Steam Summer Sale (or: Buy My Faves, the game recs thread)

Soooo as several people have already noted, the Steam Summer Sale is on (though it seems to be less of an event this year than it usually is) and I figure that is an excellent time to throw your favourite games at people and hope they stick! I've already seen some rec lists on tumblr (and am absolutely sold on Sunless Sea by now, so that's definitely happening) but I'm curious to see more (and also to get a chance to make people look my faves up because they are glorious and underappreciated, as faves so often are).

So! Game recs for the steam sale? What are you planning on buying, or have already bought? On the fence about any game and wanting to see if anyone can tip the scales?

general should i/shouldn't i game discussion go go go

also link to your steam wishlists. just in case

 

My recs are, other than the classics like Portal 2 which is clever and also super fun and currently on sale for 5 euro and Transistor which apparently gets really difficult later on but is so pretty and has an absolutely amazing soundtrack, this rather short list

• The Path (5 euro) which is one of my favourite games ever even though I am incredibly uncertain about reccing it bc more often that not people hate it. It's an indie game from 2009 and it's not so much a game as it is... I don't even know man, it's a Red Riding Hood artsy thing, trigger warning for allusions to everything as well as a lack of coherent story and almost complete absence of instructions. (They give you one rule and you cannot win the game by following it.) It's an exploration game with a really nice vaguely ominous atmosphere and symbolism everywhere. (It helps if you think of it as less of a journey to a specific goal, and more of a journey to get to know the main characters. Who are they? What happens to them? What does it all mean) I am genuinely upset about how bad I am at describing this game so I'll stop now but if anyone does end up getting it hi hello i am bad at analysis but am 100% here for discussion of any kind
• Child of Light (3.7 euro) is a super calming game that is very aesthetically pleasing and definitely worth playing (even though i felt the ending was a bit abrupt and thus sort of a let-down)

....i definitely have more, but everyone knows about undertale and Stardew Valley by now, and apparently i did not have as much describing things energy as i thought i did. whelp. gonna throw in Fez and Long Live the Queen (both 5) though and remind myself to try and describe them some other time

also I don't think I've ever played a dating sim in my life but seebs' tumblr alerted me to one where there are lesbians and suddenly i am very, very tempted.

 

I am not great at reviewing games ... but here is my wishlist, and if anyone wants a review of a game I own ping me and I'll do my best :)

 

• Play Age of Mythology. Oldie but a goodie. And one of my all time faves.

• Crypt of the Necrodancer is an amazing rhythm based dungeon crawler.

• Subnautica is early access but being updated pretty much all the time, and is a gorgeous survival game where you get stuck on an alien ocean planet. Captures both the beauty and absolute terror of the ocean.

• Slime Rancher is just plain fun and happy.

• Darkest Dungeon has an awesome artstyle, amazing narration, and is supremely challenging while also being fun.

• Baldur's Gate 1 & 2. I recommend grabbing the Enhanced editions.

• To The Moon. It'll break your heart, but it's beautiful.

• Road Not Taken. Ditto as To The Moon.

• The Banner Saga. Awesome artstyle. Amazing music. I adored it.

Here's my meager wishlist x3

 

HI, DO YOU LIKE STORY DRIVEN GAMES AND/OR ROMANCE? Maybe check these out~

• Analogue: A Hate Story
• Gone Home
• Hustle Cat
• Long Live The Queen
• Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale (also dungeon crawling + shop management!)
• Cinders (Cinderella style plot! ROMANCE THE HOT OLD DUDE)
• The Stanley Parable

 

Axiom Verge is about 12 dollars on steam right now. It's one of the better metroidvania type games I've played. You get to play as a nerd scientist who can glitch reality with his gun and coat to phase through walls and make enemies help you and stuff. Also there is some lovely H.R. Geiger-esque faces in the game with the Rusalkas.

If you don't already have it Undertale is only 7 dollars right now. Lovely Mother-esque RPG.

Lisa is another lovely Mother-esque RPG, though of a very different sort than Undertale. Complete edition is 9 dollars and the game itself is 5. If a weird quirky game about men being gross men in a womanless apocalypse sounds up your alley you might want it.

Horribly disappointed by Mighty no.9 or never believed in it in the first place? 20xx is a roguelike Megaman X-type game and it's 9 dollars right now. Has co-op and according to my Megaman loving girlfriend the way it randomizes stages works pretty fucking good. You also won't get screwed over by weapons because those are set from what I understand. It's still in beta but it seems solid.

For more Megaman type fun there's also Azure Striker Gunvolt for 8 dollars.

Continue to want Megaman? Shovel Knight is 10 dollars. There's new content on the way for it too. Get hype and get shoveling.

You like dungeon crawlers and don't mind soul crushing depression and the RNG being an absolute dick to you then Darkest Dungeon is 15.

The Oddbox is 4 fucking dollars. You get both Abe games and the Munch and Stranger games. If you want wonderfully weird and grotesque world building you might be interested. If you love platformers like Prince of Persia then the Abe games alone are worth a look. Hate capitalism? Good. So does Oddworld. On this note New 'n Tasty does not come in the box but it is 8 dollars currently. It's not just a prettier version of Abe's Oddyssey, the game it is a HD remake of. There's quite an expansion of content and if you can't take the old school checkpoint system the game has quicksaves. Also it scrolls now if you hate waiting for screen transitions!

SHADOWGATE IS 2.24 FUCKING SERIOUSLY IT IS LOVELY AND DUMB AND YOU DIE ALL THE TIME. A BOOK KILLS YOU. IT IS AMAZING.

 

I have no idea what's currently on sale, I'd have to look to make any other relevant comments, I am just here to say

THE PATH THE PATH THE PATH THE PATH THE PATH THE PATH <3

 

I personally also picked up the Legend of Grimrock games which are being sold together for the price of the second game alone. So 9 dollars. Not sure about the second but the first one is a fun little modern first person dungeon crawler.

Also Eldritch is like 2 bucks and it too is a first person dungeon crawler. This one being Lovecraft themed. You can punch penguins. Why would you want not want to punch penguins?

 

Is everything just on sale. I don't Steam can you tell you can probably tell. I had to check if my favourite top game is on sale though and it is.

Please play Life Is Strange and scream in emotions at time-controlling lesbians with me. LIS is my thing. The first episode is kind of cheesy but they responded to feedback and the later episodes are much improved on that dialogue front. I really like LIS.

 

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Seconding To The Moon, it's great, and will check out Road Not Tak--- huh. Might get Road Not Taken, actually, that is a very pleasant art style and it sounds like something I'd be into. :D

@Ruevian - Long Live The Queen high five, and ooohhh I think I've had my eye on Analogue before :0

 

I made a whole post on why you should buy The Secret World. It is my favoritest game and I will play it with you.

 

I second Life is Strange. It is beautiful and intense as hell. It also comes with a heavy dose of content warnings, so be aware of that - but if you're ready to handle some heavy stuff, it's so, so worth it. The setting and atmosphere is also heavily inspired by 1990's PNW, so if you were a teen then, prepare for a major nostalgia trip.

Also seconding Reccetear - instead of playing an adventurer, you play the owner of the item shop that sells things to adventurers. Unfortunately, she's also got debts to pay and a micromanaging fairy breathing down her neck about it. It's fun as hell, the new game + mode keeps it from being frustrating, and the writing is genuinely funny.

If you like cyberpunk and you like fantasy and you like the idea of them mixed together, then Shadowrun Returns (or the Shadowrun Complete Collection if you want to go all in) is really worth a try. It's an RPG with turn-based strategy combat and a major dose of really good story.

 

my recs are...

tentatively, Kentucky Route Zero. the tentative is because it's an episodic game that is only sold as a season pass (currently on sale for $12) and the episodes have been being released slowly. episode 4 is supposedly 'almost complete' but that announcement was back in november. i don't think it's a scam, and i do think it will be finished, but if you want to play a game through to completion, you might not want to buy this already. aside from all of that though.. it's a story heavy magical realist spooky game. think night vale but instead of a small desert community, it's a secret chunk of the interstate in kentucky. less desert creepiness, more appalachian. it's really hard to explain, but it's.. i don't know. i love magical realism and if you do too you'll really dig it.

mini metro is on sale for $7 and is a fun kind of puzzler. basically you set up rail lines and assign cars and such to a metro system with a city that gradually expands over time (new points appear that need to be linked). you very often need to pause and completely re-set up your lines. and eventually things will get too hectic and you'll lose, but the idea of the game is to try to keep things moving for as long as possible.

papers, please is on sale for $5. and yet again is a game that is kind of hard to describe. you basically work border patrol in a vaguely soviet country and have to closely inspect documents in order to only allow the correct people into the country. if you don't do your job right you are docked money and thus have a hard time surviving off your meager pay. it presents a lot of hard moral choices. this lady is starving in her old country but doesn't have the right paper, do you let her slip pass or do you turn her away? it's a very bleak but interesting game.

titan quest gold is on sale for $5, torchlight II is also on sale for $4. both are really fun to play action RPGs in the vein of the diablo series. if i had to pick on, i'd recommend torchlight II over titan quest. torchlight II feels like what diablo 3 should have been. it's a very fun hack and slash adventure.

unholy heights is on sale for $3.20. tower defense meets apartment management. you are satan and you own a small apartment building for monsters. when you move them in the apartments are crap, you need to get money from the rent those monsters pay and you want to make their apartments better so you can charge more for rent. eventually some monsters will fall in love and move in together and have children, which means you'll also get more monsters to use to defend your apartment complex from people who want to kill monsters and demons. some monsters are stronger than others and have different abilities, ranged attacks versus close range attacks, and so on. it's pretty fun.

 

You should all try and fail not to starve and then get Don't Starve Together so i have more people to play with on the Kintsugi Server I'm hosting

 

also recommend: armello, if you like board games, or you are a redwall fan, or both. it's probably more fun if you're willing to play competitively online, but even the single player against pcs is good

 

Question, what is the game with the lesbians and one of them has a green jacket with an anarchist A on it? I've been trying to find it for a while now

 

Sounds like Life is Strange, but Chloe's jacket is black and I don't think it has any patches on it...

 

We Know the Devil is on sale for $3.99! It's a short visual novel that takes place in a strange and surreal christian summer camp where three kids are sent to a cabin in the woods to keep watch for the devil. It has lesbians! It has an amazing soundtrack! It has shitty teens playing truth or dare! There are a BUNCH of content warnings, including allusions to self harm, internalized self hatred, some pretty heavy horror visuals, and probably a bunch of others, but it is an absolutely beautiful game.

 

Sunless Sea is on sale for about $10 right now, which is a slow-paced eerie exploration and survival game with roguelike aspects where you captain a ship in the underzee in the same universe as Fallen London, if anybody is familiar with that. I really love the Victorian Gothic atmosphere, music, and storytelling, and the tagline that pulled me in when the Kickstarter was still running is: "Lose your mind. Eat your crew." It has lots of replay value, too, imo.