Ask Lemmy

Games with the highest replay value for me:

• Civilization 4
• Heroes of Might and Magic III
• Sid Meyer's Alpha Centauri
• TES3: Morrowind
• SimCity 2000

• Terraria
• RimWorld
• Factorio
• Risk of Rain 2 (THE MUSIC IS SO GOOD)
• Prison Architect

But I'd definitely swap the last one with Overwatch if I could

• Minecraft
• Factorial
• Terraria
• Balatro
• Stardew valley

I'm just going for maximum time sink.

In no particular order:

• Rim World
• Terraria
• Oxygen not Included
• Factorio
• Vintage Story

Half-Life 3 through 7.

Can I mod them? Because if so

• minecraft
• skyrim
• terraria
• dark souls 2
• hollowknight (so i can finally get those speedrun achievements)

Minecraft: Java Edition
Stardew Valley
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Geometry Dash
Hogwarts Legacy

For me, it would have to be:

• Factorio
• Rimworld
• Red Dead Redemption 2
• Tetris DS
• Disco Elysium

Minecraft as a reference guide for how to survive on said island.

Animal Crossing so I have someone to talk to.

Elden Ring to remind me how bleak and hopeless everything is.

Solitaire and Minesweeper. In case I get bored.

• Dark Souls + DLC
• Metroid Prime
• Super Metroid
• Persona 3 Portable
• SMTV:V

Edit: Might swap DS for Sekiro

Gotta be one of the Paradox strategy games. I have two reasons for this: the first is that a good game unavoidably takes ages on them, so they have staying power; the other is that I know how to mod them, so I can make myself new scenarios once I get fed up of it. I'll bring Crusader Kings 3 and Victoria 3 because I like them but haven't yet played them much

I'll add in Assetto Corsa and Dirt Rally 2 for some driving. Both have very high skill ceilings that I am nowhere near, so that gives me a lot to do. I also don't own a wheel, so if I get that as part of the deal then that'd be fun to try. These two also have an odd bonus for me: they both have courses set near my home. I can sort of visit them by playing when I get a bit homesick

Lastly I'll have Deep Rock Galactic for low effort shooty fun. I can't always be putting mental energy into games

There are games I like as much or more than these five but which lack the replayability for this scenario. Like I adore Outer Wilds, but you can only really play it once

Roguelites are the way, fam:

• Noita
• FTL: Faster Than Light
• Slice & Dice
• Death Road to Canada
• I've never actually played it yet, but maybe S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, or else possibly Infested Planet or RimWorld

Shattered Pixel Dungeon

WipeOut 2097(XL)

Tetris (arcade) or Karate Champ (arcade) or Speed Rumbler(arcade)

Descent II

Simon Tatham Puzzles collection

Sekiro

Lies of P

Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate

Slay the Spire

Balatro

• Burnout Revenge
• Age of Empires 2
• The Witcher 3
• Monster Train
• Bejeweled Ultimate/Blitz.. Whatever was the last one.

• Stellaris
• Baldur's Gate 2
• Starcraft
• X4: Foundations
• Papers Please

• Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection
• Slay the Spire
• Tetris Effect, Connected
• OpenXCom
• Olli Olli

Modded morrowind,ultrakill, metal gear rising, modded Minecraft, modded skyrim

Why does it have to be a desert island? I don’t like sand. It’s coarse and rough and irritating… and it gets everywhere.

Quake 3, UT 2004, Heroes 3, GTA2, Beavis & Butthead Hock a Loogie

• Stellaris
• Kerbal Space Program
• Dead Cells
• Grim Dawn
• Against The Storm

Honorable Mentions:

• ΔV: Rings of Saturn
• We Who Are About To Die

• Dwarf Fortress
• Fall from Heaven 2
• Minecraft
• ZZT
• Rogue Legacy 2

the best sim, the best 4X, the best FPS, my favorite level-editor engine, my favorite action platformer

Kerbal Space Program with mods
Cities:Skylines with mods
Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition
Dota 2 (I would be playing against and programming my own bots for it)
Trackmania with all current maps

Terraria

Celeste

Expedition 33

Horizon: Forbidden West

F-ZERO GX

About as much variety and quality as I could hope to fit.

DayZ, Minecraft, Cities: Skylines, Age of Empires 2 Definite Edition, Grand Theft Auto 5

Those would be the extremely moddable games with a good all around base set for replayability, so for me:

• Rimworld
• Mount&Blade bannerlord
• Crusader Kings 3
• Civ 6
• Luanti (and if have to choose a single game for it, Mineclonia I suppose)

As long as I can also archive some amount and variety of mods for each, of course.

If mods aren’t on the table, I think it would still look pretty much the same, except maybe civ 5 in place of 6, and in place of luanti perhaps Witcher 3, or 4 if it manages to release before this thing.

Edit: Actually hold that a bit: I need Stellaris there, especially if mods are ok. But even without. I’d skip luanti/witcher for that.

• Any Monster Hunter really, but I'll go with Monster Hunter Wilds
• Subnautica
• Fatal Frame 3
• Tetris
• Ghost of Tsushima

• Portal 2
• L4D2
• Minecraft: Java
• Borderlands 2
• WoW 3.3.5a or up to BFA

• Katamari Damacy
• Halo 2
• Civilization II
• SimCity 2000
• Crazy Taxi

• Rimworld
• HoI4 with Mods
• Vic3 with Mods
• CP2077
• maybe Satisfactory

RDR2, Skyrim, Fallout 4, Path of Exile 2, Tetris

No Man's Sky, but without any other players. More or less how I play it anyway 😁

Street Fighter 2: Champion Edition on the MegaDrive

Red Dead Redemption 2

EA FC/FIFA/whatever

Tetris

Age of Empires 2 Transport Tycoon Deluxe Ufo: Enemy unknown (x-com) Might and magic vii Heroes of the might and magic 3

If I could smuggle more it would be: Starcraft, Red Alert 2, Teenagent, Master of Orion 2.

L.A. Noire

Mafia 1-3

Master of Orion 2

• crawl stone soup. A classic rogue like.
• elden ring + dlc. Big masterpiece of the genre.
• the binding of Isaac (+ all the dlc). Huge rogue lite. Lots of stuff I haven't unlocked yet.
• monster hunter (maybe world? I liked rise too though).
• if I could have online, guild wars 2. Otherwise, maybe the original doom. Especially if it comes with a map editor, fan made maps, or Oblige to randomly make maps.

Island: A Game of Survival

• Silent Hu ter 3

• Mass Effect Legendary edition. (Yes you said no compilations, so if I have to choose one it would of course be 2)

• Rimworld

• Kerbal Space Program (with a USB stick full of mods that I smuggled in up my butt)

• Fallout 4 (with a second USB stick full of mods smuggled in up my butt)

Why didn't I put them on the same USB stick? You're guess is as good as mine...

State of Decay 2

Sid Meier's Civilization V

Stellaris

Terraria

Retroarch as I currently have it set up

Subnautica if Retroarch is beyond the scope of this.

I would consider Ark or some version of Mount & Blade as well. Minecraft might also be an amazing time killer.

Lately:

Balatro

Tetris

Absolute Drift

art of rally

SnowRunner

• Stardew Valley
• Skyrim
• ADOM
• Burnout Paradise
• Vegas Solitaire (or I think a decent Solitaire collection is a fair exception to that one rule because you can get many games out of a pack of cards)

Stardew Valley, Skyrim and ADOM for games that you can keep going back to over years and playing in different ways and still discovering new things. Vegas Solitaire for more of a mindless time passer when you don't want something immersive and involved. Burnout Paradise for something in between complex and mindless and something different once in a while.

Edit: I hope I eventually get rescued though because there's a LOT of shorter titles that I'd miss.