Are there Cozy shooter games?

Submitted ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨delitomatoes@lemm.ee⁩ to ⁨games@lemmy.world⁩

I want to play an easy shooter where you feel like you’re in a flow state aiming at targets, the only time I’ve ever felt like that was in the PS2 Medal of Honour, kneecap, helmet shot, head shot or up till MW4 original.

I’ve tried the latest CoD and the cinematics and cutscenes are just overblown.

Borderlands would be a kind of turn off your brain type but they haven’t made a new game in awhile.

Helldiver had great shooting but the grind, limited levels and multiplayer means I wasn’t too invested in it after a hard days work

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MagnyusG@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Deep Rock Galactic, play solo on the lowest difficulty and just vibe and mine. Bosco the robot that follows you on solo missions can kill pretty much everything for you most of the time.

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- reddfugee@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Rock and stone!
  
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Dindonmasker@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Is slime rancher technically a shooter game?

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- Thatuserguy@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Is Portal technically a shooter game?
  
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  - catloaf@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    It has a gun that makes holes.
    
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- majestictechie@lemmy.fosshost.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  It’s a farming sim. You’re just farming with a gun
  
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  - USSEthernet@startrek.website ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Gun/vacuum *
    
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  - MagnyusG@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    but are you shooting the gun? if yes then I might fit the bill
    
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Varyag@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Absolutely second the recommendations of Doom and Quake here in the thread. Boomer shooters in general. Even if the movement can be really fast, playing them on your own can be extremely cozy. Just get into the rhythm of circle strafing, shooting and weaving in and out of cover and you’ll be in the zone very quickly. Bonus point, that both Doom and Quake have 30 years of EXCELLENT quality player created content that can keep you playing fresh new levels for as long as you want to. You could play them for the rest of your life, at your own pace and preferred difficulty.

The new rereleases of both games even bundle a mod browser that you can access with zero knowledge of modding, just hop on.

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- dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I will also add to this that there is absolutely no reason to buy the “new” re-release of Doom and Doom 2 that’s out on Steam now except to rip the IWADS out of it to put in a source port – any other source port – rather than the garbage it comes with. And only do so if you want the new Legacy of Rust episodes. Everything else is, er, readily available online. And has been for decades.
  
  The new NEX based engine these run on now is maddeningly inferior to basically every open source Doom engine port currently available. In addition to not supporting vertical mouse look at all, “for authenticity,” (but by default it slaps a crosshair on your screen, which the original didn’t have…) it also looks like garbage on modern displays and crashes constantly which is something that baffles me. Running Doom ought to be a solved problem by now in 2024, but this fucker crashes on me more now than it did on my 486 back in 1994. It’s buggier than a trailer park mattress in a swamp.
  
  I recommend GZDoom, personally. You can add Brutal Doom to make the gameplay experience significantly more bombastic as well, if that sort of thing appeals to you.
  
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  - Varyag@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    sigh. Not everything must be GZDoom and Brutal Doom. The new port is perfectly fine if they’re going to play mostly vanilla. There’s no need to be this angry at everything you don’t understand in the internet.
    
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- NOT_RICK@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I’ll mention my favorite recent boomer shooter: Boltgun. Lots of blood and gore so maybe not “cozy” but it is entertaining.
  
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  - Varyag@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Depends on what you consider “cozy”. OP listed Medal of Honor and CoD, I think Doom is super cozy. If shooting Nazis or demons is our comfort activity, anything can be cozy. I still desperately need to play Boltgun, too.
    
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reddfugee@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Maybe check out Roboquest? I was looking for a mindless FPS a few weeks ago (my usual go-to is UT2004, I’m old :]) and the Roboquest demo scratched the itch pretty well. Planning to pick up the full version when I see it go on sale

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- skulblaka@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Roboquest actually kind of kicks ass. It’s a way better game than I expected it to be when I picked it up. I think those guys deserve more attention than they’ve been getting.
  
  Also, shout out to Gunfire Reborn as well, I’ve been a big fan of that one for a couple years. Similar style to Roboquest. It’s a Chinese game and some parts of it are a little poorly translated but the gameplay is very fun and solid.
  
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- Arkhive@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Came here to say Roboquest. Replaced Destiny 2 for me when I finally ditched windows for Linux.
  
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Menschlicher_Fehler@feddit.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Doom 1 and, to some extent, 2. Honestly.

I know exactly what you are looking for and the classic Doom games are perfect for this, because they are simple, yet they still feel good to play.

Not too fast, not too slow. No jump scares, only some light puzzles if you want to hunt secrets. There is almost a rythm to the combat, especially if you play with the shotgun. Try them.

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- AkatsukiLevi@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  To add over it Quake 1 and 2 are also perfect complementaries to DOOM
  
  No cutscenes, just throw you into the game and let you go wild, while still having a progression
  
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- deranger@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  See also: Chex Quest
  
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- catloaf@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  2016 too. I wouldn’t call it “cozy” though.
  
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  - bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    I’d say Eternal actually fits the bill more. Once you get all the mechanics down every encounter becomes this deadly ballet of high speed chess where you really can enter a flow state of just reacting and acting.
    
    2016 can be like that but it’s a little bit more forgiving, funnily enough managing to keep your brain more in the foreground.
    
    Depending on your definition of cozy 2016 could win, because it is not as taxing as Eternal. At least I could manage 2016 much better than Eternal with my Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. But if you manage to stick with Eternal I think it’s more conducive to get you into a meditative state.
    
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- tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I played through Sigil recently and the whole time there was a gaping super shotgun sized hole in my enjoyment of it. I get that Romero fine tuned it to play without it but for me I realized that I can’t feel totally cozy playing doom without the ssg.
  
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Omegamanthethird@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I really like some of the Halo games for this, especially any levels that don’t involve The Flood. The inventive hit-boxes, slow movements, the vehicles that are fun to just drive around, and the addition of gameplay modifiers, they’re pretty cathartic for me.

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- Zahille7@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Hell you could even jump into a custom Firefight mode if you just want to kill waves of enemies.
  
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  - Omegamanthethird@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    I love playing reach in God mode with infinite abilities just mowing down enemies. Just remember to turn on Grunt Birthday Party.
    
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antaymonkey@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Really not sure how to interpret ‘cozy’ here, but tbh the Farcry series are great for me in that they’re my casual shooters. I say this meaning that I do the shooting when I want to do the shooting – otherwise I’m off paragliding or picking flowers out something else low stress and soothing. To me, in that regard, they’re very cozy.

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dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Well, as others have noted I think “cozy” is probably a loaded term in this context. However, I will throw these recommendations into the ring also: The first couple of Serious Sam games, and also Painkiller. Both of them are firmly in the “murdering tons of dudes” genre, and are significantly less tactical than the likes of Medal of Honor/Call of Duty/Battlefield.

That is to say, not at all.

There is none of that sucking your thumb to regenerate health, popping out from the chest-high walls inexplicably strewn everywhere taking potshots with your gun like a hillbilly jack-in-the-box. Rather, their gameplay loop involves herding and managing a massive horde of enemies, prioritizing your targets, and keeping yourself moving. Like a sheep dog with a chaingun.

People try to call the original Doom games a horde shooter. They really aren’t. These two, however, definitely are.

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- Varyag@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  You’ve convinced me to finally play Serious Sam. I’ve had it on Steam for years.
  
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  - skulblaka@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    It can be charitably described as above, and uncharitably described as “Hold down S and LMB for an hour at a time”. I kind of bounced off these. They aren’t bad games, in fact they were pretty popular but most of your gameplay loop is going to revolve around getting the attention of a horde of goons and then backpedaling while you whittle the group down from 80 dudes to none.
    
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franklin@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Give Ultrakill and Gunfire Reborn a look.

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Console_Modder@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
If your looking for a shooter with a flow state, give Neon White a look. It’s a FPS platformer where you pick up gun cards and you choose if you want to use the card as a gun to shoot demons, or throw it away for a movement ability (double jump, dash, etc.) as you try to get to the end of the level as fast as possible.

If the platforming and racing doesn’t sound like it’s for you, I saw someone else brought up Ultrakill and I wanted to recommend that as well

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- CodexArcanum@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Neon White was my suggestion as well. Ultrakill is fun but is going for a more Devil May Cry style game where score and style matter significantly.
  
  Neon White i found a little confusing at first until I got the feel of it. Its a movement puzzle game, with some shooting. Precision and repetition are key to learning the levels and beating them quickly, and once you get into its groove, time flies by. For being a time-challenge game, I find it surprisingly relaxing and forgiving.
  
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- Coelacanth@feddit.nu ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Can’t believe I had to scroll down this far to find Neon White but I’m glad someone mentioned it! It is pretty much the flow state shooter, should be perfect for OP.
  
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Vinny_93@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Borderlands is like that. You can even tune the difficulty in 3 and Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands

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aphonefriend@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Warframe is my go to when I just want to blast tunes and murder everything without too much thought.

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De_Narm@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I don’t play actual shooter myself, however, both Pokemon Snap games fit your description - might be worth a shot.

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bstix@feddit.dk ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Serious Sam is mindlessly dumb in the good way.

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whotookkarl@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Doom 2 was already covered so I’ll go with Roboquest, indie arena roguelike shooter with randomized weapons and perks but static arenas/mobs/bosses. Once you get a handle on the movement it’s one of the comfiest shooters I’ve played in years.

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Romkslrqusz@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Might be cozy because of the nostalgia more than anything else, but I’ve been cruising through the Turok remasters

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CheeryLBottom@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I miss No One Lives Forever.

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- bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Yeah, it really needs a Revival.
  
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  - CheeryLBottom@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Wait a minute… There is a remake? Who is it by?
    
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slug@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Risk of Rain 2

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Vespair@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I don’t know if it counts as “cozy,” but Metal:Hellsinger is an extremely vibey shooter, as you can kind of just zone out, bop your head to the music, and vibe to the music in flow state while playing. Kind of zen, actually.

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- EdgeRunner@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  This !
  
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turkalino@lemmy.yachts ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I’ve been enjoying the flow state I get into while playing Space Marine II. It is a mix of melee and shooting, but the melee aspect is very simple - no memorizing combos and the timing of parries is fairly forgiving. It’s all very satisfying once you get the feel for it. Cinematics are skippable, the can change the difficulty level to your liking, and you can set your lobbies to private if you don’t wanna play with others

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hissingmeerkat@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Gunfire Reborn does that for me, even though I have to play with a controller. Roboquest looks like it’s kind-of between Gunfire Reborn and Borderlands, but I haven’t tried it yet.

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krathalan@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Even though they’re not traditional shooters, the Ratchet and Clank games are really fun. There’s a pretty big genre difference in the games in the franchise, with generally the earlier games being more platform-ey, especially 1 & 2. A lot of the humor from the original trilogy still holds up today.

There’s definitely some “unfun” parts in the games (giant mech fight from rac2 and the hacker from rac3 come to mind) but overall cozy imo. Some of the most unique and fun guns in any game.

If you’re looking for strictly more shooter, check out Ratchet Deadlocked. There’s barely any platforming and no mini games that I can remember, it’s pretty much all shooting. NG+ makes it super cozy. It’s really nice to play emulated.

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Imma_lazyboy@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Cyberpunk on easy with aim assist is pretty chill. Popping heads and blowing off limbs. It’s a comfort game for me.

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CookieOfFortune@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I’ve been feeling this with Cyberpunk a bit. But you may think it’s too quest driven to be considered.

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Nexy@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Nothing more cozzy than shoot your friend in the head

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dustyData@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Give GUN JAM a try. It’s a rhythm shooting game, the stakes are as high or as low as you want them. There’s only a minimal story and you just focus on the music, aiming and staying on the beat. Can be a lot of flow state fun.

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Zahille7@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I’ve been replaying Borderlands 3, so honestly I’d recommend any of those games for a cozy shooter. The stories don’t take themselves too seriously, if you die you can just respawn immediately in the vicinity, and it can be pretty relaxing to just mow down waves of bandits or whatever other enemies.

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nixxo@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Combat Master, a free to play CoD like.

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afansfw@lemmynsfw.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Earth Defence Force: nothing better than blowing up 5 million bugs a minute after a tough working day

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morphballganon@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I felt the first Mass Effect was cozier than the sequels, though I never finished the sequels.

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