Tired of repetitive mainstream bullshit? Sick of people circlejerking over the same five indie games? Want to increase your knowledge and widen your perspective of the medium if you're a total dork like me? Here's the place to find and recommend games! Just list a couple games you like that aren't well-known and jot a description down as well to explain why other people should care. I'll start:
Valdis Story: Abyssal City - This is a solid ARPG/Metroidvania released by Endless Fluff Games. It's surprisingly ambitious for a game from a small indie team, with four playable characters, stats-leveling, skill trees, a magic system, decent enemy variety, and a number of bosses, all presented with a unique art style that I personally enjoyed very much. There quite a few rough edges (as is to be expected of a game in this niche), but overall, this is a very good game, and I highly recommend it.
Hypnospace Outlaw - I feel like this is more dubious than the other games on this list and may be a good bit more popular, but screw it. It definitely deserves a recommendation. This is a faux internet simulator, where you are a moderator on a Netscape inspired version of the internet, in your virtual sleep virtually, in 1999. It's really fricking brilliant and I can't emphasize enough just how well the creators of this game managed to pull that concept off, with a fair number of ridiculous yet believable webpages, a great interface, and fantastic intertwining narrative threads throughout. Great stuff.
Toree 3D/Toree 2 - These are two fun 3D platformers that should be bought as a combo package because A: They are priced the same and B: Toree 2 is essentially just an extra level pack for Toree 3D. I've got 8.7 hours between the two and can attest that they are well worth it to get.
Broken Reality - A vaporwave adventure game with solid aesthetics and fun exploration. Don't really know what else to say beyond I had a good time with it and, since you're on this site, you probably would to. It evokes the same nonsensical internet "vibe".
Eversion - Fun little 2D platformer with some unique mechanics. What's not to love?
Know By Heart - Ice Pick Lodge's woefully overlooked latest release. It's a narrative game about letting go of the past that pulls you into that narrative full force. Play this game.
Also, not obscure, but I've been playing Tunic and it's very, very good. Highly recommend that as well.
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You said "obscure," and I intend to deliver...
Freeman: Guerilla Warfare - a mashup of Mount and Blade and the ARMA series. You get all the verbs of M&B, but with modern guns instead of horses, and the whole thing set somewhere in Slavland. Random-encounter battles are fought with an ARMA- or Ghost Recon-style tactical map that is really a sight to behold. Player progression is much faster in Freeman than in Mount & Blade; you'll be in the late game, the part where you're conquering cities and founding your own faction, before you know it.
Edit: Mount and Blade itself is very well-known these days. I'm not complaining -- but Mount and Blade: With Fire and Sword is at least a little shorter on reviews.
Sorcerer King: Rivals - a fantasy 4X strategy game. You're playing as one of the vassals of an evil overlord who has already conquered the world, and is now working on a spell to consume it and turn himself into a god. The situation sounds hopeless, and it would be, except for one thing: the titular Sorcerer King is a chump. This game's writing is good.
Queen's Wish: the Conqueror - play as a layabout prince of a currently strong but historically very shaky empire, suddenly sent out to reconquer an island continent that your people were kicked out of by unknown forces a few decades back. Base-building and base-expansion are a big part of this game; it feels like a major improvement to the Baldur's Gate style of Western RPG.
Legends of Eisenwald - a fast, brutal, Heroes of Might and Magic-adjacent medieval RPG. I say "medieval" instead of "fantasy" because that's what it is: it's set in a fictitious region of high medieval Germany, and feels like a spiritual successor to Darklands. The soundtrack alone is worth the price of admission.
Star Traders: Frontiers - this game is teetering on the brink of greatness, but it's only teetering on that brink. It almost manages to be a classic. But then it falls over in the wrong direction; ultimately it's dreary and drab. What does it get wrong? I don't know, but the game's enjoyable to learn, and the puzzle of where it fails is an interesting one to wrestle with.
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very good list
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Thank you! I’m glad my accidentally dramapilled take on Mount and Blade didn’t overshadow the rest too badly!
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M&B WB+Mods is one of not the best game released in the last 20 years. Theres no need for shame, my friend
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M&B's consistently well-known these days? I feel
-- I remember back when it was ultra-niche. I've never met anyone IRL who's heard of it, although plenty of people are interested when I read them in.
Regardless, play Freeman; I'd mentioned M&B in case people hadn't heard of either game. The rest on the list are hopefully also not famous, although I'm clearly out of touch.
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It's got over 110 thousand reviews on Steam right now.
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Like I said, my mistake. I'll keep With Fire and Sword in, but I've trimmed the entry back.
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Impressive. Normally people with such severe developmental disabilities struggle to write much more than a sentence or two. He really has exceded our expectations for the writing portion. Sadly the coherency of his writing, along with his abilities in the social skills and reading portions, are far behind his peers with similar disabilities.
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