Patient Gamers
A gaming community free from the hype and oversaturation of current releases, catering to gamers who wait at least 12 months after release to play a game. Whether it's price, waiting for bugs/issues to be patched, DLC to be released, don't meet the system requirements, or just haven't had the time to keep up with the latest releases.
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Everything by David OReilly
Fear and hunger.
It has enemies that are tougher than they should be. You are just a small part of the story. It's pretty good.
Lots of survival games have a feeling like this.
This War of Mine State of Decay Ark: Survival Evolved but that is something you need to spend 100’s of hours in Mount and Blade: Warbands/Bannerlord
Wandersong. The whole plot is about the protagonist being a nobody and having no chances to change anything. It's not an action game or anything but I loved it, it was beautiful.
Fallout 4.
Ignore the main quest for the most part. It means basically nothing. Just go out into the Wasteland and do your own thing. Make settlements. Set up a supply chain. Build forts. In all the time I have in the game I think I spent maybe 10-12 hours playing the main quest once and another 500 or so just doing whatever. People complain about it not being as good as New Vegas because it isn't a Choose Your Own Adventure book in FPS form. That's because it's more of a Live Your Own Adventure GAME. The world is far more alive than any other Fallout game and it can be SERIOUSLY punishing on Survival difficulty, especially if you don't need to psychotically minmax everything. Just go out into the world and live or, more likely, die. The GOTY edition is like $10 right now.
Pokémon: Legends of Arceus. Those alpha Pokémon will fuck you up
You quickly become a hero though. And most of the game is easy.
The Alphas continue to be a menace even as you get stronger and you can actually die, unlike other Pokémon games
I haven't seen:
Night in the Woods
Or
Don't Starve
Mentioned. Idk if they fit the bill, but came to mind.
Haven't played, but I've heard Tyranny has this feel. Though it's a very different style of game, and you're essentially playing as the bad guy instead of the hero.
Or there's always the Dark Souls games, where you have to claw your way through each encounter.
Some might disagree with me but I feel like The Last of Us falls under this, it's also just an excellent game with an excellent story.
One word Pathologic
kinda a weird game but it definitely fits your request : everything
ETA: This review from polygon explains it well!
Thief The Dark Project.
Arma 3
I get this feeling when playing older god of war games. although you're literally a god, you come across some ginormous enemies or landscapes that make you feel tiny. make sure not to miss the origins collection too
Project1999.
X3: Terran Conflict - Ignoring the story plot and just playing sandbox ("custom game") makes you nothing more than a citizen in a universe that doesn't care if you succeed and success is a long, hard road to the top of whatever avenue you pursue. One of the best space games there is. It's also moddable and there are some awesome mods out there to make the game even better.
Mount & Blade: Bannerlord - Basically the same as above; but in a medieval wargame/RPG... It's pretty unique in gameplay so I'm not sure what to really call it. You start off as just a dude and can work your way up to becoming a king and conquering the entire country. The combat is part large-scale strategy, part 4X and part action sim as you move units around a world map for positioning and getting to cities and outposts, and battles put you in control of your singular dude swinging your weapon with some nice mouse controls, while also able to command your literal thousands of men in moment to moment tactical decisions.
Dwarf Fortress - Specifically Adventure mode in the pre-Steam version (since Adventure mode is not yet in the Steam version). You're literally whatever character you create living in a fantasy world. It's a simulation more than any other kind of genre. You can basically do whatever you can think of. You can be whatever you want up to and including a literal god if you work hard enough. There is no story other than the history of the world, which the game records and even after you die and make a new character in the same world, any mark that previous character left continues to exist and can affect others. Like say you steal from a guy, get into a fight and end up killing him. His son might seek revenge on your character, succeed and then fall into a depression. It's kind of a mad lib of sorts so you have to have some imagination, but it's the most complex game that exists right now.
Kenshi - Nobody likes you, you own nothing, you're weak as shit, the world is massive, and you can also basically do anything if you work at it. Command huge armies. Become a robot and forego the need to eat. Build cities. Conquer the planet. Not only is the game play incredibly fun and rewarding, it has a super interesting world with plenty of cool lore. Plays kind of like an ARTS and has complexity that comes close to Dwarf Fortress's.
Space Engine. It's not quite a game, but rather an accurate simulation of the known universe. Anything beyond what we know is procedurally generated. The first time I played it it made me feel so small.
I started at Earth and flew around the solar system, then picked a star and flew towards it. You have to increase your speed by multiples of the speed if light to get them to move. The stars started moving and then moving past, me, but the star I chose wasn't moving. I realised it was actually different galaxy, so increased my speed by many many multiples of the speed of light until eventually it dwarves to move. I flee over to it, and then slowed and explored a few star systems there, I found a binary star system, that was really cool.
Then I had a realisation. If I didn't use the search function, and I just flew around trying to find my way back to Earth, I just never would. I could play it for the rest of my life and be certain that I wouldn't find it. The odds are that small. That thought scared the shit our of me and I closed the game and couldn't okay it again for a few days.
Don't know if that's what you're looking for but I do recommend the experience!
Playing through Baldur's Gate 3 at the moment and this feels most appropriate.
Sidenote: love your name