Top 50 Indie Games

[Music] welcome back to the channel this is a big one it's my personal ranking of the 50 best Indie Games ever made well maybe that's hyperbolic but I've thought about this topic for a while and I finally sat down and ranked my all-time favorites for the uninitiated indie or independent games are titles made outside the auspices of traditional Publishers which means they often rely on shoestring budgets and guerrilla marketing but also retain the creative freedom to take risks and pursue original ideas indie games are often developed by small teams or even single individuals and often look hard at both the past and future for inspiration some are nostalgic celebrations or spiritual successors of retro Classics While others are Innovative and experimental and Pioneer new approaches to storytelling many Indies are only a few hours in length which allows them to explore ideas that would feel nonsensical in a 40-plus hour AAA game and they often showcase creative writing and visually striking art styles I have a lot of respect and love for the incredibly wide range of indie games and I'm excited to talk about my top 50. here's a few quick thoughts first naturally it's impossible for one person to have a comprehensive view of every indie game in existence with literally thousands of titles and only so many hours of free time I have however played around 150 indie games so my opinion well obviously just that an opinion is fairly well informed but despite being my personal opinion I did try to approach my choices with a relatively objective lens 14. out of the last 15 years are represented on this list with 2016 17 and 18 all tied for the most representation there's survival games and story games mysteries in multiplayer and metroidvanias roguelikes and Platformers and games that defy categorization it's an almost impossible task to compare so many vastly different experiences but I went with my gut and you could maybe view most of these rankings as I don't know plus or minus five don't forget to like this video And subscribe to the channel if you enjoy this content and with all that said let's rank some indie games foreign super hot the clock stopping first person shooter Mega hit is a great example of how one simple idea can flip a genre on its head in super hot time only moves when you do which turns the usually frantic Shoot Em Up experience into a methodical considered Puzzler Dodge bullets grab enemy weapons from midair and pull off impossible trick shots with the supernatural reflexes of a John Wick or a Jason Bourne the randomized weapons and starting positions keep combat improvisational and the reward for completing each stage is a full speed replay of your latest Killing Spree which never fails to make you feel like a badass at a crisp black white and red color scheme and the result is a game that looks and feels like the futuristic combat training in The Matrix 49. limbo this is the first of two moodally lit wordless One-Shot psychological horror puzzle Platformers by Danish Studio playdead compared to its successor limbo puts a bit more emphasis on both puzzles and platforming but the real selling point is the atmosphere it begins the same way as Dante's Inferno with the protagonist sort of randomly showing up in the woods and depicts a young boy's harrowing Journey Through the deep dark Forest a Sinister Factory and other desaturated areas in an attempt to find his sister or something the plot and meaning behind most of the in-game imagery is left intentionally vague and open to interpretation yeah it seems like there isn't a narrative maybe the filmmaker realized that even narrative is comforting along the way you'll die a few dozen gruesome deaths which I gotta say really set the mood of this game something else I love about limbo is its length in my opinion a lot of games as art tend to overstay their welcome but limbo hits The Sweet Spot somewhere between one and two hours that means you can play it in one sitting without ever feeling like you're stuck in actual purgatory number 48 firewatch I love stories about weird or obscure subjects I love stories told in unconventional ways and I love stories with small Scopes and personal Stakes firewatch checks all of those boxes and it also looks pretty incredible it follows the story of a fire lookout called Henry who spends the summer of 1989 at a watchtower in Shoshone National Forest the story is primarily told through walkie-talkie conversations between Henry and his supervisor Delilah which are brought to life by excellent voice acting from Jones and Rich summer I'm not in my tower I am looking at a man standing in your Lookout and it's not you it is not me dialogue choices affect the relationship between the two which becomes increasingly tested as a series of mysterious events threaten to shatter the Tranquility of the Wyoming Wilderness speaking of which I love the art style of firewatch so much that it's still the background on my PS4 the game stylized Landscapes and color palette were inspired by retro New Deal era advertisements and the design team even camped at Yosemite for inspiration the game's ending is a little lackluster but the art the writing and the voice performances all shine throughout number 47 The Stanley Parable on the spectrum of game to experience Stanley and his parable are pretty firmly an experienced the game is basically a meta Riff on the very concept of playing a video game and revolves around the relationship between Stanley the narrator and you the player Stanley is a button pushing office drone who suddenly finds his workplace abandoned and sets out to investigate his actions are narrated by a disembodied British voice that becomes increasingly perturbed if Stanley deviates from the narration and of course controlled by you a person sitting in front of a computer screen and pushing buttons to say much more would be spoilerific but suffice to say there's a full helping of irony dry humor and fourth wall breaking you two realize there's no choice or anything in here right if I'd said Stanley walked past the broom closet at least she would have had a reason for exploring it to find out there's even an ultra deluxe version of the game packed with even more self-referential humor and in my opinion the Real Genius of the game is the way it eventually devolves into the player trying to out think the game's design team who have seemingly anticipated every possible permutation Stanley might attempt number 46 Hotline Miami I made another video a while ago where I compared Hotline Miami and Katana zero so if you want to hear me go into more detail on this one I'll link that in the description ultimately the hook of Hotline Miami is its addicting gameplay there's a serviceable film Noir plot about revenge and stuff but it doesn't matter this is a fast-paced frenetic game about smashing slashing and spraying bullets through hordes of Russian Mobsters while Club Music thumps in the background it's pretty hard but every death dumps you right back into the action and the levels are so short that the gameplay Loop really sucks you in there's also a big variety of weapons to play with from bottles and pool cues to katanas and Uzis Hotline Miami feels retro even by indie game standards maybe because of the garish neon color scheme or maybe because of the flashlight Graphics but it's one of the games on this list that fully deserves classic status number 45 sifu the first entry on this list from the year of Our Lord 2022 sifu is a stunningly cinematic roguelike about revenge Kung Fu and a lifetime of Mastery in essence it's a martial arts beat-em-up but some elements that elevates sifu are a striking art style challenging but fair combat a solid story and a clever core mechanism the gimmick of sifu is that every time you die your character ages a few years slowly losing vitality and Agility until you eventually succumb to permadeath which ends your current run your character is the son or daughter of a great Kung Fu Master who was betrayed and murdered by his students and your quest is to hunt them down one at a time Kill Bill style and Avenger late father during each run you can spend XP to unlock permanent skills that carry over and unlock shortcuts to make future runs easier but more importantly you'll perfect your skills as a player in hopes of confronting the final antagonist before reaching old age if you fully complete the game there's also a story twist and an alternate ending that might make you think it's a fresh Twist on the roguelike genre and along the way sifu never miss chance to fill the screen with cinematic moments number 44 transistor the second of three isometric action RPGs by supergiant games transistor tells the story of a voiceless singer a talking sword and a sultry revenge tour through the dystopian cyberpunk city of cloud Bank you play as red a famous singer framed for murder and on the run from both a Sinister technocrat Illuminati and a mysterious artificial intelligence called the process which is slowly consuming Cloud Bank through a combination of cyber attacks and a massive robot army Invasion as in sifu you fight your way through the city and systematically take your revenge on those who wronged you compared to both its predecessor Bastion and its eventual successor Hades transistor has much more linear progression and also leans more into the storytelling aspect but the isometric combat shares the same DNA combat feels meaty satisfying and hectic which is good because most of your time is spent in combat although the transistor sword is your only weapon you can customize your playstyle with functions which are like special attacks and limiters which are optional debuffs that increase your XP gain there's also a tactical element where red can freeze time plan actions and execute them when the Tactical mode unpauses if you enjoyed Bastion or Hades chances are you'd also enjoy fighting your way to the streets of cloud Bank number 43 oxen free oxen free follows five teens as they spend a harrowing night on dilapidated former tourist trap Edwards Island which is home to a decommissioned Naval base and more than a few spooky secrets you play as Alex a blue-haired teenager who visits the island along with her new stepbrother Jonas Stoner BFF Ren shy girl Nona and Frenemy Clarissa who dated Alex's older brother Michael before he died in a tragic drowning accident the previous year what follows is a well-written original Riff on the horror genre as the teens are separated haunted by paranormal forces and confronted with a series of Supernatural time loops and other distortions of reality the way it all plays out is up to you as one of the main features of oxen free is dynamic real-time dialogue trees the fates and relationships with the characters are all up for grabs and your choices also affect how much of the mystery is solved by the end I really respect the writing that goes into these kinds of stories and oxenfree sells the story even more with quality voice acting you had Alex bring the little death machine stop saying it was my fault Come On Jonas this is nobody's fault ghosts are never anybody's fault certainly not ours the other signature element of oxenfree is the handheld radio most of the puzzles in the game are solved by tuning into various frequencies and you can pick up additional lore if you tuned into the right wavelength in the right place more importantly I like the way the radio is integrated into the backstory and creepy effect of the game's paranormal threat and by the way oxen free is definitely horror light so even if you're easily spooked you'll probably be okay with this one number 42 Cana Bridge of spirits first of all by any objective measure this is the best looking game on this list it's basically a Zelda inspired action adventure with Pixar level cutscenes and deep thematic and storytelling routes in Southeast Asian culture you play as Cana a spirit guide tasked with helping Restless Souls move on some time before the Story begins an unknown tragedy struck the region leaving behind a trail of Devastation and no survivors the only lingering detizens of the valley are resentful ghosts and some adorable little creatures known as rot the rot team up with Cana to investigate the past solve environmental puzzles and battle angry Spirits while Kena herself wields a staff that doubles as a bow and arrow I'm not gonna lie the gameplay of Cana is solid but not mind-blowing however have you looked at it the visual design cut scenes voice acting music and overall presentation are all 10 out of 10. and they all serve the very sweet and sad story at the heart of the game which is good because this is ultimately a storytelling game although I will say at Harder difficulties the boss fights are no joke so don't let the pretty aesthetic fool you anyway kudos to the dev team for creating an extremely rich and immersive world with some really intricate characters number 41 unpacking unpacking is a game that snuck up on me on the surface there's not much to it it's literally a game about unpacking boxes and putting stuff away there are some very light puzzle elements but if you want an actual brain burner I'd look elsewhere on this list the real charm of unpacking is the subtle way it tells the story of a life as glimpsed through scenes of a childhood bedroom a college dormitory and more essentially you play the part of an archaeologist attempting to reconstruct the life of the invisible protagonist by examining her artifacts at the start of each move I was anxious to see which objects made it to the next stage of her life which were left behind and what knowledge could be gleaned from new possessions that might sound boring but trust me when I say it sucks you in it helps maybe that the pixel art possessions are all real life objects which makes the active unpacking feel like a nostalgic tour through hundreds of familiar items many of which I also owned but I also love how unpacking tells its story in clever subtle ways there's a moment in the fourth level that really stuck out to me where the protagon moves in with a boyfriend two stages earlier she was living in a dorm room and in the next stage one of her new possessions is a framed college degree which I hung on the wall however when she moves in with the boyfriend there is literally no wall space anywhere in the apartment big enough to hang the degree so you are ultimately forced to hide it under the bed or in the closet this made me mad it made me instinctively disapprove of this relationship and feel as though the protagonist was being stifled by a partner who wasn't sufficiently proud of her accomplishments even though the game never explicitly said any of that it made me feel the same righteous indignation I would feel on behalf of a real friend and you better believe I displayed that degree loudly and proudly in every future space and if a game could have that effect on someone whose own college degree is stored in a box somewhere I think that's pretty powerful storytelling foreign Greece if you're into games as visual art this dramatic entry from Spanish developer nomata Studios has to be in the top five Greece which I can officially confirm via no matter Studios Twitter that I am pronouncing correctly is the Spanish word for gray which perfectly describes the protagonist's world at the start of the game Greece is a relatively short light puzzle platformer about a world Shattered by grief one watercolor shade at a time the protagonist who is also named Greece restores color to her world all the while pursued by a pitch black monster that shapeshifts into various giant creatures in some ways Greece is all about transformation and the environments in the game were apparently modeled after the five stages of grief this isn't really a game you play for the puzzles or the platforming but it's a visually stunning Journey that will leave you feeling a real sense of wonder and it doesn't hurt that there's also a brilliant soundtrack the developer said they were going for a cross between Ori and the blind forest and journey and in my humble opinion they made a game that surpassed both 39. Super Meat Boy released in 2010 Super Meat Boy is one of the oldest games on this list but it remains an absolute pillar of modern Precision platforming it follows the adventures of who else Super Meat Boy as he attempts to rescue his Paramore bandage girl from the clutches of the evil doctor fetus [Music] the boy himself is a bloody Cube of Meat with a face who can jump and briefly cling the walls his controls are simple but responsive and the rest of the magic comes from the insanely difficult level design Super Meat Boy is one of several indie games that was clearly inspired by a love of Nintendo hard 80s and 90s Platformers and it's maybe the only game in this entire list that I actually found physically difficult as in palms are sweaty knees weak arms are heavy joystick shredding my thumb like a machete I don't know something about this game just locks you into a battle trance and really hurts your thumb but it also has one of the best rewards for completing a difficult level a replay video of every failed attempt layered over each other resulting in a chaotic but satisfying Stampede of mostly doomed meat blobs number 38 getting over it with Bennett foddy of all the games on my list this is perhaps the game I'm most proud of beating it's a bit unclear the extent to which getting over it is a joke versus a serious attempt at game design or an art piece but it definitely achieved notoriety by frustrating streamers with its punishingly difficult level design complete lack of checkpoints and Twitchy physics engine the game is controlled entirely by moving the mouse and tells the Timeless tale of a shirtless man in a cauldron wielding a sledgehammer attempting to Vault his way up a massive pile of rubbish getting over it is narrated if you can call it that by Bennett foddy himself who is generally encouraging towards the player but also goes off on Long tangents about philosophy game design and other topics now I know most likely you're watching this on YouTube or twitch while some dude with 10 million views does it for you like a baby bird being fed chewed up food that's culture too for what it's worth I genuinely enjoyed getting over it not just as a joke even though it made me want to throw my mouse a few dozen times parts of the game feel truly impossible when you first encounter them and there's nothing more devastating than tumbling all the way back to the start but after playing for a few hours I knew I wouldn't be content until I made it to the top of the mountain and I kept coming back until I did [Music] number 37 braid was released by developer Jonathan Blow in 2008 making it the oldest game on this list and one of the founding fathers of modern Indie Games in general it's a puzzle platforming send-up of Super Mario Bros in which the protagonist Tim chases after a princess who is fleeing a horrible monster in hopes of rectifying a past mistake I have to say I have a certain skepticism towards puzzle Platformers because there are way too many of them and it can start to feel like if you've played one you've played them all but what makes braids Stand Out is its clever and varied use of time manipulation at any point you can reverse the flow of time which also means there are no fail States controlling time is critical to solving the game's many puzzles and each new area adds a unique twist in one Tim encounters glowing objects immune to time manipulation in another Tim leaves behind an echo whenever he rewinds time and in a third time flows normally as Tim moves to the right pauses when he stands still and reverses when he moves to the left I personally enjoy exploring a new area experimenting with new mechanics and trying to wrap my brain around their puzzle solving applications besides the platforming and time manipulation braid is also known for a wide array of symbolic elements such as allusions to nuclear war and a very dark in-cell Twist on one of the oldest Nintendo tropes guess my princess is in another Castle whether or not the symbolism elevates the braid experience is Up For Debate but it's definitely memorable and it's backed up by some really clever gameplay number 36 Soma the only Bonafide horror game on this list Soma follows Simon Jarrett a Canadian TBI patient who goes in for an experimental brain scan and suddenly wakes up trapped and alone in a multinational underwater research facility pathos 2 in the year 2104 it turns out the crew of pathos 2 were the only known survivors of a worldwide Extinction event but have since Fallen victim to a mysterious plight of their own as you Journey Through The partially flooded station you'll encounter a variety of robots some hostile and others convinced of their own Humanity there's no way to fight back in Soma so your only option is stealth which of course is the basis for any good survival horror game Soma feels like it could have been written by Greg Egan or Philip K dick and deals with many prominent themes of hard science fiction centered on Consciousness in particular autonomy continuity of self artificial intelligence transhumanism and digital immortality although significant gameplay is devoted to stealth sections and mechanical monsters the true horror of the game is more existential actually the stealth sections aren't that good and I would even recommend turning on safe mode not to tone down the scares but to avoid some irritating tedium Soma is all about the story and you'll be just as terrified by the ominous atmosphere some stomach turning plot reveals and a few incidents of body horror not to mention the Grim implications of certain story beats ultimately Simon teams up with stranded scientist Catherine Chun and the pair embark on a mission with the future of humanity at stake despite drawing inspiration from classic Sci-fi Soma has a few unpredictable twists and tells a compelling story about what it means to be human number 35 the witness shortly after Jonathan Blow found success with braid he reinvested a huge chunk of the profits into founding his own company thecla Inc which then made this game the witness is so unbelievably overproduced it feels like something Nathan Fielder would come up with I almost can't believe I'm saying this sentence but it's a six million dollar stunningly 3D open world game about solving hundreds of 2D line and grid puzzles the juxtaposition is hilarious as the main meat of the game could arguably be a Simple app but the incredible amount of detail that went into the Overworld elevates the witness into a truly special and bizarre experience the object of the witness is to roam around a massive puzzle box Island solving enough puzzles in each area to turn on laser turrets that ultimately unlocked the final area none of this is communicated to the player per se as the game has no tutorials or instructions of any kind each region is governed by a unique rule that must be learned through trial and error and that rule is then iterated into increasingly difficult puzzles for example There are rules about dots and shapes and colors puzzles with mirrored lines and puzzles based on sights and sounds from the surrounding environment those are my favorite especially the ones that can only be solved from very specific perspectives perspective is the clear theme of the game and also factors into a host of bonus environmental puzzles the tetris effect is real with this one and after investing a few dozen hours you'll be seeing dots and lines everywhere you look make no mistake the witness is a deviously difficult game and a hundred percent completion is not for the faint of heart number 34 overcooked two overcooked is the king of chaotic couch Co-op it really shines with friends and there's a ton of fun to be had plating pastas burritos Burgers and More in its quasi fantasy Kingdom filled with increasingly deranged kitchens the official plot of overcooked 2 sees you and your squad join forces with the onion King and his faithful dog Kevin to fight off a gluttonous glutinous horde of unbred by cooking your way across the kingdom really it's an excuse to team up with your friends and race against the clock and time to cooking challenges despite the Whimsical setting in cartoony Graphics overcook tends to bring out the Gordon Ramsay and everyone look at them out there look at those tickets seriously overcooked has the potential to ruin friendships but it's also immensely satisfying to serve up those meal tickets the gameplay is a frantic multitasking scramble to chop cook clean and serve a huge variety of ingredients while also contending with simple bewildering and often hilarious kitchen layouts the later levels get pretty difficult so you'll have to perfect your runs if you want those coveted three stars I personally dig trying to find find the most efficient strategies so I appreciate both the challenge and the variety of overcooked and by the way this is honestly a stand-in for the whole overcooked franchise but I'm picking two just because it's more refined than the original and because you can throw stuff you can play overcooked with friends or family of any skill level and it never fails to serve up a good time number 33 to the Moon this is one of the first games to prove that one person with limited tools basic graphics and frankly not much gameplay could craft a compelling Unforgettable and emotional experience to the Moon is about a slightly futuristic memory alteration corporation that offers clients on their deathbeds a chance to rewrite past regrets and die with a sense of fulfillment sort of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind meets the mega Wish Foundation in the future Better Living Through Chemistry can even cure the life not lived you play as two scientists who bring their Inception machine to the home of a man named Johnny whose dying wish is to have traveled to the Moon much of the game is spent acronologically exploring Johnny's memories which mostly revolve around his courtship marriage and the eventual death of his teenage sweetheart River it becomes increasingly clear that river is linked to Johnny's desire to visit the moon and the two scientists Race Against Time to solve the puzzle of implanting the memory before the real Johnny who is lying comatose upstairs expires the story unfolds like a mystery and hooks you in pretty much immediately but despite a number of tragic and dark turns the ending is a notorious tearjerker that ties everything together in a very sweet way it's not a perfect game there's some tonal Whiplash and some tedious gameplay elements But ultimately to the Moon takes you on an emotional Journey it's one of the earliest games I ever played on this list and the ending still sticks with me number 32 Fez this is a game I overlooked for a very long time mostly because I thought I knew exactly what to expect and in some ways I was exactly right about what to expect I already told you how I feel about puzzle Platformers and this is one so I was ready to be underwhelmed but man professors are cool Fez reminds me of the Victoria Novella flatland in which a square living in a flat world is visited by a sphere and gifted knowledge of a previously undiscovered Third Dimension the protagonist of Fez Gomez is likewise visited by a golden hexahedron who bestows upon Him of Fez and the ability to rotate the world around him this is the basis of some really clever puzzles and the world design of Fez takes full advantage of the mechanism the effect can be pretty trippy and you'll be straining your brain to conceptualize levels in three dimensions while Gomez hops around the screen in 2D on top of the mind-bending platforming the world of Fez is also rich with Secrets ciphers Easter eggs hidden QR codes and tetramino puzzles that challenge your spatial reasoning you can explore the world in any order at your own pace which makes Fez a peaceful relaxing and ingenious experience number 31 goragoa right off the bat gorogoa an enigmatic game about moving four Illustrated panels around a 2x2 grid is an impressive feat each panel was meticulously hand-drawn by The Game's sole Creator Jason Roberts over a six-year development period and the interactions between the various panels which can be stacked reconfigured or Zoomed In and Out Feel unbelievably intricate I wouldn't call gorgo a difficult as I was never held up for too long on any one puzzle but it is a true puzzle game and some of the solutions left me pretty impressed like this puzzle in which a boulder falling through scaffolding is converted to a pebble that shatters a glass closure through a clever trick of perspective all of this example many panels can align with their neighbors in multiple ways leading to gameplay that rewards close study of the beautiful hand-drawn art the panels themselves tell the somewhat ambiguous story of a boy who lives through periods of War uncertainty and rebuilding eventually depicting him as an old man who reflects back on his life various panels imbue his life Journey with mystical and spiritual elements and overall the game manages to extract some emotion from its relatively simple interface if you appreciate gorgeous art or clever puzzles you should give this one a try number 30 inside ah yes playdad Studios second grimdark hellscape puzzle platformer in which a young boy driven by mysterious forces Beyond his understanding navigates and manipulates a series of increasingly deadly and gruesome obstacles inside is slightly less monochrome than limbo but its sci-fi setting is somehow more Insidious in the end well let's just say that the end of inside will stick with you more than the end of limbo if anything inside puts even less of an emphasis on puzzles than limbo but the atmosphere and the puzzles that do appear are more thematically connected to the narrative like limbo the meaning of that narrative is still somewhat ambiguous but it has a clear Arc from start to finish and deals with identity agency Conformity versus individuality and even transhumanism the puzzles and the atmosphere and the environments feel like they're building towards something and they are the narrative follows a young boy's attempts to infiltrate a high security facility deterred by armed guards attack dogs electric fences and other obstacles through a combination of stealth platforming and puzzle solving he eventually reaches the heart of the facility and discovers what lies in weight in the central laboratory and well I guess you'll have to play the game to find out number 29 Untitled Goose game in comparative mythology there's a creation Motif known as the chaos comp which depicts essentially the recurring Strife between Order and Chaos this usually involves a cataclysmic battle between a sky deity or a culture hero who represents order law and civilization and Chaos itself which is typically represented by an untamed primordial creature or dragon that emerges from the sea think of Thor and yormongonder Yahweh and the Leviathan Saint George and the Dragon and speaking of the britons add to that list Untitled Goose game a game about a mischievous Goose wreaking absolute havoc on a peaceful English Village the goose is an agent of chaos whose only animus is disrupting the lives of others but the resulting experience is one of the silliest quirkiest and most Charming games in recent memory the proper English Village is the perfect playground for The delinquent waterfowl and levels include a garden High streets backyards and a pub each level presents the player with a list of objectives like breaking a vase or stealing a pint glass from the pub how you go about these objectives is up to you but you'll have to contend with the game's physics engine and villagers who are all too ready to chase you off with a broom I love the cel-shaded graphics the absolute childishness of the Goose's Antics and the Adaptive soundtrack that punctuates your pranks with Arrangements of WC preludes Untitled Goose game is guaranteed to make you smile and the ending of the game suggests that the struggle between Order and Chaos May indeed be Eternal number 28 Shovel Knight of all the Retro themed indie games this is the one that most unapologetically Cashes in on the Nostalgia of the Nintendo Entertainment System your parents help you hook it up that's not an insult because it's a great stylistic choice for the game the developers followed several self-imposed limitations like a sparse color palette limited Sprite count and a chiptune soundtrack and the result is an action platformer with modern touches that would still feel at home on the NES Shovel Knight was inspired by everyone's favorite Zelda game Zelda 2 The Adventure of Link or more specifically the mechanism of bouncing on enemies with the down thrust I will agree that this is the most fun part of that game and the two knights of the Indie Renaissance both shovel and Hollow enjoy similar pogoing from enemy to enemy the main campaign of Shovel Knight follows its titular Knight as he embarks on a quest to save his girlfriend's Shield knight from an evil enchantress and the nefarious Knights of the order of No Quarter I say main campaign because this game also comes packed with multiple free DLCs allowing you to play through alternate stories as plague Knight Specter knight and king Knight who were all antagonists in the main story overall the humor in this game feels very Monty Python in the Holy Grail and not just because there's a black knight I mean Shovel Knight himself adheres to a code of chivalry it's a modern classic for a reason and there's a lot of charm behind those 8-bit graphics [Music] number 27 Celeste from one modern classic to another Celeste is sure to find a place on any Indie ranking and for good reason there's a lot to love including a vibrant art style a touching story and positive message and dynamic piano tracks from composer Lena Rayne but at its core Celeste is a super difficult platformer if not for this game Super Meat Boy would still be sitting Atop The Throne of Pixel Perfect Precision Platformers but just like the swamp woman said another younger and More Beautiful came along to claim what's hers while Super Meat Boy wraps its platforming in a tongue-in-cheek video gamey framing device Celeste is unfailingly sincere in its approach it tells the story of a young woman Madeline attempting to reach the summit of Celeste Mountain along the way she comes face to face with her inner demons and must confront not only wind and spikes and Bottomless Pits but also anxiety and other mental health struggles from the very beginning Celeste is encouraging towards the player and puts the emphasis not on failure but on overcoming this is reflected in the gameplay which throws you right back into the action whenever you fall to your death and encourages you to try again along the way Madeline makes a few friends and finally Embraces parts of herself that she couldn't accept before her Climb by the time you reach the summit you'll be pumped up and ready for more which is good because Celeste has you covered with a bunch of Collectibles crazy bonus levels and speed running challenges it's obvious this game was made with a lot of love and I think I'm right in saying it's the highest ranked pure platformer on my list number 26 golf story now I know what you're thinking why is this weird little sports game ranked higher than Celeste and Shovel Knight well I kept coming back to two things how much stupid fun I had playing golf story and how original this game is compared to so many other titles Celeste is an amazing platformer but I've played dozens of Platformers and the genre doesn't excite or surprise me the way it did as a kid golf story is a game for everyone who misses Super Nintendo and Game Boy era golf Sims from which it borrows the simple but effective two-click hit system but it's not just an arcade sports game it's a ridiculous RPG about a down on his luck recently divorced former golfer who sets out to make a name for himself in the golf world by winning the Blue Moon Dunes Championship it follows the familiar beats of a sports flick like a grouchy mentor and an arrogant rival and basically lets you live out a tournament training Arc Gulf story is more Happy Gilmore than Tiger Woods each location features a preamble story with some wacky golf-based puzzle solving and culminates in a themed tournament and when I say wacky I mean you'll bounce balls off the backs of turtles solve a dinner party murder mystery about a werewolf infiltrate on ninja Clan Hideout or battle a wizard with a sand wedge my favorite competition is the gentleman's tournament in which you must honor and adhere to the traditions of golf like using antique clubs and following obscure rules during the game you'll also engage in related activities like Putt-Putt Lawn Bowling and the much maligned by real golfers disc golfing I live to froth but the best side activity perhaps in any game is galf and Atari inspired game within a game with a hilarious manual nudist crabs and flightless birds in fact golf was so well received the devs released an actual physical cartridge for the NES in 2018 and if you like golf story there's also a bigger batter sequel called Sports story in the works for the switch number 25 her story her story is a really unique and elegant experience that uses full motion video to tell a winding a chronological story about a police investigation from 1994. in it you watch video clips of a woman called Hannah Smith speaking to the police over the course of several weeks about the suspicious death of her husband Simon Simon you've got it wrong you've got the wrong person the catches that you can only locate unseen Clips by keyword search which means you'll have to pay close attention follow leads or use your imagination to piece the story together a few of the clips are quite difficult to access but the real draw of her story is the twisting narrative I can only speak to my experience but the slow reveal of the big twist had me rethinking every part of the story and even re-watching Clips I'd already seen with new context what feels insanely clever about her story is that every player will approach the story from a different direction and yet it seems to work for just about everyone her story is also near the top of my list of games I'd recommend to non-gamers it's no longer than a movie and doesn't require platforming or strategy or reflexes just good old-fashioned paying attention it's a game that's hard to get just by hearing about it but by the time you fill in the database Checker I think you'll see just how clever that gameplay is and you might just get pulled into the story as well number 24 disco Elysium this is another one I talked about in my top 10 Indie Mysteries video so again go check that out disco Elysium is insane and I think the creators would be proud to hear me say that it's a tabletop-esque RPG about an amnesiac detective dragging himself out of a hangover to sort of maybe solve a murder it dramatizes things you wouldn't expect like for instance you can't approach or inspect the victim's body without throwing up unless you pass an endurance skill check or think of a good Alias without high enough conceptualization the entire game is narrated by your inner monologue which I guess is really A Chorus since every little part of your subconscious has a voice and trimes in more the more you level it up disco Elysium is set in the grungy dock District of Martinez itself a part of the crumbling Metropolis of rubber Shoal it's essentially an open world game with a million in one side quests to send you off on Wild Goose chases and embroil you in the politics of the district and owe the politics the politics of disco Elysium are split into four main factions Communists like the syndicalist Dock Workers Union Ultra liberal corporatocracies that wield immense economic might regressive fascist nationalist supporters of the old monarchy and moralists a quasi-religious Centrist faction that retains official control of rubbishal at the present the game never really takes a side although your character is free to take any side you want fulfilling such steam achievements as truly rabid traditionalist and baddest hustler in the neoliberal hood instead disco Elysium presents the tension between World Views as a recipe for violence narrowed in the system help help I'm being repressed bloody peasant oh what a giveaway do you hear that you and I that's what I'm on about disco Elysium has a truly mind-blowing amount of dialogue options brought to life in the Final Cut by some pretty epic voice acting there are personal vendettas class Warfare and political machinations at work and just maybe you can master your drug adult brain long enough to put the pieces together number 23 Katana zero Katana zero is made up of two main elements the first is a difficult side-scrolling action stealth game about infiltrating facilities and assassinating Targets in this task you are aided by a razor sharp Katana and a precognitive ability to slow time or foresee bad outcomes and avoid them you can see things before they happen that's why he appears to have such quick reflexes the second element is a deeply cinematic film Noir plot about an amnesiac ex-soldier battling addiction PTSD and other real and imagined demons in between missions zero bonds with a young girl in his dingy apartment drinks at the bar and visits his psychiatrist who also supplies zero with the precog drug Chronos and dossiers on his next Target whether you cooperate with or antagonize the psychiatrist is up to you and affects the end of the game there are a lot of really cool ideas in Katana zero like battles between two precogs car chases and one of my favorite touches the black and white security cam replays of missions the writing and the story and the music are all great but the game is ultimately carried by some pretty fun gameplay as in Super Meat Boy or Hotline Miami the levels are hard but instantly reload on failure which gives you freedom to experiment and take risks and makes them feel more like Puzzles the story in the gameplay are married together really well and the ending is sick it's also perfectly paced with just the right blend of action violence psychological horror and personal Stakes number 22 gone home gone home is a simple but powerful walking simulator about a college student named Katie Greenbrier who returns to her family home in Oregon after months of studying abroad in Europe only to find the house ransacked and apparently abandoned a tantalizing note from her younger sister Sam implores Katie not to investigate the scene but this is a video game so screw that what follows is a surprising story that flips expectations upside down and keeps you wanting to find out more the house paints a portrait of the entire Greenbrier family Katie's dad a failed novelist turned Electronics reviewer her mom a director of wildlife conservation who forms a flirtatious relationship with a co-worker and her Creative Photography loving ghost-hunting teenage sister Sam Katie might be the official protagonist but Sam is the star of the game her story is about hair dye and punk rock and Street Fighter fitting in and finding friends in self-discovery and the bond between the two sisters like so many video games about coming-of-age stories gone home is set back in the 90s probably because so many Developers nostalgic about their own childhood or teenage years in the same decade that means we get VCRs and cassettes the riot Girl Movement and in the Nintendo switch Port SNES games like Super Mario Kart and Donkey Kong Country the story and gone home is told through interaction with the environment some really sharp writing and occasional voice over narration from Sam in particular I loved finding old homework assignments and seeing the contrast between Sam and Katie's response to the same High School writing prompt while Katie simply completes the assignment Sam spins a description of the menstrual cycle into a World War II story about a Polish woman who loses her fiance during the Blitz and joins the resistance as a spy it is incredible how the female body knows how to prepare for pregnancy she concludes that kind of writing and character work really make gone home shine and paint a picture of Sam as someone who both sees the world differently from other people and plays by our own rules although it kicks off with some horror Vibes gone home deals with LGBT themes and family trauma in a compelling way and the end will leave you smiling number 21 slay the Spire something that cracks me up is how often I've heard this game referred to as one of the best examples of the deck building roguelike genre as though this were a genre that everyone knew and loved beforehand it might not be the first and it's certainly not the last but slay the Spire is the deck building roguelike as far as I'm concerned and one of the most famous games to combine ideas from video games and modern tabletop board gaming that itself is nothing new how many turn-based tactical games Drew inspiration from risk and Avalon Hill war games and other newer better tabletop experiences but slay this buyer offers a really fresh and tightly designed deck building Adventure in the vein of dominion Clank or Netrunner if you're unfamiliar with the concept of deck building basically you have a deck from which you draw a hand of cards each turn and at least in slay the Spire use that hand of cards to attack enemies heal yourself draw additional cards and more during a run you have opportunities to add powerful new cards to your deck or remove weaker cards so they don't come up anymore hence the term deck building if you are familiar with deck builders like I was do you'll plug right into slay the spire's tight card play it's fun to experiment with new synergies and strategies and you can build your decks in ways that feel really different from each other which is always a Hallmark of a good deck builder the video gamey part of slay the Spire is the roguelike nature of every campaign you begin each run with one of four generic decks and slowly craft a set of cards and abilities hopefully strong enough to make your way to the top of the tower and take on the final boss my personal fave is the silent who's the sort of Hunter Rogue archetype but all of the characters feel really unique the battles are tactical puzzles and the enemies are diverse and interesting and the branching Paths of the Overworld present plenty of difficult decisions for whatever reason this is also a game I've played a lot while traveling and it's always fun to pick it up and see if You Can Go the Distance with a new deck number 20 Minecraft now I know Minecraft has transcended the plane of its Indie existence and rocketed into the absolute Stratosphere of both culture and sales gaining a new corporate Overlord in the process it was acquired by Microsoft in 2014 for 2.5 billion dollars and surely thereafter became the best-selling game of all time not the best-selling indie game or the best-selling PC game although it is those things too the best-selling video game of all time and the margin is not even close it might be hard to conceive of this game as an indie title when you can pick up Minecraft pajamas plushies Lego sets Nerf guns and Home Decor from your local Target or pickaxe enemies as Steve in Super Smash Bros but the Swedish sensation came from humble beginnings and deserves its place on this list there are a million and one ways to play Minecraft as the game itself is absolutely massive and on top of that there are literally hundreds of thousands of mods but at its core it's a game about Mining and crafting every start drops you into a procedurally generated block world as geographically diverse as any good Fantasy Realm with nothing but the clothes on your back you'll work your way up from tree punching in simple shelter building to crafting Cathedrals and slaying dragons whether you relate more to exploring caves and extracting rare elements or turning those resources into imaginative Creations there's no denying that the combination is a tried and true gameplay loop I haven't kept up to date with every new feature and change over the past decade but I still revisit Minecraft from time to time and I respect its impact on the industry number 19. subnautica subnautica is a first person survival game in the tradition of rust or dare I say it Minecraft it has the usual elements of survival games like managing thirst and hunger crafting tools and upgrades and Base building but instead of zombies or Wolves or creepers subnautica Taps into one of Mankind's deepest fears the ocean subnautica strands you on a mysterious watery planet and ninety percent of the game is spent underwater hunting small fish for sustenance harvesting coral and seaweed minerals and using a futuristic fabricator to deploy tools submersibles and underwater habitats as you navigate the ocean depths you'll contend with not only basic survival needs but oxygen capacity Crush depths and deep sea creatures and as your capabilities increase you'll explore deeper and deeper biomes each home to ever more terrifying fauna there's always a bigger fish subnautica does well something that most survival games do not even attempt and that is combine the survival gameplay with an actual Story the spaceship Aurora has crashed on the oceanic planet 4546b and you the injured occupant of lifepod 5 are the sole survivor during the course of the game you'll receive distress calls garbled messages and other breadcrumbs that lead you in the direction of key story beats including the remains of another crew that crash landed on the planet years before and abandoned facilities left behind by an alien precursor race unlike some other survival games in which your goal is simply to Outlast the elements indefinitely subnautica has an actual ending your ultimate goal is to escape the planet which means you'll not only have to gather and catalog enough resources to craft a rocket but also unravel a deeper mystery about an automated alien quarantine ancient life forms and a mysterious bacteria and hopefully along the way you don't do what I did and forget to save for like two hours before letting your submarine get wrecked by a ghost Leviathan foreign [Applause] number 18 death store death store is a visually stunning isometric action adventure with a very peculiar mythology its protagonist is a crow and the employee of a soul-reaping bureaucracy that administrates the afterlife who fails to retrieve his assigned Soul after an ancient Greg Crow steals it and sends it through the eponymous death's door in order to open the door and complete his assignment the crow must search the land for three giant souls which means pitting herself against a witch a frog king and a Yeti the implication I guess being that ancient malevolent beings have more bloated Souls than everyone else death store wears its Zelda inspiration on its sleeve there's puzzles and backtracking and bosses and Dungeons and even a hook shot the protagonist is armed with a sword and a bow and bombs and yeah this is a pretty Unapologetic Zelda clone but death store carves out its own identity with amazing visuals and a very interesting and original story there's something not quite right about the world of death's door the original Reaper death himself is mysteriously absent and the natural order of life and death has gone all screwy locks and doors and keys are are huge themes of the game and the corvid reaping commission turns out to be more Sinister than at first it seems and even if the gameplay isn't breaking new ground it's extremely well done the puzzles and dungeons are engaging the enemies are tough and varied and there are a ton of Collectibles and weapons and upgrades and secrets to discover the world itself is a joy to explore and is filled with unique characters like an octopus masquerading as a bartender by attaching itself to a drowned corpse or pothead a young man cursed by the urn witch to have a clay pot for a head this is a game that really stuck out to me when I first played it and when I see myself coming back to in the future number 17. Baba is you Baba is you came out of a 2017 game jam and feels very much like a game by programmers and for programmers in it you literally push expressions of game logic around the screen changing the rules that govern the objects in The Game World you can turn walls into jellyfish change the properties of keys in water and lava or literally make yourself the win condition I don't know it's hard to describe just how clever and brain bending the puzzles are in Baba is you but they require some real outside the box thinking like the same sort you need to wrap your mind around relativistic physics Concepts imagine that it never occurred to me to think of space as the thing that was moving Bubba is you is pretty much a pure arcade Puzzler there's no story or any other trappings just hundreds of tricky levels to navigate but there are some fun themes and variations I haven't actually finished this game in part because I refuse to look up any solutions but I come back to it periodically and keep making progress the fact that I still ranked at 17th is a testament to how clever and original the core concept is I also like that some of the puzzles allow for multiple solution so you really feel like the author of your own success this is arguably one of the most difficult games I've ever played but the vibe is relaxing and peaceful and the solutions are oh so satisfying number 16 into the breach I love turn-based tactical games but it feels like there haven't been too many standouts recently maybe because there hasn't been a lot of innovation in the genre but into the breach a game about time traveling Mech Pilots fighting off an insectoid alien invasion does a few really unique things first it slices the gameplay into bite-sized segments the missions are all staged on 8x8 grids the size of a chessboard and never last more than four or five turns so they don't evolve into the 50 turn nutrition contests of say Advanced Wars second into the breach is a roguelike campaign which UPS the stakes of every Mission the failed condition of each campaign is a fragile seven hit point power grid that takes damage whenever the aliens attack powered buildings this carries over from mission to Mission and there are no redos so things can go wrong in a hurry and every Mission counts in between missions Pilots earn XP and you can upgrade Mech weapons and reactor cores which means you'll have to strategically choose both the missions you attempt and your upgrades to make smart progression but the most famous and in Innovative thing about into the breach is the way it gives you perfect knowledge of enemy intent before each turn the game communicates exactly what the AI is going to do next which means nothing is left a chance this can be used against enemies to engineer Friendly Fire environmental ambushes or throw your mechs into the path of an oncoming attack it might sound like this would make things easy but into the breach is actually quite challenging and the complete knowledge means that every loss is unequivocally your fault every mission is a tense tactical puzzle and there's also a ton of replay value with loads of mechs upgrades and randomized events it's really a modern classic and stands out for its unique and Innovative gameplay number 15 Tower fall I love Tower fall I like it more than Celeste which I know is a sacrilegious thing to admit to the internet but something about those pixelated archers darting around the screen hunting for that perfect shot or trying to out head stomp each other just makes this game sing for me it's also the perfect dose of couch competition matches are so short that you'll always be tempted to play just one more and it's a great party game I've played Tower fall with lots of different groups and it's always a winner the controls are so simple and easy to learn but the gameplay is still tight and tactical and the one hit point archers make every movement critical because the screen wraps both horizontally and vertically opponents are never too far away and there's always an opportunity to surprise foes with a round the world shot you can also unleash an arsenal of trick arrows like bomb arrows laser arrows which feel just as likely to kill the user as the Target or my personal favorite drill arrows which penetrate surfaces and let you really surprise targets hiding in a corner the stages are fun the music is catchy and the game is just an all-around good time although there are one or two more games coming up that can be played cooperatively TowerFall is my favorite exclusively multiplayer indie game number 14. tunic tunic is the newest game on the list and the last game I played before finalizing this ranking I thought it might challenge for a spot in the 40s if it lived up to the hype of its trailer but I didn't expect it to blow me away the way it did this is a game I will definitely return to and I could see myself ranking it even higher in the future it looks incredible with a striking geometric art style that feels Timeless and Charming it's reminiscent of the toy box Graphics used in the switch remake of Link's Awakening A game that obviously heavily influenced tunic the geometry of the world and the forced isometric perspective had tons of Secrets and hidden passages and clever ways and speaking of which I didn't learn until over halfway through that you could change the fox's appearance after which I immediately began playing as an adorable arctic fox the combat and tunic is much harder than its cute miniature world would suggest and it also features amazing boss fights the bosses are challenging and clever but the game also knows how to frame these encounters and make them feel like epic cinematic experiences that to me is one of the Hallmarks of a great boss fight the kind you actually remember but I haven't even talked about the best part of the game in a bizarrely meta twist one of the main collectibles in the game is the manual of the game itself one page at a time you reassemble tunic's manual which is a remarkable Recreation of 1980s Nintendo manuals complete with rips and coffee stains and notes in the margins most of the manual is written in a made-up indecipherable language with only a few proper nouns translated into English this Taps into my Nostalgia about playing badly localized games as a kid in an era when games had no tutorials and you were expected to glean tips and tricks controls and even the story from the manual I cannot get over how clever and fun this is and the way the manual is integrated into tunics puzzle solving made me smile again and again there are many skills and abilities in tunic you could use from the very start of the game but until you find the right page you don't know what you don't know this will go down as one of my favorite gameplay twists of all time and elevates tunic for me to an instant classic you'll have to pour over the manual to decipher all the secrets and codes in lore and the world of tunic feels as puzzle boxy as that of the witness there's also a very good story with a few genuine surprises and the quote unquote true ending of the game left me kind of emotional I try not to let myself be too swayed by The Cult of the new but I don't have a bad thing to say about tunic number 13 The Binding of Isaac The Binding of Isaac is just a fun and crazy experience it's a sacrilegious Dungeon Crawler roguelike about a child escaping his schizophrenic mother who feels she is on a mission from God to kill him through a labyrinthine basement filled with monsters treasures and poop it plays like a twin stick shooter only instead of bullets Isaac squirts tears out of his eyes that damage enemies originally released in 2011 by one of the Super Meat Boy developers The Binding of Isaac was remade in 2014 as The Binding of Isaac rebirth and then received three DLCs after birth after birth plus and repentance that is sort of an Oaky after birth much like its dungeon levels the content of Isaac feels like a bottomless pit it seems mathematically impossible that any one person could experience all the possible combinations of items and upgrades and deals with the devil and so on and that's really the fun part no two runs are identical and even if you recognize every item in the game there's always some new interaction to discover plus it's fun that the upgrades visually deform your character every once in a while you stumble upon an absolutely broken combination but that just adds to the silliness and Chaos I also think Isaac strikes a good balance between rewarding skilled play and requiring players to acquire powerful items there are secrets to find challenges to complete a ton of playable characters and basically enough content to keep you occupied until the Rapture part of the charm of roguelikes is that they feel less like discreet experiences and more like an ongoing adventure and that makes Isaac another game I come back to periodically every time I do it pulls me back into its Twisted basement and delivers some addicting gameplay number 12. hyper light Drifter described by its creator as a cross between a link to the past and old school Diablo Hyperlite Drifter is a minimalist game about a lone wolf protagonist killing monsters with a sword and a post-apocalyptic landscape the reasons for this Quest are a bit mysterious as the game features absolutely zero dialogue only cryptic images the protagonist is suffering from an unknown debilitating illness the main symptoms of which are occasional fatigue and vomiting blood this was inspired by the Creator Alex Preston's own struggles with congenital heart disease and adds a way to the in-game quest in my interpretation The Drifter is motivated to finish his quest while he still possesses the strength to fight the story of hyper light Drifter sees the pixelated Drifter Journey to the four corners of the realm defeating powerful enemies before ultimately challenging the ancient antagonist that Waits beneath the central town the combat and in particular the boss fights are the star of the show The Drifter is armed with both a sword and a gun which regenerates ammo when you strike enemies with the sword this incentivizes fast-paced in-your-face agile combat and you'll have to learn some tricky attack patterns to take down the toughest foes in my opinion hyper light Drifter shares its DNA with games like death's door and tunic all three being enigmatic action adventures with brutally difficult sword combat and simple archetypal quests to master a few themed regions before confronting the final boss when done well this style of game really appeals to me and of course you can trace its roots back to Classic Zelda Adventures ultimately I connect with Hyper Light drifter's art style sound mythology masterful combat and the superb Simplicity of its story number 11. papers please who would have thought that a game about checking documents could be so engrossing in papers please you take on the role of a weary immigration officer stationed on the border of fictional Eastern Bloc Nation arstatska it is literally a game about reviewing passports visas and other immigration documents all while adhering to an increasingly convoluted set of rules and regulations this turns out to be a surprisingly effective vehicle for storytelling as the protagonist is soon faced with a host of thought-provoking moral dilemmas should you violate protocol in exchange for bribes that help provide your family with food and warmth separate a woman who claims she is being trafficked into sexual slavery from her abuser even though his paperwork is in order show Mercy to a married couple when the husband has the proper paperwork but the wife does not you have your own fictional family to think about and the consequences for sloppy work or intentional insubordination can be severe the story soon involves sports teams serial killers and secret societies and can lead to 20 different endings depending on your decisions many of which involve imprisonment or death by firing squad the actual gameplay of papers please involves checking documents for discrepancies in real time that means the faster you work the more money you'll make for your starving family but you'll also risk missing a birthday an expiry date or absent paperwork and incurring a citation you'll have to identify a discrepancy before denying entry which means you'll be rapidly scouring paperwork during which time it's easy to miss background events like a suicide bomber breaching the border wall this is one of the most unique games ever and serves up a thoughtful mixture of human moments fascist machinery and tough moral choices all right it's the top ten the games that sit atop my personal Pantheon of Indie masterpieces I unequivocally love all of these games each in their own way and I'll do my best to describe what makes them so special number 10. a short hike ask anyone who's played this game and they'll tell you a short hike is nothing short of a spiritual experience somehow this pea-sized game about anthropomorphic animals spending a day in the park manages to make you feel joyful anxious hopeful sad triumphant vulnerable and nostalgic all in the space of about two hours the premise is simple protagonist Claire is attempting to climb to the top of Hawk Peak because it's the only place in Hawk Peak Provincial park with cell phone reception and she's expecting a very important call this is simultaneously a very mundane and funny reason for a quest but also feels somehow mythical in nature in the tradition of a Moses or Prometheus scaling the Mountaintop and communing with the gods however a short hike is anything but self-serious and encourages you to get lost in the park despite the cliche this game is not about the destination it's about the journey now the length of that journey is up to you you can be lined to the summit or you can collect shells hunt for Treasure fish for legendary fish join a rock climbing society and help invent a new sport you can run errands and solve problems and raise money and get to know the huge cast of characters packed into the park the dialogue is tongue-in-cheek and at least for me strikes the perfect balance of being cute and surprising and witty without being annoying or try hard which in my experience is a fine line to walk most of the side activities reward you with golden feathers which increase your running climbing and gliding capacity only eight or so are required to reach the summit but there are 20 in the game and more feathers mean an easier climb I love short games and a short hike is exactly what it says on the tin you could play in one sitting and the blocky islands and trails and mountains provide the perfect venue for exploration when you reach the summit and finally achieve enlightenment I mean cell phone reception the call that follows is an unexpected surprisingly human moment the game ends with Claire telling her aunt a park ranger about everything she did that day and her aunt reminiscing about her own youthful visits to the park it's sweet but not sappy and the Pitch Perfect ending to one of the most Charming games of all time number nine what remains of Edith Finch Edith Finch tells the story of the finches an Eclectic Norwegian immigrant family supposedly plagued by a curse that has led to the tragic and premature death of every member except one Edith herself is the last remaining Finch and after the death of her mother she inherits the family home and returns to the scene of her childhood hoping to unravel the family curse once and for all the house itself is arguably the main character of the game it was brought over from Norway on a boat by the family patriarch Odin Finch but crashed and sank offshore killing Odin the original Edith Finch and her husband Sven the great grandparents of our Edith rebuilt the house from the wreck of the original and as the family grew so did the house the result is a sprawling Frankenstein construction that resembles the burrow filled with secret passages and hidden rooms and creaky Towers every time a finch died great grandma Edie turned their room into a memorial but her granddaughter Edith's mom thought this was morbid and sealed off the rooms making the house into both Maze and Mausoleum much as the finch family home is cobbled together from a hodgepodge of detritus and haphazard additions the family history is told through a series of inventive and tragic vignettes each with a different tone and mode of Storytelling in one a young girl's imagination is brought to life by Vivid Transformations into a cat an owl a shark and a slithering sea monster another is told through the lens of Photography documenting an ill-fated hunting trip one photograph at a time a third leaps off the pages of a pulpy horror comic sent to the actual music from Halloween which John Carpenter agreed to license for the game each of these vignettes end with the death of the finch involved and combine to tell the story of the alleged family curse the storytelling is so creative and varied and the aspect that makes What Remain to be to Finch a great game but also few games pack the same emotional gut punch I've compared notes with other people who've played Edith Finch and even watched two of my friends play through it and it's neat how different people latch on to different memories for me the two most impactful were the swing set astronaut memory and Lewis's imagination scape in The Cannery but one of the most powerful emotions is that looming sense of red as you slowly realize what's about to happen and of course the end of this game is a tearjerker Edith Finch is Unforgettable and one of the most Innovative storytelling experiences in video game history number eight Return of the Opera din this is the other hit by Lucas Pope the creator of papers please while there is an objective part of my brain that agrees with his stance that papers please is a technically better and more complete Game Return of the oberdin is more my personal cup of tea and honestly there aren't enough games set aboard 18th century sailing vessels obradin is a beautiful one-bit first person mystery about an unhappy Merchant vessel and 50 odd Souls Lost at Sea you play as an insurance investigator with a supernatural pocket watch that reveals the last memories of corpses and skeletal remains using this and a notebook that contains the crew manifest ship plans sketches of Life at Sea and charts of the oberdin's last known coordinates you must determine the fate of every individual who embarked on the doomed Voyage to the Orient it's a great puzzle about careful observation and deduction which also reveals a tragic story in a really unique way because the story is completely a chronological you'll meet certain key characters at the moment of their death and then learn about everything they did before their demise While others will weave in and out of the story their ultimate fate of mystery until late the causes of death are varied and gruesome ranging from disease and drowning in accidental death to backstabbing explosions Krakens merfolk and spider crabs for each passenger you'll have to identify who they are how they died and if applicable who killed them which leads to a sprawling spider web of possibilities that all the story threads and breadcrumb trails fit together is a remarkable achievement and the human moment scattered throughout prevent Return of the overdin from feeling pulpy or comical although the game does contain a fair share of intentional dark humor solving the fates is satisfying the story itself is intriguing and thrilling and the graphics atmosphere and soundtrack are all excellent number seven Night in the Woods at this point the game's in my top 10 are so different from one another it's hard to compare them with anything but a gut feeling most of the remaining games on this list are Heavy Hitters in the gameplay department but Night in the Woods stands out for its Unforgettable storytelling it's a side-scrolling cel-shaded highly stylized mystery Adventure about friends and fears and mental health and it's also the game that feels for me the most like a novel it follows a College Dropout named Mae Borowski who returns to her hometown to regroup and recover After experiencing a mental health crisis possum Springs is populated by an Eclectic cast of anthropomorphic animals including mei's parents and her high school friends but it's ultimately a surprisingly relatable portrayal of economically depressed rust-built small town America I always like when Stories mythicize the mundane and the cats rats and alligators of possum Springs imbue the abandoned ruins of coal mines and shopping malls with The Whimsy of a dark modern Fable Night in the Woods doesn't quite have my favorite story in an indie game but it does have my favorite writing the dialogue is relatable but also funny and surprising and at times quite dark and all the characters have something to say I like that there are different story threads all progressing at once that range in seriousness from Death Cults and murder and kidnapping to parties and shoplifting and band practice the way the game portrays anxiety and hallucinations and other struggles is striking and relatable and I've gone around on this but I think May is my favorite Indie protagonist she's got humor and humanity and seeing the world of possum Springs through her eyes is what makes this game work this is also one of the few story games I can keep coming back to and enjoying multiple times and that makes it one of my personal faves number six dead cells the first time I played dead cells I liked it but I didn't really get that into it it sat on my digital shelf for at least a year collecting a dozen free updates and balance patches waiting for me to reattach my amorphous lump of substance to another headless corpse however when I came back to it I went deep I beat the game on 5 BC which is like the highest end game difficulty I finished all the DLC endings unlocked almost every weapon and upgrade and put the ultimate endgame boss to the sword if I were ranking games by my hours played this has to be in my top three and yet I still feel dead cells has more to offer even after clearing the truly insane end game difficulty I didn't feel I had fully mastered the game and I think that speaks to the absolutely massive scope of motion twins roguelike Masterpiece dead cells is a self-described rogue Vania it combines randomized runs in permadeath with elaborate side-scrolling exploration backtracking and secrets but it also understands the value of meta progression every run you make progress towards unlocking new weapons permanent upgrades and skills or new locations and paths there are an insane main number of ways to build your character each run with two weapon slots and two slots for special abilities like traps pets and burst damage plus mutations and Stat Scrolls that can change the way you play every weapon feels unique from daggers and Hammers and crossbows to Sith lightning and whips and Wrecking Balls these upgrades are displayed in a very satisfying way arranged in glass containers suspended by chains from the ceiling of the Hub area completing this visual catalog provides a lot of intrinsic motivation to find Blueprints and purchase upgrades and you get the additional reward of more variation in your runs the story in dead cells explores a dark and mysterious ruined kingdom and there's a heaping helping of lore Easter eggs and references to uncover there's so much to do and discover in dead cells and the gameplay has kept me coming back for more all told it's the perfect Fusion of two of my favorite genres and one of my personal favorite games number five Hades well if you were waiting for this because you saw the video thumbnail here it is Hades is a witty surprisingly heartwarming action RPG about escaping from Hell over and over again it did something that had previously seemed impossible and that is use the roguelike structure to tell a compelling Story the combination of randomized levels in permadeath has traditionally lent itself to more arcade-style gameplay most roguelikes offer a flimsy explanation or no explanation at all as to why your character is doing the same thing again and again but Hades makes it central to the narrative zagreus the prince of the underworld is determined to escape his harsh unloving father Hades and reunite with his mother Persephone by battling his way through four levels of hell this feat is supposedly impossible and most runs end in the death of zagreus but being an immortal he can't actually die and instead watches up each time Back In The House of Hades where the grumpy overseer of the underworld mostly mocks into rides his futile efforts zagreus himself is one of my all-time favorite Indie protagonists he's dry snarky Reckless and just a bit arrogant and brought to life by a wonderful voice performance and the fraught relationship between zagreus and Hades is arguably the best part of the narrative Hades is a complex character with an opaque morality and it wouldn't be Greek mythology if it weren't about dysfunctional families and conflict between the Divine family tree the gameplay is a crazy isometric action adventure underscored by some of the most stylish touches in modern gaming the world looks and feels like a graphic novel and during combat classical Greek tracks on the harp and liar are infused with Rock chords and electric guitar riffs the story is designed to unfold over the course of many runs and luckily Those runs are all varied and wicked fun there are six distinct weapons to master each with four variants classic boss fights for mythology against Furies and hydras and minotaurs and tons of unique ways to build your character each run like all Greek Heroes zagreus is aided and abetted by the Olympians who offer powerful Boons and upgrades Zeus offers Thunder strikes and chain lightning Poseidon grants here attacks the percussive force of crashing waves and Athena provides defensive shielding and deflection it's fun to discover a new overpowered combo like whirling Beyblades that spin around the screen annihilating everything in their path or a comically fast sword slash that heals you with every stroke and the best part of Hades is the way that gameplay meshes with the narrative theme Hades encourages you to beat your head against the same obstacles until you finally break through and the difficulty of that task really sells you on zagreus's Journey Sisyphus who you encounter the depths of Tartarus has never been more relatable with a genuinely moving story superb gameplay and endless replayability Hades is a hell of a good time number four Hollow Knight what can I say that hasn't already been said about this one hollow Knight is an absolutely stunning achievement on practically every level the hand-drawn art style is gorgeous and the character designs are unique and evocative Christopher Larkin's score is melancholy and Atmospheric exciting and dynamic the story and lore are deep dark and thought-provoking the level design is exactly what you want from a metroidvania filled with Secrets challenges and breadcrumb trails that slowly unfold with each new upgrade but most importantly the gameplay itself is a Triumph combat and platforming both feel incredibly responsive and you can customize the Knight with a deep system of charms inspired by the badges in Paper Mario the massive open world is full of quests and upgrades and boss fights I actually care about and the areas are all stylistically distinct from one another the Knight himself has become one of the most iconic characters in modern gaming with his Beetle horns and Hollow eyes and billowy cloak and razor sharp nail look I even carved him into a pumpkin this year one of the best things about Hollow Knight are the boss fights these are all varied and clever epically staged and orchestrated and brutally hard Hollow Knight is an extremely difficult game in part because these fights pull no punches but that also makes Victory incredibly satisfying you can fight most of the bosses in Hollow Knight in any order and most reward you with items and power-ups that make your life easier I have to admit I was initially skeptical of hollow Knight mostly because I was worried it might be a bit of a generic experience but this is definitely on my list of games that live up to the hype there's also an insane amount of content most of which was released as free DLC making Hollow Knight one of the best value games in history if you haven't played it what are you waiting for and if you have I can only assume that you too are eagerly awaiting the sequel silk song which at this point has to be the most highly anticipated indie game of all time the world of hollownest is one of the most memorable settings in any game and one I love coming back to number three stardew Valley there is no question this is my most played indie game stardew Valley is one man's blatant reimagining of the Harvest Moon franchise and proof that fans often understand the Secret Sauce better than the developers do I loved all the Harvest moons before a Wonderful Life what even was that game so I plugged right into stardew Valley but I also appreciate all the unique and original touches that stardu brings to the table like the community center and the island and the mines a fun crafting system and decent writing at its core stardew Valley is all about engine building you start the game with a dilapidated overgrown Farm crappy tools and basically no cash and exponentially scale your property into an industrial scale Empire of crops and fruit trees honey flowers cheese truffles caviar and wine you can also fish for Fun and Profit delve deeper into the local mines in search of rare gems and minerals forage for mushrooms and seashells chop down trees and construct new farm buildings or bond with the residents of nearby Pelican town the game tracks your your relationship with 30 or so townsfolk which can be increased through daily conversations and gifts and lead to fun events and cut scenes and possibly even marriage the game plan started was divided into 13-minute real-time days which are split into seasons of 28 days a piece that makes the game all about time management of course you can play leisurely as there are no consequences for taking your time but I like to be as efficient as possible especially during the first year which is the most fun part of the game and the day cycle keeps you perpetually wanting to play one more day the different seasons feature new crops and fish and seasonal festivals which give you fun Milestones to look forward to over time stardo has also added a lot of end game content to keep you focused on new goals and give you things to accomplish with your fully realized Farm you can conquer a desert mine cook dozens of recipes catch legendary fish complete the museum collection decorate your house and farm or beat arcade games like junamo cart there's also a tropical island to explore with pirates fossils a volcano and a hidden room with super hard end game challenges for me stardew strikes the perfect balance between providing goals and giving the play player the freedom to do what they want and play at their own pace other games may have more compelling stories more beautiful artwork or be more unique experiences but the gameplay of stardew Valley absolutely grabs you and doesn't let go and you can play with friends which turns an already addicting game into an unparalleled Co-op experience it's one of the best loved indie games for a reason and definitely the game I've spent the most time with number two FTL faster than light for a very long time this was my favorite indie game FTL is a real-time tactical roguelike that puts you in command of a spacecraft and tasks you to battle sneak and race your way across eight sectors of the Galaxy in time to save the Federation base from the approaching Rebel Fleet along the way you'll encounter nebulas asteroid Fields pulsars Rogue Merchants seven distinct alien races and occasionally some very mean-spirited random events as you explore sectors you'll collect and use scrap to upgrade your ship and you'd better pray to the space Gods it's strong enough to fend off the rebel Flagship by the end of the run because this game is hard the ship to ship combat in FTL is Real Time with pause which leads to unrelenting chaos and tight crisis management as you attempt to choreograph your own offense and take out enemy Shields or weapon systems you'll have to contend with hacked or damaged systems of your own onboard Intruders fires Hall breaches or environmental hazards like solar flares or asteroid Fields every time you send a crew member to fight fires or Intruders patch holes in the ship heal in the med Bay or repair critical systems like Shields or oxygen that means they aren't at their designated post firing weapons or piloting the ship despite not being an especially complex game there are a ton of ways to play FTL that all feel really different for starters the game includes 28 different ship layouts some with unique starting challenges like possessing no damaging weapons no Shield system or only a single crew member of course during a run you can customize your ship further by buying or finding new weapons crew and upgrades but this too involves tough choices your ship's reactor has a limited amount of power that has to be shared between all systems so running a really good weapon might mean shutting off the med Bay or diverting power from Shields every ship provides a unique experience and there are many ways to approach combat you can bombard enemies with burst lasers missiles and surgical beam attacks or you can geek out with a technical Loadout and crash enemy systems with hacking mind control ion pulses and drone strikes you can hire a Motley Crew of deadly mantis soldiers or Burly Rock men and use a teleporter to beam onto enemy ships and Slaughter the crew in hand-to-hand combat or you might play up pacifist run and do your best to avoid combat altogether but most importantly FTL understands the element that makes roguelikes feel magical and that is making every run tell a story whether your ship was blown apart by enemy fire your entire crew suffocated to death or you defeat the rebel Flagship once and for all you'll have a story to remember every time it Harkens back to the treacherous survival Adventures of Old School Oregon Trail but with tremendously clever and satisfying gameplay and it doesn't hurt that FTL also has one of my favorite soundtracks for me at least FTL is about as close as it gets to being a perfect game [Music] but not too long ago FTL was surpassed as my favorite Indie Title by another space game although that's about all these two games have in common if you've watched other videos on this channel you won't be surprised that my favorite indie game of all time is outer Wilds outer Wilds has not only my favorite story but also my favorite mode of discovering that story in it you pilot a spaceship around a miniature solar system investigating the ruins of an ancient alien civilization in the shadows of a Dying star all while trapped in a 22 minute time loop it's basically an open world archaeological mystery that perfectly combines physics and puzzles with a masterful story and I think that's the secret sauce most games I love for their story or for their gameplay but not both but in outer Wilds I feel myself equally drawn to the puzzles and the platforming and tricky piloting Maneuvers as I do to new discoveries about the backstory in lore the solar system is filled with creative planets and bizarre Concepts to wrap your mind around like a watery planet with floating islands tossed around by whirling Cyclones an icy Planet collapsing into its own core and a Wandering Quantum Moon that flickers in and out of existence whenever it isn't being observed the only upgrade in outer Wilds is knowledge and the world is governed by some simple but extremely clever rules which means puzzles never feel unfair and New pieces of information will have you excitedly racing back to previously enigmatic spots to try out a new Theory the story has essentially two protagonists on the one hand your character a fledgling astronaut whose first day on the job turns into the longest day in history but also the long gone alien race whose research and exploration and technological advancements made everything that ultimately happens in the game possible the parallel journeys of the modern day harthian and the ancient nomai combined to tell a moving story with all kinds of twists and turns and make outer Wilds one of the most unique and frankly inspirational video games I've ever played it's about Legacy and ambition hopes and fears and big things like what it means to be a resident of the universe the end of the game is emotional and unexpected and there's also an absolutely killer DLC called Echoes of the eye which lets you explore an even older alien race that adds new context to the story and the ending I will truly never forget this game and it would take something insanely special to displace outer Wilds as my favorite indie game of all time thanks so much for watching that was a crazy amount of games to talk about but I had fun highlighting so many great titles of course this is all my opinion so I would love to hear about your favorite Indie Games I try to play games that get recommended to me especially by multiple people whenever I get the chance so let me know in the comments what games I should check out how many games in this video have you played and which of the games that you haven't seem intriguing are there some games on this list that you just couldn't get into drop a comment below I'm trying to work on some shorter videos for the channel so I don't get sucked into another massive project but if you enjoyed this one you know do the things and help this channel grow I really appreciate everyone watching and liking and commenting on these videos and I will have another one out before too long check back soon and I'll see you in the next one foreign

Channel: Embankment

Views: 495,969

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Id: Gel59Iy3YhQ

Length: 80min 0sec (4800 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 19 2022