and Terraria.
Turned based on pausable stuff can reduce stress by allowing for thoughtfulness, and even single player games can be done together through strategizing, while also not requiring the 2nd person if they aren’t available. To that end, I’m going to recommend Slay the Spire, Dicey Dungeons or Broken Age. Then probably some kind of tactical game, Darkest Dungeon, Loop Hero or Shadowrun. After that, maybe some kind of management game, Cities: Skylines, SimCity, Stardew Valley, Humankind or Against the Storm. If you want to go deeper, Crusader Kings, Dyson Sphere Program or Wartales.
Real-time games that require using multiple sticks/buttons/aiming+moving at once are inherently more difficult to start without the muscle memory, so I’d look to build that up with games that have simpler controls starting with Vampire Survivors or Brotato. Then I’d probably do some kind of non-shooter first or third person game, thinking of Escape Academy, Firewatch or Superliminal, Amnesia (maybe). Then a combat first/third person game Assassin’s Creed, Battlefield (Campaign), Mass Effect. Then maybe something that’s got combat plus extra stuff, Atomic Heart, Deep Rock Galactic, Dead Space (maybe), Doom, Prey, Wo Long, Remnant. After that is really PvP stuff.
If you just want more readably accessible stuff, A Short Hike, Disneyland Adventures, Peggle, Plants vs Zombies, Bejeweled, The Walking Dead from Telltale (maybe).
I also pulled every game on this list off of Xbox Game Pass, so that might be a good way to try a bunch of different games for cheaper.
Maybe Timberborn once she’s slightly more familiar with keyboard controls? It’s a cute city builder type game with beavers and the big thing with that is building dams and redirecting water, but it’s still in early release and I don’t think it does an amazing job of explaining its mechanics, but at the moment it still has a fairly straightforward resource management and supply chain mechanic.
Phogs
My partner wasn’t into video games, but I got her into them. One she was really into is stardew valley. It’s really chill and low stakes. Might be a good one to try.
Or somewhat similar (though lacking that late game content) Roots of Pacha
I’m really surprised I haven’t seen them mentioned here (and apologies if someone did suggest it and I missed it!).
The Monkey Island games. Super simple controls, as most of it is point and click. Not expensive to get into, so no big loss if it ends up not being her thing. They are silly and clever, and reward the player for being silly and clever. They are puzzle games that require some attention to detail and curiosity to solve, but there isn’t any “fail” condition. You just don’t progress if you can’t solve the puzzle. It doesn’t assume any prior game knowledge or habits; a lot of games will expect the player to be familiar with certain controls or tropes commonly used in games, but Monkey Island is more similar to a “choose your own adventure” style story.
The Bloons tower defense games are pretty fun and have co-op, you can take it slow and the upgrade system has a lot of fun little upgrades to manage.
Ok so the answer is Stardew Valley. There are some other decent answers in here but trust me on this, it’s Stardew Valley for her first one.
My partner used to be a teacher. There was a period of like a year when she would get home from work looking insanely stressed. Then she’d boot up Stardew Valley on her laptop from the couch and I could see her mood change immediately. She’d play for hours too.
At one point it was like Stardew Valley was her real life while the actual outside world was some horrible nightmare she had to wake up from.
It Takes Two would be my introduction for a partner who doesn’t game very much. Co-op, easy to play, fun in a really low stakes way with a great story. I had tons of fun with the game playing with an ex.
Raft is another I played with an ex that was a lot of fun. It’s a very chill co-op survival game where you build up your boat.
I tried It Takes Two with my SO, and they hated it because of the need to control the camera - so we went to 2d platformers after that.
I finished It Takes Two with my sister, small warning: the game is mostly feel good at the beginning, but in the end you’re gonna have to do some horrible things.
I didn’t mind - I’ve done a lot worse in other games where I didn’t have to - but she did not enjoy these parts of the game.
League of Legends
Maybe she would like to learn programming or Linux stuff?
Take a look at “Lovers in a dangerous spacetime”. It’s a cute, fun coop game with fairly simple controls. And I’m pretty sure it was developed with non-gamer partners in mind.
Stardew Valley is a fantastic couples game
Yes. Very much worth trying. My wife and myself have about a hundred hours in our coop save.
Stardew valley can be super annoying due to the sleeping mechanic and having to be on time with the planting of things.
I’ve found terraria to be less stressful and had more success with it
Yeah, totally no stress fighting the moonlord or any of the bosses…
Terraria is fun, but doubt a non-gamer will be able to jump right in and understand the fiddly build, mine and jump mechanics. They’ll get overwhelmed.