Tons of awesome games come out every month, but in the shadow of high-profile AAA titles, even the best ones can slip under our radars. Whether you’re a fan of challenging post-apocalyptic platformers, creepy puzzle games, or charming dating sims, there’s plenty to love in this month’s roundup.
For more, check out our list on the most-anticipated 2017 indie games, a love letter to the glory of weird, free web games, or dive into last month's must-play games roundup.
Playing Wire Wood Daughters feels like chasing a chain of recollections triggered by a mundane object, or returning to a place you were once familiar with and reliving fading moments from the past. It’s a moody exploration of memory, punctuated by personal collectibles scattered about a dim forest (broken glass, old coins, a brass button) and narrated by a glitched and fragmented voice from off-screen. The contrast between the sepia otherworld of the woods and the cold machinery of the bright green underground you occasionally wander into creates a rollercoaster of tension that never subsides, especially when a mysterious spirit starts to trail behind you. I love the noisy soundscapes that underscore the whole experience, against the deeply personal bits of narration.
Play if you like: The Path, Limbo
Available:itch.io
Little Red Lie is like a gut punch or a splash of ice cold water to the face. It’s an interactive story about the horror and uncertainty of a life plagued by financial debt and the ever-present feeling of failure that comes with it, particularly as it relates to the generation of people born in the ‘80s and ‘90s. The entire story is delivered with a twist: the only way to engage with the people around you is to lie — lie about work, lie about your life, lie about your thoughts, feelings, and motivations. But Little Red Lie doesn’t flirt with abstracts. It’s boldly unafraid to drill deep into its subject matter, which can result in moments that are both terrifyingly relatable and hopelessly cynical. If you have a lot of conflicted feelings while playing Little Red Lie, that’s probably the intention — at times you might be struck by its ability to confront such specific generational anxieties and at others you might find yourself internally debating its stark nihilism. Perhaps the most clever part of Little Red Lie’s core lying “mechanic” is the way it serves to highlight not only the ways people tend to deceive others in their fight for survival, but also the ways we tend to lie to ourselves.
Play if you like: Actual Sunlight, To the Moon
Despite being a little rough and hard to control, Night & Fire is hypnotizing. Your only goal in it is to power a strange machine in the middle of the forest, but it’s a lot harder than it sounds. Figuring out the actual mechanics of the contraption is the first piece of the puzzle, but once you do, you have to balance that with kindling a small campfire so it doesn’t get too dark and keeping an eye on the creatures lurking at the edges of the screen, waiting for the light to fade. Darting from one pump or lever or valve to the next creates a comforting rhythm, but you can never get too involved with one thing because there’s always something else to deal with — whether it’s releasing steam before it drains the machine’s energy meter or powering down the whole thing before it attracts the vicious dogs that lie in wait in the woods… not to mention the fact that the machine itself becomes more complicated with every stage. According to its itch.io page, Night & Fire is a demo for something larger, but even in its state as a small, occasionally janky prototype, it’s a satisfyingly eerie and compelling standalone puzzle worth checking out.
Play if you like: Inside, Five Nights at Freddy’s
Available:itch.io
The End Is Nigh is a surprise game from Super Meat Boy co-designer Edmund McMillen and Closure creator Tyler Glaiel. Another challenging 2D platformer like Meat Boy, The End Is Nigh stands out with the way it strings together over 600 single-challenge screens to create an interconnected open-world adventure. It isn’t quite a Metroidvania, but there’s plenty of room for backtracking and discovering hidden rooms and secrets rather than following a linear path through each puzzle. While it’s darker in tone than Meat Boy (the black blob of a hero reminds me of McMillen’s earlier game, Gish), it still has that same crude humor you’ll either love or hate about McMillen’s work. But as a silly post-apocalyptic platformer, it does the job and does it well.
Play if you like: Super Meat Boy, VVVVVV
Available:Steam
When it comes to games emulating iconic art styles, the Flemish renaissance isn’t very high up on the list of inspirations. That’s why Lupus in Fabula stands out. A standard puzzle-platformer and admittedly a bit janky at times, Lupus in Fabula manages to create something strange and silly out of cut-out paintings from 16th century Dutch artists. It’s Monty Pyton-esque in its absurdism and worth a look if you want something weird and new.
Play if you like: Monty Python
Available:Steam
In most action games, you’re the one committing acts of violence. It’s become such a normal part of games that we don’t even think about the aftermath — only games like Hotline Miami have really forced us to confront it. Then there’s Serial Cleaner. In Serial Cleaner, you play a “professional cleaner” for a criminal organization. It’s your job to clean up crime scenes and dispose of bodies without being detected, a challenge that combines strategy and stealth with fast-paced action — cleaning action. Its blood-splattered ‘70s style manages to keep it cartoonish enough to avoid being too gruesome — it reminds me of Saul Bass’s poster work (Anatomy of a Murder in particular) or minimalist comic books — but it’s still a game about cleaning up hits.
Play if you like: Hotline Miami, Viscera Cleanup Detail
Available:Steam
If you like minimalist puzzle games, especially for your phone, Shn!p does a great job at creating something fresh from familiar ideas. It’s part matching game and part sliding tile puzzler with 160 levels of increasingly tough challenges, and enough new obstacles and mechanics sprinkled throughout to keep it interesting to the end.
Play if you like: Two Dots, Threes
As the name suggests, RetroHOT is inspired by both retro first-person shooters and SUPERHOT, with the controls of old-school Wolfenstein and the “time only moves when you do” mechanic of the popular experimental FPS from last year. It exaggerates the washed-out CRT monitor look to create a sharp style rooted in both nostalgia and new glitch aesthetics that keep it looking sharp in its own unique way.
(Bonus: SUPERHOT itself actually came out on PlayStation 4 this month too.)
Play if you like: Wolfenstein, SUPERHOT
Available:itch.io
Published and developed by comedy Let’s Play duo Game Grumps, Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator is exactly what it sounds like. You’re a single dad who moves into a new neighborhood full of other single dads. While dating is obviously a major part of the game, being a good dad to your daughter is also a key part of the story. The romantic visual novel has gained massive popularity this month not solely because of the big names behind it, but also for its humorous and charming writing and heartwarming story.
Play if you like: 2064: Read Only Memories, VA-11 HALL-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action
Available:Steam
It may be a self-described “micro-adventure” game, but despite its simple style and presentation, The Darkside Detective has a lot of heart. You play Detective Francis McQueen, head of the Darkside Division, as he investigates six supernatural mysteries in the strange Twin Lakes City. If you’re looking for the hair-pulling puzzles of classic side-scrolling adventures, you probably won’t find it here – The Darkside Detective is more concerned with style, wit, and personality, and that’s probably a good thing. It has the charm of an old-school adventure game, but it’s lighter on the overcomplicated problem-solving.
Play if you like: Thimbleweed Park, The Last Door
Available:Steam
Last year’s popular local multiplayer cooking game and friend-destroying sim Overcooked is now on the Nintendo Switch. In this frantic, four-player cook-off, players must work together to put together increasingly complicated dishes under a strict time limit. Preparation includes getting ingredients ready, cooking the food, serving it up, and then cleaning the work area. Adding to the challenge is the fact that your work area changes with every game, sometimes to comical degrees — not only will appliances be in different locations, but the kitchen might not even be on solid ground. Overcooked is widely regarded as one of the best couch co-op games in recent years. It’s also on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
Play if you like: Cook, Serve, Delicious!, Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes
Available:Nintendo eShop, Steam, PlayStation Store, Microsoft Store
Sundered is a hand-drawn action horror game from the creators of Jotun. Instead of pulling from Norse mythology like they did for Jotun’s viking-inspired world, the creators of Sundered set their new game in a strange, procedurally generated dungeon full of eldritch horrors. It has all the usual ingredients for fans of tougher action games: part Metroidvania, with some roguelike inspirations thrown in. It also has some massive boss fights. Its colorful hand-drawn style and the sometimes odd animations that bring it to life sometimes make Sundered look like a twisted cartoon, which sets it apart from most of the usual grimdark horror fare we’ve seen lately. An interesting take on a pretty standard subgenre at this point.
Play if you like: Dead Cells, Jotun
Available:Steam, PlayStation Store
Tumblestone came out on Steam last year, but is arriving on iOS and Android sometime today. At a glance, you wouldn’t be able to tell its colorful multiplayer match-3 action is from the creator of The Bridge, the award-winning M.C. Escher-inspired black and white puzzle game that came out in 2013. But once you actually dive into Tumblestone or play head to head against some friends, you’ll realize there’s a lot more to it than it seems.
Play if you like: Bust-a-Move (Puzzle Bobble), Tetris, Bejeweled
Available:Steam, App Store, Google Play
Chloi Rad is an Associate Editor for IGN. Follow her on Twitter at @_chloi.
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