Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2021/01/05/review-colt-canyon.html
…
Looks interesting, i like the visual style of it. I’ll put it on my wishlist 
If you want a multiplayer roguelike i recommend Deep Rock Galactic, i’ve been playing it with a friend for the past few months. And recently we’ve also been playing with his teenage kids, it’s still a blast and there’s lots to unlock.
Some other indie games that others might enjoy: Dead Cells, Risk of Rain 2, Sunless Seas/Skies i recently got into if you like weird lovecraftian story telling and slower paced gameplay with resource management. Though i had to lower the difficulty because i found the resource depletion in the regular difficulty really punishing.
1 Like
Perhaps you’ve exhausted Gungeon and all the others?
I have mostly unlocked Enter the Gungeon… it will be hard to full unlock it all…
I thought about getting Exit the Gungeon…
But this too looks up my alley.
I get that I’m not the audience, and no one’s obliged to make stuff to please me. But I could be the audience, and I fritter plenty of money on games despite not having an xbox or a space-heater graphics card. It’s just annoying to me how much energy the games industry puts into driving people like me away.
With triple-A titles, I get it – they’re locked into a feedback loop where they can’t afford to not keep making the same game over and over with more and more triangles. They don’t have a choice.
But the whole point with indie games is that they do. Their canvas is literally the entire span of the human imagination. So it’s depressing that, very often, they still restrict their brief to “characters fighting, over and over, for no reason, in the twitchiest way possible”. Everything else is decoration, and fun doesn’t even enter into it.
Recently I’ve tried to force myself to get into Cuphead and Hades, and in both cases, after a few hours, I just thought “fuck this”. The sound and visuals are great, but the actual gameplay – the interaction I am doing – is both stressful and deeply boring.
Post-gamergate, you don’t even hear people trying to defend games much; it’s like everyone who cares about games has just accepted that the medium will never appeal to most people, and that’s becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Prove me wrong, games industry!
There’s plenty of games that avoid the pitfalls of “fighty boys solve problem by face shooting and stabby stabs” but largely depends on what experience you’re looking for. And even then there are games that do make the combat part pretty engaging and isn’t twitchy or require punishing precision. I suppose if you want some recommendations what are games you’ve played that you liked? Are there any genres you lean towards? Do you play on PC or console?
So lets start a list of good, recent, non “fighty-boys-face-shooty-stabby-stabs-games”, or FBFSSSGs, if you will (in no particular order):
Overcooked
Captain Toad
Most any dancing game
Most any puzzle game
Animal Crossing
Pikmin
Luigi’s Mansion
Unravel
Stardew Valley
Please, add to list!
2 Likes
- No Man’s Sky. It does have combat but it’s more than possible to avoid it and even then the combat isn’t the focus of the gameplay. It has vibes similar to Minecraft, and you can even play in Creative mode.
- Firewatch
- Disco Elysium
- Untitled Goose Game
- The Witness
- Gone Home
- Kerbal Space Program
- Jack Box. Any of their party packs are a blast.
- Raft
- Grounded
I struggle to recommend Fall Guys. It’s not a bad game but it can often be too frustrating and end up losing every single game you start, but would be fun in short bursts. Hmmm, and i haven’t played it myself yet but i have my eye on Spiritfarer
1 Like
SHUMPS aren’t for everyone. Bullet hells are… well… hell sometimes. They are more pure skill based and require timing and learning enemy patterns. I’m not great at them, but I enjoy them.
Enter the Gungeon is one of my favorite games ever, though I wouldn’t consider it a bullet hell game except for boss battles.
My kid and I like to play Fall Guys and Dont Starve Together online.
When she came to visit we played Trine (Which is some stabby stuff, but also mostly puzzles), Human Fall Flat, Fe, Tiny Brains.
I’ve played Rocket League and it was fun.
1 Like
Good idea. Here are some amazing games i’ve been playing from that itch.io BLM bundle:
Wide Ocean Big Jacket
Sagebrush
Far from Noise
The White Door
Nelly Cootalot: Spoonbeaks Ahoy!
A Short Hike
Quadrilateral Cowboy
1 Like
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
