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Actual Hidden Gems on Steam

I love obscure and overlooked games and want to share a bunch with all of you. Most “hidden gem” threads end up listing titles with thousands of reviews or that got some level of marketing. I aim to mostly avoid that. While you may see a few familiar games here, everything in the list below has under 1500 reviews on Steam and most have far less. Far fewer had any notable marketing push or appearance in gaming shows or directs. And since the Steam Sale is ongoing, it’s the perfect time to try these games for yourself.

If you’d like more recommendations, comment with at least three games you like and I’ll respond with a couple more indie games hopefully suited to your tastes. Hope you enjoy!

False Skies - 37 Reviews

  • A JRPG with simple GameBoy graphics but scale matching and surpassing lots of genre classics. It’s most similar to Dragon Quest III, since both deal with custom parties and somewhat open exploration of their worlds.

Hyperspace Delivery Service - 37 Reviews

  • A Star Trek inspired take on Oregon Trail. There’s a bunch of minigames based around travel and planets and events like fighting space pirates to make each trip across space feel fresh.

Treasures of the Aegean - 57 Reviews

  • Imagine if Tomb Raider was a 2D metroidvania and had a timeloop mechanic. That’s this game. The parkour system feels great too.

DIG - Deep in Galaxies - 79 Reviews

  • Terraria/Starbound + Noita + Spelunky = this game. Fly through space to dig through planets and create broken character builds. The first free content update was also just released.

Star Drift Evolution - 169 Reviews

  • A racing game with 75 tracks, 51 vehicles, multiple camera modes, and some great handling. Probably most similar to Art of Rally, but this has more variety.

Prodigal - 182 Reviews

  • A Zelda-like game with Stardew Valley-esque characters and interactions. Loads of dungeons and a charming (if simple) story all wrapped in a GameBoy Color aesthetic.

Intergalactic Fishing - 211 Reviews

  • Travel to infinite lakes and fish in them. Despite the simple graphics there’s a lot being simulated and yet the complexity of it all never makes the game overwhelming.

Elsinor - 235 Reviews

  • An adventure game about Hamlet, but you play as Ophelia and she’s caught in a Groundhog Day scenario. While I don’t think this is the best narrative game (that would be Scarlet Hollow), I do think this is the most intriguing one with so many clever and interesting ideas to share.

RITE - 251 Reviews

  • A difficult precision platformer like Celeste, Super Meat Boy, and I Wanna Be The Guy. It’s split into dozens of bite-sized levels so it’s easy to pick up for short play sessions.

Ctrl Alt Ego - 350 Reviews

  • An immersive sim that stands toe to toe with classics like Deus Ex and Prey. You play as a detached consciousness which can jump between robots to make your way through various missions and levels however you want.

The Eternal Cylinder - 383 Reviews

  • This is like Spore, but even weirder and there’s a cylinder that’s going to kill your aliens.

ADACA - 449 Reviews

  • Imagine S.T.A.L.K.E.R. with Halo’s weapons and a special move that’s Half Life 2’s gravity gun and you’ve got ADACA. The two current story acts are just an introduction to the more open zone mode with quests and mysteries to explore and solve.

Legend Bowl - 723 Reviews

  • If you ever played Tecmo Bowl or Superbowl on the SNES, this is basically an upgraded version. I think this is the best American Football game on Steam. Mutant Football League is a close second.

Environmental Station Alpha - 1046 Reviews

  • It’s really difficult, but I think this is the best encapsulation of the Metroidvania formula. Plus the postgame is more substantial than you’ll probably expect.

Heaven’s Vault - 1410 Reviews

  • Did you like uncovering the secrets of an ancient alien civilization in Outer Wilds? This offers something like that, with a slower pace, more direct narrative, and focus on learning a lost language.

Northern Journey - 1453 Reviews

  • Explore a mystical and mysterious Nordic region. The atmosphere this game builds for itself through environments and music is possibly the best I’ve ever experienced in any game ever. It’s really that good.
IncrediblyIncredible ,

DIG, Deep in Galaxies looks awesome. Thank you!

GiantPacificOctopus ,

I really love sunless sea and sunless skies. They are so beautiful and story rich. Extremely simple game mechanics. You basically explore an unknown map, uncover the story, make choices and allegiances and do your best to survive.

Hieracosphinx OP ,

Have you played A House of Many Doors? It’s very similar to the Sunless games, although not as polished.

Dymonika ,

I personally found Sunless Sea to get boring after a while to the point of giving up on it. I think DREDGE might be more appealing, though I haven’t played it: store.steampowered.com/app/1562430/DREDGE/

ColdSilenceAtrophies ,

DREDGE is great, and does overlap with Sunless Seas in some ways, but is nowhere near as story driven (or weird). That said, it’s a lot easier/more forgiving, and has a simpler (and potentially more engaging) main gameplay loop.

I love the Sunless/Fallen London setting, and really wish Seas had some of the improvements of Skies, as I think I prefer the setting of Seas, but I’ve found it hard to go back to, having played Skies.

GiantPacificOctopus ,

Agreed, sunless skies feels so much richer. Especially with the zubmariner portion.

brognak ,

I’m just here to +1 Northern Journey. I couldn’t put this game down once I started. It’s weird AF, and I loved it utterly.

BuboScandiacus , (edited )
@BuboScandiacus@mander.xyz avatar

___

Acid Spy****___

Acid Spy is a first person stealth action game set in a cyberpunk universe. Infiltrate heavily guarded bases and take down your enemies with skill and finesse. Master the art of quick, deadly stealth to become the acid spy.

Sharmat , (edited )

The Age of Decadence is CRPG set in a post-apocalypse ish, in which an analogue to the Roman Empire ruled most of the world until the collapse of civilisation, now it’s mostly city states struggling to survive and reclaim the old magitek of the empire.

Underrail: Life on earth’s surface has been made inhospitable ages ago, and the remains of humanity now live in the metro system called underrail and the caverns around it.

Both are isometric, turn based games that focus on combat and exploration. And they are hard. Builds are incredibly important, almost min maxing but they have a wide range of viable builds, especially the first one where you can play the entire game without fighting a single battle, all through alternative solutions and skill checks.

Hieracosphinx OP ,

Have you played Colony Ship, by the same devs as Age of Decadence? I’ve been keeping an eye on it for a while and looks to be real close to its 1.0 release, but I’ve not heard or read a lot about it.

Sharmat ,

No actually, I didn’t knew it was a thing. Added to my wishlist for when it’s released.

randomly_generated ,

Great list thanks.

gabal ,

Thanks for the list, a few games really caught my eye.

Here is my contribution - Tametsi

A minesweeper which has hand-crafted levels so you can always solve it with logic instead of relying on luck when you are out of logical moves.

Catastrophic235 ,
@Catastrophic235@midwest.social avatar

RUINER: Isometric twin-stick shooter with a 10/10 soundtrack. Basically zero advertisement, i only ever found out about it because I listen to similar music and got the soundtrack reccomended to me by the YT algorithm.

CurlyWurlies4All ,
@CurlyWurlies4All@prxs.site avatar

Oh I keep seeing this being recommended to me. How does it compare to The Ascent?

Hieracosphinx OP ,

The Ascent is a longer game and leans harder into RPG elements than Ruiner ever does. For me, Ruiner ran better and like @Catastrophic235 says, the music is incredible. Blows The Ascent’s soundtrack out of the water. Ruiner might have slightly tighter controls too, but I’d have to replay to confirm since I played it with a mouse/keyboard while I played The Ascent with a controller.

Mugmoor ,
@Mugmoor@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

I still remember the Dropdy thread on SomethingAwful. Crazy that it turned into an actual game!

Catastrophic235 ,
@Catastrophic235@midwest.social avatar

Never played the ascent but heard it was meh. Controls for Ruiner were pretty tight, my only complaint is that I’d sometimes get caught on an object/wall that wasn’t very easy to see, but it was never more than a minor inconvenience.

Hieracosphinx OP ,

I’ve seen Tametsi, Hexcells, and Bombe continually recommended online as hidden gems but I’ve put off buying any because I’m not much of a Minesweeper fan. I should really give them a try sometime though, since I think the luck aspect is my least favorite part of Minesweeper. Thanks for sharing!

Dymonika ,

Hexceed is free, lite Hexcells, I read, if you want to try before you buy.

lotanis ,

I bought Tametsi recently based at another recommendation thread. It’s really good - it eliminates the big issue with minesweeper which is that sometimes you have to guess. In Tametsi you always have enough information for your next move which completely changes how it feels. It almost ends up feeling more like Sudoku with the “ok so if that’s true then that can’t be true” type steps in logic.

lowleveldata , (edited )

Adding some from my library

  • Dropsy - 1329 Reviews

    • A weird point and click with nice atmosphere. The soundtracks are neat too.

  • The Blackwell Legacy - 1122 Reviews

    • The Blackwell series are point and click games about ghosts. It’s cool to see familiar characters through out the series and how they change (or unchanged) .

  • Railroad Ink Challenge - 65 Reviews

    • It’s the digital version of a puzzle board game I highly recommend. High re-play value and fun to play solo or with friends. (The digital version should be solo only but you can compete with online leader boards)
Hieracosphinx OP ,

Railroad Ink Challenge looks really interesting. Thanks for sharing!

lemmyatom ,

Not sure if I would consider it a gem but this game gave me a good chuckle: Genital Jousting is currently on sale for 69 cents.

Gork ,

69¢, Nice. That had to be intentional.

GuyFleegman ,
@GuyFleegman@startrek.website avatar

This is a great list and these all look amazing. Thank you for taking the time to compile it and share!

bermuda ,

One of my personal favorites is still Ring Runner: Flight of the Sages, a 2D spaceflight shooter with text adventure RPG elements. At first it starts of pretty standard but there’s such an incredibly wide array of customization options that it’s almost daunting. Plus the developers really embrace the comedy over the course of the game to pretty extravagant levels. I mean, you literally fight a boss who manufactures DVORAK keyboards.

Hieracosphinx OP ,

Oh that sounds awesome. Thanks for sharing!

slowline ,

Thanks for this list. Just picked up Northern Journey, and wishlisted a couple others.

Also

Hieracosphinx OP ,

All three of those games are fantastic! You might want to check these out too:

  • Rift Wizard is all about being an overpowered mage. Kind of like Noita, but more traditionally Rogue.
  • Golden Krone Hotel is easier and more approachable than most traditional roguelikes, but I love the sunlight mechanic it plays with.
  • Dawn of the Mexica is a mythical Aztec adventure. Wonderfully thematic and got me studying real-world Aztec history and mythology.
  • Cogmind has robots building themselves from the parts of other robots. Nice shift from the usual fantasy the genre sticks to.
  • UnReal World is one I’ve not actually played, but it looks super appealing if you’re into hardcore roguelikes. Soulash is another that looks neat but I haven’t picked it up yet.

And of course the big ones like ToME, Caves of Qud, and C:DDA are all amazing. But you can get ToME and C:DDA from their original sites for free.

Hope you enjoy Northern Journey!

slowline ,

Wow. I actually own each of those games except Soulash and Rift Wizard (which I ended up returning. Something about it didn’t click with me)

Also Mainframe Defenders is a fun turn-based tactical game.

Wizards and Warlords is a fantasy themed civ-like.

Hieracosphinx OP ,

I just picked up Mainframe Defenders on GOG last week! Excited to try it out.

And yeah, I kind of wondered if you might know those titles while I wrote them out. Steam is surprisingly good at recommending traditional roguelikes once you own a few. There’s stuff like Door in the Woods, Shattered Pixel Dungeon, or the slightly different Wayward that are also on Steam but after a while your best bet to find new stuff is to search on RogueBasin or r/roguelikes on Reddit.

Ghostcity ,

This is a good list! I’ll be checking some of these out for sure. I also have some overlooked games of my own I’d like to list. No links since I’m on mobile, but I may edit them in later.

Qbqbqb (30): Simple arcade game with nice animation and catchy music.

Goetia (496): Spooky point-and-click with some very good puzzles in my opinion.

Under Leaves (530): Relaxing hidden object game with a nice art style. Great game to play when you’re stressed and want to turn your brain off.

Year Walk (1197): Horror adventure game with an off-putting atmosphere and interesting art style.

The Last Door (1541): Horror point-and-click adventure game with a lovecraftian feel.

Hieracosphinx OP ,

Wow, I can second The Last Door being great, but I don’t know most of these. Thanks for pointing them out!

Herctic ,
@Herctic@beehaw.org avatar

+1 to Year Walk, I remember playing that on an iPod Touch when it first came out. I love Simogo, with games like Device 6 and Sayonara Wild Hearts, they make really unique games.

Grrbrr ,
@Grrbrr@sopuli.xyz avatar

Thanks for bringing out Goetia. I bought it back when i had to have any sounds as a distraction, Goetia being very silent at times drove me off almost instantly.

Just seeing that you mentioned good puzzles was enough to give a real go. 3 hours later i’m loving it.

Ghostcity ,

I’m glad you decided to give it another shot! It’s one of my favorite adventure games and I never see anyone discussing it.

myfavouritename ,

Really enjoyed Heaven’s Vault.

Surprised that The Enteral Cylinder only has 300-ish reviews. I remember seeing it all over the new when it launched. How is it?

Hieracosphinx OP ,

Oh wow, I missed it early on! The Eternal Cylinder is good, but some occasionally clunky gameplay alongside the very unique alien designs might turn some people away. It crashed twice on me and once you figure out all the systems of play it can feel simple (although there’s a lot of complexity under the hood), so I could see some people giving up on it due to frustration or boredom - especially if the aliens or story don’t hook them.

I loved the environments and alien concept (plus the fun stress of the cylinders approaching) which kept me hooked. Plus it’s much more mechanically involved than Spore was. Spent about 13 hours with the game and left satisfied. If I had to numerically rate it, it’s maybe around 8/10?

None_S ,

You know of any other Oregon Trail remixes? Been looking for a game like those ever since I was a little kid.

Hieracosphinx OP , (edited )

Just in case you weren’t aware, The Oregon Trail is on Steam as a remake now, but I haven’t read much about it. I like the colorful style they chose for it though. There’s also the still unreleased Journey Express which looks very similar. Anyway, here’s some other stuff:

  • Organ Trail is the closest to Oregon Trail I think you can get on Steam. Players control a group in the zombie apocalypse instead of journeying to the western frontier.
  • Death Road to Canada captures the same sort of travel with small events interspersed that Oregon Trail had, but plays quite a bit differently…
  • Super Amazing Wagon Adventure is an Oregon Trail-themed shooter.
  • The Flame in the Flood is about traveling by raft but more about survival in the modern gaming sense than Oregon Trail was.
  • FTL is super well known, but pretty comparable. You could also try Trigon Space Story.
None_S ,

Thank you. That Journey express looks interesting. Have you been following that project for a while?

Hieracosphinx OP ,

To be honest I only just stumbled across it when writing up my original response. Made a quick check on steampeek.hu to see if there was any game I didn’t know about or was forgetting and it popped up.

Dymonika ,

I’d be happy to show you Death Road to Canada at no cost to you through Steam Remote Play with my copy! The only catch is that you’d need a gamepad since it doesn’t take multiple players on one keyboard.

MJBrune ,

I made a choose your own adventure that’s been called Oregon trail like bigbossbattle.com/the-away-team-review/ I don’t know if it truly embodies Oregon trail though.

None_S ,

Thanks

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