Yeah, I think this is a great take. It’s pretty easy to avoid all the mercenary practices that tend to plague most “AAA” titles these days— mostly by not buying the games at launch; eventually they all come around as giveaways, or at least at a deep discount. And as you say, there are a plethora of small developers putting out amazing games all the time. I’ve been getting a ton of mileage the last couple of months out of Vagrus and Dredge.
I love Roadwarden! My only issue is that I’ve taken a break for a while mid-playthrough, and now I don’t remember what I was doing. I may just have to start fresh. I also just picked up Vagrus: The Riven Realms, which is similarly awesome.
It’s very well done! It wasn’t really on my radar, but I got it for free from epic, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Ditto Kingdom Come: Deliverance. I think the only things I’ve paid for on the epic store are the dlc from those gems.