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| Thanks. Have an addendum! by Mischief Maker 07/15/2015, 9:08pm PDT | ||||
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| Did you want all my reviews linked in one convenient place?
Anyhoo, shortly after I posted that list, gog had a sale and I tried several great games that totally belong on that list and I feel guilty that they're not included, assuming that list generated any traffic at all beyond the reddit mention. Here are some of the highlights: Invisible Inc. Do you remember that Shadowrun game Decker I was raving about years ago? (God bless archive.org!) Klei went and made a sexier version of it! The premise is that your crack team of super spies is attacked by cyberpunk corporations and have 72 hours to break into enemy HQ and plug in Cortana before her power runs out and she dies. In the meantime you need to do randomly generated runs to pick up money equipment and captured agents in preparation for the big job ala. FTL. Actually running the missions involves spending your dudes' action points in an isometric grid environment, and every six rounds the security level increases, turning on new cameras and teleporting in more and better equipped guard patrols, so you're constantly forced into nail-biting situations between spending all your AP to clear the mission as soon as possible, or wasting some AP to stay hidden in a safe spot until an offending guard walks past. The ace up your sleeve is your aforementioned AI sidekick who can hack systems your dudes have detected in return for "power" points you collect from various terminals scattered about. What I really love about the game is after the level is randomly generated, the RNG takes a smoke break; all your actions are guaranteed to succeed. From a pure gameplay perspective this is a better Shadowrun game than Harebrained Schemes' collection of gunfights out in the open when you lack the correct etiquette skill. Door Kickers I am such a Philistine. My primitive monkey brain could never keep focused enough to pull off coordinated maneuvers in X-Com and its progeny and Laser Squad Nemesis and Frozen Synapse drove me to fits. It wasn't until Door Kicker's made-for-tablet path-dragging system that I could finally send out my SWAT team with competent coordinated strikes checking corners and covering sight lines like a boss. I don't normally go for games with a contemporary setting, but Door Kickers is great and accessable fun. Its one weakness is a serious case of unlockable cancer that has you filling up three entirely different bars to make the game fully functional. (An experience bar that unlocks class types and campaigns, stars that pay for better equipment, and whistles that teach your dudes how to shoot straight). Star Hammer : The Vanguard Prophecy A very good outerspace naval combat strategy game that inexplicably retains the name and setting of its turd of a prequel, despite playing almost completely differently. Ships move by choosing a final position on a movement arc whose size is determined by the amount of power going to their engines. 3D movement is blunt, yet more user-friendly than homeworld: there are 5 possible vertical planes to operate on. There's a hint of battleship in the proceedings because you're trying to guess where the enemy ship will move next round and have all your best guns in place to blast them. The game gives ridiculous levels of control over your shield arcs and individual turret aiming priorities. The game makes up for AI shortcomings by having your fleet horribly outnumbered by the comparatively fragile squid aliens every mission. The music is like an apology for the slow monotonous death march in the original game having multiple tracks that consist of nothing but finales; the title screen song literally trips over itself trying to sell how epic the game is going to be. The thing I like about a purely tactical game like SH:VG as opposed to games with tech and economics tacked on is that there are no ships that render another obsolete. The Destroyer is the only ship with a heavy beam cannon, the Battlecruiser is the only torpedo launcher, the Dreadnought the only ship with drones, and so on. On the downside, the controls can be strangely awkward at times and the portraits for your crew are godawful. Don't forget the patch! Ys Origin I'm not sure if this counts as an indie, it certainly has indie production values, but it's a shitload of fun. Basically it's SNES Zelda with sprites on isometric 3D that says fuck lighting torches and ups the combat speed to a ridiculous degree. The cutscenes are odious anime, but the demonic boss designs are inspired. I am told that "Oath in Felgadkfjnasfkj" is the better game, though, but this is the only one I can vouch for. Tales of Maj'Eyal Earlier iterations of this roguelike were called "Tales of Middle Earth," but when the author decided to create TOME 4, he didn't want to risk all his work being lost in a copyright claim so he and his community collectively created an original setting for this amazing game. Like I said before, this is simultaneously the game I always wanted "Nethack" to be and the game I wanted "Diablo" to be. This game makes radical changes to the roguelike structure, not only ditching food mechanics, but consumables entirely. Every item, spell, or summon in the game is available for infinite use, they just operate on a cooldown. Managing these cooldowns require constant repositioning in combat while waiting for your strongest attacks to reload. Against wizards and archers battles can feel like a John Woo movie with your dude diving behind pillars to reload his attacks before diving out in slow motion to counterattack. There are dozens of classes to use, each with multiple unique skill trees that allow for a variety of builds. The menagerie of enemies you'll be battling seems as extensive and as poorly drawn as in Dominions 4. The loot comes in a variety of color codes and tiers with enough suffixes to make any Diablo player cream. The graphics are amazing for a roguelike, but shitty by 2015 game standards, yet the interface is every bit as user friendly as Torchlight. The main serious ding to put on the game is its inadequate tutorial; I offer this video as a great beginner's guide. |
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The Top 50 Non-Art Indie Games by 07/15/2015, 6:16pm PDT  Thanks. Have an addendum! by 07/15/2015, 9:08pm PDT Seconded Ys and TOME by 07/16/2015, 7:13am PDT Speaking of you by 07/16/2015, 10:27am PDT Invisible Inc by 08/06/2015, 10:22pm PDT yeah this sucks by 08/07/2015, 12:00am PDT Haven't you been spending $ on upgrading your agents' stats? by 08/07/2015, 4:37am PDT Re: Haven't you been spending $ on upgrading your agents' stats? by 08/07/2015, 11:20am PDT You really should have given this more of a chance! by 10/29/2015, 8:18pm PDT I liked this game but... by 10/29/2015, 8:51pm PDT exactly by 10/29/2015, 9:13pm PDT Re: You really should have given this more of a chance! by 10/29/2015, 9:14pm PDT |
