Hey all. Always enjoyed reading everyone’s suggestions on more unknown games available during big steam sales.
I’ll start off with one that I have been a fan of for a long time: Death Road to Canada
This game is like a zombie action Oregon Trail like game, where you manage supplies and fight through hordes of zombies on your way to the safe haven of Canada. Only US$3.74 right now and well worth it imo!
I feel obligated to recommend a Steam Deck if you have interest in one and can afford it.
We have 2 and I would get a 3rd if I could lol (with a bulky protective case etc. so I can be less careful)
The most cost efficient way to go is buy the cheapest version and then put something like this in it https://www.westerndigital.com/en-il/products/internal-drives/pc-sn740-ssd#SDDPTQD-256G
IMPORTANT NOTE: MAKE SURE YOU GET A 2230 SIZED NVME DRIVE. 2280 drives will NOT fit.
If you don’t want to do that you can alternatively just get a big micro SD card and save the SSD swap for later For best speeds you want it to say A2 and a 3 inside a U.
Even besides playing video games it’s an awesome little mini pc. Not perfect but awesome, and an amazing value at $359.
I concur. It changed the way I play games, especially last gen and indies.
Wait does the 64GB option support M.2 NVMe? I thought it only supports eMMC and that you can’t swap with a different NVMe drive, but maybe I’m wrong?
as someone with a 64gb deck with a 512gb drive swapped in I can confirm it works!
Yes, exactly what I did. You can just buy a 2230 nvme ssd and slap it in. Process is pretty painless (just remember to take any micro SD card out before you take the shell off or there’s a chance you’ll snap it)
The hardest part for me was finding a usb-c to usb-a converter so I could plug in a usb stick to reinstall the OS.
Luckily I already had some of that stuff from my switch. I do hope v2 steamdeck has a USB-A port (And I wouldn’t mind a second USB-C on the bottom)
The 64GB emmc drive in the Deck uses the m.2 expansion slot, so you can pop out the emmc drive and swap in a 2230 form factor nvme drive and be gtg after reinstalling SteamOS.
I myself went from a 256GB drive to a 1TB drive, and this weekend, I’ll be popping in a 2TB drive I just received in the mail.
That’s a good question but no, it will work. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSWb6jFlDk4
I had heard that swapping the ssd yourself voids warranty, is that true? Or is it only if you swap more stuff
No that is not true. Also even if you drop it they have a repair center you can ship to that charges fair prices. They have a very positive reputation about this kind of thing (also RMAs, which I went through personally)
In the US, that’s illegal (Magnuson Moss warranty act). In a lot of the rest of the first world, there are similar laws. But regardless, Valve hasn’t shown any of the patterns some do of ignoring the law and forcing you to jump through hoops to exercise your rights, and there were a decent number of stories on Reddit of them fixing clear customer damage under warranty.
I second this. Seriously one of the best things I’ve bought in years. 64gb + 1tb+ m2 is such a ridiculous bargain if you can operate a screwdriver.
They’re incredibly good emulation platforms too.
I honestly hope they just sell this model for a few years while dropping the price - something to be said for having a standard hardware platform with a huge install base.
I’d love to buy one, but they won’t sell to me. “This item is not available for reservation in your country”
That really sucks, I’m sorry.
Do you know around how much it would cost to ship from the US?
Yo Valve can you please sell them where I live already so that I don’t have to pay some shitty eBay scalper or overpriced reshipped?
Do you know how much it would cost to cost to ship from the US?
You can swap the ssd! Why are they charging so much to upgrade to only 256gb of Nvme storage?
Probably because they’re losing money on the cheapest one
ITT: not hidden gems
I really hoped we’d leave this cynical garbage on Reddit. The top comments in this post are mostly listing hidden gems.
Needs more celeste
Dude, you were quick to forget about the reddit threads of “hidden gems”, where the top voted answers were Skyrim, Witcher 3 and RDR2.
This is a gold mine in comparison…
There’s this sweet rarely known game where you punch trees and build stuff but you’ve probably never heard of it
Ark?
Have you guys heard of SKYRIM?
Donut County is only $3.89. It’s a short, funny, cute puzzle game where you make everything fall in a hole. Really good.
Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth is $12.49 and a much better 80hr RPG then it has any right to be. And I never even touched the second game in the collection!
Donut County was so quirky and fun.
for me, I’m really fixated on Cassette Beasts, because Pokemon has been disappointing for me for a long while now. I keep debating on whether I buy it now, or wait until they implement the online multiplayer they just announced.
Huh. Didn’t realize it started today. Will have to check my wishlist.
Anyway, recs in no particular order:
- Kena: Bridge of Spirits is a lovely little game. Some great East Asian influences, and a really great art style. Combat is sometimes surprisingly difficult. Some fun puzzles and platforming make up a lot of the game.
- Death and Taxes is a short and darkly humorous game where you take on the role of the Grim Reaper and decide who lives and who dies in a workplace-like fashion. If you’re a fan of the web series, Purgatony, this might remind you of that. It’s got a touch of satire to it as well, but not super pronounced. You’ll find that mostly in the details and consequences of who you let live and who you let die (and there are consequences, some very significant).
- Heaven’s Vault is a narrative game that takes place in space. Linguistics (or rather translating text) plays a role in the game and it’s got a hand drawn, cel-shaded kind of art style.
- A Story About My Uncle is a first person, narrative driven, and entirely nonviolent game, with a bunch of cool swingy mechanics (so lots of gameplay, just not shooty bang stuff) and a fairly sweet story. You meet all sorts of fantastic, alien creatures on your adventure, platforming through a strange and beautiful world. Art direction is lovely, honestly.
- ABZÛ is just straight up awesome relaxation (with a few less relaxing points every so often) from some of the devs who brought you Journey and Flower. This time, it’s all about diving and swimming through fascinating locations that vary from colorful reefs to areas reminiscent of long forgotten temple ruins (the name comes from the Sumerian and Akkadian word referring to underground aquifers that played an important part in some Babylonian mythology).
- Quantum Conundrum - Do you like Portal but wish it had a little John DeLancie commenting on your actions? Then this is for you! A fun puzzle game heavily inspired by Portal (the lead dev worked on the original Portal, if I recall). It’s aimed at a slightly younger audience, but I think it works for everyone. Good vibes all around.
Edit: I forgot about Blacktail. I haven’t finished it yet, but it’s a new take on the Baba Yaga myth and stars the voice actress who played Meg in Hades. That lovely, husky voice.
Edit 2: If you’re looking for something a little old school, Jade Empire is a fantastic game by BioWare. KOTOR, but with real time combat that’s heavily inspired by kung fu films and carries that general vibe with a bunch of East Asian visual aesthetics thrown in. If you like Crouching Tiger and similar movies, this is a great game to play, especially if you’re also a fan of BioWare’s RPGs (or just RPGs in general, honestly).
These next few are very hit or miss and some may find them either unpolished or just not that enjoyable. I’m listing them because they’ve got either an interesting story, or interesting mechanics. You’ll notice that two of them have a “mixed” rating, so this is more about “if you like the idea, maybe try it”.
- The Vale: Shadow of the Crown is a narrative game that puts you in the shoes of a blind princess. It was made to be a game that blind people can enjoy, and the controls and mechanics are fairly basic (and it’s keyboard only as far as I remember, but there might be controller support, I don’t know), but the audio design is fantastic (for obvious reasons). There’s some very basic combat, and it’s all about timing and listening for cues. I honestly think it’s a fantastic game, but it’s not for everyone. Many people will find it straight up boring, but I really enjoyed it for the few hours it took to complete. Good news is that it has a demo! Try it out first. Also, WEAR HEADPHONES. It’s actually a necessity here. Binaural recording and object placement is entirely dependent on your ability to hear things (since you can’t see anything, though it’s got some pleasant screensaver-type visuals which do fit the theme of the area you’re in).
- eXperience112 is a bit of a weird game. It’s kind of a point and click adventure, but you don’t control the main character. It takes place on an ocean vessel where something’s gone wrong. You essentially play a camera operator and what seems to be the only survivor speaks to you directly so you can point her in the right direction. Also, she remembers when you last saved. If you don’t play for a while, she’ll comment on the fact that you left her alone for a while. It’s buggy and got some jank, but interesting.
- (Edited, again, to add) Republique is very similar to the above game (eXperience112) in that you act as a camera operator guiding a young woman through the game. It differs in that it’s very stealth-oriented and has a cyberpunk dystopian feel. Also, it’s FREE, which I had no idea about. Apparently the devs just went made it free permanently last year. So no money wasted if you don’t like this one. Also, not missing out on any deals, so no need to rush before the sale’s over or whatever.
- The Occupation is kind of the middle ground between a walking sim and immersive sim, which sounds like a weird description. It has narrative and some gameplay elements that you’d find in immersive sims (open-ish levels, multiple characters to speak to and ways to complete a level, some stealth, etc.), and every level takes place in real time, which is important because you’ll have scheduled appointments for interviews and you’ll be gathering evidence before that time is up, so you’ll be looking at your in-game watch often. That watch is the reason I find it gets into walking sim territory, because you’re kind of restricted by it and it sometimes makes things feel a little “on-rails”. The whole thing takes place after some terrorist event killed someone close to the main character, set in a kind of dystopian London, but with a very '70s/'80s vibe in aesthetics. It has a demo, so try that first. If you don’t like it at all, you won’t like the game. If you find it intriguing, later levels get more intense, so you might be interested in buying the full game. If you like the demo, then yeah, maybe buy it. It’s not too long to complete.
- (Note: I initially had this up in the regular recommendations, but thinking it over, this is pretty hit or miss for various reasons.) Not a hidden gem exactly, but if you like space, No Man’s Sky isn’t the disappointing game it was on release. I’d urge anyone who likes space and exploration to at least give it a shot. You can turn on creative mode and not worry about any survival elements as well. It’s got a bit of a plot to get you used to the galaxy (and also explain some of the lore), but you can just do whatever you want and ignore that. There are three major alien races and you can learn words from their language by interacting with them or interacting with pillars on various planets that will teach you a word. I like this part of the game a lot for some reason. There’s some other lore hidden around as well, but it’s really up to you if you want to discover it or not. Reason it’s down here and not up there is that purely because they’ve added so much new content over the years, it can feel quite overwhelming sometimes. I find it’s best to focus on a few aspects that you like and ignore the other stuff if it doesn’t interest you.
Most of the games I listed aren’t too long or time-consuming. The only significant exceptions are Kena and No Man’s Sky. The rest can be generally completed in a few hours or a couple of days. Kena isn’t super long either, but it does require a bit more of a commitment than the others.
Edit 3: Add Jade Empire to the “not short/quick” games list. Definitely requires some time investment.
Edit 4: Added Republique and moved NMS down to the “maybe try” part of the list.
+1 for Heaven’s Vault. Really excellent indie gem, and a fun spin on the detective game.
Another +1 for heavens vault. I usually hate narrative games, but I found it very well written and interactive.
I loved Heaven’s Vault, it hit all the things I love: detective/mystery novel, rich dialogue trees, languages. The only problem is when it’s over there aren’t any other games like it.
I feel like over time No Man’s Sky feels increasingly like I have too many mods installed. Every update felt like it had its own hub and NPCs and progress track that didn’t interact with any of the others. The game is still huge and it has turned into the game everyone was disappointed it wasn’t at launch, but I felt overwhelmed on which things were part of the core story I needed to complete and which parts were rabbit holes that wouldn’t connect to that.
Yeah. I think the issue in NMS is that they keep adding new systems (good) that do the same things as other systems (hmm) and can’t interface with those systems (bad). Like, why is town building not at all like base building? Why does base building have its own rudimentary town building part, but it kinda just stops? Why do they have beautifully realized frigates in space, and crashed frigates ont he ground, but no relationship between the two?
I really want to love it, it contains essentially everything I like in a game, but it just constantly falls short on depth each time. I’m due to go back and sink another few hours into it but I also feel pretty confident that I’ll finish off again feeling the ache of missed opportunity.
All that, and also I just think the writing in the game is phenomenally bland. It’s not bad at all, it just never captures my interest in the slightest. I’d love to get my hands on the basic framework of the story and totally rewrite it.
Oh, shit. I forgot about settlements. That whole mechanic suuuuuuucks to me. I had to just ignore it.
And yeah, plot’s paper thin. Mainly there to just edge you in the right direction with learning mechanics and whatnot, but I still find some of it interesting, mostly in theory. Maybe because I just fill in the gaps with my own headcanon, I guess.
Not that there’s much canon to be had, but there is at least some lore to be discovered relating to how certain races came to be and the whole Atlas and “Traveler” concept essentially being the quick explanation for why literally everyone’s experience is “canon”.
Still, do agree for the most part. Also, I must admit that my recommendation was based on my time with it a few updates ago. Played it recently and there’s definitely a lot more, some interesting, some “too much” (like settlements).
Might move it down into my “maybe” category because it probably fits better there.
I fell in love with Submerged when I played it. It’s an exploration game set in a flooded city, where you play a young girl looking for supplies for her injured brother. Lots of navigating between buildings in a little boat, climbing around, and taking in the scenery. Incredibly relaxing to play.
How can it be relaxing if your brother is injured and needs the supplies? I’m just wondering if I wouldn’t feel urged to get him back to health as soon as possible.
I’m a heartless monster who forgot about my brother so I could sit in my boat and gawk at my surroundings at sunset. Mileage may vary.
It does have moments that stressed me out, but since I spent so much time exploring and taking screenshots, they’re not what left the strongest memory.
Those games has been on my radar for a while! Have you played both of them?
Not yet! I just grabbed the second one, actually, can’t wait to play it!
I’ve heard it’s even better than the first!
Ok, not so much as hidden, but also not super known:
Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun. A tactical stealth game (think commandos saga back in the day) is 90%
Technobabylon. A pixelated point & click adventure with some cyberpunk themes at 70%
Return of the Obra Dinn. Probably the best detective/deduction game that I’ve played, at 40%
Prey. One of the best immersive sims, at 75%
The Case of the Golden Idol. Is not as good as Obra Dinn in my opinion, but it’s super good none the less, at 30%
Antichamber. Super good puzzle game, at 75%
The Age of Decadence. Ultra hardcore RPG set in ancient Rome, 60%
Tametsi. Is like minesweeper but good, 67% (and only 0.77€)Have just bought Shadow Tactics and Tametsi based on this. I used to love Commandos (and even better - Desperados).
The same devs have also desperados 3, and it’s also super good (it’s on gamepass also if I recall correctly). It’s at 50% now: Desperados III
It’s wild how many people seem to have slept on Prey. It’s an amazing game.
Also +1 on Antichamber. Portal-like but with some very unusual and fun mechanics.
Absolute gem of a game, shame Bethesda forced them to use the Prey branding; a lot of fans of the original wrote it off because it has nothing to do with the original. One can’t help but wonder if we would’ve had such a disaster as Redfall if Colantonio hadn’t left as a result of all that.
Underrated even among Prey fans is Mooncrash, easily the best roguelite experience from a AAA studio, and just a great experience all around for anyone who wants ‘more Prey’.
It’s not super niche, or super on sale, but I’m really enjoying Chained Echos so far.
Hot take: Chained Echoes is a much better game than Octopath Traveler 2.
Man, Octopath Traveler was such a letdown. The total lack of character interactions with other character’s stories made protagonist selection feel pointless and the story felt even more shallow than it was. Just… so meh. I couldn’t talk myself into picking up the second one.
I feel this. It felt kind of half thought out. Was so disappointed.
Tbh, the worst part was that the advertising for 2 really seemed to suggest they’d heard that complaint about 1 and fixed it. The put so much emphasis on the Cross Paths feature. And then you get the game and discover that it is actually just 4 quests for 4 sets of 2 travelers.
I really expected genuine interaction. Character to be present in cutscenes and have minor comments on what’s occuring. You know, stuff the story can technically progress without, but really flesh out the world and the characters. Bosses acting like they’ve caught out a single character only to initiate a fight against my party of 4 just feels weird as hell.
Yeah, maybe 8 characters is too many. but now they can’t go back and rename it to Quadropath travellers.
They could do a 3 franchise mashup and name it “Bravely Quad Strategy”
I don’t have any games to recommend but I wanted to thank people here for some actually good suggestions. I feel like I’ve been taken for a bit of a ride at that other place by shills in similar threads compared to this.
Hidden Gem you say? (obligatory)
Figured I’d get one of these lol
Playing D-sides right now (Reflections). What a fucking game…
I don’t hear much about Kenshi except for within folks who already play and let’s players on YouTube, but it’s one of my all time favorites. Can be hard to get into but watching a beginner video or reading some wiki will let you get into this massive, strange world. Currently only 13.50, which I think works out to like 2 cents an hour for me.
Risk of Rain 2 - 50% 12.49€ 96% positive
Action rogue lite hero 3rd person shooter thingy - My absolute favourite game in recent memory.
Not sure if this counts as hidden but many fans of the genre don’t know it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Insanely good soundtrack, cool artstyle, creative characters with very diverse abilities and gameplay, plenty of enemies and bosses, hidden features, locations, items, bosses,c̴͕͎͚̗̥̀̃̓h̴̘̯̎͗ȧ̶͕̤̪̦̺̂̕r̷͚͑̔͒̃͝a̵̖̩̣̍̂̈́̎̿c̷̱͓̪͖̈́ṫ̵̯̈͂̚e̷̺͓̙̥͆̓ŗ̷̢̻̺̞͠s̸̩̍̍̀?̴̼̘̱̗̯̈̋̄
You know how some rogue lites make sure items stop stacking so they don’t break the run?
Yeah that’s not one of these. Go nuts, break the game, fly through the map, just to get too cocky and lose it all in the blink of an eye.
The original Risk of Rain is also a banger, currently 80% off at 1.99€. Same concept but 2D sidescroller with pixel graphics. Incredibly sweet game.Art of Rally - 45% 13.74€ 92% positive
Challenging game with arcadey look and sim-ish feel.
Beautiful visuals and a chill soundtrack. Great for white knuckled time attack or hours of zen drifting in freeroam.Devil Daggers - 50% 3.99€ 96% positive
Highscore based retro arena shooter bullet hell kinda deal. PSX era 3D look, one weapon with two modes, surprisingly interesting movement (think b-hops, rocket jumps).
Every run is mostly identical. Enemies always spawn at specific times, but in random locations of the claustrophobic empty map. The longer you survive, the higher the score.
Also fantastic sound design!Hyper Demon - 33% 8.36€ 95% positive
Sequel to Devil Daggers. Turns everything to 11. Complete fever dream. Adds an absolutely psychotic rear view mechanic, where close enemies outside your FOV appear mirrored in red colour on your screen.
Adds several movement and combat mechanics, while still keeping the weapon very simple.
Different score system while keeping the timed spawns. Killing in rapid succession increases your score, just scraping by drops it over time.Lethal League Blaze - 35% 12.99€ 97% positive
Projectile Fighting Game with saturday morning cartoon style 3D visuals. There’s a ball in the middle, whoever touched it last “owns” it. If you get hit by the ball, you take damage. If you hit it back, you own it and it speeds up. And you build special meter for absurd special moves.
Turns into a mind melting firework of on screen effects the faster the ball gets.
Has a decent campaign to learn the game and fight bots. Bangin soundtrack
Up to 4 players, local and online play.
The original, Lethal League is also on sale for like 5.99€. Fully 2D visuals, also very charming. iirc slightly lower health and no campaign.Nidhogg - 60% 3.99€ 90% positive
If you don’t know Nidhogg go play Nidhogg. Bring a friend.
Low-Fi 2D fighting game.
You can run, you can jump, you can duck, you can stab. 4 Maps to utterly cover in pixel blodd.
That’s about it.
It opens up more the better you get, but just go play it, folks.
Win against your buddies by getting through 3 screens in a tug-o-war kind of system and prove your worth by sacrificing yourself to the Nidhogg.
Tournament mode available.
Nidhogg 2 is also on sale for 5.99€ 81% positive at like 800 reviews.
They got budget for graphics that time which… they used.
Different weapons add a rock paper scissors dynamic to the game, everything else is mostly the same! Good stuff.Post Void - 20% 2.39€ 97% positive
A wild ride of a psychedelci action rogue like? No meta progression from what I could tell, which is why I’d be hesitant to call it a rogue lite.
Basically run based randomly generated doom while your ego melts away after a heroic dose of psychoactives.
Health literally runs out (of the head you carry) over time. Kill to heal, don’t get hit.
DO NOT TOUCH IF YOU HAVE EXPERIENCED PHOTOSENSITIVE EPILEPSY BEFORE.Redout - 75% 4.99€ 87% positive
The quintessential zero-G racer for PC.
Very similar to the classics like Wipeout, but innovating on the formula. You’ll need a controller!
Left stick steers as you’d expect, right stick points the nose of your racer to compensate for tight turns and to prevent blackout / redout during high-G maneuvers.
A classic campaign mode lets you unlock several classes of racers, two handsfull of upgrades let you adjust how you play.
Sweet thumpin soundtrack Online play supports up to 12 players though I’d be a bit surprised if you find that many on the servers :D
Split Screen mode available!
The Sequel Redout 2 is also on sale at 14.99€ but it has even fewer reviews, fans of the games seem to favour it for longer tracks, deeper customization and improved gameplay. I haven’t tried it yet though.Heat Signature - 50% 6.49€ 94% positive
If Hotline Miami was set in space. And a rogue lite.
Pull off crazy heists aboard enemy ships to liberate the galaxy from authoritarian empires, each faction generally having some specializations when it comes to gadgets and tech which you get to unlock for your runs.
Can be frustrating at times but on the flipside a close save get so much more intense. Also you usually get several chances to save your skin - if you’re captured you get thrown out an airlock and take control of your escape pod to fish your body out of hard vacuum.
Generally there are so many cool mechanics, I’m having a hard time to pick highlights.Heat signature is fantastic, contender for my GOTY in whichever year I discovered it.
The ability to pause and look around sometimes turns it into a puzzle game, either to save your skin or just reach the objective. Throw everything.
I wanted to chime in and say that no one should sleep on Risk of Rain 2, it’s a fantastic game and easily worth the $12.49. Nice list you put together!
I was initially put off by the art style of Risk of Rain 2, but once I started playing I found that it gelled really well with the game. I’m really happy my friend convinced me to play it.
Andto parrot everyone else, the soundtrack is killer.
Definitely In Other Waters, an earlier work from the same people who recently brought you Citizen Sleeper. It’s a narrative heavy game were you play an AI helping a xenobiologist. You perceive the alien maritime world through a quite minimalistic interface, and nevertheless that game had me on the edge of my seat from the start. Highly recommended, and IMO far too little known.
Currently 70% off and less than 5€. Also available as part of a bundle with Citizen Sleeper.
- Shakedown: Hawaii - 80% off at 3,99€ - Think GTA for the 16-bit era.
- 2Dark - 90% off at 2,49€ - Think Alone in the Dark but top-down and in retro/voxel style, from the original creator of Alone in the Dark.
- UnderRail - 60% off at 5,67€ - Hidden or not, this one can’t be recommended enough to fans of the original Fallout (1 & 2, isometric) games.
- Space Haven - 60% off at 8,79€ - In-depth colony/spaceship building & management sim with cozy graphics.
- Crystal Caves HD - 60% off at 2,63€ - A true testament to how to faithfully bring an old platformer into HD, while also innovating on the original. Also contains a lot of hidden gems.
- Supraland Complete Edition - 54% off at 15,71€ - First-Person-Metroidvania in a literal sandbox, lots of freedom, lots of puzzles and exploring. Contains the DLC. Get this to gear up for the eventual release of the sequel Supraworld. The standalone Supraland Six Inches Under is also worth getting, but is “only” at 45% off, which is still great.
A short hike. 99% positive with over 10k votes
A short game too but simply worth it
