Board 8 > Which of these indie games am I missing out on most?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I started following Best Indie Games (Youtube channel) and have been appreciating the content, but I discovered their 25 best games of the decade video today -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCPsdkY6BVA -- and decided this might be an extra nudge to play some of the games I've been missing out on. Yeah, I'm almost two years late to this party, but all the more reason to note if there's something I'm missing out on. Especially since Steam Secret Santa is in a couple days.

I fully expect Shovel Knight to run away with this.

Entire list (in ascending order):
Dead Cells
Terraria*
Hotline Miami
Cuphead
Slime Rancher

The Witness
Slime-San
Disco Elysium*
Crypt of the Necrodancer*
Salt and Sanctuary

Steamworld Dig 2
Baba is You
Hyper-Light Drifter
Undertale*
Slay the Spire*

Pyre*
Subnautica
Into the Breach
Enter the Gungeon
Crosscode*

Shovel Knight
Darkest Dungeon
Bloodstained
Stardew Valley*
Hollow Knight*

Oh, and I might as well give my opinion of the ones I have played.

Hollow Knight and Stardew Valley are amazing. Crosscode was good until I got tired of it. Pyre and Slay the Spire never really got off the ground for me. I liked Crypt, but I was bad at it. Disco Elysium is tremendously overrated, but the line-level writing's good. And I didn't get Terraria at all.

I'd say the best 5 from what you haven't played are, in no order (based on what I've played, which is most but not all of them)

Subnautica
Hyper Light Drifter
Dead Cells
Cuphead
Into the Breach

however, i also thought Salt and Sanctuary and Steamworld Dig 2 were both also really enjoyable

factorio

Cuphead and Bloodstained have my wholehearted recommendation.

Baba is easily the best game on that list

Hotline Miami is one of the best games of all time, period.

Bloodstained is good, but if you've played SotN and the DS Castlevanias it won't blow you away.

Highly recommend Guacamelee!, especially if you can couch co-op it with somebody.

depends on what kind of thing you like or are in the mood for

thats a pretty solid list of good stuff, you cant really go wrong (at least of what Ive played. Theres a few there like Subnautica that I cant comment on)

Haven't played enough of them to give a definitive answer but the ones I've played are all good. Shovel is absolutely packed full of content by this point and if you're remotely into the genre you should have a very fun time. Subnautica ran out of steam for me lategame but it holds its magic for a long time before then (haven't played Sub Zero yet, don't know if that's a better one to play or not).

Cuphead is awesome but can be pretty brutal, Steamworld Dig 2 is good but I found it pretty overrated, and Dead Cells is very good if you can handle roguelites.

Also if you liked Crypt but found it too hard I'd strongly recommend Cadence of Hyrule, it's much more forgiving after the beginning and is a great blend of Crypt and Zelda.

well the correct answer is Return of the Obra Dinn if you haven't and my answer is Hypnospace Outlaw but of that overall list... eh. The Witness?

Dead Cells
Hotline Miami
Cuphead
Baba is You
Into the Breach
Enter the Gungeon
Shovel Knight

all great and at least worth trying

Baba is You is fantastic, but it's also tremendously difficult and I come back to the game every 6-8 months to solve a few new levels with a new perspective. I believe there's a new custom level editor out, so I'm sure there's incredible levels that users have made too.

I thought Shovel Knight was a bit boring and same-y, but I'm not really a huge fan of the Mega Man style of games anyway.

I got Into the Breach and Enter the Gungeon for free on the Epic Game Store but neither really grabbed my interest for more than a few hours.

I have never even heard of baba is you

The thing that shocks me the most is Ive played like three quarters of these games and Im not a big game player.

maybe I like indie games

Baba is best

Thank you all for your responses. Please keep them coming.

NFUN: Factorio seems like the kind of game I like in concept and then would get bored of after an hour unless it really clicked with me. I'd love to be proven wrong, though, because it looks like it can be a lot of fun.
plasma: Oh wow, I didn't realize Guacamelee had multiplayer. That game came up during my metroidvania topic, so I was looking at it pretty seriously, but I ended up buying other games that got more recommendations.
andy: I only have a PC, so Cadence is out, sadly.
UF8: I have not played Obra Dinn, and I'm honestly not sure at a glance whether I would love it or completely balk if I tried it.
Plum: Looks like you've played more than me, then. But wasn't Baba Is You in the last contest?

Aside from Subnautica having a strong showing, this poll has turned out mostly how I expected. Thought SK would have a little more of a lead, but maybe it's just blase at this point. Honestly, I'd be willing to try out almost any of these games except maybe Darkest Dungeon, which doesn't really seem like my thing, so hearing interesting, unusual, or particularly enthusastic recommendations is very helpful. There's a solid chance I pick up some of these during the winter sale.

Anyone else out there looking for recs?

Bloodstained is my favorite of those. It's the type of game that gets better and better as it goes along.

andylt posted...

Subnautica ran out of steam for me lategame but it holds its magic for a long time before then (haven't played Sub Zero yet, don't know if that's a better one to play or not).

It's 100% not the better one to play.

Having never played a Castlevania game ever, I enjoyed playing through Bloodstained all the way to the platinum.

Bloodstained knows what it wants to be and does it pretty well, don't pick it up on Switch though.

Shovel Knight is Shovel Knight.

Cuphead's gameplay is a little unbalanced but it's an incredible experience, worth it if you like the style.

Steamworld gets a bit samey after awhile and imo the story is nothing to talk about, but it's some good fun.

You really can't go wrong with most of these honestly, just down to your tastes.

I only played Bloodstained and Shovel Knight
Both are great 8/10 games
But I never got the feel that they are a "must play" so whatever

factorio has a demo

Darkest Dungeon is great if you've ever played and enjoyed XCOM enemy within

Darkest Dungeon is also good in a sadomasochistic kind of way.

I'll throw in a vote for Hyper Light Drifter.

Whats nice about Hyper Light Drifter is that it has more collectibles than you need to finish the game. So you dont have to stress about finding every little doodad.

azuarc posted...

UF8: I have not played Obra Dinn, and I'm honestly not sure at a glance whether I would love it or completely balk if I tried it.

Have you played Outer Wilds? I feel like those two games are in the camp of, "if you've played one and enjoyed it, you'll probably enjoy the other." I wholeheartedly recommend both games.

From the list, the games that stick out to me are:
Hotline Miami
Cuphead
Baba is You

Hotline Miami is great if you want fast-paced action that has quick retries. It feels really good when you figure out how to approach a level and nail the execution.

Cuphead is a really satisfying 2D shooter with some of the coolest animation in a game.

Baba is You is tough. It's a puzzle game I still haven't beaten after years of owning it, but it's so good. Like someone else mentioned, it's nice to return to (especially with others who you can quickly explain the game to) and solve puzzles after you've been away for a while.

I just picked up baba is you

Might be the most aptly named title for a game ever

VintageGin posted...

Have you played Outer Wilds? I feel like those two games are in the camp of, "if you've played one and enjoyed it, you'll probably enjoy the other." I wholeheartedly recommend both games.

I liked Outer Wilds much more, but I agree with this take

andylt posted...

Subnautica ran out of steam for me lategame but it holds its magic for a long time before then (haven't played Sub Zero yet, don't know if that's a better one to play or not).

Not really. It's a smaller map (I'm told, I didn't play the two back-to-back), and it's more talky than the first game. I couldn't finish either game because I couldn't figure out which crevasse I needed to dive into to continue progression.

Uglyface2 posted...

Not really. It's a smaller map (I'm told, I didn't play the two back-to-back), and it's more talky than the first game. I couldn't finish either game because I couldn't figure out which crevasse I needed to dive into to continue progression.

Subnautica is one of the games where I highly recommend using a map to find specific dive locations. It just makes the game flow much smoother and lets you focus on the cool exploration that makes the game awesome instead of trying to memorize locations which you honestly could do with just extensive note keeping

Baba Is You is a puzzle game masterpiece, can't recommend it enough

So is The Witness but it wasn't in the poll

Return of the Obra Dinn and Outer Wilds were mentioned in this topic and I must also boost them

I feel like these four games get recommended in some sort of tandem a lot but I do consider them to be four best games of the last 5 years, so.

Will echo Obra Din. But The Witness would be the one on the list I would probably recommend the most. Dead Cells is fun too though.

Oh, I also think Darkest Dungeon is really good, it's a really tight and quite challenging rpg, extremely sweaty game, not for everyone

I've played a decent chunk of these games- 18 out of 25! could make a topic ranting about them

DeepsPraw posted...

Baba is easily the best game in the poll

what i will say- it turns out that everyone i know that recommended Baba Is You had only played it for a couple of hours, and didn't get past the second world. i felt betrayed! i myself hit a wall on (i think) the third- whatever area you start getting the word nothing/empty

the game is a great concept and i'm glad it exists. it just has a crushing and inscrutable level of difficulty that i wouldn't quite call fun. there's no side content or whatever so you just end up uninstalling at some point

i'd say The Witness is a better puzzle game, and Baba a better puzzle demo. they're both great, but calling Baba the best game on the list is kind of like Jonathan Blow calling "Stephen's Sausage Roll" the best game ever

Paratroopa1 posted...

Return of the Obra Dinn and Outer Wilds were mentioned in this topic and I must also boost them

Had a nagging feeling that there were some snubs from the list, and those are definitely it

My favorite games on the list have to be Hollow Knight, Hyper-Light Drifter, Disco Elysium, The Witness, and Hotline Miami. Some of my more turn-based friends would give a different top 5, and a few others have amazing co-op

The only one on the list I've played that I think you could go wrong just diving into might be Slime Rancher. There were others that weren't really my thing, but i could totally see why people loved it, or at least loved the first few hours. Indie games are supposed to take risks, be specialized, and not for everyone! I loved Pyre, but I recognize the gameplay and overall structure frustrates some people

All in all, this channel has a pretty good idea of what they're talking about!

side note- do not confuse Outer Wilds and Outer Worlds. Wilds is the one you want

Bloodstained Beststained

I really loved Shovel Knight (plus the various spin off variations). Can't go wrong with that!

Bloodstained was also a solid Castlevania game.

I'm no expert on indie games but I enjoyed Outer Wilds.

banananor posted...

side note- do not confuse Outer Wilds and Outer Worlds. Wilds is the one you want

I own both, so...

I got very far in Baba and it was a good game the whole time. Around the time you think maybe theyve done everything interesting that they can with the puzzles, you can find a HUGE new thing that changes everything moving forward. Its definitely hard and the best way to play is to move on from a puzzle after 20 or 30 minutes if you cant solve it. Almost every time I did this, the next time I played the game I would go back to one I was stuck on and solve it almost instantly

imo Bloodstained has the best gameplay of any Castlevania game, although the atmosphere isn't quite as good as the main series.

WazzupGenius00 posted...

I got very far in Baba and it was a good game the whole time. Around the time you think maybe theyve done everything interesting that they can with the puzzles, you can find a HUGE new thing that changes everything moving forward. Its definitely hard and the best way to play is to move on from a puzzle after 20 or 30 minutes if you cant solve it. Almost every time I did this, the next time I played the game I would go back to one I was stuck on and solve it almost instantly

Oh yeah just kidding I'm smart, too. I totally beat the entire game without any help from online guides, probably only took me like 20 minutes

Picked up Baba is you. This game is awesome. Laughed pretty hard when I made the level a key. Really curious where that goes

Baba was already on my list but hearing all this talk about it, I'm very intrigued... Didn't know it was brutally difficult or super long though!

And yeah seconding all the Outer Wilds recs that game is amazing. (Outer Worlds is pretty good too!)

Slime Rancher is pretty fun if you like the premise! Nothing mindblowing or amazing but it does what it says on the tin!

Hyper light drifter is the best one by far

adding a couple of these to my watchlist during the winter sale

The other thing with Baba is that a level creator mode was added recently so there's probably even more content than before

I just beat all the worlds of baba is you and was surprised nothing else happened.

Do I have to beat all the levels? if so kill me. Getting the last one of 4 in world 10 took hours

masterplum posted...

I just beat all the worlds of baba is you and was surprised nothing else happened.

Do I have to beat all the levels? if so kill me. Getting the last one of 4 in world 10 took hours

did you clear the 3 levels at the top of the map?