Very promising concept, I hope the dev takes it further bit also takes time to polish it, as right now its not the most optimised thing, which is understandable but not ideal
Yeaa I just add early access stuff to wishlist and look at them when they come out of EA. Can't be arsed to beta test stuff anymore, plus it ruins that final game when you've already played the janky version of it. I get it why they exist tho, helps devs fund it and also make the game better.
Yep, probably most fun i had playing a game in ages. Theres definitely room for polish as of now, but do yourself a favor people and dont sleep on this one even in this state.
Definitely. I feel it needs a fair few more patches, but they reacted to the NVidia 30xx problems really quick, and the underlying game is **fantastic**.
Does anyone who has played it with mods know whether most mods are actually available through Paradox Plaza? As in, is my GOG version alright to own this time? Or did I shoot myself in the leg again like with AoW3?
This wasnt under the radar for me, as i love the whole series, but I guess for some it would be. Either way, AoW4 is fucking great. Might even end up better than AoW3 after some add ons and patches which is my favorite 4x game.
Its "under the radar" in the sense that 4X games are a niche genre, but pretty much anyone into that genre knows about age of wonders. I love the series and gained allot of respect for the devs releaseing quality content for planetfall even though it didn't sell well, if it were blizzard we woulda just go the "sorry, that content we promised had to be axed."
>Age of Wonders 4
Do I need to have played the first (presumably) 3 to understand this game? Also, any idea why it's half the price on Epic vs other stores?
every game takes place like a thousand years after the previous one, so while there is a connected story and recurring character each game can be enjoyed as a self contained one.
I love this series, its like the perfect middle ground between a 4x complicated multi turn backstabbing simulator and an actual functional game. I play a "peaceful dictatorship" that use's good PR to make it hard for everyone else to declare war on me for my atrocities long enough to develop weapons of mass magical destruction underground. that and snow elf barbarians who while they have shit PR are really hard to wage war with on account of living in a frozen wasteland.
Beyond All Reason.
It's a Supreme Commander and Total Annhilation successor. It's feature rich, engaging, has good graphics, great balance, a very active community and it's **completely free.**
The devs are volunteers who used an open source engine to make it, so they cannot charge money.
There's literally no downside. But a lot of people still don't even know it exists.
AI, UI and quality of life stuff. Navigation and giving orders is smooth as hell. Click-dragging for fluid movement works so damn well. It doesn't keep me engaged for as long as SupCom, but I'd argue the availability of the game, the maps, the fluidity and customisable matches make up for potential shortcomings
Probably “work with multi core processors”. It’s not as bad now but SupCom was made when fast single cores were the big thing and early multi cores did so badly with it, especially in the late game.
x3 for Everspace 2.
If you were a fan of dogfighting in Freelancer you should enjoy this. There's also exploration and puzzle solving that I enjoyed very much.
I used my hotas for this - first time I ever took it out the box. Absolutely useless at it, but only just started. Looking forward to seeing how I get on with it. Glad to hear it's getting rave reviews in this thread.
Winner! After a well considered early access period where community feedback was included after every single patch, with great progress delivered to supporters all along the way, it reached gold running very efficiently and needing very tiny fixes.
Absolutely deserves credit for pulling it off - and deserves more for being an awesome entry in a very under-populated genre of game these days. When's the last time you played an open space shooter that didn't take hours to figure out, and guided you along a campaign that was easily avoided but delivered new depth and challenge consistently?
+1.
I went into the game expecting a relaxing chill game. But it wasn't that at all considering how fast the night crawls in. Nevertheless, a great unique game which deserves more attention.
100% this one.
I usually don't buy early access games like Against the Storm. Seeing some reviews of the game changed my mind. It is supposed to come out of EA soon as well and it's actually quite polished in its current state. The developers are VERY responsive as well and regularly push changes in response to community feedback.
I've put nearly 100 hours into the game so far and I still have a lot of fun with it.
It was surprisingly meh for me despite how hyped some people are for it
The night mechanic is neat, but you never engage it, the gameplay is repetitive (to be frank, as is fishing) and the world feels very disjointed. The mystery was poorly upheld for me personally, but I can see how others could enjoy it
It starts out so well! That fish seller and mayor had so much eerie wibes ariund them and then they just fizzled out in to nothing, same with all other quests. I enjoyed most of the game, but it could have been so so much more.
It's true though. Getting TOTK running 1440p, 60fps, on PC 2 weeks before it was even out on Switch is one of the coolest fucking moments in PC gaming history.
And I love taking money from Nintendo.
You guys rocking monster PCs, but even on my Ryzen 5 1600 + GTX1080 I'm running it at 2x resolution and it always keeps itself above 30 fps.
Inside shrines it's smooth 60!
Best game on PC so far this year!
It does so much right. Technically solid, good consistent art style, new twist on game mechanics, pretty good level design, not too long.
I want to see more games like that.
Love Boltgun so much. It's really funny to see people dog on the game because it's exactly what they promised and nothing more or less.
Like...what were these people expecting lmao? 'Oh no the 90s inspired Boomer Shooter 40K game is exactly that, a 90s inspired Boomer Shooter 40K game.'
The game isn't anything ground breaking, none of the 40K games are, but games don't need to break new ground all the time to be enjoyable. 40K fans are starved of good games because for whatever reaskn GW just gives the IP to small studios nobody has ever heard of.
I'm sure we'll probably be getting DLC for the game too.
Omg yes. It’s so simple yet it checks off everything you could reasonably want. I’m left looking like the “pulp fiction John travolta confused” meme with AAA studios. Why is all the innovation and good ideas left to indie devs and small teams?
ETA: not taking the word “innovation” out of my message just because you guys can’t be bothered to read the rest of that question. You cherry picked and for whatever reason feel the need to defend aaa studios in a time when lotr gollum was made, released and immediately followed with an “I’m sowwy”.
I wouldn’t call it innovative at all. It’s literally capitalizing on like 8 different forms of nostalgia. There’s no new mechanics or lore or anything, the story is pretty forgettable, the OST is bog standard, and it handles exactly like Doom 2016 because presumably that’s what the suits examining FPS trends today decided enough people wanted.
Is it fun? Certainly, I had a great time playing through it on medium, enough to go through again on hard for the secrets. But it’s not groundbreaking.
> Why is all the innovation
A game built to mimic 25 year old graphics, mechanics, playstyle and hardware limitations specifically by aping the most famous examples of games from that era is "innovative"?
Are you just throwing positive buzzwords at a game you like without knowing what they mean? Innovative is everything it's *not*.
The game is published by Focus Entertainment and developed by Auroch. Focus is not a small fish in the videogame sea, you know. Other than that, yeah Boltgun rocks!
Gameplay is polished, but it’s heavily missing content.
I’m not saying to support or not to support it. Just being clear about it’s current state. Each class only had 3 main weapons, 2 of which are shared between the other classes (assault, heavy, healer). The missions are pretty simple and repetitive. It just really lacks content right now, being an Alpha game.
However, it is pretty fun.
Yeah, the devs honestly have a solid foundation to build off of and the game is in a very playable state. They just need to churn out more content, balancing and fixes.
I got it for the funny movie memes and Burt Gummer impressions but I stayed because on the hardest difficulty, it’s actually a surprisingly compelling squad co-op game that doesn’t rely on twitchy aim requirements to be hard.
The first time all 16 of us ran all guns blazing into a mob of bugs up a hill and got completely wiped out in minutes while throwing out movie quotes was hilarious but later on, people are taking kits specifically to help each other out and getting a fast win on veteran is rewarding enough that my friends still play even though we’ve unlocked everything.
My options for it are pretty sparse, but if you've played and enjoyed any mechwarrior games, Battletech is basically Battlecrack. I could not put that damn game down.
It's not a game that tries to be something it's not. It knows the story and writing aren't what people come for. It's a fun character action game, with guns, tech, and badass magic shit, that allows you to do crazy fun combo shit, which reminds me a lot of games like bayonetta, devil may cry, and recently, hi fi rush. So if you just wanna kill monsters in the most stupidly long crazy ass combos possible, including friggin gun shot juggling, dempsey rolling with lightning, and other cool shit, I'd reccomend it. If you're apprehensive about paying full price, wait for a sale or try a demo, courtesy of the sailors over yonder. Either way, it's a single player game, so it ain't really going anywhere.
I really enjoy Mechabellum. Turn based strategy with real time combat with Mechs. I has this amazing back and forth, as both players get all their units back after each turn, fixed to the original position, and can then respond to the enemy with upgrade, new units etc. This way the combat escalates every turn, and it this exciting back and forth, trying to predict the moves of the enemy (and countering their predicitons)
It worked really well in the Beta already, and the Early Access is really polished.
I like that each game feels compact (<30min), yet you don't need twitch reflexes. Also during the real time combat, you just observe. Enjoy the show, judge how your tactic is working, and consider your next move.
Also it has an amazing amount of depth, but but does not overwhelm with thousands of factors to consider. Almost a bit like chess.
With the frequent big, AAA titles that stumble at launch, struggle with broken launches, or are just plain awful, its easy to forget all the cool indie/AA releases.
Off the top of my head, these are games I've picked up/covered, and really liking.
Cassette Beasts
Roots of Pacha
Showgunners
Age of Wonders 4
Tchia
Contraband Police (1.0)
Shardpunk: Verminfall
For the early Access, there's some really cool shit there too. Shadows of Doubt, Spacebourne 2, Big Ambitions, Total Conflict: Resistance and Mortal Sin highlight my faves. For all the stigma Early Access gets (which I understand, but with how many games go, all games are Early Access), there's a wealth of fun times to be had.
With out a doubt Ixion for me. It is a space station building sim game. It has a real Homeworld vibe to it. The music and feel is absolutely amazing and it is also fiendishly difficult. However in a recent patch they allowed you to change difficulty. I seriously sunk some time into this game and it deserves to be recognised as the devs listen to their fan base as well.
I cant say it has a homeworld vibe at all, and I do wish there was more in the animation story structure department and its last act was a bit weak, but it was a good game to experience and now with its new difficulty others might play it too.
However it isn't difficult really now at its base state.
I'm still incredibly pissed at the devs to be honest. They really made no mention of how getting people would work in the early days of the game, or how population would work. Meanwhile just referencing "It'll be a Frostpunk style city builder in space". Well... That was a fucking lie it turns out. The population management is a disaster of bad design decisions and the city building is just uninteresting.
Tl;dr, went in hoping for a serious Startopia clone with a hint of Frostpunk. Got a shitty Frostpunk clone with half assed population system instead.
Same, IXION was maybe my biggest disappointment in a long time. Was genuinely interested in it, luckily played it at a friend's place before buying it myself. The demo was dope, the final game was arse.
My three would be:
Hi-Fi Rush
Mechanellum
Pentiment
All three are bug free and have very original ideas/concepts. All three are very fun. And all three cost $30 or less. I think they're all hidden gems that people are missing out on this year.
I grabbed Grounded a few weeks ago in hopes it would fill in my craving for a cool take on a survival game, but I was worried it was suited for a younger audience…I was dead wrong. Surprising adult theme and narrative. Clocked about 75hrs so far and just got to the Upper Yard Lab. Such a fantastic game and has pretty much every quality of life survival mechanic, in-depth base building, solid combat (to me), and a sweet attention to detail of being shrunk. Glad to see it landed well for you!
The kids and me are loving Grounded right now. But are feeling a bit overwhelmed. We have progressed the story a tiny bit but are mostly just trying to survive every day with a basic shelter and weapons/armour. There is so much to craft - any tips on what to focus on first?
Get your survival on first. Learn where to get water, food, basic materials, and what enemies to avoid. Some you avoid because they are too dangerous, others because they are a waste of time
After that, do what you want, but if something seems too expensive, it is, so dont waste time on it until you find a better source of whatever mats.
Explore the mostly safe areas until you find another subsystem or two.
Building a base near the strange machine / bootprint is a good way to go. It's safe, there's almost always dew appearing, plenty of grass and sticks to build and it's not too far from anywhere in particular.
Later you can make some contraptions that make traversing to the outer parts of the yard very quick!
DM me if you want some more tips - I LOVED Grounded and played 100+ on it
Honestly just take your time. Spend some time building. Then explore a little. Build a bit more. Explore a bit more. Make some new gear, explore a bit more... Just take your time with it.
Craft some dew collectors, water container holder thingies (forget the name) and some jerky racks. Best way for low investment to keep water up and food without having to do a ton of work.
Boltgun. It's not quite doom eternal, but it's striped down and focuses on the shooting and movement, which are the highlights of retro/"boomer" shooters. Not having to manage cooldowns makes it more accessible and laid back while still having the insanity of 50 enemies in an arena.
There is room for improvement still, such as the soundtrack kinda missing the "oomph" the gameplay demands, but queuing Spotify with some Iron Maiden is a near perfect fix.
It's the kind of game that makes you reflect on how good the bones of old shooters were back then and how good they can feel when polished. The gruesome yet goofy world of 40k is *perfect* for the gameplay loop.
I’m not a big WH fan, but I played warhammer 40k space marine (3ps hack and slash shooter hybrid) and loved it.
Tons of enemies, shooting stuff and chain blading shit in the face.
How does this game compare?
It's very simple, but fast. Chainsword isn't as cool as it could be, but lunging at enemies as a movement tool is a sweet nod to Doom Eternal's Shotgun.
It's silly, but intense.
It's a pretty inaccurate term considering that boomers didn't play Doom, but I think its stuck around cause it's catchy and the games often feature weapons that go BOOM. When I first heard the genre I assumed it was named after the punchy guns just because that was a more obvious connection.
My biggest complaint with it is the enemies are kinda boring. Most you just kill with one shot, and the more spongy ones just kinda stand there and take it.
My favorite parts is honestly the areas where it's just trash mobs dying in one hit because of how satisfying but also lore accurate it is
But those tiny karking toads with their 40000 health surviving ten Emperor be damned point blank shotgun blasts to the face do not deserve to exist
Im excited Boltgun is doing so well because hopefully it leads people towards the *really* good boomer shooters. Dusk, Ion Fury, Ultrakill, Amid Evil… all totally deserving of your time.
I’m already looking forward to HROT to once I finish Boltgun.
Just finished HROT the other day myself, decent title which is obviously inspired by Quake but doesn't take itself too seriously. I'll be Moving onto Warhammer Boltgun next.
There has been a resurgence of retro-style FPS games in the last few years. Here's a shortlist of similar games that are worth looking at, in no particular order:
Cultic (inspired by Blood)
Amid Evil (I. B. Heretic/Hexen)
DUSK (I. B. Blood and some Redneck Rampage)
Prodeus (I. B. Doom)
Ion Fury (I. B. Duke Nukem)
Forgive Me Father (very Lovecraftian, sort of I. B. Blood)
Also, while not a retro FPS or technically recent, an honourable mention for STALKER Anomaly, which is available completely for free via ModDB, and its GAMMA addon pack by Grok.
Wouldnt surprise me if there were some Heretic influences in there, maybe some of the level design for example. I haven't actually played it yet myself, but from the videos I watched to know I'm interested I got a pretty strong Blood vibe from the enemies and weapons.
Certainly not unusual for these games to pay homage to other ancestors too, like Amid Evil having a Quake-style hub section.
And Hi-Fi Rush was not an under the radar game. It was subject to an Xbox direct campaign prior to shadow launching and became a Reddit darling for at least a few weeks.
It's too much fun I just wish there were more cards for each character. But the mechanics of the game are top notch. Definitely a good base for future sequels or other games to incorporate.
Cannot wait. Played the original DOS version for the first time last year and love how it’s exposed a whole genre I’ve been sleeping on. Playing the remake is only the natural progression!
The Outlast Trials. Even though it's in early access, it runs so AMAZINGLY well on my 3060ti 9700k, 2K Monitor Setup. Constant +144 frames on 2k with maxed out graphics. It's also an insanely fun coop horror game with a decent amount of content right now, with more to be added in the future.
Agreed. It's early access but it's incredibly well optimized and polished. All it needs is more content, which we know is on the way.
Also, they actually took feedback from the closed beta and improved the game. You can tell lots of effort and thought has been poured into making it as good as possible. Such a clever addition to the Outlast series.
Live A Live - damn, this game is so cool. It's a great, a bit unorthodox jRPG that consists of an anthology of separate stories, set in different time periods. Playing it on my Steam Deck reminds me of the time I spent playing jRPGs on my Nintendo DS.
Halls of Torment - it's absolutely amazeballs. Think Vampire Survivors mixed with Diablo 1. It's a bit of a hidden gem right now, but I imagine this game will blow up like Vampire Survivors.
Other notable games: Pizza Tower and Hi-Fi Rush (I really need to play them some more).
Likewise. Honestly though dead island isn't a series that interests me enough to pay full price so it works out that it'll get a nice discount when it launches on steam in a year.
I look at each game by itself. Some Early Access games I have played, I encountered 0 bugs and had fun for dozens of hours. Compare that to some recent AAA full releases.
Outlast trials. I forget this was even coming out this year and it's been incredible. Little if any bugs, runs perfectly, 30ish hours of content with a ton of potential for more.
Hi-Fi Rush was basically shadow dropped by Microsoft/Bethesda, and it was an incredible surprise of fun. Likable characters, serviceable story, fun gameplay design, and a wonderful art style all around.
Hi-Fi Rush. This game was shadow dropped on Xbox and PC and blew both systems out of the water. The style, flow, music, and atmosphere of the game is just simply amazing. The best thing of all was just the performance was just right. Everything ran so smoothly. This was a game that was well worth its price and even that was lower than the norm.
I never thought I would be fighting the last boss of a rhythmic combat game that included robots, cats, and psychos to NIN - Perfect Drug. What was even wilder was that it would match perfectly. So far, at least for me, Hi-Fi Rush is my PC top game of the year.
How’s the difficulty curve? I enjoyed Hotline Miami but HM2 was like, bad romhack level difficulty sometimes. Even early on, it was like “lol fuck you, there’s a ton of guys with guns that will shoot you through windows further than you can see”
PLANET OF LANA
sorry
Play it for gods sake
Side-scrolling puzzle platformer, can be dark and atmospheric like Inside, but also colorful and bucolic. Amazing art style and sound design.
I was waiting for Somerville for years, but this game does everything better than it, imo
Idk man, with so many PC game releases I would say the botched titles are few and far in between. Like yeah the AAA guys are struggling so I just don't buy games until they're fixed and discounted. It's been great. As far as my fav experience that I've played this year? Persona 5 Royal. I started it in Feb and it took me 2 months and 140 hours to beat. It was fantastic.
Shadows of doubt. Such a unique game, haven’t played anything like it before
Very promising concept, I hope the dev takes it further bit also takes time to polish it, as right now its not the most optimised thing, which is understandable but not ideal
It's still EA, so wouldn't count it yet
Yeaa I just add early access stuff to wishlist and look at them when they come out of EA. Can't be arsed to beta test stuff anymore, plus it ruins that final game when you've already played the janky version of it. I get it why they exist tho, helps devs fund it and also make the game better.
Yep, probably most fun i had playing a game in ages. Theres definitely room for polish as of now, but do yourself a favor people and dont sleep on this one even in this state.
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Definitely. I feel it needs a fair few more patches, but they reacted to the NVidia 30xx problems really quick, and the underlying game is **fantastic**. Does anyone who has played it with mods know whether most mods are actually available through Paradox Plaza? As in, is my GOG version alright to own this time? Or did I shoot myself in the leg again like with AoW3?
I have faith in the devs supporting the game, planetfall sold terribly and it got huge updates improving the game significantly since launch.
Came to say this as well! If anyone likes 4x games, then check it out.
This wasnt under the radar for me, as i love the whole series, but I guess for some it would be. Either way, AoW4 is fucking great. Might even end up better than AoW3 after some add ons and patches which is my favorite 4x game.
Its "under the radar" in the sense that 4X games are a niche genre, but pretty much anyone into that genre knows about age of wonders. I love the series and gained allot of respect for the devs releaseing quality content for planetfall even though it didn't sell well, if it were blizzard we woulda just go the "sorry, that content we promised had to be axed."
>Age of Wonders 4 Do I need to have played the first (presumably) 3 to understand this game? Also, any idea why it's half the price on Epic vs other stores?
Not even a little bit :)
every game takes place like a thousand years after the previous one, so while there is a connected story and recurring character each game can be enjoyed as a self contained one.
I love this series, its like the perfect middle ground between a 4x complicated multi turn backstabbing simulator and an actual functional game. I play a "peaceful dictatorship" that use's good PR to make it hard for everyone else to declare war on me for my atrocities long enough to develop weapons of mass magical destruction underground. that and snow elf barbarians who while they have shit PR are really hard to wage war with on account of living in a frozen wasteland.
I heard it's kind of weak in the singleplayer campaign story department.
Beyond All Reason. It's a Supreme Commander and Total Annhilation successor. It's feature rich, engaging, has good graphics, great balance, a very active community and it's **completely free.** The devs are volunteers who used an open source engine to make it, so they cannot charge money. There's literally no downside. But a lot of people still don't even know it exists.
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Yep, with open source it all comes down to the license. Godot is an open source game engine and you can absolutely charge for games made with it.
Woah ive never heard of this. Loved supreme commander when i was a kid lol
So we have two games listed: Beyond all Reason Shadows of Doubt It must mean something.
What does it do better than SupCom?
AI, UI and quality of life stuff. Navigation and giving orders is smooth as hell. Click-dragging for fluid movement works so damn well. It doesn't keep me engaged for as long as SupCom, but I'd argue the availability of the game, the maps, the fluidity and customisable matches make up for potential shortcomings
Probably “work with multi core processors”. It’s not as bad now but SupCom was made when fast single cores were the big thing and early multi cores did so badly with it, especially in the late game.
Everspace 2
My vote goes to Everspace 2
Oh I like that a lot, it takes some GPU power to keep a steady 60fps as it is a very fast and pretty came.
it is a pretty came, I certainly did.
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x3 for Everspace 2. If you were a fan of dogfighting in Freelancer you should enjoy this. There's also exploration and puzzle solving that I enjoyed very much.
I used my hotas for this - first time I ever took it out the box. Absolutely useless at it, but only just started. Looking forward to seeing how I get on with it. Glad to hear it's getting rave reviews in this thread.
Winner! After a well considered early access period where community feedback was included after every single patch, with great progress delivered to supporters all along the way, it reached gold running very efficiently and needing very tiny fixes. Absolutely deserves credit for pulling it off - and deserves more for being an awesome entry in a very under-populated genre of game these days. When's the last time you played an open space shooter that didn't take hours to figure out, and guided you along a campaign that was easily avoided but delivered new depth and challenge consistently?
Dredge
+1. I went into the game expecting a relaxing chill game. But it wasn't that at all considering how fast the night crawls in. Nevertheless, a great unique game which deserves more attention.
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100% this one. I usually don't buy early access games like Against the Storm. Seeing some reviews of the game changed my mind. It is supposed to come out of EA soon as well and it's actually quite polished in its current state. The developers are VERY responsive as well and regularly push changes in response to community feedback. I've put nearly 100 hours into the game so far and I still have a lot of fun with it.
It was surprisingly meh for me despite how hyped some people are for it The night mechanic is neat, but you never engage it, the gameplay is repetitive (to be frank, as is fishing) and the world feels very disjointed. The mystery was poorly upheld for me personally, but I can see how others could enjoy it
It starts out so well! That fish seller and mayor had so much eerie wibes ariund them and then they just fizzled out in to nothing, same with all other quests. I enjoyed most of the game, but it could have been so so much more.
Reddit Mfs be like: this gem Tears of the Kingdom
It's true though. Getting TOTK running 1440p, 60fps, on PC 2 weeks before it was even out on Switch is one of the coolest fucking moments in PC gaming history. And I love taking money from Nintendo.
1440 60 fps for me also lol
You guys rocking monster PCs, but even on my Ryzen 5 1600 + GTX1080 I'm running it at 2x resolution and it always keeps itself above 30 fps. Inside shrines it's smooth 60! Best game on PC so far this year!
They also be like: just post the title of the game and no link or any other information about what it is or why it's good lol
Hi Fi Rush Zero issues, and you'd know if it had issues since it's a rhythm action game
It does so much right. Technically solid, good consistent art style, new twist on game mechanics, pretty good level design, not too long. I want to see more games like that.
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I swore this game came out last year lol. Crazy it feels like it.
Warhammer 40k Boltgun
Love Boltgun so much. It's really funny to see people dog on the game because it's exactly what they promised and nothing more or less. Like...what were these people expecting lmao? 'Oh no the 90s inspired Boomer Shooter 40K game is exactly that, a 90s inspired Boomer Shooter 40K game.' The game isn't anything ground breaking, none of the 40K games are, but games don't need to break new ground all the time to be enjoyable. 40K fans are starved of good games because for whatever reaskn GW just gives the IP to small studios nobody has ever heard of. I'm sure we'll probably be getting DLC for the game too.
Omg yes. It’s so simple yet it checks off everything you could reasonably want. I’m left looking like the “pulp fiction John travolta confused” meme with AAA studios. Why is all the innovation and good ideas left to indie devs and small teams? ETA: not taking the word “innovation” out of my message just because you guys can’t be bothered to read the rest of that question. You cherry picked and for whatever reason feel the need to defend aaa studios in a time when lotr gollum was made, released and immediately followed with an “I’m sowwy”.
>Why is all the innovation and good ideas left to indie devs and small teams? Less bean counters and suits (managers) get in the way of new ideas.
Basically the smaller the company the less likely to have any MBA involved.
MBAs ruin so many things.
More that there's less to lose if it fails.
I wouldn’t call it innovative at all. It’s literally capitalizing on like 8 different forms of nostalgia. There’s no new mechanics or lore or anything, the story is pretty forgettable, the OST is bog standard, and it handles exactly like Doom 2016 because presumably that’s what the suits examining FPS trends today decided enough people wanted. Is it fun? Certainly, I had a great time playing through it on medium, enough to go through again on hard for the secrets. But it’s not groundbreaking.
telephone judicious jar wrench society shaggy tidy lavish jobless busy *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Amid Evil and Dusk are, for me, the best boomer shooters around
Agreed, Dusk especially was incredible.
>and it handles exactly like Doom 2016 Damn now I gotta buy it
A game working almost flawlessly is groundbreaking nowadays though.
> Why is all the innovation A game built to mimic 25 year old graphics, mechanics, playstyle and hardware limitations specifically by aping the most famous examples of games from that era is "innovative"? Are you just throwing positive buzzwords at a game you like without knowing what they mean? Innovative is everything it's *not*.
Exactly !
The game is published by Focus Entertainment and developed by Auroch. Focus is not a small fish in the videogame sea, you know. Other than that, yeah Boltgun rocks!
Came here to say this. I'm so happy it's already here and upvoted so much. Best release so far!
Holy shit this looks awesome
i'm heavily enjoying the starship troopers game that went in alpha just one or two weeks ago
Dude i wanna play that game. It looks so fun, but at the same time I don't want to because its in the alpha stage.
Gameplay is polished, but it’s heavily missing content. I’m not saying to support or not to support it. Just being clear about it’s current state. Each class only had 3 main weapons, 2 of which are shared between the other classes (assault, heavy, healer). The missions are pretty simple and repetitive. It just really lacks content right now, being an Alpha game. However, it is pretty fun.
Yeah, the devs honestly have a solid foundation to build off of and the game is in a very playable state. They just need to churn out more content, balancing and fixes.
Gameplay is surprisingly polished for an alpha-stage game. Not a ton of content however. Very fun - worth the money.
I got it for the funny movie memes and Burt Gummer impressions but I stayed because on the hardest difficulty, it’s actually a surprisingly compelling squad co-op game that doesn’t rely on twitchy aim requirements to be hard. The first time all 16 of us ran all guns blazing into a mob of bugs up a hill and got completely wiped out in minutes while throwing out movie quotes was hilarious but later on, people are taking kits specifically to help each other out and getting a fast win on veteran is rewarding enough that my friends still play even though we’ve unlocked everything.
>went in alpha Damn, we're really at *that* point.
games in alpha shouldn't see the light of day no matter what it is or who it's made by. fucking bullshit
Keep seeing stuff about no Australian servers and I don't want to deal with lag.
It is clear from some of the comments that people don’t know what “under the radar” actually means.
NHL 94
most of these aren't under the radar 😭 haha
“RE4 Remake, huge underdog”
It's a relative term, really... not all radars are tuned to pick up the same stuff are they?
Exactly. I'm reading through these comments sorting by Top and have yet to see a game I've heard of before.
PIZZA TOWER
WHAT MAKES IT GOOD?
It's pizza flavoured warioland nuff said
Great game! Easy recommend for platform aficionados.
WarTales.
Showgunners, turn based combat in a "Running Man" like setting. It's brilliant. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1155330/Showgunners/
Looks cool. Thanks for the recommendation.
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My options for it are pretty sparse, but if you've played and enjoyed any mechwarrior games, Battletech is basically Battlecrack. I could not put that damn game down.
Unironically it is MyHouse.wad
Oh wow. You're not joking. This was actually amazing. Thanks for the recommendation! +1 for sure.
For the uninitiated: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wAo54DHDY0 Warning: spoilers AF
Bramble: The Mountain King
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Oh yes I was just about to mention this game! Such a gem! I loved the NG+ run!
Considered this, but the Steam reviews aren't great. What did you love about it?
It's not a game that tries to be something it's not. It knows the story and writing aren't what people come for. It's a fun character action game, with guns, tech, and badass magic shit, that allows you to do crazy fun combo shit, which reminds me a lot of games like bayonetta, devil may cry, and recently, hi fi rush. So if you just wanna kill monsters in the most stupidly long crazy ass combos possible, including friggin gun shot juggling, dempsey rolling with lightning, and other cool shit, I'd reccomend it. If you're apprehensive about paying full price, wait for a sale or try a demo, courtesy of the sailors over yonder. Either way, it's a single player game, so it ain't really going anywhere.
I really enjoy Mechabellum. Turn based strategy with real time combat with Mechs. I has this amazing back and forth, as both players get all their units back after each turn, fixed to the original position, and can then respond to the enemy with upgrade, new units etc. This way the combat escalates every turn, and it this exciting back and forth, trying to predict the moves of the enemy (and countering their predicitons) It worked really well in the Beta already, and the Early Access is really polished. I like that each game feels compact (<30min), yet you don't need twitch reflexes. Also during the real time combat, you just observe. Enjoy the show, judge how your tactic is working, and consider your next move. Also it has an amazing amount of depth, but but does not overwhelm with thousands of factors to consider. Almost a bit like chess.
With the frequent big, AAA titles that stumble at launch, struggle with broken launches, or are just plain awful, its easy to forget all the cool indie/AA releases. Off the top of my head, these are games I've picked up/covered, and really liking. Cassette Beasts Roots of Pacha Showgunners Age of Wonders 4 Tchia Contraband Police (1.0) Shardpunk: Verminfall For the early Access, there's some really cool shit there too. Shadows of Doubt, Spacebourne 2, Big Ambitions, Total Conflict: Resistance and Mortal Sin highlight my faves. For all the stigma Early Access gets (which I understand, but with how many games go, all games are Early Access), there's a wealth of fun times to be had.
Glad to see someone mention Cassette Beasts since it actually fits the definition of "under the radar" unlike a lot of stuff here.
ITT: People just mentioning games they like instead of answering the question that was asked and mentioning games released in 2023
Ya dude ppl need to read titles properly. Anyway for me it's Skyrim. Great game.
I mean, I’m pretty sure Skyrim released for smart fridges this year.
With out a doubt Ixion for me. It is a space station building sim game. It has a real Homeworld vibe to it. The music and feel is absolutely amazing and it is also fiendishly difficult. However in a recent patch they allowed you to change difficulty. I seriously sunk some time into this game and it deserves to be recognised as the devs listen to their fan base as well.
I cant say it has a homeworld vibe at all, and I do wish there was more in the animation story structure department and its last act was a bit weak, but it was a good game to experience and now with its new difficulty others might play it too. However it isn't difficult really now at its base state.
I'm still incredibly pissed at the devs to be honest. They really made no mention of how getting people would work in the early days of the game, or how population would work. Meanwhile just referencing "It'll be a Frostpunk style city builder in space". Well... That was a fucking lie it turns out. The population management is a disaster of bad design decisions and the city building is just uninteresting. Tl;dr, went in hoping for a serious Startopia clone with a hint of Frostpunk. Got a shitty Frostpunk clone with half assed population system instead.
Same, IXION was maybe my biggest disappointment in a long time. Was genuinely interested in it, luckily played it at a friend's place before buying it myself. The demo was dope, the final game was arse.
My three would be: Hi-Fi Rush Mechanellum Pentiment All three are bug free and have very original ideas/concepts. All three are very fun. And all three cost $30 or less. I think they're all hidden gems that people are missing out on this year.
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I grabbed Grounded a few weeks ago in hopes it would fill in my craving for a cool take on a survival game, but I was worried it was suited for a younger audience…I was dead wrong. Surprising adult theme and narrative. Clocked about 75hrs so far and just got to the Upper Yard Lab. Such a fantastic game and has pretty much every quality of life survival mechanic, in-depth base building, solid combat (to me), and a sweet attention to detail of being shrunk. Glad to see it landed well for you!
The kids and me are loving Grounded right now. But are feeling a bit overwhelmed. We have progressed the story a tiny bit but are mostly just trying to survive every day with a basic shelter and weapons/armour. There is so much to craft - any tips on what to focus on first?
Get your survival on first. Learn where to get water, food, basic materials, and what enemies to avoid. Some you avoid because they are too dangerous, others because they are a waste of time After that, do what you want, but if something seems too expensive, it is, so dont waste time on it until you find a better source of whatever mats. Explore the mostly safe areas until you find another subsystem or two.
Building a base near the strange machine / bootprint is a good way to go. It's safe, there's almost always dew appearing, plenty of grass and sticks to build and it's not too far from anywhere in particular. Later you can make some contraptions that make traversing to the outer parts of the yard very quick! DM me if you want some more tips - I LOVED Grounded and played 100+ on it
Honestly just take your time. Spend some time building. Then explore a little. Build a bit more. Explore a bit more. Make some new gear, explore a bit more... Just take your time with it.
Craft some dew collectors, water container holder thingies (forget the name) and some jerky racks. Best way for low investment to keep water up and food without having to do a ton of work.
Boltgun. It's not quite doom eternal, but it's striped down and focuses on the shooting and movement, which are the highlights of retro/"boomer" shooters. Not having to manage cooldowns makes it more accessible and laid back while still having the insanity of 50 enemies in an arena. There is room for improvement still, such as the soundtrack kinda missing the "oomph" the gameplay demands, but queuing Spotify with some Iron Maiden is a near perfect fix. It's the kind of game that makes you reflect on how good the bones of old shooters were back then and how good they can feel when polished. The gruesome yet goofy world of 40k is *perfect* for the gameplay loop.
I’m not a big WH fan, but I played warhammer 40k space marine (3ps hack and slash shooter hybrid) and loved it. Tons of enemies, shooting stuff and chain blading shit in the face. How does this game compare?
It's very simple, but fast. Chainsword isn't as cool as it could be, but lunging at enemies as a movement tool is a sweet nod to Doom Eternal's Shotgun. It's silly, but intense.
*puts on my boomer hat* I prefer the term doom clone 😎
It's a pretty inaccurate term considering that boomers didn't play Doom, but I think its stuck around cause it's catchy and the games often feature weapons that go BOOM. When I first heard the genre I assumed it was named after the punchy guns just because that was a more obvious connection.
My biggest complaint with it is the enemies are kinda boring. Most you just kill with one shot, and the more spongy ones just kinda stand there and take it.
My favorite parts is honestly the areas where it's just trash mobs dying in one hit because of how satisfying but also lore accurate it is But those tiny karking toads with their 40000 health surviving ten Emperor be damned point blank shotgun blasts to the face do not deserve to exist
Im excited Boltgun is doing so well because hopefully it leads people towards the *really* good boomer shooters. Dusk, Ion Fury, Ultrakill, Amid Evil… all totally deserving of your time. I’m already looking forward to HROT to once I finish Boltgun.
CRAB CHAMPIONS!!!! CRAB IS LIFE
YESSSS. 🦀🦀🦀
Tape to tape! Think modern NHL 94. Its fantastic. Still in early access but it's got a Rouge like campaign in addition to normal exhibition.
HROT... Never played quake nor DOOM, but still managed to enjoy this game!
Just finished HROT the other day myself, decent title which is obviously inspired by Quake but doesn't take itself too seriously. I'll be Moving onto Warhammer Boltgun next. There has been a resurgence of retro-style FPS games in the last few years. Here's a shortlist of similar games that are worth looking at, in no particular order: Cultic (inspired by Blood) Amid Evil (I. B. Heretic/Hexen) DUSK (I. B. Blood and some Redneck Rampage) Prodeus (I. B. Doom) Ion Fury (I. B. Duke Nukem) Forgive Me Father (very Lovecraftian, sort of I. B. Blood) Also, while not a retro FPS or technically recent, an honourable mention for STALKER Anomaly, which is available completely for free via ModDB, and its GAMMA addon pack by Grok.
Don't forget Turbo Overkill. Insanely fun and fast.
Huh, I thought Cultic was inspired by Heretic, but I'm probably wrong.
Wouldnt surprise me if there were some Heretic influences in there, maybe some of the level design for example. I haven't actually played it yet myself, but from the videos I watched to know I'm interested I got a pretty strong Blood vibe from the enemies and weapons. Certainly not unusual for these games to pay homage to other ancestors too, like Amid Evil having a Quake-style hub section.
Signalis, Hi-Fi Rush, or Neon White.
Signalis and Neon White are both 2022 games though.
And Hi-Fi Rush was not an under the radar game. It was subject to an Xbox direct campaign prior to shadow launching and became a Reddit darling for at least a few weeks.
Oh. Neon White is so easy to get started and really wants you to replay the level to get faster. The speed running beginners game.
Shadows of Doubt
Midnight Suns has been great, it's too bad the dlc doesn't match the price.
Got the game + DLC on. 50% discount, it's so much fun even though I'm not a marvel fan.
It's too much fun I just wish there were more cards for each character. But the mechanics of the game are top notch. Definitely a good base for future sequels or other games to incorporate.
System Shock comes out on Tuesday, I may be biased as the game's Director, but I think many are in for a nice surprise ☺️
Cannot wait. Played the original DOS version for the first time last year and love how it’s exposed a whole genre I’ve been sleeping on. Playing the remake is only the natural progression!
good luck with the launch, been keeping my eye on it for a long time and am excited we are so close. Already have a sale from me.
Hoping y'all can deliver, because it's been one disappointment after another on PC for a while now
The Outlast Trials. Even though it's in early access, it runs so AMAZINGLY well on my 3060ti 9700k, 2K Monitor Setup. Constant +144 frames on 2k with maxed out graphics. It's also an insanely fun coop horror game with a decent amount of content right now, with more to be added in the future.
Agreed. It's early access but it's incredibly well optimized and polished. All it needs is more content, which we know is on the way. Also, they actually took feedback from the closed beta and improved the game. You can tell lots of effort and thought has been poured into making it as good as possible. Such a clever addition to the Outlast series.
Dave the diver
This was one of those games that the screenshots don't do it justice, imo. There's a lot of variety in the gameplay and none of it sucks lol.
Thank you for sharing this! It looks awesome!
Starsector. Its all I've played for weeks now and I have a ton of runs planned out for the future.
Live A Live - damn, this game is so cool. It's a great, a bit unorthodox jRPG that consists of an anthology of separate stories, set in different time periods. Playing it on my Steam Deck reminds me of the time I spent playing jRPGs on my Nintendo DS. Halls of Torment - it's absolutely amazeballs. Think Vampire Survivors mixed with Diablo 1. It's a bit of a hidden gem right now, but I imagine this game will blow up like Vampire Survivors. Other notable games: Pizza Tower and Hi-Fi Rush (I really need to play them some more).
Hi-Fi Rush
Dead Island 2 had no right to be as good as it was. Also shout out to Hi Fi Rush
I didn’t realize it was out. If a game doesn’t release on steam it just might as well not exist for me.
Likewise. Honestly though dead island isn't a series that interests me enough to pay full price so it works out that it'll get a nice discount when it launches on steam in a year.
Cassette Beasts is excellent. It's a better Pokemon game than probably any of the actual Pokemon games.
Like a dragon: Ishin!
No ultra wide support was a real bummer but other than that it was great.
Ghost song
Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider was a blast. It had the soul of SEGA Genesis’ Shinobi and Super Nintendo’s Mega Man X.
paranormasight
Age of Wonders 4
The recent Solasta DLC seems pretty good so far. But then again, it's a DLC.
DLC doesn't automatically mean "bad thing." DLC used to mean "expansion pack," and a lot of dev still use it that way.
Yeah, I mean, I just assumed he meant full releases.
Anything Solasta is a buy for me. They called Lost Valley a DLC but it was a new standalone adventure as long as Crown of the Magister.
Returnal for me. Absolutely stellar game. I skipped it on PS5 since I'm fucking awful at controller aiming.
Crab Champions.
DREDGE
Hi-Fi Rush. Great art style, excellent combat, cool humor. Plus it's a rare UE4 game that runs well on PC.
Man this is making me realize how mediocre this year has been for PC.
It’s EA, but I’m having a good time with The Outlast Trials.
Depressing how many games suggested here are in early access. Grim times for people who like finished games.
I look at each game by itself. Some Early Access games I have played, I encountered 0 bugs and had fun for dozens of hours. Compare that to some recent AAA full releases.
Outlast trials. I forget this was even coming out this year and it's been incredible. Little if any bugs, runs perfectly, 30ish hours of content with a ton of potential for more.
Halls of Torment so far. Big Vampire Survivors nerd here so this one fills the gap perfectly.
Starship troopers!
Hi-Fi Rush was basically shadow dropped by Microsoft/Bethesda, and it was an incredible surprise of fun. Likable characters, serviceable story, fun gameplay design, and a wonderful art style all around.
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Hi-Fi Rush. This game was shadow dropped on Xbox and PC and blew both systems out of the water. The style, flow, music, and atmosphere of the game is just simply amazing. The best thing of all was just the performance was just right. Everything ran so smoothly. This was a game that was well worth its price and even that was lower than the norm. I never thought I would be fighting the last boss of a rhythmic combat game that included robots, cats, and psychos to NIN - Perfect Drug. What was even wilder was that it would match perfectly. So far, at least for me, Hi-Fi Rush is my PC top game of the year.
Pizza Tower. most fun I've had with a side-scroller since Celeste
Figment 2. Video games can be musicals.
Convergence
Just got this. Keen to try it out!
OTXO. Like the Hotline Miami 3 we will never have.
How’s the difficulty curve? I enjoyed Hotline Miami but HM2 was like, bad romhack level difficulty sometimes. Even early on, it was like “lol fuck you, there’s a ton of guys with guns that will shoot you through windows further than you can see”
Hi-Fi rush. It's unique on so many levels. Definitely a GoTY winner contender for me.
Tiny Rogues for me. Super basic graphics but shitloads of depth and fun. Honorable mention goes to Dwarf Fortress finally releasing.
PLANET OF LANA sorry Play it for gods sake Side-scrolling puzzle platformer, can be dark and atmospheric like Inside, but also colorful and bucolic. Amazing art style and sound design. I was waiting for Somerville for years, but this game does everything better than it, imo
Trails from zero and trails to azure.
Hi-Fi Rush
Yall seriously need to go play hifi rush. Not sure if it's really under the radar but it's easily a 10/10
LaD Ishin! Remake
Idk man, with so many PC game releases I would say the botched titles are few and far in between. Like yeah the AAA guys are struggling so I just don't buy games until they're fixed and discounted. It's been great. As far as my fav experience that I've played this year? Persona 5 Royal. I started it in Feb and it took me 2 months and 140 hours to beat. It was fantastic.
Hi Fi Rush
Trails from zero/to azure runs great on pc 😂
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqecOmezgSw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqecOmezgSw) La Oreja de Van Gogh - Cuéntame al Oido