Necken

Necken

This is a rogue-like… a genre I am quite keen on… but what prevents each game from being the same as the last, and enables you to choose one over another, can often be their ‘identity’ … their atmosphere.

Necken is different to many of these games as it is not set in a dark dungeon, but a thick, verdant Swedish Forest, with dappled sunlight and mysteries behind each pixel tree. Accompanying this aesthetic is a peaceful yet somehow foreboding soundtrack … It’s a coupling which truly makes the game unique… but there are also many gameplay choices quite different to the usual dungeon crawlers I’ve played.

Real player with 24.0 hrs in game


Read More: Best Perma Death Turn-Based Games.


Great roguelike with hard but rewarding gameplay and looks like a swedish 8bit fairy tale.

The game is set in swedish folklore and will have you running around in a panic looking for wood and dodging gnomes in no-time.

It does a great job of never letting you feel safe and rich on resources and its a constant scramble for materials and survival. Once you’ve chopped all the wood on the level, thats what you have to work with, so inventory management is key. And, as with all roguelikes, once you die, youre back to (almost) square one.

Real player with 11.5 hrs in game

Necken on Steam

Hollow Bliss

Hollow Bliss

Your experience in Hollow Bliss depends on your choices, deaths, and consequences. Take control of five high school friends who end up trapped within a dark home, its twisted residents out to get them. As you explore the house, the space changes around you, and how you interact with it and respond to its dangers will make an impact on your chances to make it out alive. Everyone can die, but more than that, the imprint they leave can either benefit or hurt the chances of the others also trying to survive. You’re in a horror scenario, it’s up to you to make your choices of how to get out of the situations you find yourself in.

After the death of his childhood best friend, Chris Lansan struggles to feel normal with his friends, old and new. There was a comic he and his deceased friend were working on before her unfortunate passing, but it was in her possession when she died. He goes with his group of friends; Dustin, Julia, Hailey, and Sarah, to ask his mother if he could take the comic as a memento. After strange hostility from the mother towards Chris, seeing how important this is to Chris, Dustin proposes they sneak in when the mother goes out to find and fetch the comic. When they do so however, they find themselves trapped within the home, and unfortunately not alone.

Hollow Bliss is a gut wrenching 2.5D horror narrative game experience that plays out differently depending on you.

FEATURES

  • You’re in control of a horror scenario, who lives and dies depends entirely on you.

  • 32 endings, with various alternate ways every scene in the game can play out.

  • Every character has a unique ability, which if they die, is lost to you.

  • The game remembers previous runs, the past may come back to haunt you.

  • Twisted and strange horrors that’ll leave you guessing and what could possibly come next.

  • An original soundtrack and positional 3D audio adds to a thick atmosphere, best experienced with headphones..

  • A cast of characters who have more to them than you may initially assume. They may win you over.

Pulling down the moon would be easier.


Read More: Best Perma Death 2.5D Games.


Hollow Bliss on Steam

Deadnaut: Signal Lost

Deadnaut: Signal Lost

From the developer of cult hits Deadnaut and Zafehouse Diaries comes Deadnaut: Signal Lost. In this slick, fast-paced roguelike you’ll take control of a single Deadnaut, unlock suit upgrades and abilities, fight cosmic horrors, and investigate drifting wrecks and abandoned moons. But remember: your Deadnaut is not a puppet – earn their trust, do your job well, and they might return the favour.

Equip your Deadnaut with a wide array of weapons and gear and lead them through a series of procedurally generated missions, fighting where you can – and running when you must.

Your Deadnaut may not like the idea of being torn apart by unknown horrors. Do what you can to complete your mission - pay bribes, make promises, turn them into a mindless space golem - but remember: everything has a price.

There are many ways to play, from weapons and sensors, to shields and hacking. Will you take the heavy duty Labour suit and slice your way through the ship, or will you slip through the shadows in the ghostly Sensor suit?

Encounter dozens of enemies types, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. Avoid – or exploit – the security system in each level, from the Watchers that roam ships to the malfunctioning security Towers and Sentinels that guard settlements.

Tailor your armour and damage potential, and develop your Deadnaut with over 100 suit upgrades.

The cosmos is tearing itself apart. Wrecks are full of horrible, interdimensional creatures, the dead roam surfaces of moons, and you’re being hunted by technically advanced soldiers. Experience the world of Deadnaut up close.

FAQ

How does this relate to the original Deadnaut (2014)?

Deadnaut and Deadnaut: Signal Lost are both situated in the same universe and feature similar, mission-based gameplay in procedurally-generated locations. Furthermore, in both games you take on the role as a remote handler who controls the action ‘at a distance’ via a physical console. The Deadnaut also uses similar weapons and suits; battles against security systems; trades ‘knowledge’ for gear; and can be cloned upon dying.

Is this a sequel?

Deadnaut: Signal Lost is not a sequel. It is focused on a single Deadnaut, rather than a whole squad. The action is more intimate and tactical, and you can develop your Deadnaut with numerous suit upgrades and abilities. Furthermore, the gameplay is turn-based, not real-time, which helps focus the action.

How many levels are there?

Deadnaut: Signal Lost is designed to be fast, easy to pick up, and replayable. There are roughly 12 – 24 levels in a standard game. With five suits, special game modifiers, multiple difficulty levels, over 100 upgrades, loads of gear and procedurally generated campaigns, we think you’ll be occupied for a long time.

Isn’t everything ‘roguelike’ these days?

Deadnaut: Signal Lost has many genre-defining features, such as turn-by-turn tile-based movement, character progression, procedural generation and permadeath.


Read More: Best Perma Death Roguelike Games.


Deadnaut: Signal Lost on Steam

Too Much Water

Too Much Water

I really enjoy how fresh “Too Much Water” feels. Many indie games tend to rely heavily on already successful elements from existing games, but this experience feels brand new, and I actually struggle to compare it to any other game I’ve ever played.

While steam has classified this game as a top down shooter, that is woefully inadequate. Yeah, guns exist, and you can get one fairly easily, but is that the best use of your time and limited resources?

The best description of “Too Much Water” is the one given by the dev- it’s a castaway simulator and a survival game.

Real player with 8.8 hrs in game

BEST GAME. Too Much Water, more like Too Much Fun!

Real player with 1.6 hrs in game

Too Much Water on Steam

Minotaur Maze

Minotaur Maze

Oh no! The Minotaur got me… I’ll have to play until I find a proper shotgun!

Real player with 0.7 hrs in game

I’d recommend this game, it’s a nice little dungeon runner game.

Your goal is to navigate through mazes to rescue the princess and then …

The controls are simple and effective, you can adjust your camera angle too if needed.

You go through seven different mazes while the Minotaur is hunting you too.

Each maze gets bigger and the Minotaur becomes faster.

The game fullfills what it has announced, it has nice music and audio and a pleasant looking artstyle.

And it’s free.

Overall, i think it’s a nice little game to spend time on, relatively short depending on your pace but the Minotaur might surprises you around a corner.

Real player with 0.4 hrs in game

Minotaur Maze on Steam

Skeletal Avenger

Skeletal Avenger


[url] Please see my curator page for more games that are well worth your time[/url]

Approximate amount of time to 100%: 20h+

Estimated achievement difficulty: 4/10

Minimum number of playthroughs needed: 1

Is there a good guide available: I wrote an achievement guide. You can find it here

Real player with 26.1 hrs in game

I’ve played this game about 2 hours now, and am totally having fun. I really like the different weapon behaviors, and perks you discover can give you some great effects.

PERKS

It seems like each set of levels you play (kind of a campaign of 5 or so levels) you clear your perks and must discover them throughout the campaign. I had a perk for extra fire damage on primary swing, then another perk for 100% additional fire damage, it was crazy melee time at that point.

Another time I had hits causing “necrotic puddles” that would do damage over time to any monster in it, super cool!

Real player with 17.2 hrs in game

Skeletal Avenger on Steam

Fisherones

Fisherones

[Quick review of the game]

Things I personally enjoy:

Perma Death aspect - If you love the thrill of having your progress at risk then you’re definitely going to enjoy Fisherones. It rewards good play and you can choose to invest in either glass cannon builds(crit chance mutagens and stamina regen) or more defensive ones(poison when attacked,hp & dodge chance mutagens). Game also offers a revive mutagen that you can use to cheat death once, extremely useful and saved me from a couple deaths before that otherwise woulda made me pretty sad

Real player with 11.2 hrs in game

Simple, cute, and fun. Fisherones offers a little bit of everything that it claims and manages to keep all ages interested and enjoying the fast-paced game play. The Perma Death does make it a bit repetitive after multiple long games, starting all over can be very disheartening. If you enjoy exploring and unlocking in a unique atmosphere that offers a different take on the Rogue-like genre then check this one out.

Here is some game play footage of my daughters and I checking it out for the first time.

Real player with 8.0 hrs in game

Fisherones on Steam

Oneiro

Oneiro

Disclaimer: My actual play time is about 15 hours and I have only seen half the game. Yes it’s difficult but in a great way.

Oneiro is perhaps the very definition of “greater than the sum of its parts.” On the surface, it may look like something you’ve seen or played before, but underneath… Ah… Underneath…

There is something beautiful to the “nightmare” of the labyrinth: a transcendent quality to the game wherein its dimensions coalesce into something more. You might say, “What TF is this dude on?” Well sit down and let me tell it to ya mostly straight because this game hooked my apathetic @ss like a grappling hook in a flying spear.

Real player with 45.1 hrs in game

Oneiro is a first-person roguelike action RPG featuring rock-solid gameplay, dead-serious challenge, and a shocking amount of extremely clever and effective design decisions. It’s honestly one of the best games I’ve played in years. If you love roguelikes, King’s Field, Morrowind, or just good action games, at this price it’s an absolute must-buy.

Its core combat is fundamentally well-designed because all damage can be avoided through skill, although doing so is easier said than done. There are several weapon types, each of which features primary and alternate (usually charge-up) attacks. Special mention goes to the default fist weapon, which has several alternate attacks depending on when you right-click during your auto-combo.

Real player with 35.6 hrs in game

Oneiro on Steam

Sola

Sola

Is this world a dream or reality? Running, jumping and falling feel real enough for our prisoner, but the feeling of déjà vu is almost too common for this not to be a dream.

Traverse through various areas and avoid obstacles to help the prisoner escape into another (hopefully better) world.

Features

  • 3rd Person 3D Runner-Platformer with Exploration elements

  • Play as a prisoner trying to escape into another world

  • You can only run and jump, but don’t expect the game to be easy!

  • Multiple unique areas, each with different atmosphere and obstacles

  • Saving exists, but in a very limited form: You have to explore and find one-time use Sigils to save a location

Sola on Steam

The Blood Games

The Blood Games

100 players awake in a room alongside a prize of $1 Billion. Your goal, pass 7 deadly challenges and be the last one standing.

Each player death will add an extra $10 million to the jackpot.

Make friends or enemies, attempt to team up and split the prize or go alone and fight to claim it all. One question remains, who can you trust?

The Blood Games on Steam