In the vast sea of games (opens in new tab) out there, it’s hard to stand out. Everyone wants your time and if a game isn’t part of an established series or doesn’t do something that can capture a trailer or screenshot, they can drift under the radar.
These are the PC games that should have a much bigger presence than they already have, whether it’s because they’re doing something no one else has done before or because they’re just doing what they do right. Some games didn’t come out at the right time, were overshadowed by something else, or took a while to get going.
Below is a list of games we’ve loved over the past five years. They’re all still playable, so if you want to check them out for yourself, you might be able to help them get the recognition they deserve.
Hunt: Showdown
Price: $39.99
What is it? A PvPvE extraction shooter set in 19th century Bayou.
Hunt: Showdown is what comes after Battle Royale (opens in new tab). Twelve players battle it out across sprawling maps, racing to track down boss enemies and battling for the bounty tokens they leave behind. With three futuristic Crysis games under its belt, it’s unbelievable that Crytek has created such an accurate, rewarding shooter with guns pulled straight from Civil War documentaries and Western movies. It is currently the most inventive, intense and unique competitive FPS on Steam, and yet it only draws about 17,000 daily players on PC. Hunt deserves to blow up, but I really hope not (opens in new tab). – Morgan Park, staff writer
we were here
Price: Actually free
What is it? An excellent co-op campaign about escaping from a castle full of puzzles.
The entire We Were Here series are some of the best co-op games (opens in new tab) on PC and the first one is completely free. Castle Rock is packed with breathtaking escape room puzzles, and if you need to communicate via walkie-talkie to exchange clues while separated, this is a puzzle friendship test. You’ll come across We Were Here if you’re really hungry for co-op games, and they’ve done well enough for Total Mayhem to make four, but they’re not nearly as widely known as they deserve to be. True co-op campaigns (not a live service) have been hard to come by lately, so if you’ve played It Takes Two or Man or Medan, this should be next on your list to try with the bestie. – Lauren Morton, Editor-in-Chief
KeyWe
Price: $24.99
What is it? A frenetic co-op game where you and your bird buddy try to send mail.
I’m surprised KeyWe didn’t understand. Everyone loves the chaos of trying to serve food within a time limit in Overcooked, but sending mail like a Kiwi bird wasn’t enough I guess. This co-op oriented game is easy to pick up and play with a friend. Each level has you hopping around a room to complete tasks and avoid obstacles like evil vines swiping typewriter keys as you try to write down an address. Completing the level well under the time limit will give you more money to spend on the cosmetic unlockables, which include things like aviator goggles and armor.
The simplicity of KeyWe and the space for disaster within its increasingly complex levels is exactly why it’s a great game to play over Discord with a friend. More people should be picking these up, especially if you’ve squeezed Overcooked dry.
Honkai Impact 3rd
Price: Free to play (opens in new tab)
What is it? An action RPG with an Evangelion-inspired storyline that makes Genshin Impact look like a Saturday morning cartoon.
Genshin Impact would not have existed without Honkai Impact 3rd. Hoyoverse’s older gacha game offers similar third-party combat with arena clearing capabilities and character switching, but this game is wrapped in a much more mature storyline. It’s still a gacha game so it’s understandable why it hasn’t exploded in the west per se, but its level-based structure allows the combat to be much more satisfying than Genshin Impact’s (opens in new tab) battles and you don’t need to get into the gacha mechanics that much to have fun.
Honkai Impact 3rd is far from perfect: it’s still fundamentally predatory like many gacha games, but doesn’t bother you as much as other games out there. If you can put up with those parts, you’ll see it exemplify Hoyoverse’s strongest and most satisfying combat system, at least before Zenless Zone Zero (opens in new tab) is off. It’s always funny to hear people talk about Genshin Impact’s battles when Honkai Impact’s battles offer a lot more options for extremely exaggerated attacks and mobility that doesn’t require you to manage an stamina meter.
The game unfortunately feels a bit like a mobile game with its large menus and bite-sized structure, but if you can get over that, it has a lot going for it. The storyline continues to expand, even suggesting direct ties to Genshin Impact. It also just got a reworked new player experience. Genshin Impact is the broadest version of what Honkai Impact 3rd does best, but it’s a bit sad to see very few people recognize how unparalleled the action is in the game that preceded it.
Escape Room Simulator
Price: $14.99 (opens in new tab)
What is it? First-person escape room game full of intricate puzzles.
Escape Room Simulator is not such an old game but it seems like people have forgotten it is there. This game is a satisfying way to avoid the messiness of a real escape room now. It’s a first-person puzzle game that drops you into a room that you have to get out of. The puzzles range from simple math problems to obtuse translations of icons. In some ways, it feels designed for you to have a few friends around to bounce ideas off of.
A demo is available if you’d like to give it a shot before buying it. In it you can see how much the game wants to force you to keep track of every little thing around you. The timed levels can be a bit tedious, but once you get used to the language of the puzzles, it’s not hard to figure out what to do before having to start over.
Escape Room Simulator even has a level editor if you’re tearing through all the developer levels or if you have some puzzle ideas of your own. It’s the kind of game you can keep coming back to for a while, and it’s a little surprising that more people don’t have it in their regular rotation of games to play.
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