I’ve been playing Conan Exiles, a survival crafting game that’s been out for several years but still receives regular major updates.
It’s a bit generic - there’s little I haven’t already seen in another survival game - but it’s more polished than most due to having a major developer behind it. There’s a lot of content, bespoke animations for nearly every weapon, and the base building is a delight. Exploration is also great due to diverse biomes and the game’s climbing system, which also lets you grab the wall while falling and slowly slide to a halt - this looks and feels great and turns avoiding falling damage from a headache into a cinematic moment. It’s not parkour, but it tugs the same strings.
The game has an unfortunate tendency to crash when messing with companion inventories, though that may be due to a Steam Workshop mod I’m using (one I can’t bring myself to remove because it makes inventory and companion management so much easier). Aside from that hiccup - which only triggers once every few hours, which is tolerable for me - and knocked out enemies occasionally falling through the ground (you need to drag them back to your base to recruit them as NPCs), the game has been rock-solid.
I’m somewhat tempted to buy the new Dune game by the same devs, but I’ve heard mixed things about the solo experience.
I second this as a sandbox builder game. Self hosted a server and played with my wife for a few months. I feel like I barely scratched the full content of the game. Base building and taming/companions really is a delight. Especially building a full fortress with all the “staff” for the crafting stations.
I’ve been playing Conan Exiles, a survival crafting game that’s been out for several years but still receives regular major updates.
It’s a bit generic - there’s little I haven’t already seen in another survival game - but it’s more polished than most due to having a major developer behind it. There’s a lot of content, bespoke animations for nearly every weapon, and the base building is a delight. Exploration is also great due to diverse biomes and the game’s climbing system, which also lets you grab the wall while falling and slowly slide to a halt - this looks and feels great and turns avoiding falling damage from a headache into a cinematic moment. It’s not parkour, but it tugs the same strings.
The game has an unfortunate tendency to crash when messing with companion inventories, though that may be due to a Steam Workshop mod I’m using (one I can’t bring myself to remove because it makes inventory and companion management so much easier). Aside from that hiccup - which only triggers once every few hours, which is tolerable for me - and knocked out enemies occasionally falling through the ground (you need to drag them back to your base to recruit them as NPCs), the game has been rock-solid.
I’m somewhat tempted to buy the new Dune game by the same devs, but I’ve heard mixed things about the solo experience.
I second this as a sandbox builder game. Self hosted a server and played with my wife for a few months. I feel like I barely scratched the full content of the game. Base building and taming/companions really is a delight. Especially building a full fortress with all the “staff” for the crafting stations.