Come take a break from life by living your best video game life instead in these charming, and sometimes bizarre, simulation games
What are the best life games on PC? Well, it depends on what you’re looking for and what kind of fantasy you envision. Daily life might be demanding and exhausting at times, but life games offer a chance to unwind and have greater control over someone else’s existence.
It’s more than just farming and dating – though there’s plenty of that as well. The best life sims probe what it means to be alive, and maybe try transforming into a cat as well because why not. Like life itself, life games come in all forms, and while your mind might leap to games like Stardew Valley and other stalwarts when the genre comes up, there are a host of inventive takes on the formula.
We’ve sorted through the clones and copies to pick out some of the best life games on PC. Some reward careful management and creativity. Others ask you to be as strange as possible, but will reward you for it anyway, and some have touching stories to tell that might just reveal something about yourself in the process.
The best life games on PC are:
Fields may wither, but Stardew Valley never loses its bloom. ConcernedApe’s farm-and-life sim offers so much, from meaningful relationships with interesting characters, to creating your own megafarm, and everything in between – literally, if you plan well and manage your resources. The broad goal is helping revive the town and keeping the sinister, definitely-not-Amazon company JojaMart from taking over.
What that translates to in terms of your day-to-day action is pretty much whatever you want. Investing in your crops and building an agricultural empire is just as viable as not doing that, or raising animals, or focusing on relationships. Some farm games, including the older Harvest Moon games Stardew draws a lot of inspiration from, fell into the trap of having characters who existed only to fall in love with you.
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Everyone in Stardew has a story to tell, and it often unfolds in unexpected and emotional ways. And if you want even more control over your fantasy farm, check out the best Stardew Valley mods.
If you don’t want to give up the farmer’s life, but also want to just fight a lot, Rune Factory 4 Special is the perfect hybrid. Your amnesiac character is – quite literally – dropped into a village with a dragon for its leader and a host of quirky, instantly loveable townsfolk (mostly) eager to make a new friend. Farmwork is more streamlined with higher crop yields, which means more money to spend on essential furnishings and town upgrades.
It also means more time to explore the surrounding dungeons and ruins, upgrading your combat abilities and finding rare materials used for crafting even better equipment. It all flows together so smoothly, but what makes thie fantasy game stand out is its brilliant writing that elevates even non-romanceable NPCs above the usual tropes we see in the genre.
The Sims 3 might have long load times, but it also has almost everything you could want from a Sims experience. It’s a massive living world that gives you nearly unlimited freedom. One of the best parts is the endless lots mechanic that removes space limitations so you can plunk down a new lot wherever you see fit – even if you have to change the land.
This fact also makes The Sims 3 an excellent building game, as it happens. The seamless open world makes it one of the most immersive Sims games in the series’ history, to say nothing of how the world and its inhabitants continue to live and grow while you manage your own Sim.
If long load times put you off, The Sims 4 is still a solid choice, though it does have a few more restrictions on how and where you can build.
Hospitals are the last place you want to spend free time, but Two Point Hospital is an exception. This quirky management game tasks you with defending life – and your cash flow – by building the most efficient and desirable hospital around. Threats to patient safety include cubism and lightheadedness, along with you, depending on how well you design your facilities, but with the right research and planning, you’ll soon have the entire county lining up to be admitted.
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Two Point Hospital features a number of DLC packs for even greater challenges and a free Sonic the Hedgehog collaboration with costumes sure to bring a smile to your patients’ faces or cause irreversible psychological trauma. It could go either way.
Littlewood is a unique twist on the life sim/RPG game hybrid, as it takes place after the battle is already won. Your hero is simply looking for a place to rest, so they work with their friends – also heroes in the final fight against evil – to establish and build a village where everyone is welcome.
Littlewood offers a greater degree of freedom in how you build the village, letting you design everything from home interiors to fencing around the town’s borders. The material gathering loop gets a bit grindy at times, but the warmth and charm Littlewood exudes more than makes up for it.
Unpacking removes you from the equation for a more introspective take on life, exploring the things we find important, and how we create intimate spaces even in unpleasant places. The indie game’s premise is simple: take belongings out of boxes and put them away. Each stage represents a different milestone in the life of Unpacking’s unseen protagonist – her first room as a child, for example, or the first time she lives with someone else – and the things that persist from space to space naturally change over time.
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That collection of robots and figurines she loved as a kid? It’s been yeeted by the time she hits puberty, replaced by books, music, and clothes. Unpacking is a surprisingly emotional experience that, like the best life sims, manages to mean something different to everyone even with its minimalist approach to gameplay.
Since it’s technically a death simulation game, Spiritfarer can be considered the literal opposite of a life sim, but however you categorise it, this is one of the most sensitive and beautiful sim games around. Stella, the new Spiritfarer, goes about her day-to-day ‘life’ gathering lost souls, making them comfortable on her ever-expanding barge, and eventually helping them cross over.
Each passenger has a heartfelt story, whether it’s Stella’s old friend reminiscing about their time together or a kindly hedgehog chatting about how she’ll miss her grandkids. When you’re not learning more about their past lives, you’re cooking their favorite meals, crafting new items to build new rooms that will help make passengers feel more at home – all to help you and them come to terms with the inevitable parting just over the horizon. It’s not an easy game to play, but it is an important one.
Grow: Song of the Evertree has something for almost everyone. It deftly blends crafting, relationships, farming, exploration, and dungeon crawling in a charming package. Part of what makes it so endearing is the dream-like world your adventure takes place in.
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Mythical creatures frolic in the fields under giant mushrooms, while closer to home, your new neighbors are talking foxes. Your goal is protecting what makes the world beautiful by restoring everyone’s connection to nature and the Evertree itself. It’s a touching premise that adds a more compelling sense of purpose and helps set this one apart from similar life/crafting game hybrids.
If you wished life and life sims revolved more around making delicious confectionaries and keeping cats happy, rejoice, for Lemon Cake exists. This cute cooking game tasks you with restoring an abandoned bakery, but it doesn’t stop there.
You’ll need to invest in and rebuild the greenhouse and gardens for ingredients, find furniture to attract new customers – including cats – and bring your sweet vision to life. It’s not an easy task, but there’s a tangible sense of progress after every job well done.
The Good Life is easily one of the more bizarre life sim games, which is part of what makes it so interesting. In theory, you’re meant to be uncovering the truth behind a dreadful murder in a rural village, investigating clues, chatting with locals, and eventually bringing the case to a close.
In practice, you’ll spend your days pretty much however you want – riding around on sheep, anticipating social media trends, planting flowers, and making friends with alcoholic priests. Instead of getting a pet, you turn into a cat or dog and have a whole new suite of exploration options open up as a result. The weirdness means it won’t work for everyone, but if you’re after something a bit less traditional, The Good Life is a must have.
And there you are, the best life games on PC. Accept no substitutes, as this is a 100% factual list. For more gaming greats, why not check out the best strategy games on PC?
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Josh Broadwell
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Josh Broadwell is a prolific games writer with bylines at PC Gamer, Gfinity, The Indie Game Website, The Escapist, and many more.
