Best indie games to play right now | Xbox, Playstation and PC
There are lots of different types of independent game developers out there, so the definition of indies has become increasingly difficult to pin down. It can mean small groups of people working together to create beautiful pixel-art games under publishing labels like Devolver or Raw Fury.
It can mean established developers who’ve been working for years breaking off to crowd-fund huge passion projects that would rival blockbusters. We’ve put together a short but comprehensive collection of our favorite indie games, regardless of whether they’re made by big studios or small teams.
We decided to separate them into 2 sections, one for Playstation and Xbox and the other for PC. Now, most of the games can be played on all platforms but we feel this is the best way to do it. Some games were just made to be played on PC, I feel you can understand why.
Anyway, here are our favorite Indie Games we are playing right now.
Best indie games for Playstation and Xbox
If you play on console, you are spoiled when it comes to choosing the best indie games to play. Unfortunately, there isn’t room to talk about every game so we had to make tough choices.
We selected 3 of our favorite indie games that we still play to this day.
Enter the Gungeon
Enter the Gungeon is a roguelike game where you’re dropped into randomly generated levels filled with procedurally generated enemies and items.
Enter the Gungeon was created by Dodge Roll and published through Devolver Digital. It’s one of the best games in this crowded genre.
Instead of completely redoing everything when you die, all of the rooms stay intact, but the objects, monsters, and locations of each room are randomly generated.
Its top-down, pixelized aesthetic makes it seem as if you’re playing a classic video game.
But its mechanics, history, and subtlety make it feel distinctly modern the deeper and deeper you delve into its dungeons.
A Plague Tale: Innocence
This dark and moodily atmospheric stealth game from Asobo Studio is beautifully eerie.
Set in the 13th century during the Black Plague, you’re Amicia, a young woman who was orphaned at an early age. Her parents were murdered by the Inquisition.
You must now travel through battlefield after battlefield and village after village with Hugo (her brother) to find a cure for his mysterious illness.
Along the way, you need to fight off hungry ravenous rodents such as rats as well as guards and hostile villagers with slingshots and special ammo supplies.
Despite the ghoulishness and raw ugliness of the Middle Ages and The Black Death, A Plague Tale: Innocence is a complete stunner and a video game that rarely ever wants to stop.
Hollow Knight
If you’re a big gamer who loves games inspired by Dark Souls then you’ll definitely enjoy Hollow Knight.
You’re in charge of the Hollow Knight, leading them through the cute but challenging land to defeat enemies and solve tough challenges.
Much like Dark Souls, it isn’t immediately clear what you’re supposed to be doing as there’s an intentional lack of clarity in the game’s story.
Dark Souls’ inspirations don’t stop here, either.
It also takes its cues from Dark Souls’ tough but fair philosophy and makes the experience as difficult as you want it to be.
In actuality, you can overcome any obstacle if you have patience and learn from your missteps.
It’s basically a mashup of Metroidvania games, you’re going up, down, left, right, jumping, and slashing your way through the underworld.
Best indie games for PC
Finding the very best indie games for PC is a difficult decision because there are so many good ones out there.
The great indie boom sparked by digital distribution 10 years ago has proved to be more of a big bang than a slow burn, propelling small teams into an array of new genres that defy easy categorization today.
There are too many choices for us to narrow down to just one game, so we’ve compiled a list of the best indie titles available today that you can play on PC.
Disco Elysium
Disco Elysium was one of the most enjoyable games of 2019.
You’re dumped into the dirty shoes of a detective who has been drinking for several hours and then charged with solving a gruesome crime.
Without any traditional combat to speak of in Disco Elysium, the game revolves around wrestling with your own psyche to create the kind of character you want to be, then using this fractured personality to interrogate people.
It would be impossible without some truly exceptional writing, and in this regard, Disco Elysium is an unparalleled roleplaying game.
Every conversation has its own unique character, which makes this detective adventure so fun.
Valheim
Valheim’s enchanting visual style and Nordic fantasy world set it apart from the rest of the co-op survival game genre.
The survival mechanics are relatively forgiving, so you can build meadows and castles in relative peace, watching the sunset as the fog rolls in.
Vikings who want a challenging adventure can travel across the procedurally generated wilderness, trekking through swamps and scaling frozen mountains in an effort to defeat a number of Valheim boss creatures in hopes of bringing back large quantities of treasure and glory.
Inscryption
Inscyption is a card game at first glance, but it has much more hidden beneath its surface.
The game starts off by playing a mixture of Slay The Spire and deck-building cards, but it quickly turns into a macabre experience where you must sacrifice smaller creatures to play larger and better ones to beat your opponents.
As you continue to explore the creepy house, the atmosphere becomes increasingly unsettling. Inscryption is also partially an escape room type of experience where you must decipher cryptic hints to find your path out of the cabin.
It soon becomes clear that nothing is quite as it seems, and unraveling the mystery takes you on a surprising trip.
If you’re into conspiracies and dark mysteries, Inscryption is definitely worth checking out.
