I love obscure and overlooked games and want to share a bunch with all of you. Most “hidden gem” threads end up listing titles with thousands of reviews or that got some level of marketing. I aim to mostly avoid that. While you may see a few familiar games here, everything in the list below has under 1500 reviews on Steam and most have far less. Far fewer had any notable marketing push or appearance in gaming shows or directs. And since the Steam Sale is ongoing, it’s the perfect time to try these games for yourself.

If you’d like more recommendations, comment with at least three games you like and I’ll respond with a couple more indie games hopefully suited to your tastes. Hope you enjoy!

False Skies - 37 Reviews

  • A JRPG with simple GameBoy graphics but scale matching and surpassing lots of genre classics. It’s most similar to Dragon Quest III, since both deal with custom parties and somewhat open exploration of their worlds.

Hyperspace Delivery Service - 37 Reviews

  • A Star Trek inspired take on Oregon Trail. There’s a bunch of minigames based around travel and planets and events like fighting space pirates to make each trip across space feel fresh.

Treasures of the Aegean - 57 Reviews

  • Imagine if Tomb Raider was a 2D metroidvania and had a timeloop mechanic. That’s this game. The parkour system feels great too.

DIG - Deep in Galaxies - 79 Reviews

  • Terraria/Starbound + Noita + Spelunky = this game. Fly through space to dig through planets and create broken character builds. The first free content update was also just released.

Star Drift Evolution - 169 Reviews

  • A racing game with 75 tracks, 51 vehicles, multiple camera modes, and some great handling. Probably most similar to Art of Rally, but this has more variety.

Prodigal - 182 Reviews

  • A Zelda-like game with Stardew Valley-esque characters and interactions. Loads of dungeons and a charming (if simple) story all wrapped in a GameBoy Color aesthetic.

Intergalactic Fishing - 211 Reviews

  • Travel to infinite lakes and fish in them. Despite the simple graphics there’s a lot being simulated and yet the complexity of it all never makes the game overwhelming.

Elsinor - 235 Reviews

  • An adventure game about Hamlet, but you play as Ophelia and she’s caught in a Groundhog Day scenario. While I don’t think this is the best narrative game (that would be Scarlet Hollow), I do think this is the most intriguing one with so many clever and interesting ideas to share.

RITE - 251 Reviews

  • A difficult precision platformer like Celeste, Super Meat Boy, and I Wanna Be The Guy. It’s split into dozens of bite-sized levels so it’s easy to pick up for short play sessions.

Ctrl Alt Ego - 350 Reviews

  • An immersive sim that stands toe to toe with classics like Deus Ex and Prey. You play as a detached consciousness which can jump between robots to make your way through various missions and levels however you want.

The Eternal Cylinder - 383 Reviews

  • This is like Spore, but even weirder and there’s a cylinder that’s going to kill your aliens.

ADACA - 449 Reviews

  • Imagine S.T.A.L.K.E.R. with Halo’s weapons and a special move that’s Half Life 2’s gravity gun and you’ve got ADACA. The two current story acts are just an introduction to the more open zone mode with quests and mysteries to explore and solve.

Legend Bowl - 723 Reviews

  • If you ever played Tecmo Bowl or Superbowl on the SNES, this is basically an upgraded version. I think this is the best American Football game on Steam. Mutant Football League is a close second.

Environmental Station Alpha - 1046 Reviews

  • It’s really difficult, but I think this is the best encapsulation of the Metroidvania formula. Plus the postgame is more substantial than you’ll probably expect.

Heaven’s Vault - 1410 Reviews

  • Did you like uncovering the secrets of an ancient alien civilization in Outer Wilds? This offers something like that, with a slower pace, more direct narrative, and focus on learning a lost language.

Northern Journey - 1453 Reviews

  • Explore a mystical and mysterious Nordic region. The atmosphere this game builds for itself through environments and music is possibly the best I’ve ever experienced in any game ever. It’s really that good.
  • uint8_t@beehaw.orgEnglish
    2·
    2 years ago

    ΔV: Rings of Saturn
    https://store.steampowered.com/app/846030/V_Rings_of_Saturn

    A hard sci-fi 2D space mining sim.
    “A physics-based mining sim, set in the thickest debris field in Sol. Every action has a reaction, lasers are invisible without a medium, and your thrust is a potent weapon. Find trade, adapt your equipment to your playstyle, hire a crew to help. Unravel the mysteries of the rings, or just get rich.”

    • Swervish@lemmynsfw.comEnglish
      0·
      2 years ago

      ∆V is absolutely fantastic! It just got 1.0 a couple weeks back and the dev is super down to earth, hope people check this out and it becomes a bigger hit.

  • Sharmat@beehaw.orgEnglish
    1·
    2 years ago

    The Age of Decadence is CRPG set in a post-apocalypse ish, in which an analogue to the Roman Empire ruled most of the world until the collapse of civilisation, now it’s mostly city states struggling to survive and reclaim the old magitek of the empire.

    Underrail: Life on earth’s surface has been made inhospitable ages ago, and the remains of humanity now live in the metro system called underrail and the caverns around it.

    Both are isometric, turn based games that focus on combat and exploration. And they are hard. Builds are incredibly important, almost min maxing but they have a wide range of viable builds, especially the first one where you can play the entire game without fighting a single battle, all through alternative solutions and skill checks.

    • Hieracosphinx@beehaw.orgOPEnglish
      0·
      2 years ago

      Have you played Colony Ship, by the same devs as Age of Decadence? I’ve been keeping an eye on it for a while and looks to be real close to its 1.0 release, but I’ve not heard or read a lot about it.

      • Sharmat@beehaw.orgEnglish
        0·
        2 years ago

        No actually, I didn’t knew it was a thing. Added to my wishlist for when it’s released.

  • Jotunn@lemmy.mlEnglish
    1·
    2 years ago

    Here are two 3D platformers I haven’t really heard a lot of but still had very fun with last year.

    Demon Turf - 335 Reviews What pulled me in initially was the art syle, the games looks a bit like the cartoons from my childhood. This one got combat, exploration, bosses, collectables. A bit of a problem is that the game tried to do a lot of things at the same time, resulting in a bit uneven quality overall. There are also leaderboards if you into speedrunning.

    Demon Turf: Neon Splash - 105 Reviews Some kind of standalone DLC/spinoff to the first game. In this game everything is more streamlined and the design feels more focused. Combat have been cut in order to give the platforming more time to shine and a reason to simplify the controls. The focus is on repeating the same levels for better a time on the leaderboard. Speedrunning is not really my thing but I still found enjoyment in the game. Much cheaper and short than Demon Turf.

  • lowleveldata@programming.devEnglish
    1·
    2 years ago

    Adding some from my library

    • Dropsy - 1329 Reviews

      • A weird point and click with nice atmosphere. The soundtracks are neat too.

    • The Blackwell Legacy - 1122 Reviews

      • The Blackwell series are point and click games about ghosts. It’s cool to see familiar characters through out the series and how they change (or unchanged) .

    • Railroad Ink Challenge - 65 Reviews

      • It’s the digital version of a puzzle board game I highly recommend. High re-play value and fun to play solo or with friends. (The digital version should be solo only but you can compete with online leader boards)
  • neintynein@beehaw.orgEnglish
    1·
    2 years ago

    I highly highly cannot more highly recommend Observation. It’s $7 right now.

    It’s a unique story game, with an excellent narrative, pace, and conclusion.

    • Pigeon@beehaw.orgEnglish
      0·
      2 years ago

      I very strongly second this recommendation, especially for those who know they like space horror in general. Or for people who like FMV. Or AI stories - you play as an AI in this.

      The one caveat is: this game relies on point-and-click type interaction, and it does a TERRIBLE job of indicating which items in any scene are interactable/important. There will inevitably be some time spent clicking around to see f x y or z is something you can interact with. This is super annoying.

      BUT the rest of the game is amazing so it’s very worth putting up with UI issue, imo.

  • myfavouritename@beehaw.orgEnglish
    1·
    2 years ago

    Really enjoyed Heaven’s Vault.

    Surprised that The Enteral Cylinder only has 300-ish reviews. I remember seeing it all over the new when it launched. How is it?

    • Hieracosphinx@beehaw.orgOPEnglish
      0·
      2 years ago

      Oh wow, I missed it early on! The Eternal Cylinder is good, but some occasionally clunky gameplay alongside the very unique alien designs might turn some people away. It crashed twice on me and once you figure out all the systems of play it can feel simple (although there’s a lot of complexity under the hood), so I could see some people giving up on it due to frustration or boredom - especially if the aliens or story don’t hook them.

      I loved the environments and alien concept (plus the fun stress of the cylinders approaching) which kept me hooked. Plus it’s much more mechanically involved than Spore was. Spent about 13 hours with the game and left satisfied. If I had to numerically rate it, it’s maybe around 8/10?

  • gabal@beehaw.orgEnglish
    0·
    2 years ago

    Thanks for the list, a few games really caught my eye.

    Here is my contribution - Tametsi

    A minesweeper which has hand-crafted levels so you can always solve it with logic instead of relying on luck when you are out of logical moves.

    • Catastrophic235English
      0·
      2 years ago

      RUINER: Isometric twin-stick shooter with a 10/10 soundtrack. Basically zero advertisement, i only ever found out about it because I listen to similar music and got the soundtrack reccomended to me by the YT algorithm.

        • Hieracosphinx@beehaw.orgOPEnglish
          0·
          2 years ago

          The Ascent is a longer game and leans harder into RPG elements than Ruiner ever does. For me, Ruiner ran better and like @Catastrophic235@midwest.social says, the music is incredible. Blows The Ascent’s soundtrack out of the water. Ruiner might have slightly tighter controls too, but I’d have to replay to confirm since I played it with a mouse/keyboard while I played The Ascent with a controller.

        • Catastrophic235English
          0·
          2 years ago

          Never played the ascent but heard it was meh. Controls for Ruiner were pretty tight, my only complaint is that I’d sometimes get caught on an object/wall that wasn’t very easy to see, but it was never more than a minor inconvenience.

    • Hieracosphinx@beehaw.orgOPEnglish
      0·
      2 years ago

      I’ve seen Tametsi, Hexcells, and Bombe continually recommended online as hidden gems but I’ve put off buying any because I’m not much of a Minesweeper fan. I should really give them a try sometime though, since I think the luck aspect is my least favorite part of Minesweeper. Thanks for sharing!

      • lotanis@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
        0·
        2 years ago

        I bought Tametsi recently based at another recommendation thread. It’s really good - it eliminates the big issue with minesweeper which is that sometimes you have to guess. In Tametsi you always have enough information for your next move which completely changes how it feels. It almost ends up feeling more like Sudoku with the “ok so if that’s true then that can’t be true” type steps in logic.

  • PaupersSerenade@beehaw.orgEnglish
    0·
    2 years ago

    Neodori Forever - 46 reviews (Positive) is also part of the Summer Sale!

    I just picked this up and it’s a fun and vibrant, pixel graphics, arcade style drifting game. There’s a ‘story’ mode followed by an endless mode to keep you busy and the soundtrack made its way onto my playlist. I don’t have a Steam Deck, but it seems like it’d be a good fit.

    • Hieracosphinx@beehaw.orgOPEnglish
      0·
      2 years ago

      Of course! Honestly it was tricky to not make the list even longer. There’s a lot of cool games out there people might miss.

  • None_S@vlemmy.netEnglish
    0·
    2 years ago

    You know of any other Oregon Trail remixes? Been looking for a game like those ever since I was a little kid.

    • Hieracosphinx@beehaw.orgOPEnglish
      0·
      2 years ago

      Just in case you weren’t aware, The Oregon Trail is on Steam as a remake now, but I haven’t read much about it. I like the colorful style they chose for it though. There’s also the still unreleased Journey Express which looks very similar. Anyway, here’s some other stuff:

      • Organ Trail is the closest to Oregon Trail I think you can get on Steam. Players control a group in the zombie apocalypse instead of journeying to the western frontier.

      • Death Road to Canada captures the same sort of travel with small events interspersed that Oregon Trail had, but plays quite a bit differently…

      • Super Amazing Wagon Adventure is an Oregon Trail-themed shooter.

      • The Flame in the Flood is about traveling by raft but more about survival in the modern gaming sense than Oregon Trail was.

      • FTL is super well known, but pretty comparable. You could also try Trigon Space Story.

      • None_S@vlemmy.netEnglish
        0·
        2 years ago

        Thank you. That Journey express looks interesting. Have you been following that project for a while?

        • Hieracosphinx@beehaw.orgOPEnglish
          0·
          2 years ago

          To be honest I only just stumbled across it when writing up my original response. Made a quick check on https://steampeek.hu/ to see if there was any game I didn’t know about or was forgetting and it popped up.

    • Dymonika@beehaw.orgEnglish
      0·
      2 years ago

      I’d be happy to show you Death Road to Canada at no cost to you through Steam Remote Play with my copy! The only catch is that you’d need a gamepad since it doesn’t take multiple players on one keyboard.

  • Ghostcity@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    0·
    2 years ago

    This is a good list! I’ll be checking some of these out for sure. I also have some overlooked games of my own I’d like to list. No links since I’m on mobile, but I may edit them in later.

    Qbqbqb (30): Simple arcade game with nice animation and catchy music.

    Goetia (496): Spooky point-and-click with some very good puzzles in my opinion.

    Under Leaves (530): Relaxing hidden object game with a nice art style. Great game to play when you’re stressed and want to turn your brain off.

    Year Walk (1197): Horror adventure game with an off-putting atmosphere and interesting art style.

    The Last Door (1541): Horror point-and-click adventure game with a lovecraftian feel.

    • Mrrdrr@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      0·
      2 years ago

      Thanks for bringing out Goetia. I bought it back when i had to have any sounds as a distraction, Goetia being very silent at times drove me off almost instantly.

      Just seeing that you mentioned good puzzles was enough to give a real go. 3 hours later i’m loving it.

    • Hieracosphinx@beehaw.orgOPEnglish
      0·
      2 years ago

      Wow, I can second The Last Door being great, but I don’t know most of these. Thanks for pointing them out!

    • Herctic@beehaw.orgEnglish
      0·
      2 years ago

      +1 to Year Walk, I remember playing that on an iPod Touch when it first came out. I love Simogo, with games like Device 6 and Sayonara Wild Hearts, they make really unique games.

  • bermuda@beehaw.orgEnglish
    0·
    2 years ago

    One of my personal favorites is still Ring Runner: Flight of the Sages, a 2D spaceflight shooter with text adventure RPG elements. At first it starts of pretty standard but there’s such an incredibly wide array of customization options that it’s almost daunting. Plus the developers really embrace the comedy over the course of the game to pretty extravagant levels. I mean, you literally fight a boss who manufactures DVORAK keyboards.