And let me be clear, in case I wasn’t. I am not saying that Bethesda’s PotC is a good game. Because it probably isn’t. In fact the reason I quit playing is because I ran into several game breaking and save destroying bugs. As in a bugged quest that left my hull full of unsellable and unremovable cargo that made further progress economically impossible.
Wow, Assassin’s Creed® IV Black Flag, the reviews are all saying its a Pirates Beater and not really a stealth game. Color me knocked over! I cant believe I missed this. Sorry for hijacking the thread! PotC is not on steam if its the 2003 version, but Black Flag will scratch that itch if POE 2 doesn’t complete it for me! ::)
Gorogoa’s closest relative is probably the Framed games on iOS
Fun fact - That Pirates of the Caribbean game was originally called Sea Dogs 2. I remember seeing an ad for it on the back page of my original Morrowind manual. I was SO excited for it because my young mind made no distinction between “published by Bethesda” and “developed by Bethesda,” so I thought it was going to be a pirate-skinned Morrowind. Then it came out to middling reviews and I basically never gave it another thought.
It took me a little while to fully comprehend what you could do with that ability the first time I played the game. Once you understand the concept it made for some fun combat and tactics.
Who needs Assassin’s Creed when you can board ships in The Ancient Art of War at Sea?
Brothers a Tale of Two Sons has already been mentioned a few time, so I’ll add my name to the list of those that liked its control scheme.
I really like how Subnautica made fleeing the main you xan react to hostile creatures. That balances the thrill and wonder of exploring all its biomes with the fear of what might be lurking in them. For a long time, you can’t really kill the predators, and even when you get to a stage where you can, escape is still the most logical choice. Violence doesn’t really give any reward and can cost you resources.
I like that the alternative to attack is simply leave. Not escape or flee, just leave. It’s so polite and civilized.
Oh good catch. Framed was great.
Yup – I even bought Sea Dogs 1 and played it a bit. The graphics were very pleasant; it was nice to just sail your little ship around. The gameplay structure, as far as I could tell, was highly influenced by Sid Meier’s Pirates!.
Oh, that’s a very good choice! What a weird game…
Katamari Damacy… just about everything about that game is crazy! The way you constantly outgrow your environments and shift perspectives really felt new to me, even though it might have been done before.
Z by Bitmap Brothers was a very unique take on the RTS genre at the time. Way too stressful for my liking, but certainly some interesting mechanics going on…
Games like Majesty or Reus, which tread familiar ground in some respects (world design, genre), but fundamentally change the player’s role and expectations from what was established in similar games.
Certainly agree with the mentions of Offworld Trading Company, simply a great, innovative design!
Things like individual mechanics (i.e. quick time events) or UI elements now considered standard (i.e. wheel menu) also come to mind.
But to be honest, looking at my list of Steam games, most of my games are reimplementations of established concepts and ideas…
I think Magicka is quite unique.
Without going back to the first time his game or that game did it in the 90s, I think Thea: The Awakening is pretty unique. as a whole, the maps, the units, and inventory/resource system isn’t entire unique but the way they weave it together, bring their lore into the events in the story without long slogs through pages of lore in books or appendixes that only the truly invested weave… that’s pretty unique as well as the story driven part of it itself.
I’m surprised no one mentioned the recently released Cultist Simulator.
Braingood Games (Axes & Acres, Minos Strategos, Solar Settlers) is consistently treading new ground, even if the production elements leave something to be desired.
And our own Vic Davis may be out of the game, but you can still buy his games.
http://www.crypticcomet.com/
I did! But it definitely bears repeating!
Figured I’d bump this thread as it’s rarely mentioned elsewhere. I finished this tonight after starting it over the winter (I only had 2 colors left to collect), very good puzzle game, had me stumped quite a few times.
Also the story it was able to tell was chilling. Thumbs up.
My wife and I started playing it together and were left feeling frustrated. There were several puzzles where we knew what to do but for some reason took a while to figure out how to get the UI to recognize it. It certainly was pretty unique.
I don’t remember being able to understand what was going on! :-)
This game is always on sale on the Nintendo eShop for Switch. I’ve always passed it by because the store page makes it look like a non-game. But now I am intrigued, so it’s been wishlisted for the next inevitable Switch sale.