Gaming

I can't put down RimWorld once I start a colony.

I'm not sure Siralim Ultimate qualifies as "underrated", but it's the kind of game where if the idea resonates with you it'll keep you happily busy forever. It's often compared to a Pokemon game, but I think it's better described as Pokemon meets a dungeon blobber.

At its core, you build a group of six creatures and go into a procedural dungeon where you will fight other groups of similar creatures, picking options like fighting and casting spells. The creatures each have special traits which change game rules for them, and your job is to take advantage of this so that you win these fights. Your character also has perks which act as additional modifiers, and fusing creatures and slapping artifacts on them means you can apply even more changes to how everything works.

The interesting part emerges from the fact that these traits are generally not modifiers like +3.5% damage on Tuesdays; they are instead drastic and game-warping options like "If this creature successfully attacks, there's a 50% chance that a dead creature on its team is resurrected." That by itself is kind of hugely impactful.. and it's also kind of basic and boring for Siralim. Now let's fuse it with a monster that immediately gets a free attack if the enemy attacks any other monster on your team, now we're starting to cook.

Your actual goal isn't to play fair, it is to fold, spindle, and mutilate the game's mechanics to allow your team to win in increasingly unfair and ridiculous fights. It's also pretty good at letting you control your level of challenge, incidentally, but you are at some point going to have to win against enemies with their own completely bonkers tricks. If you enjoy figuring out how to warp complicated rules to your benefit and stack absurdity atop absurdity, this game is calling for you. It's absolutely got indie jank, by the way - the graphics aren't amazing, the game sometimes grinds along very slowly processing all the silliness, and while it has lots of reference material ingame there's still just way too much information to take in.

I'm new here, so sorry if I make a faux pas or something...

I really like Reshaping Mars. There is a legacy version of it I haven't played, but the new version I really like. I enjoy games where you can move slow and not be pressured time-wise. I also enjoy the fact that it will take a long time to terraform Mars, as it should. I'm sure I could double down on making things quickly, but I really like that I can take my time. I haven't finished it, so maybe I'll find out I shouldn't have been, who knows.

I prefer it over Surviving Mars. It's sad it's not getting much recognition.

If you liked playing with toy soldiers as a kid, I'd highly recommend checking out Foxhole.

Gonna have to be Pokemon Eternity https://discord.gg/TZWNXrxK

You should check out Inscryption. Deck-builder with amazing story.

The screenshot reminds me of Donut County so check that out if you haven't already

If you're looking for underrated indies, I'd recommend Ctrl Alt Ego, a fantastic attempt at an indie immersive sim in the style of Deus Ex or System Shock, and Worlds, a unique stealth-action-exploration game that feels like something from the early 2000s, though it does require putting up with some ambitious indie jank. I'm not sure which games I would call my favourites, but those are definitely up there.

If you haven't experienced the sadistic, rage inducing masterpiece known as Jump King I highly recommend it

I really love Monster Sanctuary by Moi Rai Games. So much so that I played it to 100% on Xbox, Steam, Switch, and the Game pass version on Windows, which for whatever reason is different than the Xbox versions.

It's a metroidvania game with Pokemon-style creature collecting and turn based three-on-three battles (or six-on-six with three at a time plus swapping when a monster faints). It's insane how viable every monster can be with the right build.

Several newgame+ modes to enable too!

Nothing crazy, but Spelunky 2 kept me entertained for a few solid hours (+40 hours). Simple permadeath platformer with tight controls. Also has coop and multiplayer, altho I recommend not touching multiplayer until you finished the game.

Always looking for teammates

Pathologic. It's not even close, honestly. If you're the sort of person who reads the novels you were assigned in English class and actually goes "fuck yeah this is awesome and I wanna write an essay about it now", Pathologic is that in video game form.

I want to promote Monochrome Heights. It's a deceptively simple, kaizo platformer based on color.

https://pdyx.itch.io/black-and-white-game-jam-2022

Oh I'm a huge fan of NGU Idle. It is an obscenely deep idle game, that is fairly unknown outside of idle game fans. Its written with a very self-referencial sense of humor, and I have over 100 hours in it.

• Ship of Fools - if you have a player 2, this game is so much fun and chaos. However, it suffers from a desperate need for optimisation and bug fixing. I have it on Steam, and all I can see when I launch the game is a black screen. I have to join my partner's game to play.

My laptop's about 4 years old and it's not that much of a slouch, so to see so many issues for it is a bit annoying. However, it's a very fun game, and they're coming out with new content, so it's still worth a buy on sale.

• Death's Door - You play as a cute crow that kills things. Bosses are pretty fun. Music is enjoyable. On the switch loading is a bit slow after deaths, but it's a very pretty isometric boss killing game that's not hard for the sake of being hard.

• Oxygen Not Included - If you like building things and keeping people alive, this game is really so much fun. If you enjoy a stylised cartoon aesthetic, a steep learning curve and your duplicants accidentally vomitting in your water source, give this a go.

I’ve really enjoyed Slay the Princess. Repeat the same three scenes ad infinitum to get all possible outcomes

Since so many people have already mentioned Stardew Valley, I'll go for some lesser-known ones:

• Zero Ranger (this links to the demo): no joke, probably one of the best shoot 'em ups (or shmups) I've ever played. Sure, there are more challenging ones like DoDonPachi but in terms of visuals, sound, and even story I don't think there's anything that tops it. It's also really weird at times but it's so, so engrossing.
• Death Trash (also has a demo inside): a 2D action RPG set in a post-apocalyptic world full of eldritch horrors. It starts like Fallout but it gets weird fast. The visuals and the overall sound are purposefully harsh and unsettling, the difficulty is...not easy. But if you like something a bit different from the norm, it's, again, pretty engrossing and think you'll love it.

Maybe not underrated, but Darkwood blew my mind.