7 calming video games that make the world feel small and safe
The world is very loud right now and I’ve been trying to look for ways to make it feel smaller, more manageable. Ever since the coronavirus pandemic happened and we’ve been told to self-isolate at home (I’m in the UK, where we’ve been at home for about three weeks), I’ve been trying to get lost in things I can control - like overwatering my plants, listening to podcasts and making the ultimate bachelorette pad in Animal Crossing.
I’m by no means an expert gamer (that title goes to this guy), but I’ve been playing more video games than ever over this period. I’m also not the only person doing this, as Steam just dropped some spicy stats - revealing that the gaming service had broken a record for the highest number of users concurrently using it, topping off at a staggering 20 million.
Real time footage of me and one of my best pals being reunited in Animal Crossing during self-isolation
While there’s a time and place for the adrenaline-pumping shoot ‘em ups or horror games, I’m going to be focusing on my forte: cute, calming, casual video games.
Here’s a few I’ve fallen in love with, as well as how much they cost and where to get them. Sorry Xbox users, not much representation here.
Stardew Valley
Price: £10.99 on Steam
Platform: PC, Mac, Nintendo Switch, Xbox, PS4, your microwave probably
Multiplayer? Yes
Tl;dr - A charming farming/dating game that you can pour hours into, plus play with your friends online. Great for Animal Crossing and Harvest Moon fans. Also my favourite on the list.
I thought there was nothing I would ever love more than my OG farming/dating game Harvest Moon, then Stardew Valley came and blew that all out of the water. You play a city kid whose high pressure life and job in the city gets to be too much, so you ditch everything to run a farm your grandfather left you in a sleepy town - which RN makes a lot of sense to me.
While it’s super important that you revamp your hot mess of a farm, the heart of the game is really how you build your relationship with the villagers. As you get to know them, you unlock their rich storylines - some heartwarming and others at some points super devastating - and you can even end up marrying one of them. TBH, I play this game like a hoe (farming pun intended) and woo every single person because I’m a glutton for story.
More importantly, they’ve introduced a multi-player function now so you can party with your self-isolating buddies. The game also has the sweetest, most relaxing soundtrack ever and if you’re looking for a new ambient playlist for work - I got you.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Price: £44.99 (ouch)
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Multiplayer? Yes
Tl;dr - All of your friends are playing this. Pure escapist fun where you can play interior designer, hunter gatherer and goof off with your pals in a syrupy world.
Everyone and Brie Larson has been freaking out about this game, which happened to drop just as self-isolation really got going in a lot of countries.
In fact, people were so hyped to escape to a cute little island full of talking animals that the launch smashed Nintendo Switch sales records - breaking the record for biggest launch ever in the UK and Japan, toppling Pokemon: Sword and Shield.
I’ve kind of given the game away, but it weirdly has a lot of similarities with Stardew Valley - you decide to escape and set up a new life on an island full of bumbling owls, Top Gun-esque pelican pilots and fashionable echidnas.
The whole point of the game is that you wind up getting a house and have to pay off your mortgage to a talking racoon called Tom Nook (stay with me here). You do that by catching bugs, fishing and occasionally going to other deserted islands and totally draining its resources, you coloniser. Plus, you can customise your house, clothing and help bulk up the museum’s embarrassingly empty exhibits.
I know it’s brought a lot of people peace over this wild period and odds are, you probably know somebody who’s on it. If you pay for a Nintendo membership, you can actually visit your friends’ islands or they can come hang out with you - people have actually resorted to hosting their coronavirus-cancelled weddings, dates and hangs in the candy striped universe.
Abzu
Price: £7.49 (it’s on sale now!)
Platform: Windows, Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One
Multiplayer? No
Tl;dr - Ideal for anybody who can spend hours in an aquarium and wants to completely lose themselves in another, more beautiful world for a while.
The prize for most chill game ever probably goes to Abzu in my book. Created by the same team behind Journey (so you know the art style is going to be out of this world), you play a diver who gets to explore a rich underwater world. As with Journey, there’s a huge emphasis on making the game as beautiful an experience as possible without using any words - challenging the notion of what a video game can be.
It’s a game that’s also relatively short (just a couple of hours long) if you just want to speed through it, or you can spend hours really immersing yourself in the world - spending time swimming around as manta rays glide past you. There’s a few riddles to solve as well and you also get to make best buds with a great white shark, who actually kind of made me teary eyed towards the end. As seems to be a recurring theme with this list, the music is also chill and beautiful AF.
Firewatch
Price: £14.99
Platform: Windows, Mac
Multiplayer? No
Tl;dr - Cinematic and story driven, this game throws you alone into the Wyoming wilderness and you’re going to weep tears of joy because of it.
As with Abzu, Firewatch is all about throwing yourself into a stunning if not sometimes melancholic world. Unlike Abzu though, Firewatch has a strong emphasis on story and it’s a stirring one - you play a guy called Henry whose life has fallen apart. As he tries to put his heart back together and buries his demons, he ends up taking a job as a fire lookout in a Wyoming national park.
As you explore the vividly realised world of nature around you - occasionally having to go and tell off kids starting fires or leaping into action during tough storms - it’s a deeply emotional experience. You’re also guided through with the calming voice of another fire watcher on the end of a walkie talkie. It’s cathartic and very moving, so if you know anything about me you’ll know that’s code for: yes, I cried.
Golf Story
Price: £13.49
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Multiplayer? No
Tl;dr - Goofy and absolutely adorable, this game is a surprising RPG full of charm.
I’m being serious, this is one of the cutest, funniest games I have ever played and I hate golf. It’s a story-driven 16 bit game where you play a precocious kid, who’s convinced that he’s going to be god’s gift to golf and seeks out the greatest coach of all time - begging him to take him on as a student despite not having the money or connections to be taken seriously.
It’s a funny twist on your usual RPG with all the tropes: your arrogant rival, the wise old (golf) sage and it packs in more jokes per minute than most shows on television. You also really don’t have to know anything about golf, or even like it in my case, to enjoy playing all the minigames and the golf challenges are actually really fun - with obstacles like birds randomly getting in your way.
This is probably going to be the most wtf moment on the list for many people reading, but it’s the one that delightfully surprised me the most.
Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Price: £59.99
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Multiplayer? No
Tl;dr - Open world doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of this game, as it takes all the best parts of the Zelda game and turns them up to eleven. Full of fantasy, fun battles and classic Zelda puzzle solving, the nature of the game puts you in control of how fast or how slow you want to go - whether you want to spend time exploring the (stunning) surroundings or charging headfirst into the story.
Another Switch addition to the list, now’s honestly the best time to get stuck into this game as there’s hours upon hours of game time in this beauty. This game was hands down the reason a lot of people first got a Switch and was one of the titles Nintendo pegged the launch around and christ, it paid off. You play as Link, a warrior with amnesia, who is dropped into a world he no longer recognises and has been ravaged by the villain Ganondorf - so it’s your responsibility to set it to rights again.
Whether you’re a newcomer to LoZ or you’re deeply entrenched in the lore, the world is as rich as any Tolkien experience - only with Nintendo’s characteristic sweetness. With tens of worlds and quests to follow alongside the stirring main story, you’re put firmly in the driver’s seat and there’s no wrong way to play it as it’s up to you to explore the world and work the story out for yourself. The coolest thing about it is that no two people ever truly have the same experience, plus there’s DLC if you want to extend your gameplay.
Phoenix Wright
Price: £26.99 for the first three games for PlayStation, £29.99 for the first three games on Steam
Platforms: PS4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox, Windows
Multiplayer? No
Tl;dr - A story-driven and dialogue heavy game where you play a rookie defense lawyer, who finds himself involved with stranger and stranger cases. It’s both super silly, adorable and surprisingly emotional at points.
No joke, I dead ass thought I was going to go to law school after I played this in secondary school. They’ve thankfully remastered these classic games, where you play a green defense lawyer called Phoenix Wright. It starts off with you being thrust straight into a murder case, where your best friend Larry Butz has been accused of murder and it’s up to you to collect clues, question a colourful cast of characters and eventually use your smarts (and the evidence you’ve collected) to represent your client at trial.
I can’t recommend these enough, they’re so much fun to play - even if a few actual lawyers have questioned the authenticity of its legal proceedings. Given that your sidekick is a psychic and one of your key witnesses in one of your cases is a literal parrot, I’m not too fussed about it. There’s also a ton of games in the series, so you’ll be busy for a while if you want to get through the whole thing.
Other mentions
I don’t personally love these games as much but I know they’ve made a lot of other people happy:
Minecraft
Untitled Goose Game
Terraria
The Sims