Games to Play When Bored, by How Much Time You Have
The question is never really what to play. It is how much time you have and what state your head is in. Twenty minutes before dinner wants a different game than a rainy Sunday, and a tired brain wants a different one than a restless one. Here is the PC catalogue we know best, sorted that way, with a note on where each one gets slow.
Takeaways Bored, by the shape of the evening
- Twenty minutes: one run, then stop Hades, Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor, Muck, Bloons TD 6. A round has an end, and the end comes soon.
- One evening: a job with a beginning Supermarket Together, Schedule 1, TCG Card Shop Simulator, PEAK. You open the shop or start the climb, and by midnight it is a different shop.
- A weekend: something that grows Satisfactory, Stardew Valley, Valheim, RimWorld, Manor Lords. Day two looks nothing like day one.
- Brain off: the road and the field Euro Truck Simulator 2, Farming Simulator 25, theHunter: Call of the Wild. The point is the drive, the field, the wait.
Twenty minutes
The trick to a short slot is a game with an end built in. Roguelikes do this by design: a run starts, a run finishes, and what you keep is the progress between runs.
Hades is the cleanest version. An attempt at the underworld takes twenty to forty minutes, and the currencies you bring back are the point even when you die, which you will. Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor is the same shape with mining and a swarm; the build assembles itself from upgrades as you dig. Muck is free, starts with nothing and usually ends on night four. A round of Bloons TD 6 fits the same slot and asks less of your reflexes.
Where they get slow: the currency between runs. Hades gates its upgrades on darkness, Bloons on monkey money, and both are earned at the pace the game sets. That is the grind, and it is the reason these games have trainer pages.
One evening
An evening wants a job with a beginning, so that by the end something exists that did not exist at seven.
Supermarket Together is a shop you open, stock and expand, free, and fine on your own. Schedule 1 is a business that scales through relationships built one conversation at a time. TCG Card Shop Simulator is the same idea with card packs, and the shop level decides which sets you can order. PEAK is a climb that either reaches the top or does not, in about the length of a film, and the mountain changes every day.
Where they get slow: the store scales faster than your hands do. Restocking is a real job in all three shops, which is why the trainers for them lean on money and speed.
A weekend
A weekend wants a game that grows, so that Sunday evening looks nothing like Saturday morning.
Satisfactory is a factory that starts as one smelter and ends as a continent of conveyor belts. Stardew Valley is a farm and a town and a calendar, and energy runs out before the day does. Valheim is a Viking afterlife you build a longhouse in, with stamina governing everything from chopping to swimming. RimWorld is a colony that fails slowly and interestingly. Manor Lords is a medieval village where approval and public order decide whether families arrive or leave.
Where they get slow: the second currency. Every one of these has a resource that arrives at a fixed trickle, and the trickle is the weekend.
Brain off
Some evenings want a game that does not chase you.
Euro Truck Simulator 2 is a delivery across Europe, and the drive is the point. Farming Simulator 25 is a field that takes as long as a field takes. theHunter: Call of the Wild is a walk through a reserve where the animal you want moves at dawn. Call of the Wild: The Angler is fishing, which is waiting on purpose.
Where they get slow: the bookkeeping. Fuel, fatigue timers, the licence for the next reserve. The trainers for these games are almost entirely about removing the bookkeeping and leaving the road.
Brain on
And some evenings want the opposite: a problem big enough to fill the head.
Crusader Kings 3 hands you a dynasty and a nine-year-old heir with the wrong education. Hearts of Iron 4 is the Second World War as an economy. Stellaris is the galaxy with three research queues. Baldur’s Gate 3 is a hundred hours of conversations decided by a d20.
Where they get slow: they do not, really. They get big. The trainer pages for the Paradox games are long because the games are.
If none of these
The Steam store’s tag pages are the widest net there is, and the full list of games we cover is the narrower one: a hundred PC games, each with a page on where it slows down. Boredom usually ends at the second game you open, not the first.
Infographic Bored, by the shape of the evening Click to enlarge What is a good game to play for 20 minutes?
A game built around runs: Hades, Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor, Muck, a round of Bloons TD 6. Each has a natural end inside half an hour and keeps something from the run, so stopping never feels like losing.
What should I play when I am tired?
Games where the loop is the point and nothing chases you: a delivery in Euro Truck Simulator 2, a field in Farming Simulator 25, a hunt in theHunter. They ask for attention, not reaction.
What is a good game for a whole weekend?
Something that grows while you play it: a factory in Satisfactory, a farm in Stardew Valley, a colony in RimWorld, a village in Manor Lords. The second day is a different game from the first, and that is the reason it holds a weekend.
Are these all single-player?
Single-player or playable alone. Supermarket Together, PEAK and R.E.P.O. are co-op games with a solo mode. Everything else on the list is built for one person.