If anyone reading this thread hasn’t played it, imma give no further information but just…go play Outer Wilds, ok?

Hollow Knight and Vampire Survivors are the ones that managed got me hooked in the last few months

Disco Elysium for certain. Everything about it is perfect from the writing to the music.

Jalopy is such a neat game! Steam recommended it to me after playing my summer car.

My current favorite is project zomboid. It’s become my default suggestion when someone asks for a good survival/zombie game just because of how intricate the in game mechanics are. Not only that, it has a massive community of players and modders who are constantly adding to and updating workshop content.

Multiplayer with friends is a blast also.

Factorio. The factory must grow
And Deep Rock Galactic. For Rock and Stone

A Short Hike is simply delightful. I just started playing it and it feels so genuine and kind, just a cute and happy little game!

If you like open source gaming, Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead.

Turn based zombie (and other creatures) survival game with very intricate crafting mechanics. It plays in the same style as a classic roguelike (think stuff like Pokemon Mystery Dungeon) when it comes to movement.

Anything in the game can be broken down into components, and most things can be built back up from those components. The vehicle building system is also very solid, you can make a fully customized hybrid car with remote turrets, a horse-pulled shopping cart, or anything in-between.

The game has a pretty big focus on realism, there’s concepts such as sound and smell which determine how you are detected by creatures. I remember reading about a user on the community discord server who researched the properties of bug chitin because they wanted to change the giant bugs you can fight in the game.

The biggest downside is that it’s pretty obtuse to get into if you have no experience with similar games. Movement is most efficiently done using the numpad, as the 1,3,7,9 keys work as diagonals. Most keys on your keyboard perform a separate action (e.g. ‘e’ to examine, ‘t’ to throw, uppercase ‘E’ to eat etc.). You’ll find yourself checking the controls often. Similarly, there’s basically no tutorial. Or more specifically, there’s no way to make a good tutorial for how much you can do in the game. The mechanics are all so diverse and so deep that the only realistic way to learn about them is either trial and error, or asking questions on the community discord server.

That being said, it’s one of the best sandbox games out there. And it’s free, so why not try it?

Starsector is a awesome 2D Space Sim that can keep you hundreds of hour occupied.

How has no one mentioned Stardew Valley? Where my farmers at?

So many.

Hollow Knight, Celeste, Outer Wilds, Subnautica, Stardew Valley, Slay the Spire and Zachtronics games likely need no introduction. Then there’s also…

Bug Fables. Incredibly satisfying Paper Mario-like which has thrived into its own thing.

Baba is You/Environmental Station Alpha, hempuli games. The former you’ve likely heard of, a logic Sokobon with truly mindbending puzzles deeper within (and a level editor!! god, I could gush about level editors for hours). ESA is an older hempuli metroidvania. If you’re a fan of that genre, it’s among the best.

Caves of Qud – the best true roguelike IMO. It has so much flavor.

Slime Rancher [2], my beloved serotonin game.

Against the Storm, really well polished citybuilder that emphasizes the first few hours of citybuilding. It’s a bit hard to explain here, but I’d suggest looking into it if you’re a fan!

Symphony of War: The Nephilim Saga, my personal favorite tactical RPG.

I could go on but I gotta draw the line somewhere…

I can’t give favorites out of everything - too many to choose from, all too different from each other! But some I really like include:

The My Time at Portia / Sandrock games. Super chill crafting life sims for relaxing. Critically, you can increase the length of the day for more chill (in sandrock at least, can’t remember if portia has this too).

Hollow Night

The Sea Will Claim Everything. Left of center folks, especially if you fondly remember Freddie Fish and Putt-putt, in particular should play this. It’s like an indie, wordily philosophical version of those types of games but for adults. It has so much whimsy, and you can click on everything and anything and get a unique little bit of description or animation. I love it so much but don’t recommend it often enough.

This is a weird one, because I think the title of the game is putting people off as it’s nowhere near as popular as it should be. However, please give me a chance here to convince you to try it.

Intergalactic Fishing.

You don’t actually need to be into fishing games to enjoy it. The fishing, although about as addictive as most good fishing minigames, is only a small portion of the game.

It also revolves around a similar style of exploration to some space games, such as No Man’s Sky and Elite Dangerous. While progressing through the storyline you will gain access to undiscovered lakes with their own unique species of fish, and information collected about these lakes can be sold.

Catching fish gives you information about that fish’s likes in terms of lure, along with a few other attributes. You can then use this information to design a lure to suit it. This becomes a puzzle game, as lures are designed by arranging squares on a grid. Factors such as “shininess” and “noise” are infkuenced by putting more blocks near the edges, or leaving more holes and forming irregular shapes.

It’s primarily a sandbox game, but there is a short storyline. Once finished though, the game opens up into an addictive endgame that I don’t want to spoil. Tournaments and contracts are a nice diversion throughout the game and can also net you (sorry for the pun, but fish puns are hard to avoid) a decent amount of cash.

It’s quickly become one of my favourite games of all time.

I know the whole “Open world survival craft” genre is super overdone, and has way too many games now, but Valheim is honestly awesome. The fun scales with more people, me and my friends (3-4 usually) have been having a blast.

My all time favourite has to be The Return of the Obra Dinn. In my opnion it is the single best detective game. Not only is the narrative very captivating, but the deduction process cant be brute forced. It simply is a master piece.

Celeste is great! Love that platformer a lot.