Most people have limited time and money to spend on video games. While subscription services, used games, and even lending libraries can extend budgets, it’s mo💟re difficult to extend free time.
As a result, paying attention to one expensively made and exhaustively marketed game often pulls attention away from other releases. Before, during, and after launch, triple-A games exert a gravity that can swallow lower-budget indie games. This contrast is especially clear when the games share p𝐆lot points or mechanics. In many cases, however, risky and vibrant indie titles stay interesting long after their triple-A contemporaries have faded from memory.
10 ▨ Nidhogg (January 2014)
In M⛄etal ⛦Gear Rising: Revengeance, everything is extra: the spine-crushing cutscenes, the loyal robot dog, the demonic bosses, even the congested title. Nidhogg, out on the same day in 2014, is a much simpler but equally stylish take on sword fighting.
The game has a small moveset that is easy to perform. Ski𒆙ll lies in knowing when to switch from high to low stance, when to attempt a kick, when to close the distance and when to back off. Nidhogg thrives in local mu🐼ltiplayer settings where the lively back-and-forth action can continue offscreen.
9 Solar A🐠sh (December 2021) 🦹
A science-fiction adventure with𓄧 bold colors and a strange view of gravity, Solar Ash laun🐠ched during Halo Infinite’s multiplayer beta and just days before the long-awaited release of its single-player campaign.
Solar Ash’s high-speed movement system features skating, grappling, and climbing mechanics. Movement also forms the basis of Solar Ash’s simple combat and elusive story, which is about 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:coming to terms with a disastrous 𓆏cycle. This gives Solar Ash a strong sense of momentum which balances its surreal, uneasy 👍environments and occasional difficulty spikes.
8 Overboard (🧔June 2021)
June 2021 saw the launch of two games about carefully orchestrated violence. One was Sniper Ghost Warrior: Contracts 2, a tactical shooter with an 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:offensive marketing campaign. The other was Overboard, a reverse detective game whereꦡ you help a faded actor get away with m🎃urder at sea.
Overboard’s setting &🎐mdash; a mid-century ocean liner — and diverse cast are presented thro🌟ugh clean art, sassy dialogue, and evocative sound effects. The game is designed to repeat until your understanding of item placements, movement patterns, and passenger suspicions can engineer a perfect escape.
7 Even The Ocean (Novemberಞ 2016)
On its PC launch, Even the Ocean struggled for attention with Dishonored 2, Watch Dogsꦜ 2, and Pokemon Sun & Moon. When i🐎t arrived on Nintendo Switch in 2020, the photorealistic Microsoft Flight Simulator had just come out.
A narrative platformer, Even the Ocean shouldn't be lost in a flood of big titles. This game follows a power plant technician during an environmental crisis. Its uncompromising urgency is rare for a medium in which most problems can be fixed by reloading a save file. The game also thoughtfully allows you to bypass its platforming sections and experience the story 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:as a visual novel.
6 🍸 Cosmic Express (March 2017) 🐼
In keeping with its parent series, Mass Effect: Andromeda explo♈res grand themes like planetary settlement and interspecies war. Cosmic Express, which came out days later, is a small-scale puzzle game about aliens commuting to their homes.
Cosmic Express takes place in a series of poorly designed space stations, through which you lay a path that will bring every commuter home. It’s clear that the game’s rounded visuals and ambient soundtrack are meant to soothe players — like most great puzzle games, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Cosmic Express can become maddening.
5 ܫ Sable (September 2021)
It’s disappointing to realize that a seemingly vast world is just a 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:wasteland between story missions. But some💧times, careful use of empty space adds to a game&r﷽squo;s atmosphere.
Death Stranding is about reaching people across great distances, so its snowfields and rocky hillsides are left bare. The Director's Cut launched alongside Sable, a quiet game about discovering a sense of self away from home. Flooding Sable's world with busy work and collectibles would ruin the mood and dampen the thrill of spotting a friendly face in the desert.
4 🃏 Anodyne 2 (August 2019) 💝
Launched weeks before Control — a paranormal adventure about shifting rea💮lities — Anodyne 2 also shifts our reality, but does so by pulling apart video game tropes. Its dreamlike world is split into 3D exploration and top-down 2D puzzling.
While the gamepl꧑ay can get obtuse and slow, Anodyne 2’s thoughtful story questions the assumptions we make, from the moment we start a game to its final scenes. Should we really listen to this wise-seeming character? And what happens if we choose not to complete the quests we’re given?
3 ༺ Phoenotopia: Awaken🌠ing (August 2020)
A lush fantasy world unsettled by robot technology — this describes Horizon Zero Dawn and its PC re-release. It also describes the adventurous Pho💮enotopia: Awakening, a game with a colorful, detailed, an✨d immediately appealing art style.
Phoenotopia’s gameplay takes longer to convince. Platforming sections are 𓆏interspersed with combat and puzzles, and all three offer steep challenges in the opening hours. Eventually, Phoenotopia introduces new movement and combat options that soften its difficulty, although some pressure points remain. But the promise of new and beautiful areas is a steady reason to keep playing.
2 ꦺ Creature In The Well (September 2019)
Deserts, 🍌ancient facilities, hostile beings of unknown origin. Creature in the Well and Gears 5, both out in September 2019, take the same science fiction tropes in different directions. Whereas Gears 5 is a military shooter, Creature in the Well draws from pinball and Breakout, which in turn was inspired by Pong.
Around the decades-old concept of hitting a ball✤ to change its direction, Creature in the Well builds a mysterious action-adventure. There are equipment upgrades, hidden rooms, intricate puzzles, and even boss battles to sink into.
1 🗹 Bonito Days (Oc♐tober 2021)
Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania is a remaster of the first three Super Monkey Ball games that 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:retains their punishing difficulty. Bonito Days launched a week🐈 later, and is a lovely pastel remix of a minigame from Super Monkey Ball.
Bonito Days swaps monkeys for cute fish and puts them into carefully designed levels such as a hollow iceberg and a winding city. The gameplay involves gathering momentum in ball form, taking fl♚ight to collect hearts, then attempting a risky landing. The controls are creamy and the city pop soundt💛rack is special.