This might be a slightly unusual attempt at a prompt, but might draw some appealing unusual options.
The way it goes: Suggest games, ideally the kind that you believe would have relatively broad appeal. Don’t feel bad about downvotes, but do downvote any game that’s suggested if you have heard of it before (Perhaps, give some special treatment if it was literally your game of the year). This rule is meant to encourage people to post the indie darlings that took some unusual attention and discovery to be aware of and appreciate.
If possible, link to the Steam pages for the games in question, so that anyone interested can quickly take a look at screenshots and reviews. And, as a general tip, anything with over 1000 steam reviews probably doesn’t belong here. While I’d recommend that you only suggest one game per post, at the very most limit it to three.
If I am incorrect about downvotes being inconsequential account-wide, say so and it might be possible to work out a different system.
Occult Crime Police is a fantastic free offering for those looking for a bit more Ace Attorney. It mostly follows the gameplay of Ace Attorney games, in which you investigate murder scenes involving strange, paranormal phenomena, and then discover contradictions in people’s witness accounts to uncover the culprit. It’s a bit easy, but maintains some great humor and charming animation production value.
This is SOLID GOLD holy shit
edit: OKAY I FINISHED THE FIRST CASE ABSOLUTELY PLAY THIS
Continuing this in the same thread as it’s a bit topical:
Are you a fan of Love Live! School Idol? Me neither! I basically knew nothing about it at all. Regardless, Gyakuten Live is an incredibly detailed cutesy Ace Attorney style game, in which the characters of the show gather for “school trials”. Though you may need to put up with a cutesier all-girl cast, and the stakes are much lighter and involve things like stolen possessions rather than murder, the mysteries end up having a surprising number of twists and even some heartfelt motives at the end. Features a fully custom soundtrack and LOTS of custom artwork, matched with some traditionally silly Ace Attorney humor.
So far, THREE cases are available, and each features a different prosecutor. The game’s page lists plans to continue up to 6 episodes.
In ItchIO’s standard, the game is “name your own price” - so you can choose to download it for free. It’s unlikely to come to Steam since it technically infringes on an anime/manga without permission.
One more coming if my AA recommendations are well received.
Adding one more to the Ace Attorney spinoff block:
Tyrion Cuthbert: Attorney of the Arcane is a well-written fan spinoff of the AA formula, taking place in a fantasy universe where magic is real, but mostly the domain of the nobility. Trials are a form of theatre, where the nobility knows how to tip the scale, but your mentor knows how to tip them back.
It introduces some very enjoyable mechanics, in which knowledge of each spell’s effects and conditions constitutes its own evidence. Tyrion bears his own magical ability that lets him view the thoughts of witnesses. He is also accompanied by the defendant of his first case, a mercenary-mage named Celeste, who gets a lot of investigation banter with Tyrion, much like Maya and Phoenix.
Five cases in all, and none of them are shortened crapshoot cases, nor is there a downer ending; all the major threads conclude with satisfying endings, and the developer hopes to make a sequel from the world they’ve built.
Oh, and as is common for AA games, take a listen to “Eye of Horus”, the game’s equivalent of the “Objection!” theme when Tyrion nails a contradiction. The game’s soundtrack as a whole has some real bangers, for both the high points and the emotional pulls.
Golf Club Nostalgia(917 Reviews)
This is a game that isn’t here for the game play. I think if you are paying at all attention to the boring dystopia, or climate collapse communities then this will hit in a way that is hard to define.
Its a golf game. Simple, could be played on a phone really, but you have to have the sound on for this one.
You are a member of the elite refugees who have fled to Mars and only return back to Earth to use the husk of a planet for a round of golf. And your companion is a lone radio broadcast from Mars of what they have left, which is stories and the rare music that was saved.The combination of overwhelmingly good world building and consistent vibe even down to the level names and journal entries hits like a train and made me cry at least a couple times.
It made me feel nostalgiac for a world that has not yet come to pass and is a great on sale pick.Bopl Battle is a hilarious party game for up to 4 people. The rounds go really quick so it’s a great game to play with friends when you have a limited amount of time, but the fun doesn’t wear out fast either.
Had to downvote, but the game is great. I play it with my kids and it is reliably hilarious. There are so many interactions that something surprising happens with amazing regularity.
I meet with 3 friends online every 2 weeks to discuss nerd stuff and play some video games together after, and bopl battle has been great for that.
Globulation2 brings a new type of gameplay to RTS games. The player chooses the number of units to assign to various tasks, and the units do their best to satisfy the requests. This allows players to manage more units and focus on strategy rather than on micro-management.
It’s actually quite old and has gone through stretches of inactivity, but appears to be kept in working order in its git repo, and recently has been getting maintenance patches.
Well of Souls was a little primordial mmorpg I got in a 100 games CD a while back. I used to have tons of fun making a custom character from sprites and seeing how far I could get. When I played it never felt mmo ish as it was already pretty empty.
Encased is a CRPG, heavily inspired by the classic Fallout games, bringing it’s mechanics into the modern age. It’s story is based on the classic book “Roadside Picknick” (known for being the inspiration of the Stalker series) and is very well written. It has a story narrator, similar to the Divinity: Original Sin games and a very in depth character creation. At the start you choose a department of a research company to work in, which will change the way you interact with many characters, adding some replay value. Anything more I could say would be a spoiler, but the entire beginning (first half to one hour) is an absolute banger.
It’s my favorite indie game of the last few years and at the time of writing this, it is currently 90% of on steam, an absolute bargain
Rabbit and Steel - Cross between a bullet hell and roguelite with raid style gameplay. Requires very close co-ordination with your team to survive (up to 4 player co-op). Punishing but rewarding.
Surprised to see the downvotes (by which I mean, I’m surprised so many people know this, I’d never heard of it at all).
“Roguelike co-op game requiring close coordination” seems like a mega-fail by concept since I tend to think of co-op games as more relaxed. But, looking at gameplay videos, it reminds me of FFXIV raid mechanics in a simplified game format. I can see how that would appeal to some people.
Had a great deal of fun with this one and it’s still getting updates!
the GDQ playthrough of this game should be required watching, it’s beautiful and impressive
Eternum (warning: NSFW) is an adult visual novel that keeps touching me with every new update. It’s completely free, and I can’t help but think of the creator as a master of the genre.
The characters are all well written and (those who are meant to be) lovable. The story is interesting, compelling even, and the humor is often hilarious. When you go to the website, you might think “Porn game!!!”, and not be entirely wrong, but Eternum is so much more. It’s a story about love, friendship, and a mystery.
Setting: Orion moves back to the USA after a long time. In recent years, a video game called eternum has been gaining traction, that allows going into virtual worlds, think full dive VR like in Sword Art Online. I’d say about 60% of the story happens IRL.
I can only recommend this masterpiece of a visual novel.
Solo indie dev mashup of Risk of Rain, Helldivers, Vermintide, etc with its own soul and style of knights with guns. Dev is very active in the discord and takes feedback and actively plays with the small community the game has garnered.
I played the demo on a whim during a next fest expecting a janky joke of a game to laugh at but a decent and fun game caught me by surprise. It’s been improved and updated quite a bit since then.
If you’re looking to kill a couple hours and love puzzle games, give 20 Small Mazes a go. I really enjoyed the variety.
Best of all, it’s free.
I found this game a few years ago after playing a remake on Pico-8. The premise is youre an unhoused person who just got out of jail, and you have to collect cans and change, find work, get an education, and a nice job, all while avoiding several hazards like muggers and the IRS.
I found it surprisingly addictive and very fun.
Severed Steel. F.E.A.R. meets Tron, plus a Mega Man arm cannon, plus the movement out of Titanfall. It’s incredibly fun and satisfying to play, and it has an exceptional soundtrack (if you like synth).
Steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1227690/Severed_Steel/
Soundtrack: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1754220/Severed_Steel_Soundtrack/
So I have seen this came come across my radar several times and knowing that I am not actually a huge fan of this type of game but really enjoyed Verlet Swing do you think you would still recommend this game on fun and vibes alone?
I unfortunately haven’t played Verlet Swing so I can’t say. What I can say is that this game is one of the most fun of any shooter I’ve played in probably a decade.
Oh verlet seing is a super indie darling but it’s got a strong vaporware synth vibe so I was wondering if it felt similar. But that’s still a glowibg review.
Honestly if you’re unsure, just check out the OST on YouTube and maybe look at a bit of gameplay. If you find yourself bobbing your head and like the artstyle, I’d put my money on this game being worth a buy
Taiji (906 reviews)
Nonlinear discovery-based puzzles
If you liked the puzzle design of The Witness, you’ll enjoy Taiji as more of that but with scenic pixel art.
Instead of a linear sequence of tutorials and puzzles, Taiji is open-ended. You can wander wherever you want, solve the puzzles you stumble upon, and ultimately discover this place’s secrets. Sometimes you find a puzzle that you don’t understand, so you’ll just have to leave it for later, when you’ve learned more puzzle mechanics. It’s like a metroidvania but gated by knowledge instead of abilities.
All the puzzles are built on grids of tiles that you can turn on or off. There are no tutorials; you have to figure out the puzzle mechanics on your own, hinted by environmental details.
To me, Ctrl Alt Ego is not well known enough. It is an immersive sim in the style of Prey. You play as a robot roaming a station, where your Ego (like a spirit) can pass into and control all sorts of objects to solve puzzles, evade, control or kill enemies. The graphics aren’t impressive (it was made by a 2-person team) but the gameplay is so interesting and the story is surprisingly compelling and funny!
This one is really fun and very underrated indeed. It gives you a level with an objective, how you solve it is entirely up to you. You can sneak to the objective, shoot your way through or cause mayhem by stacking boxes, explosive barrels and more. Also, the achievements on steam are all pictures of the developers cats.
Yep, it lives up to the best of what immersive sims set out to be. You have point A, point B, and a million ways that you can go about getting from A to B
