Eight Top Indie Games of 2012
With the holidays over and you playing away at your latest addiction, I mean game, you may have wondered if you missed something in the holiday rush? Well lucky for you as I have my top eight indie games of 2012 to kick your wallet while it still lies on the ground from the beating of this year’s sales.
While your game might not be on the list, let us know in the comments below what indie titles made it on your must have list?
Legend of Grimrock
When Legend of Grimrock first released I immediately had flashbacks of games like Dungeon Master or something I play more regularly now, Dungeons & Dragons. So seeing a game like this, with impressive visuals, a fairly interesting tale of a group bonding together and forced to fight/survive in a mountain prison, you can bet I jumped on this.
Now connect the Steam Workshop mods and the ability to build your own levels and you get a healthy dose of content even if the team behind the game were to move on.
Journey
Journey a game from ThatGameCompany and Sony holds a special place in my heart. As I went to sit down to experience this relatively short game about a character with no discernible features other that a robe and a scarf that allows flight, I was engulfed by the visuals, the animation, the music, but most of all, the human aspect of Journey.
The first time witnessing another player was oddly exciting and when they decided to press forward without me, saddening and isolating.
The developers were able to pull out a response from me even though the only way of communication was a kind of chirp mixed with random movements.
While I won’t spoil the ending, this is a game you need to experience firsthand to understand what others have been talking about.
Hotline Miami
How does one talk to a person in a chicken mask? You don’t as you might be dead on the floor after taking a baseball bat to the head.
Developers Jonatan Söderström and Dennis Wedin’s Hotline Miami is a world filled with color and violence and while many parents would look on this game in disgust, the crudely done killings are there to accent the increasingly dark and distorted world the character “Jacket” lives in.
Tying in the extreme difficultly and repetition of the game, gamers will find the game has no love for those that can’t make the cut.
So why bother?
The game’s difficulty will oddly and disturbingly enough fill you with the same sense of accomplishment you would find in other games, but at the very same moment make your skin crawl as you witness each act of violence your character commits.
You monster.
Natural Selection 2
Natural Selection 2 having been worked on for over a decade has finally hit the desktop of gamers and with it comes a impressively sharp, intuitive, intense, and truly terrifying RTS/FPS.
Players having to choose from the elite marines, the Frontiersmen or the vicious aliens Kharaa will find both sides having their strengths and weakness. Even a lowly Skulk, the starting form for the alien race has advantages to talking down those gun totting marines.
But where a typical shooter would stop there, Natural Selection 2 adds in the commander option. One player on each team will assume the role of a commander giving you options to build and upgrade as the situation demands.
Tie in the level of mod support on Steam from the community and gamers will be enjoying this title for a long time to come.
Fez
Admittedly Fez was not on my list but after truly hearing what friends, family and the community had to say, this has become a beloved game on my XBLA list.
Mixing in –at first 2d graphics then semi 3d graphics- the game spins in a number of colorfully, difficult puzzles, an amazing soundtrack that you will buy just to enjoy when you’re not playing, and stellar design/atmosphere that will have you gnawing at your lip late in the night as you try to solve that one puzzle!
Now if I can only get my Xbox to work again – damn!
Retro City Rampage
What to say about a game that fills in almost every video game, movie, and pop culture reference into a Grand Theft Auto style game? If you said epic, then you are in the right state of mind to play.
Having taken over a decade to make, Retro City Rampage takes everything gamers have come to love from games and turns them all into a massive – nearly – cohesive parody where you play as Player, a man in search of money.
Retro City Rampage initially started out as a love letter to Grand Theft Auto but over the course of the development has truly turned into something unique and worth your investment!
Little nods to movies like Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure or personal adjustments to the border of the game all reveal a level of detail and commitment found throughout.
Mark of the Ninja
Mark of the Ninja is a game having been created by the same team behind Shank series and Don’t Starve but truly crafted in a way that emphasizes stealth and giving the flexibility needed for players to solve difficult situations in unique ways.
Having great animations, impressive environments that make the players think about what to do next and furthering this by adding in customization for which tools the player can use, makes this a definitive stealth title for any avid stealth gamer.
Hawken
Adhesive Games’ Hawken is an interesting game to watch. It is not nearly a true mech game like MechWarrior but it is also not entirely a Call of Duty style of game, though it does lean more towards CoD than anything.
Having a nice mixture of fast paced mech action with customizable mechs similar to how League of Legends does champions, it’s not surprising that once this hit open beta, people started to take note.
Also doesn’t hurt that the games visuals and controls are impressive and responsive.
With multiple different modes, maps, mechs, a variety of customizable options and the game being free to play, you would be insane not to try this unless you hate fun and twitch based shooters.
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