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Top Indie Games You Wouldn't Mind Paying For
Alan Skorkin writes "If you are sick of the boring and overpriced commercial games, then have a look at this list. These are
some of the best indie games out there — innovative, immersive, great gameplay and very reasonably priced (some are even free). You would never feel cheated after buying and playing these games. In fact, you would feel like you got the better end of the deal, and that is a lot more than can be said for the vast majority of commercial games out there."
I was seriously impressed with the combat on horseback. When I tried the game, the rest of it was a bit of a clear work-in-progress (that may have changed now), but I've never seen horseback combat done as well as that.
DRM-free indie games for the PC and Mac: Positech Games
I haven't played most of the games on the list, however I have played Mount and Blade. And it really is a great game. The graphics are a bit dated, but the gameplay is fantastic. It has easily the best melee combat I've ever played. (It puts Oblivion to shame in that regard.) I downloaded and tried the demo, and it wasn't long before I purchased a serial for it.
For folks who want a bit more detail, the melee combat system works thus: you control the direction of every swing as well as block, by how you move your mouse when you start the swing or block (but there are other options you can choose from, if that doesn't suit your style). The same works when fighting on horseback, and when you're using a pole-arm on horseback you can couch it and run enemies through with it for massive damage. Also, if you run over foot soldiers with your horse, they get knocked down and take damage.
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An entire series of rather graphically and musically impressive shooters--all made by a single programmer in his spare time. They're a hell of a lot of fun to play, and their difficult ranges from mildly challenging to rather crazy to utterly nightmarish.
The best free games I've found in a while are Shmups from . Most of them have linux packages, and the windows versions work great in wine too. Fast paced, colorful, intense arcade shooters, it doesn't get much better than this. Go play Torus Trooper and tell me your jaw doesn't drop.
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Braid is not listed!?!
Having gotten the demo, I had to buy it. The game is absolutly brilliant. It is a work of art, with mindbending, unique puzzles, AND a lot of fun, all at the same time.
If you have an XBOX 360, install the free demo, and if you like it, buy it.
Test your net with Netalyzr
Defcon is wonderful, and it's by the same people that do Uplink and Darwinia, and like their other games, comes in Windows, Mac, and Linux versions.
I agree with the author of the article that Depths of Peril is probably the best indie RPG available today. But of course I haven't played them all. (And he's obviously slanted towards RPGs based on his list.)
I find more and more that my game purchases are smaller games, or just donating on the Paypal buttons of freeware games I like. The last indie game I bought was a simple, mindless (but strangely addictive - at least at first) tile RPG called Battle of Tiles that cost $4.95.
There are so many indie games (freeware and shareware) out there that it's hard to find time to sort through them all.
I have burned so much time in Mount & Blade.
It's such a great sandbox rpg game. There are so many ways to play, without even getting into the mods available. Also, this is a great time to start playing since the game is in its final beta stages.
In the new version, the start is fairly difficult. I'd recommend spending the first few levels participating in the melees in the city arenas and training in the training grounds.
With all the great indie games out these days, I don't know why I occasionally buy retail. I always come back to Mount & Blade and Dwarf Fortress.
Geneforge series, Exile series, Avernum, Nethergate- all are simply brilliant. I liked Exile 3 most of all, but all are well worth playing.
--Coder
This is about indie games, that means the more obscure kind. SoaSE is a front shelf title and I don't think I'd call it anything close to indie, at least not in the sense that needs blog posts to get exposure. You can see it in any store on display, it has the big, ugly "Games for Windows" logo on the box, Amazon even claims it's published by Midway. It really doesn't belong into this discussion (could just as well bring up Super Mario Galaxy).
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It's worth noting that Positech is the game company which gained some Slashdottery earlier by being the company whose developer opened a dialogue with software pirates to find out why they do what they do. And because of that, he has removed all DRM and dropped the prices of his games and made bigger and better demos... and a bunch of other things. He's worth checking out.
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