Hylics
Fans of Lisa and Undertale, rejoice. Hylics is one of the most greatest JRPG influenced games ever created. A masterpiece that will be talked about for generations to come
Rarely and every couple of years, in the indie gaming scene tends to appears a new creator whose name is destined to be inmortal and referenced in future articles for decades to come. A creator that based in the originality and unbelievable degree of talent showed in his first major commercial attempt, will be cited by future designers, writers and artists as a major influence.
– Real player with 8.9 hrs in game
Read More: Best Indie Abstract Games.
Hylics is an awesome, super cheap, underrated light RPG. It’s short but not too short, oozing with style, and actually has some very deep and intriguing gameplay mechanics in-lieu of not having an experience point/leveling system. Not needing to get into battles for levels doesn’t mean this game is easy, as there are some very tricky encounters, it just means you have to think and be pretty strategic depending on how dirty the enemy likes to fight.
As for the story, there intentionally isn’t much of one since it’s very abstract, clearly. From what I can tell, you play as a bored farmer who rolls into town, meets up with an archaeologist in search of paper cups, and you set forth to journey finding more paper cups,
! running into a bug shaman who wants to murder livestock and a retired knight who travels with you to kill things. A corrupt and paranoid king assumes you’re journeying to kill him, which is pretty self-fulfilling since he’s antagonistic towards you. Pretty great, honestly.
– Real player with 6.0 hrs in game
Paratopic
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Released in late 2018 by Arbitrary Metric, Paratopic is an extremely well crafted indie psychological horror game, that took everyone by surprise.
In an unconventional way, Paratopic is an atmospheric adventure, one set to dislocate you from your safety, into the underground minds of a corrupted dystopian! Our protagonist has an undesired job, yet needed, to fill a certain agenda, one that feeds upon human innocence, and guilt alike.
– Real player with 4.4 hrs in game
Read More: Best Indie Adventure Games.
Paratopic
Paratopic starts out feeling like some sort of deranged cross between the cryptic randomness of Goichi Suda’s Killer7 and the otherwordly chaos of the place between realities, The Black Lodge, seen so often in the iconic Twin Peaks. Controlling and manipulative voices distorted guide you through a criminal underworld as you take the role of a hardened and outlawed smuggler of strange contraband; A runner for highly-illegal VHS tapes whose contents are a dangerous mystery.
– Real player with 4.4 hrs in game
Tulpa
My reviews are usually longer as I like to write more than dry facts about games, but this time I’ll make an exception, as Tulpa is so lacking in many ways that it’s just not possible to write about it as a game, without dwelving into buddhism and about tulpas.
The game technically a very simple puzzle-platformer - as you go on, you need to use the ghost-like Tulpa’s (Oliver) ability to move items to solve puzzles, and rarely to pull/push something with the main character, Ophelia. Besides the ocassional hop on the two platforms to cross the chasm parts platforming only means that game is 2D sidescroller - emphasis is on the puzzles. Which are a little too obscure, and the contols are not helping either - rotating parts are not accurate enough, a puzzle about totem parts the parts are movable sideways, while the upper downs fall down - so physics exist(falling) and don’t (just picking out a middle-bottom part) at the same time. It’s just unintuitive at many times which makes the game annoying.
– Real player with 5.9 hrs in game
Read More: Best Indie Puzzle Games.
Tulpa is a platformer with an amazing atmosphere kind of like Limbo and a switch between 2 characters aspect like Last Inua.
Unfortunately, other than the puzzles it’s bad:
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The ringing sound that constantly plays still hurts my head while i’m writing this.
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The game has no volume sliders or even different sound options, you can only turn all sound on and off.
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Puzzles are non-logical, for instance you have to bring a yellow ball to a ribcage to make an elevator work without any indication of any of this.
– Real player with 4.5 hrs in game
City of Edges
“You are special. You are unique. But what does it mean?"
City of Edges is a walking simulator that tells the story of a misfit: you, made of “roundness”, in a city full of sharp and broken edges. In this 30-60 minute game, you will wander across this unfriendly place in search of answers and, eventually, others that are also unique in their own way.
Take your time and explore this world. Live the metaphor, feel the sound, and be unique.
DEUS EX MACHINA 2
Tags: Adventure - WS - Walking Simulator
Additional Tags: Delete Local Content & Remove from Library
TLDR: Entirely non-interactive. Imagine being stuck in a cutscene forever. Is a remaster of an old dos game with gameplay stripped out and remade audio and visual assets inspired by the original, keeping the same flavor and narrative.
Review: Audio is pretty good. Game is on rails and walks the protag on their own. Visual assets are way too recycled and you end up just praying that a song ends so that you can start seeing some variety in the visual presentation. Its a shame too because some tracks are more than half decent. The part of this title that has the least recycled assets is the end credits where they namedrop an insanely high amount of people and show pictures for a ton of them. Otherwise the idea of having a HUD displaying health point inspired numbers and scattering little fake power ups and damage items did not really do much to dispel the fact that this is non interactive. I mean technically you can rotate camera around but you cannot do anything. Even the scripting sometimes does not match the audio all that very well with the protag ending a scripted run and staying in one place while still being animated as running until the audio catches up. This almost feels like it was put together as an afterthought or by someone who had limited technical means to fleshen up the concept further. If this was even just fake-interactive with hotspots you can swap, and had more varied environments where the audio shifts you from place to place it would had been much more compelling. Giving you the option to either let it autoplay or get a little more involved. The naked man protag also ended up feeling like it was pretty old. There are a few moments here and there where I feel this title really shines and at least is a legitimate for of digital entertainment product. But it is most definitely not a game. The run time should be under two hours, requires zero input from the user, and is meant to be consumed passively. The storyline is so cryptic it is very easy to tune out of it. In conclusion I am not sure if this even even belongs in my Steam Library and I could not in good conscience recommend it to anyone. If anything track a Lets Play of it and watch that instead.
– Real player with 10.1 hrs in game
This is not so much a game as it is an arty concept album with optional buttons to press.
**Do not buy it if you want a game where you can do things that have meaning, achieve progress, feel a sense of challenge and reward for your actions, that sort of thing.
There is less meaningful interaction in this game than there is in a walking simulator. As much control over the game as in a kinetic novel.**
Having said that, it’s quite an interesting album, certainly it’ll be quite memorable. The music is really quite good, and there are lots of different styles of music used. Well, it’s all good except for the terror song, which was terrible. And the fake jpop song about dancing, that was cringeworthy.
– Real player with 1.6 hrs in game
KROTRUVINK
Have you ever been on the verge of proportionality?
This story is about a single person who was unsure of the nature of things and the physical integrity of things around him.
Everyday this man went to his job and dreamed of a time in which, it seems, he didn’t exist. Days dashed forward.
But then one day after our protagonist took the bus to work, he got off on…a ship.
This is an indie game created by one person who is completely in love with the idea of challenging genres.
An experiment that tries not to disrupt the tradition or to confuse the player but to instead argue under the framework which restricts the cultural impact on choice.
Attempt to transform the quest genre into a full adventure, excluding elements of discipline for mental stimulation.
GAMEPLAY FEATURES:
**•**Mix of genres and elements like art, adventure, puzzle, survival and metroidvania games.
The player is assisted by expressive mechanisms and visual compositions to understand the main goal of the game.
**•**Engage in converstaion as it is are a source of really useful information. Figure out why the characters in the game got into an argument with each other. Carrying a grudge from old times, which exists only in their faded, smudged eyes.
**•**Use your items from the inventory to induce change into Cube Town.
Perhaps it is not just a giant wall but instead a maze inside. Discover the Town’s secrets by exploring the slums and the factory districts.
**•**No need to be frightened by the unfamiliarity. Previously completed objectives will become hints to other players as well as to you.
**•**Health, stamina and thirst are non-renewable and are the player’s source for victory.
And while the protagonist can’t fill their thirst themselves, their enemy on the other hand, under some gameplay circumstances, can…
**•**There is only one boss in the whole journey that won’t leave you alone. His roots entangle every corner of the world. An eternal battle with a parasite that threatens to become a part of the environment.
**•**Immerse yourself into the vivid chamber, color the lives here and learn how to cooperate with darkness.
Mango
I have to say its the most unique game I played the last few years and don’t take unique the way of not polished or not deep enough because you’ll be surprised how deep and how detailed the world becomes even if it looks simple. The Sounds/Music is Great, The Colors/Textures are vibrant and I’m sure the moods comes out exactly how the developer wished for. Making the game all the more fun to play. The story is easy to digest and relatable yet becomes deep and lets you wonder. I really enjoyed it. It surely was a unique experience.
– Real player with 11.7 hrs in game
I came in thinking this was going to be a chill walking sim with crazy visuals, a few spooks, and no real story. I was wrong.
Mango was a delightful surprise. Stunning visuals, clever puzzles, prominent atmospheric horror and a story about the journey of a man going through an episode of mania and madness.
– Real player with 10.2 hrs in game
Broken Reality
Absolutely incredible! This game, admittedly, exceeded my expectations. I had no idea that this game would be so vast - when I booted it up the first time I thought I’d easily be able to get it completed in less than five hours, however, there was so much to take in and explore that, as of this review, I’ve logged almost 20 hours. Every time something was accomplished it just opened the door to a new quest or area, and every new item opened up new possibilities and introduced nearly flawless Metrodvania gameplay.
– Real player with 35.3 hrs in game
TL;DR
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It’s an actual game with quests, equips, multiple worlds, a story, NPCs, and a play time spanning several hours
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Unsettling at times but overall it maintains a very mellow mood
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Some puzzles, nothing mind-breaking. Last world comes with a remarkable difficulty spike.
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Glitchy at times but the devs are always available for feedback and troubleshooting
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A retro-style game that understands retro games, is made in the style of retro games, but doesn’t rely on the appeal of “retro games” as a crutch to sell copies
– Real player with 21.3 hrs in game
Celestial Hacker Girl Jessica
Very addicting gameplay. The puzzle difficultly ranges from easy to very hard especially later in the game. Some levels I could get through with no fail on my first try. Some tested my patience for awhile and those mostly deal with gravity mechanics of hitting something at just the precise angle. I LOVE the visuals. Simplistic but effective with vaporwave, and webcore overtones.
It’s like you’re in a Grimes album.
– Real player with 30.2 hrs in game
Did anyone else call the digital rainbow skeleton “Space Mom”, or is that just me?
10/10, kept me smiling for all ninety minutes.
A E S T H E T I C
O V E R
B U D G E T
– Real player with 4.2 hrs in game
ISLANDS: Non-Places
Islands: Non Places is simply an interactive left/right scroll. Quickly discover the thing blinking that needs to be clicked on and this in turn will unlock more surreal animation. What started off as a mundane and novel pastel coloured art-scape will soon morph into a magical place of wonder all created by the highly imaginative mind of Carl Burton. Carl Burton is a very talented gif animator having had his work showcased by many high profile outlets and can be found here… https://www.carlburton.io/
– Real player with 1.4 hrs in game
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Creative
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Atmospheric
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Annoying sounds
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(Arguably) too short for the price
This is exactly what it looks like: a game where you look at things, poke them, and then watch what happens. It’s linear, with each small vignette playing out a set narrative and then disappearing. Sometimes the game really worked for me. The dev has a great imagination, and the liminal spaces on display (parking lots, ATMs, fountains) are explored in delightful ways that blend the mechanical with the organic.
One downside is that the environments feel fixed. You can’t look up or down, just rotate the scenery. Your impact on each scene is quite limited; it isn’t always clear whether your clicking is the reason you’ve moved on to the next “stage” of a level or if it’s just timed. I used my laptop’s touchscreen, which was definitely more immersive than just clicking around, but interaction still felt constained at times and the objects weren’t that responsive to touch. The game is missing that tactile feeling you get from similar games like Windosill or Metamorphabet, where you can click, drag, and relocate almost anything onscreen.
– Real player with 1.3 hrs in game