Yes, gamers, it’s that time of year again – time for the Steam Winter Sale, which with each passing year (for better and for worse) becomes more of a normal seasonal sale and less of a playful mess. 2021 was a pretty great, if odd, year for video games, so I wanted to bring that weird, messy energy into my end-of-year recommendations. Without further ado, here are a few games to try out as part of Steam’s massive winter sale:
Risk of rain 2
Risk of rain 2 is one of the video games with the most video games ever. In it you are one of almost a dozen little guys and you run around defeating enemies and collecting items to make yourself stronger. There are many enemies and many more items. You will become an ascending aspect of death, you will kill the king of nothing, you will be crushed by a planet over and over until you barely manage to claw your way out. The game is hands down one of the best roguelites of the last few years and will get its first expansion in early 2022, so now is the perfect time to jump in.
Guilty Gear Strut
The signature fighting game of 2021 and my excellent introduction to the genre is available for a delicious 30% off. Endeavor With its relatively simple combo structure and difficulty level, and its abundance of system mechanics that allow more experienced players to draw a lot of depth from the experience, it creates a perfect introduction to a known hostile genre.
Umurangi generation + macro
is an excellent photography sim with shocking depth. It’s also one of the best pieces of cyberpunk fiction in the history of the genre – it traces the demise of a city through UN mismanagement, the climate crisis, and kaiju. Macro, the game’s first and only DLC, builds on it with a surprisingly beautiful and hopeful ending. Umurangi generation manages to capture the reality of life through the early 2020s through an incredible act of cyberpunk self-portrait and it would be a fool to pass it by.
Vault of heaven
Developed by 80 days Studio and developer of narrative design tools, Inkle, Vault of heaven is an archeology game about language. The game’s unique narrative structure, superb spelling, and linguistic-based puzzle design have made it a modern cult classic. In fact, the game’s narrative was strong enough to deserve not one but two novels that were released a few months ago.
Hardspace ship breaker
Hardspace ship breaker is a game about space capitalism, and a brilliant one at that. You play as a ship breaker, a highly qualified and poorly paid specialist who spends his days rescuing huge spaceships. The use of pressure relief, fuel lines, electrical systems, and the terrifying weight of gravity make the game a tense and meditative experience at the same time, unlike anything else I’ve played.
Dread XP Publisher Package
Dread XP has grown to be one of my favorite publishers over the past few years, producing five incredible horror collections, all of which are contained in this delicious product Publisher package valued at $ 24. the Dread X collections manage to confront the player with unique and exciting horror experiences, each from a different developer. Haunted goodswhich is also included in the bundle is horror WarioWare and I can’t recommend it enough.
EYE Divine Cybermancy
EYE Divine Cybermancy is a deeply strange video game. You play as a cybernetic enhanced member of a strange religious order called EYE who uses a lot of violence through some of the most ambitious immersive sim gameplay on the site Deus Ex. In the end, you’ll progress from covert infiltrations and tense fire fights to rabbit hopping through battlefields at speed enough to test the sound barrier, detonating enemies from afar with your terrifying psychic power. It’s a strange, messy thing that everyone should try at least once.
Battletech + DLC
Battletech is one of the best tactical games in the past five years, and it didn’t garner nearly enough love when it was originally released in 2019. The game sees you at the helm of a new mercenary company trying to find your place in a brutal galactic conflict – all while managing your meager funds, mech maintenance costs, and pilot salaries. Battletech manages to break the fine line between tactical depth and complexity for the sake of complexity, and includes some really great mech customizations that allow for some really crazy builds.
Monster train
Yes, yes, roguelike deckbuilders are way too common at this point, but …Monster train is a real highlight with its tower defense-like combat and great build variety. You play as the commander of a train trying to reach the heart of Hell, which froze over after the recent onslaught of Heaven. To do this, you combine several factions of powerful demons, each of which has its own unique strategies and mechanisms. It’s a great little game that I wholeheartedly recommend to everyone.
The house in Fata Morgana
The house in Fata Morgana is a standout visual novel with some of the best narrative twists I have ever seen in any medium. In it, you play as a nameless protagonist who moves through the story of a palatial mansion, with each story revealing more about her and your own past. The game manages to be conceptually fascinating, thematically resonant, and breathtakingly human at every turn – and it’s easily one of my favorite stories in any video game.
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