Subnautica
Subnautica is what happens when you take minecraft, simplify the crafting and then add in quite a decent story and adventure to it. You start off the game stranded in an ocean world, aboard a life raft, and given few clues or resources, and then start off to see what you can make of the world.
The game is absolutely beautiful, with a nice day light cycle that is actually useful and relevant. You are definitely an explorer, and the game does not give you any combat capabilities until fairly mid to late game. However, the beauty is in the exploration and the actual terror of deep diving. If you are a person with a fear of water, this will either help you deal with it, or it will be a waste of time.
The exploration/build/survive loop however is done absurdly well. You have minecraft, where you can do anything and everything, but the story is non-existent for 99.9% of the population. You have a few on-rail games which have a small crafting portion, and then you have subnautica, which somehow straddles both the building and the exploration and story pieces PERFECTLY. I played on the PS4 and did not know that saved games are not automatic and lost about 20 hours of my first playthrough. It is incredible that I restarted from scratch and with what I knew, made up that 20 hours in about 4 hours and enjoyed every single minute of the replayment!
There are some WTF moments in the game, both of the good and the bad variety, but mostly of the good variety. There are some QOL improvements that the game can do, but honestly, everything about the game was so well done and gives you a sense of wonder that you kinda can’t stop binging the game through. I 100% the game and enjoyed every minute of it. Will definitely play through Sub-Zero when I get my hands on it.
Highly recommended!