Dear community,
I’m looking for a similar (calm) game like Portal 1/2 or Firewatch that I can play on macOS with a similar vibe. The last time I played a game is years ago, and I wish I had at least once a week a nice single-player game that I can play 1-2 hours. =)
I enjoyed Portal because I had to plan out what I’m doing before I act (without being pressured to act), the atmosphere of the game was legendary and I liked that little robot following me. Firewatch had a calm amazing story, there was no ‘action’ but sometimes that feeling that something could happen. It was a nice exploring game.
Any ideas?
Update: Thank you for your input!
no man’s sky, always relaxes me after a tough day
Project Zomboid is super peaceful if you turn off the zombies. The game’s sandbox settings are super expansive, so you can play pretty much any way you want.
Talos Principal 1 and 2. They are also story based puzzle games. I’m not sure I’d Talos 1 remaster or 2 are on Mac but I’m sure the original one is, which still holds up.
A Short Hike! Play as a little bird, climbing a mountain, flying/gliding, talking to quirky characters. Beautiful pixel art. Also Fez.
Transistor and Bastion are similar games that can be chill with combat.
Thomas was alone is a chill platformer with a nice story.
Perhaps HASTE might work. Highly customizable experience. Mac friendly.
I really love Flower
I enjoyed Portal because I had to plan out what I’m doing before I act (without being pressured to act), the atmosphere of the game was legendary and I liked that little robot following me
Portal 2 has two community made “Valve Quality” DLCs. “Portal Stories: Mel” and “Portal: Revolution”. Mel seems playable on macOS at least. Revolution is basically a Portal 2 presequel. (It’s also so long I would have payed for it.)
or
are a couple of zen micro-games.
For a larger game, Beneath a Steel Sky has a robot who follows you around cracking jokes.
If you want portal but different I can’t recommend antichamber enough. Also the community made portal games like revolution are pretty good.
OP are you using Crossover or similar to play portal? The native mac version of Portal doesn’t support macOS newer than 10.14
If I remember correctly, I played Portal on Xbox 360 and an old macOS version
Blue Prince
I enjoy calmer games most times I’m gaming so I have a lot. The genre I most like is puzzle games, but there are a few exploration/ walking simulators here, too. Among the games already listed, there are:
- The Room
- Doors
- Boxes
- Machinka Museum
- My Brother Rabbit
- The Gardens Between
- Stela
- La Rana
- Dawn
- Manifold Garden
- Discolored
- Tree Bonzai
I would recommend Stray but it has some areas where you’re running away from bad things for a bit.
Mostly it’s just exploring and meowing though.
A Short Hike
The Outer Wilds
Tunic
Exploration focused games that are pretty calm (for the most part). They are some of my personal favorites. I recommend not looking up much about them (especially Outer Wilds and Tunic. Learning mechanics from gameplay is part of the game for those two). Tunic is probably the most action oriented of the lot, (like old Zelda games) and it leans hard on the puzzle aspect, so if that’s not your favorite then it might not be for you.
Tunic is fantastic, but not that chill. Its kinda “souls-lite” So much dying, though punishment is minimal.
Night in the Woods is mostly chill with some spikes of excitement. It is a good match for A Short Hike along multiple axes but I’d recommend caution as it dips into melancholy and mental health issues.
yeah, in retrospect, Tunic probably shouldn’t be on this list. I was fondly remembering the puzzles and exploration and less so the souls-like combat challenges.
Tunic is, however, fantastic, and should be played.
It does have a somber feel to it and I at least found that the combat mostly got out of the way at a certain point. Not trivial but getting there.
