Hey all. Always enjoyed reading everyone’s suggestions on more unknown games available during big steam sales.
I’ll start off with one that I have been a fan of for a long time: Death Road to Canada
This game is like a zombie action Oregon Trail like game, where you manage supplies and fight through hordes of zombies on your way to the safe haven of Canada. Only US$3.74 right now and well worth it imo!
I highly recommend CrossCode, currently only costs $6 (It also has a free demo if you want to try it first). It’s a really well polished game with a great story, and the action is amazing too. It also includes difficulty settings you can change if you feel yourself getting too frustrated (as I did sometimes). This video also sums it up pretty well. Hope you enjoy!
I don’t understand how it’s not a classic. The music and art is amazing, the story and characters are charming, the battle system is fun, it’s full of side quests and places to explore. Maybe it’s because the dungeons are literally 2 hours of non-stop puzzles (they went a bit hard on the puzzles), but if you can get past that, it’s definitely worth your time!
When I stop plugging Paradise Killer it will be because I am dead and in the ground. Absolute masterpiece of theming and plot. It’s a mystery game without the clunky logic puzzles-- just your patience and intuition. And my God, the music. I’ve been obsessed for over a year now.
Solasta: Crown of the Magister - Old school D&D and tactics RPG. It’s indie so has rough edges here and there, but it’s so fun, and there aren’t a ton of games that fill the void.
Dungeon of the Endless - It’s a tower defense / tactical game with great pixel art and one of the best soundtracks I’ve ever heard.
Battle Chasers: Nightwar - Excellent RPG that will remind you of old school Final Fantasy.
Tower of Time - Excellent tactical RPG
Detroit: Become Human - Cinematic narrative game about androids becoming self aware.
The Dark Anthology: Man of Medan - Cinematic narrative horror game, the first in a series of several, therefore if you enjoy there’s a lot more where that came from. (Made by the same studio that created Until Dawn.)
If you like old time puzzle games, and have a pinch for programming, then you will love this. In this game you control bots by creating algorithms to extract data and other challenges. The cool part is you must study the game language and learn the lore from manuals and magazines that the game provides.
Summer 1996, Today is the day! You hit the road. Adventure. Freedom. Escape. Run. Flee the Regime. Try to survive.
On this risky road trip to the border, you’ll meet incredible characters, and discover their intertwined stories and secrets in an ever-evolving adventure.
But every mile opens up a choice to make. Your decisions will change your adventure, change the people you meet, maybe even change the world.
It’s worth noting that EXAPUNKS is substantially easier than Shenzhen I/O. I actually preferred it though because experimenting with different strategies to increase speed was more fun to me than, say, beating my head against kelp harvesting robot.
For me it’s Songs of Conquest - spiritual successor of Heroes of Might and Magic 3. It looks great, the gameplay is awesome, they took all of the best parts of HoMM and got rid of the more frustrating ones (for example there is a unit cap for a single slot, so you can’t have 2000 skeletons in a single unit). There are also some cool new mechanics, like every unit gives some kind of essence, which is used as a resource for using spells, so depending on your team composition you get access to different spells. Overall definitely worth checking out for every HoMM fan!
APICO, a nice little beekeeping simulator with bee-breeding mechanics and building.
Ages of Conflict: World War Simulator, an incredibly cheap God-game/nation simulator. Not comparable to WorldBox, though. Just a little game for making nations fight and painting maps
The 64GB emmc drive in the Deck uses the m.2 expansion slot, so you can pop out the emmc drive and swap in a 2230 form factor nvme drive and be gtg after reinstalling SteamOS.
I myself went from a 256GB drive to a 1TB drive, and this weekend, I’ll be popping in a 2TB drive I just received in the mail.
Shakedown: Hawaii - 80% off at 3,99€ - Think GTA for the 16-bit era.
2Dark - 90% off at 2,49€ - Think Alone in the Dark but top-down and in retro/voxel style, from the original creator of Alone in the Dark.
UnderRail - 60% off at 5,67€ - Hidden or not, this one can’t be recommended enough to fans of the original Fallout (1 & 2, isometric) games.
Space Haven - 60% off at 8,79€ - In-depth colony/spaceship building & management sim with cozy graphics.
Crystal Caves HD - 60% off at 2,63€ - A true testament to how to faithfully bring an old platformer into HD, while also innovating on the original. Also contains a lot of hidden gems.
Supraland Complete Edition - 54% off at 15,71€ - First-Person-Metroidvania in a literal sandbox, lots of freedom, lots of puzzles and exploring. Contains the DLC. Get this to gear up for the eventual release of the sequel Supraworld. The standalone Supraland Six Inches Under is also worth getting, but is “only” at 45% off, which is still great.
I have to recommend my favorite game of the last few years - CrossCode
It has everything. Snappy combat, build diversity, varying enemies, incredible story and characters, beautiful pixel art, and unique puzzles.
The combat is fantastic. It’s very responsive and has so much diversity in each element you obtain. The gear has so much variety to augment your builds.
I love a great story in games. I adore the story in this game. Lea is a compelling main character while being one of few words (literally). Her friends she makes along the way are charming and frustrating but in a redeeming way. The universe has so much lore to discover in every facet, and the real-life MMO setting is captivating to explore.
If you aren’t a fan of puzzles, you can reduce the timing of elements of those puzzles to make them easier to solve/execute. A good handful are time-based execution ones, so this feature is very helpful if you’re ever having a hard time pulling off one or two puzzles.
Risk of Rain 2 - 50% 12.49€ 96% positive
Action rogue lite hero 3rd person shooter thingy - My absolute favourite game in recent memory.
Not sure if this counts as hidden but many fans of the genre don’t know it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Insanely good soundtrack, cool artstyle, creative characters with very diverse abilities and gameplay, plenty of enemies and bosses, hidden features, locations, items, bosses, c̴͕͎͚̗̥̀̃̓h̴̘̯̎͗ȧ̶͕̤̪̦̺̂̕r̷͚͑̔͒̃͝a̵̖̩̣̍̂̈́̎̿c̷̱͓̪͖̈́ṫ̵̯̈͂̚e̷̺͓̙̥͆̓ŗ̷̢̻̺̞͠s̸̩̍̍̀?̴̼̘̱̗̯̈̋̄
You know how some rogue lites make sure items stop stacking so they don’t break the run?
Yeah that’s not one of these. Go nuts, break the game, fly through the map, just to get too cocky and lose it all in the blink of an eye.
The original Risk of Rain is also a banger, currently 80% off at 1.99€. Same concept but 2D sidescroller with pixel graphics. Incredibly sweet game.
Art of Rally - 45% 13.74€ 92% positive
Challenging game with arcadey look and sim-ish feel.
Beautiful visuals and a chill soundtrack. Great for white knuckled time attack or hours of zen drifting in freeroam.
Devil Daggers - 50% 3.99€ 96% positive
Highscore based retro arena shooter bullet hell kinda deal. PSX era 3D look, one weapon with two modes, surprisingly interesting movement (think b-hops, rocket jumps).
Every run is mostly identical. Enemies always spawn at specific times, but in random locations of the claustrophobic empty map. The longer you survive, the higher the score.
Also fantastic sound design!
Hyper Demon - 33% 8.36€ 95% positive
Sequel to Devil Daggers. Turns everything to 11. Complete fever dream. Adds an absolutely psychotic rear view mechanic, where close enemies outside your FOV appear mirrored in red colour on your screen.
Adds several movement and combat mechanics, while still keeping the weapon very simple.
Different score system while keeping the timed spawns. Killing in rapid succession increases your score, just scraping by drops it over time.
Lethal League Blaze - 35% 12.99€ 97% positive
Projectile Fighting Game with saturday morning cartoon style 3D visuals. There’s a ball in the middle, whoever touched it last “owns” it. If you get hit by the ball, you take damage. If you hit it back, you own it and it speeds up. And you build special meter for absurd special moves.
Turns into a mind melting firework of on screen effects the faster the ball gets.
Has a decent campaign to learn the game and fight bots. Bangin soundtrack
Up to 4 players, local and online play.
The original, Lethal League is also on sale for like 5.99€. Fully 2D visuals, also very charming. iirc slightly lower health and no campaign.
Nidhogg - 60% 3.99€ 90% positive
If you don’t know Nidhogg go play Nidhogg. Bring a friend.
Low-Fi 2D fighting game.
You can run, you can jump, you can duck, you can stab. 4 Maps to utterly cover in pixel blodd.
That’s about it.
It opens up more the better you get, but just go play it, folks.
Win against your buddies by getting through 3 screens in a tug-o-war kind of system and prove your worth by sacrificing yourself to the Nidhogg.
Tournament mode available. Nidhogg 2 is also on sale for 5.99€ 81% positive at like 800 reviews.
They got budget for graphics that time which… they used.
Different weapons add a rock paper scissors dynamic to the game, everything else is mostly the same! Good stuff.
Post Void - 20% 2.39€ 97% positive
A wild ride of a psychedelci action rogue like? No meta progression from what I could tell, which is why I’d be hesitant to call it a rogue lite.
Basically run based randomly generated doom while your ego melts away after a heroic dose of psychoactives.
Health literally runs out (of the head you carry) over time. Kill to heal, don’t get hit.
DO NOT TOUCH IF YOU HAVE EXPERIENCED PHOTOSENSITIVE EPILEPSY BEFORE.
Redout - 75% 4.99€ 87% positive
The quintessential zero-G racer for PC.
Very similar to the classics like Wipeout, but innovating on the formula. You’ll need a controller!
Left stick steers as you’d expect, right stick points the nose of your racer to compensate for tight turns and to prevent blackout / redout during high-G maneuvers.
A classic campaign mode lets you unlock several classes of racers, two handsfull of upgrades let you adjust how you play.
Sweet thumpin soundtrack
Online play supports up to 12 players though I’d be a bit surprised if you find that many on the servers :D
Split Screen mode available!
The Sequel Redout 2 is also on sale at 14.99€ but it has even fewer reviews, fans of the games seem to favour it for longer tracks, deeper customization and improved gameplay. I haven’t tried it yet though.
Heat Signature - 50% 6.49€ 94% positive
If Hotline Miami was set in space. And a rogue lite.
Pull off crazy heists aboard enemy ships to liberate the galaxy from authoritarian empires, each faction generally having some specializations when it comes to gadgets and tech which you get to unlock for your runs.
Can be frustrating at times but on the flipside a close save get so much more intense. Also you usually get several chances to save your skin - if you’re captured you get thrown out an airlock and take control of your escape pod to fish your body out of hard vacuum.
Generally there are so many cool mechanics, I’m having a hard time to pick highlights.
I wanted to chime in and say that no one should sleep on Risk of Rain 2, it’s a fantastic game and easily worth the $12.49. Nice list you put together!
I was initially put off by the art style of Risk of Rain 2, but once I started playing I found that it gelled really well with the game. I’m really happy my friend convinced me to play it.
Andto parrot everyone else, the soundtrack is killer.
It’s a very well made pixel art game where you play hockey and you can beat up the other team. There’s a franchise mode as well, so you’ll want to balance how much fighting you do so your players don’t get too hurt. There’s local co-op so you can play against friends (or use steam remote play together).
Similar to Overcooked but you need to manage your restaurant and make sure you don’t fail a single order. It’s a rouge-lite, and you can move everything around in your restaurant and you kind of manage the menu as the days go on, but you get a choice whether to add option A or B, so it slowly gets more complicated. Very fun with friends, steam remote play together works here as well.
Similar to Overcooked and PlateUp!, but I feel like it’s more geared towards single player (but there’s local co-op as well). You have to manage your restaurant and menu (can make it as easy or complex as you’d like), while also maybe killing customers to harvest them for ingredients :) You can spawn in helpers and you can show them a repetitive task to do and they will do it.
I don’t hear much about Kenshi except for within folks who already play and let’s players on YouTube, but it’s one of my all time favorites. Can be hard to get into but watching a beginner video or reading some wiki will let you get into this massive, strange world. Currently only 13.50, which I think works out to like 2 cents an hour for me.
I can second Kenshi even if I’ve never been able to go too far into the game. However it is really a gem and I hope I’ll find the time to get back to it
Timespinner: A really solid Metroidvania - very similar to older Castlevania games. It’s on sale for just under $6 USD. Great deal. I got a solid 28 hours out of the game and loved it (tho, if you race to the end it isn’t super long but still good for the price). Don’t sleep on it for that price if you like the genre, and are itching for that old school Castlevania feel. An actual hidden gem IMO.
Broforce: Not a hidden gem, but a hilariously fun side scrolling shooter like Contra that you could play with a few friends (and levels going up and down, not just running to the right, plus destructible environments that you can use to kill your friends for laughs). $3 USD, hard to pass up even if you only play it for one drunken night with your friends. We all had a lot of fun with this. Maybe too much fun.
Toukiden 2: This game has been sitting at full price for years. I could never understand why. It’s a Monster Hunter style game with a full open world for single player, but multiplayer gameplay for boss battles similar to MH. I had fun with it for a bit but I have been waiting for it to go on sale so I can play it with some friends. Significant sale at $23.99 USD compared to the usual $60 USD and it doesn’t happen often. It’s worth looking at. I enjoyed the few hours I played a lot, but I couldn’t tell you how good it is overall. Reviews seem good.
Grim Dawn: Others have already mentioned this one. It’s the successor to Titans Quest, and perhaps the spiritual successor to Diablo 2. Supports mods, which is great! Stash enhancements, character editors, etc. It’s an ARPG game similar to Path of Exile and Diablo. Story is decent, there’s some cool mechanics and choices matter type stuff, but even with those you can still play with your friends. You can get the game with expansions (totally worth getting) for around $21-$25 USD. Great deal and you’ll be supporting a great company, Crate Entertainment takes care of their fans and keep supporting the game.
just grabbed god of war, disco elysium, and hellblade senuas sacrifice…
as far as recommendations go, Mass Effect legendary edition and dragon age are very enjoyable if you like RPG with a focus on lore, story and characters. Red Dead Redemption 2 is a wonder and a steal at $20. Witcher 3 for $12. Horizon Zero Dawn for $16.50
I love GOG and their anti-DRM stance but I just can’t bring myself to buy games there when they don’t even have a native Linux launcher. Steam, on the other hand, just works.
You are not logged in. However you can subscribe from another Fediverse account, for example Lemmy or Mastodon. To do this, paste the following into the search field of your instance: !gaming@beehaw.org
From video gaming to card games and stuff in between, if it’s gaming you can probably discuss it here!
Please Note: Gaming memes are permitted to be posted on Meme Mondays, but will otherwise be removed in an effort to allow other discussions to take place.
I highly recommend CrossCode, currently only costs $6 (It also has a free demo if you want to try it first). It’s a really well polished game with a great story, and the action is amazing too. It also includes difficulty settings you can change if you feel yourself getting too frustrated (as I did sometimes). This video also sums it up pretty well. Hope you enjoy!
I don’t understand how it’s not a classic. The music and art is amazing, the story and characters are charming, the battle system is fun, it’s full of side quests and places to explore. Maybe it’s because the dungeons are literally 2 hours of non-stop puzzles (they went a bit hard on the puzzles), but if you can get past that, it’s definitely worth your time!
When I stop plugging Paradise Killer it will be because I am dead and in the ground. Absolute masterpiece of theming and plot. It’s a mystery game without the clunky logic puzzles-- just your patience and intuition. And my God, the music. I’ve been obsessed for over a year now.
Looks weird, I’m in!
A few to add in:
Solasta: Crown of the Magister - Old school D&D and tactics RPG. It’s indie so has rough edges here and there, but it’s so fun, and there aren’t a ton of games that fill the void.
Dungeon of the Endless - It’s a tower defense / tactical game with great pixel art and one of the best soundtracks I’ve ever heard.
Battle Chasers: Nightwar - Excellent RPG that will remind you of old school Final Fantasy.
Tower of Time - Excellent tactical RPG
Detroit: Become Human - Cinematic narrative game about androids becoming self aware.
The Dark Anthology: Man of Medan - Cinematic narrative horror game, the first in a series of several, therefore if you enjoy there’s a lot more where that came from. (Made by the same studio that created Until Dawn.)
Doesn’t actually appear to be on sale tho
Weird. Looks like they just discounted the Endless bundle.
My mistake. (Still a great game, though.)
EXAPUNK - 50% - 96% Positive
If you like old time puzzle games, and have a pinch for programming, then you will love this. In this game you control bots by creating algorithms to extract data and other challenges. The cool part is you must study the game language and learn the lore from manuals and magazines that the game provides.
SHENZHEN I/O - 50% - 93% Positive
From the same creator of EXAPUNK, only the thematic here is electronics.
Road 96 - 50% 91% Positive
Summer 1996, Today is the day! You hit the road. Adventure. Freedom. Escape. Run. Flee the Regime. Try to survive.
On this risky road trip to the border, you’ll meet incredible characters, and discover their intertwined stories and secrets in an ever-evolving adventure. But every mile opens up a choice to make. Your decisions will change your adventure, change the people you meet, maybe even change the world.
Shenzhen I/O is one of my favorite games, along with TIS-100. I think it’s time to just dive in and go through the rest of the zacktronic games.
It’s worth noting that EXAPUNKS is substantially easier than Shenzhen I/O. I actually preferred it though because experimenting with different strategies to increase speed was more fun to me than, say, beating my head against kelp harvesting robot.
Road 96 was so much fun! Definitely worth it at that price.
Zachtronics games are great. ^Especially their solitaires…^
They are. I was hooked on SpaceChem long ago and since then I’ve bought all of them (even Infinifactory
despite the lack of solitaire)I’d recommend Silicon Zeroes too, not by Zach Barth but in very much the same genre and well made too.
For me it’s Songs of Conquest - spiritual successor of Heroes of Might and Magic 3. It looks great, the gameplay is awesome, they took all of the best parts of HoMM and got rid of the more frustrating ones (for example there is a unit cap for a single slot, so you can’t have 2000 skeletons in a single unit). There are also some cool new mechanics, like every unit gives some kind of essence, which is used as a resource for using spells, so depending on your team composition you get access to different spells. Overall definitely worth checking out for every HoMM fan!
A short hike. 99% positive with over 10k votes
A short game too but simply worth it
APICO, a nice little beekeeping simulator with bee-breeding mechanics and building.
Ages of Conflict: World War Simulator, an incredibly cheap God-game/nation simulator. Not comparable to WorldBox, though. Just a little game for making nations fight and painting maps
I feel obligated to recommend a Steam Deck if you have interest in one and can afford it.
We have 2 and I would get a 3rd if I could lol (with a bulky protective case etc. so I can be less careful)
The most cost efficient way to go is buy the cheapest version and then put something like this in it https://www.westerndigital.com/en-il/products/internal-drives/pc-sn740-ssd#SDDPTQD-256G
IMPORTANT NOTE: MAKE SURE YOU GET A 2230 SIZED NVME DRIVE. 2280 drives will NOT fit.
If you don’t want to do that you can alternatively just get a big micro SD card and save the SSD swap for later For best speeds you want it to say A2 and have a 3 inside a U.
Even besides playing video games it’s an awesome little mini pc. Not perfect but awesome, and an amazing value at $359.
Wait does the 64GB option support M.2 NVMe? I thought it only supports eMMC and that you can’t swap with a different NVMe drive, but maybe I’m wrong?
as someone with a 64gb deck with a 512gb drive swapped in I can confirm it works!
The 64GB emmc drive in the Deck uses the m.2 expansion slot, so you can pop out the emmc drive and swap in a 2230 form factor nvme drive and be gtg after reinstalling SteamOS.
I myself went from a 256GB drive to a 1TB drive, and this weekend, I’ll be popping in a 2TB drive I just received in the mail.
I concur. It changed the way I play games, especially last gen and indies.
You can swap the ssd! Why are they charging so much to upgrade to only 256gb of Nvme storage?
Probably because they’re losing money on the cheapest one
I have to recommend my favorite game of the last few years - CrossCode
It has everything. Snappy combat, build diversity, varying enemies, incredible story and characters, beautiful pixel art, and unique puzzles.
The combat is fantastic. It’s very responsive and has so much diversity in each element you obtain. The gear has so much variety to augment your builds.
I love a great story in games. I adore the story in this game. Lea is a compelling main character while being one of few words (literally). Her friends she makes along the way are charming and frustrating but in a redeeming way. The universe has so much lore to discover in every facet, and the real-life MMO setting is captivating to explore. If you aren’t a fan of puzzles, you can reduce the timing of elements of those puzzles to make them easier to solve/execute. A good handful are time-based execution ones, so this feature is very helpful if you’re ever having a hard time pulling off one or two puzzles.
Risk of Rain 2 - 50% 12.49€ 96% positive
Action rogue lite hero 3rd person shooter thingy - My absolute favourite game in recent memory.
Not sure if this counts as hidden but many fans of the genre don’t know it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Insanely good soundtrack, cool artstyle, creative characters with very diverse abilities and gameplay, plenty of enemies and bosses, hidden features, locations, items, bosses,
c̴͕͎͚̗̥̀̃̓h̴̘̯̎͗ȧ̶͕̤̪̦̺̂̕r̷͚͑̔͒̃͝a̵̖̩̣̍̂̈́̎̿c̷̱͓̪͖̈́ṫ̵̯̈͂̚e̷̺͓̙̥͆̓ŗ̷̢̻̺̞͠s̸̩̍̍̀?̴̼̘̱̗̯̈̋̄You know how some rogue lites make sure items stop stacking so they don’t break the run?
Yeah that’s not one of these. Go nuts, break the game, fly through the map, just to get too cocky and lose it all in the blink of an eye.
The original Risk of Rain is also a banger, currently 80% off at 1.99€. Same concept but 2D sidescroller with pixel graphics. Incredibly sweet game.
Art of Rally - 45% 13.74€ 92% positive
Challenging game with arcadey look and sim-ish feel.
Beautiful visuals and a chill soundtrack. Great for white knuckled time attack or hours of zen drifting in freeroam.
Devil Daggers - 50% 3.99€ 96% positive
Highscore based retro arena shooter bullet hell kinda deal. PSX era 3D look, one weapon with two modes, surprisingly interesting movement (think b-hops, rocket jumps).
Every run is mostly identical. Enemies always spawn at specific times, but in random locations of the claustrophobic empty map. The longer you survive, the higher the score.
Also fantastic sound design!
Hyper Demon - 33% 8.36€ 95% positive
Sequel to Devil Daggers. Turns everything to 11. Complete fever dream. Adds an absolutely psychotic rear view mechanic, where close enemies outside your FOV appear mirrored in red colour on your screen.
Adds several movement and combat mechanics, while still keeping the weapon very simple.
Different score system while keeping the timed spawns. Killing in rapid succession increases your score, just scraping by drops it over time.
Lethal League Blaze - 35% 12.99€ 97% positive
Projectile Fighting Game with saturday morning cartoon style 3D visuals. There’s a ball in the middle, whoever touched it last “owns” it. If you get hit by the ball, you take damage. If you hit it back, you own it and it speeds up. And you build special meter for absurd special moves.
Turns into a mind melting firework of on screen effects the faster the ball gets.
Has a decent campaign to learn the game and fight bots. Bangin soundtrack
Up to 4 players, local and online play.
The original, Lethal League is also on sale for like 5.99€. Fully 2D visuals, also very charming. iirc slightly lower health and no campaign.
Nidhogg - 60% 3.99€ 90% positive
If you don’t know Nidhogg go play Nidhogg. Bring a friend.
Low-Fi 2D fighting game.
You can run, you can jump, you can duck, you can stab. 4 Maps to utterly cover in pixel blodd.
That’s about it.
It opens up more the better you get, but just go play it, folks.
Win against your buddies by getting through 3 screens in a tug-o-war kind of system and prove your worth by sacrificing yourself to the Nidhogg.
Tournament mode available.
Nidhogg 2 is also on sale for 5.99€ 81% positive at like 800 reviews.
They got budget for graphics that time which… they used.
Different weapons add a rock paper scissors dynamic to the game, everything else is mostly the same! Good stuff.
Post Void - 20% 2.39€ 97% positive
A wild ride of a psychedelci action rogue like? No meta progression from what I could tell, which is why I’d be hesitant to call it a rogue lite.
Basically run based randomly generated doom while your ego melts away after a heroic dose of psychoactives.
Health literally runs out (of the head you carry) over time. Kill to heal, don’t get hit.
DO NOT TOUCH IF YOU HAVE EXPERIENCED PHOTOSENSITIVE EPILEPSY BEFORE.
Redout - 75% 4.99€ 87% positive
The quintessential zero-G racer for PC.
Very similar to the classics like Wipeout, but innovating on the formula. You’ll need a controller!
Left stick steers as you’d expect, right stick points the nose of your racer to compensate for tight turns and to prevent blackout / redout during high-G maneuvers.
A classic campaign mode lets you unlock several classes of racers, two handsfull of upgrades let you adjust how you play.
Sweet thumpin soundtrack Online play supports up to 12 players though I’d be a bit surprised if you find that many on the servers :D
Split Screen mode available!
The Sequel Redout 2 is also on sale at 14.99€ but it has even fewer reviews, fans of the games seem to favour it for longer tracks, deeper customization and improved gameplay. I haven’t tried it yet though.
Heat Signature - 50% 6.49€ 94% positive
If Hotline Miami was set in space. And a rogue lite.
Pull off crazy heists aboard enemy ships to liberate the galaxy from authoritarian empires, each faction generally having some specializations when it comes to gadgets and tech which you get to unlock for your runs.
Can be frustrating at times but on the flipside a close save get so much more intense. Also you usually get several chances to save your skin - if you’re captured you get thrown out an airlock and take control of your escape pod to fish your body out of hard vacuum.
Generally there are so many cool mechanics, I’m having a hard time to pick highlights.
Heat signature is fantastic.
I wanted to chime in and say that no one should sleep on Risk of Rain 2, it’s a fantastic game and easily worth the $12.49. Nice list you put together!
I was initially put off by the art style of Risk of Rain 2, but once I started playing I found that it gelled really well with the game. I’m really happy my friend convinced me to play it.
Andto parrot everyone else, the soundtrack is killer.
Super Blood Hockey. 80% off, about $3 USD.
It’s a very well made pixel art game where you play hockey and you can beat up the other team. There’s a franchise mode as well, so you’ll want to balance how much fighting you do so your players don’t get too hurt. There’s local co-op so you can play against friends (or use steam remote play together).
PlateUp!. 40% off, about $11 USD.
Similar to Overcooked but you need to manage your restaurant and make sure you don’t fail a single order. It’s a rouge-lite, and you can move everything around in your restaurant and you kind of manage the menu as the days go on, but you get a choice whether to add option A or B, so it slowly gets more complicated. Very fun with friends, steam remote play together works here as well.
Bone’s Cafe. 30% off, about $11 USD.
Similar to Overcooked and PlateUp!, but I feel like it’s more geared towards single player (but there’s local co-op as well). You have to manage your restaurant and menu (can make it as easy or complex as you’d like), while also maybe killing customers to harvest them for ingredients :) You can spawn in helpers and you can show them a repetitive task to do and they will do it.
I don’t hear much about Kenshi except for within folks who already play and let’s players on YouTube, but it’s one of my all time favorites. Can be hard to get into but watching a beginner video or reading some wiki will let you get into this massive, strange world. Currently only 13.50, which I think works out to like 2 cents an hour for me.
I can second Kenshi even if I’ve never been able to go too far into the game. However it is really a gem and I hope I’ll find the time to get back to it
Timespinner: A really solid Metroidvania - very similar to older Castlevania games. It’s on sale for just under $6 USD. Great deal. I got a solid 28 hours out of the game and loved it (tho, if you race to the end it isn’t super long but still good for the price). Don’t sleep on it for that price if you like the genre, and are itching for that old school Castlevania feel. An actual hidden gem IMO.
Broforce: Not a hidden gem, but a hilariously fun side scrolling shooter like Contra that you could play with a few friends (and levels going up and down, not just running to the right, plus destructible environments that you can use to kill your friends for laughs). $3 USD, hard to pass up even if you only play it for one drunken night with your friends. We all had a lot of fun with this. Maybe too much fun.
Toukiden 2: This game has been sitting at full price for years. I could never understand why. It’s a Monster Hunter style game with a full open world for single player, but multiplayer gameplay for boss battles similar to MH. I had fun with it for a bit but I have been waiting for it to go on sale so I can play it with some friends. Significant sale at $23.99 USD compared to the usual $60 USD and it doesn’t happen often. It’s worth looking at. I enjoyed the few hours I played a lot, but I couldn’t tell you how good it is overall. Reviews seem good.
Grim Dawn: Others have already mentioned this one. It’s the successor to Titans Quest, and perhaps the spiritual successor to Diablo 2. Supports mods, which is great! Stash enhancements, character editors, etc. It’s an ARPG game similar to Path of Exile and Diablo. Story is decent, there’s some cool mechanics and choices matter type stuff, but even with those you can still play with your friends. You can get the game with expansions (totally worth getting) for around $21-$25 USD. Great deal and you’ll be supporting a great company, Crate Entertainment takes care of their fans and keep supporting the game.
just grabbed god of war, disco elysium, and hellblade senuas sacrifice…
as far as recommendations go, Mass Effect legendary edition and dragon age are very enjoyable if you like RPG with a focus on lore, story and characters. Red Dead Redemption 2 is a wonder and a steal at $20. Witcher 3 for $12. Horizon Zero Dawn for $16.50
So many hidden gems.
This comment made me sharply exhale cocaine chunks
Red dead 2 is available for less elsewhere.
IRC Witcher 3 is available for the same price on GOG, DRM free. Same goes for Disco Elysium.
TLDR: do your research. Other stores do offers during the steam summer sale
I love GOG and their anti-DRM stance but I just can’t bring myself to buy games there when they don’t even have a native Linux launcher. Steam, on the other hand, just works.