I’m requesting for recommendations for games that stand out from the rest in their genre, and not in the sense of being the best game in that niche but actually bringing something new and innovative to the table. I’ve not had much experience in gaming, but I have a few games to give you a hint on what I am talking about:
- Superhot: Time only moves when you do
- Viewfinder: Convert 2D pictures seamlessly into interactive 3D environments
- Superliminal: Change size of objects by working with perception
- Portal: Portals
- Scribblenauts: Summon objects by describing them in a notepad
I am not focused on the story, no. of hours of playtime, date of release or its popularity. It just needs to be playable and be enjoyable (and be available in PC).
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Majora’s Mask: a 3-day timeloop where everything resets when you go back
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Katamari: A giant ball gets rolled around and collects stuff forever
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Baba Is You: Movable text is rules to the game
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Untitled Goose Game: You have to piss people off the right way
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Billie Bust Up[unreleased]: Musicals tell you upcoming platforming challenges
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Celeste: every time you die you quickly reset on the same “page”/small tile of map
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Splatoon: you shoot at the ground to go faster, hide, and/or win
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Odama: real-time tactical wargame pinball
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Golf Story: Golf-based fetch quests
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Astral Chain: asynchronously control a companion in combat
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Okami: paint skills on-screen in combat
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Astro Bears: Snake but in 3D
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Lovers In A Dangerous Spacetime: Up to 4 players pilot parts of a ship together
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Pokemon Ranger: draw circles around monsters to catch them
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Viva Pinata: breed pinatas to create new species
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Spore: create and evolve a creature
Oh man, I just want to give a shout out to the Splatoon ink mechanic.
The game is a competitive arena shooter. That would be pretty uninteresting, but instead of competing for kills or holding objectives, the teams are competing to cover the largest surface area with ink or paint. That’s pretty neat. But there’s more.
Every player has a special “squid mode” they can use when standing on ink of their colour. When in squid mode players travel much faster, can travel up walls, and are extremely hard to spot, but can not attack or lay new ink.
This makes the laying ink in specific areas valuable, as it makes it faster to get from the spawn point to the front faster and easier. It also rewards holding contiguous trails of ink, or conversely, cutting off your opponent’s ink trails.
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Tunic is incredibly unique and I can’t say I’ve played anything like it. On the surface it’s a classic dungeon crawler zelda inspired thing, but once you play… Really any amount of it, you start to see past the veil and the real game is revealed to you. Even after completing the entire game and all achievements, there is technically more of the game available to be explored.
Outer Wilds (not to be confused with Obsidian’s Outer Worlds) will be an absolute bliss for anyone who enjoyed portal or superliminal. It may be the single greatest puzzle/exploration game ever made, with no exaggeration.
Return of the Obra Dinn was a game that I could not put down. I played it in one sitting beginning to end. I was enthralled and I felt like Sherlock fucking Holmes. It is a very unassuming game but by God, you will be gripped. It stands up there with Outer Wilds as being a game that absolutely propelled itsself up to one of the best of its genre (this one being Mystery/Puzzle)
@Spood_Beest@lemm.ee @frank@sopuli.xyz
If you haven’t played either of the other two games I mentioned, I think you’ll thoroughly enjoy them. All 3 of the games are absolute masterclasses in how to hand the player knowledge that transforms their experience of the game, over and over again.
The Swapper: 2d side scrolling puzzle game where you clone your character and swap consciousness between the clones.
deleted by creator
Do Not Feed The Monkeys - spy on people via hidden cameras for fun and profit. It’s mostly point and click but it’s fun.
In a similar vein, Not For Broadcast. Pick what camera feed to show, what to censor, etc. Will admit I haven’t played it myself and am going off the Steam description page, but it seems pretty unique mechanics-wise.
I have this game and it looks to be amazing, but OMG I can’t keep up with the pace of dealing with the cameras and censoring stuff. I want to love it but I’m just not quick enough.
It definitely fits the criteria that op wanted tho, good call
