2023's Hidden Gems: The Best Games You May Have Missed https://ift.tt/ZGqapJ0
There are many lesser-known games also worth your time and attention.
As a fan of games, it can be challenging not to get caught up in the hype. Whether it's because it's part of an established franchise, the publisher had a huge marketing budget, or whatever else, some games are inescapable.
Having named our picks for the 10 best games of 2023, as well as our personal favorites that didn't make that list, we also wanted to be sure to call attention to some more of the year's best games, with a focus on games you might have missed or otherwise haven't heard of. There's no perfect formula for determining such a category, but we hope the list below provides you with at least one 2023 game you might have missed so that you can have as good a time with them as we did.
Coral Island
Available on PC, Xbox Series X|S, PS5
There are a lot of farming sims out there. Like, a lot a lot. And to be perfectly honest, I find myself enjoying the vast majority of them (what can I say? I love cute cows). However, precious few of these games seem to do something truly different with the genre, and this is precisely what makes Coral Island such a breath of fresh air.
As its name suggests, Coral Island takes place far away from the pastoral paradises we know and love, favoring the tropics instead. But what really sets it apart is, well, everything else. The island is filled with 70+ inhabitants, each with a unique personality and all of whom contribute to an incredibly diverse cast of characters of varying ages, backgrounds, sexualities, and body types. To make things better, you can romance over 20 of them, giving players plenty of choices when it comes to who to woo. Oh, and they're all hot.
As a whole, the island feels alive, with a massive map and buildings that are easily the largest and most thoroughly decorated I've seen within the farming game genre. Farming itself feels great, and there are plenty of other things, such as mining, foraging, fighting monsters, cleaning up beaches, and conversing with merfolk, to name a few, that keeps things engaging. All this coupled with a compelling (and culturally and environmentally conscious!) story makes Coral Island a true hidden gem. -- Jessica Howard
Gravity Circuit
Available on PC
The best Mega Man homages manage to capture the spirit of those classic action-platformers without aping their style directly. That's the case for Gravity Circuit, a game that wears its influences on its sleeve but doesn't let itself be constrained or confined by them.
To start, it's visually distinct, choosing to model itself after the Game Boy Color era with its limited color palette and big, chunky sprites. The stage design masterfully captures the tight, pixel-precise platforming of the classic and 8- and 16-bit eras. The story and character design are straight out of the Mega Man X series, with a specially equipped robot taking on legions of bots-gone-bad.
But whereas Mega Man is centered around ranged shots, Gravity Circuit borrows elements from classic ninja games like Shinobi or Ninja Gaiden with a short-range sword-like attack. You have an array of stylish acrobatic moves that feel silky smooth and kinetic. The result is a game that evokes the classic Capcom series while also forging its own path. I love Mega Man games, and it's great when a new game can competently imitate those mechanics. But Gravity Circuit just feels like a Mega Man game, and that carved out a special place in my heart. -- Steve Watts
Halls of Torment
Available on PC
Vampire Survivors-likes are in no short supply on Steam, but Halls of Torment--despite still being in early access--is a standout in that crowd. Its visuals are striking if you're a fan of games from a particular era of the late '90s/early '00s, resembling an early Diablo game with its old-school isometric graphics and gothic look. Its quest system provides a fun, optional means of progression and direction without sacrificing the freeform "just last for 30 minutes" goal these types of games thrive on. And its equipment system, where you can retrieve one piece of gear per run to add to a permanent collection that can be equipped when starting a run, also adds interesting new considerations.
Halls of Torment doesn't reinvent the wheel here, but it offers enough interesting variations on the established formula to more than warrant a look. Just be wary, as much like Vampire Survivors, it's easy to lose hours to, particularly on Steam Deck. -- Chris Pereira
Incident at Grove Lake
Available on PC
In a stacked year for horror games that had me spooked for many hours over the span of 12 months, one of the best I played was actually only 30 minutes long. One of this year's hidden gems comes from Dan McGrath, a solo indie developer making a name for himself (under the moniker Tooth and Claw) on Itch.io with projects like Harmful, Our Lady of Sorrow, and most recently, the alien abduction horror Incident at Grove Lake.
The game opens like an X-Files episode, in which a whistleblower passes you what they claim to be hard evidence of extraterrestrials. Through both that recipient's eyes and the found-footage style of the tapes they receive, this brief game leaves its mark with unforgettable atmosphere and an expert understanding of fuzzy lo-fi analog horror. Despite that being very in right now on Itch.io, I've not played a game as unnerving as this one.
I've longed for alien horror games that pit them as the inconceivably intelligent and morally dubious beings they so often get pegged as being in other media, and finally Incident at Grove Lake provides such a chilling, unforgettable experience. -- Mark Delaney
Jusant
Available on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S
Don't Nod has reliably made games that I remember vividly, whether they are great or, in some cases, not all that good. Jusant, though, is definitely a great one. Mechanically, it's a rock-climbing game that treats cliff sides like vertical puzzles where you'll manage stamina, set your own checkpoints, and unlock new abilities to solve increasingly intricate mountains.
But the game uses this novel gameplay loop to tell a story, mostly via found letters and artifacts, of a world abandoned following some kind of cataclysm. Touching on points that could relate back to our own struggles with climate collapse and what that can do to drive apart a society, Jusant is as timely as it is engrossing, and if you're not in it for the green message, it still works without any of that context, anyway. -- Mark Delaney
Lethal Company
Available on PC
Lethal Company takes the co-op "horror" genre to a new level. I only put horror in quotes because most of the situations you end up in are quite hilarious. Alien lands on your teammates's head? You'll just hear muffled screams as they run around dying. Stuck in a room with monsters you can't look away from? Have someone look at them while you start running. The horror sets in when you're not sure if having the ship take off means leaving your teammates or their corpses.
You and up to three friends (or up to 50 with some user-friendly mods) must hit a quota for your tentacled boss in just three days. You accomplish this by landing on Moons (Easy, Medium, Hard) and collecting scrap inside the facilities. Facilities will be full of scrap, traps, and fun monsters. As you earn money, you can buy flashlights, walkie-talkies, and even a boombox!
The in-game proximity chat is a must. Your team's voices slowly fade away as you split off, or cut short after a blood curdling scream. Eventually you're running around yelling, "Hello!?" and wondering if everyone died or they just went out of voice range. There's even a new mod that adds the ability for the monsters to record clips from your teammates and lure you in with the voices.
For a game in early access and being made by a solo developer, it's a steal at $10. I cannot wait to see what gets added this coming year. -- Will Crosby
Moonstone Island
Available on PC
Imagine the farming and social hooks of Stardew Valley, the creature collecting of Pokemon, and the combat mechanics of Slay the Spire. That's Moonstone Island, a humble indie game that simply devoured my free time this year. As a young alchemist setting off on your own for the first time, you settle on the titular sky island with its own array of friendly townsfolk and start to unlock its mysteries.
The simple notion of a genre mashup belies how perfectly these influences harmonize with each other. You need to fly to other islands to explore them and gather new seeds, which you cultivate to feed to your creatures for combat bonuses, or to tame new monsters as you find them. As you level up, you discover new cards and powers for each creature, but like Slay the Spire, you'll need to upgrade and subtract cards from your deck to make it efficient. Those creatures help you conquer dungeons, which grant you new equipment and powers. As you befriend and even romance the villagers, you'll get friendly benefits for their respective shops. It all just sings, and when I finished the main objective after 50+ hours, I spent several more simply looking for more things to do, because I didn't want it to end. -- Steve Watts
Nova Lands
Available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Switch
Nova Lands' official description, suggesting it is a mix of Factorio, Forager, and Satisfactory, is an apt one, though if you haven't played those games before, it doesn't do it justice in terms of relaying just how much of a time-sink and obsession it can become. It presents an intoxicating loop of landing on an alien planet, exploring farther and farther from your starting point, and finding ways to develop an automated industry of robots, factories, and farms that achieve your goals.
The way in which you can slowly nudge forward the automation and efficiency of your world is satisfying in a way that makes it truly hard to put down. Each step you make opens some new possibility, and I find myself hooked for hours at a time. It's not the first time I've had an experience of this sort with a game like this, but Nova Lands is the very rare case where I feel compelled to return after a break--oftentimes, calling it a day breaks the spell. Not so with Nova Lands; I go to bed thinking about improvements and expansions to come, and I can't wait to keep testing them out. -- Chris Pereira
Stray Gods: A Roleplaying Musical
Available on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PS5, PS4, Switch, and PC
Stray Gods: A Roleplaying Musical is one of those games where I marvel at how it works. A visual novel with a choice-driven story, Stray Gods has you making decisions amid songs, transforming each Broadway-inspired performance to play out in different ways. Songs can build on one another too, with the finale featuring elements of all the songs you were a part of leading up to it. Songs aren't like conversations though--they have different genres, tempos, melodies, and choruses. So to find a way for all the songs to flow together, regardless of the divisions made leading up to that moment, is frankly incredible.
Beyond the music, Stray Gods is a wonderful story of the healing power that art and music can have on people's lives, amplified through the incoherent family that makes up the Greek pantheon. You play as Grace (who is voiced by the phenomenal Laura Bailey--the voice cast for this game is outstanding), the latest and last of the muses, and are immediately thrust into the drama that often defines Greek mythology. Before Grace even has a chance to collect herself, she's blamed for murder and forced to uncover the true culprit within a week or be executed. The journey touches on the entrapment of prophecy, the tragedy of reincarnation, and the monstrosity of institutions, all of which are resolved through musical numbers that cover several different genres, like jazz and rock. Stray Gods was a remarkably powerful healing experience for me, and I teared up more than once before the credits rolled. -- Jordan Ramée
Synapse
Available on PlayStation VR2
Synapse hits the mark for virtual reality gaming, as its imaginative premise, roguelike structure, and challenging enemies set the stage for some of the best gunplay around on PlayStation VR 2.
Sure, other VR games also have great gun-toting action, but Synapse sets itself apart from them by also offering a selection of powers that'll make you feel like John Wick--if he were accepted into the Jedi order as a child.
It's a power fantasy that is expertly balanced with an escalating difficulty, a first-person blast of fun that'll keep you on your toes as you unleash lead and telekinetic powers at anything that stands in your way. -- Darryn Bonthuys
Venba
Available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC, Switch
Venba is a beautiful and powerful story about how we connect across generations, and the role food can play. Venba herself is an Indian woman who immigrated to Canada with her husband Paavalan, and who expresses love through home cooked meals, which you, the player, put together. Each meal you make in the game marks an important and emotional moment for the young family, from celebrations to sick days. But as time goes by, you watch as their young son Kavin goes from requesting his favourite South Indian dishes and helping out in the kitchen, to Westernizing his name at school and barely remembering the language he speaks at home at all.
Using food to bring the family together is a powerful mechanic that developer Visai Games uses to great effect: Not everyone may have immigrated, or feels like they've lost touch with their culture, but everyone can empathize with bonding over a meal that love has been poured into. Venba packs a lot into its short play time, and stood out to me as one of the most powerful gaming experiences of 2023. -- Lucy James
Walkabout Mini Golf
Available on Meta Quest, Steam VR, PS VR2
If you can believe it, the PSVR 2 released this year, and while it reportedly sold better than the first PSVR at launch, the device is still not a must-have for PlayStation players. There's one game, however, that makes the strongest case for why you should own a unit, and it's not Sony's own Horizon: Call of the Mountain. It's Walkabout Mini Golf.
A simple game like mini golf goes with virtual reality like peanut butter and jelly, but it's all the trimmings that Walkabout provides that make it an exceptional experience that will prevent your VR headset from collecting dust. Its courses are incredibly imaginative, with some based on IP that are a great fit for the game, such as Jim Henson's Labyrinth and Myst. Its Meow Wolf course, which is actually inspired by an art exhibit, is jaw-dropping. Each course even has a god mode where you can look down upon it in its entirety as if it were a miniature, and if you're playing with friends, you can even see them playing on the course in this way.
Taking things a step further, each hole has a ball design hidden on it somewhere. Each course also has a hard version, set at night, and if you complete that variant's puzzles, you unlock new clubs. These additions push you to admire the intricacies of each level's design.
Walkabout shines when played with others. The motions of your friends' floating heads, and the fact that their mouth moves when they speak, bringing their mannerisms to life in a way few other VR games have achieved. I have on more than one occasion found myself on the floor laughing because of how surreal the whole experience is. The game is such an excellent way to just hang out, and we even interviewed its creator for our podcast inside of it.
With a steady flow of new courses that just keep adding new, wild ideas, and the hidden content scattered throughout, Walkabout Mini Golf is one of the few VR games that will keep you coming back for more. -- Tom Caswell
Xanthiom Zero
Available on PC (Steam)
Great metroidvanias that take cues from the Castlevania side of things are easy to find, but there aren't nearly as many games that pay homage to the original Metroid. You can add Xanthiom Zero to the latter list. The best metroid-like you've never heard of, Xanthiom Zero is an absurdly good game that every Metroid fan should play.
Made by the two-person indie studio MathanGames, Xanthiom Zero is extremely polished, with slick platforming, superb gunplay, a nice variety of enemies, and a series of well-designed boss fights that both challenge and excite. Rather impressively, there are over 70 items hidden throughout the interconnected map, including a wide variety of ranged weapons that drastically impact your combat strategy. A clever modifier system creates literally thousands of loadout possibilities. And even with the sheer plethora of items to uncover, Xanthiom Zero still captures that magical Metroid-like feeling of discovery.
Xanthiom Zero recreates the haunting vibe of Metroid to a degree that few other games have managed. Visually, the eerie and isolating planet you explore as Captain Grisham has an old-school aesthetic reminiscent of Metroid and Metroid II, though the world design and emphasis on clever backtracking is more similar to Super Metroid.
It took me seven hours to finish my first run, but item customization makes it well-worth playing multiple times. It's available on Steam for only five bucks, which is a ridiculously low price for such a phenomenal Metroid-like with this much content.
It's worth noting that Xanthom 2, a sequel with Super Metroid-esque graphics, is already in development and expected to release next year. Remarkably, MathanGames released not one, but two great games this year. Xanthiom Zero is a prequel to Side Scape, an adventure that combines classic Metroid and Zelda play styles and is worth checking out if you enjoy Xanthiom Zero. -- Steven Petite
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