Skip Navigation
Games @lemmy.world
delitomatoes @lemm.ee

Are there Cozy shooter games?

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

88 comments

  • 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.

    • I’ll mention my favorite recent boomer shooter: Boltgun. Lots of blood and gore so maybe not “cozy” but it is entertaining.

      • 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.

    • 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.

      • 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.

  • 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.

    • You've convinced me to finally play Serious Sam. I've had it on Steam for years.

      • 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.

  • 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

    • 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.

    • 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.

  • Splatoon singleplayer maybe? Side Order is built for casually grinding out runs.

  • 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.

  • 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, you can change the difficulty level to your liking, and you can set your lobbies to private if you don't wanna play with others

  • Ravenfield with some mods on Workshop maybe? Or Operation Harshdoorstop with some Workshop.

  • I do have a recommendation for a cozy FPS: The Signal from Tolva.

    Basically you're a robot in an old robot battlefield planet and you've got to shoot other robots, sometimes team up with other robots and go around getting upgrades.

    The coziness comes from the environment, which has some strong outworldliness vibe and it feels slightly lonely but in a "journey" way. Plus the guns feel good and it's probably really cheap right now.

    The cons is that the game doesn't feel finished, after a while it gets repetitive and then it just ends.

    If I had to describe it, I would say it's an FPS+walking simulator.

    "Generation Zero" would be my second recommendation, which is a mixture of Red Dawn, Swedish 80s and big robots.

    Note: I haven't played them except for the 2nd entry, but the Far Cry series feels like it is a mixture between FPS and holiday island.

  • What about Extraneum? It's cute as a button and very chill with plenty of things to shoot. It feels a bit like a modern wolfenstein since there aren't any stairs. Gunplay feels nice and the secrets are rewarding. Plus between levels there are funny data discs to read.

  • Smash Out has that aesthetic, although it can get infuriating. I also second the recommendation of Ravenfield.

  • payday 2 was kind of a cosy game where me and my friend would do heists whilst making tea and fetching snacks.

    shadow raid? More like food raid 😊

  • Hedon would be an option. It has actually calm moments, is cut scene free and gives you time to explore, whil still having cool combat moments.

    It although has a pretty good difficulty mode.

88 comments