Suggestions for mouse only games?
Suggestions for mouse only games?
I've just broken my left collarbone and for the next couple weeks have left arm in a sling. Thinking about games that are played just with the right hand?
I've already got Slay the Princess which I've been meaning to get around to for a while and Disco Elysium which I never got far through, but taking any suggestions at this point, always keen to try fresh genres and formats.
Let em on me!
Thanks, gang.
Nubbys Number Factory, addicting and mouse only.
Btw: There are USB foot keyboards on the soulless online marketing platform of your choice. They can usually be programmed to different keys or combinations. While it is not something I would use for FPS gaming, it can come handy in situations like yours. I have one with three different switches that are programmable which is quite handy.
X-COM 2 is fully playable with just the mouse.
If you're looking for something a bit lighter, there's The Enchanted Cave 2, a nice little roguelite with an interesting loot system.
From memory, Fallout and Fallout 2 are fully mouse-playable too.
Microsoft Solitaire Collection
balatro!
Civ 5 and FTL would be my top suggestions. I think anything turn based is likely to be playable with just a mouse
Slay the Spire - a roguelike deckbuilder is a lot of fun.
I haven't actually tried it, but Balatro has made a lot of waves recently and I imagine you could play that with only mouse.
Also, what kind of mouse are you using? If you're still on a no thumb buttons mouse, you should definitely upgrade. If you only have 2 thumb buttons, as is most common, I'd recommend looking at something with more. My mouse has 3 thumb buttons, and two extra index finger buttons.
and while some people like that mouse (i do) some don't, so I can't say whether you'd like it, but I will say the extra buttons have allowed me to set up a lot of games that would normally require a keyboard as well into a more mouse only friendly experience.
Vampire Survivors with arrow keys. 🧛
Maybe some classic, more phantastical CRPGs with turn-based combat are more your juice than Disco Elysium: Baldur's Gate III, Pillars of Eternity II, Fallout. Planescape Torment, Tyranny, Pathfinder, Pillars I and the rest of the Baldur's Gate series rely on real-time combat with pause which might get tedious when only using the mouse.
Oldschool runescape 😁
Chess.
Into The Breach
Lots of visual novels, maybe you could try Fate?
There is unciv, a foss and free civ 5 adaptation, Humankind which was free for a time on epic games, civ 6 if it's still on sale, civ 7 if you're free to trying out new things
RimWorld would be nice but the lack of shortcuts will drive you mad
CK3 isn't as bad when you lack shortcuts, it's a fun game
The last two point and click games I've enjoyed were the Deponia series and the Book of Unwritten Tales. Both really good, challenging and fun :)
I don't see any mention of the Civilization games. Civ III is my personal favorite but Civ V was also good. Keyboard shortcuts are a little bit quicker of course but it's turn based so there's no rush!
A lot of RTS games play fine with just the mouse, especially in the early stages of playing. I've seen a few mentioned but I'll put Stronghold Crusader onto the recommendation list. I generally play it without any keyboard inputs.
Mini Metro was the first thing that came to mind. Fun little time waster.
Just started playing lonestar and it's been fun, Slice and dice is one of my favorites, Also pretty sure someone suggested slay the spire already but just wanna 2nd it if you haven't played it yet. Hope your recovery goes well!!
I actually played all of Talos Principle using only a 5 button mouse when I broke my arm a few months ago. I mapped W and S to the side buttons, jump to the middle click, and the game is actually perfectly playable with this controls.
Peglin
- Slay the Spire
- Tactical Beach Wizards (on sale!)
- Rogue Light Deck Builder (yes, that's the name)
I wonder if Bud Tucker in Double Trouble would still run. Probably would need dosbox
Anyway, whole adventure genre. Syberias, Mysts, Gabriel Knight
I've found Shadowrun trilogy fun
Darkest Dungeon, Oxygen not Included, Surviving Mars
Citizen Sleeper is short but well done, got me hooked to finish it in a single sitting
Arcanum I still consider one of the best RPGs ever made
Fallout 1&2I don't know if Commandos style games would not require too fast clicking without a keyboard, but you could try out Shadow Tactics, it has active pause IIRC
Speaking of Commandos, Jagged Alliance was fun toopoint & click adventure games? Some older ones can be aquired for cheap, or even free as some of them have been released as freeware.
some suggestions in no particular order, some are older (like, DOS old, but still good today, imo), some are 2010's or so:
- TellTale Sam & Max -episodic games (3d, cartoony, comedy)
- Monkey Island -series, parts 1-3. (2d, cartoony, comedy, pirates, yarharhar) (Later games in the series are pretty finicky to get running/stay running.)
- Sam & Max: Hit the road (2d, cartoony, comedy)
- The Dig (2d, scifi)
- Full Throttle (has a modernized remaster) (2d, "scifi", biker-theme)
- Flight of the Amazon Queen (freeware) (2d, ~40's vibe, "retro-scifi")
- Beneath a steel sky (freeware) (2d, scifi, comedy, some gore)
Ones that have some keyboard usage, but are mainly mouse driven (or can be mouse driven)
- Grim Fandango (modernised remaster, original doesn't do mouse) (3d, latin-american land of the dead, comedy)
- Indiana Jones & The Fate of Atlantis (some occasional fights where keyboard would be preferred, most of these can be circumvented though) (2d, some comedy, ww2, I mean, it's indiana jones)
The older ones can be played via Scummvm (https://scummvm.org/) - it's basically a simplified launcher/runner just for adventure games.
My random suggestions right now for stuff I like and is played with mouse would be:
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Rimworld. Almost any top-down PC management or (not too fast paced) strategy game should work, but, I really like the crazy random shit that happens to the characters you're slowly getting to know in Rimworld.
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Almost any of the Zachtronics games, if you like to torture your brain. Open-ended sort-of-engineering puzzles.The bigs ones like Spacechem, Opus Magnum and Shenzhen IO in particular, last call BBS for a bit more variety inside one game. Not Infinifactory, since while it doesn't have any kind of fast paced action it still requires navigating in 3D so mouse only wouldn't work.
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Faster than light
You did say "just right hand," there was a thread before asking for one-handed games in general
Recently did another Plants vs. Zombies run, so I'm gonna throw this one into the mix here.
Here is a good one. The Case of the Golden Idol
Cookie Clicker
Rimworld can be played only with a mouse pretty good. And City Skylines too
Peggle Deluxe and Peggle Nights are awesome mouse-only (except typing name i think) casual games!
I'd say most RTS games I can think of can be played with just a mouse
Older diablo-like ARPGs didn't really rely on the keyboard too much IIRC, the modern ones do tend to rely on the keyboard a bit more
If you don't mind older games, basically the whole genre of point and click adventures is this by definition
Uow about some visual novel style games like 999, Hotel Dusk (DS emulator), Ghost Trick, Professor Layton (DS emulator or mobile)
If you don't mind something older, both Star Wars Knights of The Old Republic games can be played only with mouse. It's bit clunkier than also using a keyboard, but doable. I used to play them like that while smoking many years ago.
Get a giant D-pad for one of your feet to use for wasd
Give Kingdom of Loathing a try.
Since Ellipsis hasn't been mentioned yet, here's my recommendation:
Ellipsis is an action-packed Avoid ’Em Up with minimalistic, yet powerful neon styled visuals. Guide your ship through a mysterious universe while deftly avoiding hordes of roaming enemies, spikes, lasers and more.
Peggle, Nubby's Number Factory, Peglin, Ballionaire
Nubby's Number Factory
kentucky route zero
If you want an alternative to Slay the Spire i can recommend Monster Train; you mainly summon different Hellspawn and cast spells, which gives it more of an Magic the Gathering feel.
If you want an ARPG fix and have thumb buttons on your mouse you can try Chronicon, don't let the gfx stop you, it's an excellent hack&slash game, and you can put all your skills onto 1 button if you like - i use the middle and the right button for most builds and thumb keys for pots
If you want a new spin on Darkest Dungeon, give Iratus - Lord of the Dead a try. Or if you played a lot of Darkest Dungeon and want more of it, try Black Reliquary, a huge (and free!) mod with a lot of new mechanics!
Going into the same direction as Into the Breach is Shotgun King - the final Checkmate. It's really fun and the higher difficulties really make your brains work out. Workshop support with lots of extra content included! Also great for Turn-based Tactics is Invisible Inc., putting you in control of an spy agency which has been hit hard and tries to recover.
For arcade games i can recommend Utopia must fall - it really captures the spirit of old arcade games, but feels real fresh. You can also go for Nova Drift, which is also an excellent arcade game.
Then there is Cultist Simulator and its spiritual successor, Book of Hours. It's basically a card based riddle game, and very atmospheric.
There is always Shattered Pixel Dungeon - it is also available on Steam or Gog, but you can download and play it for free from the link i provided.
I think your collarbone might have healed until you've finished that list, have fun!
Citizen Sleeper and Citizen Sleeper 2 can both be played entirely with just a mouse. No keyboard inputs needed.
Lonestar if you like or are interested in roguelike deck builders. There are a lot of great games coming out in that genre, here are some others I like:
Balatro
Slay the spire
Bounty of One (not a deck builder, just a roguelike)
Edit: I just realized some of these were already suggested but I'll leave it
A large proportion of games that have both mobile and PC releases are going to be designed around mouse-only use.
I installed PPSSPP on my phone and paired a switch joycon. Played through a few really good games that way when my kid required being held to sleep. I'd imagine you could pair one to your computer and find some games that you'd like.
Rock'n Roll, an Amiga Game:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPuM3Ss8nA8U
Incredibly addictive and pretty difficult.
2 very different genres, since you didn't specify:
FlatOut 2 is a fun, fast-paced arcade racing game that can be played with one hand. You just need the cursor keys and Ctrl for Nitro.
In Papers Please, you work at a Soviet-like country's border crossing and have to check every immigrant's details while making difficult moral decisions under time pressure. Mouse only.Settlers.
You could try of The Devil! It's an episodic indie cyberpunk courtroom mystery game and the first episode is free. (also i've been obsessed with it lately and need more people to talk about it pls pls pls)
Scarlet Hollow
airborn empire is a fun city builder/resource management game
If you rebind the pause/unpause button, Starsector can be played mouse only too.
Shogun showdown