So over the Christmas holiday I built a PC for my daughter (12) and my wife (35). I’ve been trying to find a game that we can all play and would enjoy together.
Some background:
- Daughter likes Roblox and Minecraft. That’s about it. She doesn’t like survival mode in Minecraft, only creative. I don’t mind Minecraft but not my go to.
- Wife likes Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing. Doesn’t care for Minecraft or Roblox
- I’m a WoW veteran, enjoy RimWorld, and alot of Counter Strike 2 at the moment.
I’m trying to find something that might be able to meet all of our interests so we can do something together on a Friday/Saturday night. Would be nice to find a game that is somewhat of a dungeon crawl and has a story attached to it. BG3 might be too advanced for the 12 year old, as she probably won’t hold the attention span to do it.
Not sure if there is an easier BG3 like game out there? Suggestions welcome!
I’m surprised no one has said Terraria yet. It’s like a lil bit of everything on your list. You can go hardcore and try and beat all the bosses while powering up and mining, or you can take it easy and have fun with the building mechanics. There’s an rpg aspect with it too by trying to find the NPCs. Great for lanning. I had many hours wasted with my roommates and my girlfriend/now wife back in the day. They’ve since added a lot more stuff so I might have to fire it up when my kids are old enough to play.
Give Trine 2 a shot. It’s three players, is very easy on the eyes, and is good for keeping stress relatively low. Since all three of you like games, playing games isn’t unnatural for you, but playing together is something that can potentially cause some stress between you. A game like Trine keeps that fairly low and is a good entry point that once you done with it, hopefully the experience was positive and you can move on to some other things together.
All five Trines are pretty decent, though you could do a lot more fuckery in the first three or so.
Tabletop sim might work, depending on attitudes towards tabletop games
Honestly this is a pretty good suggestion anyway. There’s tons of workshop mods you can get that add entire games/expansion packs.
Hell, you could play MTG absolutely for free on it, as well as any other tabletop or card game (if there’s a mod for it).
Phogs is a cute co-op game where you a control a double ended dog (Think Cat-Dog but it’s a double dog) to solve puzzles through themed worlds (food, sleep, and playing, a puppy’s favorite activities). It’s only 2 player though so I’m not sure if that’s what you’re looking for.
I just watched the trailer. Unsure to be inspired by the cuteness or horrified at the double dog ended creation. I think it could be fun, not sure the child’s appetite for puzzle games, but might be worth a shot.
Raft?
You can run the boat, your wife tends to the crops and animals, your kid gets eaten by the shark trying to loot an island.
Win for all.
Slime rancher
That wasn’t a multiplayer game lest I checked.
Keep talking and nobody explodes. Play is fast and short, you can take turns doing different jobs.
Lovers in a dangerous spacetime
Whole family loved it when kids were pretty little, they still live it now that the kids are teens.
Tricky Towers, Pico Park, Overcooked, Bread and Fred
Europa Universalis IV
Gary Grigsby’s War in the East
I would try Terraria.
Plate up. Me and some of my old mates play it. We’re all close but have our own lives now so its not been easy finding something all of us will play continuously, but plate up seems to of held our attention for a good amount of time. Its a rogue lite, but the concept has been twisted where you and up to 3 others need to manage a restaurant with a random selection of foods, locations and events that come in the form of two cards to vote on.
Its not my usual scene as I play mil sims/general sims and tactical shooter but ive found lots of enjoyment. Either way I hope you can find something good luck
Gauntlet is a pretty easy going dungeon crawl game, otherwise for crafting/exploration my wife and I had a blast with Don’t Starve Together.
Overcooked, Moving Out (I think 2 players) and Trine, I think all have already been mentioned.
Ultimate Chicken Horse
Another option that hasnt come up- Jackbox is more like a party game but can be a ton of fun.
Maybe it’s just me, but I’d play the hell out of BG3 when I was 12.
The amount of time I spent on TES 4 and 5 back then, and BG3 hits just the right spot with the variety of ways it allows you to play it.
Minecraft is also in my top favorites.
What I’m saying is, don’t count BG3 out completely. Not to mention that it’s very saturated, so a shorter attention span shouldn’t really be a problem, but you never know.
As for suggestions. Definitely Terraria, as others mentioned. There was also Lego Fortnite, which looks like it would fit the tastes. Maybe also party games?
