Favourite Indie Games of this Generation:

[robertmac43]

What are your favourite Indie games that have release since the end of 2013?

Doing this for 2 reasons:

1) I find Indie titles are often left behind when it comes to reminiscing about the best games of a generation.
2) I want to see if I have missed any of the one's people suggest.

Click to read more...

 

[Tonneau]

Baba Is You

 

[saluki]

I can't remember when Creeper World 1 came out but I love that series.

I think there are like 4 games now. It's such a fun take on tower defense.

 

[Shareefruck]

Generally feel like this about them..

Brilliant/All-time Greats:
Kentucky Route Zero
Disco Elysium
Celeste
Into the Breach
Downwell
Inside
Hollow Knight
Tunic

Really Good:
Faster Than Light
Cyber Shadow
Hyper Light Drifter
Baba is You
Limbo
Hades
Bomb Chicken

Enjoyable:
Cuphead
Blasphemous
Shovel Knight
Crypt of the Necrodancer
Cadence of Hyrule
Undertale
Katana Zero
Panzer Paladin

Want to Play:
Outer Wilds, Sifu

More people need to give Downwell a shot. It's only $3 and it's one of the most elegantly designed games of this generation, IMO. Super simple, yet novel, addictive, and deep.

 

[aleshemsky83]

By far my favorite was Furi. Half shmup, half sword fighting game, boss rush game, good story, amazing soundtrack, big challenge (but fair). Some people hated the walking sections but I loved them and I can't stand walking sims.

As close to a 10/10 game I played this gen.

 

[robertmac43]

By far my favorite was Furi. Half shmup, half sword fighting game, boss rush game, good story, amazing soundtrack, big challenge (but fair). Some people hated the walking sections but I loved them and I can't stand walking sims.

As close to a 10/10 game I played this gen.

Never played this one, but just watched some videos on it and it looks amazing!

 

[aleshemsky83]

Never played this one, but just watched some videos on it and it looks amazing!

Just be patient is my advice. It took me 8 hours on normal difficulty the first time and 2 hours the second time, all about pattern recognition.

 

[crowi]

RimWorld, by far in fact.

 

[Commander Clueless]

Somewhere around 2015 until the present the majority of games I play seem to be indies, and I've adopted a more careful approach to AAA gaming.

1) Stardew Valley (2016)
2) Frostpunk (2018)
3) Hades (2020)
4) Rocket League (2015)
5) The Messenger (2018)
6) Pyre (2017)
7) Ori and the Blind Forest/Ori and the Will of the Wisps (2015/2020)
8) Into the Breach (2018)
9) Celeste (2018)
10) King's Quest (2015)

HMs For a Few "Off the Beaten Path" Games:

1) INSIDE (2017) - Just recently got bumped off of my top ten. Short but fun and bizarrely interesting.

2) Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption (2018) - Admittedly a lot of my love for this game stems off of my love for the old Quest for Glory series from Sierra back in the day. The legendary Corey and Lori Ann Cole head this one up, and it has that classic old school feel and dad joke charm with a somewhat janky turn based combat system.

3) This War of Mine (2014) - The opposite of charm, a survival game about being a civilian in a horrible war.

4) There Came an Echo (2015) - Not so much for the game (a novel take on voice command gameplay, but the novelty wears off fairly quickly), but the soundtrack is phenomenal. In short, I recommend skipping it and just buying the soundtrack.


I will add that Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion came out in 2012 so it missed this list, but still worth a look.

 

[Ceremony]

Rocket League

 

[GreytWun]

Super Meat Boy
Castle Crashers

 

[Tonneau]

RimWorld, by far in fact.

I completely forgot about it for some reason.

Factorio is another great one.

 

[crowi]

I completely forgot about it for some reason.

Factorio is another great one.

Agreed, that's a good one as well.

 

[Frankie Blueberries]

Top tier:
Inside
Bastion
Rocket League
Divinity: Original Sin 2

Great:
Amnesia series
Slay the Spire
Wargroove
Dead Cells
Super Meat Boy
SteamWorld Dig 2
Hades
Celeste
Stardew Valley
Limbo
Braid
Cuphead
Risk of Rain 2


Good:
Enter the Gungeon
Golf Story

Ok:
Gone Home
Fez

I'm about 2 hours into Undertale and it's...ok.
Got about 1-2 hours into Hollow Knight and my Xbox broke, waiting for it to go on sale. I could see it being a Top Tier game. Same with Firewatch and Subnautica.
My backlog on Switch includes Into The Breach, Downwell,

 

[Ryuji Yamazaki]

Hades.

So addictive

 

[blue425]

Rain World
Katana Zero
Noita
Huntdown

Four very different games. All awesome.

 

[The Burdened]

Stardew Valley

 

[Teemu]

Stardew Valley

 

[Desdichado93]

Kingdom Come: Deliverance

 

[JaegerDice]

In order of Must-Play

Baba is You
Undertale
Faster than Light
Into the Breach
Outer Wilds
Hades
Stardew Valley
Dead Cells
Rocket League
Rogue Legacy
Celeste
Pyre
Wargroove
Crypt of the Necrodancer
Ori and the Blind Forest
Cuphead
Inside
Shovel Knight
The Messenger
Axiom Verge
Katana Zero
Furi


Honestly, I thought Inside was very overrated. It was well done, no doubt, but not the monumental achievement so many made it out to be.

Different strokes, different folks, I guess

 

[Frankie Blueberries]

What are people's impressions of Moonlighter? I saw a short video clip and it looked a bit like the 2D Zelda games in terms of the dungeon design/bosses.

 

[Tonneau]

What are people's impressions of Moonlighter?

It's mediocre at best.

 

[Shareefruck]

How is Hades? I can't say I'm drawn into what I've seen of it, but everyone seems to be talking about it.

My backlog on Switch includes Into The Breach, Downwell,

Honestly, I thought Inside was very overrated. It was well done, no doubt, but not the monumental achievement so many made it out to be.

Different strokes, different folks, I guess

It's not a monumental technical/gameplay achievement for sure (it's not trying to be-- it just knows its modest strengths in those areas and does an immaculately polished job at something simple and that they had already done before), but in terms of tasteful delivery, understated and uncompromising/minimalistic creative choices and getting the nuances of every moment/action exactly right, it's absolutely unmatched, IMO. So many videogames try so hard to be artistic and to give you this big bombastic emotional feeling, and it's almost always somewhat overbearing, on-the-nose, obnoxious, and heavy-handed in a way that feels like a huge step down from what other mediums have accomplished, IMO (the revered artistic games like Journey, Shadow of the Colossus, Bioshock, and Braid, while I like them all to varying degrees and I find impressive, all are somewhat guilty of this)-- They usually feel more like they're trying to be artistic instead of just being it. Inside is the only one whose mood, feeling, and assured direction can legitimately go toe-to-toe with a great film, in my eyes, and it does it in such a deceptively elegant and simple way.

Personally, I think its appeal is more of a perfection and sensibilities thing than a ground-breaking innovation/game-changing thing (the latter being something with overstated value and that I think people often get too caught up in-- I don't really care if something's novel, I care if it's sensible and compelling). I can agree that someone treating it as the latter is pretty off the mark.

 

[Commander Clueless]

How is Hades? I can't say I'm drawn into what I've seen of it, but everyone seems to be talking about it.

Honestly, while I'm a fan of Supergiant's work (mostly Pyre - one of the more unique games I've ever played), Hades' style is not normally my thing. I'm usually not a fan of roguelikes/roguelites in general.

However, Hades is very much the exception. It's phenomenal, and actually uses the multiple run/death loop as a storytelling mechanic.

100% recommended from me. It's been in early access since 2018 and they definitely used that time wisely. It skyrocketed into my top three indie games list above and. so far, it is far and away my game of the year for 2020.

I will say, if you're planning to get it on Switch, my advice would be to not use the joycons unless you really hate your hands.

 

[Commander Clueless]

What are people's impressions of Moonlighter? I saw a short video clip and it looked a bit like the 2D Zelda games in terms of the dungeon design/bosses.

I was very interested in it but honestly it ended up a little underwhelming. The shopkeeper side was very underbaked, IMO, and the rest is just sort of a mediocre roguelite (which I'm not really a fan of in general, as I stated above).