Indie Discussion/Recommendations

Zero-Cool

I recently picked up American Fugitive on PS4 on sale for 8 euro, absolutely loving it. Made me think of how many other Indie gems that are out there hiding the pile of shyte. Being on PS4, I have the advantage of a lot of these already being out on PC and might get some feedback on here.

Anyone recommend the below, have your own gems to add or ones to avoid?

Currently interested in these:

Beat Cop - What a great trailer!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BVPLjx-7Q4

Stranded Deep - This looks right up my street but a comment i saw online was that it's very boring.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9_iyrd8EsA

Subnautica - I hear so many good things about this but I'm not sure if diving in the ocean would get boring?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rz2SNm8VguE

A Night in the Woods - I hear it has a great story and I love a great story.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8109dIuc-bo

Darkwood - Looks like a great little Indie horror.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OU-mR3LY-OI

Retr0gamer

Can only comment on subnautica but can confirm it's an absolute gem. Definitely pick it up. Thought I'd hate it as I don't like survival crafting games but this one has enough structure and story to differentiate itself and survival elements aren't intrusive

petejmk

Thanks for the American Fugitive recommendation. Looks great.

Zero-Cool

petejmk wrote: »

Thanks for the American Fugitive recommendation. Looks great.

It's 8 euro on PSN at the moment, great price for it.

TheRepentent

Guacamelee 2..great mexican wrestler based platformer..justa 5er on steam at the moment. The first one was excellent too. recommend both

Zero-Cool

I absolutely love both Guacamelee's, can't recommend them enough.

Grumpypants

I played stranded deep way back in pc early access and it was early but enjoyable.

You crash land on a desert island and have to gather resources to try and escape. There is no zombies or other players ruining it.

I got to the point where I built a little house and had a raft to go from island to island. Looking at the trailer it looks like it has come on a good bit.

Zero-Cool

I forgot about this thread, currently playing Road 96 which is incredible. Finished Hollow Knight last week, wow I can't believe I missed out on that for so long. Currently waiting on Punch Club 2 to release. Lake is out tomorrow as part of PS Plus Extra. Will be getting Dredge in the next couple of weeks (need to finish a couple of other games first). Also ordered Surviving the Aftermath from Amazon. It dropped in price to a fiver for a couple of days but I had to wait over a month for the stock, arriving in the next 2 weeks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1xnA8mA2yI&t=1s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4Gg1SaSVN8

https://youtu.be/ZNUfdZyzB3Q

Zero-Cool

Punch Club 2 Demo now on Steam for anyone interested.

https://twitter.com/LazyBearGames/status/1658140394956234755?t=k7QfcKJudFE0Z3kWYCvWjA&s=19

pixelburp

I'd been following the dev of this (one of those one-man jobs), and while in Early Access seems to be getting a bit of enthusiasm and buzz. An immersive sim gone overboard: it generates a random city each playthrough filled with murders and crimes you, a gumshoe, must solve. It emphasises a lot of manual detecting; reading phonebooks, putting together the evidence yourself, all that kind of thing. Buggy as hell but has a lot of potential.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/986130/Shadows_of_Doubt/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeB4veq5IRI

johnny_ultimate

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120609881#Comment_120609881

It's an intriguing idea for sure, and always happy to see immersive sim ideas expanded.

Proc-gen mystery-solving does give me pause, though. As a lot of the best 'detective' games recently - Obra Dinn, Outer Wilds, Golden Idol etc... - have proven the importance of a properly authored story with twists, revelations and interconnectedness is central to the genre. Hell, a century or so of detective pulp fiction has also shown that! Not sure at all that that's something that could ever come close to being replicated with any consistency in a game where the jigsaw is randomised.

pixelburp

The apotheosis of the 80s flavoured, vaguely anime, roguelite, synthwave, indie-game may have arrived. I can't decide if my brain loves it, or is just completely over-stimulated by the sheer noise of it all.

https://youtu.be/jhx-rCKh1TM

Potential-Monke

I had to stop after 30 seconds, my eyes were starting to water. Seems like a bit too much visual mess for me.

But I have been sinking countless hours into Rogue Legacy 2 lately. In the latest Game Catalogue for PS this month. Cracking little route-lite with a unique twist and has constant portals once unlocked, so makes it easier than the usual where-da-fuk-am-i-going roguetype games. Am on the second last main boss, having a hard time with it. But I'll persevere, and seems like there's still crap tonnes to unlock. For "free", it's highly recommended.

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120810716#Comment_120810716

Oh 100% it's quite eye bleed level of noisiness - but I kinda admire the committment to just fully commit to an aesthetic that strong, and that brash.

RobertFoster

Played a few indies this year that I'd recommend. I'm going through my backlog at the moment so none of them are new games, but maybe they're on your backlog too...

Sludge Life - cool music and vibes. First person adventure with fun exploration.

https://youtu.be/y9AVCaTob3g

Hue - platformer where you colour swap on the fly to solve puzzles (the VO is a bit much in the trailer, it's not as present in the game)

https://youtu.be/iP7mp5Y5EHI

Guacamelee 2 - if you've played the first it's more of same. Solid Metroidvania with a Mexican theme (made in Canada 😜)

https://youtu.be/yxBxrBaS_cs

Inside - like a HD Limbo (same dev). Atmospheric and dystopian.

https://youtu.be/yDm6PAgNohU

Semblance - puzzle platformer where you can deform the platforms. I wishlisted it 5 years ago, saw yesterday it was only 99c on Steam, and finished it less than 4 hours.

https://youtu.be/ZHQMvAK9nDU

I played them all on Steam Deck, great for chewing through the backlog.

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120609881#Comment_120609881

Bumping my own post to say they're adding new missions to this fun looking little number:

https://www.eurogamer.net/procedural-detective-noir-shadows-of-doubt-adds-infidelity-investigations-next-week

Thought this thread could be a great little one for finding gems if we kept it active 😂

Zero-Cool

PS Plus Extra games updated today with some indie games I've been looking to play like Unpacking, This war of mine final cut, call of the sea and Cloudpunk. Looking forward to giving them a go.

JimBurnley

One of best games i played this year was Tinykin on gamespass. Now left GP but sure can be picked up cheap enough. A real joyful platformer, with small puzzle and exploration elements, all very doable and unforgiving, whilst remaining entertaining and intriguing throughout. Highly recommend

pixelburp

Mark Brown @ GMTK started a relevant new series, highlighting some notable indie games; the first is this cute gem I'd never heard of. Chants of Senaar, whose central mechanic is all about translating a language through puzzles...

https://youtu.be/PeDNuITuJPA?si=GOWHW6Y5GtjlFT-H

pixelburp

Seems that World of Horror is getting a little traction for being a horror game not relying on the usual tropes of the genre; and what is it about low-res (or in this case, 1-bit) that just automatically makes things about 25% more terrifying?

https://youtu.be/SS8jIwzGp8U

Ten of Swords

I finally got around to playing The Fidelio Incident.

Personally I loved it but it will definitely not be for everyone. It's essentially a walking sim with survival elements and it's short (about 2 hours) but it has a rich story and some beautiful visuals, the player character is Irish too.

Your plane crashes on a remote Icelandic island, you were in the cockpit and your wife was in the tail section which broke off during the crash. You need to find her before you both freeze to death.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7isb5D-7r4