Dear community,
I’m looking for a similar (calm) game like Portal 1/2 or Firewatch that I can play on macOS with a similar vibe. The last time I played a game is years ago, and I wish I had at least once a week a nice single-player game that I can play 1-2 hours. =)
I enjoyed Portal because I had to plan out what I’m doing before I act (without being pressured to act), the atmosphere of the game was legendary and I liked that little robot following me. Firewatch had a calm amazing story, there was no ‘action’ but sometimes that feeling that something could happen. It was a nice exploring game.
Any ideas?
Update: Thank you for your input!
Terra Nil. It’s about rehabilitating a devastated ecosystem…
Also I’d just like to say that I hate Wheatley. He’s such a slimy, manipulative little dullard. He let nearly everyone in the Relaxation Vault die through incompetence, decided to run away from his failures, woke up GLaDOS, accused a mute woman of bossing him around, and nearly got everyone killed for a second time.
Also also, there’s more Portal you haven’t played yet. There are fanmade spinoffs that run as mods to the original game, with new stories, characters, lore, voice acting, and puzzles.
Portal Stories: Mel is a 6/10 spinoff about an Olympic athlete named Mel, who awakens from hibernation some time before Portal 2. It’s in between the lengths of the original two games. It has a couple new interactions between existing mechanics, but the puzzles are kinda easy. Prepare yourself for a bad Cave Johnson impression.
Portal Revolution is an 8/10 spinoff about as long as Portal 2, which takes place after Portal 1 as Aperture is beginning to fall apart. The puzzles are a nice medium difficulty with one or two great head scratchers. It introduces a few new testing apparati, and there’s an extended sequence with the single portal device where you need to think creatively. The characters are well written and well acted, and the boss fight is very cool.
Portal Reloaded is a 7/10 spinoff where you can shoot a third portal that lets you travel through time. It’s very hard, and the story is almost nonexistent (at least as far as I’ve gotten). Play this one if you think the others are too easy.
The Aperture Science Paint Gun Initiative is, uh, bad, I’ve heard. This one replaces your portal gun with a gel sprayer. I haven’t played it yet, I might skip it.
Thank you 😍
Space Sprouts: calm, cosy, whimsical, physics based.
Opus Magnum: machine-building puzzles loosely based on alchemical lore. The puzzle objectives tie into a story that is kind of just window dressing, but interesting enough.
Opus Magnum seems to be a nice game
Monument Valley?
That would be a game I’d plan on my phone =)
Viewfinder is good if you want a game where you need to figure out how to get through each level.
Amazing! Thank you!
You are looking for cozy games or walling simulators.
Honestly I don’t know what’s on macos, but a quick search: stardew valley, my time on portia (i recommend sandrock if it’s available), slime rancher. For exploration: The Stanley Parable, Life is Strange.The Stanley Parable, Life is Strange.
This is what I’m looking for! :) Thank you
Life is strange was a fun series for me and my SO. We’re glass we played the oldest ones first, too.
Do you like civilization or other “builder/planner” style games, like Cities Skylines, or Surviving Mars. Raji was kind of fun and laid back, too.
A Short Hike
The Outer Wilds
Tunic
Exploration focused games that are pretty calm (for the most part). They are some of my personal favorites. I recommend not looking up much about them (especially Outer Wilds and Tunic. Learning mechanics from gameplay is part of the game for those two). Tunic is probably the most action oriented of the lot, (like old Zelda games) and it leans hard on the puzzle aspect, so if that’s not your favorite then it might not be for you.
The outer wild is NOT chill though.
Different strokes. I found it incredibly relaxing to fly around in my spaceship exploring. I can think of one specific planet that’s not very chill, but the rest were.
Without spoiling too much, maybe the time pressure gets to you? For me it’s long enough that I don’t really feel it for most of the game.
Did you perhaps mistake it for the other wotlds? That is a game which is definitely not chill. For wilds, I can’t say.
Tunic is fantastic, but not that chill. Its kinda “souls-lite” So much dying, though punishment is minimal.
Night in the Woods is mostly chill with some spikes of excitement. It is a good match for A Short Hike along multiple axes but I’d recommend caution as it dips into melancholy and mental health issues.
yeah, in retrospect, Tunic probably shouldn’t be on this list. I was fondly remembering the puzzles and exploration and less so the souls-like combat challenges.
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If factory games are up your alley, Factorio is also great. You can completely turn off the enemy forces/bugs and just build stuff. They have native ports for Mac, along with every other OS, and Nintendo Switch!
Subnautica
This one easily veers into survival horror, for those of us with thalassophobia. But I also say that the people afraid of the ocean should play it, because that’s where the game truly thrives.
OP are you using Crossover or similar to play portal? The native mac version of Portal doesn’t support macOS newer than 10.14
If I remember correctly, I played Portal on Xbox 360 and an old macOS version
Gris is a nice, chill game with a really beautiful artstyle.
I enjoy calmer games most times I’m gaming so I have a lot. The genre I most like is puzzle games, but there are a few exploration/ walking simulators here, too. Among the games already listed, there are:
- The Room
- Doors
- Boxes
- Machinka Museum
- My Brother Rabbit
- The Gardens Between
- Stela
- La Rana
- Dawn
- Manifold Garden
- Discolored
- Tree Bonzai
I really love Flower
I enjoyed Portal because I had to plan out what I’m doing before I act (without being pressured to act), the atmosphere of the game was legendary and I liked that little robot following me
Portal 2 has two community made “Valve Quality” DLCs. “Portal Stories: Mel” and “Portal: Revolution”. Mel seems playable on macOS at least. Revolution is basically a Portal 2 presequel. (It’s also so long I would have payed for it.)
The Talos Principle (both of them, though the DLC for 1 is optional, and incredibly challenging). They’re the best puzzle game I can recommend next to Portal. They do their own thing, and almost to the same level. The gameplay doesn’t feel quite as smooth, but there’s a lot it goes better than Portal too.
The Outer Wilds. It doesn’t feel as chill to some people, but I think it is. Very tiny first ~20m spoiler that can help with being chill:
spoiler
it’s a time loop, so there are no consequences. Feel free to wreck your ship. It’ll be repaired next loop. Feel free to mess around and die. You’ll lose nothing. Don’t be sucked into the idea you need to do things well or quickly, because it literally does not matter. The only thing that effects the next loop is what you learned.
