Earth Elements

Earth Elements

The game is great, definitely worth the buy. I love the game-play, and the overall freedom that the game offers without overwhelming me. There is a lot of in-game content and new things I can explore with each time playing, so it seems like ill never get bored of it. I am super excited to see where the game goes as it continues development.

Real player with 4.1 hrs in game


Read More: Best Grid-Based Movement Mining Games.


Earth Elements on Steam

Sword of the Stars: The Pit

Sword of the Stars: The Pit

OK, let’s get this out of the way right now.

You will die.

Lots.

You will be poisoned, diseased, irradiated, blown up, and electrocuted. You will be hungry and starved, your equipment will break, your armor will fail, and your ammunition will run dry. You will be stunned, confused, blinded, and terrorized. You will be shot by crazed security robots, shredded by mutated terrors, and gnawed on by countless foes, and occasionally disintegrated.

…so, you’ve got that going for you.

Overview (what is it?):

Real player with 522.3 hrs in game


Read More: Best Grid-Based Movement Indie Games.


This game is excellent for so many reasons. It’s a Rogue-like, and, if you know what that means, you’re probably a fan of the type. If not, do a little research because the sub-genre isn’t for everyone.

Firstly, the game is very broad for how simple it is. There are a ton of interactable objects within the Pit to interact with, all relying on your particular class' skills and some RNG to determine the effect when using them. (Typically, pass/fail, but sometimes the reward or punishment can be greater than standard.) Tons of weapons, armors, utility items and the like to aid in your overall objective which is to reach the bottom of the Pit!

Real player with 512.2 hrs in game

Sword of the Stars: The Pit on Steam

Ground Breakers

Ground Breakers

This is a really cool game with a bunch of issues, but still really worth the money. I think it really deserves more attention than its getting.

The Good.

  • cute graphics

  • the units you play with are really different and really encourage you to use different play styles

  • 3 games in one, and each game type lets you earn different types of resources (money, parts, and chips

  • the campaign mode is pretty much a full game all by itself, with both a strategy map and tactical maps whenever there is a fight

Real player with 45.2 hrs in game


Read More: Best Grid-Based Movement Indie Games.


TL;DR: If you can overlook the unpolished UX, you’ll get a great game for your money.

This game is very “indie.” By that I mean it definitely lacks a lot of the polish that big-name funding provides. There are copious grammatical errors, although little typos, which leads me to believe it’s more of a translation issue than a proof-reading one. However, everything is understandable, it’s just occasionally a wonky read. Other than that and the unintuitive HUDs, the balance of the game and some of the mechanics feel a bit odd, especially with the multiplayer aspect. I don’t think this could ever have a robust competitive player-base, but it might be enjoyable to play with a friend from time to time.

Real player with 37.5 hrs in game

Ground Breakers on Steam

Advent Crossroad

Advent Crossroad

I came across this game after searching for games like Etrian Odyssey & Shin Megami Tensei.

I’ll start with the positives :)

The good

The ‘vibe’ of the game is very similar to Devil Survivor, artwork is nice, story starts off nice and simple and gets more involving as you go through.

Battle system is similar enough to above mentioned games and also varied enough for you to get a kick out of organising your party with a selection of acquired skills (collected via getting hit by a monsters attack whilst you use a turn to absorb said monster skills).

Real player with 18.2 hrs in game

A great dungeon crawling game! I had a lot of fun finishing it. The SMT inspirations did a great job here, btw! Can’t wait to see your next project and good luck!

Real player with 15.4 hrs in game

Advent Crossroad on Steam

Wayward

Wayward

TLDR: BUY THE GAME YOU WON’T REGRET IT!!

First, let me start by saying, My game play style is usually casual. I’m normally not a fan of rogue-like, perma-death games at all. Games that even have the words rogue-like or perma-death, I wouldn’t usually even give a chance…..BUT…..A friend that is, and always will be a rogue at heart in every game, that has played Wayward long before it even came to Steam, repeatedly tried to get me to play saying, “just try it, I think you will like this one” managed to get me hooked on this game.

Real player with 1437.5 hrs in game

TL:DR -

This game is extremely good. The updates are pretty slow so that part sucks, but otherwise it’s pretty playable as is. There’s a decent exchange between the community and the developer, he’s super active on the game’s subreddit. In terms of community outreach I’d say the guy has been doing a phenomenonal job.

Having said that, some things can get a bit repetitive. One of my biggest gripes is how you can’t craft things in batches and instead have to do it one by one. This may not seem like a huge issue initially, but when you’re crafting 120 strings where each crafting action takes ~250-500ms then this adds up rather quickly (another good example is if you want to craft wooden arrows in bulk. You need a bunch of sticks first, and one of the best ways to get a bunch is to chop a few trees for logs and to dismantle them into bark and sticks, not mentioning gathering the feathers that are also required. Excluding the time required to gather the required feathers, it takes about 5 minutes to craft 120 arrows. 120 arrows may seem like a lot and it is if you’re fighting stuff on land, but if you’re fighting stuff that lives in the sea then each arrow is lost on a successful hit. It’s very easy to go through a lot of arrows in the process. I do like this mechanic of losing your arrows since it mostly makes sense, though I think you should be able to salvage a few if you carve up the monster’s carcass. It’s just a hassle to make more and more arrows, especially if you want the higher-tiered ones like iron/stone arrows). You need to use your mouse as well to craft stuff, so my mouse has taken a bit of a beating because of this.

Real player with 284.1 hrs in game

Wayward on Steam

Tower Alchemy

Tower Alchemy

TD crafting + mechanics + 60+ towers = Unique gameplay and interesting take on TD. Combine towers to make more powerful ones. Buildings and potions provide bonuses. Complete objectives for rewards.

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Real player with 1.4 hrs in game

Tower Alchemy on Steam

World Seed

World Seed

NOTE: YOU CAN PLAY THIS FOR FREE @ https://worldseed.eu/

But I highly encourage purchasing on steam to support the developer.

This is probably the highest potential game I have seen in a while. The foundation is excellent and the developer consistently takes suggestions and feedback from the community. I highly suggest joining the Discord – https://discord.gg/7DMU3Qc

Pros

  • Active developer

  • Active discord and helpful community

  • Build variety

  • Build balance

  • Appropriate risk vs. reward

  • Simple yet meaningful progression

Real player with 255.2 hrs in game

Before reading this, do understand that its being developed by 1 single person and that this game is available for free outside steam, buying it here is simply supporting the dev and unlocking access to it through steam.

The game is a very charming timesink, it looks rather simpistic/minimalistic yet offers a good amount of depth and complexity.

The developer is extremely active as of writing this review, you can easily get a hold of him directly to ask for help or give suggestions in discord and he’ll give you time to actually listen and respond.

Real player with 125.1 hrs in game

World Seed on Steam

Inferno - Beyond the 7th Circle

Inferno - Beyond the 7th Circle

Inferno - Beyond the 7th Circle is a first-person RPG with a horror theme that’s a sequel/spiritual successor to The 7th Circle - Endless Nightmare. Plot-wise there’s no connection between the two games–in the 7th Circle you played a man’s subconscious fighting his inner demons, and in Inferno you play a human survivor fighting literal demons who have all but conquered Earth.

It’s hard to review Inferno without comparing it to the 7th Circle because the two games are so similar. Both are first-person dungeon crawlers, and the basic gameplay of the two games are identical. Nearly all of the enemies are identical too. (there are only 7 or so new ones not counting palette swaps) If you liked one you’ll probably like the other, and vice versa. Where the games differ is that The 7th Circle was restricted to a single dungeon with 20-odd floors and had a permadeath/metaprogression mechanic; Inferno is more of a sprawling open world and abandons the permadeath model for a more traditional RPG.

Real player with 50.0 hrs in game

Finished the game

Pros:

-Enjoyed character customization and the control given to me for said character growth.

-Enjoyed RNG rolls for gear.

-Enjoyed combo build up in combat.

-Enjoyed utilizing spells and status ailments for a varied combat experience.

-Enjoyed the 1st 2/3rd of the game in terms of difficulty.

-The setting is very unique and I feel it will likely become the new sensation as cyberpunk dies down.

-Enjoyed punching out demon lords and the duke of hell with my bare hands 10/10 would fist hell spawn again~

Real player with 40.4 hrs in game

Inferno - Beyond the 7th Circle on Steam

NEO Scavenger

NEO Scavenger

NEO Scavenger is a turn-based, post-apocalyptic, survival roguelike with perma-death. I also now sometimes fondly call it a Procedural Death Michigan. It’s mean, immersive, annoyingly addictive and seems to strongly dislike players wearing right boots (left boots are fine).

Basically, you scavenge around (and die after the building crumbles on you), fight other people scavenging around (and die valiantly with monkey wrench in hand) or try to talk to them (and die a turn later by drinking a celebratory made-it-through-the-turn sip of poisoned water), try to kill creatures that would like to eat you almost as much as you’d like to eat them (and die hungry), craft items to help you survive (and die warm because your fire alerted every deadly thing around), keep track of your hunger, thirst, diseases and injuries (and die very informed) or try to get to the seemingly last big hub of civilization (and die trying to get there; or trying to get in; or after you get in; or on your way back out).

Real player with 389.2 hrs in game

Picked this up on a lark, as I am heavily into survival games lately. I was hesitant due to the low res, pixel graphics, but man am I glad I took a chance on this!

What stands out immediately is choice and consequence. You can’t have it all. You have to build a character with weaknesses, and weaknesses can just be not having some of the skills you might like to have, or it can be actual weaknesses to give you points to get more benefits.

You might take Fragile for example, making you take more damage than normal if you get hit, and you might do this because you really want the points it gives you to take Trapping so you can make fire right away at the start of the game.

Real player with 168.4 hrs in game

NEO Scavenger on Steam

Thalassophobia

Thalassophobia

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Thalassophobia

A game that borrows inspiration from the roguelike and survival genre alike and puts you in an instant fight for survival against mysterious creatures, starvation, insanity and more.

Be prepared to fail over and over again while you keep learning how to keep a good balance of yours crews needs and safety.

Real player with 4.0 hrs in game

I bought this to do a review of it for YT. Never before have I heard myself so depressed after a video. It isn’t from the melancholy of Lovecraftian literature either.

Gameplay:

Aesthetically it reminds me of retro-indie games. Pretty good in that regard. However I’m not a fan of the GUI trying to move out of the way while I’m attempting to use it (infuriating to say the least). It took me about 15 minutes to learn the mechanics and I’m still not sure I have all of it with an hour of playing. I got the furnace once, but I’ve not seen it since and died soon after, considering the game doesn’t teach you how to use it. I tend to succumb to sanity being exhausted, but it’s impossible to keep my crew sufficiently saturated and not crazy. Frankly it’s not fun for me to die and die again with little to no progress being made so I don’t want to play it anymore.

Real player with 1.0 hrs in game

Thalassophobia on Steam