Despite this being a household name for gamers, one game that still cannot possibly go without recommendation is Baldur’s Gate 3. As the 2023 game of the year, Baldur’s Gate 3 is undeniably a beautifully crafted and infinitely creative game with something for everyone. It combines the fantasy and chaos of dungeons and dragons with the rich visuals and game mechanics of the most attentive developers - all whilst supporting modding! The game has been in the public sphere for some time now, but that doesn’t stop it from being such a highly recommended game.
If you’re looking for a slightly more niche RPG, Dave the Diver is a delightful colourful game wherein you run a sushi restaurant at night and explore the sea by day. With its charmingly vibrant art style and ambient background music, you’ll find yourself uncovering deep-sea mysteries and discovering just how intense the sushi restaurant scene can be. The cutscenes are amazing and the game is all round an underrated feel-good masterpiece.
The game has been in the public sphere for some time now, but that doesn’t stop it from being such a highly recommended game.
Another brilliant game that flies under the radar is the sandbox game Core Keeper. If you’re looking for a Terraria-esq survival exploration game, Core Keeper is for you! The game has everything you could need from puzzles, to building, to combat - and even supports multiplayer, should you wish to play with your friends. You begin with the main objective of powering up the core you awaken next to by defeating three bosses, before the rest of the map is opened up to you and a brand new world of exploration awaits!
With Halloween round the corner, it’d be remiss to not recommend a horror game, and there are none as tense and frightening as Darkwood. Darkwood is a uniquely scary game in that it was created with a top-down perspective, but despite this, it makes use of a restricted visual mechanism that prevents you from seeing more than your character can see. At no point does the game provide you refuge from the brutality of the woods you find yourself trapped in; you’ll learn that no one is to be trusted and the woods are wholly unforgiving. Darkwood is an incredibly atmospheric game, and with the current horror genre being so saturated in the mascot horror formula, it breaks away from this perfectly and creates a terrifyingly unique world. While not a game for jumpscares, it still encapsulates the horror genre to perfection and is well worth checking out.
Steam puts on sales incredibly frequently, and in the next Winter sale it is highly likely you’ll find these games at a discount. Though it is impossible to recommend every fantastic game (and there are thousands), hopefully one of these games is new and interesting to you!