This is a weird one, because I think the title of the game is putting people off as it’s nowhere near as popular as it should be. However, please give me a chance here to convince you to try it.

Intergalactic Fishing.

You don’t actually need to be into fishing games to enjoy it. The fishing, although about as addictive as most good fishing minigames, is only a small portion of the game.

It also revolves around a similar style of exploration to some space games, such as No Man’s Sky and Elite Dangerous. While progressing through the storyline you will gain access to undiscovered lakes with their own unique species of fish, and information collected about these lakes can be sold.

Catching fish gives you information about that fish’s likes in terms of lure, along with a few other attributes. You can then use this information to design a lure to suit it. This becomes a puzzle game, as lures are designed by arranging squares on a grid. Factors such as “shininess” and “noise” are infkuenced by putting more blocks near the edges, or leaving more holes and forming irregular shapes.

It’s primarily a sandbox game, but there is a short storyline. Once finished though, the game opens up into an addictive endgame that I don’t want to spoil. Tournaments and contracts are a nice diversion throughout the game and can also net you (sorry for the pun, but fish puns are hard to avoid) a decent amount of cash.

It’s quickly become one of my favourite games of all time.

Always looking for teammates

If you’re looking for underrated indies, I’d recommend Ctrl Alt Ego, a fantastic attempt at an indie immersive sim in the style of Deus Ex or System Shock, and Worlds, a unique stealth-action-exploration game that feels like something from the early 2000s, though it does require putting up with some ambitious indie jank. I’m not sure which games I would call my favourites, but those are definitely up there.

Pathologic. It’s not even close, honestly. If you’re the sort of person who reads the novels you were assigned in English class and actually goes “fuck yeah this is awesome and I wanna write an essay about it now”, Pathologic is that in video game form.

Since so many people have already mentioned Stardew Valley, I’ll go for some lesser-known ones:

• Zero Ranger (this links to the demo): no joke, probably one of the best shoot 'em ups (or shmups) I’ve ever played. Sure, there are more challenging ones like DoDonPachi but in terms of visuals, sound, and even story I don’t think there’s anything that tops it. It’s also really weird at times but it’s so, so engrossing.
• Death Trash (also has a demo inside): a 2D action RPG set in a post-apocalyptic world full of eldritch horrors. It starts like Fallout but it gets weird fast. The visuals and the overall sound are purposefully harsh and unsettling, the difficulty is…not easy. But if you like something a bit different from the norm, it’s, again, pretty engrossing and think you’ll love it.

I think my favorites of all time are Slay the Spire and Kingdom: Two Crowns. I’ve spent hundreds of hours in both and I just can’t stop coming back to them all of the time.

Frostpunk

I have sunk so many hours into that game. So raw, so satisfying.

A couple I haven’t seen mentioned:

-Satisfactory: A first person factory builder and exploration game that scratches an itch no other game can. Made by Coffee Stain Studios, great all around. Prepare your Excel (LibreOffice Calc?) spreadsheets.

-The Witness: A first person puzzle game by Jonathan Blow (creator of Braid, great game too). Many people think it is boring, or that it takes itself too seriously and that it’s not that smart. But if it clicks with you, it’s an amazing experience start to end, can’t recommend enough.

Hollow Knight and Vampire Survivors are the ones that managed got me hooked in the last few months

I’m new here, so sorry if I make a faux pas or something…

I really like Reshaping Mars. There is a legacy version of it I haven’t played, but the new version I really like. I enjoy games where you can move slow and not be pressured time-wise. I also enjoy the fact that it will take a long time to terraform Mars, as it should. I’m sure I could double down on making things quickly, but I really like that I can take my time. I haven’t finished it, so maybe I’ll find out I shouldn’t have been, who knows.

I prefer it over Surviving Mars. It’s sad it’s not getting much recognition.

The screenshot reminds me of Donut County so check that out if you haven’t already

I’m not sure Siralim Ultimate qualifies as “underrated”, but it’s the kind of game where if the idea resonates with you it’ll keep you happily busy forever. It’s often compared to a Pokemon game, but I think it’s better described as Pokemon meets a dungeon blobber.

At its core, you build a group of six creatures and go into a procedural dungeon where you will fight other groups of similar creatures, picking options like fighting and casting spells. The creatures each have special traits which change game rules for them, and your job is to take advantage of this so that you win these fights. Your character also has perks which act as additional modifiers, and fusing creatures and slapping artifacts on them means you can apply even more changes to how everything works.

The interesting part emerges from the fact that these traits are generally not modifiers like +3.5% damage on Tuesdays; they are instead drastic and game-warping options like “If this creature successfully attacks, there’s a 50% chance that a dead creature on its team is resurrected.” That by itself is kind of hugely impactful… and it’s also kind of basic and boring for Siralim. Now let’s fuse it with a monster that immediately gets a free attack if the enemy attacks any other monster on your team, now we’re starting to cook.

Your actual goal isn’t to play fair, it is to fold, spindle, and mutilate the game’s mechanics to allow your team to win in increasingly unfair and ridiculous fights. It’s also pretty good at letting you control your level of challenge, incidentally, but you are at some point going to have to win against enemies with their own completely bonkers tricks. If you enjoy figuring out how to warp complicated rules to your benefit and stack absurdity atop absurdity, this game is calling for you. It’s absolutely got indie jank, by the way - the graphics aren’t amazing, the game sometimes grinds along very slowly processing all the silliness, and while it has lots of reference material ingame there’s still just way too much information to take in.

I want to promote Monochrome Heights. It’s a deceptively simple, kaizo platformer based on color.

https://pdyx.itch.io/black-and-white-game-jam-2022

My all time favourite has to be The Return of the Obra Dinn. In my opnion it is the single best detective game. Not only is the narrative very captivating, but the deduction process cant be brute forced. It simply is a master piece.

You should check out Inscryption. Deck-builder with amazing story.