Hey all. Always enjoyed reading everyone’s suggestions on more unknown games available during big steam sales.

I’ll start off with one that I have been a fan of for a long time: Death Road to Canada

This game is like a zombie action Oregon Trail like game, where you manage supplies and fight through hordes of zombies on your way to the safe haven of Canada. Only US$3.74 right now and well worth it imo!

  • Pixelologist@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    I feel obligated to recommend a Steam Deck if you have interest in one and can afford it.

    We have 2 and I would get a 3rd if I could lol (with a bulky protective case etc. so I can be less careful)

    The most cost efficient way to go is buy the cheapest version and then put something like this in it https://www.westerndigital.com/en-il/products/internal-drives/pc-sn740-ssd#SDDPTQD-256G

    IMPORTANT NOTE: MAKE SURE YOU GET A 2230 SIZED NVME DRIVE. 2280 drives will NOT fit.

    If you don’t want to do that you can alternatively just get a big micro SD card and save the SSD swap for later

    Even besides playing video games it’s an awesome little mini pc. Not perfect but awesome, and an amazing value at $359.

  • Rin@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    for me, I’m really fixated on Cassette Beasts, because Pokemon has been disappointing for me for a long while now. I keep debating on whether I buy it now, or wait until they implement the online multiplayer they just announced.

  • somefool@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    I fell in love with Submerged when I played it. It’s an exploration game set in a flooded city, where you play a young girl looking for supplies for her injured brother. Lots of navigating between buildings in a little boat, climbing around, and taking in the scenery. Incredibly relaxing to play.

    • TeamAssimilation@infosec.pub
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      1 year ago

      How can it be relaxing if your brother is injured and needs the supplies? I’m just wondering if I wouldn’t feel urged to get him back to health as soon as possible.

      • somefool@beehaw.org
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        1 year ago

        I’m a heartless monster who forgot about my brother so I could sit in my boat and gawk at my surroundings at sunset. Mileage may vary.

        It does have moments that stressed me out, but since I spent so much time exploring and taking screenshots, they’re not what left the strongest memory.

  • TXinTXe@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    Ok, not so much as hidden, but also not super known:
    Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun. A tactical stealth game (think commandos saga back in the day) is 90%
    Technobabylon. A pixelated point & click adventure with some cyberpunk themes at 70%
    Return of the Obra Dinn. Probably the best detective/deduction game that I’ve played, at 40%
    Prey. One of the best immersive sims, at 75%
    The Case of the Golden Idol. Is not as good as Obra Dinn in my opinion, but it’s super good none the less, at 30%
    Antichamber. Super good puzzle game, at 75%
    The Age of Decadence. Ultra hardcore RPG set in ancient Rome, 60%
    Tametsi. Is like minesweeper but good, 67% (and only 0.77€)

    • lotanis@discuss.tchncs.de
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      1 year ago

      Have just bought Shadow Tactics and Tametsi based on this. I used to love Commandos (and even better - Desperados).

    • Sev@pawb.social
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      1 year ago

      It’s wild how many people seem to have slept on Prey. It’s an amazing game.

      Also +1 on Antichamber. Portal-like but with some very unusual and fun mechanics.

      • liminis@beehaw.org
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        1 year ago

        Absolute gem of a game, shame Bethesda forced them to use the Prey branding; a lot of fans of the original wrote it off because it has nothing to do with the original. One can’t help but wonder if we would’ve had such a disaster as Redfall if Colantonio hadn’t left as a result of all that.

        Underrated even among Prey fans is Mooncrash, easily the best roguelite experience from a AAA studio, and just a great experience all around for anyone who wants ‘more Prey’.

  • eldrichhydralisk@lemmy.sdf.org
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    1 year ago

    Donut County is only $3.89. It’s a short, funny, cute puzzle game where you make everything fall in a hole. Really good.

    Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth is $12.49 and a much better 80hr RPG then it has any right to be. And I never even touched the second game in the collection!

      • phosphorik@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        Man, Octopath Traveler was such a letdown. The total lack of character interactions with other character’s stories made protagonist selection feel pointless and the story felt even more shallow than it was. Just… so meh. I couldn’t talk myself into picking up the second one.

  • comicallycluttered@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    Huh. Didn’t realize it started today. Will have to check my wishlist.

    Anyway, recs in no particular order:

    • Kena: Bridge of Spirits is a lovely little game. Some great East Asian influences, and a really great art style. Combat is sometimes surprisingly difficult. Some fun puzzles and platforming make up a lot of the game.
    • Death and Taxes is a short and darkly humorous game where you take on the role of the Grim Reaper and decide who lives and who dies in a workplace-like fashion. If you’re a fan of the web series, Purgatony, this might remind you of that. It’s got a touch of satire to it as well, but not super pronounced. You’ll find that mostly in the details and consequences of who you let live and who you let die (and there are consequences, some very significant).
    • Heaven’s Vault is a narrative game that takes place in space. Linguistics (or rather translating text) plays a role in the game and it’s got a hand drawn, cel-shaded kind of art style.
    • A Story About My Uncle is a first person, narrative driven, and entirely nonviolent game, with a bunch of cool swingy mechanics (so lots of gameplay, just not shooty bang stuff) and a fairly sweet story. You meet all sorts of fantastic, alien creatures on your adventure, platforming through a strange and beautiful world. Art direction is lovely, honestly.
    • ABZÛ is just straight up awesome relaxation (with a few less relaxing points every so often) from some of the devs who brought you Journey and Flower. This time, it’s all about diving and swimming through fascinating locations that vary from colorful reefs to areas reminiscent of long forgotten temple ruins (the name comes from the Sumerian and Akkadian word referring to underground aquifers that played an important part in some Babylonian mythology).
    • Quantum Conundrum - Do you like Portal but wish it had a little John DeLancie commenting on your actions? Then this is for you! A fun puzzle game heavily inspired by Portal (the lead dev worked on the original Portal, if I recall). It’s aimed at a slightly younger audience, but I think it works for everyone. Good vibes all around.
    • Okay, not a hidden gem exactly, but if you like space, No Man’s Sky isn’t the disappointing game it was on release. I’d urge anyone who likes space and exploration to at least give it a shot. You can turn on creative mode and not worry about any survival elements as well. It’s got a bit of a plot to get you used to the galaxy (and also explain some of the lore), but you can just do whatever you want and ignore that. Three alien races and you can learn words from their language by interacting with them or interacting with pillars on various planets that will teach you a word. I like this part of the game a lot for some reason. There’s some other lore hidden around as well, but it’s really up to you if you want to discover it or not.

    Edit: I forgot about Blacktail. I haven’t finished it yet, but it’s a new take on the Baba Yaga myth and stars the voice actress who played Meg in Hades. That lovely, husky voice.

    Edit 2: If you’re looking for something a little old school, Jade Empire is a fantastic game by BioWare. KOTOR, but with real time combat that’s heavily inspired by kung fu films and carries that general vibe with a bunch of East Asian visual aesthetics thrown in. If you like Crouching Tiger and similar movies, this is a great game to play, especially if you’re also a fan of BioWare’s RPGs (or just RPGs in general, honestly).

    These next three are very hit or miss and some may find them either unpolished or just not that enjoyable. I’m listing them because they’ve got either an interesting story, or interesting mechanics. You’ll notice the last two have a “mixed” rating, so this is more about “if you like the idea, maybe try it”.

    • The Vale: Shadow of the Crown is a narrative game that puts you in the shoes of a blind princess. It was made to be a game that blind people can enjoy, and the controls and mechanics are fairly basic (and it’s keyboard only as far as I remember, but there might be controller support, I don’t know), but the audio design is fantastic (for obvious reasons). There’s some combat, and it’s all about timing and listening for cues. I honestly think it’s a fantastic game, but it’s not for everyone. Good news is that it has a demo! Try it out first. Also, WEAR HEADPHONES. It’s actually a necessity here. Binaural recording and object placement is entirely dependent on your ability to hear things (since you can’t see anything, though it’s got some pleasant screensaver-type visuals which do fit the theme of the area you’re in).
    • eXperience112 is a bit of a weird game. It’s kind of a point and click adventure, but you don’t control the main character. It takes place on an ocean vessel where something’s gone wrong. You essentially play a camera operator and what seems to be the only survivor speaks to you directly so you can point her in the right direction. Also, she remembers when you last saved. If you don’t play for a while, she’ll comment on the fact that you left her alone for a while. It’s buggy, but interesting.
    • The Occupation is kind of the middle ground between a walking sim and immersive sim, which sounds like a weird description. It has narrative and some gameplay elements that you’d find in immersive sims (open-ish levels, multiple characters to speak to and ways to complete a level, some stealth, etc.), and every level takes place in real time, which is important because you’ll have scheduled appointments for interviews and you’ll be gathering evidence before that time is up, so you’ll be looking at your in-game watch often. That watch is the reason I find it gets into walking sim territory, because you’re kind of restricted by it and it sometimes makes things feel a little “on-rails”. The whole thing takes place after some terrorist event killed someone close to the main character, set in a kind of dystopian London, but with a very '70s/'80s vibe in aesthetics. It has a demo, so try that first. If you don’t like it at all, you won’t like the game. If you find it intriguing, later levels get more intense, so you might be interested in buying the full game. If you like the demo, then yeah, maybe buy it. It’s not too long to complete.

    Most of the games I listed aren’t too long or time-consuming. The only significant exceptions are Kena and No Man’s Sky. The rest can be generally completed in a few hours or a couple of days. Kena isn’t super long either, but it does require a bit more of a commitment than the others.

    Edit 3: Add Jade Empire to the “not short/quick” games list. Definitely requires some time investment.

    • rjh@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      I loved Heaven’s Vault, it hit all the things I love: detective/mystery novel, rich dialogue trees, languages. The only problem is when it’s over there aren’t any other games like it.

    • TheLongPrice@lemmy.one
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      1 year ago

      Another +1 for heavens vault. I usually hate narrative games, but I found it very well written and interactive.

  • shapesandstuff@feddit.de
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    1 year ago

    Risk of Rain 2 - 50% 12.49€ 96% positive
    Action rogue lite hero 3rd person shooter thingy - My absolute favourite game in recent memory.
    Not sure if this counts as hidden but many fans of the genre don’t know it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
    Insanely good soundtrack, cool artstyle, creative characters with very diverse abilities and gameplay, plenty of enemies and bosses, hidden features, locations, items, bosses, c̴͕͎͚̗̥̀̃̓h̴̘̯̎͗ȧ̶͕̤̪̦̺̂̕r̷͚͑̔͒̃͝a̵̖̩̣̍̂̈́̎̿c̷̱͓̪͖̈́ṫ̵̯̈͂̚e̷̺͓̙̥͆̓ŗ̷̢̻̺̞͠s̸̩̍̍̀?̴̼̘̱̗̯̈̋̄
    You know how some rogue lites make sure items stop stacking so they don’t break the run?
    Yeah that’s not one of these. Go nuts, break the game, fly through the map, just to get too cocky and lose it all in the blink of an eye.
    The original Risk of Rain is also a banger, currently 80% off at 1.99€. Same concept but 2D sidescroller with pixel graphics. Incredibly sweet game.

    Art of Rally - 45% 13.74€ 92% positive
    Challenging game with arcadey look and sim-ish feel.
    Beautiful visuals and a chill soundtrack. Great for white knuckled time attack or hours of zen drifting in freeroam.

    Devil Daggers - 50% 3.99€ 96% positive
    Highscore based retro arena shooter bullet hell kinda deal. PSX era 3D look, one weapon with two modes, surprisingly interesting movement (think b-hops, rocket jumps).
    Every run is mostly identical. Enemies always spawn at specific times, but in random locations of the claustrophobic empty map. The longer you survive, the higher the score.
    Also fantastic sound design!

    Hyper Demon - 33% 8.36€ 95% positive
    Sequel to Devil Daggers. Turns everything to 11. Complete fever dream. Adds an absolutely psychotic rear view mechanic, where close enemies outside your FOV appear mirrored in red colour on your screen.
    Adds several movement and combat mechanics, while still keeping the weapon very simple.
    Different score system while keeping the timed spawns. Killing in rapid succession increases your score, just scraping by drops it over time.

    Lethal League Blaze - 35% 12.99€ 97% positive
    Projectile Fighting Game with saturday morning cartoon style 3D visuals. There’s a ball in the middle, whoever touched it last “owns” it. If you get hit by the ball, you take damage. If you hit it back, you own it and it speeds up. And you build special meter for absurd special moves.
    Turns into a mind melting firework of on screen effects the faster the ball gets.
    Has a decent campaign to learn the game and fight bots. Bangin soundtrack
    Up to 4 players, local and online play.
    The original, Lethal League is also on sale for like 5.99€. Fully 2D visuals, also very charming. iirc slightly lower health and no campaign.

    Nidhogg - 60% 3.99€ 90% positive
    If you don’t know Nidhogg go play Nidhogg. Bring a friend.
    Low-Fi 2D fighting game.
    You can run, you can jump, you can duck, you can stab. 4 Maps to utterly cover in pixel blodd.
    That’s about it.
    It opens up more the better you get, but just go play it, folks.
    Win against your buddies by getting through 3 screens in a tug-o-war kind of system and prove your worth by sacrificing yourself to the Nidhogg.
    Tournament mode available.
    Nidhogg 2 is also on sale for 5.99€ 81% positive at like 800 reviews.
    They got budget for graphics that time which… they used.
    Different weapons add a rock paper scissors dynamic to the game, everything else is mostly the same! Good stuff.

    Post Void - 20% 2.39€ 97% positive
    A wild ride of a psychedelci action rogue like? No meta progression from what I could tell, which is why I’d be hesitant to call it a rogue lite.
    Basically run based randomly generated doom while your ego melts away after a heroic dose of psychoactives.
    Health literally runs out (of the head you carry) over time. Kill to heal, don’t get hit.
    DO NOT TOUCH IF YOU HAVE EXPERIENCED PHOTOSENSITIVE EPILEPSY BEFORE.

    Redout - 75% 4.99€ 87% positive
    The quintessential zero-G racer for PC.
    Very similar to the classics like Wipeout, but innovating on the formula. You’ll need a controller!
    Left stick steers as you’d expect, right stick points the nose of your racer to compensate for tight turns and to prevent blackout / redout during high-G maneuvers.
    A classic campaign mode lets you unlock several classes of racers, two handsfull of upgrades let you adjust how you play.
    Sweet thumpin soundtrack Online play supports up to 12 players though I’d be a bit surprised if you find that many on the servers :D
    Split Screen mode available!
    The Sequel Redout 2 is also on sale at 14.99€ but it has even fewer reviews, fans of the games seem to favour it for longer tracks, deeper customization and improved gameplay. I haven’t tried it yet though.

    Heat Signature - 50% 6.49€ 94% positive
    If Hotline Miami was set in space. And a rogue lite.
    Pull off crazy heists aboard enemy ships to liberate the galaxy from authoritarian empires, each faction generally having some specializations when it comes to gadgets and tech which you get to unlock for your runs.
    Can be frustrating at times but on the flipside a close save get so much more intense. Also you usually get several chances to save your skin - if you’re captured you get thrown out an airlock and take control of your escape pod to fish your body out of hard vacuum.
    Generally there are so many cool mechanics, I’m having a hard time to pick highlights.

    • oranwolf@pawb.social
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      1 year ago

      I wanted to chime in and say that no one should sleep on Risk of Rain 2, it’s a fantastic game and easily worth the $12.49. Nice list you put together!

      • MuffinMangler@beehaw.org
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        1 year ago

        I was initially put off by the art style of Risk of Rain 2, but once I started playing I found that it gelled really well with the game. I’m really happy my friend convinced me to play it.

        Andto parrot everyone else, the soundtrack is killer.

    • evilgiraffe666@ttrpg.network
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      1 year ago

      Heat signature is fantastic, contender for my GOTY in whichever year I discovered it.

      The ability to pause and look around sometimes turns it into a puzzle game, either to save your skin or just reach the objective. Throw everything.

  • Zebrazilla@kbin.social
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    1 year ago
    • Shakedown: Hawaii - 80% off at 3,99€ - Think GTA for the 16-bit era.
    • 2Dark - 90% off at 2,49€ - Think Alone in the Dark but top-down and in retro/voxel style, from the original creator of Alone in the Dark.
    • UnderRail - 60% off at 5,67€ - Hidden or not, this one can’t be recommended enough to fans of the original Fallout (1 & 2, isometric) games.
    • Space Haven - 60% off at 8,79€ - In-depth colony/spaceship building & management sim with cozy graphics.
    • Crystal Caves HD - 60% off at 2,63€ - A true testament to how to faithfully bring an old platformer into HD, while also innovating on the original. Also contains a lot of hidden gems.
    • Supraland Complete Edition - 54% off at 15,71€ - First-Person-Metroidvania in a literal sandbox, lots of freedom, lots of puzzles and exploring. Contains the DLC. Get this to gear up for the eventual release of the sequel Supraworld. The standalone Supraland Six Inches Under is also worth getting, but is “only” at 45% off, which is still great.
  • sokath@lemmy.fmhy.ml
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    1 year ago

    I don’t hear much about Kenshi except for within folks who already play and let’s players on YouTube, but it’s one of my all time favorites. Can be hard to get into but watching a beginner video or reading some wiki will let you get into this massive, strange world. Currently only 13.50, which I think works out to like 2 cents an hour for me.

    • whysofurious@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      I can second Kenshi even if I’ve never been able to go too far into the game. However it is really a gem and I hope I’ll find the time to get back to it

  • pierrot_la_lune_25@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    You bastards! My budget is completely (censured) up. Just purchased these from this discussion:

    • Technobabylon
    • Prey
    • The Age of Decadence
    • A Hat in Time
    • Risk of Rain 2
    • Risk of Rain
    • Gunpoint
    • Death’s Door
    • Road 96
    • Super Blood Hockey
    • Demon Truck
    • Distance

    Argh!!!

      • M_Djallo@feddit.it
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        1 year ago

        I found it so hard I couldn’t enjoy at all. Really, the premises were good, but every time I was completely overwhelmed by enemies! I guess I was playing very badly and wrong

        • nostalgicgamerz@beehaw.org
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          1 year ago

          That’s the balance of it…the longer you take the more upgrades you’ll need to survive but you don’t want to instantly activate the teleporter since the boss will be tough