There’s really nothing like Blacktail as long as you don’t mind the video game stuff stumbling over the weird story stuff. Or play in story mode, I suppose.
Interesting indie game that’s not quite as good as it wants to be, but still aims for the sky and hits.
A thoroughly decent-to-good mech game with some weird design choices and a not-always-good retro feel.
It’s not cutting edge. I mean “Souls-like” is a genre of its own now, not just an interesting experiment. So we wind up with Below, which is like one of those weird evolutionary offshoots that is never quite successful.
The tongue is in cheek but not far enough.
Dead in Vinland is only going to appeal to the more hardcore life simulation fan.
The fighting is a lot of fun if you can deal with the rest of the game.
On the whole, if the overland adventure/subterranean dungeon crawl genre strike your fancy and if you dig on the modern indie aesthetic, you’re going to find a lot of procedurally-generated ground you’ll dig exploring.
Aven Colony is thoroughly competent but uninspiring colony management game with overly-familiar mechanics. It’s an interesting diversion for fans of the genre but breaks no new ground.
See the swamp and join the cult!
I found it compelling. Even if you don’t like tactical combat, you have to admire something so completely insane and very much its own thing when the world is busy making roguelike soulslikes platformers. It’s also an excuse to buy a cowboy hat of your very own.
The video game equivalent of being picked up in a 2000 F-250 by a guy blasting Skynyrd and yelling HELL YEAH BROTHER at everything you say.
Stubbs is emblematic of the end-of-lifecycle game in that it is extremely weird, kind of janky, and beloved by those who happened to pick it up in the game store, which was something we had way back then, because console games hadn’t invented online purchases yet.
Fewer vampires and more Greeks! It’s Bronze Age Total War.
Relentlessly stylish and relentlessly grindy turn-based tactical roguelike.
Arcade-style giant fighting robot action overcomes repetitive missions and a sometimes-nightmarish HUD.
That said, despite the frustrations, there’s no other series out there that captures the thrill of running around with a detailed fighter plane model in your hand blasting bad guys.
If you like your dungeon crawls with a ladle of gothic atmosphere, you haven’t seen anything like this in an eternity.
There’s a little jank here and there, but if you like action-RPGs and want something a little different–and not nearly as grimdark as those have been–I’m sending you a vision.
If you want some amazing, bleak, and depressing world-building, Frostpunk is definitely your jam.