Recommend me some awesome, but little known PC games

The Game Room
1

This thread deals with best levels in computer games. After reading about Pyschonauts I knew I had to have it. Who doesn’t want to play in some deranged milk man’s mind? I never heard of the game before, but the praise it got from the readers of this board made me immediately get it. The entire game was brilliant. Now that I finished it, I want more. So, what other little known games are out there that I should play? I’m not talking about Fallout, Dead Space or whatnot. All of them good games on their own, but so well advertised that I can easily think of those myself. For the more obscure ones I need help.

Oh, and I realise I might want to give some genres that I like: platform, adventure, survival shooters (not like Unreal, but F.E.A.R., Prey and Dead Space were brilliant) and Thief/Splinter Cell type games.

2

Mount & Blade is a decent medieval combat-simulator timewaster indie game that gets a lot of my free time.

3

I have been whiling away my time waiting for Diablo 3 to come out by playing Titan Quest Gold. A lot of fun if you’re into dungeon crawlers.

4

Good Old Games (www.gog.com) has an awesome little title (Ghost Master) I loved when I reviewedit. I don’t know if it’s even a genre you’d like, but it’s a game I love to recommend.

Another game I loved, despite horrific controls, is Second Sight. I started out absolutely loathing the game simply because of the controls, but somewhere around halfway through, I fell madly in love with it.

I think I actually have both games (I know I have Second Sight; it’s right beside me). If you PM or email me (deadlyaccurate [at] gmail.com), I can mail you either or both (assuming I still have Ghost Master) if you’re in the US.

ETA: I noticed gog.com also has Second Sight available, if you’re not in the US.

5

I’ll second this one. The creators have periodically tried to add some more roleplaying elements to the game, but the game really shines on the battlefield. Nothing quite as satisfying as nailing some Swadian with a couched lance attack for uberdamage!

6

I’ll third Mount & Blade. My boyfriend’s addicted to it. He’s really enjoying the game and I doubt he’ll get bored soon because of all the mods he wants to download and try. If you’re into the first person hack and slash, archer 100 enemies with your army of 300 type of game, you’ll love this one.

7

It ain’t easy, but i think the replay value of Burn The Rope is pretty amazing.

8

If by “pretty amazing” you mean “not there at all”, then I agree with you.

Lamest 40 seconds of a video game. Ever.

9

Umm, I counted 6 torches, so there are at least 6 different ways to finish the game.

10

Jeez, I can’t figure out what the trick is. If only there was some sort of subtle hint the developers could give me.

11

That is the worst… okay, it was pretty awesome.

12

There’s a subtle clue in the title of the game. The full title is You Have To Burn The Rope. Read it carefully, maybe let it stew in your mind for a bit, and with any luck you should be able to figure it out. If not, the developers put a few clues in the manual, too.

Or you could always cheat.

13

How far back do you want to look, and how much tolerance do you have for antiquated graphics and interfaces? I can think of a a number of games that are largely forgotten and 6 or 7+ years old, but I know that some people don’t have the tolerance for what would now be clumsy by today’s standards.

If you dig survival horror, I cannot recommend System Shock 2 highly enough. It’s a first person RPG shooter. The engine is pretty clumsy, so it doesn’t play very well as a straight shooter like the ones you mentioned, but it is a fantastic story with great atmosphere.

They’re not that obscure, but since you listed adventure games, have you played the recent Sam & Max episodic games? They’ve now put out two seasons of about a half dozen episodes each. I’ve only played through about half of the first season, but they were pretty fun. Grim Fandango is widely regarded as one of the greatest adventure games, but is rarely heard of these days.

Also in the adventure genre is the Penny Arcade game, On the Rain Slick Precipice of Darkness, which is a sort of RPG/adventure hybrid. If you like Penny Arcade, it’s good, but if not, then skip it.

Good platformers are definitely a scarce commodity on the PC. How about Beyond Good and Evil? I hear nothing but good things about that one.

Mount and Blade is indeed a good game, if you like thoroughly open ended and unstructured gameplay. It’s pretty much the only game to get mounted combat right.

Dwarf Fortress is king of the indie scene, these days. I would describe it as a weird cross between Sim City, a roguelike, and an ant farm with ASCII graphics. Great for some, but very, very different from the examples you listed. Also, it’s free and constantly being updated.

Oh, Cave Story is an utterly fantastic 2D platformer in the vein of Castlevania/Metroid. If you haven’t played that, it is definitely worth a look see. One of the best ever free games, but I would recommend a gamepad.

Hmm, No One Lives Forever 2 is more of a straight up shooter, but it can definitely be played with an emphasis of stealth. An affectionate parody of 60’s spy films, I found the game to be quite funny, too.

The F.E.A.R: Extraction Point expansion is well reviewed, if you haven’t played that yet. The other one, not so good, it seems.

Any of those appeal?

14

Seconded. So many laugh-out-loud moments. In particular, the

tricycle chase

had me giggling maniacally throughout the entire level.

And an emphasis on stealth is the way to go. The player is rewarded for stealthy solutions, especially overhearing all the wacky conversations the henchmen have with each other.

15

Want to buy a monkey?

16

If space shooters are your thing, I can’t recommend Independence War 2 highly enough. A beautiful game still, despite having come out in 2001, and imo is the greatest simulation of open space ever while still being fun. It is semi freeform, with a large open world to fly around in, but the storyline is pretty much linear.

It also has almost no trade aspect, if that is your thing(The game sets you up as a pirate, so there was no market or anything… instead you get offers off of a black market for loot you pick up).

There are only 3 ships to choose from, but they are heavily customizable.

17

Is it available via direct download somewhere? I found it on Atari.com, but they’re only selling it on CD.

18

I’ll say the best must-have now-obscure games are as follows:

Cave Story/Doukutsu Monogatari - A wonderful experience in 2D gameplay, with physics-based weapons and an engaging and open-ended story, replete with multiple endings and secrets in an almost 8-bit aesthetic. And it’s free, so just go play it.

Deus Ex - the greatest thing to hit PC shooters in the 90s, with an open-ended structure and at least two paths to every mission, with skill-based rewards in RPG style and multiple endings. Still one of the best executions of a shooter, ever. Sadly, it’s been left behind and supposedly iterated on so much that most people haven’t heard of it.

Mother 3 - not technically a PC game, but the only way to play it in English is on an emulator with a fair-use ROM and the long-awaited fan translation of this most brilliant game. It’s best enjoyed after experiencing Earthbound (or Mother 2), but it’s incredible by itself and, unfortunately, there’s no evidence that Nintendo is willing to actually localize and make money off this great franchise, so it’s hard to feel guilty about playing an unofficial translation.

Skyrates is a Flash game based on the idea that a game can be played just a few times over the course of days and still be engaging. It’s set in a world where the land was torn apart by a mysterious element and cities became floating islands, and you are a lone trader/fighter making your way in an economy that changes from day to day. It’s a long flight between islands, so setting a path to profit can take up a day or two of real time, depending on the speed of your very upgradeable plane.

That’s all I can think of at the moment - there are, of course, gigabytes more.

19

American McGee’s Alice
This is one of my favorites of all time. The graphics, music and game play are all excellent. This is still very playable and entertaining.

Zork Nemesis
This one is the second to last in the Zork series. I is an adventure much in the format of Myst. It was a departure from the unique Zork humor, and the only one done that way. It’s a very good game.

Zork Grand Inquisitor
This is the last in the Zork series, and exemplifies the Zork humor. This is my favorite of the Zork series.

Dungeon Keeper 2
I really like this one. You get to play the evil dungeon master. The whole package is nicely done for an immersive atmosphere. The game can be hard to run without crashes with current operating systems.

Grim Fandango
This was something I really enjoyed when it came out. The one thing I don’t like about it currently is the interface. I have to say that it went to a bargain price real soon after release. I think it was because of a glut on the market of that type of game and many publishers packing up.

Entomorph Plague of the Darkfall
In this one you wander the wilderness, interact with people, and fight bugs while trying to save your sister. People have been disappearing, actually turning into bugs. You transform bit by bit into a bug to beat the bugs. The bugs in this are like the bugs in Starship Troopers not some cutesy wootsy ones.

20

I want to thank everyone for the suggestions. There are a few ideas that I will try out. I’m currently downloading Ghost Master (for $3.49 it’s a bargain, and even if it’s crap, who cares for that amount?).

Most other suggestions I’ve already tried/finished (did I mention that I am a PC game junkie). Every single one that Harmonious Discord suggested I’ve played, finished and loved, although to be honest, I did need some online help for the Zork games.

System Shock 2 is also my all time favorites. Sadly I can’t get it to run on my XP or Vista machines. Luckily (or sadly, depends how you look at it) Dead Space is almost an exact copy of the game, although you can’t choose your character.

Garula, (quite a few) Sam & Max’s, Grim Fandango and F.E.A.R. I played and finshed, but I didn’t care for the F.E.A.R. sequels for some reason. Couldn’t get into it. Got bored with Sam & Max too after a while, most episodes had the same buildup and execution.

Not too Sure about Mount & Blade. Doesn’t look like there is a story there. I couldn’t care for a game that only lets you ride horses and shoot people. I need something more than that. The reason I liked Prey, Dead Space and F.E.A.R. more than Unreal was because of the better immersion and story. Unreal was just a shooter.

I have some suggestions of my own, if anyone else is following this thread for their own enjoyment:

  • Oddworld - Abe’s Oddysee was a wonderfully funny platform game. What other game let’s you communicate with other characters through farts?

  • Heart of Darkness was (at the time) beautifully made, and had some real wonderful animation.

  • Prey (more of a big title, but I’m amazed how many people don’t know of it). Wonderful space shooter that let’s you walk on wall and ceilings. The opening sequence was the most chilling sequence I’ve ever seen. Any game that features Blue Oyster Cult should immediately be elevated to Best Game Evar!