The 10 Best Video Games With No Combat
Can’t we all just get along? Hug it out? Choose the high road? Be the bigger people? While violence isn’t always the answer, it is the question. And where video games are concerned, the answer to that question is usually “yes.” Ifmost obstacles in games are solved by hitting things until they die, what is a pacifist like you supposed to do? Abstain from video games entirely? While that’s the morally upright choice for those who don’t wish to enact digital violence, it isn’t exactly a fun one. Lucky for you, there are plenty of games that don’t force you to solve problems with your fists! These problems aren’t physical, but rather emotional, economical, psychological, spiritual – they can’t be punched away! You’ll have to come up with a peaceful solution – these are the 10 best games with no combat, for the peacemaker in you.
Journey
One of the most beautiful platformers ever created, Journey puts you in control of a robed figure making their way towards a mystic mountain. Their pilgrimage is long and lonely, a walkabout through desert lands littered with ancient ruins. There aren’t any enemies to be defeated, just dusty roads to wander and forgotten towers to climb. With the help of your magical scarf, your figure is able to glide their way across the wasteland on their quest for spiritual enlightenment. What lies at the top of the strange mountain? Maybe it’s a chest full of shiny gold! Maybe it’s a guru glowing with the power of nirvana! Or maybe it’s something deceptively more simple? Maybe the true treasure was the *title drop* journey we had along the way?
Animal Crossing
The ultimate feel good franchise, Animal Crossing puts you in the shoes of a newcomer just moved to town. After being railroaded into buying a house by local grocery store owner/real estate broker/venture capitalist Tom Nook, your character finds themselves saddled with debt. Thankfully, the town is full of valuable fish and bugs to catch, fossils to collect, and animals willing to pay cash in exchange for services rendered. With an in game clock that measures the days in real time, you’ll find yourself passing real-life years observing holidays and watching the seasons change with your anthropomorphic animal friends. Decorate your house, style your character, and make cold hard cash! There’s no need for violence here – except for when Mr. Resetti the mole corners you into a five minute conversation about saving your game. Then you’ll find homicide hard to resist.
Disco Elysium
A work of literature disguised as a video game, Disco Elysium puts you in control of a cop waking up after the mother of all benders. Tasked with piecing together the details of local crimes (and his drug-obliterated personality) you’re allowed to decide how this philosophical text of a game plays out, all without combat! While the game isn’t without violence, physical encounters are solved through branching dialogue options – allowing you to talk out rather than shoot out your problems. While your character is a good conversationalist, the choice is yours whether or not you want to be a good person as well. You can either become a force of human decency inside a dystopia, or add to the social decay by being a selfish prick. For those who want to refrain from violence but still be the bad guy, this rare gem of a game can’t be missed.
Firewatch
Firewatch is the story of Henry, newly hired fire lookout working in Shoshone National Forest in Wyoming. One of the most peaceful walking simulators ever created, Firewatch tasks you with resolving your problems with equal tranquility. While on walkie-talkie with your co-worker Delilah, you’re called to investigate fire hazards across the forest – and the unsettling mystery lurking beneath. As Henry and Delilah begin to discovered abandoned campsites and dead bodies, they begin to suspect that something sinister is lurking inside the preserve. A tense psychological thriller about escapism and isolation, Firewatch will get your heart pounding without forcing you to fight for your life.
The Wolf Among Us
The Wolf Among Us is set in a world where fairytale creatures were driven from their homelands and forced to take shelter in New York City – living among us in mundane disguises. The fables are kept in check by sheriff Bigby Wolf, who isn’t really as big and bad as the stories make him out to be. After a fable is found dead on a doorstep with the rest of her body nowhere in sight, Bigby is called investigate a potential homicide. More of a playable movie than a game, The Wolf Among Us uses a combination of branching dialogue options, quick-time events, and 3D investigation to feel like an R-rated Disney film. While there technically isn’t any combat in the traditional sense, there’s certainly quite a bit of violence. When it comes to detective work, you don’t make an omelet without cracking a few golden goose eggs.
Stardew Valley
Okay so technically there is combat in farming simulator extraordinaire Stardew Valley, but it’s entirely optional. So long as you don’t go traipsing around the mines, the monsters should leave you alone. Stuck working a dead-end corporate job, your fully customizable character is saved after their grandfather leaves them a small plot of land in rural Pelican Town. After moving to the quant little village, you’re tasked with making a go of a farmer’s life – and what a life it is! Grow crops! Tend livestock! Catch fish! Churn butter! It’s every Puritan’s dream come true! And for the more secularly inclined, you can head into town and have premarital relations with all the eligible hotties! Or befriend a wizard and work spells! You know, sinful stuff! And hey, if you change your mind on combat, the jewels of the mines are right there ready to be plundered. But no pressure!
Outer Wilds
Outer Wilds is a game that’s technically only 22 minutes long, but you’ll be playing it for far longer. Set in a solar system with a sun that supernovas every 22 minutes, you play as an astronaut attempting to save the system from fiery destruction. How? With a little help from extraterrestrial civilizations past! In order to prevent the cataclysm, you’ll need to visit each planet and uncover the secrets it holds – multiple times, because you’re gonna die a lot. There’s no combat because you can’t fight cosmic horrors! Black holes! Supernovas! Crushing gravity and rogue asteroids! All of these things can and will kill you, you’re at the mercy of Mother Nature. Thankfully, a time loop will save you from total destruction, but until you find a solution to the sun’s problems, you’ll be trapped in a cycle of destruction for all eternity. Who says games need combat to be scary? Space is terrifying, and all it needs to kill you is exist.
Spiritfarer
Spiritfarer is an adorable story of the afterlife: Stella and her cat Daffodil have been tasked by Charon to ferry souls into the world beyond. Part adventure game and part management sim, Stella and Daffodil sail a spiritual sea to pick up lost souls, caring for their needs before finally leading them to the other side. It’s a deeply moving game, as each spirit leaves Stella’s boat with a tear-jerker send off. As you rescue more and more of the dearly departed, you begin to discover how Stella became a shepherd in the afterlife, leading to a throughly devastating and ultimately uplifting conclusion. The only punches thrown here are the emotional kind, but be warned, they’ll knock you flat.
What Remains of Edith Finch
What Remains of Edith Finch tells the story of the Finch family, a lineage cursed to die in mysterious and tragic ways. Played through the eyes the family’s last surviving member Edith, Edith journeys to her ancestral home in order to discover what became of her bloodline. The violence, what little there was, is a thing of the past – the results of which are discoverable by Edith as she rifles through the belongings of the departed. The dictionary definition of “melancholy,” What Remains of Edith Finch is an elegiac story of memory and loss, told through the eyes of a sole survivor who may be running out of time herself.
To The Moon
To The Moon takes place in a not so distant future where a company called Sigmund Corp. has invented a way to create artificial memories, which they implant in the minds of the dying as part of a wish fulfillment service. Dr. Eva Rosalene and Dr. Neil Watts are two Sigmund Corp. employees who step into the mind of Johnny Wyles – a man whose wish is to go to the moon, though he’s not sure why. As the good doctors dive deep into Johnny’s mindscape, they discover the emotionally devastating reasons behind Johnny’s wish – one influenced by past pain. A dreamy puzzle game, you’ll be tasked with piecing together the memories of a fragile psyche, leading to a tearjerker conclusion. There’s no violence, but you’re certain to take an emotional dropkick to the heart.
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