I recently finished The Last of Us 2. My girlfriend sometimes watches me play my games. And while I thought that TLoU would be a great game to follow, it was hard for her to watch (due to the violence). I wonder if there is a game that would be easy or even interesting for her to watch while I play, without it having to be something strictly “family friendly” , that also has fun gaming mechanics and isn’t just a walking simulator. Looking forward to any ideas! :)
The Outer Wilds is my vote. The kind of game that can be made much better with a spectator helping keep track of things and figuring out puzzles with you
Outer Wilds, not to be confused with The Outer Worlds!
Great suggestion. Me and my partner “play” a lot of games together where one of us controls but both get to have input and make decisions, and this is a fantastic example.
There’s a whole channel that kinda answers this! Girlfriend Reviews started as a channel where the presenter reviewed what it was like to live with someone that played games - i.e. how good it was to watch someone else play. She’s started playing some of the games herself lately, but the point still stands.
In a recent video Should Your Boyfriend Play Spider-Man 2? she says it’s
the best game to watch someone else play this year
(at which point I paused to go find this post and see if anyone else had posted this channel already).
Yes, I just remembered this too!
The Quantum games (Heavy Rain, Beyond:Two Souls, Detroit:Become Human) are great for that. Also the Life Is Strange series. Abzu, Journey are “cinematic games” of their own. Maybe Firewatch? Outer Wilds?
Second this. My girlfriend has absolutely not interest in playing games but enjoyed going through Detroit with me and helping choose different options as the game progressed. We even went back to replay some of it to get to different endings which is something I barely ever do when playing games by myself.
I dunno but many said ‘stray’ was good, but it’s defo also a walking sim in some ways
Horizon Zero Dawn. It actually got my wife to put her Switch away and watch. That’s saying something.
final fantasies violence tends to be comic bookey (and not the adult hardcore type) and have great stories. final fantasy X is such a great story.
I am a very casual gamer, but my partner is much more invested and skilled when it comes to gaming. I ended up really enjoying watching him play Returnal, to the point that I’d be annoyed if he played without me. It was visually beautiful, the story was movie-like, and I was even helpful in watching where the monsters were so they didn’t sneak up on him.
I hope he wants to replay it, because I’d love to watch it again. Highly recommend!
Play retro adventure games, or modern Telltale ones.
I don’t know how it would be for active watching, but I had a girlfriend that liked to read or do some light work while I played. She was absolutely captivated from time to time by Shadow of the Colossus. There’s something about the momentum and the music, I think.
Days Gone. It’s basically a biker road movie set in a zombie apocalypse scenario playing out in rural Oregon. Strong story, beautiful graphics, and a healthy balance between scavenging/exploration and fighting.
If that’s still too violent, maybe the Hitman series. That’s basically 95% exploration / problem solving because you have to spend most of your time figuring out how to get close enough to your target so you can eliminate them without causing too much of a stir.
Also Deus Ex Human Revolution or Mankind Divided, for similar reasons. You’re pretty much always outnumbered and outgunned so you have figure out how to get around and complete your objectives without being detected and only pick your fights sparingly.
Have you asked her if there are any games she would be interested in watching? If there’s a game I want to see the story of but am not interested in playing it myself, I ask my husband to play it. (BioShock, Mass Effect, Assassin’s Creed, shooters or platformers in general). I usually help with puzzles or give input on dialogue options if I want to.
My spouse really enjoys when I go through the Yakuza games.
“Baba is you” the game induces the “ah-a” moment when you just came up with a solition to the puzzle. The player has perfect knowledge about the state of the game but they don’t know the solution. It could be played with two heads and one controller.
imo, the funniest part of the game is listening to the player(s) repeatedly stating things from the game like cavemen
“baba is you, rock is push, water is sink… what? ok ok, rock is float… AARGH”
I like the low ominous sound when you accidentally erase yourself.
“Ah, but what if baba is key? Oh…oh no”
Undertale and Night in the Woods might be interesting choices, the former more than the latter, in my opinion. Neither has any voices, so if your girl won’t stop to read, she’ll easily “get lost”.
If she’s into futuristic stuff, the Deus Ex games might be good options. They can be violent, but in a non lethal manner if you play “pacifist”. Mass Effect would probably fit into that, too. Would be great for your girl to tell you which lady or dude your Shepard should bang
