What are the hidden gems of 2020?

[Peek-a-boo!]

Skater XL

Once you get used to its unique control set-up, which is kind of like Skate, but also kind of isn't, and you accept that it doesn't have any challenges or random quests to do, it really is a bloomin' superb take on the skateboarding genre.

There's also half a dozen varied maps that suits both styles (street and vert) of skateboarding too.

A shame 'Skater XL' was forgotten about so quickly, especially when Tony Hawk's loomed closer and closer back in early September — here's hoping this game is given a new lease of life somewhere down the line.

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I am currently playing through 'Paper Mario: The Origami King' at the moment, and while I am enjoying it, I do miss the RPG elements and the lack of a worthwhile battle system.

If you do not mind me asking, how long does Bug Fables take to complete?

 

[Kurtikeya]

Wide Ocean Big Jacket. Probably the most cinematic game I've played in recent years.

Then there's In Other Waters, If Found..., Coffee Talk, Neversong, and Umurangi Generation. Have yet to play Necrobarista and Paradise Killer.

 

[Navidson REC]

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My god that looks right up my alley! Currently enjoying Moving Out in local multiplayer and this is giving me similar vibes. Too bad it's only on Switch. :(

i nvr play RTS games....but Gears of War Tactics is dope.
Looks great. Easy to figure out. Lots of nostalgia for the original game. Cool mechanics

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I should really start this game already. Too much stuff to play, but it's true that Quick Resume on XSX is making it easier than ever to juggle multiple games at once.

 

[vgp]

to be honest something about the aesthetic/atmosphere of being in those little train cars in what little i've seen puts me off that game and is probably the main reason I haven't tried it,just kinda seems too samey in that regard

is that one of those things that is less of a concern in practice?

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I'm in the same boat. I should be excited to play this game according to all the critics. I loved slay. But where I accepted the medicore graphics of slay, the visuals of monster train really prevent me from buying it. But I know I will play it one day, and surely love it.

 

[crazillo]

Nothing comparing to Dreams both in terms of creation as well as unique games, IMO (just check my recent thread for that)

Wasteland 3 and Gears Tactics are up there, too.

I'm sure some titles like Spiritfarer would be on this list, but I haven't played some of the potential candidates yet.

 

[RhoMu31]

It really is a shame more people didn't seem to jump on Lair of the Clockwork God, was my favourite this year by far and it hardly seemed to get any traction at all :(

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I second this, the writing is brilliantly funny and the puzzles are the right blend of taxing without being obtuse.

Check out the earlier games in the Ben there Dan that series too, more traditional point and clicks, with the same hilarious writing.

 

[eltercero]

I love this thread. Thanks for the recommendations, I just bought Jet Lancer since it's on the eshop EU sale.

I agree with the people who have recommended Disc Room. It's a challenging, fun and very well designed arcade.

 

[ScOULaris]

Without a shred of doubt it's these two masterpieces:

They have the highest quality-to-mindshare ratio of any games released this year.

 

[G-X]

For me there has been another thanks to game pass, a lot mentioned so far, but my most played hasn't been yet and it is

A Zelda-isometric Rogue lite, and I am as worn our on rogue games as anyone else, but this game brought back the fun I had when I played Spelunky and Rogue Legacy

 

[TitlePending]

 

[CortexVortex]

The Pathless.
A wonderful and unique adventure from the creators of Abzu. Buy it, you won't regret it.

 

[Aaron D.]

Pretty much my entire GOTY list, lol.

Amazing Cultivation Simulator on Steam

Rise up in a search for immortality in this strategy sim and management game based on Chinese mythology. Rebuild your sect and train new disciples through the path of cultivation. Research magic and gather mystical artifacts, face ancient dangers and other sects in your path to spiritual ascension.

store.steampowered.com

Save 50% on LOGistICAL 3: Earth on Steam

LOGistICAL 3: Earth is a strategy puzzle game where you transport different cargoes to complete all the towns throughout the planet. The whole game is a huge puzzle while each city is its own little piece of puzzling. Plenty of cities are easy enough plus a bunch of tougher challenges.

store.steampowered.com

THE LONGING on Steam

An unusual mix of adventure and idle game. In utter loneliness deep below the surface, it's your task to wait for the awakening of your king... for 400 days.

store.steampowered.com

Save 80% on Plebby Quest: The Crusades on Steam

Survive ambitious rulers dreaming of an empire, outsmart treacherous neighbors longing to burn your spoils, and navigate the religion’s predictably unreasonable demands; you need ask only one question as you build your legacy – “Will you burn them, or be burnt?”

store.steampowered.com

Save 67% on Intergalactic Fishing on Steam

Intergalactic Fishing is a fishing RPG that features procedurally generated content and graphics. Travel to lakes all over the universe and catch unique fish, explore uncharted lakes and sell data, complete quests, upgrade your gear, compete in fishing tournaments, design your own lures, and more!

store.steampowered.com

Save 60% on TROUBLESHOOTER: Abandoned Children on Steam

TROUBLESHOOTER: Abandoned Children is the first season of a turn-based strategy SRPG that takes place in the world of Troubleshooter.

store.steampowered.com

STATIONflow on Steam

STATIONflow is a game about controlling the flow of thousands of passengers by building and managing an efficient underground train station.

store.steampowered.com

Save 75% on Spiritfarer®: Farewell Edition on Steam

Spiritfarer® is a cozy management game about dying. As ferrymaster to the deceased, build a boat to explore the world, care for your spirit friends, and release them into the afterlife. The Spiritfarer Farewell Edition includes the heartwarming base game and three major content updates.

store.steampowered.com

In Other Waters on Steam

Play as an Artificial Intelligence guiding a stranded xenobiologist through a beautiful and mysterious alien ocean. A non-violent sci-fi story, enter a world of wonder, fear and vulnerability, unraveling the history and ecology of an impossible planet. What will you discover together?

store.steampowered.com

 

[Lightjolly]

 

[Avis]

Ok, so I just finished the medium difficulty of this game and have to recommend it in here 5000x over.

Knock Harder.

Play this game. Play this game. Play this game.

It's on sale even right now on steam and worth every penny.

Don't let the game art fool you. It's not really a shooter or horror game, more puzzly.

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I'm self bumping this because the game is great and needs more people to see it. Adding a brief description of what it is:

Basically, there is this zombie apocalypse where these headcrab things jump onto peoples faces and turn them into zombies. You play as 1 of 3 survivors who are trying to stay inside a mansion (?) briefly and survive.

Unfortunately, a headcrab parasite gets you - you then learn it's actually possible to survive, but you have to kill yourself in the dream that the parasite is inducing to "wake up" and get it off you. However, each time you kill yourself you also have a chance of just awaking in another dream.

This means you have a set amount of time to determine whether you are currently in reality or a dream. If time runs out and you're in a dream, the parasite consumes you and you become a zombie. If time runs out and it's real, you survive and win.

It's an incredibly fascinating and addicting game loop with super good use of RNG. An incredible concept executed very well - a lot of the "dream" stuff can be either very subtle or obvious, and there seems to be a LOT of variations that can happen.

 

[StereoVSN]

Pretty much my entire GOTY list, lol.

Amazing Cultivation Simulator on Steam

Rise up in a search for immortality in this strategy sim and management game based on Chinese mythology. Rebuild your sect and train new disciples through the path of cultivation. Research magic and gather mystical artifacts, face ancient dangers and other sects in your path to spiritual ascension.

store.steampowered.com

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How do you like Amazing Cultivation Simulator so far? I've take a look since its been recently released and it seems somewhat intriguing. Pretty decent reviews as well.

 

[Empyrean Cocytus]

Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore. Mix Persona, Fire Emblem, and Japanese entertainment together in a really fun RPG. Amazed it wasn't bigger especially with it having a bigger audience on Switch.

 

[yogurt]

HYPNOSPACE OUTLAW

Did you use the internet in the late 90s? Go play this game.

 

[SeanMN]

Tell Me Why

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Tell Me Why really impressed me. I liked, but not loved, the Life is Strange games from Dontnod, so I was expecting similar with Tell Me Why, but it grabbed me in a way LiS didn't. Def one of my favorite games of the year.

I'd also like to shoutout Observation, which launched last year on PS4 and PC, and only launched on Xbox (in Gamepass) this summer. I hadn't even heard of this game till it landed in Gamepass, and I really enjoyed it.

 

[oasis007]

Concrete Genie

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This came out in late 2019, and was in my top 3 games last year. It's amazing.

 

[Aaron D.]

How do you like Amazing Cultivation Simulator so far? I've take a look since its been recently released and it seems somewhat intriguing. Pretty decent reviews as well.

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Absolutely loving it so far (about 6 hrs. in).

Starts out looking like RimWorld on the surface but then blossoms out into an rpg/character builder where you're striving for immortality via
xianxia mythology though Taoist and Buddhist concepts.

Staggering depth along with lush presentation. I think this one is gonna take the colony-sim fanbase by storm.

 

[Luke88]

Murder by Numbers and 13 Sentinels the thread, kinda fun that they bout have Numbers in the title.

 

[SubvertedTrope]

If you do not mind me asking, how long does Bug Fables take to complete?

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I'm not completely sure cause I was constantly doing sidequests and bounty hunts and playing the minigames, etc. But I did almost everything in 47 hours so I'm assuming this is not off the mark.

Also, I can't believe I forgot to say this: the OST is incredibly good. Like shockingly good, their music guy is a genius.

 

[More_Badass]

Absolutely loving it so far (about 6 hrs. in).

Starts out looking like RimWorld on the surface but then blossoms out into an rpg/character builder where you're striving for immortality via
xianxia mythology though Taoist and Buddhist concepts.

Staggering depth along with lush presentation. I think this one is gonna take the colony-sim fanbase by storm.

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So Chinese mythology Rimworld with a little Crusader Kings?

 

[Instro]

Phoenotopia: Awakening is such a nice little game that shows that the Zelda 2 template can work if you just design all the parts well and don't do asspull dungeon design.

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This looks super cool

 

[Aaron D.]

So Chinese mythology Rimworld with a little Crusader Kings?

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Yes. But the CK element is more interaction with other sects that populate the map rather than within your own dynasty.

EDIT:



But if you're looking for a true CK-like, you simply can't go wrong with Plebby Quest.

Looks cutesy on the surface but spares no depth in the process.

Killer campaign too, spread across 3 extended tutorial scenarios. Really funny writing.

 

[More_Badass]

Yes. But the CK element is more interaction with other sects that populate the map rather than within your own dynasty.

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Interesting

Have you seen the movie The Boxer's Omen? Because those trailers were giving me some Boxer's Omen/Zu Warriors vibes

 

[Deleted member 6122]

Kentucky Route Zero is probably one of the best written games of all time. Like it's a literary achievement up there with classic books, imo. It's been shamefully overlooked though the episodic structure/release schedule certainly didn't do it any favors.

 

[Aaron D.]

Interesting

Have you seen the movie The Boxer's Omen? Because those trailers were giving me some Boxer's Omen/Zu Warriors vibes

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I haven't, but thanks for pointing it out.

I've bookmarked the Wikipedia page for future reference.

 

[Instro]

Man reading through this thread really makes you feel like there is just an overabundance of games out there. I mean I've heard of most of the stuff mentioned in here, but it feels overwhelming to see it all laid out for a single year, when you consider all of the stuff that released that wasn't "under the radar".

 

[StereoVSN]

Absolutely loving it so far (about 6 hrs. in).

Starts out looking like RimWorld on the surface but then blossoms out into an rpg/character builder where you're striving for immortality via
xianxia mythology though Taoist and Buddhist concepts.

Staggering depth along with lush presentation. I think this one is gonna take the colony-sim fanbase by storm.

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Interesting. I do like the Xinxia topics, so might try it during Winter sale.

 

[ghibli99]

Now this is the sort of the thing I'm watching this thread for. Completely flew under my radar and looks exactly my sort of thing. Thanks for bringing it up.

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Same here! Had no idea this game even existed. I bought so many digital games on sale over the holiday, but this is now on my wishlist.

 

[StereoVSN]

Man reading through this thread really makes you feel like there is just an overabundance of games out there. I mean I've heard of most of the stuff mentioned in here, but it feels overwhelming to see it all laid out for a single year, when you consider all of the stuff that released that wasn't "under the radar".

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This is why it is/was hilarious to listen to people blaming the "card flippers" or "trash games" for low sales on some of the better games on Steam. There are too damn many great games out constantly and not nearly enough time. Hell, it's not just Steam. I was trying to browse latest Switch sale and that's plain impossible to do any discovery (~1,500 games on sale).

At least Steam offers tools, but still. Since dev/publishers are truly globalized, and you can have folks producing great games in any part of the world, the sheer number of even better games is crazy. My wishlist for "better" games on Steam is 400 games :P.

 

[ghibli99]

This is why it is/was hilarious to listen to people blaming the "card flippers" or "trash games" for low sales on some of the better games on Steam. There are too damn many great games out constantly and not nearly enough time. Hell, it's not just Steam. I was trying to browse latest Switch sale and that's plain impossible to do any discovery (~1,500 games on sale).

At least Steam offers tools, but still. Since dev/publishers are truly globalized, and you can have folks producing great games in any part of the world, the sheer number of even better games is crazy. My wishlist for "better" games on Steam is 400 games :P.

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Yeah, it's so overwhelming, and the realization that there just aren't enough hours in this lifetime to play them all (plus all the new ones that will come out) gives me a little anxiety if I think about it too much!

Then again, I have no one to blame but myself as I sit here replaying Xenoblade. LOL

 

[StereoVSN]

Yeah, it's so overwhelming, and the realization that there just aren't enough hours in this lifetime to play them all (plus all the new ones that will come out) gives me a little anxiety if I think about it too much!

Then again, I have no one to blame but myself as I sit here replaying Xenoblade. LOL

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Yep, now add books, movies and so on :(. There is not enough time to hit even 50% of the media I really want to play/watch/read. The backlog is ever growing. But, I also do the same thing, feel anxious so start replaying my favorite RPGs or go back to strategy games like EU4, Civ VI, etc... Or I might do another Skyrim/Fallout3-NV-4 modding run or something. That does NOT help.

 

[Confused Cheeseburger]

Carto

 

[Mushlikeahusky]

The single player part of marvels avengers

 

[Gevurztraminer]

I'm self bumping this because the game is great and needs more people to see it. Adding a brief description of what it is:

Basically, there is this zombie apocalypse where these headcrab things jump onto peoples faces and turn them into zombies. You play as 1 of 3 survivors who are trying to stay inside a mansion (?) briefly and survive.

Unfortunately, a headcrab parasite gets you - you then learn it's actually possible to survive, but you have to kill yourself in the dream that the parasite is inducing to "wake up" and get it off you. However, each time you kill yourself you also have a chance of just awaking in another dream.

This means you have a set amount of time to determine whether you are currently in reality or a dream. If time runs out and you're in a dream, the parasite consumes you and you become a zombie. If time runs out and it's real, you survive and win.

It's an incredibly fascinating and addicting game loop with super good use of RNG. An incredible concept executed very well - a lot of the "dream" stuff can be either very subtle or obvious, and there seems to be a LOT of variations that can happen.

Click to shrink...

Missed your first post, but thank you for bumping it with a description. Sounds like what a Half Life game in vr could be, Alyx not-with-standing. Adding to wishlist for sure.

I'll add another game, Lithium City. Very short and sweet isometric action game, sort of like a cyberpunk Hotline Miami. It's the type of game where you are chasing that flow of going through encounters seamlessly, but will probably get stuck in the same room/enemy trying new approaches.

Save 80% on Lithium City on Steam

Lithium City is a stylized isometric action game set in a neon-drenched world of electricity and violence.

store.steampowered.com

Also, glad to see someone else put forth One Step From Eden, really a great game that grows with your skill and knowledge.

 

[ghibli99]

Can I give a special mention to Sagebrush, even though it came out last year on consoles (two years ago on PC)? Only reason I mention it is because I found out about it in 2020 when it was part of the Racial Justice & Equality itch.io bundle. It's so good. First-person narrative adventure game done in a 32-bit/PS1 aesthetic about returning to the site of a cult. Really good story and voice acting. Feel free to edit this out though if it doesn't qualify.

Yep, now add books, movies and so on :(. There is not enough time to hit even 50% of the media I really want to play/watch/read. The backlog is ever growing. But, I also do the same thing, feel anxious so start replaying my favorite RPGs or go back to strategy games like EU4, Civ VI, etc... Or I might do another Skyrim/Fallout3-NV-4 modding run or something. That does NOT help.

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Yeah, other media has definitely fallen off for me in recent years. About halfway through reading The Way of Kings (I sure know how to pick the quick ones! LOL), and I feel like that's going to take me another year to get through at the rate I'm going. Movies, I tend to just rewatch my favorites for those comfy vibes. TV shows seem just as vast as indie games, and with multiple seasons, it's a major time investment.

 

[traB-pU-kciP]

This came out in late 2019, and was in my top 3 games last year. It's amazing.

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Oh God... it's a 2019 game and a year is already passed? I was pretty sure it was released in 2020

 

[ThereAre4Lights]

Tell Me Why really impressed me. I liked, but not loved, the Life is Strange games from Dontnod, so I was expecting similar with Tell Me Why, but it grabbed me in a way LiS didn't. Def one of my favorite games of the year.

I'd also like to shoutout Observation, which launched last year on PS4 and PC, and only launched on Xbox (in Gamepass) this summer. I hadn't even heard of this game till it landed in Gamepass, and I really enjoyed it.

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Tell Me Why hit me way harder than LiS2. The voice acting, music, the characters and mystery were all so well done. And at three episodes, it doesn't wear out its welcome with too much filler.

 

[radioactivez0r]

I saw Beautiful Desolation mentioned a couple times. In case anyone needs a reference point, it's by the dev of the wonderful isometric point and click scifi/horror game Stasis. I bought BD as soon as it was out, but I admit that the heavy South African accents and super super weird narrative didn't grab me immediately.

 

[bixente]

Man reading through this thread really makes you feel like there is just an overabundance of games out there. I mean I've heard of most of the stuff mentioned in here, but it feels overwhelming to see it all laid out for a single year, when you consider all of the stuff that released that wasn't "under the radar".

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Makes me laugh when I see posts such as "Switch has no games" "my Switch is gathering dust" all while hundreds of Switch games are getting rated highly year after year.

 

[rickyson33]

ended up buying monster train while it was still on sale and played it for like 5 hours straight

fun game

 

[Massicot]

I see Bug Fables was mentioned. Good!

Also, I'm sad that Fae Tactics didn't leave a stronger impression on people. Some people thought it was poorly balanced or such, but I adored it. I loved playing such a colorful, challenging game that tried to do something more interesting than "FFT clone".

 

[Zolbrod]

MONSTER TRAIN

If you like deckbuilder games at all buy this

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Came in to say this.
Top 5 GOTY material.

 

[Flevance]

Similar to Celeste, the game is mixed between visual novel, platforms, and puzzles and it's done an excellent job on them all; oh, and both the level designs (and art style overall) and soundtracks were so freaking good in this gem

 

[Semblance]

This is the best throwback horror game I've played. Got the wobbling textures, limited view space, and muffled voice lines that were recorded in someone's bathroom and everything.

 

[SJRB]

Awesome game.

 

[pitt_norton]

Happy to see multiple posts for Huntdown. Make this another!

 

[More_Badass]

Similar to Celeste, the game is mixed between visual novel, platforms, and puzzles and it's done an excellent job on them all; oh, and both the level designs (and art style overall) and soundtracks were so freaking good in this gem

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I can't believe I've never heard or even seen a glimpse of this. It looks gorgeous, the platforming looks really satisfying, and the puzzles look snappy and varied. Thanks for the recommend