You too fell both feet first in Animal Crossing: New Horizons and have you since been looking for the next game of its kind that can keep you busy for hundreds of hours? We have your back! In this new selection, you will discover the best in life simulators in 2022.
But what exactly do we mean by “life simulator”? The easiest way is still to take an example. We owe the popularity of this genre to the real owner: The Sims. You understand the idea: it's about creating an avatar and evolving more or less freely in the game world while performing “everyday” tasks. Fantastic or extraordinary elements can vary the pleasures; but the salt of a life simulator remains to take the time to relax. In short, to escape. So, ready?
Animal Crossing: New Horizons, the new reference
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View PriceAnimal Crossing: New Horizons
- The Animal Crossing formula still just as addictive
- A relaxing atmosphere that feels good
- The craft well included in the gameplay
- The ability to enjoy the game with friends
- Graphically successful in portable as in docked mode
- An accessible game
You might as well put your feet in the dish with what many consider to be “the confinement game”. Released, it is true, at the height of the restrictive measures in March 2020, Nintendo's life simulator has met with resolutely indecent success.
Selling over 34 million copies at last count, Animal Crossing: New Horizons is exactly the cozy game we all needed. Fifth opus of a license started in 2001 on Nintendo 64, ACNH - as it is called in insider circles - offers you a formula of great luxury escape.
What if you became the manager of your own paradise island? This is how your adventure will begin which, like the previous titles in the series, will take place in real time (if you log in at 22 p.m., it will be 22 p.m. on your island). The idea is then to make your little plot of land a real little corner of paradise. Thanks to the loans granted by the capitalist Tom Nook, you will be able to enlarge your house, but also terraform your island to make it unique!
As you progress, you will also be able to invite other characters to come and populate the island. So many opportunities to form friendships (or cultivate enmity) towards the adorable anthropomorphic creatures of the Animal Crossing universe.
Increased by a DLC baptized Happy Home Paradise for a few months, the lifespan of ACNH is all the more unspeakable. Here, you will become a downright decorator or interior decorator and will have to carry out decoration projects on behalf of your customers and your inhabitants.
In a word as in a hundred: a real little world of sweetness in which to get lost to take your mind off things.
Les Sims 4 : the unstoppable simulation of life
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Check PriceThe Sims 4
- Almost endless possibilities
- A new story every game
- An extendable lifespan extended by many DLCs
As we said, The Sims practically invented the concept of life simulation. It must be said that, on paper, the game of Maxxis invites you to live a very normal life.
After creating an avatar that looks like you (or not!), it's up to you to find a job, sympathize with your neighbors and start a family by meeting the vital needs of the members of your household. Unless, of course, you prefer to be hostile with the natives, have decided to break up all the surrounding households, and plan to starve your Sims to death – yes, The Sims can take a rather dark turn between wrong hands.
You will have understood it: The Sims are a real reference in terms of life simulation in that you can do absolutely everything there. Conducive to role-playing, the Electronic Arts license leaves players with a bottomless toolbox for them to shape the experience to their liking.
Embellished every year with substantial extensions (the last one takes us to the farm), the lifespan of The Sims 4 is quite simply unlimited. Be careful though: the purchase of the game and all of its additional content will cost you nearly 750€. But rest assured, the basic game will already do the job very well to keep you busy for hundreds of hours without getting bored. By the way, did we tell you about the mods created by the community?
Stardew Valley : the indie sensation with crazy charm
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See priceStardew Valley
- A very soft game to discover at your own pace
- Varied gameplay
- Character writing
Stardew Valley is probably, along with The Binding of Isaac, one of the most popular indie games of the last ten years. Developed alone by the very motivated Eric Barone (aka ConcernedApe), the life simulation continues to improve over updates and offers absolutely gargantuan content.
We've all dreamed of it, right? To send his boss to graze, to return his office and to leave to isolate himself in the countryside to start a new life. Well that's exactly what Stardew Valley offers. Freshly landed in the countryside, and owner of a makeshift farm bequeathed by your late grandfather, it is up to you to develop it to start earning money.
But note that the capitalist aspect is incidental here. If that's your wish, there's no need to start growing potatoes and streamlining your chicken egg production. As a good life simulation, Stardew Valley is also very endearing inhabitants, with whom you can build friendships and, of course, develop romances.
As if that weren't enough, Eric Barone's game is also sprinkled with a fantasy layer, with a very elaborate universe and mysterious caves that radically change the tone of the game. We then move on to a simplistic but addictive dungeon crawler , where each new floor descended allows you to recover rarer materials and meet ever stranger creatures.
Released in 2016, Stardew Valley is a game-world conducive to long gaming sessions. There is so much to do and discover… while we wait for ConcernedApe's next game, The Haunted Chocolatier, which should follow the main lines of its first game . We look forward !
Spiritfarer : the soft-hearted death simulator
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See the priceSpiritfarer
- A difficult subject treated with tenderness
- Very endearing characters
- Art direction to die for
Released in 2020, Spiritfarer has found a place in the hearts of those who have succumbed to its magnificent graphics and its sensitive and delicate subject.
At the confluence of several genres (management, life simulation, platforms), the Thunder Lotus game invites you to embody Stella, a young woman who must take over from Charon to guide the souls of the deceased to their final resting place. .
Admittedly, the subject may seem a little sinister. But the design of the tenants of your boat, the brightness of the artistic direction and, above all, the formidable writing of the various characters make Spiritfarer one of the most outstanding games of the genre of the last five years.
Much shorter than the other games presented here, Spiritfarer can have its repetitive side. You will first have to find the different souls to lead to the afterlife, then fulfill their last will in order to complete your quest. But, you see it coming: if your guests are initially a little hostile towards you when it's time to climb on your boat, you will end up delaying as much as possible the moment when, inevitably, you have to say goodbye to them.
A word of advice: prepare a (large) box of tissues to accompany your game.
Coffee talk : life simulation with sauce visual novel
8
JVFR
Coffee talk
- A benevolent visual novel to learn about the genre
- Varied and well-written stories
- Learn coffee recipes while having fun
Radically different from the other games mentioned here, Coffee Talk is actually more of a visual novel than a life simulation. However, since the object of the game is to chat with the customers of the late-night café where you play the boss or the boss, we believe that the game of Toga lives up to the name.
Conceived as the caffeinated counterpart of VA-11 HALL-A, Coffee Talk immerses you in an alternative Seattle in 2020. In the manner of the Fables comics, the city is home not only to humans, but also to elves, succubi, wolves- Weres and other fantastical creatures.
As a good barkeeper or barkeeper, you will have to listen to the story of your customers while serving them their favorite drink. A mini-game allows you to indulge in latte art to impress the audience. But it's for its writing that Coffee Talk stands out. His palette of characters is varied, and their stories always touching and well brought.
You will end up having your favorites among the regulars, and will regret the prolonged absence of some with whom you had got on well. A very relaxed, accessible and well-written game, which also costs next to nothing on the platforms where it is available.
And if by chance you fall into it, know that a sequel subtitled Hibiscus & Butterfly is planned for this year.
My time at portia : forever more mud on the shoes
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JVFR
My time at portia
- Pleasing to the eye
- "Stardew Valley en 3D"
- Varied gameplay
In appearance, My Time At Portia looks like a 3D clone of Stardew Valley. You recover a farm, which must be repaired by accumulating resources and rebuild a society by forging relations with the locals.
But Pathea's game has more than one trick up its sleeve. Already, it is part of a post-apocalyptic universe (which is not easy to guess from the images). It is therefore not only a question of recreating a community, but of perpetuating humanity. Otherwise more motivating to put your heart into the work.
For the rest, My Time At Portia offers more or less the same variety of gameplay as Stardew Valley. Culture, development, social relations, and even combat in certain well-defined parts of the game.
Here again, if you hang on to the game, know that a sequel is in preparation. My Time At Sandrock is expected in Early Access later this year.
Story of Seasons : Pioneers of Olive Town for a return to origins
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JVFR
Story of Seasons : Pioneers of Olive Town
- The Harvest Moon formula pushed to its climax
- Various activities
- Colossal lifespan
Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley are emulated. But at the root of all these games is another: Harvest Moon.
Became Story of Seasons in 2014 thanks to an episode on Nintendo 3DS, the Marvelous Inc game was of paramount importance in the development of many of the games mentioned above. Released in 2021, Pioneers of Olive Town is the latest installment in the franchise.
Here again, we will find a game structure that we have already detailed in the previous entries of this selection. Farmer of your state, you will have to roll up your sleeves to develop your activity and make Olive Town shine.
The social dimension is obviously preponderant, and many local events make it possible to give life to the community and to escape the monotony of plowing.
Graveyard Keeper : because the dead don't speak...what?
7
JVFR
Graveyard Keeper
- A near-to-death life simulation
- Successful writing
- An original approach to the genre
We'll get straight to the point: Graveyard Keeper is aptly named, and poses as a creepy alternative to Stardew Valley.
You play, we give it to you in a thousand, a cemetery guardian in a medieval town. But there's a twist: you're actually a 21st century man trying to find his way back to his time. And, to do this, it will be necessary to carry out many quests and restore the said cemetery as well as its adjacent church.
Without being morbid, the game developed in Russia by Lazy Bear Games is on the wire between fantasy and good-natured horror Ă la Tim Burton.
Complemented by three paid DLCs, Graveyard Keeper offers a substantial lifespan. But like a Spiritfarer mentioned above, the replayability is inevitably less. It will nevertheless allow you to change the atmosphere a little, if the too nice side of the other games presented here repels you.
