Incline Post-decline gems

[DJOGamer PT]

Hotline Miami

Play OTXO

 

[Elthosian]

I agree with the indies part but AAAs were way worse in the 2005-2012 dark ages than nowadays, please be reminded that ~GOTY~ 2009 was Uncharted 2 and you can't possibly go deeper into popamole shit than that. I don't know how it happened but I'm happy so many single player game developers left health regen behind. Stuff like the Resident Evil 2 remake wouldn't have been possible in 2008, heck, STALKER SOC still has a reputation for being eurojank dating back to these days despite being more polished and less bloated than your average sandbox game today.

RE2 remake felt like survival horror really caught up to the possibilities technology allows.

Indies are kind of shit too. There's a few gems but complaining about woke games and saying indies are better is plain wrong. So many indie games are minimalist woke garbage or aren't even indies at all and claim the title for the art style.

There are tons of indie games so it's expected that there will be more trash to sift through, but personally I haven't found it hard to find enough gems to occupy my free time. In fact, my backlog's size is far beyond what I'll be able to play in the next few years.

I agree with the indies part but AAAs were way worse in the 2005-2012 dark ages than nowadays, please be reminded that ~GOTY~ 2009 was Uncharted 2 and you can't possibly go deeper into popamole shit than that. I don't know how it happened but I'm happy so many single player game developers left health regen behind. Stuff like the Resident Evil 2 remake wouldn't have been possible in 2008, heck, STALKER SOC still has a reputation for being eurojank dating back to these days despite being more polished and less bloated than your average sandbox game today.

Yes definitely, but would stuff like RE2 remake even be created in a world where indies didn't come along to plant these seeds of "hey those things were really great, why did they stop doing that?" across dozens of genres, with concrete examples of commercial successes, vocal fanbases and so on? Would health regen ever be dropped in a world where we'd only have AAA over AAA doubling down on it as the only way to go? With HP meters permanently dropped as frustrating relics of the unsophisticated past or whatever those people would tell each other. Maybe these are too much of a stretch, sure, but still, I really do believe one thing led to another. A good example of that would be Braid, which single handedly proved (alongside Portal, to be fair) that yes, there are people out there interested in puzzle games in the current year of 2008, how about that. Puzzle games were virtually dead for almost 10 years before that and flourished tremendously after that, which subsequently led to a revival in many other adventure subgenres like detective games, which in turn gave us Obra Dinn and Case of the Golden Idol, and so on and so forth. You kill the first event in the chain, who knows how different things would've turned out.

Without indies, the industry might've spiraled out of control into even worse PS3 gens after the original one, that's why I illustrated it that way. If we are to consider all the existing AAA games in our timeline and just remove the indies though, then absolutely, AAAs today are way, way better than PS3 gen ones. That generation was just AIDS in a bottle.

That's fair then, indies did allow a space for many genres to stay alive while the worst trends of the PS3 generation faded away. Most of my gaming time in that period was also overwhelmingly dominated by indie titles, aside from the obvious time spent on older classics.

 

[Halfling Rodeo]

There are tons of indie games so it's expected that there will be more trash to sift through, but personally I haven't found it hard to find enough gems to occupy my free time. In fact, my backlog's size is far beyond what I'll be able to play in the next few years.

As a big metroidvania fan I really struggle to find the quality games. Even the "legendary" games like Hollow knight don't click with me. I hate the knock back on attacking and so many games take that mechanic. You end up with a lot of trash and with the death of dedicated websites it's hard to find metroidvania.com and all the new games getting reviewed to pick what to play.

That's fair then, indies did allow a space for many genres to stay alive while the worst trends of the PS3 generation faded away. Most of my gaming time in that period was also overwhelmingly dominated by indie titles, aside from the obvious time spent on older classics.

Didn't the PS4 lean extremely hard on Indies for it's first year?

 

[Elthosian]

There are tons of indie games so it's expected that there will be more trash to sift through, but personally I haven't found it hard to find enough gems to occupy my free time. In fact, my backlog's size is far beyond what I'll be able to play in the next few years.

As a big metroidvania fan I really struggle to find the quality games. Even the "legendary" games like Hollow knight don't click with me. I hate the knock back on attacking and so many games take that mechanic. You end up with a lot of trash and with the death of dedicated websites it's hard to find metroidvania.com and all the new games getting reviewed to pick what to play.

That's fair then, indies did allow a space for many genres to stay alive while the worst trends of the PS3 generation faded away. Most of my gaming time in that period was also overwhelmingly dominated by indie titles, aside from the obvious time spent on older classics.

Didn't the PS4 lean extremely hard on Indies for it's first year?

The issue with Metroidvania is that community is kinda hard to please because the concept encompasses so many different things. Combat for example I couldn't care less about so I enjoyed Hollow Knight for its other aspects, some people will rage if they don't get RPG elements and grinding, etc. I can imagine many indie devs approach developing those as a checklist affair, even moreso nowadays with the annoying trend of making them half-assed Demon's Souls clones.

But anyway, here are a few indie Metroidvania I enjoyed:

- Rain World (of course I had to put this one first, the greatest game of all times is also the greatest Metroidvania)
- Aquaria
- La Mulana
- Both Ori games
- Shadow Complex
- Momodora: Reverie Under The Moonlight
- Cave Story+

And some others that were just fine:

- Valdis Story
- Dust
- Outland

Of course, all of these probably will have at least one thing you won't like. I love Super Metroid but I hated the power creep that makes the alien world feel like a safari trip as compared to La Mulana and Rain World, but I find these do a fair job. I'll however admit that Metroidvanias are the genre with the worst trash to goodness ratio around and it does not help that all those Metroidvania aggregators are run by people that probably don't play the games because they spend all of their time scouring the deepest ends of Steam for more shovelware to list.

 

[Halfling Rodeo]

Souldiers and Environmental station alpha are both great if you haven't tried those. I plan to crack Rain world this week and get into it.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

Why would you crack an indie game thats supposedly great and costs like $10 on any sale? Don't you want the developers of these to make money and continue making them?

 

[Morenatsu.]

I paid for Rain World and still haven't played it.

 

[Elthosian]

Souldiers and Environmental station alpha are both great if you haven't tried those. I plan to crack Rain world this week and get into it.

Gotta get Env Station Alpha, not the first time I see it mentioned.

Also, game + expansion is going for 26.5 bucks at GOG and can easily give over a hundred hours of fresh gameplay across campaigns, definitely worth every cent. Do it for the slugcats.

 

[Halfling Rodeo]

Why would you crack an indie game thats supposedly great and costs like $10 on any sale? Don't you want the developers of these to make money and continue making them?

Crack as in play it until I get over the hump and can enjoy it. I usually love games that I have to do that with, they're always some of my favourites.

Nothing wrong with pirating indie games. You should only pay for games worth buying and the only way to know is to play them first and you can't do that without demos. Some games are great but twice the price you think is fair and it's better to wait for them to come down in price and buy them at the price you think they deserve

Souldiers and Environmental station alpha are both great if you haven't tried those. I plan to crack Rain world this week and get into it.

Gotta get Env Station Alpha, not the first time I see it mentioned.

Also, game + expansion is going for 26.5 bucks at GOG and can easily give over a hundred hours of fresh gameplay across campaigns, definitely worth every cent. Do it for the slugcats.

ESA is a really solid and it's end game is it's own game on top of it. You probably need a guide to do the end game because it's super cryptic and supposed to be community solved but it has lots of bosses and some of the most memorable areas locked behind it.

 

[Elthosian]

Our anti-decline experience with Rain World just gets better. I don't want to spoil much for those that intend to play the expansions, but the Hunter and Artificer campaigns have been fucking amazing, to the point my wife refuses to start another game until we're done with these. I said before that it's more combat-oriented as you get a lot of tools and a couple of new mechanics that help you face enemies head-on, but it's still hard as hell. We decided to go all in against the Scavs and the degree to which they cooperate to surround and kill us is impressive. Facing a Scav kill squad in close quarters reminds me of the experience I had when playing STALKER, Halo and FEAR in the highest difficulty levels, and despite it being all 2D it feels too damn real and ruthless. Nothing like stabbing the last Scav in a group, thinking your job is done, and having it get up agonizingly (which is actually reflected in its animations) to kill you before dying for good, leaving you with a bleak game over screen; or seeing a lizard walk off injured after an encounter with another creature just to slowly die after a few minutes, unable to reach its shelter.

We also love how the game rewards exploration with lore + lots of things to unlock for the arena, expedition, and safari modes. It gives it a very 90-00's pre-DLC era vibe, and after every session, there is a reason to go into the main menu to see the stuff you just got by playing the game. We haven't put much time into the PVP mode yet but if it's good enough we might make it part of our multiplayer party rotation; the physics alone surely would make for a lot of fun.

 

[Beastro]

There are tons of indie games so it's expected that there will be more trash to sift through, but personally I haven't found it hard to find enough gems to occupy my free time. In fact, my backlog's size is far beyond what I'll be able to play in the next few years.

As a big metroidvania fan I really struggle to find the quality games. Even the "legendary" games like Hollow knight don't click with me. I hate the knock back on attacking and so many games take that mechanic. You end up with a lot of trash and with the death of dedicated websites it's hard to find metroidvania.com and all the new games getting reviewed to pick what to play.

That's fair then, indies did allow a space for many genres to stay alive while the worst trends of the PS3 generation faded away. Most of my gaming time in that period was also overwhelmingly dominated by indie titles, aside from the obvious time spent on older classics.

Didn't the PS4 lean extremely hard on Indies for it's first year?

Have you tried Super Metroid hacks?

 

[Halfling Rodeo]

There are tons of indie games so it's expected that there will be more trash to sift through, but personally I haven't found it hard to find enough gems to occupy my free time. In fact, my backlog's size is far beyond what I'll be able to play in the next few years.

As a big metroidvania fan I really struggle to find the quality games. Even the "legendary" games like Hollow knight don't click with me. I hate the knock back on attacking and so many games take that mechanic. You end up with a lot of trash and with the death of dedicated websites it's hard to find metroidvania.com and all the new games getting reviewed to pick what to play.

That's fair then, indies did allow a space for many genres to stay alive while the worst trends of the PS3 generation faded away. Most of my gaming time in that period was also overwhelmingly dominated by indie titles, aside from the obvious time spent on older classics.

Didn't the PS4 lean extremely hard on Indies for it's first year?

Have you tried Super Metroid hacks?

I don't like how Metroid controls. I find the aiming to be awkward and the jumping tech to be clunky. I finished it once and didn't understand the obsession. It's fine for it's era but it has lots of issues modders could have fixed.

 

[Max Damage]

Outside of being stuck in perpetual cursed circle of drama and mostly dead online, Skullgirls is a really fun fighting game with cool aesthetics and gameplay. If pain in my fingers didn't start getting severe when labbing/playing it, I probably would still be playing it.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

I was going to add Underrail, which I was playing for the 2nd time, because I was enjoying the main game, but then Deep Caverns happened again, and I remembered why I ragequit that PoS the first time, years ago. People might ask me why punish the entire game just because the last part sucks, and normally I wouldn't, especially since bad endings are very common to RPGs. But there is a difference between a badly done ending and an ending specifically designed to screw the player over, which the vast majority of people (especially those without severe autism and NEET amount of free time) would find impossible to do without a detailed online guide. So Underrail is on my shit list now.

ATOM RPG, which I am playing now, is a pretty good game. However, it is so close to Fallout mechanically, that I am not sure if I would call it a gem. Will make my mind up once I finish it.

A game I do want to add to the list of gems though, and that most of you should play if you haven't yet, is Return of the Obra Dinn. If you enjoy cerebral "puzzle-driven" gameplay, or ever fantasized of being a Sherlock Holmes or Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple, this is THE game. You are tasked with investigating what happened aboard a British trading ship that disappeared around 1805 and floated back to port 5 years later with only skeletons aboard. Just a feast of observation and deduction.

 

[HeatEXTEND]

So Underrail is on my shit list now.

Weak lame fake and ghey. DC is one of the highlights of the game, if you have zero stealth capability just buy/craft some and you're good to go.

 

[luj1]

I love it how people are being filtered by Underrail, Grimoire, etc. Sigourn literally went crazy from getting owned in Morrowind. Git gud.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

You can't git gud by swimming through a torrent of shit. No matter how much of this shit you swallow.

 

[Spike]

You can't git gud by swimming through a torrent of shit. No matter how much of this shit you swallow.

Just an onslaught of bad takes from you lately, huh?
EDIT: I am specifically calling to mind that FromSoft combat thread.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

You mean great takes that make MILLIONS of butts hurt.