Post good deals in the comments
Was in a thread recently where people talk about heavy story games being popular because of Watcher 3, Cyberpunk 2077, Disco Esylium and Baldurs Gate 3.
I’m going to recommend some fantastic story-rich/story-heavy games that people might have missed during the 2010-2020 era.
Shadowrun Returns and Shadowrun Hong Kong: RPG tactics. if you’re not familiar with Shadowrun, it’s Cyberpunk but with Elves/Trolls, and Dragons as president. Story is dark and fantastic.
West of Loathing and Shadows of Loathing: RPG tactics. Really great and funny writing. One reviewer said they smiled ear to ear during their whole play. I did too.
Danganronpa series and Steins Gate series visual novel territory. Starts really slow but sucks you in. Paradise Killer was my introduction to this world.
Rusty Lake games Puzzly. Rusty Lake Roots storytelling is so good. Don’t sleep on Rusty Lake Paradise and Rusty lake Hotel. Those stories are a bit more abstract, as are all the Rusty Lake games.
Firewatch this is the game that made me sit up and pay attention to Walk Simulators. There’s a lot of good ones to name, but Firewatch is top tier.
All on sale for a few bucks. All of them will make you think about them while showering and reflecting on life.
Wasnt the autumn sale just 2 weeks ago?
Picked up GTA 4 Complete Edition for $6 so i can relive my middle school xbox 360 days
The Sexy Brutale is a fun Groundhog Day puzzle game set in a casino where you must sneak around to prevent the staff from murdering the guests. The story seems insignificant but becomes astounding towards the end. It’s currently $5.
Unmetal is a very fun Metal Gear parody that isn’t totally lax with its writing - maintaining just enough serious tone to keep you invested and break your expectations when it uses the storytelling format to throw you for a loop. Currently $4.
Homebody is another Groundhog Day puzzle game, also about preventing your friends from being murdered - but with a very different tone. Creepy at times, and requires a slow unraveling of every one of the mansion’s puzzles. $5
Tyrion Cuthbert is an astoundingly-done indie take on the Ace Attorney format, set in a fantasy universe with its own magical rules. 5 full cases, with some big character moments in the later ones. Currently $10.
Near Death is a short horror game based on surviving arctic chill at an abandoned base at night. It feels much like an indie game version of The Martian, especially when you contact personnel that can give you tips but can’t send a rescue party. Currently $2.
Can anyone recommend games similar to Deep Space Cache?
Grabbed Children of the Sun (Reg 14.99, 40% off to 8.99) and A Little to the Left (Reg 14.99, 50% off to 7.49) personally. Both are puzzlers but the former is far darker then the latter.
Had my eye on Children of the Sun a while back. Thanks for the reminder it’s on sale, I think I’ll pick it up too.
https://steamdb.info/sales/?min_discount=80&min_rating=80&min_reviews=500
Steam sale items with a 80% discount, 80% rating, and 500 reviews!
Stolen from @Blaze@sopuli.xyz 's autumn sale post
Very useful link! I didn’t realize Tormented Souls was so cheap during this sale. I highly recommend this one for anyone who likes the classic Resident Evil games.
Ohh, handy! Thanks for that link.
-
Celeste $4.99 -75% - A platformer with 8-way airdashes. I’m sure you’ve already heard enough about how amazing the base game is, so I just want to take a moment to shoutout the incredible modding scene for more content. My favorites are Spring 2020 Collab, Strawberry Jam, Glyph, Conqueror’s Peak, and Into the Jungle.
-
CrossCode $9.33 -65% (for base game and DLC) - Phenomenal action RPG. Combat is fast and explosive, dungeons are very obviously Zelda inspired but with way more puzzles. Packed with tons and tons and tons of sidequests, many of which put unique twists on the combat system to keep you on your toes. Make sure to grab the epilogue DLC.
-
Crypt of the Necrodancer $11.21 (bundle with DLC) - Rhythm game/roguelike sounds like the strangest mashup ever. But what’s even stranger is just how well it works. It’s just a matter of keeping 4/4 time, but forcing a steady pace forces you to think fast and not make any mistakes. Every death is clearly your fault as every enemy is designed to be beatable using only a base dagger without getting hit (and indeed there’s a challenge character that forces exactly this), but dealing with swarms is where it gets complicated. I especially recommend trying to speedrun, playing for speed really makes this game adrenaline-fueled as you have to pace yourself judging how much time you can afford to gather items if you want to make sub-15 or sub-10. Danny Baranowsky’s soundtrack absolutely delivers. Get both the Amplified and Synchrony DLCs.
-
Mega Knockdown $7.99 -20% - A turn-based fighting game that’s fun for complete beginners to pick up and play, while still offering a lot of depth. Use this to entice your non-fighting game friends in.
-
Skullgirls $2.49 -90% base game, $14.83 bundle with DLC - Still the best damn fighting game of all time. Almost never not on sale, hell you probably already own this by now and may not even realize it.
-
Slay the Spire $6.24 -75% - Roguelike deckbuilder, basic idea is that after each combat you get to add a card to your deck, plus collect relics from elites/events/shops/bosses which provide passive effects. There’s a ton of depth in trying to assemble the perfect deck one card at a time, resource management gets very complicated balancing what you need in the short-term versus what you want to take to the endgame. Tons and tons of possibilities, you can pretty much expect to never build the same deck twice. Oh, and did I mention there’s 20 levels of hard modes once you think you’ve gotten A0 down? Also has a very powerful mod API with Steam Workshop support, check out Packmaster and Adventurer for my favorite must-plays.
-
Them’s Fightin’ Herds $3.99 -80% - Another great fighting game, been waiting a long time for this port to bring us up to a grand total of two good fighting games on Linux. Has a lot of really cool features like a big story mode with overworld exploration, a cute lobby system with cosmetics to collect and treasure chests to fight for, a dynamic music system that reacts to the fight, and even a semi-cooperative dungeon crawler mode. Has crossplay with consoles as well. Full review. Word of warning: Baihe DLC is very busted and banned from tournament play. Long story about how the publisher fired the entire dev team and released her in an unfinished state. If you buy the DLC, just get the other three characters and skip her.
-
Anything by Zachtronics - A bunch of different engineering puzzle games where you have to write code or build a machine to solve problems. Once you’ve solved the puzzle, you can see a histogram comparing your solution to everyone else’s on a few different metrics, encouraging you to go back and try to optimize it further. I recommend Opus Magnum as the best entry point.
Woah CrossCode looks right up my alley. How have I missed that for the past… 6 years?!? Thanks!
nods
I recommend secrets of grindea too!
The game is legit one of the best I’ve played in the past like 10 years. The story starts kinda slow but I promise, it picks up later
Played all these except mega knockdown and would highly recommend any of em. Great list.
-
Valve really needs to space the autumn sale better and stop attacking my wallet like this.
I ignored the autumn sale because I knew the winter sale would be right behind it and assumed it would have better deals
I feel less likely to buy now because I know another sale will come soon when I’m ready. I’m not mad at it and less impulse buys.
Identical deals I believe. Except maybe that deep discount section that’s different. Everything else should be 100% the same
Any sale recommendations for co-op games or remote play together games that are on sale?
Full Metal Furies is a very fun “beatemup-style” game very much focused on unique character abilities and cooperation. The writing is very funny, and each character operates very different. Currently $5.
Oh, and on the topic of coop games with primarily female casts: Assault Android Cactus is a lot of fun even for people who haven’t played games much. Rather than use a teammate reviving mechanic, players can pick themselves up - but everyone is fighting their timer to complete the mission before their batteries run out. Levels are quick and chaotic. $5.
For the more chillax remote co-op, these are the games I’ve played with my family. (Wife and kids)
Valheim - survival building stuff.
Grounded - survival building stuff but it’s Honey I shrunk the kids.
Raft - survival building stuff but on a raft.
Dinkum - building stuff like Animal Crossing but Australia
Enshrouded - survival building stuff but Zelda Breath of the Wild
V Rising - building stuff but vampires and MOBA
Bone’s Cafe is a slower non roguelite cafe game were you get to kill and cook your customers. It has been lots of fun.
Kingdom 2 Crowns is a great little game of frustration but it’s only 2 people but it’s pretty and the soundtrack slaps and it’s a fun settlement building and protection game.
Everyone is already recommending Hazelight Studio games but I will jump on that too cause they are amazing.
And just to shake things up:
The Lego games. They are classic and usually a good time. Campy humor. Murder your friends. And they are pretty cheap as the whole collections these days.Edit: Oh and Ship of Fools was fun. Simple crowded bullet hell slapstick roguelite on a tiny ship with guns.
Bone’s Cafe and Kingdom 2 Crowns is right up my alley! Thank you
Rotwood is a good one. Co-op Roguelite beat-em-up from the Don’t Starve guys.
Lethal Company is just lots of fun, we’ve gotten too much time out of that dumb game. Maybe check out Content Warning if you like LC but want a change.
Outward is a fantastic old-school RPG for two people, has all the traits of a game from 2002
Palworld - haven’t hopped back into this one since its launch but have been meaning to. But this type of game is definitely not underrepresented on the market.
Escape Simulator is a nice stress-free co-op escape room game, lots of official content and also has Steam Workshop so there’s tons of great content.
PlateUp! if you’re not worried about getting into a fight over how awful your buddy is at making food
Rogue Heroes: Ruins of Tasos is a Zelda-like RPG that’s a surprising amount of fun for how simple the game first looks.
Other bigname recs: Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, Baldur’s Gate 3, Sea of Thieves, Deep Rock Galactic, Stardew Valley
My wife and I loved Escape Academy. The narrative structure made it more interesting. And the puzzles were more sillier in nature, like solving things while escaping a flood. Or trying to land a airplane.
We bounced off of Escape Simulato.
Outward is definitely not for everyone, but it felt to me like playing Morrowind for the first time. Not in the dialogue or character writing but in terms of looking at a weird thing on the horizon and asking myself ‘WTF IS THAT’.
My wife and I bounced after the brutal difficulty and made it to the next biome.
It was kind of fun that every fight was a life or death experience. But we never felt like we were getting stronger or things ever got easier.
I didn’t mind, as I play Dark Souls. But for my wife who like to max-level then steamroll things, this was driving her crazy.
Yeah the only progression is in terms of gear really. There are some skills you can buy but they don’t seem to matter as much as a good weapon or shield.
Brotato is always a recommendation. Single player or co-op doesn’t matter. Both modi are great
I enjoyed “It Takes Two” quite a bit. “A Way Out” is another co-op game from the same publisher that I’ve only heard good things about.
It’s a game from 2014, but I love Double Dragon Neon which is 50% off. I have songs from the game in my regular music playlist they’re so good. I enjoy it more than the recent Double Dragon Gaiden. Great coop.
I love how the Winter Sale starts and the entirety of all gamers DDoS the site. The prices are practically the same from the Autumn Sale.
Isthereanydeal.com is also down.
There are some new surprises that I found before everything went kaput.
Hope no one minds me asking here, but does anyone have any suggestion for games on sale that a 13 year old boy might like? Need a cool uncle gift for the nephew
Edit: thank y’all for the replies!
Need for speed heat is like 4 bucks, as a former 13yo boy I woulda liked it
Make a family and add them to it. They’ll get access to your entire library. As account manager you can hide any games you think are inappropriate.
I’m sharing with my brother who has 4 sons and it has been great for everyone.
I love how they changed library sharing, too, so group members are only accessing individual games rather than entire libraries.
You can do that‽ Oh hell yeah. Cool uncle status achieved!
Any hints what kind of games they’re into? Racing, sports, shooters? My nephew mostly plays fortnite, he’s easy and happy with vbucks.
Honestly? Not really. I haven’t seen them in about 4 years, and the last I really checked in one was super into reading fantasy novels and the other one like Lego. Lol. They’re family friends, not children of siblings.
Here are some cool/memorable games:
- Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
- Return of the Obra Dinn
- Braid
Teardown might be a good one.
Satisfactory. If they like Minecraft they’ll like this
Deadcells is one I enjoyed and my brother enjoyed. Lots of content and very fun.
Risk of Rain 2
No, not again, I didn’t have time to play all the stuff I bought on last one…
So grows the backlog.
But you’ll get around to them at some point, and it’s a good deal so if you buy it later it might cost more. No it’s fine you definitely won’t get distracted by another game and will start it after the one you are playing just now.
I don’t know what you mean “I’ve had that unplayed game for 17 years,” I’m going to play it next, (after this one I’m about to buy.)
As a hoarder, I’m frequently finding games I bought 3-4 sales ago or through the many bundles I buy. I’ve accepted it.
Only because often, I’d read about a cool game, look for it, only to find i own it already. And then I play it immediately and have a lot of fun.
Yea sometimes you don’t really know what is in the bundle you got. At least you didn’t buy it multiple times.
I don’t know what you mean “I’ve had that unplayed game for 17 years,” I’m going to play it next, (after
this one I’m about to buyreplaying this old one for the fifth time.)😭
So a hundred hours more to factorio?
Just one more run of Nier
The prices aren’t impressing me, then again, they really hadn’t impressed me for 5 years in a row now. They’re exactly the same as I’ve seen them in other sales, except the other sales mark them down slightly lower.
Granted, I’ve acquired nearly every game I’ve personally been scouting for so the thrill is mostly gone. I’d only be spending just to spend on things I don’t quite need and not want.
In a way, I accept that. I think too many super discounts were starting to poison the industry such that indie devs with a limited audience couldn’t even make their costs back, and couldn’t raise their price because they’d compete with so much $4 slop.
(By the way, my other post highlights some great $4 slop)
I disagree.
I’ve been though the Steam Sales for well over 10 years now, and I remember when they switched up how they did it.
Yeah you no longer have a 90% discount for a single day on a game so there isn’t anywhere near as much chatter, which I miss, but there are plently of big names with 90% off. I think that is either what you miss, or you are now 5 years older and just don’t get as excited, or there hasn’t been much released that interest you.
Games with good reviews and 90% off:
https://steamdb.info/sales/?min_discount=90&min_rating=80&min_reviews=500
Is it the sales, or are there just less games coming out at the moment that interest you at any price?
My argument is that, the purpose of the Autumn and Winter Sales is we’re expected to see staggeringly great deals. That is why so many people have looked forward towards every year with Steam. When you see a game that’s been consistently 20% all year, it’s been released 6 years ago for example and it’s active on the Winter Sale with the same exact price as it had been? It defeats the purpose of being involved in the sale in the first place.
It’s a matter of to each their own as to what game they think is currently having a great deal and that’s factored in whether or not that they have it. I’m seeing deals of games where I admit, are at extremely better price points than when I originally got them for. But I also can say that there are games that are on sale right now, where I remembered getting them at better deals way back when.
I’ve already pointed out that it’s also likely that I’ve been acquiring a majority of the games that I want and that if I partake into this sale, I’d only be spending for the sake of spending which may likely not be worth my expenses.
Steam sales 10 years ago were a thing of myth and majesty.
They really were. Like, in 2015, I paid a total of $153 for like 34 games. It doesn’t sound like a lot, but for the games I wanted that were there? Totally worth it. Like Wolfenstein the Old Blood, Transformers War For/Fall Of Cybertron, Oblivion and Morrowind to mention a few.
I’ve noticed this too with Steam. Sales aren’t nearly as good (also, didn’t we just have one?!?) and “release dates” on decade-old games can be listed as say, two years if there was an update or a slight change
Dunno if it’s Steam themselves or others ‘gaming’ the system, apologies for the pun
Are you ready for a miracle?!
