favorite recent indie games?

silk186

silk186

[H]ard|Gawd
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I've been enjoying some indie games on my breaks from thesis writing:
  • Terraria was pretty cool
  • The Blinding of Isaac was kind of cool but hard
  • Jamestown was a let down - no ship upgrades ala raptor and crashes constently
  • Magicka is pretty cool and creative
  • Orcs Must die was a neat plants VS zombies kind of game in 3d

I've also downloaded Limbo and Bastion but haven't tried them yet.

Any other recommendations
 
Other recommendations, no... but Bastion was damn fun. Even if I didn't finish it before Skyrim hit. ;)
 
Jamestown - Kind of a sleeper for me. Shmups are the last type of game I thought I would enjoy, but this one drew me in for some reason, maybe because it plays perfectly well with a mouse and doesn't require a controller, and the music is surprisingly good. Not sure what technical issues you're having it, but on my laptop, I had to update Forceware drivers, otherwise my framerates were in the single digits in the options menu. Runs flawlessly on my desktop though.

Terraria - Most hours of gameplay I've gotten out of an indie game this year, and I didn't even like Minecraft.

Orcs Must Die! - The only tower defense game I've ever really liked, probably because it's more of a hybrid game combining TD with high intensity FPS.

Bastion - Really well written and polished game, with some really moving scenes, especially the one towards the end, where the background music really sets the mood.

Hard Reset - Once you start unlocking some of the more OP weapons, it starts to become more and more fun. It doesn't actually use UE3, but it sure feels like it does, right down to the overall feel, the weapons design, environment, and sound. There aren't too many indie FPSs, and this one feels more like a very polished singleplayer Unreal mod than a full blown game (the voice acting and storyline are both atrocious), but still enjoyable gameplay.
 
Avadon: The Black Fortress was pretty good, even if it was a bit streamlined and more linear than his past works.
 
This year for me..

1) Terraria, we just had 4 people addicted to days playing together
2) Dungeon Defenders, before they went nuts with making your items obsolete every few days
3) Orcs Must Die, just really satisfying traps, you can play levels completely different than others have

I've still got to play Bastion, but I got gifted Skyrim for xmas, so it'll wait. I definitely have got a lot of enjoyment out of indie titles the past few years.
 
Terraria
Minecraft
Bastion

It's been a great year for indie games, I think. While the big game makers are just pretty much rehashing their franchises over and over again, I am constantly amazed at the creativity coming from a lot of these indie developers.
 
Orcs Must Die!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Amazingly addicting, it's been my go to game when I've grown tired of BF3 for now. So easy to pick up and get into and drop off whenever I feel like.
 
Bastions pretty good. Not done yet, stuck at what I presume to be the last level or the next to last level.
Terraria is pretty awesome. I just this moment reinstalled after reading some of the updates.
Limbo was pretty damn cool. The puzzles were easy enough for the most part, but shamefully I had to google, I think just 2 of them. The very last one being one that just tricked me... I installed this game and didnt get up until I was finished. Granted it was just a few hours, but it was great
 
Terraria was super fun playing with friends, messing around and exploring hell.

Limbo was one of the most amazing games I've ever played, there really was no story but found the ending extremely touching. I absolutely loved the art style and puzzles too, some of them were very challenging!

Bastion has one of my favorite video game soundtracks and the gameplay is extremely addicting, still working on finishing it.

E.Y.E: Divine Cybermancy is quite fun too, haven't tried the multiplayer yet but the single player is very satisfying.
 
The Great:
Bastion

The Good:
Bit.Trip Runner
Cogs
Space Pirates and Zombies

The Bad:
And Yet It Moves
Jamestown
 
Renegade Ops is a lot of fun.
LIMBO - great, but extremely short
Fractal - really cool, I like it a lot better than Osmos, which pisses me off, because I suck at it, lol
Capsized is pretty decent, too.
 
Osmos looks cool so I will give Fractal a try as well as Space Pirates and Zombies

Cortex Command looks promising but it won't run in full screen, they text is too small and the controls need work.
 
silk186 said:
Osmos looks cool so I will give Fractal a try as well as Space Pirates and Zombies

Cortex Command looks promising but it won't run in full screen, they text is too small and the controls need work.
Click to expand...
Keep in mind, Fractal is nothing alike Osmos. It's an abstract puzzle game.
 
Found a bit of a sleeper: Anomaly: Warzone Earth.

Tower defense (in this case reverse tower defense) games tend to be very hit-and-miss with me, and the indie genre is kind of saturated with TD games. I think this one, like Orcs Must Die!, appealed to me because it's very hands-on and fast-paced. No plopping down defenses and sitting back and watching. There's also something vaguely reminiscent of Company of Heroes style vehicle commanding -- picking the right mix of vehicles of different capabilities and being able to upgrade individual vehicles.
 
AmberClad said:
Found a bit of a sleeper: Anomaly: Warzone Earth.

Tower defense (in this case reverse tower defense) games tend to be very hit-and-miss with me, and the indie genre is kind of saturated with TD games. I think this one, like Orcs Must Die!, appealed to me because it's very hands-on and fast-paced. No plopping down defenses and sitting back and watching. There's also something vaguely reminiscent of Company of Heroes style vehicle commanding -- picking the right mix of vehicles of different capabilities and being able to upgrade individual vehicles.
Click to expand...

As far as I can tell its the opposite of tower defense. You're playing the creeps trying to get through this time. I like it so far.

Im happy to have this, sanctum, orcs must die and the new Defense grid DLC to keep me busy tower defense wise for a while.
 
limbo was my fav, Bastion is great as well, but Limbo I just got engrossed in, played it from start to finish the day I bought it.

Atmosphere and things just top notch, it is a short game, but well worth it imo, hope they make another one.
 
Bastion, verrrrry good. Must play! I was really impressed and Im not often
 
I've been playing limbo and find it to be awesome.. the puzzles are well done and the mood of the game is perfect.. i'm actually stuck at one part that i can not figure out..will have to keep working on it for a while
 
Terraria and Dungeons of Dredmor kept me buys for a good 2 weeks each, great way to spend $10 and $5.

I tried the Bastion demo, graphically and audio wise it seemed good, but I just couldn't get into it.
 
Capsized is pretty awesome. That goes to the top of my list. Definitely worth checking out the demo at least.

I liked Dungeons of Dredmor. Especially with the "No Time To Grind" option.

I also had some trouble getting into Bastion. I found the combat pretty difficult with a controller- not challenging, just cumbersome with regards to selecting a target etc - but maybe it would work better with the mouse and keyboard combo.

I'm interested in giving Terraria another chance as they seem to be doing interesting things with it in the new updates, but I just couldn't really get into it before.

I also have a whole pile of games I've bought on Steam sales or the various bundles that I haven't even tried yet. I just like supporting indie devs, and of course having tons of new and interesting games to play whenever I get bored.

EDIT: Also, Frozen Synapse was boss.
 
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Limbo
Capsized
Bastion
Orcs must die
Dungeon defenders
Wasteland angel

Dunno if it qualitifes as indie but:
Gatling gears
Renegade Ops
Outland
 
Skyrim has been the only indie game I've played much of this year. Pretty fun so far, but I haven't played it in a couple of weeks now.
 
silk186 said:
Cortex Command looks promising but it won't run in full screen, they text is too small and the controls need work.
Click to expand...

I paid for Cortex Command way back when it was a fairly early beta. It used to be a ton of fun...it's still cool, but something they did in the latest build totally fucked up mouse control for me. It's jittery and half the time it doesn't move at all. I tried all the workarounds people mentioned on the forums but no go. So basically, I can't even play the game anymore. :(
 
I just started Bastion, but I can tell it is a good one. The narration has a crazy effect on the gameplay experience.
 
Good:
Orcs Must Die
Jamestown (never crashes for me)
Bit.Trip Runner
Terraria
Super Meat Boy (haaaaaard)

Bad:
And Yet it Moves
 
hoppjah said:
Bad:
And Yet it Moves
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I thought the game had potential, and a unique art style, but required too much perfection for a puzzle game.

The hard parts were usually not figuring how to proceed, but pulling off the maneuvers required. Especially with the spring-boards, you wouldn't believe how many times I had to restart those parts from checkpoint because I couldn't get just the right amount of momentum to reach the next section without cratering.

I don't know, it might appeal more to fans of games like VVVVVV (which I hated).
 
It's a great disservice to not mention AI Wars and Star Ruler. I have lost sooo much of my life to those games...
 
AmberClad said:
The hard parts were usually not figuring how to proceed, but pulling off the maneuvers required. Especially with the spring-boards, you wouldn't believe how many times I had to restart those parts from checkpoint because I couldn't get just the right amount of momentum to reach the next section without cratering.
Click to expand...

The spring boards is what killed it for me. Good idea, HORRIBLE implementation. Momentum gain was terrible on these things, not to mention timing the jump was kinda sketchy.
 
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