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Recently I've come across a few games that surprised me with how much I liked them. I decided to put up this thread to see if this happens to other people and if so they'd recommend theese surprises. Currently the game market is a bit flooded and a lot flows under the radar. I'll start with one and hope other people will contribute with games that surprised them with how good they where.

Eastshade.
This I had never heard about before I played it. It's a first person painting game. The game drops you in a very pretty world full of fable animals and gives you the ability to paint things. Two resources are required to paint something, a canvas and inspiration. Canvases are made by finding wood and cloth scattered in the world. Inspiration is gained by finishing quests, exploring new places, reading books and generally trying new things. drinking a tea can provide inspiration the first time you drink it, for example. You need to be carefull not to waste your inspiration and you canvases. The painting itself is pretty much just a stylish picture of something in the game. Very early I found a character that was sad about a shipwreck. I went to paint the ship and the character was very happy to have the scene in painting as a memory, without her giving me a quest to do so. This gave me some in game currency as a reward, and set the tone for how I needed to approach the game. Most of the game is quests of people asking you to paint specific objects or too look for certain rare things to paint for them. It's quite simple and has a childrens fairytale vibe to it. I don't want to call it a walking simulator because I feel like it's really not. I played through the enitire thing and was left thinking it'd been a while since I enjoyed a game so much. I'll end with a screenshot of the game where the painting mechanic is included.

That's a good idea for a thread.

If' d give such a hidden gem , i'd say Verdun.
It is a WW1 shooter, surprise, and not to everyones liking because it is damn hard, but, if you gotten into it it offers a surprising ammount of content, great teamplay and in general alot of charachter for a small price

There's a lot of stuff out there that can fall into guilty pleasure, hidden gem or under the radar territory.

On my mind right now is Brigador, a isometric mecha-game that was dead on arrival due to not being the game it advertised to be. The following review pretty much nails it for me:




TLDW: Rich lore, great soundtrack, awesome graphics and giving off some great Raptor vibes; Everything can be destroyed and every thing that you destroy nets you cash, which you can spend on more mechs, pilots, missions or lore.

There's a game I had never heard about before that was just released to Steam 1-2 months ago and now it's in my top 10 games of all time: Persona 4 Golden.
I'm a PC gamer, first and foremost. 98% of my lifetime gaming has been on PC, with the remaining 2% on Nintendo platforms. I had never heard of the Persona series, although I had known of the developer, Atlus. About two months ago, headlines on various gaming sites announced the surprise release of P4G for Steam. The headlines mentioned how it was one of the best PS2 games ever, and that it's the only reason people still own a PS Vita today. I noticed the Steam reviews were "Overwhelmingly Positive" and thought, for $20, I'll try it. I don't watch anime and I don't really play many JRPGs, but I absolutely adore this game and I'm on my second playthrough.


In closing, Yukiko is best girl.

Oh god, I think some of my favorites were ones I never expected I would ever like.

Prospector - Got into this one after Dwarf Fortress. Thought it would be a good time waster for a coffee break. Actually, it’s a bit more than that. It’s a roguelike that feels like gambling, where you’re looking to make as much money as possible and retire before meeting your untimely demise to anything in space. You can finish at any time, but the aim seems to be to get the best property to retire on (a planet) and finish.

Troubleshooter - Anime X-Com. You play as superhero mercenaries, and beat up a cult of Spoon worshippers (I’m not kidding). The systems are complicated and not explained very well, but they are actually surprisingly in-depth. Looking at the reviews, apperantly they’ve added tons of widgets to the combat as well. Prolly the best part about this thing is the development itself. It’s still in development, but the devs are actually extremely receptive to feedback and communicative. You can kind of tell that this is more of a passion project they enjoyed making, which I’ve always had a soft spot for. I recall a recent instance when a bug caused people to lose progress on their saves. The devs noticed, apologized, and sent some in-game stuff as a consolation.

Din’s Curse - Very similar to the first Diablo game, including the loot system, confinement to one town, and randomized dungeons. Where this game differs from Diablo however, is that the world is actually alive. Monsters will not wait for you in the dungeons. If you take too long, monsters will invade the town. These invasions will actually get stronger and stronger as time progresses.

The monsters themselves will also become stronger and more numerous as the game progresses. You can frequently encounter them fighting each other in the dungeons, and they will level up as they do so. These can make for some challenging skirmishes, especially if enough high-level monsters show up. This isn’t a matter of slaying just the main boss too. You need to complete each and every quest in that town before you’re allowed to move to the next one.

Eador: Genesis - I’m honestly really surprised this one doesn’t get more attention. It plays like a large-scale 4X Heroes of Might and Magic. You take command of some heroes, and expand your empire by exploring provinces. Sometimes it could be something as simple as a weapon shop. Other times, you could encounter a wizard tower for a quest. On top of that, you use these heroes and their attached armies to conquer other civilizations.

There are also some situations in which random events can occur, and you will have to make decisions. These decisions usually have some kind of benefit and drawback, but they also allow you to play as a benevolent leader or vicious tyrant. Sometimes, the decision you believe is “right” can have unintended consequences...

Big drawback however, is that this game is HARD. The AI players are like vultures, and they will knock you down the moment you show any weaknesses.

DS Age of Empires/Mythologies - Age of Empires actually got DS remakes. I didn’t even know the PC ones existed until recently. These ones play a bit more like board games, so it has a different feel. This also means you don’t have to rush through each game.

 Tannhauser42 wrote:
There's a game I had never heard about before that was just released to Steam 1-2 months ago and now it's in my top 10 games of all time: Persona 4 Golden.
I'm a PC gamer, first and foremost. 98% of my lifetime gaming has been on PC, with the remaining 2% on Nintendo platforms. I had never heard of the Persona series, although I had known of the developer, Atlus. About two months ago, headlines on various gaming sites announced the surprise release of P4G for Steam. The headlines mentioned how it was one of the best PS2 games ever, and that it's the only reason people still own a PS Vita today. I noticed the Steam reviews were "Overwhelmingly Positive" and thought, for $20, I'll try it. I don't watch anime and I don't really play many JRPGs, but I absolutely adore this game and I'm on my second playthrough.


In closing, Yukiko is best girl.

I remember the early Youtube days when this thing absolutely blew up. Apperantly it’s extremely long? Still have to give it a try sometime.
In closing, Chie is better.

Eador: Genesis - I’m honestly really surprised this one doesn’t get more attention. It plays like a large-scale 4X Heroes of Might and Magic. You take command of some heroes, and expand your empire by exploring provinces. Sometimes it could be something as simple as a weapon shop. Other times, you could encounter a wizard tower for a quest. On top of that, you use these heroes and their attached armies to conquer other civilizations.

I picked up Eador Masters of the Broken World. (the nominal sequel).

Hated it. Gave up completely after a couple tries. The AI garrisons just completely outmatched any army I could build in any way at all. As soon as I hit an AI player, the game was effectively over- they'd outnumber my army and have higher tier units, and player advantage over computer opponents just didn't help with their battle system- it simply came down to raw numbers = fail.

A shame, because the idea was interesting (and has since been picked up and recycled multiple times), but I just couldn't get past the gameplay barrier (despite having played most of the Heroes of Might and Magics, Master of Magic, Endless Legend, Fallen Enchantress, Age of Wonders and Warlock)

Gladius, an isometric turn-based tactical RPG about gladiators.

It has been frequently called "one of the best games no one ever played."

This game was surprisingly made by Lucas Arts and was a true gem. Unfortunately it doesn't seem anyone bought it at release. It's become a cult classic over time but apparently the source code has vanished into the void and we're unlikely to ever see a rerelease.

 LordofHats wrote:
Gladius, an isometric turn-based tactical RPG about gladiators.

It has been frequently called "one of the best games no one ever played."

This game was surprisingly made by Lucas Arts and was a true gem. Unfortunately it doesn't seem anyone bought it at release. It's become a cult classic over time but apparently the source code has vanished into the void and we're unlikely to ever see a rerelease.

I have it on Gamecube. It is indeed, fantastic.

If you care, you can read my review here /plug

 SkavenLord wrote:

 Tannhauser42 wrote:
There's a game I had never heard about before that was just released to Steam 1-2 months ago and now it's in my top 10 games of all time: Persona 4 Golden.
I'm a PC gamer, first and foremost. 98% of my lifetime gaming has been on PC, with the remaining 2% on Nintendo platforms. I had never heard of the Persona series, although I had known of the developer, Atlus. About two months ago, headlines on various gaming sites announced the surprise release of P4G for Steam. The headlines mentioned how it was one of the best PS2 games ever, and that it's the only reason people still own a PS Vita today. I noticed the Steam reviews were "Overwhelmingly Positive" and thought, for $20, I'll try it. I don't watch anime and I don't really play many JRPGs, but I absolutely adore this game and I'm on my second playthrough.


In closing, Yukiko is best girl.

I remember the early Youtube days when this thing absolutely blew up. Apperantly it’s extremely long? Still have to give it a try sometime.
In closing, Chie is better.

It is quite long. But it's got a good and well-deserved reputation.

I've played all but the first game, and they're all pretty good. But there's a big shift in playstyle between the two 2 games (there are two Persona 2 games; the second one - Eternal Punishment - is the only straight sequel to-date in the series, even though there are clear links in the background of all the games, like the Rise poster in the protagonist's room in Persona 5). The first games were written as more standard JRPGs. The third game is the one where they introduced the school year and time schedule mechanic. The third game also got rid of the "parley with the monsters" mechanic that the series had inherited from Shin Megami Tensai. That didn't come back until the most recent game, Persona 5.

'Persona 4: The Golden' had previously only been available on the PSP, which limited its audience in the West. The PC release means that a lot of people get to see the expanded content for the first time (the base Persona 4 was released on the PS2).

Atlus has also been having fun with spin-off games for the more recent games. There are music rhythm games for 3, 4, and 5, two fighting games that combine the casts of 3 and 4, two 'Q' games that combine the casts of the more recent games (one that combines 3 and 4, and one that combines 3, 4, and 5) in RPG adventures. And finally, a Muso-style (i.e. similar to Dynasty Warriors) game was recently released in Japan using the cast of Persona 5. A worldwide release for that game is planned, but has not yet been announced.

Needless to say, the series is doing quite well.


Hopefully all of the games will see a release on the PC at some point in the not-too-distant future.

 BrookM wrote:
There's a lot of stuff out there that can fall into guilty pleasure, hidden gem or under the radar territory.

On my mind right now is Brigador, a isometric mecha-game that was dead on arrival due to not being the game it advertised to be. The following review pretty much nails it for me:




TLDW: Rich lore, great soundtrack, awesome graphics and giving off some great Raptor vibes; Everything can be destroyed and every thing that you destroy nets you cash, which you can spend on more mechs, pilots, missions or lore.

Brigador rules. I've been playing it on and off all year. There is a surprisingly large amount of content compared to what you'd expect for an indie game like this.

Also the radiation gun is rad.

Eumerin wrote:

 SkavenLord wrote:

 Tannhauser42 wrote:
There's a game I had never heard about before that was just released to Steam 1-2 months ago and now it's in my top 10 games of all time: Persona 4 Golden.
I'm a PC gamer, first and foremost. 98% of my lifetime gaming has been on PC, with the remaining 2% on Nintendo platforms. I had never heard of the Persona series, although I had known of the developer, Atlus. About two months ago, headlines on various gaming sites announced the surprise release of P4G for Steam. The headlines mentioned how it was one of the best PS2 games ever, and that it's the only reason people still own a PS Vita today. I noticed the Steam reviews were "Overwhelmingly Positive" and thought, for $20, I'll try it. I don't watch anime and I don't really play many JRPGs, but I absolutely adore this game and I'm on my second playthrough.


In closing, Yukiko is best girl.

I remember the early Youtube days when this thing absolutely blew up. Apperantly it’s extremely long? Still have to give it a try sometime.
In closing, Chie is better.

It is quite long. But it's got a good and well-deserved reputation.

I've played all but the first game, and they're all pretty good. But there's a big shift in playstyle between the two 2 games (there are two Persona 2 games; the second one - Eternal Punishment - is the only straight sequel to-date in the series, even though there are clear links in the background of all the games, like the Rise poster in the protagonist's room in Persona 5). The first games were written as more standard JRPGs. The third game is the one where they introduced the school year and time schedule mechanic. The third game also got rid of the "parley with the monsters" mechanic that the series had inherited from Shin Megami Tensai. That didn't come back until the most recent game, Persona 5.

'Persona 4: The Golden' had previously only been available on the PSP, which limited its audience in the West. The PC release means that a lot of people get to see the expanded content for the first time (the base Persona 4 was released on the PS2).

Atlus has also been having fun with spin-off games for the more recent games. There are music rhythm games for 3, 4, and 5, two fighting games that combine the casts of 3 and 4, two 'Q' games that combine the casts of the more recent games (one that combines 3 and 4, and one that combines 3, 4, and 5) in RPG adventures. And finally, a Muso-style (i.e. similar to Dynasty Warriors) game was recently released in Japan using the cast of Persona 5. A worldwide release for that game is planned, but has not yet been announced.

Needless to say, the series is doing quite well.


Hopefully all of the games will see a release on the PC at some point in the not-too-distant future.

Funny thing. I was talking to a friend about this, and he noticed that the file or one of the other files is called "Day". We figured it seemed to imply that Persona 3 or "Night" might be showing up at some point. I heard that Atlus was very much against PC ports, but it's possible that the success of the Catherine port may have changed their tune slightly.
Thanks for the heads-up on the spinoffs too! Forgot that 4 had so many of them over the years.

Voss wrote:

Eador: Genesis - I’m honestly really surprised this one doesn’t get more attention. It plays like a large-scale 4X Heroes of Might and Magic. You take command of some heroes, and expand your empire by exploring provinces. Sometimes it could be something as simple as a weapon shop. Other times, you could encounter a wizard tower for a quest. On top of that, you use these heroes and their attached armies to conquer other civilizations.

I picked up Eador Masters of the Broken World. (the nominal sequel).

Hated it. Gave up completely after a couple tries. The AI garrisons just completely outmatched any army I could build in any way at all. As soon as I hit an AI player, the game was effectively over- they'd outnumber my army and have higher tier units, and player advantage over computer opponents just didn't help with their battle system- it simply came down to raw numbers = fail.

A shame, because the idea was interesting (and has since been picked up and recycled multiple times), but I just couldn't get past the gameplay barrier (despite having played most of the Heroes of Might and Magics, Master of Magic, Endless Legend, Fallen Enchantress, Age of Wonders and Warlock)

Yeah. From my understanding, MotBW and Imperium were not especially good. A nice graphical overhaul, but also really buggy in places. That and yeah, all three kind of have broken AI. I swear, the diplomacy is so broken it makes the Civ leaders look reasonable.

This came to mind pretty quick, only issue I had was once you beat the game the convoys don't respawn. And taking those down was one of the key fun points of the game in terms of action. I also would get motion sickness playing this, or something like that. I don't know if it's from my eyes tracking the moving cars on the screen or if it's the fov or what but I got real sick last time I tried to play it.

 slave.entity wrote:
Brigador rules. I've been playing it on and off all year. There is a surprisingly large amount of content compared to what you'd expect for an indie game like this.

Also the radiation gun is rad.

I see what you did there. It's right up there with the gas launchers as some of the most brutal weapons I've used in a game like this.

I quite like the Zeus on a Buckmaster Hunter, though this is mostly due to the audio book. Also, the air bursting heavy artillery, so rewarding to use!

 Thargrim wrote:



This came to mind pretty quick, only issue I had was once you beat the game the convoys don't respawn. And taking those down was one of the key fun points of the game in terms of action. I also would get motion sickness playing this, or something like that. I don't know if it's from my eyes tracking the moving cars on the screen or if it's the fov or what but I got real sick last time I tried to play it.

I enjoyed it a lot around the time it was released and agree that once you unlock the Interceptor and sawn-off shotgun, there's not much left to do sadly.

Mad Max is superb. Excellent game engine and superb story. All the more so as it could’ve just been a cheap cash in on Fury Road, a film which also exceeded expectations.

Mind you. I’m also a big fan of Arkham and Spider-Man, so maybe it’s just the right kinda game for me.

Ah I loved Mad Max - think I missed it first time around (wasn't it released at the same time as Fallout 4 or something stupid?)

It got a bit samey later on but was great fun trying to complete the car collections and things like that.

 filbert wrote:

 LordofHats wrote:
Gladius, an isometric turn-based tactical RPG about gladiators.

It has been frequently called "one of the best games no one ever played."

This game was surprisingly made by Lucas Arts and was a true gem. Unfortunately it doesn't seem anyone bought it at release. It's become a cult classic over time but apparently the source code has vanished into the void and we're unlikely to ever see a rerelease.

I have it on Gamecube. It is indeed, fantastic.

If you care, you can read my review here /plug

Thanks for the tip! That sounds great, have just added to my wishlist

 Tannhauser42 wrote:
There's a game I had never heard about before that was just released to Steam 1-2 months ago and now it's in my top 10 games of all time: Persona 4 Golden.
I'm a PC gamer, first and foremost. 98% of my lifetime gaming has been on PC, with the remaining 2% on Nintendo platforms. I had never heard of the Persona series, although I had known of the developer, Atlus. About two months ago, headlines on various gaming sites announced the surprise release of P4G for Steam. The headlines mentioned how it was one of the best PS2 games ever, and that it's the only reason people still own a PS Vita today. I noticed the Steam reviews were "Overwhelmingly Positive" and thought, for $20, I'll try it. I don't watch anime and I don't really play many JRPGs, but I absolutely adore this game and I'm on my second playthrough.


In closing, Yukiko is best girl.

Agreed - Persona 4 is great - im in January with just one more "dungeon" to go from what I can tell to finish my 1st playthru. Also no, Rise is tops lol

Persona 5 is amazing as well - it was one primary reason I picked up a PS4. I would not be stunned to see it on PC in maybe a year or two.....

I remember playing persona 4 back on the PS2 way back when and absolutely loving it. I recommended it to a lot of my friends but generally it didn't caught on. Glad to see it's got the attention and love it deserves. Also glad to see this thread be so alive. I'm particularly interested in looking into Gladius. Now time for another surprisingly good game.

The longing
This one I'd never heard about before I picked it up either. It's a strange combination of adventure, puzzle and idle game. Idle is usually not a genre I'm interested in but here it's taken to a new level. I feel like I need to start with the story on this one. The game begins with a godlike being awakening you. The god is on the verge of death and needs to sleep for 400 days to regain his strengths. You are his last servant, a shade (small goblin creature). He asks only that you remain within his realm while he sleeps, then he promises to "end all longing". A timer then starts in real time and the game runs for 400 days. After 400 days the game ends. Most of the game is exploring the kingdom of the god and finding ways to pass the time. Time speeds up when you do various activities, such as playing music, drawing or reading books. You begin with nothing and need to find activities to pass the time. All the while the shade is very lonely. Then you start questioning what you're waiting for. What will happen when the god wakes up? Is there a world outside of his realm? Why can't you go there? The visuals are all kind of cartony in a cute visual style. The music is generally sombre. The make or break thing of this game will probably be its speed. The shade walks very slowly. Its to the point when you're usually better of having the shade walk somewhere and then alt tabbing. I guess from the shades perspective he's fast because he has all the time in the world. However, whenever you unlock a new area or explore a new place it's very rewarding. It's also one of those games that work with the achievements. The steam achievements are clues on how to progress the game and commonly changes something with the shade, either developing it as a character or making its life just a little bit more comfortable. I utterly fell in love with this game. The game is available on steam. Like with my last post I'll end this with a screenshot.

Another vote for Brigador for me. The most recent three that I played that really blew me away were:

1) Pathologic 2. I legitimately think I just forgot what playing a video game that was actually difficult felt like. A game where you were like "dang, I hope I don't LOSE this whole video game and have to start over" where the retry state was not just "load game, play the 15 seconds where you died over again to try and do it right this time."

I actually did lose the game, about 20 hours in. Could not progress further 75% of the way into the game. It says something about how much I liked it that I IMMEDIATELY restarted, and the sheer rush of the power fantasy of knowing what to do in the early days and amassing an impossible stockpile to become EGGLORD, LORD OF EGGS, MASTER OF THE STEPPE AND KING OF ALL HE SURVEYS more than made up for the lost time. Also, there's enough going on in the game world that I could basically have a whole second experience by going and talking to different people.

2) Cultist Simulator. Is the gameplay pattern literally the most simple, stripped down skinner's box of a thing ever? Yes. Is there enough moment to moment tension and strategy involved that you actually do feel like you need to devote your brain energy to it? Yes. Is the story such a wonderful exploratory experience that you lose the fact that you are literally sitting there looking at squares and timers and just reading every bit of text you can get your hands on? Also yes.

3) Brigador. Wonderful gameplay, made me feel like I was a kid playing Mechwarrior isometric games. As others have said, there's a surprising amount of game there.

Transformers Devastation.

It’s glorious, but short. Definitely a personal favourite.

Pawnbarian (https://j4nw.itch.io/pawnbarian): You're on a 5x5 grid and are dealt chess move cards to defeat the enemies, I've somehow put over 8 hours into the demo!

Vangers (https://www.gog.com/game/vangers): A combat driving RPG that looks like it was made in paint and controls like a pig but somehow manages to be weird and engrossing in just the right way.

This was a game that came out a while ago but Spec Ops: The Line was absolutely a game which I didn't care about. It came out on Games with Gold for the Xbox and wow was I surprised. I never picked it up because I was thinking "Oh great another modern shooter in Iraqistan where I'll shoot endless terrobaddies". Could not have been more wrong. Superb story which is the exact opposite to that and the soundtrack is mighty peachy too.