NGU IDLE

The genre that (mostly) began with Cookie Clicker reaches its logical conclusion.

What makes Borderlands and World of Warcraft and all of those other looty grindy games appealing? The dopamine hit that your brain releases when you see those numbers on your stats go up! Why bother with AAA developers, lootboxes, season passes, fancy graphics and contrived plotlines when you can cut out the middleman and simply watch NUMBERS GO UP?

NGU IDLE is an amazing timesink. The game revolves around a small-ish number of stats and resources, but quickly increases the way all of these numbers interact with each other. While the main goal of increasing numbers remains the same, the player will quickly have to learn the best way to manage. At first glance the new player may be overwhelmed, but those who have a predilection for numbers and how they interact will have a ton of fun figuring it all out.

As the game goes on, you'll uncover the main storyline (if you're into that kind of thing) and progress from zone to zone finding better and better gear. You'll unlock the ability to enhance your stats through advanced training and augmentation before you take on your first TITAN, one of the true bosses of the game. Defeating these titans unlocks even more ways your numbers can interact with each other. These are best left discovered by the player, but rest assured you won't be disappointed as you watch your numbers climb into the stratosphere.

With a very active developer and community, you'll find help is easy to come by when you have a question about how a mechanic works or what to emphasize next.

NGU IDLE is truly the best thing to leave running on your computer and actually end up paying at least $10/mo for on your electric bill. 10/10 would waste earth's precious natural resources again

At 21,172 hours i finished this game, that's almost two and a half years. When i think about what this game cost in electricity it's hard to think of it as a free game.

I can say however, that there are moments in your life where some things will resonate more than others and this game hit me and that's how I came to play NGU Idle.

When COVID hit the US heavy in New York, New Jersey, and Eastern Pennsylvania, I had just been promoted in a healthcare system. As the country and world were trying to figure out what was going on, I remember the lunacy online, the desperate attempts of scared people, and watched healthy patients perish despite the treatments we had given them. I never knew if I was going to be one of them, but before long I remember thinking that it was only a matter of time until I was, or worse, brought it home to my family. I remember desperately hoping for the former, as I didn't think I could live with myself should the later have come to pass.

I remember driving to work (the hospital) and not seeing another vehicle as I drove on overpasses and highways. While I must admit that I miss the swiftness of the commute, the experience was isolating, and downright unnerving. It reminded me of a scenes from the movie I Am Legend. Truly apocalyptic looking.

As the work hours became oppressively long, one of our beloved team members became critically ill from COVID, civil unrest and protests arose in the city, conspiracy theories sprang up on how chemicals under your sink were a cure... These type of things translated to more work, confusion, and new and creative forms of poisoning (and antidotes) that taxed our resources, our team members, and willpower. As the world around me seemed to be imploding my colleagues and I found ourselves trying to make a difference one patient, one presentation, one journal article, one meeting, or one clinic at a time. Despite this, there just didn't seem to be any order in anything around me.

Sooo.. I played this. For me It was something that made sense (not the plot, but the mechanics). Something I could predict, expect, and feel like if nothing went at all well that day, at least something was progressing in a positive fashion. In hindsight it's beyond ridiculous (perhaps sick) to think of a game in this matter. I can't say that I genuinely had fun, or that I was ever enthralled by the gameplay or mechanics. Then again.. I guess that wasn't what I was looking for.

In hindsight it made me realize something that I always knew. We all want something out of the games we play. Maybe we like to push ourselves and appreciate a challenge, maybe we like to pretend to be someplace or someone we're not, perhaps it's a method to socialize with our friends, for others maybe it's how they relax. For me, it was clear someway, somehow, this game helped provide some semblance of control and order that I could understand, in a world that had gone so sideways that it barely seemed recognizable anymore.

Overtime as things crawled back to normal I felt compelled to finish the game. I couldn't quite place why, I wasn't looking forward to the ending, I wasn't enthralled by any of the game play mechanics, it just seemed like maybe it was just something I should finish. I remember thinking how much I hated it as I mindlessly followed a routine to progress a little further. I truly had a million better things to do with my time, but I felt compelled to see it through. Perhaps an analogy of sorts would be Tom Hanks talking to a soccer ball in the movie Cast Away? I am however glad to be done it.

Ultimately this experience helped me realize that Idle games definitely aren't my jam, and i hope to never play another one. I daresay that I would have ridiculed someone spending time on such an endeavor. However, it did provide me with the valuable perspective that sometimes we just need a little something extra to ground us, or get us back up, or keep moving forward. Maybe, a game like this could be that for you.

Finally Freeeeee! Game open for 2.8 yrs. It's been a wild ride and an awesome one at that. Something to always look forward to when life was crazy but I wanted to see my numbers go up in at least one game.