Indie Games of 2022

As 2022 is coming to an end, I thought it might be fun to do a recap of some of my other interests. 2022 has been a rollercoaster of a year, but perhaps it has been a blessing for the world of gaming. We’ve seen some incredible headway in the PC gaming market for example - such as Sony bringing Playstation exclusives to Steam (now PC gamers can enjoy amazing PS exclusives on their high-performance systems 🎉).

I won’t be covering AAA games in this post however - there are already many different official gaming outlets that do this! Instead, I’d like to highlight some of the fascinating indie games that I’ve played this year which deserves some shoutout.

Last but not least, this list is not ranked! I’d rather you pick and choose which games to check out since they may be from different genres. With that said - let’s jump right in.

Nobody Saves The World

Nobody Saves The World is a pretty fun action RPG that lets you switch between forms to defeat dungeons. What makes this game special however is that it lets you mix and match the different forms, allowing you to customize your character build for different challenges.

The different forms that your main character can take is similar to “classes” in which each class has a set of moves, strengths, and weaknesses. The game encourages you to switch between classes in order to fight against certain types of enemies. Not to mention - instead of being locked into a certain type of class, you can switch between each class whenever you want!

Progressing throughout the game is surprisingly easy. I’ve rarely felt a time that I had to grind in order to level up. To level up, you have to complete side quests special to whatever class that you’re playing. The quests can range from defeating a certain amount of enemies to using a particular type of skill. Completing these quests will level up your form, which in turn unlocks new abilites (for the form), and new forms (classes) you can transform into. In other words - the game provides a good incentive for you to complete these quests in order to unlock new abilities!

The dungeons that you’ll have to defeat are procedurally generated which make your playthrough pretty unique. Last but not least, the humor in this game is top notch. Do you enjoy game, meme and throwback references? If you do, you most likely will appreciate the humor.

At A Glance

Against The Storm

Against The Storm is a unique indie game which mashes two popular gaming genres together: citybuilders and roguelites. The premise is simple. The game is set in a fantasy-like setting in which the player is a viceroy, a governor in charge of re-building the Scorched Queen’s civilization. The player is tasked to build settlements, reclaiming lost lands in the wilderness while bringing back riches to the queen.

There’s a catch though! The entire world is battered by a never ending storm. This affects the morale of your citizens (humans, beavers, lizards, and harpies). Part of the challenge is to keep your citizens’ morale up as they can leave or perish. You can do this by setting up infrastructure or producing goods that they prefer. For example, lizards like eating jerky. Thus, you can set up a production chain to produce jerky so your lizard population can get a morale (resolve) boost.

It turns out that the player doesn’t just have to fight against the never-ending storm. Since the viceroy is a loyal subject of the queen, they are also bound to fulfill the queen’s requests within a certain amount of time. In other words, the queen gives you a set of “orders” to complete. When completed, the queen’s impatience will lower by a bit. Likewise, the queen’s impatience will grow as time goes on. She expects you to deliver either the goods that she’s asking for, or for you to complete tasks that will boost your reputation within the kingdom.

Overall, this game is incredibly difficult, but you will definitely feel that time flew by while playing. The game has so many random aspects to it - such as the randomized maps and the blueprints (builds) that you can use for your current run. Each game is so unique that you probably wouldn’t even expect what will happen until the game finishes!

At A Glance

Tunic

Tunic is an adorable but challenging adventure game where you play as a fox exploring a foreign land filled with treasures and enemies. If you watch the trailer, you might think that this game is similar to Zelda. This is not so.

The core goal of Tunic is exploration and learning. You very soon will notice that a lot of the writings in this game are not written in a language understood by us. Not to mention, Andrew Shouldice, the developer of the game mentioned what he wanted the players to feel during an interview:

The core of it was the desire to make a game that captured the same feelings of playing a game as a kid. Say, an NES game. Playing the game, flipping through the manual, and trying to understand the cryptic world. […]

It was really that feeling of wonder and exploring the unknown that I wanted to capture.

With that said - I think we can leave the description of Tunic at this. Tunic is best experienced blind, without much spoilers!

At A Glance

Farthest Frontier

Farthest Frontier is another addition to the city-building genre with a realistic medieval spin. I liken this game to Anno wherein a lot of the upgrades in this game are affected by the desirability of the villagers. For example, housing blocks should have access to a market since this is where all of the main resources will be congregated at. It should also have access to schools to educate the children, and healers to heal injured villagers. Villagers also do not like living close to “industry” zones. Houses that are close to production buildings will have a lower desirability. This in turn makes it harder for the village to be upgraded.

Going off of what I mentioned previously, Farthest Frontier’s progression system is literally to keep upgrading your settlement to higher tiers (up to 4), and to survive the elements. Higher tier levels will unlock crucial buildings that your village needs to expand and grow. Elements can be split into two types: natural and danger elements. You will need to make sure that your settlement is prepared to handle the changing climate. Not storing enough food during spring to fall can cause your population to starve in the winter. There are also physical dangers such as raiders destroying and taking the resources from your town, and wild animals running amok.

Despite all that I’ve said about the game being similar to Anno, this game is also decisively different. For instance, Farthest Frontier has one of the most in-depth farming system in a city-building game. You will be required to plan out your farming strategy as overworking your field can cause all of the nutrients to disappear.

Overall, the game is an excellent addition to the genre. There are a couple balancing and optimization issues that need to be addressed, but the developers, Crate Entertainment, have always had a reputation for gathering player feedback.

At A Glance