Indie Radar

[Luca72]

A few Humble Indie Bundles ago, I got lucky and knocked out half of the high-profile indie games on my list with one purchase - Braid, Bastion, Super Meat Boy, Amnesia. and Limbo. Just yesterday I picked up the straggler that I'd forgotten about - Lone Survivor.

At the time I bought it, I saw it as a quaint little pixelated homage to Silent Hill. Nothing amazing, but nothing bad. I played it for about five minutes, lost interest, and decided there was nothing to see there.

I was wrong. I was so wrong. I had no way of anticipating the subtle, twisting emotional gut-punch that game was about to throw at me. I won't spoil anything about it if you haven't played it, but I definitely recommend it if you like both video games and human feelings.

So what indie games have you savvy cats played lately? They can range from well-known kickstarts to cool little flash games you stumbled upon. Which ones left a mark? And which ones are you looking forward to?

captcha: flat out

More like superflat out am i right

 

[Tom_green_day]

Been playing some Binding of Isaac recently. It's pretty freaky at points but fun to play maybe a runthrough or two a day.

 

[Tom Waits' hat]

Looking forward to this indie game. Papers, Please http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=29750

 

[Full]

I've been playing through Lone Survivor again and it's one of those games where weird things make more sense the second time around.

 

[Da Orky Man]

To The Moon. Its an RPG Maker game that was on a Steam sale back in late December. Not sure what attracted me to it, but on a whim, I bought it, and then spent from roughly 9:00pm to 1:30am in early January playing though hit. I discovered one of the best-told stories in all gaming, one that nearly brought me to tears. One of the best purchases I ever made.

 

[Tallim]

Currently Playing:

The Cat Lady - Not too far into it but it's rather fascinating and I haven't been grabbed by an adventure game quite like it.

Ai War - although I'm almost always playing AI War as it is awesome.

Don't Starve

EDIT: Oh I forgot Solium Infernum, wow is it an amazing turn based strategy game. Shame it has such a shoddy interface but once you get past that it's a work of genius, especially when played multiplayer.

 

[piinyouri]

Torchlight II (That's considered independent right?)
I still play Terraria and Minecraft
Orcs Must Die 2 (Not sure if it's independent)
Binding of Isaac
Legend of Grimrock
Amnesia

 

[KoudelkaMorgan]

I picked up VVVVVV on my 3DS the other day and have been obsessed with it ever since. The main game was pretty tame compared to some of the extra levels. One room in "Vertiginous Viridion" called "All Alike" doesn't seem like its actually possible as there is not enough clearance under the middle 2 bouncing blocks on the bottom path to actually race under them.

Out of the ENTIRE game, with all trinkets, and the other Player Levels, that one room is the only one that I cried BULLSHIT at.

The only other indie game I want is Shovel Knight.

 

[Bertylicious]

I played Wanderlust: Rebirth the other night. It was terrible.

EDIT: I'd be very interested to learn more about Don't Starve. What's it like?

 

[josemlopes]

Binding of Isaac: got it on sale and its preety cool, I wasnt expecting much but the randomness really helps replayability, and the way progress is made is neat too.

I also just got the Blendo games humble bundle and while Atom Zombie Smasher is really good I am also looking forward to try out Flotilla. Thirty Flights of Loving wasnt as good as Gravity Bone but its still a nice experience to go through.


Bought The Polynomial on sale too but since I dont do drugs its a rather thin experience. It looked cool from some gameplay videos but it lacks that "game" portion that other musical games like Audiosurf and Beat Hazard offer.


Another good mention is EYE: Divine Cybermancy, only managed to get to the third mission but fuck, that game is mix of cyberpunk and STALKER as in the weird cyberpunk and the "You are on your own" feel that STALKER has. Its a good game but you really need to take time with it.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

I've been pretty solidly addicted to FTL since I got it. Be warned, though, it's a roguelike, in the full "losing is fun" tradition. And it is, it so totally is. In fact, you tend to get better stories to tell when the game screws you over until you die in some horrible last stand (so. much. asphyxiation.) than you do when it's actually going well. FTL gets boring when things are going well.

 

[Luca72]

I picked up VVVVVV on my 3DS the other day and have been obsessed with it ever since. The main game was pretty tame compared to some of the extra levels. One room in "Vertiginous Viridion" called "All Alike" doesn't seem like its actually possible as there is not enough clearance under the middle 2 bouncing blocks on the bottom path to actually race under them.

V... for 3DS... that's a thing? Oh my goodness. Are the extra levels available on PC, or are they exclusive to the 3DS?

Another good mention is EYE: Divine Cybermancy, only managed to get to the third mission but fuck, that game is mix of cyberpunk and STALKER as in the weird cyberpunk and the "You are on your own" feel that STALKER has. Its a good game but you really need to take time with it.

I checked out some EYE gameplay after this post, and it's pretty intruiguing! The RPG options look really old school and in-depth. Definitely gonna have to check that out!

 

[Maximum Bert]

Dont usually play Indie games as I either find them to resolutely old school full of the same shit I used to hate or to artsy and boring.

Liked and still like Skullgirls and Journey although whether they are indie or not is questionable. I enjoyed Katawa Shoujo and loved them for releasing it for free not mnay people work hard at something just to entertain people most want some form of compensation especially when it takes a reasonable length of time (I know a lot of indies do actually release things for free btw).

The trouble with Indie games is that there is so much chaff out there that it can be hard to find the good ones I would like trying To the Moon and Amnesia (is Amnesia indie) but I think the latter is only on steam and I am not going on that service again.

 

[thesilentman]

Cave Story. Muthafucking Cave Story. Probably now my favorite platformer of all time. If only I could get past the Sacred Grounds. It's also one of the games I felt guilt at getting the worst ending. I'm not sure if any other game has gotten me feeling this way recently. Maybe I forgot what it was like, feeling emotions from a video game. That and Journey sent me on a guilt trip after certain parts of the game.

*Back to more Cave Story.*