Less well known games you want more people to play
106 replies, posted
Show games you think more people should play.
For me, Ghostbusters the Video Game. Fun third person shooter written by Aykroyd and Ramis, it's the real Ghostbusters 3 full of world building and love for the franchise.
Tho it is a tad self-insert fan fictiony with your character.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sR8uXhRQ3ug
It was taken off of Steam and I'm mad I never bought it there.
pulsar lost colony
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWW7iE64Cvc
i just want people to play it with
Someone was bound to mention it, but...
Binary Domains. A surprisingly smart sci-fi shooter with good squad mechanics, starring Adam Sandler.
I'll always take whatever opportunity I get to shill Deadbolt.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WX2HGR1owiQ
It's perhaps the only game that just instantly clicked with me, and I like it so much I actually started speedrunning the game, despite having no interest in doing so myself for any other games I enjoy.
Here's my review on the game, if you're interested.
Shameless post due to my avatar I know but Space Station 13.
The premise is simple, you're just a spaceman aboard a space station with a space job.
All you gotta do is just do your job and survive until the end, seems simple enough, right?
I will admit though, it's not the easiest game to get into considering you're dropped into the deep end from the get go.
There are so many different servers running different codebases, all with their own different rules/jobs/maps etc.
The engine it runs on, the BYOND engine and its related DM language, is ANCIENT by todays standards, and oh boy saying that its a bit of a crappy engine is an understatement.
https://www.reddit.com/r/SS13/comments/5oplxp/what_is_the_main_problem_with_byond_as_an_engine/
But man, there REALLY is no other game like it, I play it just about everyday of the week and it's got to be one of my favorite games of all time.
Also, obligatory SS13 MandaloreGaming review link.
https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steam/apps/256700409/movie480.webm?t=1510069937
Brigador. The trailer doesn't really do it justice. Awesome music, effects, destructible environments, a fuck load of variety in difficulty/vehicle/weapon/ability combos. It's challenging without ever being too difficult, yeah. Love it.
Singularity
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNfl-97j5vI
here I didn't watch this fully but seems like a good video
anyways was this really cool sci-fi game that looked FANTASTIC for its time
the game was developmentally-challenged so it came out as a weird half-life2 and bioshock mix but I can only imagine how great it woulda turned out if it had a full development without issues
either way, I see it go on sale for $5 even way back when so it's def worth at least $10, but if you see it for $5 or under def pick it up
https://youtu.be/-sQu3uv4afo
Everyone needs to play this game to witness how fucking good the world building is
I remember being fond of this game a long time ago. It's something I think almost nobody knows or talks about but it's kinda cool
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghosthunter_(video_game)
Platinum Quest. A mod of a mod of Marble Blast Gold
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6GIEGHhKzo
https://marbleblast.com/index.php/downloads/pq
https://i.imgur.com/ZyPHh6P.png
Metroidvania with a bit of Giger inspiration for many indoor landscapes. At first I thought it was going to be a mix of Contra and Metroid but it follows its own path from there.
it starts somewhat simple at first glance, though. Main character has an accident with an experiment and ends up being thrown into another world. The plot plays with the concept of reality being flexible and editable for a "we are one with the nature" race in an alien world.
Quite impressive work for a game made by only 1 man.
https://i.imgur.com/eKuvbYR.jpg
It was intended to follow an episodic series, with this game being the first and only of the series for now.
Quite similar in concept of Amnesia or Penumbra, except having telekinesis for some reason.
The trilogy of Blair Witch licensed games are better than they had any right to be. This is largely because each game was developed by a different up and coming studio. Some of the studios are names you might recognize......
https://youtu.be/nJ6uQObXF74
I know this game is not that 'less well known', but I do feel like this game needs a lot more attention.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-kT5SDifCU
LISA is a fucking ruthless game yet still amazing. It's kind of crazy how a pretty simple concept for an apocalyptic setting can be extremely deep and messed up. There is a lot to be impressed and shocked at in this game. The character design and enemies, the different settings and environments, the gritting story, and of course the music really does help this game stand out from the rest of JRPGS. Now it being that, I have to admit the game does have a weakness of a bit of stale gameplay and the difficulty spikes sometimes can be unfair, but it manages itself well with a good amount of emphasis of using status effects and a lot of team management, and the smart use of an in-game drug called Joy.
I can't really recommend this game as more as I can, it seriously has changed my view on what story-driven games should really focus on, and that's making the player feel each of there actions through out the journey and putting emphasis on them not being able to fix mistakes. Plus this game even has a free prequel called LISA the First which I also recommend trying out to know how this game will probably be like (although to be honest that game is like double messed up).
Wadanohara and the Great Blue Sea
http://vgperson.com/games/wadanohara.htm
https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/216259/803d3d2f-6497-4384-b438-af6fb4fc9664/image.png
Cutesy RPGMaker game about a sea witch and her familiars. Much more story-heavy over gameplay (it's pretty damn easy and has an auto button for battles), which further emphasizes it's story focus.
Nice and short 6 hour ride.
Oh yeah and it gives up the cutesy act and goes full horror gore mode near the end. Detailed content warning stuff is on the website linked above
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l62oarOG_8k
please play sunset overdrive
please someone get this game on pc
Tower Unite
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdXzTkCn7r0
Seconding this, one of my favorite games as of late. The devs are really passionate too. The game launched roughly and was almost considered a failure at the time due to lack of attention it had. It took roughly 5 years to develop since everything was made from the ground up. Maybe a bit impractical but it does show how much they cared for and wanted to have everything from the feel of the gameplay to the visuals being on top of that.
The difficulty too is really highly customizable, with the stuff you purchase/unlock despite being more expensive are actually statistically weaker and harder to use (but provides more rewards and a more dynamic playstyle). The lore too is some of the best I've seen. The characters, world and everything is just oozing with a lot of personality. They recently released countless updates too that improves the visuals and tweaked the gameplay even more, including free levels and new characters. They're still updating it too and they're even planning on a sequel later down the road.
Made a big splash when it first came out and then it was kind of forgotten, possibly because it was almost entirely based on PvP and you know how that goes, you can only stand getting matched with people that play everyday and min max everything so many times before you realize you're not really having fun.
It's still alive and getting updated though, next major patch is supposed to have some proper PvE content and I'm stoked for it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0eypGqZtEQ
Freelancer
The only people I know who know about it are people into space sims and remember it from the early 2000's
https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/1977/4624b4db-d041-438c-b5f2-53e2a1ae62b1/image.png
https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/1977/88faabc7-0284-4852-b484-d21e656921bf/image.png
7.62 High Calibre and Marauder Man of Prey
Both really nifty games that are by the same devs on the same engine with a mix of turn based and real time tactics.
7.62 High Calibre has you playing as a foreign mercenary in a South American country taking jobs and it has a ton of guns
Marauder Man of Prey is set in a post governmental collapse Russian Federation where you are just a dude trying to survive. Not as many guns as 7.62 sadly, but still lots of cool shit.
They both have some really amusing Let's Plays on LPArchive that work as good introductions to the games.
They're a little daunting to get into, but I think they're really cool games. Plus I love games made in Eastern Europe, the somewhat complex and janky games they make are really unique.
The game engine they use has a feature called Smart Pause Mode, the game plays out in real time but you can pause at any time (and also there is a customizable auto pause feature for when things happen like enemies getting spotted and such) to give orders or look over the situation or whatever you gotta do. Don't know of any other game that has that.
Aww yiss, I sank so many hours into this, cleared the story like 5 times and until this day I'm still amazed by the animation of the characters during cut-scenes. I still remember this trick where you only move using the thruster after killing your engine to outrun the NPCs because both allies and enemies will mimic your engine's state. You can even kill your engine after using cruise mode and leave your allies behind in story missions lol.
On the topic, if you have someone to sit together and play with, you should totally check out this. The game is super fun, fluid, and gorgeous.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwfRYGVADL0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZTm4EpWL4w
Pretty great NES platformer. Only downside is that real copies are ridiculously expensive and no rereleases.
I ended up getting a Dendy cartridge to play on my NES.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sg0WsR3EnGg
It's an isometric roleplaying videogame by Obsidian Entertainment released in 2017. The main premise of the story is that you are basically one Judge Dredd of many in the service of a dark fantasy lawful evil overlord who is sent in the last land the Empire needs to conquer in order to solve a stalemate between said overlord armies.
While the writing and the story branching of this game kinda falls apart under some severe scrutinity and the whole thing is a little rough around the edges in few places, I appreciated it far more than Pillars of Eternity: I've always thought that the latter was a massive, more-annoying-than-genuinely-fun fan wank to fans of yer olde RPVGs, while Tyranny is an attempt to take that formula and modernize it for the new audience. Also, I really, really dig the premise, but that may be just me.
Unfortunately the game didn't sell as much as the developers wanted and that, combined with the release of two lackluster and not so well recived DLCs and the developers' team focus being shifted entirely to Pillars of Eternity II, means Tyranny won't see any new expansion or even a sequel for the time being
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bk-a7We07Bk
It's a side-scrolling platform game from 2013 and a less known exclusive for the Playstation 3 system. As shown in the trailer above, its main features are the whole you-are-really-watching-a-puppets-show premise, which is milked for all its glory by both the graphical and gameplay department and the clever writing, and the pair of magical scissor, which are used by the protagonist to attack and to move through the level quickly, among other things.
I wouldn't call Puppeteer one of the best exclusive from the Playstation 3 era, but when I played it I found it incredibly charming in its presentation and very fun to play.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpmiSiw6VBM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFrs5UGB-ns
The Alice series is made of American McGee's Alice (2000), which is basically a blend between a third-person shooter and a platform game, and Alice: Madness Returns (2011), which follows the same formula. They are basically dark sequels of sort to the original Alice's Adventures in Wonderland novels: the premise is that Wonderland is a mental landscape forged by Alice's own psyche, so, after being struck by a tragedy who killed off her family, Wonderland has become an hellish realm and its inhabitants monsters. In each game Alice must enter Wonderland, face her inner demons and recover her mental sanity.
The original game was considered a graphical marvel at the time of release and would easily top my favorite game of all time list. Given it's 18 years old, the game today feels kinda clunky and rough around the edges, but the combat and bosses still hold up (even if they get a tad repetitive during the final stages) and the platforming challenges are incredibly varied. The original Alice is however extremely hard to find nowadays, with the best way being downloading the HD re-release which is included with the sequel.
Madness Returns is yet another game which suffered from the habit of EA to force developers to rush the development cycle to unreasonable degree. If one looks at the concept art book and the in-game manual is clear that many, many elements of the game were cut down during development, among them basically all the boss fights (save for the very last one). As such the graphics (especially the textures) didn't exactly look miracolous even at the time of release, and the gameplay is far, far more repetitive than the original, with severely unbalanced weapons. Still, many people still liked it for irs artistic direction, themes and plot. Madness Returns is yet another hard-to-get game, as some times ago the PC version was pulled off Steam: now it's only available on Origins or on last generation consoles.
Nowadays McGee is apparently busy in the concept stage of a thid game in the series, Alice: Asylum, but, truth be told, everything is still pretty much up in the air
The Room •
http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/artwork/na-fotzp/the_room_3.jpg
The room (3 games)
Genuinely one of the most interesting and simple puzzles out there
I only played the pre-gameplay opening before going back to finish PoE (also, Jesus Christ PoE is a slog at the half way point). I have one question that I've not seen asked before (though to be fair I haven't looked very hard). Can you play the game purely as a loyal servant of the bad guy or does it force you to fight them? Becuase if the premise of the game is you're a loyal servant of the evil overlord I'd damn well better be allowed to play that.
the amount of detail, depth, and content put into freelancer's world still shits all over most modern games coming out today
i really want another space game where you can actually explore
LiEat.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9bOtUxE75A
It's a pretty sweet, primarily story-based RPG. Only real downside is how small the game is but hey, what can you do. The trailer explains the story well, so I am not going to bother writing about it again.
Quoting Marcus Phoenix - "I don't think I can count that high".
Glad that Marauder and High Calibre were mentioned, they are great games. Pity Jagged Alliance-like games were not reborn with indie thing.
GROM - Terror in Tibet - fighting nazis in Tibet, feels like Indiana Jones mixed with Commandos. Then studio made two terrible action RPGs and defunct.
Back then, before Bungie get stuck with Halo, they made Myth trilogy. Tactical games with small army to fight with overwhelming odds - way bigger and more powerful undead army.
People were legit shocked to find out they are Bungie games. Back then devs were more diverse with game genres, just to mention Westwood.
The original release caught a lot of flak because in the very final sequence of the game your character was pretty much forced to declare a full-scale rebellion against the evil overlord, with the story ending on an abrupt cliffhanger about him/her marching his/her army at your doorstep.
While both in and out of the game said outcome was implied to be an instance of all-according-to-plan from the overlord's part, many players were rightfully pissed at the developers because, in some cases, the whole thing made zero sense as far as a coherent narrative and a correctly roleplayed character were concerned.
Thus, a free patch was later released along with the major and only DLC, Bastard's Wound, which, among other things, allowed players to decide personally at the very end if they are going to stay loyal to the overlord or not, with all the consequences of the case.
This "new path" wasn't exactly implemented to its fullest potential, and there are few instances of breaks of immersion and forced responses should you actually want to go for that path, but I've replayed the whole game recently rolling such a character and I can safely say now Tyranny allows you to start of as a loyal servant of the evil overlord and now you can end the game as the loyal servant of the evil overlord
"Sim" isn't the word I'd use. It's very arcadey in most of its aspects, but having a somewhat dynamic economy, actual worthwhile trading are really cool, combat and weapons/equipment are diverse enough that there's a lot of depth there, and its presentation is excellent.
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