What kinds of games might you recommend with deep worldbuilding and interaction that aren't RPGs?

The Outer Wilds might be the kind of games you're looking for.

And if you are open to a more linear structure there is FPS like bioshock which have amazing world building and have very light RPG elements.

There is also the "walking simulator" genre, with games like firewatch, gone home or SOMA. But it's also quite linear.

The Outer Wilds is such a great game. I ugly cried when I got to the end.

You may enjoy Control, I personally couldn't get past the rather uninteresting gameplay and mechanics, but the lore and snippets of story you find scattered around are something else

That's interesting. Did you stop early on? I guess if you just know it as a basic shooter it'd be boring, but once you start incorporating powers it really expands a lot, imo.
- I think you're right, I was about to "leave" the early parts of the game, I had already unlocked some powers but not leveled them up too much, I should really try to get back to it though, despite feeling a little bored when playing, I just can't forget the aesthetics
I was also going to recommend Control, it's my favorite game of all time. The world building and lore is fucking fantastic!
I played 2 minutes of it and found myself consuming the lore with fervor, then I got distracted and that was a month ago, thankfully I can jump in back at the beginning and not have missed a beat.

Arkane's immersive sims are fantastic. Dishonored 1 and 2 and Prey (2017). Brilliant worldbuilding and interesting stories that you can interact with. I don't think either is particularly stat heavy or grindy, but I have an extremely high tolerance for that sort of thing so maybe my perspective is skewed.

These are solid suggestions for sure! I still need to get around to the rest of the Dishonored series past the first and finish Prey.

Immersive sims I think are pretty close to what I might be wanting, but they're unfortunately not that common, and some have RPG elements I don't find enjoyable. The Arkane games you mention pretty much avoid them last I checked though, and I dig'em for it
- Yeah, I also really enjoy immersive sims. Shame that there's not more of them. I will mention that Dishonored 2 is somewhat hit or miss with people. I think everyone tends to agree that it's at least decent, but how it holds up to the first game is a pretty divisive topic in my experience.

Hmm let's see. So the Subnautica games are survival games with a lot of exploring, uncovering mysteries, finding logs, figuring out what happened to you, the alien civilization, the ecosystem, etc.

If you like Obra Dinn, recommended elsewhere in this thread, The Case of the Golden Idol has some similar energy of looking at scenes and solving who's who and what's what and how this person died.

Chants of Sennaar is a game where you decipher fantasy languages and learn about the peoples that speak them while progressing up a tower and solving puzzles.

Viewfinder is a surreal-perspective puzzler with lots of narration and backstory from the characters

Sable is an exploration game with puzzles to solve, in a fancifuil sci-fi desert world with towns and NPCs and crashed spaceships to explore

The old Escape Velocity trilogy (though nowadays you'll need a classic Mac emulator to play them) are top-down ship captain games where you fly your ship around, trade, fight, do missions, usually have multiple storylines going on at once, lots of planets, ships, stations, factions, etc. The modern game Endless Sky is explicitly molded on the EV series.

Sunless Seas and its sequel Sunless Skies have some similarity to EV mechanically, but with a lovecraftian, steampunk aesthetic to the world, and lots of world-building.

Beyond Good and Evil is a third-person action game that has good plot, characters, and worldbuilding, and there are updated versions available that run on modern hardware.

Bastion is an isometric action game a little like Diablo in the combat mechanics but with no numbers for you to worry about. Explore the aftermath of a most peculiar apocalypse and discover the world that was and the peoples who lived there. Good characters and worldbuilding.

Subnautica has a pretty interesting world to explore. If you don't like the survival elements, you can can turn them down or off.

Hardship space breaker had a somewhat interesting story. Not deep world building and definitely more focused on the game play, but still pretty good lore.

Another vote for the outer wilds. That's really the best game in this area.

Another vote for hardspace shipbreaker, though the gameplay can be a bit repetitive. If you don't like the first ship you take apart, then the game probably isn't for you. The Outer Wilds is a game that I'd recommend to anyone and everyone who wants a unique and positive experience.
- I really gotta hit Outer Wilds. Comes up enough I'm beginning to feel embarrassed for having missed it thus far

I know it technically claims to be an RPG, but Disco Elysium plays more like a visual novel really. It has none of the grindy, stat-heavy progression that seems to turn you off of traditional RPGs.

It uses the interactivity of the video game medium as an important part of its storytelling and presentation, however, and has an incredibly deep lore and very interesting world building.

Disco Elysium is more of a novel than visual novel. It is a ton of reading.
- Perhaps audiobook is a better description? Ever since the Final Cut came out almost every line in the game is voice acted.

Dwarf fortress.

You might like Shadows of Doubt. It's a procedural generated detective game where you have to solve murders. The entire city is generated, every npc has their own routine and you can pretty much go anywhere. There's sneaking, hacking, talking, etc.

It's still in early access, but it's already a lot of fun.

I think I may have it wishlisted, so I'm definitely trying to keep an eye on it. Waiting till it's fully released so I don't feel compelled to play it more like pseudo-QA and enjoy it less though

Thanks for the suggestion!

The Myst series has some pretty deep world building, especially in the later games.

The STALKER series.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head. You're severely limiting yourself if RPGs are a no-go for you.

Myst also has a pretty good series of novels that add a lot to the story.

What do you qualify as an RPG?

I would assume you mean something like Ultima or Wizardry? How about Yakuza or Shenmue? Legend of Zelda Fire Emblem?

For VNs I would recommend YUNO (not the Switch remake, that one butchers the original art style) if it wasn't for it being an eroge from 1996, which contains sexual content I personally don't find particularly appealing. Its a phenomenal story without that stuff but IMO its so jarring that it can take you out of enjoying the story if you can't look beyond the culture shock of it. Maybe if you know Japanese the SEGA Saturn port would be better, since it removed some of the sexual content AFAIK.

NieR is quite good, though it has RPG elements. Personally I liked Gestalt better, the father-daughter story was more compelling to me. Not that Replicant is bad, I just liked the father protagonist more. Automata is also quite good.

I liked Power Dolls, but you have to know Japanese to understand any of the games beyond the original. Its a strategy game like Advance Wars or Fire Emblem about mecha. Tuned Hearts also.

You've basically just described any of the Telltale games.

Visual novels with action usually limited to QTEs.

Unfortunately company is no more, so what they have out is all there is.

They were resurrected. They're making a Wolf Among Us 2.

Have you explored text adventures / interactive fiction? They're even more niche than VNs but there's some good ones out there. I remember liking Worlds Apart back when I played it. (15+ years ago... o___o)

One of these days I should go dig back into them again.

I have, a little, and have enjoyed those I've played, but I'm also fond of more visual art in games, so on the text heavy front I lean towards point and click adventures and visual novels more.

However like yourself, I tend to think I should play more of them, see what they experiment with and push boundaries on.

Btw you might check out The Trackless if you like interactive fiction. It mixes some light text parsing with a 3D adventure game, making for a unique experience.
- you might check out Trackless if you like interactive fiction
  
  Thanks. I'll check it out.
  
  BTW, I thought of another game that might be of interest to you. Have you seen Not for Broadcast? It's an unusual game where you play as the controller in the studio switching between multiple video feeds of actual actors presenting the news on TV. You get to make choices about what to show, what to cut, and what ads to play in your broadcast -- which affects the world in an exaggerated fashion. The game timeskips to show you how things play out over the years. There's some distractions that make it a bit more gamey than a VN but you can turn most of them off if they're too annoying, I think.

Some of the classic RTS games perhaps, like C&C or Starcraft? They tend to be story driven and the most stats you tend to care about are "do I have enough resources" and "do I have enough units?"

danganronpa has a side plot that unravels over 3 games plus the spinoffs & anime

Too bad about the 3rd game's ending.

And UDG was one of the games of all time. Fire theme song though.
Thank you, that was one of the virtual story games I was trying to come up with.

You say visual novel, I say "slay the princess". It is real good.

Ultrakill is avery different game but it is not a rpg snd the lore gets real biblicsl later on

The world of Northern Journey looks really rich to me, it is bot a rpg. The only caveat is that it şs a gsme that I am planning to play not one that I hsve played so can't comment on how good it is

Huh?

What about playing a "stat heavy" game on a "story mode"difficulty? There are tons of games these days that'll turn everything down to easily managed levels so you can explore the story without the grind.

Maybe a deep puzzle game, like Syberia?

Return of the obra dinn?

Phoenix wright attorney games...

If you're okay with scary/lovecraftian horror amnesia the dark descent has great lore.

I think there are many options for games without stats that have good stories, but the gameplay Element needs to come from somewhere, otherwise it's just a visual novel (which there are also tons of good ones) (kill the prices is a good one I've heard)

And if you're looking for a very good middle point, check out disco Elysium, it has stats, but you can neglect them to you're egos content.

@Donjuanme Yeah, you're not wrong. The trick is, "games these days", which I enjoy a fair amount of, but I'm also interested in games from across time, so older titles as well.

Those are a little iffier to play given some lack the settings or options, and sometimes also any cheats. Do you happen to know of any sites/resources advising how to use emulators to sorta do that for older titles?

Alternatively may need to review which old titles I have that have cheats for that kinda thing...
- If you go back far enough you don't need to do settings or options, they used to be called 'cheats' and they were hidden behind a series of button inputs (or sometimes a cheat menu)
  
  If I'm properly interpreting your statement you aren't very inclined to use a steam account?
  
  Would you say you're into first person/third person puzzle games? Or do you like your games to have action in the gameplay?

I am gonna give a recommendation out of left field a bit, and answer The Last Federation a game from the developers of Tidalis, oh and AI War.

https://arcengames.com/the-last-federation/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/273070/The_Last_Federation/?curator_clanid=32938991

You play the last surviving member of a species that used to rule the galaxy with terrifying advanced technology and weapons. Eventually your species fell and became wiped out by the other species that were being subjugated. Now there is a power vacuum and these other minor powers are battling to becoming the new empire. Your job as a lone alien with an extremely powerful ship (in a small battle, not powerful against an entire civilization of warships) is to try to balance the scales in an evolving conflict between political/military actors and create a peace that learns from the foolishness of your species ultimate mistake.

Very interesting way to make a 2d tactical space combat game and I love how your job isn't to conquer the universe like Stellaris, your job is to push and nudge in just the right places to stop full on a galactic war.

For world building I would totally suggest Foundation. Also medieval dynasty comes to my mind.

Do you have any preferred games or examples to be more specific?

Yeah sorry, I ran into limits from where I'm posting (Mastodon).

Some reference points might be like Outer Wilds (nice mix of story & interaction) and going back a bit, games like Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee, Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, and Mega Man Legends.

Each have a certain sense of place and an enjoyable degree of interaction in terms of either roaming around or trying to figure out how to get around.
- I wouldn't say it's super similar to Mega Man, but Hollow Knight is a fantastic 2D platformer. Very heavy focus on combat, but little-to-no need to delve into stats. The lore is quite deep, but it's also pretty obscured and vague. Easy to miss on a single playthrough. Dunno if that would be a problem.
- No need to be sorry, I also got it wrong. Would Firewatch and disco elysium suit you more?

The Outcast games (not to be confused with Outlast) have great world building, putting the kind of detail into the alien world that you'd expect from a really thorough high fantasy novel. The first game is a bit clunky even in its remake form, but the sequel "A New Beginning" is basically a modern action game.

You don't really need to play the first to play the second. The main character starts with amnesia so everything gets explained to you again.

Have you played Ixion?

It’s a space-city builder that is story rich and your choices affect the gameplay and story. I normally don’t like city builders, but Ixion drew me in to the point I called off work one day to finish it.

It’s not stat heavy, it’s a one and done type of game. I really liked it.

Hypnospace Outlaw kind of seems like exactly what you're looking for to me.

I love that game so much.

What about Skyrim? There are limited stats and a giant world to explore that you can approach from any number of ways, stats may go up but you aren't asked to allocate any of them (except the skill tree)