fall guys among us

Both infinitely replayable and has nothing to grind for except some cosmetics that doesn't affect game play

Battlefield 1

My interpretation of your request boils down to "what's a good co-op roguelike" where the grinding is the replaying.

So, depending on how many players you need it to support and preferred genres, you might check out games like

• Risk of Rain 2
• Enter the Gungeon
• Children of Morta
• Vampire Survivors
• Streets of Rogue
• Gunfire Reborn
• Barony

There's also a game called Jumpship that i'm keeping an eye on the development of that's supposed to be hitting early access in the coming months.

There is a game i would recommend called Mechabellum. It's a mecha auto battler where you can't really move units between rounds. You build up a bug army trying to constantly counter your opponent with the 20ish available units.

Really depends on what you consider grinding.

Pretty much all MMOs or PVEs have you grinding for gear (helldivers 2 I don't feel is grindy in comparison, but some do)

Survival games like ark, valheim, etc.. Have you grinding for bases and the next section of the game

Pretty much all PvP games (CS2, valorant, apex, starcraft, Rocket league, etc...) have you grinding out muscle memory skills

The antithesis to these are instance-based games where at max you grind aesthetic gimmicks, but in single player games they don't have those like REPO where you always reset and fall guys where it is minigame based

The problem with these games is since you don't have a "reward for work" (grinding), people get bored of them.

SpiderHeck!

honestly check out archipelago, it's a framework that allows you to play a lot of different randomized games with your friends. you can play synchronously or asynchronously, and if you're handy with code, you can even add any game you want to it

Unreal Tournament 99.

Trackmania, although depending on how you want to slice it, you might consider it ONLY grinding.

Incredibly low skill floor (4 button racing sim) but with near infinite skill ceiling as you learn to master all the nuances of movement, surface types, tricks, etc.

Endless amounts of content with the seasonal campaigns, tracks of the day, and weekly shorts, but also just a full blown track editor for community content on the side. Each track is like a little puzzle where you memorize all the details then try and get your best performance. Play in an online server with your friends and just chat, listen to music, or watch a movie in the background. Find your favorite style and master it: tech, dirt, NASCAR, lol.

It's my favorite game to just turn my brain off and drive.

Sea of Thieves.

There has never and will never be any pay to win. Everyone has access to all weapons at any time, no unlocking, just pure skill.

Up to 4 players on your team (ship) open servers with other players all sailing around all the time. You can get in an organic fight over treasure, or matchmake for ranked battles.

All of the progression is cosmetic based.

The devs have been adding content constantly since launch that fleshes out the game systems and makes for more interesting interaction.

I come back to this game all the time. Highly recommend.

Chess.

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✍︎ arscyni.cc: modernity ∝ nature.

Tetris effect connected.

It made game of the year for a reason.

I think I've sunk 200 hours into tetris this year alone, I have it on like 4 systems including my SP handheld clone

Edit: my phrasing here was unclear, there effect connected has not been ported to portmaster or the ports collection, I use Tetris RR, a custom patched og GB tetris to have all the same amenities (hold, hard drop) as modern tetris.

If you like tetris and want tetris RR, find a GB tetris ROM and patch it yourself

A link to the Romhack (for the mods, this is a link to the patch, not the rom, i know VL has pirate content but this aint it, it does however have a link to their archive, where the rom does exist) https://vimm.net/romhacking/hacks/5813

Fighting games:

1. Endlessly replayable because there's always more to learn.
2. No grinding because there's nothing to grind.

What do you want? Lots of games fit that description.

In some shooters, you basically only grind for cosmetics, like Overwatch, Marvel Rivals or Counter-Strike. Dota 2 is a Moba and also only has cosmetic unlocks, I think.

Maybe Minecraft or Terraria? I don't think you really grind in these games, but you do very similar stuff all the time.

The obvious answers are the games we endlessly replayed historically: Mario Kart, Goldeneye (VS mode), Halo (VS), Smash Bros.

If you specifically want ones on PC, I'd suggest Starcraft, Age of Empires, and probably Counter Strike (I wasn't into that one, but it had a huge following).

Many board games fit the bill as well. Codenames (physical or online at horsepaste.com) comes to mind, and another commenter also mentioned chess.

Basically any games that were made before endlessly grinding became a thing (yep, that's only been a thing for a decade or two).

In all honesty, Rainbow Six: Siege is as ungrindy as any game could be, and it is as endlessly replayable as there are combinations of all the active players. The whole game is about finding ways to use the deep sandbox to outsmart your opponent, utilizing yours and your teammates abilities in unique combinations and it’s wonderful

space station 14 (or space station 13 if you're nasty)

Deep Rock Galactic!

The Finals or Rocket League.

Does Factorio count? It's a good game, you can play multiplayer, the factory can always grow (at least until your hardware, or in the extreme the software, can no longer handle it) and if you're grinding for something rather than automating it, you're doing it wrong.

Quake 3 Instagib.

I play FF XIV online. There's as much or as little grinding as you want there to be. I'm in a really chill social FC.

Old School RuneScape.

Some people will say it is grindy, but those people are just weak minded.

Warthunder is really fun without much of a grind

For me, it's Starcraft 2.

Titanfall 2