Kenshi
A free-roaming squad based RPG focusing on open-ended sandbox gameplay features rather than a linear story. Be a trader, a thief, a rebel, a warlord, an adventurer, a farmer, a slave, or just food for the cannibals. Research new equipment and craft new gear. Purchase and upgrade your own buildings to use as safe fortified havens when things go bad, or use them to start up a business. Aid or oppose the various factions in the world while striving for the strength and wealth necessary to simply survive in the harsh desert. Train your men up from puny victims to master warriors. Carry your wounded squad mates to safety and get them all home alive. Features Freeform gameplay in a seamless game world in the largest single-player RPG world since Daggerfall, stretching over 870 square kilometers. The game will never seek to limit you or restrict your personal play style. Custom design as many characters as you want and build up a whole squad to fight for you. Characters will grow and become stronger with experience, not just in their stats but their appearance too. Original take on the RTS-RPG hybrid genre. No "hero" characters with artificially stronger stats than everybody else- Every character and NPC you meet is potentially an equal, and has a name, a life. You are not the chosen one. You're not great and powerful. You don't have more 'hitpoints' than everyone else. You are not the center of the universe, and you are not special. Unless you work for it.
Steam User 466
First time starting. Set off in a random direction, got chased by a bunch of bandits and beaten up. Died after 3 ingame hours.
Second start, wandered around a town, got into a bar fight, died. survival time 2 ingame hours.
Third start, picked a different starting location in the desert got sniped by a noble. Survival time 15 minutes ingame time.
Fourth start, beaten up by some starving beggars, wake up again badly wounded to limp to a town for help, got eaten by beak things. Survival time 1 day 2 and a half hours. Improvement!
Almost 5000 played hours later, I've destroyed factions and nations, made fortunes as a traveling trader, stole from the rich (and the poor) as a lone ninja, travelled as a nomad, built my own city, been a slave and a slave trader, a bounty hunter, a ronin, a farmer, a fisherman. I've cleared ancient ruins and salvaged old tech, survived camping in the wilderness and killed a leviathan in a duel. I've lived many lives, died many deaths to get there...It's been a journey.
10/10 would die many deaths again.
Steam User 521
This game is not for the faint of heart. It's hard as hell, frequently counter-intuitive, a little buggy, and it is often truly ridiculous.
During my first major base build, I underestimated the amount of resources I would need to fully construct my defenses. I had built a long oval of defensive walls with rock mines and material crafting elements on one side with an open half on the other side of the "oval". There were not enough materials to create a gate or finish the walls as I had used the remaining materials to build a small building for housing and storing resources near the open half.
After the first few days, a group of bandits showed up demanding tribute. Instead of talking to them, I had my boys sit on the other side of the base in stealth mode behind the rock mines. The bandits charged into the base and took up residence in my small storage building. Meanwhile, I kept mining while trying to plot a way to remove them, but I couldn't think on it long before a second group of bandits showed up. The same thing happened. I kept my worker bees in stealth while this second group plunged into the storage shed. Nothing happened. All quiet.
Now, I'm really in a pickle now. Small bandit groups aren't that tough, but my workers were laborers with mediocre weapons and armor. Not much good in a serious fight, and there were two separate groups of sweaty desert bandits standing shoulder to shoulder in my storage building. There must have been several dozen of them at least. I'm about to run to the nearest fishing town to hire some mercenaries when the third group shows up. These new guys are rude and hella nude. They're also hungry as hell for human flesh, and there had to be around 50 of them.
The cannibals stood at the open half of the base for a hot minute before they too plunged into the storage building. It was absolute pandemonium. The bandits are screaming, the cannibals are yelling, and there's blood everywhere. Earlier, I had my boys build some internal walls with crossbows on them, and we're sniping the all out brawl that's occurring. The moment one of the bandits goes down a cannibal will scoop him up and take him to some far away dinner table. It's like a self cleaning mess.
After about 30 minutes, nothing and no one remains except for some bodies, arms, legs, and a massive amount of blood. The cannibals aren't even interested in eating my guys, and the few remaining bandits are simply hobbling away. I then built the remainder of the base so that the front gate was partially submerged in the ocean. Any would be hostiles would have to swim to it in full armor just to knock, and this never happened again.
God help me, I can't stop playing this stupid shit.
Steam User 422
everywhere i go there's a new species of creature that wants to eat me
Steam User 1155
Criminally underrated and HIGHLY addictive. There is Slavery, Racism, Racism against Racists, Racism against people who MIGHT be racist, more slavery, robotic limbs, discrimination against the lower class, discrimination against the upper class, discrimination just in general, MORE slavery, fish people who will eat you alive on a pole, blue bug people who will eat you alive on a pole and worship the person eating you, bald doughy bastards who don't wear clothes who will also eat you, massive murder giraffe-dinosaur hybrids with beaks who will eat you, crab worshipers, beep, a deranged autistic robot surrounded by headless simps, and did I mention slavery? An absolute masterpiece, 100/10.
Steam User 424
I had to eat my dismembered legs to survive my journey across the desert.
Steam User 817
>Be me
>Train a small squad of 1 Human and 5 robots passed 50 in combat skills
>I have them adventure around the world collecting shit for me
>I entered the United Cities territory, again
>A Noble Hunter sees my guys and comments on my robot friends
>Noble Hunter fires his Eagle crossbow and kills Burn
>I attack the noble and his samurai
>The noble loses a leg
>I take them to one of my safehouses and attempt to recruit the samurai (Recruit Prisoner MOD)
>Non want to join me, especially the Noble Captain
>Take them all to the Boneyard
>I strip the Samurai Captain to his underwear and drop him near some beak things
>He is unconscious for a few seconds
>The Beak Thins attack the defenseless man
>I let the others see them eating him
>Take the samurai back to the safehouse and ask again
>One by one they all accept
>I free the Noble Hunter who is crawling on the floor (due to the lack of his leg)
>As a sign of loyalty, I have all the recruited samurai beat the noble who can't defend himself
>Both of his (Noble) arms fly off his body
>I patch the noble up and take him to the "Fog Island" (where I have my base)
>I tie him to a Death Yard pole and wait for the Fogmen to come
>I let them eat the leftover leg
>The Noble is now a nugget
>I give him prototype quality hiver legs and arms (as a mockery)
>I take him to rebirth
>I put him in a cage
>One holy guard comes and removes his legs and arms
>The guard orders him to go to work
>The noble is now crawling to work
>Once at the mine, he can't work
>The guard beats him and takes him back to his cage
>The same thing happens again and again - every day - for the rest of his life
<That is what you get for killing Burn, you F-ing nobles Sh!t>
PART II:
>Since I ain't the one who's imprisoning him, I only have -6 reputation with The United Cities
>I start sneaking into Slaver Camps and Markets and kidnapping unconscious people
>I then drop them naked in 'Gut' without them knowing it was me
>My reputation remains the same
>I end up destroying their economy and making them rely on me for every good
>I start establishing a shop in every city
>Everything I sell is of the most expensive variant
>I leave one guy in every city, village, or town
>I am continuously making money, and I've passed 10.000.000 cats
>As I am now sitting in complete comfort and security, I start wondering if there is anything more to this
>I recently started seeing people as "a means to an end", and no longer as equals
>Who, after all, was even Burn?
>A machine man I met in an iron swamp?
>A friend that placed his hopes in me?
>Or just a tool?
>As he was designed to be.
...
>I found another ancient skeleton in my gamble
>He is a leader of his people
>I talked with him
>He gave me recognition
>He talked of great things, virtues, and ideals; of things passed and wars & events lost to biological memory
>... but I saw something else in his emotionless face, his mechanical eyes, his aged body ...
>!A Warning!
>And it said "You've been given your victory, REDACTED," a short pause overtook him as if to allow for the moment to fully sink in. "If you are serious about carving your own polity out of this world, you're going to have to learn when to accept it. Absolute conquest, total annihilation? Those are the fever dreams of madmen, and I hope by your life and mine that such notions are never again imposed upon this world."
>So, I gave up on my secret plans to tear down the great nations
...
...
>I am currently working on a different project
>A way to free myself and others of all limitations
>I am searching for a path off this climatically doomed world
>MY NAME IS JEFF BEZZOS AND I AM BUILDING A ROCKET!
Steam User 354
Good game. Recommend to people who are neurodivergent, or unemployed.