I am going to recommend, perhaps, my favorite game of all time, Outer Wilds from the studio Mobius Games.

But please please promise to go in completely blind. Your awareness and knowledge of the world is the key mechanic, so almost any info not only spoils the mystery, but also robs you of literal measurable minutes in gameplay.

All I can say - it is a very touching first-person immersive stimulation game in space about, essentially, alien archeology. Expect wonder, discovery, some frights, have your mind completely blown every 10-20 minutes. It will probably make you cry a couple times as well.

It is one of those games when, after finishing it, you immediately get sad because you will never experience it again in the same way. So you start annoying everyone into playing it, just to enjoy discussing it and seeing someone else play.

And the DLC is equally awesome.

• Spiritfarer link
• Eastshade link
• Grim Dawn
• Morrowind
• Freelancer
• GreedFall
• Stardew Valley
• Witcher 3
• Kynseed link
• Divinity: Original Sin 2

@s0phia world of tanks and age of empires 2 DE

I'm a diehard firewatch fan if you'd like a slightly spooky, heart full, storytelling masterpiece about the Wyoming forest. Everyone should play this game at some point.

Skyrim! You’re already used to FPS games, so the first person part of Skyrim should be a breeze (you can toggle to 3rd person too). It’s one of those adventure games that will really stick with you. My wife and I will both come back to it often.

I highly recommend Hades! It's a top-notch game with excellently balanced combat (and I say this as someone who doesn't really like combat in video games), an awesome story, and outstanding art direction and voice acting. Because of its structure as a roguelite, you're restarting every time you die but getting a little further every time, so it basically trains you up. It really made other combat games much more accessible to me. Plus you can use God Mode to lower the learning curve a bit while still keeping it moderately challenging.

If you want story-focused, and you're good with retro graphics and semi-turn-based role-playing games, consider the Final Fantasy VI Pixel Remaster. That right there is the gold standard of Japanese RPGs.

If you liked Portal, any of the games that run on the source engine would be a good fit for you. Half Life 2 has an amazing single player story in FPS style and is on sale right now for $.99. Left for Dead 2 is another classic - probably the best zombie shooter of all time (and has a world of third party content) - also on sale right now for $.99. Straight military, go for CS:GO, or Team Fortress II if you prefer more of a Fortnite style game. All of these are older games, so run amazingly well on even the most mediocre hardware.

I will never not recommend Subnautica.

It's a brilliant game, probably my all time favourite. I wish I could play it again for the first time.

If you have never played the Halo games, they are worth it too, Halo 1 to Halo Reach are fantastic.

I tend to stick to games with interesting stories, with occasional exceptions if the gameplay is good enough.

Top pick from me before anything else would be The Last of Us Part 1 & 2.

Other than that, some I've enjoyed the most that come to mind are

• Bioshock. I haven't played the remaster yet, just the original. Bioshock Infinite was also heaps of fun. I haven't played 2 yet, it's on my backlog - I've read it was made by a different team.
• Alien Isolation.
• Resident Evil 4.
• The Turing Test.
• X-Com Enemy Unknown.
• What Remains of Edith Finch.
• Horizon: Zero Dawn.
• Batman: Arkham Asylum + City + Origins + Knight.
• The Talos Principle.

The Uncharted series is also great, but only 4 and The Lost Legacy are on PC. I'm not sure I'd recommend playing it without having played at least 2 and 3, which are only on PlayStation currently. 1 is fun but dated and the story is not as strong as the later games (but I'd still recommend it if you get the chance to play 1-3).

Omori is a great RPG with forgettable gameplay but an unforgettable story.

Ultrakill is an excellent shooter with fast pacing, unique mechanics, and difficulty that is hard but rarely unfair.

Satisfactory is a factory building simulator which is pretty similar to Factorio, but a bit more chill and in 3D.

I'll throw out 2 very different suggestions: Disco Elysium and Ghostrunner. Disco is a super interesting game, I can't recommend it enough. Get it on sale and don't be surprised if it takes a bit to click, it took me about 3 tries to actually get into it. Ghostrunner you get to be a cyberninja, its dope. Very fast paced, very technical but once you get the flow down you feel like a god.

Hades

CTRL+F "Minecraft," surprised I'm the first to say it.

Just to add a amazing story game but with no words and a shorter time investment:

• Stray

If you love cats and robots, well worth the time

• Disco Elysium
• What Remains of Edith Finch
• Sayonara Wild Hearts
• Gorogoa (really pretty much anything by Annapurna)
• Stardew Valley
• Night in the Woods
• Gris
• Firewatch
• Slime Rancher
• Oxenfree
• Fallout 3
• Fallout: New Vegas (Fallout series isn't so much about great stories though)
• The Witcher 3 (Pretty good story, but imo it's more focused on world building)
• A Short Hike

More games that are more about gameplay then story:

• Factorio
• Satisfactory
• Deep Rock Galactic (Rock and stone!)
• Goat Simulator
• Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy
• Townscaper
• Borderlands 2 and The Pre-Sequel (maybe 1 as well, avoid 3)
• Papers, Please
• Tomb Raider
• The Stanley Parable

Right now is a great time for PC gaming as the Steam summer sale is happening! If you enjoyed Portal, you might enjoy other Valve games like Half Life. At the moment, you can pick the franchise up for a few dollars.

I'm on xbox, bought it with the money stadia refunded lol didn't consider steam. I mean that I think they should sell it standalone too, right now they are only taking preorders for the bundle on xbox. Maybe it will be $20 outside of bundle this Christmas, hopefully?

If you liked Hollow Knight, check out the Ory series. Will of the Wisps was amazing.

Morrowind is a fantastic game even if its clunky by modern standards, def use OpenMW and a UESP guide tho.

Both Knights of the Old Republic games are great (the second is a lot better imo) if yr into star wars.

With Those we Love Alive is a surrealist hypertext game with an awesome creepy ambient soundtrack.

Journey, Spiritfarer, Shadow of the Colossus, The Last of Us.

Doom Eternal. So smooth for an FPS.

An FPS with a grand story, play Mass Effect if you haven't already.

Based on your description and games played I'd say "Furi" and "Transistor". Second is made by Supergiant Games and all thier stuff is fantastic. I loved thier stories and the gameplay was unique in each.

The Mario RPG franchise is very good actually, Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga and Super Mario RPG being my favorites. I've heard good things about Paper Mario too.

Oh and the Earthbound series is very good too, but the Mario franchise is more beginner friendly.