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Recommendation engine: Downvote any game you've heard of before

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.

bouh ,

Nexus: the Jupiter incident. It is a now a bit old tactical space combat game with a big focus on the narrative. It’s awesome, but I never see it mentioned anywhere.

daddy32 ,

Ha, “bit old” indeed.

MissGutsy ,

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

pfjarschel ,

Your description got my attention, so I opened the steam link to consider buying it and… Hey, it was already in my library!

daddy32 ,

It is also currently on sale, for historic low price.

tetris11 ,
@tetris11@lemmy.ml avatar

Grand Theft Auto IV

It’s a little known game from a small publisher originally located in Scotland.

The main premise is that you drive around a city as quickly as possible and go bowling with your cousin. Think Big Lebowski meets Driver. You can also play Pool and Darts in various locations around the town, and earn money doing small side jobs such as being a taxi driver or a paramedic.

tgxn ,
@tgxn@lemmy.tgxn.net avatar

I mean, it’s pretty well known 🤣

ampersandrew ,
@ampersandrew@lemmy.world avatar

Concord is a…nah, I’m just kidding. I’ve never played it, and I don’t intend to. It has fewer than 1000 reviews though.

Sorse ,
@Sorse@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

I only heard of it because no one played it

Katana314 OP ,

In a way, I do feel sad about that game. Big AAA offerings take a lot of time for a studio, and the reviews say there wasn’t too much wrong with the gameplay. When they first started development, they probably didn’t know how bloated the hero shooter genre would be.

ampersandrew ,
@ampersandrew@lemmy.world avatar

Cannon Brawl is a unique kind of RTS where it’s sort of like StarCraft meets Worms. You need to expand something like “the creep” from the Zerg in StarCraft in order to build, but you can also destroy the terrain under your opponent like in Worms. I kid you not when I say this has been one of my go-to local multiplayer games for a decade, and it rules.

Devorlon ,

This is the first comment I’ve found talking about a game I’ve played. Had a lot of fun playing cannon brawl it feels wrong to downvote your comment.

tigeruppercut ,

Doom II

…wait don’t downvote yet, you’ve gotta play it with the new ray tracing mod

moosetwin ,
@moosetwin@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

jokes on you, I’ve heard of the raytracing mod

KoboldCoterie ,
@KoboldCoterie@pawb.social avatar

Heaven’s Vault is a game about archaeology and translating a dead language. You explore a unique solar system and discover ruins, in which you uncover artifacts, and bits of text. Through context clues, you translate the passages to uncover the storyline. It’s not difficult, so if you’re looking for a puzzle, this won’t really do it for you, but it’s more of a narrative experience. If you aren’t sure about a word or phrase, you can give it a guess (based on assigning words from a collection of possible translations to specific symbols), and the game will remember that choice and let you slowly revise your translations as you find new text that rules out prior incorrect guesses. There’s an interconnected storyline with multiple paths to follow, and a very unique world - haven’t seen anything like it in other games.

The game has a NG+ mode wherein you start with all of your translations from the first playthrough intact, but, most of the bits of text are considerably longer and more involved, letting you use your prior knowledge to uncover more of the story and the lore of the world, which is also neat.

Skua ,

...well I feel really bad about downvoting this one, because it's a really good suggestion

darkdemize ,
@darkdemize@sh.itjust.works avatar

Agreed. However, I believe it was included in a Humble Choice bundle at one point, so it may not be quite as obscure as what the OP is looking for.

KoboldCoterie ,
@KoboldCoterie@pawb.social avatar

Didn’t know that! Was going based off of the review score; 1600 reviews in 5 years seemed pretty little-known. All the same, don’t mind the downvotes - that’s the point of the thread after all. :)

subignition ,
@subignition@fedia.io avatar

This sounds really interesting. I'm gonna put this on my wishlist in hopes it goes on sale or something. Can't justify $25 right now due to circumstances.

Cocodapuf ,

This game is so unique and so fantastic.

KoboldCoterie ,
@KoboldCoterie@pawb.social avatar

If you enjoyed it, you might also enjoy Chants of Sennar! It’s also about translating languages; it’s more puzzle-oriented and less story-based; there’s a story to uncover, but it’s not as clear-cut and narrative driven. Still a great game, however!

Blackmist ,

Never heard of it, but I own it so I’ll install it.

ltxrtquq ,

The Black Pool is a game I decided to try recently. It reminds me a lot of Returnal in terms of visuals and gameplay, but I don’t expect the story to evolve much beyond the initial “kids lost in the woods trying to get home.”

It’s a 4-player roguelike where you get to choose random elements to slot into different abilities, namely a Primary, Secondary, and AOE attack as well as a jump, dodge, and once-per-world ‘rally’ buff. Each element makes the ability act differently, like a light primary is a slow charging piercing laser while wind is a projectile with knockback, and you also get to upgrade your elemental abilities after each stage you clear. I’m only about an hour into it so far, but I definitely think it deserves a little more than the 29 player peak it got right after it launched.

ExtraMedicated ,

I think this is the only thread where I actually haven’t seen any of the games before.

Another game I enjoyed was The Eternal Castle (remastered). It’s a remake of a game from 1987. The animation is great and the visual style is really cool.

ExtraMedicated ,

I always like to give a mention to Your Spider. There are very few reviews (one of which are mine), but the game definitely deserves more attention.

all-knight-party ,
@all-knight-party@fedia.io avatar

Voices of the Void a free (likely while it's in pre-alpha) light simulational game about receiving outer space signals and recording them to sell. You use the currency to clean up, upgrade, and decorate your small facility while moving around the Swiss forest valley you're in to repair and upkeep the satellite dishes that make the operation function.

It sounds very purely simulational, but there are a lot of secrets and interesting signals that are more than signals. It's also an Unreal engine game, but features a lot of Source engine love, for example the art style is reminiscent of Half-Life 1, all of the sound effects are EXTREMELY Source game nostalgic, and there's crouch jumping.

DrowningInteger ,

I don’t have any suggestions but I do like this prompt and I see a lot of games I’ve never heard of

helloharu ,
@helloharu@lemmy.world avatar

I don’t either but this is such a great discussion. I’ve come across quite a few interesting sounding games here. Thanks OP.

HeavyRaptor ,

Tactical Breach Wizards

It’s made by the Developer who made Gunpoint and Heat Signature (also amazing games if you somehow haven’t heard of them BTW).

It’s a turn based tactics/puzzle game where you command a squad of wizards with different magical abilities to dispatch a room full of enemies. A bit like Into the Breach but hand crafted scenarios, not procedurally generated.

It also has a fun story, character customisation, and ability unlocks. Almost every scenario has a bunch of optional extra goals, so you decide how hard you want to wreck your brain. Highly recommend it!

tlo ,

Cozy Space Survivors is a short (few hours) cozy survivor-like indie game with pixel graphics. A run is only ten minutes, so it works also for people with not too much time. It is developed by a single person and it is his first release.

JackbyDev ,

HyperRogue has 352 reviews. It is a rogue like that is played on a hyperbolic plane rather than a euclidian one.

If you’re not familiar with hyperbolic geometry, don’t be fooled by the videos. It has the illusion of looking like it is on a sphere in many of the videos. It’s not! Also, you don’t need to be some master of hyperbolic geometry to play. I don’t really understand it but can still play the game well enough.

Essentially, imagine a hexagonal grid. Now, replace some of those hexagons with septagons (7 sided). The further away you get from a point there will be way more tiles in the hyperbolic grid than the euclidian.

The UI is pretty bad, the menus are pretty icky. Those are my only real complaints.

The game is charming. It has.a very retro feel to it. The music reminds me of something of hear from an old school point and click game or RuneScape. The graphics are minimal but charming.

The mechanics are easy enough. You get hit and you die. Most enemies die in one hit. There are no weapons or stats. It’s more like chess in a way. The game will also not let you accidentally move somewhere you’d die, so, yes, very much like chess with checkmates.

Because the game is so simplistic you can get into a flow state where you quickly move and attack enemies. It’s very satisfying to play.

silverchase ,
@silverchase@sh.itjust.works avatar

Hyperbolic bonus: Hyperbolica, a first-person walking simulator set in a universe with hyperbolic geometry. You do odd jobs and play games that explore the strangeness of this geometry. Also, there’s a slight digression to explore spherical geometry as well.

JackGreenEarth ,

Hyperbolica is much better than the rogue game

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