Single player raiding game

[Piando]

I'm a huge fan of WoW raiding but don't have the time to commit to a raiding guild. The other day I was soloing Mythic Nighthold and it took a couple of pulls to figure out how to kill Gul'dan, or rather, Illidan. That made me wonder if there is any game that has more or less diffucult (boss) encounters that require strategy and careful planning of you resources (e.g. CDs, consumables) to defeat, instead of being just a reaction test like From Software games (my experience in Sekiro and DS2). Does anyone know a singleplayer game like I described?
Thanks!

[Iain]

Valheim. It's a survival game, but the bosses require resource management.

[Mamut]

Would not Losat Ark fit here too?

[Fencers]

This seems like either a misplaced or poorly explained desire.

[AcidicSyn]

I second the Valheim one. Though the games still technically in early access, and a big chunk of the game involves building if thats not your cup of tea. Additionally, out of the box Valheim is anything but solo friendly, its meant to be played with a small group of friends, but there are plenty of mods that make it more of a solo experience. If you like building and vikings though, its alot of fun and the bosses are cool.


FF15 has some fun bosses, but its just an arpg. A solo game that had similar mechanics to WoWs raiding for dungeons/bosses does sound pretty fun, can't think of any that really closely meet that description though.


Shadow of the Colossus maybe? Not so much resource management as it is just learning strategies though.

[Piando]

I second the Valheim one. Though the games still technically in early access, and a big chunk of the game involves building if thats not your cup of tea. Additionally, out of the box Valheim is anything but solo friendly, its meant to be played with a small group of friends, but there are plenty of mods that make it more of a solo experience. If you like building and vikings though, its alot of fun and the bosses are cool.


FF15 has some fun bosses, but its just an arpg. A solo game that had similar mechanics to WoWs raiding for dungeons/bosses does sound pretty fun, can't think of any that really closely meet that description though.


Shadow of the Colossus maybe? Not so much resource management as it is just learning strategies though.

I will check out Valheim, I do like building and I don't mind Vikings.
I have played Shadow of the Colossus when I was a teenager. I have it in dear memory, but it's not exactly what I'm looking for.

This seems like either a misplaced or poorly explained desire.

I don't think I need to further explain what WoW raiding like is on mmo-c. But in other words: I want mage tower as a stand alone single player game.

[LordVargK]

Skyrim on hardest difficulty can require quite a bit of planning ahead. Or massive amounts of cheese.

[KrayZ33]

Would not Losat Ark fit here too?

Not that much imho. More than Valheim though.

Valheim is just not about managing stuff or carefully planing the (very rare) boss fights, really. Maybe the stamina-bar fits a bit?
Most of the time, you drink a resistance potion and you have some healing stuff.

It's a fun game, but I wouldn't recommend it for that simply due to how rarely this part of the game occurs.

Skyrim would be a better fit if you don't go for cheese.

If the genre doesn't have to be third-person or whatever.
I'd say Darkest Dungeon or even GTFO, although GTFO is to be enjoyed with friends (it has bots that are fairly well done though) and requires some time for each session. So it might not fit the "I can't commit to a raiding guild"-criteria, depending on what the reason is.

GTFO is definitely a game that requires a lot of planing and ressource management. If you just do whatever and play it even remotely like a normal FPS you *will* run out of ammo, health packs or other utility stuff.
You use the enviroment as a ressource as well and you try to control enemy movement with it too.
Whenever you find and touch anything in this game you think to yourself "how and when will I use this?"

(*cough* the game deserves so much more attention *cough*)

[Zenfoldor]

Elden Ring isn't like Sekiro. It isn't based on your skill, rather you cannot outskill it as easily as their other games, early on. Boss difficulty is mostly based on your prep, particularly the level of your R1 and the level of your summons. I really can't say enough about ER. Incredible game. However, if ER is out, these games were pretty great when it comes to bosses:

SotC remake
Hollow Knight - if you miss a particular upgrade, then...let's say at least one boss was particularly difficult for me(and fun!)
Divinity Original Sin 2(certain builds, pre ap buff, and I can say doing an "inefficient" build here is super fun and challenging)
Monster Hunter World or Ryse - this would probably be the default answer for your question from most, I would think
Metroid Dread - the last boss is particularly marvelous
Portal Series - perhaps not challenging but definitely worth the experience
Hades - a wonderful roguelite with an incredible boss loop and selectable nerfs/heats
Metroid Prime Trilogy(some of the best bosses ever, EVER in any game)

Also, you don't like qte/reaction time games, but two of the best are Punchout for NES and Cuphead has really great bosses.

Let me also say, you played the WORST 2 From Software games, ever. Like the only 2 I don't like, DS2SotFS and Sekiro are NOT my games, I don't even like them. I think they are mediocre. However, Elden Ring, Dark Souls 3, Demon's Souls, and Bloodborne are all my favorite games ever, so you may have just picked the two wrong games from that developer.

I haven't played Valheim but have been waiting for a console port.

[oplawlz]

Have you tried the monster hunter games?

- - - Updated - - -

GTFO

(*cough* the game deserves so much more attention *cough*)

The game will get more attention when it scales to the number of players. Having static 4 player is a death sentence, and no, bots are not the answer.

[Fencers]

I don't think I need to further explain what WoW raiding like is on mmo-c. But in other words: I want mage tower as a stand alone single player game.

Ah, I see now. Well, I don't play World of Warcraft at all and never heard of this mage tower thing.

I would say Elden Ring, Monster Hunter, Dragon's Dogma and the Nioh games are similar in this vein to what I would describe as "difficult encounters that require strategy and careful planning of resources".

I don't have an exact context for the particulars of raiding in World of Warcraft. Though comparative to other games that have "raids" in the vulgar sense I think those are close bets for single-player content. Hope it helps.

[Zenfoldor]

Ah, I see now. Well, I don't play World of Warcraft at all and never heard of this mage tower thing.

I would say Elden Ring, Monster Hunter, Dragon's Dogma and the Nioh games are similar in this vein to what I would describe as "difficult encounters that require strategy and careful planning of resources".

I don't have an exact context for the particulars of raiding in World of Warcraft. Though comparative to other games that have "raids" in the vulgar sense I think those are close bets for single-player content. Hope it helps.

Dragon's Dogma Dark Arisen and Nioh 2 are both INCREDIBLE and I forgot and left them off my list, lol. Definitely a vote for Dragon's Dogma here.

[Gorsameth]

Have you tried the monster hunter games?

I'll second Monster Hunter as a possible option. Had a ton of fun playing MH: World solo, tho there are 1 tiny amount of monsters you would want to group for.

[Azharok]

I'll second Monster Hunter as a possible option. Had a ton of fun playing MH: World solo, tho there are 1 tiny amount of monsters you would want to group for.

Aye Monster Hunter is amazing !

[Jastall]

RPGs in general seem to be what you're looking for. I could nominate games that I think have great bosses like Metroid Dread, Doom Eternal or God of War but for the most part those are based more on player skill than preparation.

Divinity games, especially Original Sin 1 and 2, have a bevy of varied bosses that require tailored strategies to beat, and the games feature tons and tons of potential builds to beat them with. Sometimes the harder bosses are pretty damn bullshit TBH but those games live and breathe metagaming and trying new things. Other notable third-person RPGs that don't feel terrible to play now include Pillars of Eternity or the two Pathfinder games.

Hades is a roguelite where your build varies heavily in between attempts and great design for the 4 bosses, of which you can unlock progressively harder variants over the course of the game. In general it's also a wonderful game really.

non-Sekiro From Soft games also reward using specific builds more than others. Elden Ring's the most recent one of course. But those games definitely test your own skill as well.

Finally, turn-based tactics games ranging from XCOM (especially 2) to Darkest Dungeon are heavily reliant on the preparation and RPG elements side while featuring various fun bosses, the latter in particular while the former has the best stuff locked behind the Alien Hunters and War of the Chosen DLCs sadly.

[Fencers]

Code Vein and Nier are kinda like this too.

[Wrecktangle]

Monster Hunter World gets my vote.

[PACOX]

Hundreds of RPGs.


It really depends on what kind of games you like because if sounds like you want games with fun boss fights more than anything. Good encounters and boss fights aren't exclusive to fantasy games not even "bosses" (thinking Horizon where open world fights can require a great deal of planning before you overlevel stuff). Roguelites can be what you are looking for or you could find out you hate the subgenre. Maybe it monster slayers like Monster Hunter. Could be "insert xyz TPS looter shooter", which often have bosses with variable phases. If you're just looking to raid there's other MMOs like FF14 or GW2 that (imo) have raid/endgame design philosophies that respect your time a lot more than WoW.

Also might re-download Dragons Dogma and mess around a bit.

[Zmagoslav]

Seeing "Monster Hunter" mentioned makes "Dauntless" spring to mind...

[Piando]

Thanks for all the suggestions.

- I have played Sekiro and I enjoyed it, especially figuring out how to counter each ability, but generally speaking I'm not that great at games that require quick reaction times. That's why it took me over 150 attempts to kill the last boss in the game I guess.
- I own Monster Hunter World. I only played it once and then the person who wanted to play with me stopped playing. I haven't tried it again, but I think I will give it another shot.
- I have played Metroid Dread and enjoyed it a lot but the bosses didn't stand out to me much except for the last boss. I'm a couple hours into Hades, it's fun but once again, the bosses are more of a reaction test. I've also played Divinity 2 with my partner (split screen) but eventually we didn't find the time to play together so we kind of stopped. Maybe it's time to go at it again, I did enjoy the combat system.

I will also take a look at all the other suggestions and see what they are like. Thanks again!