To help give love to some games I think are underrated, here’s a list of my favorite games with 4,000 reviews or less on steam under $25 ranked by my personal play time.
Post apocalyptic survival sim, that reminds me a tiny bit of Oregon Trail. There’s a good chance a scratch will kill you, and finding a plastic bag so you can carry more than what you hold in your two hands makes you feel OP. I’ve put 74 hours into this game, have died and restarted countless times, and have hardly gotten anywhere in it, but it’s exactly my kind of survival game
Turn-based grid combat reminiscent of Final Fantasy Tactics, with just a splash of pokemon. The mechanics and setting I found really fun, although the difficulty can fluctuate a good bit at times.
If OG XCOM went more crunchy than streamlined, it’d be Xenonauts instead of Firaxis’s Enemy Unknown. The combat gives you a ton of control during combat, specifying how much time they should spend aiming before shooting, specific hours of overwatch, crouching, etc.
Roguelike turn based party RPG. It doesn’t do a crazy amount that’s new or novel, but it executes very well, and lining up a good combo with your build feels amazing.
Slay the Spire with some smart additions. Instead of one hero, you play two, which gives some extra possibilities to mix and match between runs. Instead of an overmap with a couple branching paths, there’s a hex overworld where you can use resources to reveal tiles.
Avatar the Last Airbender as a 2d stealth action game. The level layouts are great, and the ability upgrades strike a good balance between being impactful and not trivializing encounters.
A classic point and click adventure, except using human logic instead of insane Game Logic. Reminds me of a bunch of similar games I played at the height of Newgrounds. It’s a tight, solid experience that doesn’t over stay its welcome.
What if Slay the Spire had a hex grid system? I’ve seen other games ask this question, but Alina is the best I’ve played. There are some really clever design decisions they’ve made where certain builds very intuitively form some classic archetypes.
Roguelike XCOM themed as a crystalpunk version of Vermintide. Combat is solid, but the theme of running to the exit while shooting rats on the way with crystal powered machine guns sets it apart for me.
This one breaks my “4,000 or less” review rule by a little bit, so I’m putting it at the bottom, but it is one of my favorite games. I understand the love for Obra Dinn, but Golden Idol is better in my opinion. Each puzzle is a scene more or less frozen in time, which you can click on things for clues as what’s happening. What sets it apart is how you really do need to solve the mystery to progress; the game doesn’t walk you into it nor really lets you brute force it. Hands down the best mystery game I’ve ever played.
Case of the Golden Idol is a must have, I avoided sharing in my OP due to being fairly well known, but if someone also shares it then I have no choice! :D
I’m still waiting for Steam to export my numerous reviews, then it’d be much easier to list a few great titles. But navigating through the Steam profile review pages is not viable with 10 per page for 477. I have one particular in mind I remember having praised a lot many years ago.
I am playing Geneforge 1: Mutagen right now. You are a wizard that csn shape monsters into life to fight for you. Very oldschool-ish isometric rpg. It’s a lot of fun and very indie.
SpiderWeb games are really good! I’m particularly fond of Queen’s Wish where you deal with political factions and base building while attempting to reclaim (or liberate) an abandoned colony.
They look like they’d be bullshit hard games, but they tend to be actually quite smooth and well made, while still being simplistic
I have played some of the Avernum games. In my opinion it’s peak Jeff Vogel. If you’re fine with the graphics, you’re in for excellent writing, nicely done non linear exploration and original world building.
Rainworld - A beautiful, brutal survival platformer. This has become my favorite game. The game tells you almost nothing, and just tosses you into a world where all creatures are fighting each other to survive another cycle.
AI War 1 & 2 are both great and unique space RTS games. These games place you in the role of the last vestiges of humanity attempting to fight back against a galaxy spanning AI empire. You’re tasked with covertly taking down the rogue AI without letting them realize you’re a real threat, lest they bring the full might of their fleets down upon you.
Creeper World is a series of tower defense games with a unique twist: the enemy is a liquid! You’ll have to use a variety of weapons and tools to fight back against the literal tide of creeper. The third game is my personal favourite, though they’re all awesome.
Mosa Lina is self described as “a hostile interpretation of the immersive sim”. This game is chaos incarnate. Every level you are given a random set of tools and must touch or destroy all fruit and make it to the goal. Some levels will not be possible. Failure is expected. You can do some prettt cool things with a spear and a phaser though.
Siralim Ultimate is a very special monster collector. The sheer amount of everything is delightfully overwhelming, the depth is nonsensical and the grind is real. I love it.
More of an interactive art piece. Very short but I still think about it years later. (Some of their other stuff is available online for free and is similarly enjoyable)
Like a nightmarish fever dream. If you like old school FPS mechanics like rocket jumping and bunnyhopping you’ll feel right at home. This one is a little difficult to show people gameplay of because it looks impossible to decipher, but when you’re actually playing it and really start to get entranced, it’s an experience like nothing else. The way it gives you a 360 fov is an incredible mechanic.
*(It’s also 40% off for ~40 hours as of this comment, making it $8.99)
My favorite game of all time. Adorable puzzle game where you paint the world, with a story about what makes someone an artist. One thing I really like about this is the open ended way it lets you approach creative tasks; It’s up to you to decide how much you want to invest, there’s no scoring system to gamify the art portions, which is very in-line with the story to me.
Edit: Oh, and a great soundtrack by Lena Raine!
Would there be any interest (or does it already exist) for a community dedicated to indie shoutouts? I picture somewhere specifically for fans and devs to call attention to good games without marketing budgets or their own work in the case of devs.
I’ve recently been playing a lot of We Who Are About To Die, and even though it’s an early access game, its been great fun. It’s a roguelite physics-based arena fighter where you play as an aspiring gladiator, and fight your way up the ranks. The multiple types of matches and mutators really keep the gameplay feeling fresh, and the mechanics are surprisingly deep.
The other game that I’ve been playing a lot is Dinkum, which is somewhat like a mix of Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley, with heavy Australian Outback overtones. It’s a nice game to play with friends and significant others, since there’s plenty to do with a good mix of action and cosy gameplay.
Distance is a criminally underrated racing platformer cyberpunk horror game. Worth it for the campaign alone IMO but there’s also multiplayer, a level editor with workshop support, two bonus campaigns, car customization, and a track generator.
Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion: You play a turnip and you get to commit crimes. The characters are cute, the humour is silly, there are puzzles and bosses. It plays a bit like a Zelda game, I guess, except everyone is a vegetable. It’s pretty short - I completed it in about 5 hours, including all the achievements. I should play this again actually.
Spirit of the North: This is such a beautiful game. The best way I can describe this game is Abzu but you’re a fox. No dialogue or narration, just you, your spirit companion, and some really gorgeous music. This is also a pretty short game - I was fully complete with all achievements in about 6 hours. I’ve played this 5 times since I bought it 9 months ago because I love it so much.
Terra Nil: A reverse city-builder, where your goal is to clean up all the pollution on the map, restore plants and wildlife, and then get rid of any traces of your presence. You can play the whole campaign in a few hours, but it took me about 20 hours before I got all the achievements. I’ve put in almost 50 hours in total, because it is just so chill to play.
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Aktywne