Terraria

really fun. good times, and captivating progression system. endless customization.

very enjoyable, would spend days on end playing if possible

Minecraft 2D, with extreme replaytability.

If you're not obsessed with graphics, and enjoy sandbox games, you'll probably like this. If you're a bit OCD, you'll probably be unable to stop playing. The combination of combat, crafting, and exploring is phenomenal. Every time I think I've done everything, I realize I've only scratched the surface. Since I first bought the game, it has had multiple rounds of massive, free content additions, and there's so much in the game now, it's hard to keep up with everything. This will satisfy your urge to explore and just noddle around and build stuff. The boss fights are pretty epic as well. I've been playing this game on and off for more than a decade now, and I still enjoy it. There have been tons of big content updates over the years to keep it fresh and exciting, and the crafting system and other mechanics have improved as well. I'll put it this way: this is my most played-game in a library of more than 800, with nearly 2000 hours played now. It's totally worth it at full price. On sale, it's a no-brainer. Only negative, which is minor, is that I think the game has gotten almost too complex and bloated with content in the decade+ since it came out. But that's manageable, and exploring, building, and battling are all still fun.

I absolutely adore this game. My only gripe is that I can only get the default screen resolution of 800x600 to work on my laptop with HD4000 graphics. (no widescreen). Perhaps this is an issue with the 1.3 update as it was working perfectly before..