Haptic is a place for games and even though we’re small and scrappy right now, we’re working our way up and out. Keep tuned in because we’re always working on something new for you guys. So, what’s today’s post about? That? No, that’s later. Today’s post is a summation of the games we have available now.

I talked about Minecraft before, and what I have said there still stands. Minecraft is… unique in so many ways. It has set the tone for seemingly every other modern survival/build/exploration game that has come and gone. But how does it play? I remember playing it for the first time and the button/mouse set-up really threw me off, but not in a way that I couldn't overcome. Some games I just can’t play because of designer choices for buttons (2009’s Ghostbusters: The Video Game, I’m looking at you). But Minecraft wasn’t like that, not really. After getting used to the controls, I was hell on wheels. I luckily got to play it with a bunch of people who I knew and who knew the game well and Minecraft soaked up almost 18 months of my life. It was just too much fun – especially doing what amounted to dungeon-delving (and, by the way, they are adding a Dungeons and Dragons DLC). I was actually terrible at the building part of it, but when you can play with a group of people you can specialize, and I specialized in resource gathering so the better builders could show off their skills. I also got to sort stuff – and honestly, if there were a game where you basically just sort things into specific groups, I’d play that till the cows came home. I know. I’m weird. But everything has a place and there is a place for everything. When you first play the game, there is a bit of a disconnect, but you quickly get a kind of “awareness” of things, and everything sort of tracks in an obvious way. I really can’t say enough good things about the Minecraft user interface because it really is that awesome.

I’ve played this game well over 600 hours, but I’ve yet to play in the last few years, so I know they’ve added stuff. I really need to spin up a server and see what I can see.

I literally bought this game so I could play it and write this post. First, it gut-punches me in the nostalgia. A modern-day side-scroller? Okay. Yeah. I want it. But wait, it’s a survival game too (**heavy breathing**). And it’s super-cheap. I also really liked the modes of play. From Journey (nothing bad happens when you die) to Hardcore (I say you he dead), everything was covered for most gamers. The customization for your character sprite was nice, too, and the GUI was really friendly overall. Yes, like all other survival/exploration games, but it was still nice, damn it, and I’m going to comment on it. Re-Logic also apparently likes doing free DLC and I've got to say, they do it well. Not many companies do that.

Gameplay is kind of like Minecraft, but they give you some gear to start and it’s not hard to find stuff – but more like finding the stuff you want. There were so many things I found in my short play-through that I was honestly a little overwhelmed. I like how you have to deal with zombies (one spawned with an umbrella and raincoat and I just couldn’t stop making It jokes) at night (like Minecraft). The crafting panel is intuitive and I figured it out pretty quick. Oh, man. I also got a boomerang early on (BOOMERANG, YOU DO COME BACK!) and managed to upgrade it. So many Legend of Zelda vibes. That is awesome. Ropes… are weird. They just defy physics, period. But like, in a good way. Digging totally brought back all the Feels from when I was addicted to Dig Dug or Lemmings. I think the hardest part for me was the building aspect – I’m terrible at making structures. Construction in a 3D environment is much easier than a 2D one, and it really showed as I played for about an hour trying to get stuff just right. I learned early on that you needed to put up walls behind your hut if you wanted to stay safe.

I talked with a friend who had sunk hundreds of hours into it and that made me want to play it more. You can build little towns (though that attracts unwelcome guests), summon/fight bosses, set up traps for said bosses, and so, so much more. He’s never played it with a group and I think we’ll have to change that.

Overall, I only played this for a few hours and I know it’s going to be something I go back to. It’s just too much fun to languish in the back of my hard drive.

I’m a fool for anything even barely steeped in mythology (I cannot count the hours I played Altered Beast in the arcade). Valheim was initially something a friend was playing and he tried for months to get me to play with him, but I was always busy or about to be busy. Eventually, I gave in, bought the game, got sucked into the game, played forever (still playing it, really – it’s in my top ten). Valheim took everything I liked about Minecraft and just made it better. Even the stupid bird giving me tips. I think I played this maybe 10 hours, then got hosting service for it because damn was it fun when playing with other folks. Getting from the beginning tech level to the next was rough the first time I did it. I could not kite trolls to save my life and in those early stages you kind of had to or otherwise you just… die. Working with a group made it easier and I think ultimately that’s why I ended up getting a hosting service. Like in Minecraft, I got to go out on runs and get resources; like in Minecraft, I would spend hours sorting those resources so they were easy to find at the base. Unlike Minecraft, I was able to actually build some stuff in this one. I don’t know why, maybe it was the prebuild visualization but it was measurably easier to do in Valheim than any other survival game I’ve played so far.

One thing I really liked about Valheim was the food. You could cook food and it was unique and interesting and fun. I have literally created recipes from the information they give you in the game, because damn if it’s not inspiring. But no aspic. Nope. Not ever. Aspic is the evil of the 1970s that will not die. That which jiggles from packets lie and in the end even ham may be Jell-O-ed and fry. (Yes. That’s a real recipe; for the love of all that is holy, do not Google it. It will send you straight to Arkham Asylum – the Lovecraft one, not the Batman one.)

I’ve put a lot of hours in this game and it shows just by looking at this post – I have the most to say about it. I might not play it all the time right now, but it’s a permanent install for me in case I want to load it up and go.

So in order of what I’d personally recommend to play: Valheim, Minecraft, and then Terraria. Why? I’ve played the most Valheim (700+ hours) and I like the set-up and (potential) lore backdrop it has. Minecraft is next because, well, it’s Minecraft. It’s got all the things I like about survival games, with very few of the things I don’t. Terraria gets last place because I’ve spent a whole two hours playing it. It has a lot of potential, though, and it might yet take that second spot from Minecraft just from the sheer nostalgia of a side-scroller.

What games would you recommend and in what order? What game do you think we should adapt next? Why? Tell us your stories about your time gaming – we want to know!