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Steam Winter Sale 2025: Hidden gems
Inspired by the recurring topic every Steam sale over at /r/GameDealsMeta:
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What are some lesser-known or overlooked Steam games that you recommend?
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Are there any genres you’d like hidden gem recommendations for?
If you're interested in previous Hidden Gem topics, you can find them here.
For popular recommendations and general purpose sale discussion, please use the main Steam Sale topic.
Optional: Feel free to categorize your recommendations by number of reviews (as a proxy for popularity)
| Category | Maximum Review Count |
|---|---|
| Shockingly Overlooked | 20 |
| Under the Radar | 50 |
| Buried Treasure | 150 |
| Underrated Great | 500 |
| Cult Classic | 1000 |
| Gem Graduate | 1000+ |
Buried Treasures (≤150 reviews)
Breakout: Recharged
Mekabolt
Oxytone
Pru the Pigeon
ROTA: Bend Gravity
A Simple Garbage Sorting Game
Underrated Greats (≤500 reviews)
Cozy Space Survivors
Mask of Mists
Orb Tower
Paradise Marsh
Pinball Spire
POOOOL
Regular Factory: Escape Room
Roundabout
Cult Classics (≤1000 reviews)
BORE BLASTERS
Voyager-19
Gem Graduates (>1000 reviews)
Hotshot Racing
Inkbound
Keep on Mining!
SPRAWL
Sunderfolk
And I still recommend Voyager-19! Thanks for the credit! :D
Holy crap how have I not heard of this game before. Those are two of my favorite games ever, so Inkbound sounds right up my alley. Thanks for the recommendation!
Edit: actually a lot of these look right up my alley too. Orb Tower, Pinball Spire, Bore Blasters, SPRAWL... I don't know where you find all these great games but I appreciate you linking them and providing a brief description for each one.
It's a fun game, esp in online co-op, but it's abandoned by the devs, and it does need more work (balance isn't always great).
Lumines! This originally came out on PSP many years ago but this is still a fantastic puzzle game, similar to Tetris, with some fantastic music and visuals.
Oh I had no idea there a Steam port! Was one of the games I play a lot on PSP. Technically the game play doesn't require one to drop blocks on beat, but it's so satisfying when one does....
Lumines Arise was Released Nov 11 and also sub 2000 reviews -- it'll get there, was a great game, happy to see it get new music and visuals, but it costs 10x as much as Remastered.
How does this compare to Lumines arise?
Arise is the same base game but with a whole new set of fancier graphics, new soundtrack, a new "burst" mechanic, and a small pause in-between sections. Both games are very good.
Slay the Spire is currently $3.19CAD.
It's not lesser known, but the dollar to enjoyment ratio if you like rogue-like deckbuilders is unreal.
Slightly more than 69 thousand reviews. nice. I thought I was posting this in the main topic, turns out I have a classic too many tabs problem.
tbh, for $100 the ratio is still unreal :)
Every time this thread comes up I want to give a shout-out to Lila's Sky Ark. Less than 100 reviews and currently on sale for $2.99 USD. It's a light RPG that's not quite typical, and... Well, the trailer shows you the sort of aesthetics it has. The aesthetic is STRONG.
I admittedly haven't finished it (I stopped shortly after finishing Arc 1) and it's been a while, so my memories are a bit hazy at this point (I'll need to start over probably). But this game sticks out to me because there's a side quest early on that just showed the developers' heart and care for this project. They could have had a simple fetch quest and dialogue, but it ends with this animated sequence that just really shows their passion for the project. That passion alone is why I'll keep mentioning it in these threads.
I mean... Look at the official strategy guide! Well actually don't look TOO much because it obviously has spoilers, but that is a legitimate, print-ready strategy guide. It has formatting and an introduction and concept art. They went above and beyond with it. These are developers who really, truly love video games, and I want to support that passion.
It's the prequel to another game called Resolutiion, also a potential hidden gem and on sale for $3.99. I haven't played it but it's a hack-and-slash game and shows a similarly strong aesthetic (though a very different one). Reviews are mixed, but they go into a lot of detail, so take a look at them. (Neat thing: the top review is by one of the developers of the Godot engine!)
...Okay, one more hidden gem with a HEAVY dose of "your mileage may vary" attached: Agatha Knife, for $2.99. This is NOT for everyone. You need a dark sense of humor and to be willing to suspend a good chunk of your morals because...
It's an adorable point-and-click adventure game about a little girl living at a butcher shop starting a religion for animals so they won't be so terrified of death!
Yeah, this game is definitely an acquired taste (no pun intended). I grabbed it years ago after watching someone play some of it on Youtube, and finished it this year during the Backlog Bingo event. I talked about it plenty in that comment (actually copy/pasted the above paragraph from there), including a full recap of my playthrough because I know not many people will play it given the subject matter. So you can just read that post (minus the spoilers) to help decide if you might be interested.
The main reason I'm sharing it: this game is surprisingly thought-provoking. Aside from the obvious moral ponderings related to the meat industry (still no clue what conclusions I reached, but did get me thinking on it more than usual), it has a pretty tongue-in-cheek analysis of religion, particularly cults. It's kind of refreshing because it doesn't really feel like a critique of religion as a whole, but it still very directly addresses how a lot of religions (especially modern ones and cults) are just vehicles for the founder's greed.
It's a unique one, and again, definitely not for everyone. But out of all the games I played in the backlog burner, it sticks out the most. Not many games can get me feeling introspective like this, and the presentation (seriously, I kept getting flashbacks to playing Madeline and other point-and-click games made for kids) keeps it from feeling too morbid or difficult to stomach like some other games that tackle dark/heavy themes do. It's an overall upbeat game, just stemming from a morbid concept.
So, yeah. YMMV, but chances are someone else here might enjoy it too.
I guess it’s technically not a “hidden gem” with > 1,000 reviews (but it is only at ~1200).
Eternal Strands was a lot of fun! For just $12 it’s definitely worth it IMO. Took me about 25 hours to beat so not too long, but has a decently interesting story, cute VN-like art style in some character interactions, and a physics based combat and magic system for exploring and taking down giant creatures.
If any of those things interest you, I’d highly recommend picking it up!
TBH, if they made a switch 2 port I’d buy it again just to watch my wife play it.
Aces & Adventures is currently on sale for $1.99 (581 reviews as of the time of this comment)
It's a traditional story based deckbuilder with a slay the spire like mode, except the "combat" is done mostly through poker card combinations. It has multiple classes, lots of stories through read to and even more replayability if you like deckbuilders.
It's a fantastic game, fully voice acted, with beautiful artwork that's an absolute steal for $2!
CAT & ONION is on sale for 1$, with 315 reviews.
This is a rather short game, between 30 minutes and an hour, but with a very lovely and fun story.
Interesting that Yogscast Games published both Aces and Dungeons & Degenerate Gamblers. Have you or @aphoenix played that, and if so, how do they compare?
I've not played Dungeons and Degenerate Gamblers, but it looks fun!
The only other one from this publisher I've played is Tales & Tactics which is 80% off and is a good at around 5 bucks. It's a cute autobattler by the same group that did the Downfall mod for Slay the Spire (which is an incredible mod).
I second Aces & Adventures, it's in my top 10 deckbuilding games. It's another incredible grab for 2 bucks.
If your Steam profile is public, and if you are comfortable with a third party app scraping it:
This site lets you export your Steam library as a spreadsheet. It includes columns for number of reviews and review score, so it's a great way to find hidden gems you've already played, as well as potential hidden gems in your library.
I used this to sort a bunch of different games into a "Potential Hidden Gem" category in my Steam library, which I'm excited to play from over the course of the next year.
Holder of Place. Really clever autobattler that’s nice and quick with a lot of relatability.
182 reviews and 9.99 currently but if it hits a sale I cannot recommend it enough
Dream Swing [$0.89] // Buried Treasure (119 reviews)
One of these "simple to learn, hard to master" kinda games, for those who like chasing high scores and improving their skills.
Lushfoil Photography Sim [$9.73] // Underrated Great (293 reviews)
Name says it all, but very well made photography simulator. It's a very relaxing game for to play, even if I'm just a complete amateur at photography. Plenty of advanced options for the pros as well.
Jupiter Hell Classic [$12.74] // Underrated Great (184 reviews)
Remake of the classic DoomRL without the Doom branding, it's a great traditional roguelike. With its quick runs, fast gameplay with crunchy graphics and SFX, it's a joy to play. Early access warning.
Is lushfoil useful for teaching photography concepts to a complete newbie?
I don't know if it's a good replacement for actual theory but I learned quite a lot with the in-game tutorials.
Jupiter Hell (not "Classic") is also an excellent roguelike that is made for gamepads, is pretty, simple to play, and good enough for short sessions.
It's also a great one! I think I prefer Classic because it's easier to tell what's happening at once, but you can't go wrong with either of them.
Underrated Greats (≤500 reviews)
Celestial Empire
(note: I was a playtester for this game after playing the demo but I didn't really interact with the devs, and when it went to EA I purchased it as a normal player)
It's not on sale since it was just recently released: Sektori, fantastic twinstick shooter, great techno soundtrack. Overwhelmingly positive with ~370 votes. I really like it, but I kinda suck at it. 😅
Bought this the day it came out because the demo was so good, and it hasn't disappointed. I only wish the dev put a little discount on it so we could legitimately push it in sale threads, but it seems to still be doing well for such a niche game, and even without a discount, I'm seeing it pop up in Winter sale threads here and there.
Don't forget the great little side-modes. They really add and can also be a gentler way to learn some things outside campaign runs, plus boss practice in boss rush (I hold my strikes way too much in boss fights, so I really do need to focus-practice them if I'm ever getting even an "easy" clear).
Sektori is probably the best arcade twin-stick since Assault Android Cactus, which is actually discounted to $4, instead of their usual $5 sale price. Play Waves for free, then buy Cactus and Sektori.
If someone wants even more hidden gem twin-sticks, there's AtomHex (off-Steam shareware, but cheap), Twin Ruin, Devader, Windowkill, Devastator, and Combat Complex (tries to be a top-down shooter crawler ARPG, but comes out feeling like an intense and clever little twin-stick shooter with some pointless stat gearing rigamarole, and a sad lack of scoring).
I've never heard of Sektori before, but it looks really familiar. Enter the Gungeon is one of my most-played games on Steam so Valve is always suggesting twin-stick shooters to me. I've seen more than I can count. What games does it share aesthetics with?
It definitely draws heavily on Geometry Wars, and of course there's the dev's previous game Trigonarium which has a lot of the exact same (but less refined) elements. Shape-fighting is used in a lot of twin-sticks, so the Geometry Wars DNA runs through the genre after GW led to a kind of resurgence back in the Xbox 360 days, and anything that looks like GW is going to look like a lot of things.
Ahh that makes sense, I could only think of Geometry Dash and knew it seemed close but no cigar.
Yes, you're right, I should try the other modes outside of the Campaign more. 🙂
I played Boss Rush a few times, because yeah, I usually die in the boss stages, and mostly in two of them where I still haven't found a good strategy. It's too much going on, but I'm over 50, so I can blame my age. 😅
But it's loads of fun anyway, just exactly what I was looking for. I'll check the other modes out, too!