Care to recommend a Single-Player Timesink Game?

[Mirroga]

Right now I have plenty of games to make a man happy. But right now I am lacking a kind of game that I would consider timesinks. I have so many games, but none of them leaves me satisfied if I only play them for a short amount of time like an hour or half.

I would like a game with the following characteristics:
- Played on PC
- Single Player
- Easy to Pick-up, Hard to Master
- Very Addictive & Replayable
- Single Runs or "Campaigns" are short or can easily be paused
- Game play has tons of contents & tactics
- NOT LUCK-BASED! (Roguelikes are fine. Bejewelled clones are not)

Here are games I have that I would consider "close" to the characteristics I have mentioned above:
- Frozen Synapse
- FTL: Faster Than Light
- Hotline Miami

The games I have mentioned are just examples. Don't let your suggestions be based solely on the games I have mentioned.

EDIT: Also, I play casual games with most of the characteristics above, like Plants VS Zombies & Cook, Serve, Delicious.

 

[iwinatlife]

Medieval 2 total war seems to fit pretty well or whatever flavor of total war you prefer medieval 2 was just my fav

 

[Lilikins]

if you dont mind the outdated graphics, Heroes of Might and Magic 3 is a huge time sink. It fits most of your criteria, except for maybe the 'short' mission part.

But seeing as you can just set up a random map and make it small...it will be over in no time whatsoever, unlike an XL map with 7 PC's that will take 'atleast' 12 hours to finish usually.

 

[Pink Gregory]

Rogue Legacy, perhaps.

Can't save mid-dungeon dive, but you *can* lock the procedurally-generated castle's layout at the cost of gold.

http://www.gog.com/game/rogue_legacy

 

[Bad Jim]

It's a bit old, and technically a multiplayer game, but Diablo 2. Even on your own, you'll lose about a year of your life to that game. The only downer is that it's not that great for short play sessions, since you will have to hunt for waypoints.

Also a bit old, but excellent, is the 4X game Galactic Civilizations 2.

If you've never tried Nethack, try that too because it's free and good, though a little hard to get into.

EDIT Also, Minecraft. Its' longevity is dependent on how creative you are, but if you are a creative sort you can easily spend months building stuff.

 

[Zykon TheLich_v1legacy]

Civ IV. Just...one...more...turn... I try not to play it so much these days as it eats weekends. Lots of good mods too, though you'll need a real beast of a PC to play the biggest of them.

 

[Llil]

How about Elona? It's free, first of all, so even if you end up not liking it, you won't lose anything for trying it out. To save you a Google search, you can download it from here.

It's a light roguelike that has a very clear graphic style, and a pretty nice and simple interface (no need to memorise tons of hotkeys). It's a bit more casual that most "pure" roguelikes in that there is no permadeath, and it lets you do a lot of other things than just dungeoncrawling. You can, for example, be a pianist or a farmer if you want. Most of the classes are still focused on killing monsters, but I like that it gives you the option to do something else as well. It also had a main story questline to give you some sense of direction.

I think it fills all of your criteria pretty well. Being a turn based game with randomly generated dungeons and loot, it does have some luck, but not nearly as much as FTL. It's one of my go-to timesink games.

 

[L. Declis]

Civilization 5 is pretty awesome.

Europa Universalis 4 is amazing.

 

[giles]

Right now I have plenty of games to make a man happy. But right now I am lacking a kind of game that I would consider timesinks. I have so many games, but none of them leaves me satisfied if I only play them for a short amount of time like an hour or half.

I know what you mean, I really like to have a game around to play while I'm taking a break from something or simply enjoying my coffee. Here are some that I enjoyed the most:
Valdis Story: Abyssal City is an excellent metroidvania style game. The save points are less than 20 minutes apart and the gameplay is fun and challenging, the story is a bit strange but has an epic feel to it. If you don't mind the artstyle I would seriously give it a try.
Rogue Legacy can also be a good time killer for those half an hour breaks.
Hearthstone is really casual if you don't mind the "random"/"P2W" nature of it. The concept is simple, but true mastery and forethought are required to get you far (... as well as rare cards...).

 

[Auninteligentname]

Ever played Heroes of Might and Magic III? It is a turnbased strategy game, where you basically build an hero and an army and go on a search for loot and to take over other cities, while protecting your own. Kinda. I'm not good at explaining stuff. The only criteria it seems to maybe clash against, is that the campaigns/scenarios tend to take forever. They're easy to pause, save and stop and continue later, but they last a while, in my experience. In any case, I fully recommend this game. I've played it in phases since I were eight.

How about The Binding of Isaac? It is a rogue-like, so the game can in many aspects be compared to FTL, while they are very different. In The Binding of Isaac, you steer a little kid as he goes deeper into the basement, trying to avoid everything trying to kill him. There will also soon be a sequel of sorts.

Seeing as you like Hotline Miami, how about Super Meat Boy? A platformer from hell. You will need an controller if you're going to play it, but it's really fun. When you're not dieing for an hour straight.

 

[Elijin]

- NOT LUCK-BASED!


- FTL: Faster Than Light

?????

Roguelikes are all heavily influenced by luck. You need to be good to win, but you also need to be lucky in being presented with winnable conditions.


Anyway..

Tried turn based games like Xcom or tactics games? They're a good way to sink a bunch of time away.

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

Beat Hazard?

It's a rhythm game in which you pilot a spaceship and the enemies are generated based on the music being played.

Good for short bursts and the Shadow Ops DLC adds a bunch more ships with different ablities and play-styles.

Sword to the Stars: The Pit

A turn-based rogue-like set in a sci-fi universe.

 

[Zontar]

The X3 games. The campaign is unimportant, not needing to be done at all (it's an open world game) and it's a great time sink if you're into the niche market it's for. (over 600 hours here) Only real problem is that it's a niche game that doesn't appeal to everyone, and it has a fail barrier of entry due to the tutorial being nonexsistant.

 

[Mirroga]

- NOT LUCK-BASED!


- FTL: Faster Than Light

?????

Roguelikes are all heavily influenced by luck. You need to be good to win, but you also need to be lucky in being presented with winnable conditions. Tried turn based games like Xcom or tactics games? They're a good way to sink a bunch of time away.

I love X:COM Enemy Within. Also what I meant about luck-based is more on those puzzles that match colors like Bejewelled & Candy Crush. Yeah, I should've made it clear what I meant by luck-based.

How about The Binding of Isaac? It is a rogue-like, so the game can in many aspects be compared to FTL, while they are very different. In The Binding of Isaac, you steer a little kid as he goes deeper into the basement, trying to avoid everything trying to kill him. There will also soon be a sequel of sorts.

Seeing as you like Hotline Miami, how about Super Meat Boy? A platformer from hell. You will need an controller if you're going to play it, but it's really fun. When you're not dieing for an hour straight.

Played Binding of Isaac. Loved it. Although it got kind of old pretty fast after I've seen most of the randomized content and items. Although because of Binding, I discovered Super Meat Boy and loved it. It is my only favorite game in the Platforming-only genre.

Hearthstone is really casual if you don't mind the "random"/"P2W" nature of it. The concept is simple, but true mastery and forethought are required to get you far (... as well as rare cards...).

I'm playing Hearthstone right now. I've gone on a hiatus or have even possibly quit Hearthstone. But damn, Naxxramas update and the streams at Twitch were so enticing. This might have been the only multiplayer game that I stop, but keep coming back to. I just love card games, but love the simplicity of it all that a lot of people can pick it right up.

 

[GonzoGamer]

Have you played Skyrim or the Fallout games. From a couple of years ago but they're a lot of fun and fill all your requirements. Still haven't finished Skyrim on my first character and it's the kind of game that begs a 2nd playthrough too.

 

[DefunctTheory]

Try One Way Heroics. Its a pretty nifty, pretty cheap Rogue game. I've definitely got my money out of it.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/266210/

EDIT: Much like FTL, you scroll to the right as the world on the left is consumed by darkness. The primary mode gives you 400 kilometers to gear up enough to take on the final boss, and you attack monsters, loot chest, and trade for equipment.

 

[nima55]

Kerbal Space Program. I've spent hours perfecting my SSTO design.

 

[All Hail Lelouch]

Give Shovel Knight a play. Its old school platforming goodness at a fraction of the price of a AAA game and its got many of them beat in the reviews as well. http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/shovel-knight