Cool Smaller/Indie Games

I throw ample shade at video games and their developers -- particularly those that could be considered "AAA" -- but it's also important to support the little guys/less-knowns that are actually doing a great job. So, I thought it might be fun to create a thread wherein to mention the games we've played lately that are actually good.

Blasphemous: Normally I don't care for 2D, pixelated games. If anything, there's too many of them and most aren't worth a second glance. Blasphemous, however, was shockingly awesome and did a great job of combining the "metroidvania" genre with a lot of Dark Souls flavor. It provides a dark, gritty, violent world in which to play...and fills it with collectibles, extremely unique boss fights, and a very strange story.

Remnant, From the Ashes: Another surprisingly awesome game that I'd previously never heard of before a few weeks ago. A very interesting take on the (Dark) Souls-like genre, this game combines swordplay and gunplay in an "end of the world" style setting that pits you against a good variety of vicious foes and challenging boss fights, while randomly generating what you'll find and who you'll run into. This game loyally follows the Souls-like formula, without feeling like a cheap knockoff or carrying on some of the design choices that made its predecessors tedious and frustrating.

Shaolin vs Wu Tang: As someone who grew up loving old Kung Fu flicks, this game got me super excited when I first found it. It's a very basic fighting game, but combines settings, characters, music, and sounds all taken from actual Kung Fu movies. While it's more of a super nostalgic homage than anything, I still loved getting to beat up on Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris as White Brow.

No Man's Sky: Most gamers already know about this one, but haven't bothered to give it a second chance since its awful debut. Four years later, this game has gotten infinitely better and continues to regularly add new features/revamp old ones. Submarines, Mechs, multiplayer, a better hub, and ship upgrading have all helped to turn a once sub-par game into a very enjoyable space exploration experience.

 

Astroneer is my favorite "chill game". Just me, the environment, and whatever I feel like building.

Subnautica. At some point when finances allow its sequel will join it in my library. It got big for a reason.

 

Games like that are great -- especially if they involve space exploration. In NMS, my wife and I worked together to build a big station right on the edge of the center of the galaxy. Starbound was an awesome one if you don't mind the 2D style, but I played it back during its earlier stages and last time I booted it up, my character had been wiped and there was more "narrative" to it (which I don't like) -- amazing soundtrack, though. There's another space game that came out fairly recently and looked decent, but the name escapes me right now.