Runo
Awesome little Indie Game with some Firewatch Elements. I love the atmosphere and all the little Infos about the Finnish Mythology. Really well made even if it’s a little short. Apart from all the nice textures and Finnish Landscapes I have to say that even with the slithest sense of an adventurer you get out of bounds really easily. If you just play the game the intended way it’s already fun but exploring the outer worlds is really interesting too ;)
– Real player with 6.5 hrs in game
Read More: Best Exploration Story Rich Games.
It’s a short and funky game about Finnish folklore.
Honestly, it’s worth playing for the old Nokia with a camera magically strapped to it alone.
It’s free, you learn some Finnish words and folklore and get to read some colourful heartfelt writing about what seems to be a common topic to reminisce about if you’ve grown up in the area.
Also, it has some janky interactions due to Unity, don’t go out of your way to try and break the game, just enjoy it :)
(the game can be finished in under an hour, me breaking it made me lose time lol, heed my advice)
– Real player with 1.9 hrs in game
ALON
ALON – is an adventure game about a child who fell into the great abyss…
Gameplay
Lonely wandering in a dark abyss, hiding from terrifying creatures,
overcoming obstacles and climbing up…
Atmosphere and music
Rich ambient sounds with quality music.
Music - Ambient with orchestral elements, will help you immerse yourself in a lonely story.
About Development
_The game is at an early stage of development.
Staz Lincord - I am developing a game and writing music completly alone.
The Unreal Engine 4 is used to create the game.
Want to learn more about the state of development?
Read More: Best Exploration Relaxing Games.
Best Friend
Reconnect with your childhood best friend - a French Bulldog - as you experience a violently emotional story that explores love, growing up, and what dogs mean to humans. You will take control of both a human - a young man entering adulthood - and a French Bulldog - your childhood best friend - as you both explore a series of breathtaking dreams together. The items that you collect on the journey determine the fate of both you and your Best Friend.
Key Features:
-
For fans of experimental story-driven exploration games like Journey, Firewatch and the First Tree
-
Based on a personal, intimate story.
-
Not a dog simulator, but a rich, story-driven adventure developed by a one-man team.
-
A short, 30-60 minute game focused on revealing the story through light puzzle solving and platforming
Read More: Best Exploration 3D Games.
Heir Obscure
After his failed assassination attempt on the emperor, Theo Crevus must escape prison, evade or learn how to kill the demon that haunts it, and learn the dark secrets of the regime and of the mysterious Plightswoman who claims to want to help him. Discover the lies and secrets of those who took everything from you, and restore an old kingdom to its former glory.
Explore a Branching Story
Discovering certain secrets will cause this short but deep story to play out in multiple possible outcomes.
Hide in the Shadows
Take advantage of immersive stealth mechanics like realistic sound propagation and staying unseen in dark areas.
Discover the Truth
Examine notes that have been left by previous inhabitants of the Lake of Liberation castle. You’re a prisoner, and you’ve never been here before - you won’t find hints or guidance, maps or map markers.
Free a Darkened World
A dark evil has taken away everything you love, and it’s finally time to reveal the truth.
Key Features
-
For fans of narrative exploration games like Firewatch and stealth horror games like Alien Isolation
-
Realistic stealth mechanics including using shadows to remain concealed, and using quiet surfaces to remain unheard
-
A dark, detailed setting with a gripping, mysterious narrative
-
Created by a solo developer
Lying Souls™
Lying Souls™ is an atmospheric, mysterious single player story horror game. You’ll dive into a story in which nothing is as it seems. Find out the reasons behind what happened to your family back then. Your decisions will guide the course of the story.
THE INCIDENT
It was a while ago when all this happened. With time, the incident has calmed down. You don’t know anything anymore and step by step you find out the truth and why it all happened.
YOUR DECISIONS
You are still on a dangerous path of darkness. Are you someone who runs away from problems or faces them? It is entirely your decision. Until today you have not received any answers. Now you are going to search for them yourself. Whether you succeed or not depends entirely on you.
LYING SOULS
In Lying Souls™ you’ll enter a story in which you’ll have to solve, in first person, the mysterious circumstances of a long-past incident in your family. You’ll experience different parts of the story and you’ll have to sort everything out. The gameplay is linear, but the story is not.
MAIN FEATURES
*** Interactive Story / Own Decisions:** You will obviously have to make a decision at some moments that will change the later course of the story for you. Smaller, not so obvious decisions & actions are also part of this. Whether you will find out everything with your decisions is questionable.
*** Notes / Recordings:** You will come across a number of audio recordings and various writings and notes. They will help you put the story together. Not everything may always be clearly told / revealed and you will have to find your own explanation.
*** Random Events:** You will experience random events from time to time. These are not random “paranormal” events to create a mood, but are always part of the current story and gameplay when they happen.
Manalith
Manalith has set clear goals on what it is trying to do, and it does it well. The game focuses on exploring beautiful scenery and finding hidden locations with collectables. A very chill 4.5 hours of wandering.
There are a lot of collectables that can start to feel grindy near the end, if you have randomly wandered around like I may have. That being said, I appreciated the process by which getting one collectable activated part of the environment to allow you to get to a new area. There is a sensory ability, that when upgraded allows you to find all items, but you still have to figure out how to get to them.
– Real player with 4.7 hrs in game
This is a very relaxing game and a welcome change from the multiplayer stress of other games. Trippy visuals and inviting atmosphere are welcome as well.
– Real player with 0.6 hrs in game
Marginalia
Super interesting. Didn’t quite get the story but I think it’s supposed to be vague in that regard. Really enjoyed the music, atmosphere and environment. I didn’t expect it to be inspiring but seeing the distant pink lights and hearing about an old family story really made me want to start brainstorming a new music project. I don’t know if any of these characters or events are real or based on real events, but I think researching it would remove its mystique, so I won’t. I played it again straight after finishing it (mainly because the ending dialogue cut out mid-way through) to see if there was anything I missed but I couldn’t find anything. A short fun little experience!
– Real player with 1.6 hrs in game
There’s a moment early on when you’re following the traditional walking simulator flow of moving from exposition drop to exposition drop that you’ll see something… weird.
And there’s a moment where you’ll get lost in the woods and stumble upon something unpleasant but unremarked upon.
And there’s a moment where you’ll realize something is extremely- well… the less said about it the better.
I really enjoyed this interactive story. The writing and voice acting is excellent and the level design is incredible. You won’t understand why I say that at first but… you will eventually.
– Real player with 1.3 hrs in game
Pattern
This isn’t really a game. It is more of a work of art and a story.
There is hardly any game play. There is a small stamina mechanic, but you are mostly just able to explore the environment. At least for me, this was more about slowing down and enjoying the beautiful scenery.
There aren’t that many areas either. There are only four. But they are all very, very lovely to wander about in.
The other part of this is the story. To summarize (minor spoiler warning?), The game developer talks about his experience creating games and art, and talking about what it means to him. It isn’t too long, but it is a very nice read.
– Real player with 2.6 hrs in game
Not bad, but full price is too expensive. Get it when discounted.
The game is procedurally generated, but the in the end you will always cycle the same 4 different environments + the room, more variation would be better or at least making the order in which the levels appear more random.
Another simple feature that I would like to see implemented is an auto-walking key, like what you have in Meadow: you press F and the character just walk by itself, freeing you of the need to keep pushing the W button, which is a bit annoying.
– Real player with 2.0 hrs in game
Santa Claws
Give the perfect gift
Even Santa can have a mental breakdown. Let’s face it our modern world is becoming too much for the old guy. He is just one cookie away from….(find out in the game). This season give the perfect gift to your Steam friends. Sure, this game is cheap and devoid of substance, but its entertainment value is unmatched for its price. My son, after playing, is no longer looking forward to seeing Santa this year. I’m kind of glad because it costs a ton for pictures with him at the mall. Enjoy
– Real player with 1.7 hrs in game
Had a lot of fun playing this game, can’t beat the price and its festive for the time of the year! I got on the naughty list just by eating the candy canes, now those gingerbread men will forever be the ones that got away. Here is my play through, the maze took a little bit of time but I figured out a way to dodge Santa:
– Real player with 1.4 hrs in game
soundStrider
You will want two things: your headphones, and to read the game’s manual before playing.
Even then, this isn’t for everyone. If it is for you, you’ll find a hypnotic soundscape worth exploring.
I would describe it as an audio-only walking simulator; there are minimal graphics (as you can see in the screenshots), but you can even turn them off completely and play only by sound. There are waypoints that you can hear, and you can walk from one to the next on a trance-like journey, finding strangely relaxing varied soundscapes. There aren’t many games like this; of those somewhat similar that I played, it reminded me most of Proteus – but the focus on audio is of course much higher here.
– Real player with 0.6 hrs in game
Errrrrm, okaym well the ‘game’ does what it says you walk around and noises occur. pressing buttons on the controller did stuff and if I;m honest I have no clue as to what I was doing.
One big thing missing currently for a game that the Visually Impaired can play is Text to Speech in the menus. I dug around with my maginfier in hand and found a list of random settings, but no real accessibility options page.
I got in game and walked around randomly heading towards some sounds. Arrived at a sound and nothing seemed to happen, is this sound a ‘breadcrumb’? it got louder and more annoying as I approached. Found a button on the controller that made a boing noise.
– Real player with 0.3 hrs in game