One thing I have struggled with lately is finding good games to play. I bounce around from game to game trying to enjoy it but it just doesn’t scratch the itch like it used to. For example, one of my favorites was old school RuneScape, but it hasn’t really been giving me the same enjoyment that it used to. So then I would open up World of Warcraft, Destiny 2, just playing a little bit of each game. Think maybe I need some new games to play but it’s tough to find them these days.
So what are your favorite 1000+ hour games?
Garry’s Mod. Basically a gateway drug to hobby animation, and in some ways not so far off from the modding tools used to make it.
If you’ve watched stuff like Heavy Is Dead, they’re usually made with it. Some more professional-looking stuff is instead made in “Source Filmmaker”.
Factorio
The Factory Must Grow
I’m almost 100 hours into my new space age save, and I’ve played nearly 1k hours since I bought it 5ish years ago. By far one of the most enjoyable games I’ve ever played and I highly recommend it to everyone who enjoys sandbox games
Factorio. It’s the game I always come back to, and I’m always ready to spend 5 minutes playing here and there now that it works so well on steam deck.
Dota 2.
I’ve played Dwarf Fortress, Stellaris, yet I still find Dota to be the most complex game ever.
It sucks that it’s a multiplayer game, and you need people to play it well with you, but when it works, it’s amazing.
Everything in it has layers of usability, usually componded by the everything else in the game - hero abilities, items, map, neutrals, even the stupid trees play a large role in the game.
I’ve spent hundreds of hours studying the mechanics, and I still don’t grasp everything.
I played a lot of DotA too, but that doesn’t have a playtime counter. But I have over 3000 hours in Dota 2.
My second favourite game is OpenTTD. It’s just so satisfying to optimize the train network and add another 100 trains to it. I’ve tried Factorio, but for some reason that did not scratch that itch.
Or some roguelites, like Slay the Spire (or the Touhou: Lost Branch of Legend), Synthetik (haven’t tried second one yet), they are always fun.
Great list! I’ve tried Dota 2 as well, it’s definitely extremely complex and addictive but not my kind of game, I just cannot thrive and enjoy that sort of game. Same goes with League of Legends. Just not my cup of tea.
I am a little curious about Stellaris though. That game seems so incredibly complex, like, what about it is The draw for people? I’ve heard so many people talk about it and has so many freezy steam reviews but when I first tried it as a demo, it seemed so absurdly complex That my head was spinning. Like I had no idea what the heck was going on. I’m not sure how to enjoy it I guess
LoL sucks, it’s like a shallow copy of DotA. I’ve played around 300 hours, it’s very silly in comparison.
Stellaris is kinda easy once you figure out that expanding is the No1 priority for the entire game. Expand, build ships - nobody will be able to stop you.
There was always a need for a ‘tall’ empire - so you don’t expand, but focus on your small part of the galaxy - but so far it’s always crushed by the expanding ones.
Once you get stargate tech, it’s 24/7 war. For even more territory.
Right now I remembered a game that never was really finished, Stardrive, where you could design your own ships down to the electrical wiring. It had layouts with sections, and you could fill it up to your liking. It was a shame that ground troops could finish the game in minutes.
Sometimes I feel like 4X games are usually more suited for roleplaying than actual challenge of micromanagement.
Anyway, I have a huge jam on my main line in OpenTTD, gotta fix my intersection again.
Per my steam library:
Factorio: 3,375.4 hours
Dyson Sphere Program: 2,505.9 h
Stellaris: 2,236.6 h
Terraria 2,629.9h
Skyrim: 1,239.5 h
Dungeon Defenders only has 600 hours on Steam, but I’m well over 2000 hours between Steam and PS3/4
I’ve also got a few thousand hours in Just Cause 2&3, as well as several Gran Turismo games and Forza Motorsport games. Morrowind probably has 2-3000 hours, oh and I’m not allowed near Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri anymore.
Secret of Mana and Chrono Trigger are probably up there as well since I’ll replay them every decade or so.
That’s a lot of gaming
I’m 44 years old, and have been gaming practically since I was born. My parents played D&D, and video games with us kids.
Also a lot of those totals are artificially inflated because I can leave the game running to finish a long task, especially Factorio and DSP
That’s awesome.
Factorio: 2344 Path of Exile: 2736 Rimworld: 2191 Kerbal Space Program: 1071
I have a bunch of honorable mentions in the several hundred hours ranges that are only not 1k+ because I have severe ADHD and something else became a hyperfocus before they hit that point: Backpack Hero Ark The Last Spell Timberborn Factory Town Dyson Sphere Program Loop Hero Brotato Satisfactory Path of Achra Against the Storm Desynced
Have you tried modded Minecraft ?
Commas, please.
The Binding of Isaac
DOTA 2 is my primary time waster, have over 3000+ hours on it. It’s endlessly entertaining, because there is so much variability in the games. You have 4-8 spells depending on the hero, with 6 active item slots, which means once your team has leveled up, team fights can be a burst of seconds, or a 5+ minute long affair, with each tank employing different survival strategies to block damage, heal, or escape, just to heal and get right back in it. There are multiple different game modes, but are a little challenging to find and play. Still, it is the one game I play with the steepest learning curve. I don’t think I saw myself as “good at the game” until I was around 1000 hours in 😶
Smite is the only other game I have 1000+ hours in. I started playing it as a break from DOTA 2, and as a way to connect with my little brother. It’s a lot like DOTA 2, but far more simplistic. Each god has 4 spells, with no active items. Instead of left-clicking for movement on a map, you use WASD to maneuver your god. It’s fun, and you can pick it up after like 30 hours. The different game modes are a lot easier to navigate than in DOTA, but it’s also a lot less engaging. The updates and quests are all very simplistic. I was going to try out the new Smite 2, but after watching some game play, it looks… exactly the same as Smite 1.
terraria for me. i keep managing to find new stuff over a thousand hours later.
“Has this item always been here?! no way. REALLY?”
Well they keep updating it, so it may not have been there, unless you made a chest sphere and didn’t label the chests.
no its just there’s a lot of items in the game. and some you wouldn’t really find unless you were actively searching for them.
In descending order: Skyrim Fallout 4 Starfield
Morrowind is a game that has extreme hours too, but not sure if it is 1000+ (yet).
You are very brave for playing Starfield for 1,000 hours. I gave up after 25 hours when I completed the entire quest line and started new game plus. Literally couldn’t do it. Went and played some No Man’s sky, and now that’s becoming my new addiction
I still play Starfield, I really like the game but have it modded a lot now.
Never had any fun with No man’s sky, for me the story is boring and the rest of the game can’t hook me. In my eyes Starfield is a way better game, but I can see and understand why other think different about this.
But like what are you doing Starfield for that long? I feel like after 25 hours I had seen and experienced everything that there was to offer. What else is there left to do?
There is so much to do and to see in the game, I have so many hours in and still find new stuff that I had not seen before.
25h is barely the main quest and there is so much else to see and do then the main quest. Faction quests, side quests, radiant quests, base building, ship building, new game plus, DLC, mods.
Starfield is packed full with stuff to discover, people just have to be open for the game. Yes it has lots of flaws, the awful temple puzzle was the first thing that I changed with mods, and yes the loading screens are not great. I can forgive the game it’s flaws, maybe because I never over hyped it as so much other did.
I am playing Bethesda games for over 20 years now, since Morrowind, and I have a very good idea what to expect from a Bethesda game and where the strength and limitations of the engine are. Due to this I never expected to be able to do atmospheric flights or to travel over huge parts of the planet in one go, or to have huge interplanetary or interstellar areas. The engine is not made for that kind of things, not at all, so I never expected the game to have those features and so my expectations for the game were very similar to the delivered product.
World of Warcraft
In order of most to least
D2 (thankfully there was tracker) WoW (i don’t wanna know) PoE at about 4700 hours
Monster Hunter World and Don’t Starve
Grim Dawn (currently playing Community Season 7! check it out @ https://grimdawnleague.com/, Dead Cells and Terraria (and most of that time unmodded - i just love building cozy or not so cozy homes).
I have around 1700 hs in Destiny 2, and close to the same in Bloodborne. Over 1000 hours in the last 2 monster hunter titles. I’ve replayed resident evil 4 and castlevania sotn dozens of times.
So those are my most played games
Monster Hunter: Not all at once of course, but it’s a game I keep coming back to. A friend in college introduced me to it on the psp and I was invested. I’ve had some version of it somewhere since, and I don’t think I’ve ever removed it from my psp either.
Overwatch: This is from before the change, but it became a comfort game. There were no chats, and I didn’t have to be in voice chat. I was low level (bronze), but I was content. I still play here and there, but I may get a match or two in before I leave out. Back in the day I could play for hours.