Not-So-Popular Games

[Atusiff]

I've played a lot of games throughout my life, but I've grown bored of most of them. With the dawn of algorithms pretty much controlling us I thought that sharing the not-so-popular games we all play could let me explore more games. 

These can include video games or real-life games that you guys like playing and think sharing would be fun.

___

I'll start with a game I've been playing for a while. It's a video game called Super Mechs. It's a turn-taking game where you fight as a robot against other robots (however cartoony it looks). You upgrade items over time to get a stronger 'mech' which you can put in battle against many types of multiplayer and singleplayer opponents. (However, it is a big p2w game)

 

Any games you guys think deserve more recognition?

[+Invocation]

There's a game called Mysterium. It's not quite a board game, but it's very close. It's basically Clue, except you're psychics instead of detectives and you're communicating with the ghost of the murdered person to help find the killer, location, and item. Very fun game, cooperative and plenty of room for shenanigans. On a video game note, Lethal League is pretty much dead as far as I can tell, which is a shame, because smacking a ball with something to murder the other players is hilarious.

[Eluvianii]

There's a couple I could mention here. 

Academagia is one. It's a mixed bag but a mostly positive one, if you don't mind some obstacles. It's a text-based game (more text than anything else) where you attend a magic academy. It has random events along with the plot and you can train abilities both magical and non-magical to to determine your chance of success in any given action. The problems though are that the difficulty curve is pretty much vertical, it's really cryptic regarding what any given ability is actually useful for (a lot of them so specific the chances of you using it are astronomical), and it was to be the first game in a series of 5, of which the second one never came out, so you only get to play the first year. 

The Avernum series. Or actually, I should recommend just Spiderweb Software games in general. It's a small studio, I think just a man with the help of his wife. They make low end games. They're not looking to revolutionize the industry or anything, it's just their normal income. So graphics are somewhat basic, all art is commissioned and from what I've played there's no music. They're really interesting rpgs, mostly old school crpg style, and really interesting concepts for the stories and settings. Like parallel dimensions used as a prison by a tyrannical world government. 

Probably a bit more known, and if not, I'm happy to recommend it, but World of Horror is this amazing graphic adventure. The thing is going for an 80s atmosphere I think, and everything from the setting to the graphics and the sound design are permeated by it. Visually it even looks like it could run on DOS. The game works by playing some small stories that tie into a bigger one, and you choose the order so each one is its own small campaign with several endings. I think it also has the option for custom campaigns but don't quote me on that. Art is by Junji Ito and stories and creatures are based on both Japanese horror and cosmic horror afaik so yeah, it's amazing. 

These ones are probably well known by anyone familiar with roguelikes and management games and stuff but I feel they're worth mentioning just in case. Cataclysm Dark Days Ahead is this open world game. Ascii graphics but plenty of tilesets to choose from, where you just survive as long as you can. It s hard as nails but it has the most freedom I've seen in a game and thanks to the way mods work here, you can tweak even the setting to your tastes. You could go vanilla zombie alien apocalypse or you could go zombie alien apocalypse with magic and dinosaurs. 

And Rimworld. Again, I think it's fairly known, it has amazing reviews, but I don't ever see people talking about it. It's a colony management game. Three people crash in an unknown planet and you manage their survival. Ultimate goal is to escape but you decide what happens in the meantime. It describes itself as a story generator so all the management stuff is the means for the storyteller (it has three of those. They decide what events you get, how often, and how difficult) to play with you and for they colonists personalities to come out. It's addictive and great. Think Dwarf Fortress but more personal and very beginner friendly.

These are the ones I can think of at the moment. The post is a bit longer than I intended but I got carried away. May remember more in the future. Hope it helps. 

[Marukka]

There are tons of great videogames that fly under the radar. The ones I personally really recommend are the VR ones. VR itself is a complete new way to experience videogames and I really feel that it is completely underrated. It feels like many games do not dare to use the possibilities to the full extend due to some players getting motion sick. I actually get motion sickness in some games but there are ways to deal with it, for me personally and with the right settings in game. 

Anyway, here are the games that really amazed me. 

The Solus Project: Stranded on a strange planet, looking for a new home for humanity, you have to find shelter from freezing storms and find a way to contact the colony ship before they run completely out of supplies. Just part of the story though, no real time limit in game. The survival aspect can be turned down or off and the exploration of the different islands is really amazing with lots of secrets and a great story behind it all. And not just a "fun-sized" experience, it took me about 30 to 40 houts to finish the game. And yes, VR is completely optional, but without it you just have a 7/10 survival game, in VR it's about a 9/10 and easily one of my favorite VR games of all times.

Here they lie: Games in VR can be scary much more easily than flat games. Even though HTL is more a walking sim with some monsters to avoid, there were moments in which I had to remind myself that the game would not continue without me walking on. The atmosphere is really intense and the story nicely philosophical. It's something that stays with you a long time and well worth the ride.

Until Dawn - Rush of Blood: First of all, it has not much to do with "Until Dawn" and even though I really love that game too, it is in no way required to have played it before playing Rush of Blood. RoB is a very fun lightgun horror rollercoaster. In VR. And it's really great, without any problems with motion sickness. If that doesn't get you interrested, nothing will. 

[Quantus]

Mansions of Madness, a mystery/RP board game from the makers of Betrayal at the House on Haunted Hill, where you RP scenario's but instead of a GM player it has an interactive software companion that randomizes everything and triggers the encounters, etc.  

Dyson Sphere Program, a Resource Gathering, factory building & automation game that lets you take over a star cluster's worth of planets and systems to build dyson spheres. Edit: this is a video game in early access, and the visuals alone are worth the time.

 

 

Edited October 19, 2021 by Quantus

[Orlion Blight]

To be sure, it's only the 2nd edition of Mansions of Madness that has the software interface (or made for it). Might be a concern when buying used. 

Fantasy Flight also makes a couple other board games that use similar setups. Journeys in Middle Earth and Descent (3rd edition? Some other title? It just came out and some folks like it though I've never played it).

Edited October 19, 2021 by Orlion Blight

[SzethTheHonorblade]

I play this one called Muck.

It definitely needs more recognition. Its entire existence is a joke but then it was a fun rouge-survival game. it has got a lot of super weird stuff like: dark-souls level bosses, and statue things, janky bad guys, derpy graphics, oh and shrooms.

[cassiegoh]

Churchill

It models negotiations between the US, UK, and USSR during WWII as they try to both win the war and emerge post-war in the best position possible. The debate system is sleek and tense, and while the scoring is exceptionally fiddly to track, it all models real-life incentives and interactions well.