Help me find a new videogame

[AceOfFools]

Me and my best friend three timezones over have been playing League of Legends for a couple of years at this point. However, we're increasingly uninterested in playing with other League of Legends players--a fact not helped by the fact we do the all random mode, meaning some percent of the time, you're laying with people who legit have no idea how to play the character they're playing.

What we like about League is variety (Diablo 3 got samey, grindy, and borring pretty fast--this is why we play the all random mode), easy breakpoints (every 20-30 minutes you have to actively click "start a new round"), limited action bars (6 buttons and 1 click interface, no multiple lines of action bars), we play together (rather than against each other), and I think we like the challenge (we have something like a 50.1% win rate). Familiarity also plays a part, but well, nothing we can do about that if we move to a new game.

Neither of us has any interest in FPS (although I don't mind the control scheme in 3rd person perspective, as used in Neverwinter or Orcs Must Die).

Guild Wars 2 would be a worth a shot if I wasn't still pissed at Arenanet.

So, if you don't mind, hit me up with your recommendations and sell me on your personal favorites.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Battlerite could be worth a look. There's a reasonably heavy skill floor required, in that each character has 7 skills (and two powered up skill variants), and it's a top-down arena fighting game with skillshots for basically everything. Imagine a fighting game but with a feel like League duels.

The playerbase is kinda small, but they've also got a Battle Royale spinoff that's been getting some good popularity.

[Knaight]

Give Helldivers a shot - its cooperative, it can be challenging, and while you're not up against an enemy team it sounds like that isn't really a necessity for you anyways.

[denthor]

I enjoy world of warships.

3d graphics make me sick to my stomach normally. This does not. 20 maximum per game start for free. Build for free.

[Anteros]

You could try HOTS or DOTA. HOTS is basically LoL but more casual while DOTA is basically LoL but more complex.

[Triaxx]

It's a bit older, but the Original Sacred let you play the regular campaign in Co-op mode, with up to 8 people. It's an isometric Diablo style game. Plus a second campaign in the expansion.

Baldur's Gate 1/2, and Icewind Dale all have enhanced editions and let you control any proportion of 6 characters.

[tonberrian]

Divinity: Original Sin 2 is a fun turn-based RPG that allows coop play. Haven't done coop myself, but my bro liked it enough to purchase the game for me, and single player it's pretty fun.

[Olinser]

You could try HOTS or DOTA. HOTS is basically LoL but more casual while DOTA is basically LoL but more complex.

DOTA 2 is also significantly longer though, he was looking for 20-30 minute average games.

[Anteros]

DOTA 2 is also significantly longer though, he was looking for 20-30 minute average games.

Dota has a fast mode now for shorter games actually.

[AceOfFools]

You could try HOTS or DOTA. HOTS is basically LoL but more casual while DOTA is basically LoL but more complex.

I've tried DOTA, and I have issues with visual style that renders it unplayable. "Wait, that's the enemy champion? I thought that was a minion!" issues. I need things to "Pop" more, or I literally can't tell what's going on.

HOTS shared experience bar and lack of gold makes the "I hate everyone one my team" problem that's driving me from LoL significantly worse.

I do appreciate the suggestions though.

[Man_Over_Game]

CRAWL

It's a 4 player cooperative/competitive dungeon crawler. You play as 1 hero and 3 ghosts, and whatever ghost kills the hero becomes the new hero, and the old hero becomes a ghost. The game starts with 4 heroes all trying to murder each other, and the survivor continues through the dungeon as the ghosts of his former allies plot their revenge.

As a ghost you possess monsters and traps that try to attack the hero. As the hero, you do everything you can to avoid dying and earn EXP and gold as you kill things. If you die, your progress as a hero is saved, you turn into a villain, and you resume your hero stats the next time you regain your soul.

As heroes gain experience to give them better stats, ghosts gain basically evil experience, which grants them upgraded monsters to possess. The more you're losing, the more powerful monsters you can possess to turn the tide. You don't get evil experience when alive as the hero, so the game uses what's called a "negative feedback loop", similar to Mario Kart, where the game gets easier the more you're losing and harder the more you win.

After you hit level 10, you may choose to attempt to defeat the dungeon (and end the game) by fighting The Boss, which, while always random, is always a single entity with multiple parts. The three ghosts must possess different parts of the boss to attack the hero. One example is a Hydra, who has a flame head that's controlled by one ghost player, an acid head that can infect parts of the room, and an ice beam head that takes a moment to charge but can blast quickly in hard-to-control bursts. You have to work together as the ghosts to take down the hero. If the hero fails, he returns to the entrance of the boss's lair with 1 HP, forced to continue the rest of the dungeon and likely to give up his spot as the hero. The monsters you possess as a ghost are determined by a "god" you pick at the start, so you can have strategies or expectations on how you can play. One god, for instance, increases the health of the creatures you possess, and lets you possess tankier, warrior types. Another god increases the damage you deal with traps, and gives you monsters that generally don't work well with traps. The game is also a roguelike, so don't ever expect it to be repetitive.

It's definitely one of my favorite games of all time.
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+1 for Helldivers. Stupidly funny and surprisingly difficult without it being "too much".
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+1 for Heroes of the Storm. It's a lot like League, but the benefit of your team sharing EXP means that unorthodox characters are entirely possible. You want a support that just teleports to allies? Got it. You want a character that places a spawn point and just throws himself at the enemy team? Got it. You want a character that's actually two players controlling a separate head with one as a super turret head and the other is the body? Got it! People give the shared experience/lack of items a bad rap, but usually those people are the ones who keep expecting every other MOBA and only stick around to 1-2 games before giving up. I've played League for years, played a bit of Smite too (good for action), but Heroes of the Storm is definitely my go-to.
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There's a cooperative roguelike mage game that just came out that looked really good, with customizable spells and everything. I think it'd be worth checking out, but I don't have the name in front of me, sorry.

[Brother Oni]

Warframe (https://www.warframe.com/). It's a free to play, third person, looter shooter with one of the fairest monetisation systems on the market (only cosmetics cost premium currency and you can earn the premium currency from selling items ingame to other players).

Very fluid movement system, plenty of weapons and (essentially) character classes to choose from, which can be switched freely. There are multiple mission types, nearly all missions tends to take 10-15 minutes to complete (some end game and survival modes aside) and you can play missions together. If you get into it, you can join a clan (player guild) or start your own, which makes playing together even easier.

Downsides are that it's not as competitive as other games you've listed (it's almost entirely PVE, except for a couple fairly unpopular PVP modes), the game doesn't explain its systems very well (so you'll be fairly glued to the unofficial wiki), the major plot details are very much in the background so can be missed if you're not paying attention and it is generally very grindy.

If that piques your interest, we have a thread here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?544873-Warframe-In-The-Playground-The-Grustrag-03) that you can ask for help for, or you can hit us up in game (the names of various players and the platform they're on are listed in the first post). The game has invite codes that give you some nice free stuff if you decide to put money into the game so if you'd like one, just ask (in the interests of full disclosure, the player extending the invite also gets a reward when a recruited player does so).

[JamesBarrett]

Now, the all new video games that you can try is FIFA 19, God of War, Destiny 2 and Fortnite.

[Man_Over_Game]

Totally forgot about Magicka.

It's a 1-4 player top-down action game, where you take raw elements (there's like 8 or something) and mix them together to create your own homebrew spells. The game also has a system that causes conditions to interfere with your flow so you can't abuse a lot of things.

You can choose 1 of 3 delivery methods (Ray (straight laser), Burst (surrounding you), Self (some kind of buff)), and you can combine a number of elements to that spell. For example:

Earth > Self gives you wood armor. While wearing it, you move slower and take less damage. Taking any fire damage, or channeling any fire energy, will cause you to lose your armor and burst into flames.

Arcane + Explosive + Cold > Burst causes you to drop several land mines around you in a wide circle that explode when touched and freeze whoever touches them while leaving behind an icy sleet of ground.

Lighnting + Arcane + Lightning > Self is a haste spell that allows you to cast and move stupidly fast for the next couple minutes, but taking damage causes it to end, and when it ends you stop to catch your breath for a few seconds.

The game is incredibly chaotic. Channelling any lightning while you're wet will cause the spell to fail and you to take lightning damage. Channeling any fire while you're wearing wood armor will set you on fire. Channelling any cold while you're wet will encase you in ice armor, which keeps you from moving. There's a lot of ways to play the game, and it's a ton of fun.

[JamesBarrett]

Try FIFA 19, Call of Duty World War 2 and Destiny 2.

[danzibr]

Now, the all new video games that you can try is FIFA 19, God of War, Destiny 2 and Fortnite.

Try FIFA 19, Call of Duty World War 2 and Destiny 2.
I’m sensing a trend.

Totally forgot about Magicka.

It's a 1-4 player top-down action game, where you take raw elements (there's like 8 or something) and mix them together to create your own homebrew spells. The game also has a system that causes conditions to interfere with your flow so you can't abuse a lot of things.

You can choose 1 of 3 delivery methods (Ray (straight laser), Burst (surrounding you), Self (some kind of buff)), and you can combine a number of elements to that spell. For example:

Earth > Self gives you wood armor. While wearing it, you move slower and take less damage. Taking any fire damage, or channeling any fire energy, will cause you to lose your armor and burst into flames.

Arcane + Explosive + Cold > Burst causes you to drop several land mines around you in a wide circle that explode when touched and freeze whoever touches them while leaving behind an icy sleet of ground.

Lighnting + Arcane + Lightning > Self is a haste spell that allows you to cast and move stupidly fast for the next couple minutes, but taking damage causes it to end, and when it ends you stop to catch your breath for a few seconds.

The game is incredibly chaotic. Channelling any lightning while you're wet will cause the spell to fail and you to take lightning damage. Channeling any fire while you're wearing wood armor will set you on fire. Channelling any cold while you're wet will encase you in ice armor, which keeps you from moving. There's a lot of ways to play the game, and it's a ton of fun.
That sounds really good! I’ll check it out.

[Kadesh]

Diablo 3 is 'choose a build and grind gear for it, see how well you do'. Playing the seasons, I'm currently playing a Set item build which I got for free for completing the early game of the season, and am currently gearing for a different play style that may even perform worse than the season build, and is much more difficult to gear for.

That said, I'm enjoying the self imposed challenge, which is no longer about 'can I hit Level 100+ Grifts', but 'can I hit level 70 Grifts using this potentially garbage one'? That said, you are still grinding for gear at the end of the day.

If you've not played Path of Exile, the story mode is actually pretty legit. Seriously recommend picking up a build guide though, have a browse and observe. Unlike D3 whose builds rely on items, most builds rely on skills (ostensibly a skill, but easy enough to locate in play without farming) and gear is simply +Numbers, until you get to extreme end game. Unlike D3, the resources all aid towards improving +Numbers on your gear.

[Man_Over_Game]

Diablo 3 is 'choose a build and grind gear for it, see how well you do'. Playing the seasons, I'm currently playing a Set item build which I got for free for completing the early game of the season, and am currently gearing for a different play style that may even perform worse than the season build, and is much more difficult to gear for.

That said, I'm enjoying the self imposed challenge, which is no longer about 'can I hit Level 100+ Grifts', but 'can I hit level 70 Grifts using this potentially garbage one'? That said, you are still grinding for gear at the end of the day.

If you've not played Path of Exile, the story mode is actually pretty legit. Seriously recommend picking up a build guide though, have a browse and observe. Unlike D3 whose builds rely on items, most builds rely on skills (ostensibly a skill, but easy enough to locate in play without farming) and gear is simply +Numbers, until you get to extreme end game. Unlike D3, the resources all aid towards improving +Numbers on your gear.

OP did mention that he was avoiding something grindy, and mentioned Diablo 3 explicitly as the type of grind he was avoiding. I'd personally say Path of Exile is a LOT grindier than D3.

[Fairy]

It's not very active these days but myself and a group of friends have enjoyed Guns of Icarus.
Good for groups of 3 or 4, and to be honest if you're organised in a group you succeed very well in the lower ranks; I think most people play solo or maybe in duos and as a result seems like most ships won't do as well as you if you're organised.

[Kadesh]

OP did mention that he was avoiding something grindy, and mentioned Diablo 3 explicitly as the type of grind he was avoiding. I'd personally say Path of Exile is a LOT grindier than D3.

I entirely disagree. I am 30 hours in and am not grinding anything due to how different a Scion plays compared to a Templar, or Ranger, or Witch.

PoE CAN support those who wish to grind Chaos, but for Casual play? Hell Naw.

[Starwulf]

I entirely disagree. I am 30 hours in and am not grinding anything due to how different a Scion plays compared to a Templar, or Ranger, or Witch.

PoE CAN support those who wish to grind Chaos, but for Casual play? Hell Naw.

Even for casual, once you hit maps, it's literally nothing but a grind. A grind for better gear to take on higher maps, a grind to finish all the maps, a grind so you can fight The Elder whatever, and The Shaper, a grind to beat Uber Lab. I'm sure there are things I'm not even thinking off because it's been a few months since I last played.. PoE is just one giant grindfest. Depending upon build there are even spots throughout the acts that can require grinding so you can trade for better gear.

Point is, saying PoE isn't a grindy game is laughable. It's the epitome of a grind game, even moreso than d3.

[Kadesh]

Even for casual, once you hit maps, it's literally nothing but a grind. A grind for better gear to take on higher maps, a grind to finish all the maps, a grind so you can fight The Elder whatever, and The Shaper, a grind to beat Uber Lab. I'm sure there are things I'm not even thinking off because it's been a few months since I last played.. PoE is just one giant grindfest. Depending upon build there are even spots throughout the acts that can require grinding so you can trade for better gear.

Point is, saying PoE isn't a grindy game is laughable. It's the epitome of a grind game, even moreso than d3.

Good thing it's free then. But I'm about 30 hours in, and don't feel it's particularly grindy, and I stopped with class when I wasn't having fun, and just rolled up a new build after 10 minutes research of "oh, that looks cool".

[Starwulf]

Good thing it's free then. But I'm about 30 hours in, and don't feel it's particularly grindy, and I stopped with class when I wasn't having fun, and just rolled up a new build after 10 minutes research of "oh, that looks cool".

Oh yeah, don't get me wrong, I [expletive redacted] love Path of Exile, it's an amazing game, and the developers are awesome with constantly giving new content, and the only thing they sell to keep the game going is various skins and cool graphics, and extra stash tabs. I've been playing the game since it was in Alpha state(or damn close to it, they had just launched the website, and they had a clock on it. Every time it dinged a new hours or so they would have a randomized draw and give a person a key for the game. I got incredibly lucky and my name was drawn literally 2 days in) and I still play just about every other league.

But it is grindy. It's not so bad if you do what you're doing, and just re-rolling characters every time you get bored with it, but once you get to maps(which really isn't hard anymore. I remember when making it to the end of Merciless was quite an achievement, lmao), it is nothing but a grind(just doing maps period is the definition of a grind). Oh, and I remembered one other thing about the game that's grindy(but still awesome!): The Endless Dungeon! Iirc, there are now people that are on like level 2500 of the damn thing, lmao.

TL;DR: Great game, but it's grindy post level 65ish.

[chinthechilla]

So, it sounds like you want an MMO, that's not grindy and not an fps. A game that you can play with your friend, but possibly with other people that are not overly toxic.

The only things that are not going to be horribly non-grindy with progression I suspect is going to be the new Fallout thingy, or Final Fantasy 14.

That or set up a minecraft or starbound server and invite people.

Some of the disneyesque free 2 play MMOs might work as well.