Patient Gamers

My spouse really enjoys when I go through the Yakuza games.

Beyond: two souls would be worth a playthrough.

Slime Rancher? Or a puzzle game like The Gardens Between? You fight in Going Under, but I don't remember it being bloody.

Days Gone. It's basically a biker road movie set in a zombie apocalypse scenario playing out in rural Oregon. Strong story, beautiful graphics, and a healthy balance between scavenging/exploration and fighting.

If that's still too violent, maybe the Hitman series. That's basically 95% exploration / problem solving because you have to spend most of your time figuring out how to get close enough to your target so you can eliminate them without causing too much of a stir.

Also Deus Ex Human Revolution or Mankind Divided, for similar reasons. You're pretty much always outnumbered and outgunned so you have figure out how to get around and complete your objectives without being detected and only pick your fights sparingly.

The Spider-Man games on PS5 have great storytelling.

Cyberpunk 2077

God of War and God or War Ragnarok

• I believe both of these have settings that can reduce the “bloodiness”

Destiny 2….. lmao j/k

Stardew Valley

I'd say you can try the Witcher 3. It's story rich so could be interesting to just watch too. Lots of violence though, but most of it is quite cartoonish imho so maybe it's still okay.

Outside is a great game. Lots of spooky shit but not outright violent.

Tetris Effect’s journey mode is awesome to watch as a spectator.

Until Dawn and all the similar games that came since can be pretty good for this. They are set up with a mode where she could control characters if she wants, but otherwise just playing through the story with you controlling everything and her helping make the decisions is a fun time. Play these with my husband every year as part of our Halloween traditions, you can actually learn a lot about a person by seeing what decisions they go with😅

If it was just the constant violence in TLOU that was her issue these could work, although fair warning if she'd prefer absolutely no violence (or horror) at all then I'm gonna just be a second vote for Outer Wilds instead.

This is such a lovely thread ☺️

Perhaps "Contrast"? It's a gloomy puzzler with a good soundtrack, I would imagine it's quite engaging to watch as well as play.

Maybe something story driven like Beyond Two Souls or Detroit Become Human

I don't know how it would be for active watching, but I had a girlfriend that liked to read or do some light work while I played. She was absolutely captivated from time to time by Shadow of the Colossus. There's something about the momentum and the music, I think.

Life is Strange would be a great one! Just don't get the remastered because it's very buggy and has a worse art style in my opinion

Factorio, and then lock her out for hundreds of hours

If you're into puzzles, the Rusty Lakes series is very story heavy and fun to play, while quite challenging. I imagine it'd be cool to watch and follow the story along. There is a bit of a horror/thriller aspect to it but it's not really realistically gory as far as I remember.

I think Spiritfarer might be interesting to watch too, though might get a bit repetitive.

Also a not recommended game: I watched my partner replay high on life so many times I can almost quote the entire game. It's annoying, it's just a very flipping annoying game unless you're the one playing it, and even then.

You can find games to play with her like Wingspan

Spelunky & 2, Rogue Legacy & 2

Basically any action platformer that relies on observaton and timing.

Silent Hill 2 on PS2, Rise of the Triad for DOS, Donkey Kong for Gameboy, Sonic Adventure for Dreamcast, Microsoft Encarta Mind Maze for Windows 3.11, when you get thru those beauties I can give you some more