i gave up when i had to manually figure out the trains and signals on my own to have more than one train use the track etc. even the game said "there is an extensive tutorial on the web about train signs, go read it'....
Lots of more demanding games are not present. Stationeers and X4 Foundations (or really any of the X games at that rate) come to mind. But games like Oxygen Not Included and Noita are more popular, even if they're comparably simple.
My Uncle doesn't play "regular" games but he was in the Air Force so he plays Flight Simulators and has an area just with flight controllers and pedals that in my 25-plus years of gaming I won't even go near in fear of messing something up because of how complex it looks.
@@patatedouceyaim1407 Wizard is velho (or sometimes taikuri - magician). Gandalf is velho. Pääsiäisnoita (trulli) is easter witch. While noita is genderless, it is not a wizard. Lapland's Sami people have noaidi, or Lapinnoita, and he is a shaman, not a wizard.
10. Microsoft Flight Simulator 9. Noita 8. Oxygen Not Included 7. Amazing Cultivation Simulator 6. Workers & Resources: Soviet Republic 5. Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead 4. Hearts of Iron series 3. Children of a Dead Earth 2. Dwarf Fortress 1. Aurora: 4X
I feel like Factorio is worth a mention when it comes to complex games. It starts out nice and easy until it stops being that. Satisfying when stuff works but tough to figure it all out.
Stationeers absolutely deserves a place here, you've got to sort out the gases and WIRING of your base, often you end up playing constantly consulting massive spreadsheets, it's kinda crazy
I thought I would come here and say how the "Tales of" games have pointlessly complicated systems that you can very well just ignore if you want, but when I saw it starts with MS Flight Sim I knew this video is about a different scope of madness.
I would like to recommend Stationeers to anyone who's interested in complex space "survival", which is somewhat like Space Engineers, but with actual electricity, temperature, pressure, alloys and components production, agriculture, and stuff.
Thank you gameranx, so much, for being the only channel I can rely on in my subscriptions to put out content I know I can watch that hasn’t turned into something I hate
Big fan of flight sims myself.... I often joke to my friends that if I want to play a game with more difficult mechanics than Dark Souls I go for Microsoft Flight SIm or X-plane and turn on weather effects. Some racing games are also getting pretty decent as well with weather and how it effects vehicle handling such as gran turismo 7 and forza motorsports. Sure they both have their issues (lack of tracks, race modes, cars, etc) when compared to predecessors, but they still get some areas right, such as customization of the settings for the cars, custom car liveries/skins etc.
I love factorio its complex enough for me, especially with mods. If I could go in the future like 50 years, it would be amazing if we could get some kind of Dwarf fortress level of simulation in a game... but in photorealistic 3D... and in VR. Thatd be freaking epic... and you could time travel to any epoch and all of it would be generated on the fly by an AI.
This guy's in my head! That's what I was thinking of too! With the dwarf having AI generated speech based on their personality, memory and events around them
If I had to make one complaint about this channel, it's the lack of content about 4X/Strategy/Simulation games, so I'm obviously happy to see this video! (Some other very cool complex games that could have made into the list: Shadow Empire, Songs of Syx)
I own 3 of these games (Noita, Oxygen Not Included, and Hearts of Iron IV), and I've never played them yet. I have many, many games I haven't played yet. Buying video games is an entirely different hobby from actually playing them.
0:19 10 MS Flight Simulator 3:10 9 Noita 5:16 8 Oxygen not included 7:14 7 Amazing Cultivation Simulator 9:48 6 Workers & Resources : Soviet Republic 11:50 5 cataclysm dark days ahead 13:25 4 hearts of iron 15:58 3 Children of a dead earth 17:35 2 dwarf fortress 19:46 1 Aurora 4x Your refusal to include game names in timestamps isn't just inconvenient-it's a disservice to your audience. Prioritizing clicks over clarity shows greed, and that kind of selfishness won't go unnoticed. Remember, karma has a way of catching up!
I remember the Creatures series being fairly complicated. Perhaps not in the mechanics, you didn't have to juggle a million different things to keep things running, but trying to raise the AI creatures, called Norns, was surprisingly sophisticated for what was basically a virtual pet simulator. They had personalities, they could express emotion, they could learn by watching how you interacted with them and any other Norns you were raising. Went overboard with discipline? Your Norns could become aggressive and hurt one another or even themselves. There were also things like disease and predators that could cause wreak havoc if you weren't careful. And, it predated the Sims by a full four years.
This video felt like an odd checklist of my day... like 5 out of the 11 were part of my ACTUAL day.... and I have a life... they were part of my social life, I was at college talking about these games... lol
Loved the video because there is just games that are so complex and hard to keep up. Can y’all do the shortest or longest video games ever made (from scratch to launch). Thanks!
Factorio is very simple, belts move stuff, inserters insert, you can learn all you need to learn to play the game from 30 min of tutorial. You just have to solve the in game problems with those tools but thats just moving belts around to get the right things where they need to go. I'm voting - not super complex. I wouldn't play EU4 without reading the manual first.
Fun list! The Steam release of DF makes the game playable for the average human IMHO... Will have to look into Oxygen not included... Also... Distant Worlds 2 is something to try out... is more of a space empire sim that gets really deep if you turn off assists. Cheers!
I use Microsoft Flight Simulator to supplement my real world pilot education and it’s been an amazing resource. I respect you mentioning a high fidelity developer like PMDG as well, their 737 add-on is exquisite
It's crazy to fathom people learned how to control a plane in real life through a game. It's kind of awesome and really shows the power games can have to educate.
I feel represented. I have four of these games, and have played quite a few hours in each. Kinda sad Rogue System isn't on here, but it was abandoned in early access by the main dev getting injured.
Workers and resources belongs on this list, it’s the only game that’s ever made me respect the world and work around me after realising what goes into it
Timestamp notations on the timeline are a bit off for Number 2 and 1. Nice spreadsheet simulators there, though! Fun to see MS Excel in such different graphics!
I really want to get into the Total War franchise but it's just too complex for me because i have no idea what i'm doing (Baldur's Gate III is quite the challenge to get to grips with too)
You definitely only just scratched the surface with Noita. Without a wiki, you could play that game for the rest of your life and you wouldn't see everything it has to offer. Not even close. Even with wikis, and data mining, and people putting in thousands of hours, there are still secrets in the game.
@@gameranxTV Hey guys! Thanks for answering! I would add Rimworld... In a list of "10 games if you want to complicate your life insted of having fun" LOL.
When I saw the clips of the Crusader Kings 3 trailer at the beginning, I was worried that was the Paradox game you'd pick. I was thinking Vicky 2, but HoI3 was the better pick. All the complexity is in the stuff you can play around with and directly control. Where as in Vicky 2, it's mostly behind the scenes in a global trade market and population simulator that you can attempt to influence. Also could have an honorable mention to Fate of the World, the Underfunded International Department of Stopping Global Warming and Nuclear War game.
lol, awesome! and i thought warcraft 3 was complex.....well....actually it is with countering heroes with other heroes, units with other units, building your base defense to counter the opposing players attacking heroes. BUT it looks pretty so not overwhelming. It can also being incredibly simple for two newbies playing each other.
For people who like amazing cultivation simulator, the matchless kungfu is also a cultivation type game that is pretty complex and confusing.. Don't think it's as crazy as some of the other games on this list though lol...
There used to be a reactor mod for Minecraft - I don't recall its name - that basically required building a power reactor by building all of the infrastructure, resource management, and even things like containment, that go into an actual reactor. It had multiple types but the two grand-daddies were a deuterium-moderated uranium fueled fission reactor and a hydrogen fueled tokomak fusion reactor. The uranium reactor required doing things like building water separators that would extract deuterium and tritium from water, mining uranium ore and purifying it into fuel, etc. etc. etc. Took a solid 10-20 hours to get a reactor up and running but it would power everything else in any modpack.
Has anybody here seen AI Doom it generates code simultaneously while you play so every frame is coded and rendered as you walk through it. It only runs at like 20 frames per second but the fact that it does all that in real time is amazing
Crusader Kings 3 is already an extremely deep and complex game. Then toss in all the mods, especially total conversions and it's literally multiple games in one. I have 3000 hours in CK3 and I've yet to get bored, there's always new mods or self-made challenges to keep the game interesting and refreshing.
There's a RTS called SUpreme Commander by RTS veteran Chris Taylor. If you ever saw this game at Best Buy back in the mid 2000 and picked up the box, it weighed 4lbs. it came with a manual 2 inches thick.
DCS is amazingly complicated but incredibly enjoyable and rewarding when you do work it out. Nothing like reading through an entire FA18c NATOPS to be able to play a game.
Falcon not being an expert at flying? I am starting to question if he is actually a bird
Falcons don't need knobs pedals or switches to fly
Diving?
Those kind of inquiries draw some unwanted attention.....
He's better at gliding
@@zmiguelr Heh! Ain't we all - these days?
Great to see Workers & Resources get some screen time. It’s a brilliant game and well worth sinking time into.
I couldn't help thinking of 'worker and parasite ', that hilarious spoof east European cartoon on one of the early Simpsons episodes
What other games would you have included in this list?
@@gameranxTV Eve Online
i gave up when i had to manually figure out the trains and signals on my own to have more than one train use the track etc. even the game said "there is an extensive tutorial on the web about train signs, go read it'....
8:10 Falcon's millennial designer voice is PERFECT 'o I like the feng shui in hereeeee' 😂😂
Yeah that got me to laugh pretty good, which got some funny looks from the people around me haha
ok boomer
I remember when that was such a big thing for about 3 years till people realised it was actually quite complicated and thought 'bollocks to this '
@@lorddmarek ok coomer
Came into the comments to see if anyone else died laughing from hearing that.
I'm surprised Songs of Syx didn't make the list compared to some of the others on here. I'm glad to see Paradox though, spot on!
Songs of Syx is great
Loved your stream for that game, barely understood it though 😅
Lots of more demanding games are not present. Stationeers and X4 Foundations (or really any of the X games at that rate) come to mind. But games like Oxygen Not Included and Noita are more popular, even if they're comparably simple.
@@Sarstan It's complex in underlying mechanics he's taking about not necessarily difficulty, that just tends to come with it
Pt 2
My Uncle doesn't play "regular" games but he was in the Air Force so he plays Flight Simulators and has an area just with flight controllers and pedals that in my 25-plus years of gaming I won't even go near in fear of messing something up because of how complex it looks.
I'm a little surprised not to see Project Zomboid on here
Noita means witch in Finnish, so you don't play as a wizard, but as you witch
noita is genderless. its both wizard or witch.
@@patatedouceyaim1407 Wizard is velho (or sometimes taikuri - magician). Gandalf is velho. Pääsiäisnoita (trulli) is easter witch. While noita is genderless, it is not a wizard. Lapland's Sami people have noaidi, or Lapinnoita, and he is a shaman, not a wizard.
10. Microsoft Flight Simulator
9. Noita
8. Oxygen Not Included
7. Amazing Cultivation Simulator
6. Workers & Resources: Soviet Republic
5. Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead
4. Hearts of Iron series
3. Children of a Dead Earth
2. Dwarf Fortress
1. Aurora: 4X
Thanks
Thanks for saving me the time to see how bad this list really is.
@@ross-carlson what are some complexer games
Wtf?
@@johnsmithabc94726more complex.
I have never considered Flight Simulator a “game” per-say. You either know how to control an aircraft or you learn how to virtually.
It's still just a game. Just like driving "sims". Still a game.
It has a ship from Halo and the Atreides Ornithopter from Dune lol
Or you put it on the easiest mode and basically get to travel the world using what is basically gta flight controls
It's still a game. a very complicated game.
but I totally get where you're coming from.
The only time it makes sense to lash out with “I’m not playing a game it’s a simulator!!”
I feel like Factorio is worth a mention when it comes to complex games. It starts out nice and easy until it stops being that. Satisfying when stuff works but tough to figure it all out.
No Falcon you can't be Frank, you're Falcon!
If Falcon wants to be Frank or Susie or who-/whatever I fully support them. ;)
And don't call me Shirley!
Frankcon
🤣😂🤣
C'mon, just let him be frank once in a while.
He likes being frank.
Frankly.
Stationeers absolutely deserves a place here, you've got to sort out the gases and WIRING of your base, often you end up playing constantly consulting massive spreadsheets, it's kinda crazy
I thought I would come here and say how the "Tales of" games have pointlessly complicated systems that you can very well just ignore if you want, but when I saw it starts with MS Flight Sim I knew this video is about a different scope of madness.
I like the Feng Shui in here 😂
Oh man, I was not expecting Amazing Cultivation Simulator to be on the list. I love that game, it's so complex and crazy hard
He may not be a stork, but Falcon is a bird that always delivers!
I would like to recommend Stationeers to anyone who's interested in complex space "survival", which is somewhat like Space Engineers, but with actual electricity, temperature, pressure, alloys and components production, agriculture, and stuff.
Time to start the week with the most complex Falcon 🦅🎉
Thank you gameranx, so much, for being the only channel I can rely on in my subscriptions to put out content I know I can watch that hasn’t turned into something I hate
Hey we appreciate you! :)
That “brother” falcon hit us with healed my soul for some reason
I AM here.... now. -Neil breen, man, genius.
Love it 😂 Space Ice is great channel for Neil Breen and Steven Seagal content
@@jasondavie3027 Preem content mman
WHO AM I?!
0:01 "Some games have booty in their simplicity."
-Falcon (2024)
Big fan of flight sims myself.... I often joke to my friends that if I want to play a game with more difficult mechanics than Dark Souls I go for Microsoft Flight SIm or X-plane and turn on weather effects. Some racing games are also getting pretty decent as well with weather and how it effects vehicle handling such as gran turismo 7 and forza motorsports. Sure they both have their issues (lack of tracks, race modes, cars, etc) when compared to predecessors, but they still get some areas right, such as customization of the settings for the cars, custom car liveries/skins etc.
X-Plane and Project Cars 2 are the most complex.
Ah yes, a list of some of Sseth’s favorite games
I love factorio its complex enough for me, especially with mods. If I could go in the future like 50 years, it would be amazing if we could get some kind of Dwarf fortress level of simulation in a game... but in photorealistic 3D... and in VR. Thatd be freaking epic... and you could time travel to any epoch and all of it would be generated on the fly by an AI.
This guy's in my head! That's what I was thinking of too! With the dwarf having AI generated speech based on their personality, memory and events around them
well factorio isnt really complex. its quite an easy game which can get overwhelming.
complex means difficult to understand and do well.
Thanks for bringing us this, discovered some new gems here.
If I had to make one complaint about this channel, it's the lack of content about 4X/Strategy/Simulation games, so I'm obviously happy to see this video!
(Some other very cool complex games that could have made into the list: Shadow Empire, Songs of Syx)
Excellent work on this video. Bravo Zulu, Gameranx team.
Thanks for watching :)
This is one of the best gameranx lists so far.
This video really helped me understand things better!
These games are for the NES players who would complete each of their games without any guides not realizing it was supposed to be a challenge
You mean like me (sniffs - cracks knuckles)
Lmao the Feng Shui voice made me chuckle. Brought me joy. Thank you for that.
I own 3 of these games (Noita, Oxygen Not Included, and Hearts of Iron IV), and I've never played them yet. I have many, many games I haven't played yet. Buying video games is an entirely different hobby from actually playing them.
In a world where video games own you.
I feel you
Essentially a video game librarian/custodian :)
You are the most complex gaming system and/or game.
You should probably start with Noita. I wish my PC was strong enough to handle it or it were available on consoles.
0:19 10 MS Flight Simulator
3:10 9 Noita
5:16 8 Oxygen not included
7:14 7 Amazing Cultivation Simulator
9:48 6 Workers & Resources : Soviet Republic
11:50 5 cataclysm dark days ahead
13:25 4 hearts of iron
15:58 3 Children of a dead earth
17:35 2 dwarf fortress
19:46 1 Aurora 4x
Your refusal to include game names in timestamps isn't just inconvenient-it's a disservice to your audience. Prioritizing clicks over clarity shows greed, and that kind of selfishness won't go unnoticed. Remember, karma has a way of catching up!
Favourite daily video. Let's go!!!!!!!
I remember the Creatures series being fairly complicated. Perhaps not in the mechanics, you didn't have to juggle a million different things to keep things running, but trying to raise the AI creatures, called Norns, was surprisingly sophisticated for what was basically a virtual pet simulator. They had personalities, they could express emotion, they could learn by watching how you interacted with them and any other Norns you were raising. Went overboard with discipline? Your Norns could become aggressive and hurt one another or even themselves. There were also things like disease and predators that could cause wreak havoc if you weren't careful. And, it predated the Sims by a full four years.
This video felt like an odd checklist of my day... like 5 out of the 11 were part of my ACTUAL day.... and I have a life... they were part of my social life, I was at college talking about these games... lol
Loved the video because there is just games that are so complex and hard to keep up.
Can y’all do the shortest or longest video games ever made (from scratch to launch).
Thanks!
Kingdom Come Deliverance's combat was so challenging, It took some time to get used to but now I've mastered it
As you levelled up the skills it just made so more more mechanical sense and it was cool curve to learn. Iirc
seeing oxygen not included get some love makes me happy, i suck at the game but i still love it
Shout-out to EVE Online and Factorio, and maybe Anno 1800 although I don't think it's quite up there with the others
Factorio is very simple, belts move stuff, inserters insert, you can learn all you need to learn to play the game from 30 min of tutorial. You just have to solve the in game problems with those tools but thats just moving belts around to get the right things where they need to go. I'm voting - not super complex. I wouldn't play EU4 without reading the manual first.
@@shhhvcnear i bet you didnt play with mods in it (K2 + SE)
Fun list! The Steam release of DF makes the game playable for the average human IMHO... Will have to look into Oxygen not included... Also... Distant Worlds 2 is something to try out... is more of a space empire sim that gets really deep if you turn off assists. Cheers!
Amazing video, god job sir
Thanks a lot
Cool to see Workers and Resources here. It's my fave city-builder ever, with almost 800 hours of playing in steam.
ok, i give this one to you my friends, this is actually a brilliant video.
Hey thanks we appreciate it!
Cool. I'm here after the video being uploaded 2 minutes ago. Dope!
Hope you enjoyed it!
Europa Universalis IV: "am I a joke to you?"
One day he'll say "hi falcon it's folks" and then my life will be complete
I had no idea there was a whole ass genre of Feng Shuimulators
Me, laughing when dwarf fortress comes up, pauses a second, "Wait, number 2?"
I use Microsoft Flight Simulator to supplement my real world pilot education and it’s been an amazing resource.
I respect you mentioning a high fidelity developer like PMDG as well, their 737 add-on is exquisite
So basically you’re sharing a list of games with me that I should totally evade? Noted
'frankly spiteful UI' 😂😂😂😂
It's crazy to fathom people learned how to control a plane in real life through a game. It's kind of awesome and really shows the power games can have to educate.
Oxygen Not Included is an engineer's wet dream. Truly. It's absolutely amazing if you enjoy designing interconnected systems and automating workflows.
I feel represented. I have four of these games, and have played quite a few hours in each. Kinda sad Rogue System isn't on here, but it was abandoned in early access by the main dev getting injured.
Banger Minecraft shootout at the end
Workers and resources belongs on this list, it’s the only game that’s ever made me respect the world and work around me after realising what goes into it
Timestamp notations on the timeline are a bit off for Number 2 and 1. Nice spreadsheet simulators there, though! Fun to see MS Excel in such different graphics!
I really want to get into the Total War franchise but it's just too complex for me because i have no idea what i'm doing (Baldur's Gate III is quite the challenge to get to grips with too)
just play it.
learning by doing.
@@dafff08 I've tried, it's too much for both lol
You definitely only just scratched the surface with Noita. Without a wiki, you could play that game for the rest of your life and you wouldn't see everything it has to offer. Not even close. Even with wikis, and data mining, and people putting in thousands of hours, there are still secrets in the game.
Falcon flying a fighter jet…. Imagine 🤔
Wish more people knew about Space Station 13, it's right up there with dwarf fortress.
I *love* Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead ❤
Good morning gameranx.
Good Morning!
Hey! What about Silent Hunter?? Great video though!
Hey thanks! Did we miss any other games that should have been featured?
@@gameranxTV Hey guys! Thanks for answering! I would add Rimworld... In a list of "10 games if you want to complicate your life insted of having fun" LOL.
When I saw the clips of the Crusader Kings 3 trailer at the beginning, I was worried that was the Paradox game you'd pick. I was thinking Vicky 2, but HoI3 was the better pick. All the complexity is in the stuff you can play around with and directly control. Where as in Vicky 2, it's mostly behind the scenes in a global trade market and population simulator that you can attempt to influence.
Also could have an honorable mention to Fate of the World, the Underfunded International Department of Stopping Global Warming and Nuclear War game.
Great list! I think EU4 should be in HOI's place but that's just me
Solid choice! Thanks for watching :)
lol, awesome! and i thought warcraft 3 was complex.....well....actually it is with countering heroes with other heroes, units with other units, building your base defense to counter the opposing players attacking heroes. BUT it looks pretty so not overwhelming. It can also being incredibly simple for two newbies playing each other.
Crusader Kings is one for me, One of the most complex and immersive games ever
HEH! Only if YOU are...erh..a complex person 😛
For people who like amazing cultivation simulator, the matchless kungfu is also a cultivation type game that is pretty complex and confusing.. Don't think it's as crazy as some of the other games on this list though lol...
“They made the carp too hardcore by accident.” 😂😂😂
There used to be a reactor mod for Minecraft - I don't recall its name - that basically required building a power reactor by building all of the infrastructure, resource management, and even things like containment, that go into an actual reactor. It had multiple types but the two grand-daddies were a deuterium-moderated uranium fueled fission reactor and a hydrogen fueled tokomak fusion reactor. The uranium reactor required doing things like building water separators that would extract deuterium and tritium from water, mining uranium ore and purifying it into fuel, etc. etc. etc. Took a solid 10-20 hours to get a reactor up and running but it would power everything else in any modpack.
Has anybody here seen AI Doom it generates code simultaneously while you play so every frame is coded and rendered as you walk through it. It only runs at like 20 frames per second but the fact that it does all that in real time is amazing
Minecraft mods❤️❤️
Greg tech + terrafirmacraft is like going from stone age to a futurist era in the most realist way possible
Crusader Kings 3 is already an extremely deep and complex game. Then toss in all the mods, especially total conversions and it's literally multiple games in one. I have 3000 hours in CK3 and I've yet to get bored, there's always new mods or self-made challenges to keep the game interesting and refreshing.
There's a RTS called SUpreme Commander by RTS veteran Chris Taylor. If you ever saw this game at Best Buy back in the mid 2000 and picked up the box, it weighed 4lbs. it came with a manual 2 inches thick.
DCS is amazingly complicated but incredibly enjoyable and rewarding when you do work it out. Nothing like reading through an entire FA18c NATOPS to be able to play a game.
Hi folks it’s falcon ❤🎉
This video needs a sequel
Imagine getting so scared you pee... then you pee so much you drown in it 😂😂😂
Hi Falcon!
Can't believe it's already Monday 😮💨
Me: wow, these all seem awesome, I should deep dive into one
Also me: loads up Space Marine 2 only for the foreseeable future
Gameranks "Here's a list of games you've never heard of"
Ah yes, Hearts of Iron aka Excel spreadsheet gaming
Hi Falcon, it's folks!
Original Falcon is back???
Hey Gameranx:)
Hey
Love games with real fizzicks.
mortal online 2 is one you should of added to this list, not many people know about that hardcore game
to me as a child, minesweeper was the pinnacle of complex games lol. I never found out how that crap worked
Im surprised the witness wasn't in this. That game actually hurts my brain
Shoutout to all the knowers-to-be plagued by skill issues. "The sacrifice of oneself to the pursuit of knowledge Is the highest tribute to the gods."
The eyes! What do they mean?!
yo this is great
"5D Chess with Multiverse Timetravel" should be on here, or for the follow-up video.
U-Boat on unassisted mode can get pretty gnarly.
Hey Falcon. The bird of prey 😅
Hey
Falcon not being an expert at flying is a little sus😂 on another note I'm always tempted to ask whether he's related to birdman
Oh Falcon. I could tell you didn't know what you were doing when you called an a320 a "Jumbo Jet" 😂