3 little known games that you love and would like to be better known by sharing

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I think we just started a "top 10 favorite games" list for the third time, in which we share all the classic and famous titles that all of us probably already heard of.
I thought I'd try something a little more interesting and create a thread where we share our love for hidden gems instead: Games that you love, but are fairly certain the grand majority of us never even heard of.

"Little known" is a vague term of course, but let's say they're the games you're sure that if you grabbed 10 of us Cyberpunk forum users, only one/two of us would've heard it mentioned before. Either because it has drifted into distant memory by too much, or it's a title in the past 5 or so years that the gaming press neglected. They don't have to be cult-classics that are just waiting to be played. They just have to be quirky enough that you love them enough to share.

Do tell us about them!


I'll start this thread off:

Sang-Froid : A Tale of Wherewolves



Isometric Hack n' Slash, meets Witcher, meets Base Building, meets Tower Defense.

You're a Canadian lumberjack taking care of a comatose relative, who's being chased by the Devil. Attempting to capture her, the devil sets an army of mythological beasties from Canadian-Inuit folklore after your log cabin and the little forest community you lead - including the titular wherewolves, wendigos, will'o'whisps and yetis.
In the morning, you head into town to buy weapons, axes, holy ointments, silver bullets, lures and materials. In the afternoon, you have a top-down view of the map, know exactly where the enemy will come from and how many, and you'll have the opportunity to set traps. At night, you run around the forest with an over-the-shoulder perspective of your character, armed with nothing but a trusty axe and rusty rifle. Some traps deal with enemies automatically, but some you'll have to trigger yourself and there's always a midnight showdown with the remaining enemies.
It's incredibly satisfying to face of with a wherewolf, knowing you can't be everywhere at the same time, only to hear the click of traps and howls in the distant North, knowing your plan works and your earlier efforts are slowing down the horde at key chokepoints.

The game is completely free right now: https://store.steampowered.com/app/227220/SangFroid__Tales_of_Werewolves/

The music kicks ass too:

The artwork is ugly as sin at places and the controls/movements can be clunky.



The Sexy Brutale




A simple, but endearing puzzle-detective / psychological-thriller game in the vein of classic adventure games. You're a priest stuck in a casino with a dozen other masked guests, attending a party. One by one the guests are being killed and you have weird time-loop powers that see you reliving the entire evening after all of them are snuffed. You get to figure out how the guests are killed, why and who dunnit, while hopefully using your timeloop abilities to prevent the murders and earn the abilities to navigate the metroid-vania-esque estate towards the exit.

The puzzles - honestly - aren't all that hard, but the game has a couple of storytwists that suddenly veer into the psychological, spiritual, macabre, to make for an altogether memorable adventure.

Also, the music rules in this one as well:
The Mansion and Artwork is also stylish as fuck.



Startopia

https://store.steampowered.com/app/243040/Startopia




A space-station management game in the vein of Dungeon Keeper, from the year 2000. You own a donut-shaped space station that acts as a waypoint for the intergalactic community and the 12 or so species of aliens that constitute that community. You need to take care of their needs such as fun, bladder, sleep, love, spiritual redemption and health, by filling your station with entertainment, lavatories, hotels, brothels, temples and sickbays. All of them have their own expectations and needs, like the ant-like Grouliens who are fine sleeping in a coffin and don't care about rubbish, to discerning gem-slugs who want the penthouses atop 5-star hotels and the place to be spotless. All these species can be hired to man your stations, such as the "grays" being expert medics and the "sirens" working the love dens. Your space station has 3 different decks, with one being for industry, trade and production, the second being a tourist trap, and the third a garden you can shape and plant yourself.

Probably the best thing about this title, is that it's made by Brits and has the same atmosphere and bawdy humor as the original Dungeon Keeper titles.

The game is complex enough to entertain management fanatics, but it's showing its age in the occasional bug, crash and imbalanced sandbox.

They're apparently working on a spiritual successor in the shape of "Starbase Startopia", but so far it's lacking all of the spirit and heart of the original: https://store.steampowered.com/app/840390/Spacebase_Startopia/
 
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I think I've heard of it. The hero's named Gerhart, isn't he?

I think that was it.

On a serious note, I'm not sure how well known these games are but some you can check out

Va11 hall-a - basically a cyberpunk visual novel.



Iris fall - puzzle game that I need to actually start playing again. I love the visuals and the puzzle aspect is a good difficultly level (quick edit - if you do pick up this game you 100 percent need a controller)


Smoke and sacrifice - game I got on sale and have put a couple hours into, seems good so far.


And also I never finished it but "Valley" - a fun to play walking simulator. Bassicly you have kangaroo legs and get told a story about the mysterious world you traverse through

All of these will be pretty hit and miss. Depending on your taste, but I enjoy them.
 
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Star Trek Online

I'll give a shout out to a free to play MMORPG. A great all around game for all you trekkies out there, though not the perfect homage to the beloved franchise people wished it would be. They went on console (PS4 and Xbox One) a few years ago which saw the quality of the graphics and gameplay increase, revamp previously released content, as well as allowed them to bring in actors from the shows. With new Star Trek shows being produced, they've got more content to work with (or in some cases work around their soft cannon), so that answers the question of if it's still worth playing. Definitely something I play once every couple of months to check out new content.



Need to Know

Interesting little thriller game here. You are a government agent, spying on civilians in an effort to stop crime and terrorism. But what happens when you start learning more than you should, climbing the ranks and being granted more and more leeway? Dun dun Dunnnnnnnn. A smaller game released a few years ago, but definitely worth checking out if you need something simpler to play while you wait for this massive Cyberpunk game.


Bomber Crew

A strategy flight simulation game, you assemble a crew and fly through missions during World War II. You have the tricky task of keeping your plane in the air while fighting enemies and completing objectives. Just make sure you remember to put out your landing gear when you return to base! If World War II isn't your thing, the game has a DLC which sets the game in modern times, as well as the developers just releasing Space Crew, which as the title suggests sets the game in space.

 
This one is fun. All games are available on GOG.

1. Stellar Tactics
I'll start with a plug for this one-man indie game in early release right now. It's already good, and has the potential to be great. Plus, the developer is professional, has a well structured plan, and is sticking to it.

2. Freedom Force
Take the "campy" super hero cartoons of the 1970's, turn them into a video game with lots of good humor, and you get Freedom Force. FF vs. the 3rd Reich is also good, but I prefer the original.

3. Mount & Blade, Warband
Mount & Blade Bannerlord is currently in early access after nearly a decade in some sort of development. But I think it still has a way to go before it matches its predecessor, Warband. If you've never had the opportunity to play M&B Warband, it's something of a hybrid between a tactically simplified Total War game, plus a light RPG. It's a Total War battle, where your character is actually one of the participants on the battle field. Pretty cool.
 
The Neverhood:

Loom

Warlords


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I think I've heard of it. The hero's named Gerhart, isn't he?

Or was it Gerald according to Vespula? Could be also Gervant.
 
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I found Atom RPG to be really fun and Atom RPG Trudograd is shaping up nicely although it's still in early access. One fun thing is that you can import your character from the first game into the second.

On the older front I used to really enjoy playing Messiah. It's not without it's share of bugs and still has trouble running on current machines but it's just so weird and unique.

On the really, really old front (back in my apple IIe days) I loved a game called
Knights of Legend. Had six disks and my memories of it are mainly sitting there swapping disks in and out for hours and hours. Doubt I'd have the patience to do that any more.
 
The Long Dark

It's a great game if you like more 'realistic' take on survival. Stuck in the hands of elements in the cold unforgiving nature in Canada
Interesting visual style and cool gameplay mechanics, its basically forever-alone simulator.
You'll have to maintain your health, make water, find food, shelter from the cold, craft, hunt and survive.
You will die, but when is the question.
Active development team that listens to its community, many hours of great fun and some if not the best single player survival games out there in my opinion.

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Frostpunk

Grow and expand your community, survive the harsh winters, make child labour legal, amputate and provide prosthetics. Become a fanatic leader or a tyrant that keeps everyone in check with 'law' unlike the title above this is more or less a city manager where you have to do what it takes to survive the endless winter. 10/10 would let colonists freeze to death in their tents at -70 c°

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Orwell: Knowledge is Power

Take on the mantle of a government agency that is tasked with uncovering the truth. Scour the media and web for information, tap into calls, read emails and uncover the truth. Not everyone are not as they seem, cross reference, Its maybe not the most replayable game but it's good fun for the first few times. Not advised if you are a paranoid person that is scared of censorship and government spying cause that game depicts that almost too well.
 
Not sure how little-known these are but they're definitely not ones everyone knows about. And, of course, they're all great.
In no particular order:

Ty the Tasmanian Tiger (also has three sequels)
If you like Spyro or Crash or Mario then you'll most likely like this one. An entirely Aussie game, from the setting to the characters and the voice acting, it's a really fun, and hilarious at times, platformer with lots of collectables hidden in the game worlds. The Steam version, which I have, is a remaster of a much older game.

Headliner: NoviNews
This is a sequel, but I've not played the first game.
You play as a headliner, choosing the articles that get published every day and influencing the people's opinions of various topics. Multiple paths you can follow, choices at every turn, multiple endings. Super fun to play and see how events unfold.

Trine Enchanted Edition (this one is on GOG as well as Steam)
A puzzle platformer with beautiful, fantasy visuals. You control the classic trio (mage, warrior, thief) while traversing through numerous worlds filled with puzzles, enemies, and traps, in an attempt to complete your quest. Each of the three characters has their unique set of abilities, all of which will be needed; sometimes losing one character forces you to return to a checkpoint.
(This game gets extra points from me because the developer is Finnish.)
 

Sild

Ex-moderator
Sure, i'll play:

Kenshi: I've heard it described as Mount and Blade meets Rimworld and it's pretty accurate. It's a free-roaming squad based RPG focusing on open-ended sandbox gameplay features rather than a linear story.

Distant Worlds: Universe: Probably, most likely, the best space 4x game i've played to date. The best part is that while it's very complex, you can automate pretty much everything and just focus on managing a fleet and RP'ing as an admiral all while "your" empire runs itself. It's also real time, which is a big plus.

Punch Club: An awesome 80's and 90's pop culture tribute disguised as a fight sim and tycoon. Loved it.
 
Sure, i'll play:

Kenshi: I've heard it described as Mount and Blade meets Rimworld and it's pretty accurate. It's a free-roaming squad based RPG focusing on open-ended sandbox gameplay features rather than a linear story.

Thanks for this. I saw this game in the past and forgot its name.
 
Summoner:
Old PS2 title from T-H-Q! Thoroughly enjoyable party-based RPG with a surprisingly rich story (though most of the characters all look like they've barely survived a famine.

Gothic 1/2:
German made open-world RPG that was pretty difficult combat wise. Played this before I'd even heard of the ES series.

Warlock: Masters of the Arcane
Civ V with ludicrous magic system. There's no cap on the number of enchantments that can be placed on a single unit, so late game you can have legions of flying invisible regenerating true-sighted one-punch armoured-against-anything soldiers tearing through any adversary. Couple that multi-dimensional teleports and you can be unstoppable inter-dimensional invaders.
 

Guest 4406876

Guest
I'd go with :
The Hunter: Call of the Wild

Little Nightmares :

7.62 Hard Life:
It's in russian but the steam version has english as well.

And if you still have a Wiiu or the new switch idk if it runs I had a lot of fun playing this:
 
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