The most common way this comes up is in “survival” games. You browse the environment for health and ammo, and then burn it all up facing massive hordes of zombies (or, ARC, or whatever monster of the day is). I’ve also seen it in other types of games, like in the newer Zeldas where you get dozens of types of weapons, none of which can be repaired.
Something I love about these patterns is that they get you to adapt and shift your playstyle naturally. You aren’t granted transforming ammo that fits whatever weapon you hold - you must use what’s available, even if every option from grenades to flamethrowers ends up being fun.
They provide the fun of looting, as well as a method to expend that loot in a way that maintains the cycle. Nothing irritates me more than the red “inventory full” message, so I make an effort to expend my resources quickly, and a lot of these games reward the player in turn for it.
So, this tends to fit a lot of major/mainstream singleplayer story-based games like Resident Evil, as well as traditional shooters like Half-Life in which all your weapons maintain an ammo count. I’m curious what other unexpected games come up that satisfy this itch, even providing creative ways to encourage “dumping resources” in a rapid way, just to give you empty slots to fill up again.
Project Zomboid.
Zombie survival game that has a really good loop of kill zombies, find loot, transport and sort loot, train skills/fix equipment/improve your base, and then find a new place to loot. It’s honestly more like a Sims game than a typical zombie game. You need to find ways to stay busy and entertained because you can get bored and depressed. Electricity and water will be turned off sometime in the first month (it’s randomized) so you need to find and learn how to use a generator to run a fridge/freezer otherwise food spoils in a couple of days. Water can come from a pond or river but it needs to be boiled if you don’t want to die from a hurt tummy, or if your carpentry skill is high enough you can make rain catchers. The game typically gets massive updates every 1-3 years and the latest one added livestock and blacksmithing.
It can be a hard game to get into and learn because there is so much to it, but it’s really satisfying once things start making sense. And it sounds like something you are looking for