A FMV (full motion video) game, Her Story contains video clips of police interviews with Viva Seifert, an actress and musician, whose husband has disappeared. Her Story‘s Steam page calls it: “A video game about a woman talking to the police.” And that’s technically true, but you have to play it to truly understand its greatness. Quadrilateral Cowboy is an all-around impressive feat and a truly novel experience. Before each mission, you have the chance to do a mock version of the ensuing events in “virtual reality,” which lets you devise strategies and figure out what each agent will do and how they will do it. The commands (hacking inputs) aren’t always clear either. Instead, you assist via a computer terminal, entering commands to help open doors, turn off cameras, and manipulate other objects.īecause heist jobs are time-sensitive, you have to be quick-witted to succeed. As the hacker, though, you don’t actually go inside to complete the job. You work alongside multiple other agents to gain access to buildings to steal important documents and other items. Quadrilateral Cowboy puts you in the role of a hacker in the 1980s. It will make you cry, but it will also instill you with hope. Though the subject matter grapples with some serious themes, Numinous Games created That Dragon, Cancer as an ode to Joel’s brave and inspiring battle. That Dragon, Cancer lets you see snippets of what the Green family went through during Joel’s battle with cancer through a point-and-click adventure game. Ryan and Amy Green’s 1-year-old son Joel was diagnosed with terminal cancer but far outlived his prognosis by surviving for four more years. Brilliantly designed, invigoratingly challenging, and relentlessly charming, Into the Breach is a tactics masterpiece.Ī beautiful, heartbreaking, and ultimately inspiring game from Numinous Games, That Dragon, Cancer takes players through the Green family’s experience with childhood cancer. If all of your units are eliminated, however, you have to start the whole game over again, rogue-like style. The name of the game is staving the Vek off for a small number of turns in order to move onto the next mission. Your main goal, however, is protecting the buildings from nefarious insect-aliens called the Vek. Unlike other turn-based strategy games, you only control a few units and face off against several others. Each level in Into the Breach occurs on a small grid-based map. Rendered in classic Macintosh 1-bit graphics, Return of the Obra Dinn has a unique aesthetic that will stick with you long after you’ve put 60 names to 60 very dead bodies.ĭeveloped by Subset Games, the studio behind FTL: Faster Than Light, Into the Breach is a bite-sized tactics game with a deceptive amount of depth. It’s basically an elaborate logic puzzle and a ridiculously brilliant one at that. Return of the Obra Dinn forces you to play the long game, as identifying even a single person takes careful observation. Your task is to board the mysterious Obra Dinn, a merchant ship that was previously declared lost at sea, and identify the bodies of the 60 crew members.Īll you have at your disposal is a notebook with the ship manifest, a couple supporting documents, and a magical pocket watch that transports you to the moments before a crew member’s unfortunate death. Return of the Obra Dinn places you into the shoes of an insurance adjuster circa 1807. Lucas Pope’s follow-up to the magnificent Papers, Please! (hint for later) is one of the best puzzle games we’ve ever played. If you’re looking for games on a console, we’ve also found the best indie games on Nintendo Switch and indie games on PS4.

Best indie games on steam 2019