So, most of my recommendations are going to be FPS or first person. For Valve related stuff:
Half-Life 2 is pretty much a must have along with Episodes 1 and 2.
Black Mesa is a remake of the original.
Entropy : Zero 2 is a fantastic fan made mod that’s a good follow up after finishing Half-Life 2 and the episodes.
The original Entropy : Zero is pretty good, but the default difficulty is hard as hell.
Portal 1 and 2 are also a must have
Portal: Revolution is an independent mod that’s a good follow up after 2.
As for non-Valve games and related:
Crab Champions - fast paced, third-person, rogue-like shooter.
Talos Principle 1 and 2 - first-person puzzles with a serious philosophical scifi story. It actually gets a bit heavy when it discusses mortality and death. 1 is being remade into a “definitive edition”.
Untitled Goose Game - Honk!
Gnorp Apologue - fun little game
Pineapple on pizza - it’s free. I would describe it as games-as-art.
Any of the Serious Sam games. They were made for PC.
Fallen Aces is still in early access, but a good story driven retro FPS with sprites and multiple ways of navigating each level.
Trepang2 - a bit of an odd FPS with bullet time.
Roboquest - rogue like FPS
Exit 8 - horror walking simulator. Kinda short once you figure it out.
APE OUT - Ape smash! Top down “shooter”.
Hotline Miami 1 and 2 - top down shooters with fast deaths and excellent soundtracks
The Binding of Isaac - has always been popular if a little dated
Gunpoint - stealth puzzle third person. Came out a decade ago, but a good game.
Party Hard - little indie murder-everyone-and-don’t-get-caught.
The Stanley Parable - walking simulator with some interesting dialog and interactions. 9-to-5 office people can relate.
Dusk - awesome boomer shooter
Antichamber - came out a decade ago, but it’s mind bending first-person puzzles.
Hades and Hades 2 which is in early access. Third person isometric rogue-like.
The Invincible - Story driven walking simulator based off the book of the same name. Good story.
Firewatch - story driven walking simulator
Deep Rock Galactic - wasn’t my pint of beer, but a lot of people like it.
I’d be surprised if they had net positive income on Tribes 3. A lot of veteran gamers of the series saw who was really running development and decided to stay away. Once bitten, twice shy. The writing was on the wall that it was a dead game back in June.
APE OUT - You’re a gorilla that kills people before they kill you. Music, art style, and gameplay mix very well.
Crab Champions - You’re a crab with a gun facing waves of crabs and other stuff. Things get really insane with all the modifiers you pick up.
Iconoclasts - Beautiful art style from a single developer. Story hits on some heavy topics which may not be for everyone. My only complaint is he really needed a dedicated writer to clean up the story a bit.
Little Inferno - You burn stuff in a fireplace.
Party Hard - You’re just a dude that wants some sleep. So, you become a serial killer.
They released two games. The first was just a game jam thing they threw together that established the core mechanics. The second was much more fleshed out and polished.
In a statement posted to Steam, developer Shiny Shoe said […]
What a sloppy and lazy article. They don’t even bother linking to the statement from the devs. Seriously, that would have taken less then 1 minute to add.
Then tried adding to cart from my wishlist. It added both games, but on my wishlist it only shows the one game. That’s just really buggy, and fortunately only unintentionally deceptive instead of intentionally.