Players usually want a good story in their games. I can enjoy a good story too, but sometimes I just want to get going and do stuff without listening to several minutes of dialog in-between action.
Do you know any games where there’s no story (or very minimal/skippable one), and the game mechanics alone carry the game?
EDIT: Thank you all for the suggestions. There are some that I’ve never heard of and look very interesting. Will definitely pick some of them up.
Factorio. All about letting the factory grow.
I also started playing wizards of legend recently. It takes maybe 20 minutes to get through the tutorial, then it’s just game. I’m enjoying it so far
Tetris, along with most puzzle games.
It’s seriously hard to beat Tetris.
Tetris effect is insanely good for the music alone, and with ve the whole thing was an experience
Jonas Neubauer did.
Came here to say Tetris!
Definitely doesn’t have any story, that’s for sure.
I mean they made a movie…
This is such a hard question to answer without more information. There are a literal ton of mechanically good games with minimal/no story across a massive variety of genres. What are you into? Surely your interests run deeper than “don’t make me read, don’t show me a movie”.
I’d start to look into rogue-lites; games that kill you rapidly are less inclined to lore-dump before they get to it, instead either hiding the story around the game world, or giving you snippets between runs. Dead Cells, Bullets Per Minute, Crypt of the Necrodancer, Rogue Legacy, Into the Breach, Enter the Gungeon. That should cover a wide birth of genres, anyway.
Be more specific and we can give you far better recommendations.
Rogue-lites are probably a good suggestion, considering I played and enjoyed Bullets Per Minute and Rogue Legacy. Also Dead Cells is probably one of my favourite. If there’s at least some form of progression then I think I’ll like it so I’ll look into the others you mentioned. Thanks.
Slay the Spire maybe?
Nova Drift is one of my favorite rogue-likes, highly recommended. Check out the youtube channel “Ultra C” for a ton of different rogue-likes.
If you liked Bullets Per Minute, pick up Metal: Hellsinger. Not a roguelite, but a very well-structured single-player story-minimal (~10-15 second voiced introductions to each level, occasionally a 1-2 minute, voiced cutscene between stages) game. It’s more like Doom - set arenas, with set encounters across varying difficulties - with a more refined, BPM-style “shoot on the beat” system. And it sports an insanely good original soundtrack with guest vocalists from across the spectrum of metal.
Hades deserves to be in this list if you’ve not played it.
Hades for sure has a story. Probably the best implementation of story in the whole genre.
Yeah it does, but I wouldn’t say it’s the main attraction. It’s good, but I wouldn’t call it story driven.
The gameplay loop uses getting to interact with the characters and to advance the various subplots as part of your reward/consolation at the end of each run. I’d call that story-heavy.
Factorio?
The factory must grow
Deep Rock Galactic
Kenshi is a post-apocalyptic sandbox open-world RPG / base-building game with a bunch of lore but absolutely no plot for you to follow.
One of my favourite games. So much fun.
Minecraft. Cities Skylines. RimWorld. Helldivers.*
*You’re going to need to co-op to have any chance in the mid to late game.
Dwarf Fortress
Vampire survivor? 20 Minutes Till Dawn?
Vampire Survivors has more story than vampires. Which is a low bar to clear but it just about does.
Heat signature. And Minecraft
Best answer here.
Vampire Survivors
I keep hearing about this one. I need to try it one day.
It’s $5 and brilliant 40+ hour game with excellent mechanical complexity
Factorio, one opening cinematic that takes 30 seconds and that’s it. The factory must grow!
The factory must grow
Rogue Legacy was going to be my suggestion. Such an easy (as in no stories/puzzles to keep track of) game to pick up and play. It’s something that was lost a bit on the second game. But it looks like you’ve played it.
Dungeon Encounters is a pure turn-based RPG with almost no story.
Theatrhythm is a fun music game.
Sound Shapes is a platformer.
Immortal Redneck is a FPS rogue-like.
That’s just what’s in my games list that might be what you’re looking for.
Ratchet & Clank games are solid and approachable if you’re into casual platformers. The main focus is the huge array of different weapons which often get hilariously over the top in the late game, and story is just there for a backdrop.
