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I just discovered Steam
I know I'm late to the party, but do you have any recommendations, hidden gems? What's your favorite lately?
I've played most of the big games on console, so I would be looking for something that isn't on PS/Xbox.
Thanks!
Edit: I usually like puzzly games such as Limbo, Inside, Little Nightmares or story-driven epics like RDR2, God of War.
If you haven't played Portal, the first-person puzzle game from Valve, pm me your Steam name and I'll give a copy that's sitting in my inventory. Would also recommend Portal 2, but only if you've played the first one already.
The Portal and Half Life series are great introductions to the PC platform. The original Half Life is kinda rusty for a modern gamer, but it's worth it for the historical relevance. And all the later games in both series are so amazingly good. I'm still surprised that the Combine AI is able to fight so well for a game released in 2004! Hearing the strider sounds and the weird, situational music that appears sporadically is such nostalgia.
Well, sometimes.
Haven't played it in a while but maybe instead of going straight to the original, they should pick up Black Mesa, I haven't played it in years but might be a bit more up to modern standards.
Is that one fully out yet?
Had to look it up but not yet. Looks like they are getting close.
Can't recommend Portal enough. Portal 2 has around 50 official coop levels that you can play with a friend and a nicely paced story mode that reveals the different mechanics of the game episode by episode. Also the workshop community is pretty active on steam and I've been able to find puzzles that make you go a-ha! once you solve them :)
Just make sure you grab a reliable friend... I'm sure you can find one in the steam group.
From a game design perspective, the Portal games are how you do tutorials. They have about 40-50 levels between them that are tutorials for the real game which comes after.
Depends upon what kind of experience you want! Sometimes I want to goof off and troll a friend by pretending to be incompetent.
Wow, as a guy who's never played Portal, I'm really surprised it's not on console. Seems like one of those games that should be...but I guess PC has it's advantages when it comes to certain games.
It was released for X360 and PS3 but only as part of the Orange Box from what I can see. OP said he played "the big games" for consoles, and I wouldn't put Portal in that category, which is why I offered it.
Will need to know more about what genres you like. But let me throw some names at you you probably won't regret getting…
Seconding The Talos Principle. It's absolutely incredible, and very peaceful. I think it's probably my favorite puzzle game to date. Hopefully they make a sequel at some point!
Yes, absolutely The Talos Principle. It's the best puzzle game to ever exist, beating Portal by a long shot.
But about The Witness... I wouldn't be so sure. Here is something you have to know about that game - it's VERY hard, one can even say unfair and almost impossible to beat without looking up tips on the internet. The game never tells you how it works, or teaches you to do anything at all. It builds up on your misunderstanding of it, and the puzzles require you to do absolutely unexpected things. If you are ok with some spoilers (this game doesn't really have a lot to spoil), I highly recommend watching this video The Witness - A Great Game That You Shouldn't Play
STRONGLY disagree. The whole game, I admit, is a bit of a provocation. It's deliberately the opposite of many trends in gamedesign and it goes out of its way to not do certain things we often take for granted. It's a game about gameplay, a game about the beauty of abstract systems and how that can be enjoyable without any of the "rewards" games usually throw at you.
In that, a "spoiler" in The Witness is literally the solution to a puzzle, not anything to do with "story" (there is no story, really). It's a game about that moment, that split second, when a puzzle that seemed unsolveable suddenly make sense as all the right clues fall into place in your head and you solve it. Sometimes while you're sitting in the subway and you can't wait coming home, trying it out and often enough – it works! That's just one of the best and purest feelings of gameplay (not cut scenes, not XP leveling boosts, not noscope 360s) getting you excited and whenever you look up a solution online, even a small one, it kills that. Some puzzles are hard but nothing is ever unfair, which is an amazing achievement in a game like this. They went out of their way to, say, remove every tree and rock that could look like a misleading clue to someone, everything is placed for a reason. Literally every puzzle starts with a circle and a line, you never have the excuse of not recognizing it.
The Witness is what you get, when you strip off all the modern day filler content and just focus on pure gameplay. Again, it's an extreme game in that regard but the kind of extreme that remains largely unexplored, which makes it very interesting. I won't recommend it lightly, if you don't feel in the mood for it, if you don't feel like playing a game that takes itself so seriously, just stay away. But if you let it, it's about the purest, deepest experiences you can have in a videogame right now.
This game is a masterpiece of design. I only got around to playing it maybe a year and a half after it came out, and in the meantime I had read different interviews with and watched a couple snippets of talks given by Blow about his thoughts about the videogame industry and design, simply because he seemed something of a polarizing figure. When I finally played it, it was such a distillation of everything he said, it's impossible not to be blown away. A staggering amount of thought went into it.
It is hard but it's doable. At some point with taking some pics on phone to compare, but that's mostly to speed up badly visible puzzles. The game is nice if you like to be challenged not in a battle royale way.
No shame in looking up tips/hints. The point of a game is to have fun, and by being stuck on something you're basically in front of a locked door with more fun behind. So sometimes using hints is okay, I reckon.
I liked it's atmosphere(very relaxing!) and pretty fun, save for a few annoyingly difficult puzzles for which I used hints.
For almost any game, I'd agree since their puzzles tend to be terrible and unfair. But not The Witness. The whole game is basically an experiment with making the fairest puzzle game imaginable, and it's a success.
I think it's ok for games where puzzling isn't the main task that puzzles may or may not be terrible. If you are a puzzle game however, and you pull off things like Myst I's sound rail puzzle, or Myst IV: Revelations's nightmare puzzle difficulty, yes that's bad.
At least it wasn't like Obduction's maze puzzle that requires you to switch worlds a dozen times, of which the world transition loading time on mid-to-low-end pc's takes 10 minutes or more. Took hours, of which 75% loading time.
Edit: l think The Witness is also a good case of not the end but the journey that counts. I found it a very challenging yet relaxing game. It's difficult but usually not stressful, and it's calm and saturated environment is a nice place to be in. I'd love to play it in VR sometime.
Absolutely support looking stuff up, even applying cheats, in offline single-player games. Further to the point here, don't let anyone else ever impose their definition of fun on you. If you want to play something on the easy difficulty, do it. If you want to cheat to make yourself immortal, do it. Don't let anyone ever tell you how to enjoy yourself.
I could not disagree more about The Witness. It is a fantastic, masterfully designed game and it's overall not as hard as you make out. There is a definite challenge to it, but the proportion of puzzles that are truly tear-your-hair-out hard is maybe less than 10% (obviously subjective but I'd bet on consensus) and are completely optional. There is enough criticism of that video to be found both in the YT comments and elsewhere online, so I won't speak to it, but what I will say is that the game is probably not for everyone. Jonathan Blow went after a specific target demographic with his game, and I think the majority of people who find it an overrated line puzzle game, or think it's pretentious, or just don't get it, probably weren't in that target to begin with. And that's okay.
Edit: Maybe you should take a look at this video for a different perspective from the one you linked, if you've not come across it before.
That's a fantastic succinct list. I want to specifically recommend Antechamber. It's a lovely puzzle game which flirts with non-euclidian geometry and minimalistic aesthetics with no additional distractions. It'll certainly make your head boil at a couple of points, but what I like the most about it is the atmosphere. The white, sterile aesthetics with vibrant accent colors and occasional use of nature sounds makes for a haunting experience, which is only augmented by that black thing you will eventually find.
It's also not particularly long, so definitely something worth checking out.
Second on both Factorio and Bastion! Very different but both are incredible games. Supergiant Games, who made Bastion, also made Transistor which is wonderful.
I'm playing transistor right now and the music is so beautiful! Do the other two games also feature exceptional music?
Yes, absolutely! Supergiant consistently has absolutely fantastic soundtracks for their games, and I've probably spent more time listening to their music than I have playing the games.
Transistor probably is my favorite of their OSTs, but Bastion and Pyre both excellent as well.
Bastion's soundtrack is excellent too, regularly listened to amongst my gamer friends who need some background music. I think transistor has a better one but I'm a sucker for female vocals in that style.
Factorio isn't really about the music, I usually find or make a playlist that keeps you in "the zone." The kind of zone where you think you've been playing for a couple hours but the sun is rising through the window and you're not sure what day it is anymore.
Subnautica is a gem. A captivating alien world open for exploration, beautiful life forms, smooth and easy controls and Star Trek level storytelling.
I would personally like to add Rimworld to this list. I have yet to see another game as capable of generating interesting stories through gameplay mechanics.
Dwarf Fortress.
Ah, a puzzle game connoisseur!
Well, yes you're late to the party, but that just means you have a lot of awesome stuff to discover.
I'm just going to go ahead and suggest Factorio, because it's the kind of game you can't really get on a console due to the controls. Beware that it has an unofficial name of 'cracktorio' due to addictive it can be (because it's so fun, not because the devs add exploitative 'features' like daily timers etc). It also has one of the best communities that I know of.
Other than that, i'd suggest you try an RTS or two just to see if you like the genre, again, because they are much better with kb/mouse controls.
City builders can be fun, like cities: skylines or Tropico.
Creeper world is also quite fun to play a quick game or two, and has a great soundtrack.
I dont have a console, so i'm not sure how many of these are actually exclusive to PC, and I also dont really know your favourite genres. But hopefully this helps.
Also, there are plenty of games that aren't on steam too, but not sure if you want them or not.
Holy crap Creeper World 4 looks amazing. Such an amazingly long way from the fun little flash game the original was. Can't believe I almost forgot it existed.
Within puzzles there's also Qube, which is very short but a good experience.
Another Genre that is not present much on console is Grand Strategy, so something like Crusader Kings II or Europa Universalis IV is a good time, if very complex at first.
A lot of folks are recommending Factorio but I just find it so. tedious. If you like Minecraft, you'll like Factorio. If you're more interested in roleplaying / storytelling (or maybe The Sims), though, Rimworld will suit you far better.
As for your actual request: I'm going to take your request sideways, deliberately, and suggest
twothree really good stealth games. Good stealth games actually are puzzle games where you try to work out the right way to deal with the situations the game presents to you, usually with time constraints. These two are Mark of the Ninja and Gunpoint. You absolutely cannot fight everyone in these games; you will get splatted, shot, literally crushed into a fine paste, or otherwise come to a gruesome end. See also Invisibles, Inc., also brought to you by Klei, the folks behind Mark of the Ninja (eventually you'll get to the point where you can recognize a Klei game just by the "meta art style", by which I mean that all Klei games, even though they have different art styles, still look the same; this is not a bad thing!).As for "proper" puzzle games, I'm really surprised no one's mentioned Portal yet. Antechamber will mess with your head, so that's a good recommendation. Anything by Zachtronics is also really good, particularly SpaceChem and Opus Magnum. Annapurna Interactive is also good (Gorogoa is gorgeous and Donut County is just adorable), and if you're in the mood for a shooter that's actually a puzzle, SUPERHOT is the most innovative shooter we've seen since... probably something like Blake Stone, IMO. Blake Stone did puzzles and NPC interaction and thinking things through back before Half Life made it cool.
If you like Portal and you like Super Mario Bros, you may want to try Super Meat Boy. It's a speedrunning-oriented puzzle platformer. This means the goal is to move through levels as quickly as possible, but raw speed isn't the only thing you're going to need. You need to understand the systems of the game, and how to manipulate them, to figure out a way through the levels, much the same way you do with a puzzle game.
edit: A few words and added Super Meat Boy
I disagree on the Minecraft/Factorio comparison, though they become more similar if you get into the more involved tech mods for Minecraft. At its core, Minecraft is about exploration, and Factorio is about iteration and expansion of your base. In vanilla Minecraft, everything you might need can fit in 4 9x9 rooms if you don't care about aethestics, but you have to wander across multiple dimensions to get it all. In Factorio, you expand your base slowly and put up defenses against the swarms that come to attack you for your rampant pollution, and you need expansive factories to get to the endgame. They're both sandboxy, but the goals of the game as directed by the mechanics and the methods of achieving those goals are very different.
Fair enough! The reason I made the comparison is because both Factorio and Minecraft have a strong building element. I'm not sure I'd agree that Minecraft is more about exploration. All the content I see about Minecraft on the web isn't "look at me explore this area", it's "look at this massive, truly impressive thing I built that you don't even need to like the game to appreciate", very much the same with Factorio. That's why I made the comparison. Yes, the goals are different, but I still think there are enough similarities to draw the comparison.
Having played both Factorio and Rimworld I see it like this:
Factorio - Logical, ever expanding and interesting. Not much humor though. Imagine Incredible Machines taken to the highest level.
Rimworld - Unpredictable, emotional and addictive. The Sims meets Prison Architect meets Dwarf Fortress. Also MODS!!!!
I admit I love Rimworld, I found Factorio too cold.
To clarify on Rimworld:
It's a colony management game with procedurally-generated elements. Even the squad of people you start with, in the baseline game, has to be randomized until you come up with something good. (It's possible to avert this with a certain mod.)
Then, the storyteller you chose before landing on the planet (the rimworld, because it's located on the rim of the civilized space) starts causing things to your colony: trade caravans arriving, raid by local bandits, eclipse, electric storm, rare animal migration through your colony (you can kill them for their valuable parts or let them be)...
Your colonists may suddenly get ill, or have their hand torn off by an animal (there's a seriously-well-done human body simulation per colonist, with bleeding, proper function placement etc.), or see them fall in love with a fellow colonist (and maybe even see them rejected, which will affect their relationships and mood), or find out they're inspired and gain skill and work faster for some time – so much more.
If none of that sparks your interest, don't waste your time with Rimworld.
If it does – welcome aboard.
If you want something even harder-core – try Dwarf Fortress. Its world simulation is unrivalled by any other commercial videogame, as far as I'm aware.
Full disclosure: I'm really into puzzle, simulation, and strategy games, so most of my top games are too. With that said, here's my list:
Programming / Logic games:
Simulation:
Strategy:
Miscellaneous:
And a few others I'm probably forgetting, I'll update if I remember them. Also, the Humble Bundle is a great way to get Steam games on the cheap or to partially support charity!
Zachtronics also made Opus Magnum, a good entry for the Programming / Logic games section. Plants vs Zombies belongs in misc. here if Peggle does, I think.
Totally forgot about Plants vs Zombies, but absolutely! I haven't tried Opus Magnum yet so I can't vouch for it, but it definitely looks interesting (like pretty much all Zachtronics games are, haha), thanks!
You should try it! It is interesting :P. Also, since Hacknet is on the list now, I recommend hackmud. It isn't all too similar but it attracts similar crowds. Text-based MMO puzzle game with (optional) programming elements. Less waiting for loading bars than Hacknet. Good soundtrack, mostly from Lena Raine but Ryan Ike has contributed (and is contributing) to it a fair amount.
(P.S.: Since I've made a few posts mentioning hackmud on the site now; I'm not a shill, I just wish more people played it. The Steam charts are sad to look at.)
hackmud looks really interesting, I'm going to look for it in the next steam sale.
I definitely recommend Undertale, and as an addition that I haven't seen yet Stardew Valley is one of my favorite games to play on Steam right now. It's another simulation game that you have a lot of control over with a very nice basic storyline that you can build off of.
Undertale gets super hard towards the end and it feels way too pretentions and "serious". Stardew Valley is the opposite: the game is a breeze, colorful and kind.
Undertale pretentious and serious? I really think you're projecting here. It's one of the most honest and silly games we've had in a long time. So many jokes and making fun of itself, so many references and fourth wall-breaking moments.
That said, Stardew Valley is absolutely the most chill game I've seen in a similarly long time.
Maybe I'd noticed more of the fun if the game wasn't so hard. Especially the battles in the end. Also the game sometimes tries to get "out of the box", feels like it flexes its smartness. It probably wasn't exactly my cup of tea.
As of right now I disagree in regards to Undertale. I enjoyed how much harder the game got as I reached the end. However, I've only played one time through the game and it was a no-mercy playthrough. I'm planning on the next one being a true pacifist and seeing how it changes.
I personally like how serious the game gets. It made me think a lot, and my fiance is also a big fan so we've had some good discussions.
SimCity 4 is fantastic. Okay, maybe that's partially nostalgia because l've been playing that game fairly consistently since l first got it(16 years ago, oof).
There's still a ton of mods available and it's kept alive by the community.
The reason why l like it is that cities look realistic as opposed to the still-sort-of-cartoony Cities:Skylines, which also is pretty fun btw.
I'm also really into puzzler games.
Some of my favorites:
Portal 2
The Myst franchise (especially Myst II: Riven and URU: Ages Beyond Myst. Both a little old but still fantastic). Obduction is a more recent CyanWorlds game not in the Myst series but another great puzzler game.
The Witness: charming 3D world with challenging puzzles and very relaxing atmosphere
Talos Principle: Also charming and challenging, cool storyline
All Zachtronics Industries games(you have to be a little masochistic for these):
-- TIS-100, Shenzhen I/O and Exapunks: program things in simplified assembly. Challenging af. Very high quality games, make sure to print the manuals :)
-- Infinifactory: sort of like 3D factorio (which is funny because Factorio is based on (modded) Minecraft which is based on Infiniminer, an old Zachtronics game, so we've gone full circle)
-- SpaceChem and Opus Magnum: Construct (al)chemical constructs and program them to make stuff. Very challenging as usual and highly satisfying to see it work.
The Dishonored franchise. Get both games, they're fantastic in terms of atmosphere and setting. It's sort of a puzzler because you gotta figure out when to stab/sleep who to avoid setting off alarms and the lot. This description highly undercuts it, go check those out.
The Stanley Parable
It's really stupid, and really funny. It uses the Source engine which allows for some major space breaking. Also there's a successor coming later this year. Oh and there's an achievement for not playing for five years(l got that last week :p)
Stationeers: from whoever made DayZ(eep!), you're on a planet and you have to Not Die. Unlike certain voxel games that's actually difficult here since this game relies on engineering your own life support from the ground up, supported by gate logic circuits. It's hard and unforgiving and the interface takes some time to get used to, but it's fun cooking up systems.
SUPERHOT:
Most innovative shooter l've played in years.Really fun (though a bit short) first-person shooter game where time only moves if you move, so you can set up nice trickshots or dodge bullets.Subnautica: Handcrafted underwater world that makes you friends with the fear of the unknown and constantly reminds you how helpless you are out there. It's survival system is pretty fun, storyline and graphics are really good, and it's a bit scary so if you're a total wuss like me you love the game while also being too damn scared to actually play it. Highly recommended.
It's got an (early access) expansion, too!
l'll update this list in a bit.
What genre of games do you like to play?
Pick up the Valve Complete Pack in the next major sale (that'll be the Summer Sale in a couple months), you can get all of Valve's game (save Artifact) for like ~$15.
That includes Portal, Portal 2, All of the Half-Life games, Left 4 Dead, Left 4 Dead 2, as well as some others. All critically acclaimed games (save Ricochet), and some of my personal favorite games of all time.
I'll also have to mention that steam is really prone to "Hoard games and never actually play them"-syndrome: you buy games in bundles, buy some in a sale and forget about them and end up with hundreds of games and only playing ~50% of them. I still often go through my library and find games I didn't even know I had.
My word of advice is: find a game you like, finish it, then buy another game. Not: buy all the things and nevere finish any.
... overachiever.
Shh. In reality it's more like 40% according to SteamDB :/
I'll just leave this link here 👀
Wow. This list has gotten A LOT better since it started. I remember when it debuted it listed Portal as a hidden gem along with a number of other bestselling games. It certainly seems like something to keep an eye on now.
Yep, and it doesn't seem to be slowing down on improvements - so, I'd say it's worth bookmarking :)
Gmod/Garry's mod is fun to goof around with, plus it's cheap and has loads of servers and mods. It's especially fun to play around in a sandbox with a friend.
You might enjoy the game You Have 10 Seconds. It's a platformer puzzle game with short stages you have to clear in 10 seconds or less. It's kinda difficult, but you might be able to beat it.
Throwing out a few of my favourite Steam games.
Portal 2, Enderal, Divinity Original Sin 2, anything that looks remotely enjoyable and is 60-80% off during the next sale when everyone destroys their wallets.
Here's a website that counts down to their guess of when the next one is.
You 100% have to play the Baldur's gate saga! It's the best RPG of all time. A lot of people would suggest you just play BG2 but starting at the beginning at level 1 lets you learn the mechanics and you can bring one character from zero to hero through each game. BGEE > SOD > BG2EE
Play as a Blade ! Best single class in the game
That's a pretty good guide ! They can do a bit of everything and scale through the whole saga
As far as games already mentioned, I absolutely second The Witness and Antichamber (two of the three best games I've ever played, along with FEZ), although they might be more pure puzzlers than you've indicated you like. I'm currently trying to get over the line in Octahedron, a terrific but deceptively tough puzzle platformer that might be more up your alley. Stealth Bastard Deluxe is good fun as well, and Keep Talking And Nobody Explodes is a must-have for co-op.
If you're really up for the challenge, though, Starseed Pilgrim is a jewel of a game I cannot champion enough, and Stephen's Sausage Roll is maybe the toughest I've ever come across.
Snakebird and Technobabylon absolute amazing games
I'm going to avoid the games that already got mentioned, instead I'm going to give you some of my favorites that don't get nearly enough attention:
+OVERWHELM, if you tought cuphead was hard...
+Gods will be watching, resource managment game with a bit of gambling. not recommended if are bad at puzzles
+Fallout 1/2, if you are into the classic rolepaying
+NEXT JUMP, for an FTL-like Arcade-styled roguelite
+Choice of Robots/magics, if you like interactive novels
+Caves of qud, you can be a flying 2-headed hoof-feeted dual-gun-wielding adventurer with an evil twin
+Cave story, a decent metroidvania
Check out the games by Zachtronics. All the games they make follow a common theme where you're putting pieces together to make a machine to achieve some kind of goal.
Play:
I'd recommend one of the older FPS games like
Use vkquake for quake using the vulkan engine !
Great, you already know about Limbo and Inside! Because of your preferences, I'll focus on puzzle games.
Some puzzles (or other games that simply makes you think) that I think are gems on Steam:
Probably a few repeats in my list, but looking at my "Recent" list, these are the 10 I enjoy the most:
I recently noticed that GOG is DRM-free and that sounds great.
Have somebody used it?
GOG is great.
They've got a different focus than Steam in that they have a much more curated storefront, and they specialize in some well-known older games. They also have a strong DRM-free stance. I appreciate their aesthetic and the fact that they don't have some of what I consider Steam's "anti-features" (e.g. card drops, account levels, etc.). Their launcher, Galaxy, is clean and functional, but one of the nice things about GOG is that you do not have to use it if you don't want to. You can still install games the old-fashioned way through installers. This is great if you have, say, that one game you want to put on an old machine via a pendrive. It also means you can backup your games, so that you can have copies if GOG ever goes down or if you ever lose access to your account.
That said, there are a couple of pain points with them:
Sometimes games do not get updated as frequently (or at all) on GOG. For example, I bought Nuclear Throne on GOG which has notoriously never been updated. This is not necessarily GOG's fault, but it is something to be aware of when using the store. It's definitely not the norm though, and 95% of what I've got on there has parity with other stores.
GOG's Linux support is weak to non-existent. They have some Linux builds for some games. For some games they do not carry the Linux build even if one exists. Again, this is not necessarily their fault, but it's something to be aware of. Something that is their fault, however, is that they have not released their Galaxy launcher on Linux. This means that you must install games the old-fashioned way, or through a third-party launcher like GameHub or Lutris. I was a GOG devotee until I recently made the switch to full-time Linux on my computers. Valve has much better Linux support, and with the recent release of SteamPlay, I threw my loyalty back in with them.
Very informative comment.
Thanks a lot!
Recent? Hasn't it been around for years?
You're right. It's been around for a long time. I should have said the recent refresh of SteamPlay that added Proton. That was the big turning point for me.