Games with Minimal Tedium and Chores in Them?

This exactly describes the Uncharted series. I know PS4 isn't currently in your line-up. Still, I had to mention it for if and when.

I am going pick up Shadowrun & start looking more into action titles to see if I can pick up something flashy. I seem to be drawn to Asian ports, but I dunno if I will just multiply my suffering by facing a combo of their disdain for KB+M with their vision of an average player as someone being given a Gameboy at birth and honing their reflexes ever since.

Oh, this is not that easy to answer since tedium is quite the spectrum. Here are a few I haven't seen mentioned yet, that I either found have no tedium or at least if they did, I didn't mind it at all:
- Deus Ex 1 and Human Revolution: There is some Inventory management but otherwise, these games have a really good flow to them. No open world but still huge levels with lot's of gameplay choices.
- Splinter Cell: If you like sneaky games, try those out, IMO Chaos Theory (the third part) was the pinnacle of the series, so I recommend that one most. Some people might consider the entire sneaking gameplay as tedious I guess, not me though.
- Batman Arkham series, especially the first one. While you can backtrack to find collectibles and such, it's not necessary and they flow of the game is really good. I am not at all a fan of comics or super heroes but even I liked that one.
- Dishonored: Sneak or fight, it's your choice. While there are some RPG elements (very light ones), there is barely anything keeping you from the gameplay.
- Diablo 3: Obviously there is some inventory management but just playing the campaign, you'll hardly ever run out of room before you have to go back to town for the story anyway and if you do, just quicklyy selling everything and getting back into the game takes about 10 seconds. Very sleek gameplay.
- Alpha Protocol: I take it you played Mass Effect 2 and 3 already (if not, consider them art of this list). AP is very similar in terms of pacing. Lot's of dialogue and lot's of fighting (and sneaking if you like in this case) but no open world and very little management required.
- Technically, your description in the OP fits most linear shooters, so I am gonna be the one to say it: Call of Duty. The campaigns really are a flurry of action with basically no fluff around it. If you don't like the standard military crap, try something like Singularity, Bioshock or - as was mentioned already - Half Life (I recommend the Black Mesa mod, which is a faithful but improved recreation of Half Life 1).
- Last but certainly not least, something completely different: The Talos Principle. Technically there is fluff here as well but it's super fun to find or can also be ignored if desired but it is a puzzler (kind of like Portal but different puzzles), so no enemies here. I mention it though because the story and presentation are superb and the everything flows so smoothly I sinished it almost in one go.

There you go, all the others that come to mind have already been mentioned. A quick shout out maybe to the new Tomb Raider reboots as I would agree, they do also offer a very sleek playthrough experience.

Hope you'll find something interesting in that list.

Not involving dialogue and looting corpses, so maybe a bit off topic, but asked for a non-tedium, pure fun game, there's just one that comes to my mind: Binding of Isaac Rebirth. Such an onslaught of pure macabre fun, definitely in my Top 3 of best games of all time.

Yup, I know, actually was 86% for the full trilogy, like $11. In the end, I decided to stay with what I own for a while, because I feel I am underappreciating the games. The sales will come around again.

I do have Bayonetta that Hawke recommended & a few still unopened games. But, I think I will keep Shadowrun in mind.

How are you with Real Time Strategy games? I can recommend a bunch.

WarCraft III has a definitive protagonist for each story campaign (and 2, I think, for the expansion The Frozen Throne). It should be available on Battle.net.

DW is closer to hack and slash (and I haven't progressed too far there), though the series defines its genre (pretty much like The Sims or GTA).

Also StarCraft II got a demo version, it seems (https://www.starcraft2.com/en-us/).

Thanks, folks. I think I will pass on RTS. Anything that says building/crafting etc does not really appeal. Hawke yes I remember you did not get far into DW. I don’t know if i’d Like it either, but I could not pass up a take on the romance of 3 Kingdoms.

Well, yeah, I like to set up the tactics because afterwards the companions do well. If they do well with the AI that is preset, I am happy with it and would not need tactics.

Tedium and chores for me are:

crafting at a specific place and a lot of it with tons of fine tuning of stats etc
Character builds that offer too many choices and are punishing anything but a precise ideal build
Having to lock on target with a separate press of a button
Any gathering or task that only rewards you if you collected all hidden bits of something that are more than 5 in number. If that number is over 5 on anything that is the same, it’s tedium.
All puzzles save for platforming if platforming is fun and not on the timer
Lots of walking through spawns through either the same area back and forth, or through large areas where nothing much happens, and there is less than 5 characters to have long and interesting interactions with
Having to turn around and go do something else somewhere else before returning and proceeding further or lots of dead ends and convoluted maps
All or most characters are boring and only relate quest texts without any personalities and relationships developing
Inventory, stronghold and storage managing