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 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?
I liked Firewatch a lot, but it basically is a walking simulator
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.
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.
Holy crap I didn’t even realize Outer Wilds and The Outer Worlds were two different games. I keep hearing how good Outer Wilds was, so was excited when it was on the Humble Bundle Choice games a few months ago. Turns out it was The Outer Worlds. Dammit.
So many people make the same mistake, you are definitely not alone. VERY different games though.
Seconded! Thirded, even! It’s so fun to figure things out as a group and do discover things together.
My wife played Pokemon and Mario Kart before we dated. After dating for a bit she took a bit of interest in what I was playing and even started playing some games on her own.
My wife liked watching:
- Witcher 3
- Red Dead Redemption
- Assassin’s Creed (pre-Origins style games)
- Portal
- Devil May Cry (besides DmC)
- Prototype
- Xenoblade Chronicles
- L.A. Noire
- Spiderman
She joined me or played some others on her own:
- Stardew Valley
- Rust (surprisingly)
- Conan Exiles
- Golf with Friends
- Animal Crossing
- Dinkum
- Core Keeper
- Terraria
- Truck Simulator
- Ori and the Blind Forest
- Assassin’s Creed Black Flag (she liked to gather supplies and do small secondary quests, or just sail around)
The all-time winner was Breath of the Wild, she loved to watch and play it, and sometimes I watched her play it too. She solved problems in very different ways than I did and it was interesting. Example: my primary way to kill Guardians was to deflect blasts, while she just rode her horse at them and cut them apart. You can imagine how nuts Tears of the Kingdom has been lol.
I feel it might be worth mentioning she did not enjoy watching or playing:
- Monster Hunter
- Any flight/space sims (Ace Combat, Elite Dangerous, etc.)
- Factorio
- Minecraft
- Remnant
- Deep Rock Galactic
- Vermintide/Darktide
- most Metroidvanias
- Civilization
If I had to guess at what these share in common, its a lack of story and NPC interactions, or pacing that makes it less interesting to watch.
Thank you for this personal recommendation. Was interesting to read from first-hand experience!
Stray is great for an audience
Zelda Tears of the Kingdom is a ton of fun to both play and watch. Speaking from experience. Finished it myself, then watched the wife complete it. Both were fun as hell
Was about to say BotW
Anything story heavy would be good because then for her it’s like watching a movie. Like spiderman, uncharted, god of war, telltale games etc., I would stray away from most RPGs though even though they are story driven but there’s usually a lot of fluff gameplay where you’re just grinding which wouldn’t be very fun to watch.
My Dad really liked the Uncharted series. It’d be great for OP if his girlfriend doesn’t mind some violence. TLoU is a bit high on the graphic stuff
I think how they portray the violence in uncharted games is very different to how bleak it’s shown in TLOU though. The tone is overall very cheery and Indiana Jones-esque.
Definitely! It wasn’t clear if the goal was closer to “no violence” or “less graphic violence” though
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!
Horizon Zero Dawn. It actually got my wife to put her Switch away and watch. That’s saying something.
Baldurs Gate 3.
Added bonus that she can help you decide on dialog options
Play it takes two with her! :)
I think the Telltale games would be good for this. Something relatively short, easy to follow and the storylines from the different games are fun and varied.
To The Moon is worth playing even if the story has some sad points.
Point and click adventures or visual novels might also be a good fit to play together without it mattering much who has the controls.
Ooh. Been a while since I’ve heard of To the Moon. There’s a sequel to that called Finding Paradise, which I also remember liking. Haven’t followed them since, but their latest game Imposter Factory seems great too judging by the overwhelmingly positive reviews on Steam.
Imposter Factory is, indeed, amazing.
I shall try it out then!
My girlfriend loves to watch me play games. She likes to do “comms” as she says, where she researches tough boss guides, cool weapon locations, etc while I play. It’s interactive for her, and she doesn’t have to learn how to play the game (she doesn’t enjoy most video games and finds them frustrating). One of her favourites was Elden Ring, but really any RPG is a ton of fun for her. My dad used to watch me play video games sometimes too when I was younger, and he liked the Fallout games specifically.
Outer wilds I think would be an excellent game to play for the first time with a partner and each try to work out how to progress together.
- The Stanley Parable
- What Remains of Edith Finch
- Anything from D’Avekki Studios
- Anything Telltale
