Let’s evangelize some games. - Spreading some positivity in the dark morass of game reviews.

Leonard Helplessness said:
LISA is fucking amazing.
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I finally got around to playing it recently myself. It's easily one of my favorite gaming experiences. It's really hard to beat some of the calculated insanity depicted in LISA's weirdo apocalypse. I just hope Dingaling is still considering another sequel, since he stated that he's not happy with the ending of Lisa: the Joyful.

Also, I have been getting into Fallout 4 recently, the steam sale letting me nab it for cheap, and I expected myself to dislike it more than I actually do. I'm really enjoying it, and I'm more of a New Vegas kind of guy, too. No characters to really have meaningful interactions with, but the gunplay is stellar and the RPG mechanics are still solid.
 
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Hard agree with everyone on Ruiner, I had a fucking blast with that game. I don't really think these count as obscure, but Failbetter Games (the people who make Fallen London) Sunless Seas & Sunless Skies. I backed Skies full disclosure, but these games are fantastic semi-rogue experiences with MASSIVE amounts of backstory & lore. Some of the stuff does indeed make more sense if you're experienced with Fallen London, but I don't think it's absolutely necessary to enjoy, there's always the wiki if you don't know what something is meant to be.

Angels Fall First. I'll let them speak for themselves:

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Wide selection of weapons and tools, ground vehicles and spacecraft to fight with.
Diverse combat opportunities - assume point to clear a building, hunt with a frigate wolfpack as a lineship captain, issue orders from the bridge of your battleship.
Fully operational and pilotable capital ships with playable interiors.
Unique combination of spaceship and infantry combat - board spacestations, shipyards and vessels to capture or destroy them from the inside.
Dogfighting using space interceptors and bombers, launched from capital ships and stations.
Gameplay mechanics designed as a mix of modern elements (customization, loadouts, persistence) and inspirations from classic shooters (frantic, fast-paced firefights).
Commander mode for issuing orders to your squadmates and teammates.
Full AI support - all scenarios can be played both offline and online identically, supporting up to 64 players or bots filling in for the players if required.
Rich science fiction universe setting.

It's been in EA forever, but they're constantly working on it so I've never felt ripped off. It's basically Battlefront with a ton of QOL improvements and all around fun. Warning though, git gud. MP is a slaughter because most of us have been playing this for a few years now, but you'll be okay.


Black Ice. Once again, I'll let them do the talking because I'm on the InDev branch and trust him based on experience:

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Jack into cyberspace at lightspeed in this FPS looter/shooter.
Play solo or jump into online co-op/pvp with up to 10 people.
Hack megacorps, outmaneuver their AI defenses, and steal their procedural loot to customize your arsenal of synergistic weaponry.
Think Borderlands meets Tron.

Also an EA, but the guy's been working on since 2014 and just released a new update in November. Also this:

The Promise:
  • Every update for free
  • Zero microtransactions. This game will only ever cost you money once
  • Zero DRM
  • No copyright takedowns on Let's Play videos
  • Bug fixes will always be high priority
  • Things may change, but I'll always try to change them for the better
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And of course:

Motherfucking Project Nimbus.

You like Flying Mechs? Gundam? Blowing shit up with rocket salvos? Devestated future Earth?

Just trust me on this one, watch the steam videos if you doubt.

(Also available on Ps4 I know as well, both versions are great. And yes I was an EA buy in to this game as well.)

More as I dig through my lists!
 
I've been looking for a worthy successor to Transport Tycoon since 1994. So many games have tried to recapture its lightning in a bottle but all of them failed for various reasons. So much so that the open source TT remake, OpenTTD, has remained the gold standard for nearly 20 years.

But this month Transport Fever 2 was released, and my God they've actually gone and done it. The original TF was promising but let down by a bad interface, excessively high difficulty and a confusing and broken economy system, but all those things are fixed. It has all the flexibility of OpenTTD, you can set it up as everything you could want from these sorts of games, from a hardcore business sim to a giant sandbox model railway. Its like OpenTTD, but it has a modern game engine and at times its absolutely beautiful.

The only thing it's really missing is multiplayer, and it needs some mods and maybe some DLC to plug some of its holes, but those mods are coming out thick and fast now and they've already hugely improved it.

If transport network autism is your thing, you will be in heaven.
 
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Terminator Resistance is a damn good 3D-Fallout style game set in the Future War part of the Terminator setting, You have a nice mix of action, scavenging for resources, and stealth. It's on sale for 30 dollars on steam right now, and it is easily worth that price.
 
Let me tell you about Phantasy Star, a game I feel is criminally overlooked for a variety of reasons. It's hard to see it now, but Phantasy Star was incredibly ground-breaking for the JRPG genre. A lot of things we take for granted in the JRPG genre pretty much started with this game.

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First female lead in an RPG
Sure, Metroid came out a year earlier, and everyone proceeded to cream their pants over the twist ending where "Oh my gosh, I was playing a girl the whole time???!!" and Samus has ever since reigned in the glory of being the prime example of a female protagonist, despite having no personality (and when she did get a personality, everyone fucking HATED IT). Alisa Landale, however, was front and center from beginning to end, with a (for its time) complex plot of a young teenage girl attempting avenge her slain brother by staging a coup against an oppressive interstellar regime.

First RPG with a party with unique personalities
Another thing that gets taken for granted these days is a cast of characters with unique personalities that help drive the plot. Most RPGs at the time would've simply gone with blank slates for characters, if you even saw them at all. Sure, the Dragon Quest series probably beat it to the punch of implementing a party system, but Phantasy Star gave those party members a face and dialogue that made them feel like actual people rather than abstract human-shaped blobs on a screen.

First Sci-Fi RPG
In the 80's, every RPG and their mother was trying to be the next Dragon Quest by ripping off Dungeons and Dragons and Lord of the Rings lore. Phantasy Star proved the genre could be about more than just dragon slaying by blending fantasy tropes with science fiction.

Pushed the limits of its hardware
The first-person dungeon-crawling sequences featured incredibly smooth animation on an 8-bit system that was incredibly mind-blowing in 1987. Not only that, but in Japan, you could purchase an FM sound chip expansion that would enhance the music and sound effects, taking them from these rather crappy PSG bleeps to these awesome FM tunes. While the Master System in the West technically supported this extra sound chip, the expansion port was completely sealed off on Western models. Not that it matters for Phantasy Star, since the FM soundtrack was completely removed from the ROM. Thankfully, there exists an English Translation of the Japanese version by SMS Power that not only enhances the localization from the official localization's crappy Engrish, but lets you play with the vastly superior FM soundtrack instead.

The game does have its age issues. There exists plenty of grinding and money gates here and there, especially in the beginning where Alisa is about as flimsy in combat as a stale biscuit. There are also times where it's unclear on how to proceed, necessitating a guide, and some of the later dungeons can get very winding to the point where you'll need to start drawing your own map. But if those aren't any problem for you, and you love retro games and JRPGs, definitely give this one a shot, especially if you can find that Japanese ROM hack by SMS Power.
 
Some EA games that come to mind for me​
Himeko Sutori

Think I mentioned it before but Himeko Sutori is a good game. It's still Early access, but normally updates every week. It's very similar to final fantasy tactics, but you form lances which act as singular entities, and are made up of multiple characters. They did a big update just a few days ago I think, but I haven't played it since then.


Stellar Tactics

Stellar Tactics is another good early access game, but It's pretty much like Kenshi at this point. It will likely be great when it's done, and the devs are still working on it, but you might die of old age before it's finally complete. (been in development since 2016) As for the gameplay, it's pretty much the Wasteland games in space.


Three Kingdoms: The last Warlord

If you liked the old Romance of The Three Kingdoms games, you'll most likely enjoy this one. It's pretty much in a state at which you could call it complete now, but they're still working on it. The biggest thing they need to improve on is the English localization as there's still a good bit of Engrish in the game, but last I played it, it was nothing so bad that it kills the game.



Fantasy Blacksmith

A fun game, but still buggier than an anthill. It isn't listed as early access, but that's because the devs mistakenly took it out of EA, and Steam wont let them put it back in EA. An enjoyable game, but you really need to be an autist to fully learn and enjoy it since the game mechanics are pretty complex.

(This is from an earlier build)
 
Ughubughughughughughghlug said:
Nice to mention Flame in the Flood, OP. I wanted it as a kid, but I never got around to buying it, and a lot of people said it sucked. I like Americana and I like Louisiana and the Mississippi River. Will need to look into it.

It reminds me a bit of Don't Starve. Except instead of a Burtonesque aesthetic and a sedentary playstyle, you're constantly moving and it's a Southern gothic aesthetic.
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@Screw Danlon

I bought Flame in the Flood for the Winter sale and just had my first proper death. So far I'm liking what I'm seeing. The aesthetic isn't as strong as I hoped for, nor are the Southern gothic influences (at least not yet), but still good.

I like how it's a bleak, realistic survival game with a storybook aesthetic, but isn't a spergy simulator game. That's a niche that I enjoy but nobody has really serviced; until now, the closest I've come is Don't Starve, which is a goofy cartoon world, but realistic in the sense of you having to work with shitty tools made from twigs and stones so you can barely survive hunter-gathering and, if lucky, build a slightly less shitty hovel to live in. With the river, it also feels a little bit like Brian's River (the novel). Nice stuff with the injuries and infections system, makes your suffering more drawn-out.

What sold me was when I got to the second stage where you reach the town. Strong "Last of Us" vibes with the acoustic music and the abandoned buildings, which I adored in that game.

So so far your recommendation has been good.
 
There's only one game worth playing in the entire world. It's called Devil Dice. It's for the original PlayStation and it's the only video game I've ever been good at. 10/10 this game is what we fought WWII for.
 
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