Looking for a casual game that I can quickly pick up or put down
I have a few games that I am playing at the moment, but a lot of them require at least some time commitment once you start a round. I'd like something that I can start now and maybe finish later. Something on the line of Solitaire or https://mergetin.com/ .
Might not be your cup of tea, but I feel like there’s overlap with puzzle games: roguelike deckbuilding games. I got hooked on Slay the Spire on PC a few years ago, and they had it on Playstation Plus recently so I’m hooked again. In similar genre I can recommend Monster Train. They’re mostly pick up and play, there’s no timer counting down… and they’re often on sale.
I’ll second the recommendation of Dorfromantik, and I’ll also add Islanders, which has a similar vibe but different visuals and gameplay.
In both cases, you’re given pieces that need to be placed on the map in order to score points, and that’s the extent of a round, which makes it very easy to play for a couple of minutes, then put it down until later.
Seems you’re into puzzle games so I’ll recommend you that there’s an entire genre of minesweeper clones / inspired games on Steam. Some are straight up clones of the game, others are very similar, and some use the mechanics but twist them around in interesting ways. Good examples are Hexcells, Hexseed, Tametsi, DELETE, and GlobeSweeper. Once you learn the basic mechanics, they’re pretty hard to forget, and a lot of games borrow mechanics from others. When I started DELETE, for instance, the mechanics were a little bit different in some small ways, but I pretty much rocketed through the first dozen levels because of my prior knowledge of how minesweeper works.
My favourite for this concept is Luck be a Landlord. It takes 5 seconds to open, each action takes like 5 seconds, and can be dropped at any second completely save. It’s a rogue-like deck builder in the interface of a slot machine.
It’s not only fun, but is super non committal, I’ve had friends say “brb” and I open the game for 30 seconds to play and get off. With that said I’ve also been absorbed into the game and spent entire days glued, it’s a great time.
Overwatch 2. Since the changes from old Overwatch, there is no real point in anything other than Quick Play, which means 5-10 minute games, and you are free to leave at any moment
I just finished Dredge, and that seems to be a good recommendation for this. You have these simple objectives - find a specific fish, transport package A to island B, dredge up sunken treasure, etc. It works on this system of rest when you dock at islands, and days are very short. It's very easy to play for a few minutes, dock at an island, and save/quit.
Noita, very difficult game but don't let it stop you, exploration and finding out secrets is very fun. Once you start a run you can save and continue at any point.
Into the Breach would work. You can turn off the game at any point and come back to it, thanks to it saving after every turn. Plays a lot like chess, with different abilities and enemy types to keep things interesting. Highly recommend!
Wholeheartedly agree. Bought it on PC and played for countless hours. Later bought it again on Switch, played even more. Recently picked it up again, as fun as ever!
Probably a stretch, but The Binding Of Isaac now has a decent system for this. Sometimes I start a run, get angry, leave the game, and pick it up some time later - sometimes even multiple times per run.
Not so much a game recommendation but a platform, but if you don’t already have a Nintendo switch, it might suit your style.
It lets you suspend any game at whatever point by just going to the Home Screen. You can then put down the switch and leave it for days or even weeks at a time, and then you can just turn the switch back on and pick up exactly where you left off in like 5 seconds.
I’ve been playing heaps of the new Zelda game, whenever I get a spare moment, but also if Nintendo games aren’t your style, nowadays there’s quite a good library of other games for the switch now.
Obviously the suspend feature doesn’t work for multiplayer games though, and to be honest I’ve found multiplayer in general doesn’t work as well on switch as other platforms, but it really is great for quick sessions of single-player games.
Steam deck also makes it easy to suspend pretty much whatever isn't always online. Even stuff like Elden ring that doesn't pause works fine, for the most part.
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