Help Deciding.

[Vagabond™]

Okay, so my eight year old son gave me a list of games he was looking at - he's unilaterally decided that minecraft is a kiddie game and that we shouldn't play it anymore. We are a gaming family. My wife, my son, and I all play board games and video games together. Whether it's settlers of catan or talisman on the table, or diablo 3 and minecraft on our PCs.

I suppose he's looking for a building/survival/fighting game that looks better than minecraft. His proposed list of games:

-Planet Explorers
-Grav
-Eden Star
-Subnautica
-Rust
-The Long Dark
-Empyrion
-Stranded Deep
-Salt
-Space Engineers

They don't have to be multiplayer games. Playing together isn't a requirement - the games we play are either single player or games that allow us to play with just each other. I'm sorry, but there are to many wierdos online to just let my eight year old son interact freely. The only exception to this being World of Warcraft, but that is because I've been with the same guild since before he was born - so I trust they'll look out for him.

Tangents aside, which of those games provide an updated experience to minecraft? Do any of them have local multiplayer? Which of them are the most fleshed out? Which of them should be watched for play later down the line?

Cheers,
Michael

[eram]

Carcassonne. :D Even better than catan.

Or this if you like brain melts.
https://www.cryptozoic.com/epic-spell-wars-battle-wizards-ii-rumble-castle-tentakill

[GhostSailor]

From that list, I'd probably choose The Long Dark, but it's isn't action packed if he's wanting something then and now. I don't believe it compares to Minecraft personally in terms of attractiveness for children.

[Quint the Alligator Snapper]

> He's unilaterally decided that Minecraft is a kiddie game and we shouldn't play it anymore.

Give him the gift of Gurumin. Tell him that you'll get him any game he wants if he beats all the difficulty levels of it.

It's a totally family friendly game, with a charming "kiddie" story, just one that's also noticeably difficult. It was made by the people behind the Ys games, after all.

It's not an open-world survival game at all. So maybe I'm just being a good-natured troll here.

[Sludge Metal Mike]

Rust is ok but the community is horrid.
Space engineers has updated, but last I played it there was nothing to do.
Long Dark is the most complete.
I recommend kerbal space program but it has a steep curve and encourages learning :p

[iPrecision]

Avoid rust. Not worth it.

[Sludge Metal Mike]

Originally posted by eram:

Carcassonne. :D Even better than catan.

[Vagabond™]

Originally posted by eram:

Carcassonne. :D Even better than catan.

Or this if you like brain melts.
https://www.cryptozoic.com/epic-spell-wars-battle-wizards-ii-rumble-castle-tentakill

We actually just started building our board game library last christmas, and I don't regret it. It's kind of become a thing: After dinner one of us washes up while the other sets up a game - my sons takes his shower while we do so. Then we spend the next two hours or so playing a game. Currently we have:

Pillars of the Earth, Sone Age, Settlers of Catan, Caverna, All five Dungeon Command armies, D&D Castle Ravenloft/Temple of Elemental Evil/Wrath of Ashardalon/Legend of Drizzt board games, Magic the Gathering Arena of the planeswalkers, Runebound (3rd ed.), Fury of Dracula, Dungeon Twister, Battelground Fantasy Warfare, Shogun, Colosseum, Star Wars Imperial Assault, Nexus Ops, and Navia Dratp.

Have any suggestions for me based off of what I currently own?

Originally posted by 0xK04:

From that list, I'd probably choose The Long Dark, but it's isn't action packed if he's wanting something then and now. I don't believe it compares to Minecraft personally in terms of attractiveness for children.

My son is very mature for his age. He is a straight A student, in the top group of his class in reading "Color", excells at math (prior to learning about non-department store board games, he would always be banker in monopoly and Life.). He trains in MMA every tuesday and thursday - non-competitive, purely for exercize and self defense training (I don't want his brain scrambled). He, his mother, and I raid every Sunday with our WoW guild. We play a boardgame (from those mentioned above) almost (sometimes work doesn't permit it) every night after dinner.

Some of his favorite titles at the moment are: Gnomoria, State of Decay, Ai War, Age of Wonders III, Anno 2070, and Hegemony Rome.

Originally posted by Sludge Metal Mike:

Rust is ok but the community is horrid.
Space engineers has updated, but last I played it there was nothing to do.
Long Dark is the most complete.
I recommend kerbal space program but it has a steep curve and encourages learning :p

Thanks for the tip. I'll cross Rust off the list. As for Kerbal Space Program, it looks cool. It'll be something We'll check into - but right now I think he's looking for something with survival/building elements, in addition to combat.

Thanks,
Michael

[eram]

Originally posted by the.vagabond:

Have any suggestions for me based off of what I currently own?

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=303597021

[Wenno]

Try "Life is Strange". It has a pretty great story line, maybe see if it's child friendly before thinking about buying it.

[eram]

Life is Strange wouldnt be considered child friendly. Guns, drugs, death etc.

[fluxtorrent]

Well as a moderator and ardent supporter of Stranded Deep I'm obviously biased and would love to say GETITGETITGETIT!

but it's in Early Access for a reason, and it's not a complete game yet. I don't know your sons experience but unless he is willing to suffer through the bugs and incompleteness that being in Alpha state comes with it's probably not the best choice. I can say we have a great set of developers who listen to the community and the game has truly been shaped by the gamers but we are not at the point yet where it is ready for casual consumption.

I won't hesitate to jump on the Lond Dark train, and Kerbal Space Program has to be one of the most edutaining games of all time. KSP can fit that "survival/building" aspect with the correct application of mods (life support, kas/kis mostly) because who DOESNT want ot build and survive on other planets. :D

Space Engineers and Planet Explorers both suffer a similar early access problem that Stranded Deep does in that they are buggy and incomplete (though they are both further along than we are) and like Stranded Deep the minimum requirements are BARE minimum needed so that is another consideration to take into account. I enjoy both of them as well myself but I've been doing alphas and beta of games longer than most people around here have been gaming heh.

Salt and Subnautica are both early access but stable enough and far enough along to be safe bets, although the stylized graphics and gameplay of salt will probably wear on him pretty quick based on the minecraft experience.

Grav, Eden Star, and Empyrion I simply can't comment on as I've had no experience with them.

edit: If zombies are on the table there's three games that may fit the profile.
Dead State, single player only has solid building and survival elements, no terraforming like minecraft though.
Survivalist: Single player, more freeform building than dead state, some interesting survival mechanics.
7 days to die: Multiplayer possible, uses voxel building so full terraforming capable, significantly more complex building system than minecraft including structural integrity.

If you want to go a bit Retro there's also Terraria. Single/multiplayer, 2d graphics but with way more content than nearly any other game, easy enough to learn but complex enough for us adults.

[Vagabond™]

Originally posted by fluxtorrent:

Well as a moderator and ardent supporter of Stranded Deep I'm obviously biased and would love to say GETITGETITGETIT!

but it's in Early Access for a reason, and it's not a complete game yet. I don't know your sons experience but unless he is willing to suffer through the bugs and incompleteness that being in Alpha state comes with it's probably not the best choice. I can say we have a great set of developers who listen to the community and the game has truly been shaped by the gamers but we are not at the point yet where it is ready for casual consumption.

I won't hesitate to jump on the Lond Dark train, and Kerbal Space Program has to be one of the most edutaining games of all time. KSP can fit that "survival/building" aspect with the correct application of mods (life support, kas/kis mostly) because who DOESNT want ot build and survive on other planets. :D

Space Engineers and Planet Explorers both suffer a similar early access problem that Stranded Deep does in that they are buggy and incomplete (though they are both further along than we are) and like Stranded Deep the minimum requirements are BARE minimum needed so that is another consideration to take into account. I enjoy both of them as well myself but I've been doing alphas and beta of games longer than most people around here have been gaming heh.

Salt and Subnautica are both early access but stable enough and far enough along to be safe bets, although the stylized graphics and gameplay of salt will probably wear on him pretty quick based on the minecraft experience.

Grav, Eden Star, and Empyrion I simply can't comment on as I've had no experience with them.

edit: If zombies are on the table there's three games that may fit the profile.
Dead State, single player only has solid building and survival elements, no terraforming like minecraft though.
Survivalist: Single player, more freeform building than dead state, some interesting survival mechanics.
7 days to die: Multiplayer possible, uses voxel building so full terraforming capable, significantly more complex building system than minecraft including structural integrity.

If you want to go a bit Retro there's also Terraria. Single/multiplayer, 2d graphics but with way more content than nearly any other game, easy enough to learn but complex enough for us adults.

Okay. Wow. Thanks for such a thorough response. So, Stranded Deep, Space Engineers, and Planet Explorers are on the wishlist and follow for a possible future purchase. Salt, aftering eyeballing it, is a meh.

Survivalist and Dead State are awesome suggestions! Definitely look into them for his birthday in January.

7 days to die seem... Mmm. I don't know.

We have Terraria, and we both tired of it after twenty hours or so of play.

Unless someone can chime in and give me their opinions on Grav, Eden Star, and Empyrion, then I think the winner may be Subnautica.

Anyone?

Cheers,
Michael

[fear]

H1Z1 or ARK survival evolved

[fluxtorrent]

Originally posted by FalcoN:

H1Z1 or ARK survival evolved

Heh can't comment on h1z1 from a "ive played it" perspective but the fact that it's an mmo pretty much rules it out here.

Ark... well it's another machine intensive early access game that RELIES on multiplayer to get it through, honestly I wouldnt recommend any game you can pick up poop in for an 8 year old no matter how mature but thats just my opinion :P

Did another quick jaunt through my library and noticed something else possibly worth considering.

Tabletop Simulator. It's an amazing physics sim, and pretty much requires multiplayer BUT its a great way to sit down and play board or card games you might not have at home, with the added benefit of having people who might not be at your home to play as well. I use it to play settlers of catan with my niece and nephews who live across the country all the time. Tons of mods to add new games and if he's the creative type he might even be able to come up with one with his own rules. Plus it's a good way to do minatures for tabletop rpg's as well (I use it to run a pathfinder campaign for a bunch of friends across the GLOBE heh)

Gives you that actual "roll the dice" feel in a virtual enviroment.

[Vagabond™]

Originally posted by fluxtorrent:

Originally posted by FalcoN:

H1Z1 or ARK survival evolved

Heh can't comment on h1z1 from a "ive played it" perspective but the fact that it's an mmo pretty much rules it out here.

Ark... well it's another machine intensive early access game that RELIES on multiplayer to get it through, honestly I wouldnt recommend any game you can pick up poop in for an 8 year old no matter how mature but thats just my opinion :P

Did another quick jaunt through my library and noticed something else possibly worth considering.

Tabletop Simulator. It's an amazing physics sim, and pretty much requires multiplayer BUT its a great way to sit down and play board or card games you might not have at home, with the added benefit of having people who might not be at your home to play as well. I use it to play settlers of catan with my niece and nephews who live across the country all the time. Tons of mods to add new games and if he's the creative type he might even be able to come up with one with his own rules. Plus it's a good way to do minatures for tabletop rpg's as well (I use it to run a pathfinder campaign for a bunch of friends across the GLOBE heh)

Gives you that actual "roll the dice" feel in a virtual enviroment.

H1Z1 and Ark are more or less out of the question. He isn't looking for another online game - we play Blizzard games for that pretty much.

Tabletop Simulator seems neat - but I've been using Fantasy Grounds for quite awhile. My son doesn't care for P&P games. It's video games and board games with some sort of tokens haha.

Was a good suggestion though! Thinking out of the box, surely! If I wasn't currently enamored with Fantasy grounds, i'd have picked up Tabletop simulator for myself in an instant!

Cheers,
Michael