Games

• Factorio, I know you said you couldn't get into it, but try peaceful mode, it's a great game even without enemies
• RimWorld, it's an excellent colony management game
• Dwarf Fortress, this is the big boss, it's really hard to start, but it's the most complex simulation game out there. If you can get into it, it's infinite hours of fun.

Horror/action: Dead Space.
FPS/time manipulation: Singularity.
Factory/combat(optional): Dyson Sphere Project

Singularity still stands up as it's graphics are decent. Super cheap on GoG. Dead Space if you get the original would be cheap. HD remaster would be more. If you love factory games but have never played DSP god damn do I wish I was you. Recommend playing without combat enabled on first run to just enjoy how gorgeous the game is and to help with learning everything before throwing in combat management

Kenshi.

If you can get past the kind of... weird control scheme...

The game is basically a single player mmorpg.

You start off as an absolute weakling, and there is no ... scaling, the way most other rpgs either generally have certain levelled enemies in certain areas, that you progress through linearly or unlock sequentially, or just an outright whole world spanning dynamic level matching kind of system.

You can be battling a small beast... and then a herd of very, very much more dangerous beasts, or slavers, will just happen to pass by, and royally fuck up your day.

Every character in the game, including you, plays by the same rules.

All major NPCs can be killed, the game is also full of varying factions with varying alignments towars other factions, and they will treat your character differently based on your race, the kinds of actio s you do, your reputation with other factions.

The storytelling is ... a sandbox/emergent approach. Not in the sense of 'there are no story lines or quests'... but in the sense of... a whole lot of stuff is out there, but you have to self direct yourself to go out and find it, or randomly encounter it.

Also, you can gain allies, make your own faction, and control a small army... and you can even build your own settlement, and economically interact with the rest of the world.

... Its... kind of hard to describe.

There really aren't any other games quite like Kenshi.

Its got a good sized modding scene, and it incorperates at least some elemenrs of... every game you mentioned.

If you use a mod to up your max follower/faction member count... you can basically play the game as an RTS (with pause). Build a settlement, recruit followers (or enslave them), arm them, fees them, train them up, and go take over a city if you want.

... Or play basically solo, just you and your bonedog, maybe as a bounty hunter for hire, or a hashish smuggler, or get a pack animal and run a trade caravan.

Factorio. Aka cracktorio.

The Bioshock games are really fun in a very dark way. They are incredibly unique—I haven’t played anything else quite like them. Personally, I liked the first two better than the third one. The first two take place underwater, which sort of creeped me out from the get-go. The third is in a city in the sky.

Hardspace Shipbreaker.

Slay the spire is really fun and different than what you've listed.

It was the first rogue like deck building game. Fantastically done.

Shall I recommend WarZone-2100 ? It's free

Naturally we need to know which suggestions "won" ASAP

Factorio. If you enjoyed Satisfactory you should check out the game that created the genre. They have an excellent demo and although it's relatively expensive compared to similar games, it's the best one and runs like an absolute dream even when things get huge where a lot of similar games slow down.

If you like factory designing games, I can recommend anything by Zachtronics.

They're all esoteric programming/automation type puzzle games, and they all have their own unique solitaire games built-in for whenever you get tired of the main game.

My personal favourites are SpaceChem - scifi molecule factories - and Opus Magnum - steampunk alchemical molecule factories. Something about the molecules just works for me, don't know why. Plus the Opus Magnum solitaire game is really unique and fun, and it has a user-made level feature, so you can keep playing.

Last Call BBS is a collection of minigames they made as their final release before shutting up shop, so it's a lot more casual than the others, but a lot of fun.

Kenshi

I think you might like 'Rogue Trader', even if you don't know anything about the 40K universe. Cool story, choices and fights.

Don't worry too much about not knowing the background lore. The game contextualizes a lot in dialogues and even little mouseovers. But be careful, if you like SciFi, you might fall into the awesomely rich and grim rabbit hole, that is Warhammer 40K.

The Emperor protects.

Not on steam, but Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup is pretty good, and free.

Terraria.

Factorio. If you like satisfactory and w&r then cracktorio is right up your alley.

There is also a free demo on Steam.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/427520/Factorio/

If you enjoy the base game I would 100% recommend the expansion called Space Age with adds 4 more planets and space flight between them.

It seems like you like games with a lot of replayability, as well as games that make you think a bit. I'm a bit of the opposite (I like shorter, unique experiences), but I also like games that make me think. So here are a few that I've enjoyed that I think fit the bill:

• deck-building roguelikes, like Slay the Spire, Balatro, etc; you can get a lot of hours in it, they generally don't have DLC, and they're more on the "thinking" vs "combat" end of the roguelike spectrum
• Planet Coaster or Parkitect - theme park themed "city builder"; Planet Coaster is a bit of a DLC-fest, but Parkitect only has 2 (and a soundtrack); look around the various "tycoon" games if you like the genre, they can have good replayability
• "coding" games - Human Resource Machine, Opus Magnum, etc; these have poor replayability (mostly just optimizing solutions), but there's a lot of thinking and you can get a lot of hours out of it if you don't look up guides; they're not for everyone, but if they are, they're very satisfying
• Dwarf Fortress - the management game, and perhaps the best in the world at replayability; the Steam version is a huge upgrade, but you can also get the classic version for free, though do be aware that the learning curve is a lot higher than the Steam version
• Sid Meier's Pirates - old game, but I get a lot of hours in it and find it absolutely fantastic; this is more combat than thinking, but it's more thinking than something like Mount and Blade (combat is relatively slow)
• Tropico series - they do have DLC, but you can frequently find a bundle on Humble Bundle or Fanatical or something with all the DLC included for the older games; not as sandbox-y as Cities Skylines, but still largely in that vein

That said, I want to echo what others have said and to recommend branching out. There are tons of great indie games that aren't a total ripoff in a variety of genres, so look around for bundles or something to find something new to try.

X4 foundations is a sandbox RPG in space where you do whatever you want.

• Different factions with their story, political agenda, sub-factions, technologies
• Walk out of your ship on station, all 1:1 size real time, no loading screen.
• Play first person in your ship (pew pew) in the ship of your liking
• Recruit staff members to build your empire / fleet
• Play as a manager (see RTS kind of) from the galactic map, command your empire, fleet of death, traders, miners.
• Build your own stations with their own production pipeline that Maximize the local resources
• Enjoy 25 years of lore building

I am a big fan, as you can see :D

Outer Wilds

Everyone's recommending games but addressing steam recs, there's Backloggd which is Letterbox for games. Sure there'll probably be a similar overlap of games folks love that are not your jam but it'll help you figure out what you like, find something new, and follow folks with similar tastes.

Have you considered Rimworld or 4x games? Stellaris, in particular, might be up your alley.

Oblivion Remastered is really good.

I see no mention of Starsector, there should be mention of Starsector.

Try Starsector.

Mindustry is basically Factorio with more focus on tower defense.

dwarf fortress?

I would like to recommend Dave the Diver, Inscryption and Curious Expedition (first one). All of them are superb indie games. It might not be the genres you're asking for but I would still highly recommend them if you want to try something new.

Often when I am sick of all the things I’ve been playing or feeling uninspired I go for a genre switch. To that end I will always recommend Neir: Replicant and Neir: Automata—I feel like a failure and a fool to have sat on them for so many years. Those are both games that feature very approachable gameplay with the whole deep story and cross genre mechanics that the split fiction devs seem to be good at (and are both single player), just be sure to continue playing after the first (and second and third, etc) credits roll.

Other random suggestions:

Bellwright is a really good colony sim / survival craft combo (although I’ve not played it single player so not sure how great it is in that mode).

Cyberpunk 2077 is just fucking great if you haven’t played that.

Disco Elysium if you’re really looking for some Get Stick Bugged content. (and a fantastic drunk cop RPG)

Balatro.
You think it's simple until it's suddenly 1 am and your brain is mush trying to remember what strategy you're currently using -oops lost, ok one more run...

Soma.
If you're in the mood to be hooked on a story. Scary stuff happens, and youll question life a few times.

Pathfinder.
Wrath of the Righteous is the only tabletop pc rpg you'll need agian. Baldergate 3 is the tutorial mission for this monster game.

Rain World.
If you enjoy metroidvanias with new mechanics.

Tunic.
If you enjoy zelda and dark souls. Theres more to it than it looks. I couldn't put this one down either.

A Plague Tale: Requiem

Thank me later

Always gonna recommend Project Zomboid. Yeah it may look like the Sims (which oddly is where TIS got their art influence from), but it's pretty darn unforgiving. Hell, I lost my last character without realizing how, chalking it up to some strange drug interaction (aka don't drink and take sleeping pills, kids). Resource management, while not a direct focal point for PZ, is still important as you are watching every aspect of your character's health and wellbeing.

The latest beta build 42 has incorporated some new mechanics and a nicer lighting system so things feel proper spooky when slinking around in the darkness. And don't even get me started on the modding community. Infinite possibilities and a constant influx of new content, some which gets so popular it's adding into the base gameplay. Look up Week One if you want more than just a zed simulator.

I also second Stardew if you are also looking to scratch that cozy gaming itch.

Have you tried Oxygen not included? I'm usually not into management games, but it pulled me in.

• Tropico 6 is on sale 65% off on GOG right now.

• Yakuza Kiwami is a remaster of the original and is a beautiful and hilarious rpg

• Subnautica is kinda a perfect mix of both RPG and management games

If you like something more complex, Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous is pretty good.

Stellaris is a great realtime 4x strategy game. They have a lot of paid DLC, but you can pick and choose which modules you want. Some are purely cosmetic options while others make gameplay changes, and they go on sale pretty often. Worst comes to worst, you can usually find the DLC on key sites as well for pretty cheap. Paradox also started a subscription based service that gives you access to the DLCs, maybe you can subscribe for a month and try out which DLCs you like.

Project Zomboid is an incredibly hard resource management survival game. It is also very detailed, meaning you need to maintain everything about your character from their hydration, to their weight and fitness. Its a slow burner type game, but when the action picks up, it gets tense. Its also a "forever" game, in that theoretically, if your character never dies, the game never ends. The map is huge, big enough to feel different pretty much every time you play. Its also multiplayer, which is pretty fun.

Farming Simulator can be a fun, chill game to play. Its not as resource management intensive as a game like Project Zomboid, but it can be a good game to relax with.

Ragnarok Online is an older (2003) MMORPG that I recently discovered, and while I am not much of an MMO Enjoyer (I hate the "Disneyland" or theme park feeling most have where I have to wait in line at NPCs and bosses), Ragnarok Online's player population is consistently low enough to not feel like that while also being high enough to feel like the game is not dead. Just don't play on the official servers from the Steam client. Use a client that connects to private servers, the economy is really bad in the official servers.

King Arthur: Knights Tale is a pretty fun Strategy RPG. I haven't been able to play that much of it, but what I have been able to play was pretty fun. Check it out, it might be interesting to you if you liked Divinity and games with combat like XCOM or Fire Emblem.