The is Niche Deals. In this column, we regularly cover new and upcoming deals, discounts, and more for video games. Let us know if there’s a deal we should cover!
As my fellow Americans awaken from their turkey-fueled food comas, its time to pull out the credit cards and indulge in the second half of the bloated display of excess that comes with Thanksgiving.
Luckily, Valve is more than happy to oblige our primal urges to spend money on loads of games that most of us will probably never install on our PCs.
Here’s 15 recommendations from the Steam Autumn Sale:
The Age of Decadence
Iron Tower Studio
$3.74 (75% off)
The Age of Decadence is an old-school CRPG along the lines of the classic Fallout games or Planescape: Torment. It’s set in a relatively low fantasy world inspired by the collapse of the Roman Empire, where a once-grand civilization is crumbling and rival houses are trying to carve up territory to fill the power vacuum. It can be a clunky and unintuitive experience in a few places, but if you want a ridiculously deep RPG with tons of skills and options for forging your own narrative, then you owe it to yourself to give The Age of Decadence a try.
UnderRail
Stygian Software
$7.49 (50% off)
Speaking of old-school RPGs, UnderRail is also under $10 right now. Imagine if someone took the setting of Metro and made it an isometric turn-based RPG along the lines of Fallout 2 and you’ll have a good idea of what to expect. There’s also a bundle that includes the recent expansion pack for just $12.78 if you want to leave the metro station-states behind and explore a vast underground ocean in a rickety makeshift motorboat. Its a bit out-of-date now, but you can find our original review of the game here.
Yoku’s Island Express
Villa Gorilla, Team17 Digital
$4.99 (75% off)
Yoku’s Island Express is an amazing game from last year that we sadly never got around to reviewing. It’s a cute and comfy Metroidvania pinball adventure where you play as the newest postman for the mystical Mokumana island, a pint-sized dung beetle named Yoku. One of these days I need to give it a proper review, but until then you can give the game a try by checking out the free demo on the Steam page.
Unstoppable Gorg
Futuremark
$0.99 (90% off)
Unstoppable Gorg is a decent (and brutally hard) tower defense game with excellent presentation. You play as a Buck Rogers-style intergalactic hero in a cheesy ’50s pulp sci-fi universe full of black and white live action cutscenes, where the actors are dressed in ridiculous rubber suits and the flying saucers have visible strings attached to them so they can “fly.” The actual TD elements are closer to a puzzle game though, as the game has strict limitations on where you can place towers, but instead you can move your towers around by rotating the orbital rings that they are placed on. There’s a free demo you can check out before you buy.
SYNTHETIK: Legion Rising
Flow Fire Games
$9.99 (50% off)
SYNTHETIK: Legion Rising is another excellent game from last year that we just never had the time to review. It’s an awesome top-down tactical roguelite shooter with a heavy emphasis on skillshots, an active reload mechanic, and tons of ridiculously overpowered high-tech guns. The small dev team is also constantly updating it, with the most recent content injection earlier this month completely overhauling the game’s elemental damage system and adding some new weapons and gadgets.
Supreme Commander
Gas Powered Games, Square Enix
$2.59 (80% off)
It’s been around 13 years since Supreme Commander first released, but it remains one of the best RTS games ever made. This spiritual successor to Total Annihilation doubled down on everything that made that game an instant classic, and I still get sad when I remember that Gas Powered Games is no longer with us. If you’ve somehow never played this wonderful game before, this is probably the cheapest it’ll ever be. There’s a bundle that includes the expansion and the sequel for $6.76 that is worth considering as well. The sequel was kind of meh, but its cheap and there’s lots of cool mods for both games.
Styx: Master of Shadows
Cyanide Studios, Focus Home Interactive
$5.99 (80% off)
Styx: Master of Shadows and its sequel are two excellent stealth games from recent years where you get to play as a crude and sneaky goblin assassin. While the sequel is slightly better and more refined, the original is still well-worth playing and currently a few bucks cheaper.
Stealth Bastard Deluxe
Curve Studios
$0.99 (90% off)
Speaking of sneaking, Stealth Bastard Deluxe is currently ridiculously cheap right now. The Stealth Bastard games are a mix of a 2D stealth platformer with some puzzle elements where you are tasked with sneaking your way through heavily guarded deathtrap facilities. The Deluxe version of the original features over 80 levels and a level editor with Workshop support, so there’s a ton of content here for only $1.
Door Kickers
KillHouse Games
$2.99 (85% off)
Door Kickers might have a humorous name, but don’t let that fool you. This is a fairly brutal real-time tactics game where you control a SWAT team as they take down gangs and terrorists. Your officers can die very quickly if you aren’t careful, and you’ll often need to deal with other objectives like bombs and hostages. There’s a random mission generator and level editor, so the game has plenty of content to keep you busy once you beat the main missions.
E.Y.E: Divine Cybermancy
Streum On Studio
$2.49 (75% off)
E.Y.E: Divine Cybermancy is a completely bonkers FPS/RPG hybrid set in a cyberpunk dystopia world that is somewhere between Deus Ex and 40k. It has its fair share of clunky mechanics and strange design choices, but it offers an open-ended shooter RPG experience with loads of cool powers, weapons, and abilities that isn’t quite like anything else on the market. There’s an online co-op mode too.
Druidstone: The Secret of the Menhir Forest
Ctrl Alt Ninja
$12.49 (50% off)
Druidstone: The Secret of the Menhir Forest is a turn-based tactics RPG from the developers of Legend of Grimrock. It’s not a traditional RPG, and plays more like a dungeon crawling board game with a card-based upgrade system. The game released over the summer, and this is the cheapest its been so far. If you’d like to know more, you can check out my review here.
Shadow Warrior
Flying Wild Hog, Devolver Digital
$9.99 (75% off)
Of the two recent Shadow Warrior reboots from Flying Wild Hog, I personally liked the first one more. It had less weapons, abilities, and enemy variety, but I preferred the more traditional approach to its levels and mechanics over the pseudo-looter shooter direction of the sequel. It also manages to capture the essence of the original ’90s game while bringing it into the modern era.
Hell Yeah! Wrath of the Dead Rabbit
Arkedo, Sega
$3.74 (75% off)
Hell Yeah! Wrath of the Dead Rabbit is a completely absurd and little-known action-platformer published by Sega back in the Xbox Live Arcade days. You play as an undead demon rabbit on a roaring rampage of revenge through Hell. While you do have guns, your main weapon is a buzz saw jetpack that can slice and dice through enemies. The game also features humorous minigames where you finish off the game’s named enemies in increasingly exaggerated ways.
Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion
Ironclad Games, Stardock Entertainment
$13.19 (67% off)
Despite releasing way back in 2012, the developers of Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion were still updating the game with new content as late as December 2018. While the base Sins of a Solar Empire games are great real-time 4X strategy games on their own, there’s also a huge selection of amazing mods that convert the game to other popular sci-fi universes like Star Wars. You can currently get the entire franchise, complete with all the DLC, for only $20.99.
Just Cause 2
Avalanche Studios, Square Enix
$1.49 (90% off)
I think I speak for most people when I say that Just Cause 2 was the best game in the franchise, and after the disaster that was Just Cause 4, that statement is more relevant now than ever. Despite being a decade old it still holds up pretty well, too. If you’ve somehow never played the game yet, there’s really no reason not to give it a shot at the current price.
If this list didn’t satisfy you, I have several other articles that might contain even more games you may like. Which games will you be buying in the Steam sale this year?
