Steam and Steam Decks

[Arch Stanton]

I adore retro point and clicks. Monkey Island 1 & 2 both hold a very special place in my heart, especially 2. I'd say it's one of my favourite games of all time, purely for those memories of playing it through the summer holidays back in the early nineties. No guides, no tips. The Simon The Sorcerer games were also big favourites during those times.

 

Edited November 29, 2024 by Arch Stanton

[Merzbow]

There was a bit of a resurgence around 2010 or just before, a fair few really good Point & Clicks were coming out with a retro look, personal faves were Technobabylon and Gemini Rue which both took a serious cyberpunk route and The Cat Lady which dealt with mental health in a very, very dark manner but felt personal and grown up.

I didn't find anything that matched the humour of the classics though.

Edited November 29, 2024 by Merzbow

[Chris B]

Darkside Detective is worth a look for Monkey Island style humour. Not sensational but funny enough.

[Carbomb]

The Discworld Point & Clicks were also great, and felt very similar in humour and feel to the Monkey Island games. Eric Idle's voice acting as Rincewind was absolutely spot-on.

[RedTwoster]

1 hour ago, Arch Stanton said:

I adore retro point and clicks. Monkey Island 1 & 2 both hold a very special place in my heart, especially 2. I'd say it's one of my favourite games of all time, purely for those memories of playing it through the summer holidays back in the early nineties. No guides, no tips. The Simon The Sorcerer games were also big favourites during those times.

 

The original two have held up incredibly well. Curse looks nice, but some of the puzzle solutions are far too obscure, I found it more frustrating than fun. 

Return to Monkey Island was brilliant though, I really hope we get another Ron Gilbert-led game in the series.

[Dr. Alan Grant]

I played a few of the early Broken Sword games, and whilst they are decent point & click games, they always paled in comparison to Monkey Island. 

But now I want to buy a whole bunch of point & click games. This damn thread is going to bankrupt me. You’re all to blame. 

[RedTwoster]

Some more recommendations from the sale…

Tinykin

£4.19, was £20.99

I’ve recommended this one before, but at £4.19 I couldn’t ignore it. The headline here, from my perspective, is that this is one of the best platform games of the past decade. To be clear, this isn’t a Pikmin clone; it’s quite different. At £4.19, you’re getting an absolute steal, a game that’ll put a smile on your face and keep you playing until the small hours. It’s also not overly long, another point in its favour for me given how little time I have. This is a 10/10 game for me, and I’ve replayed it several times. I’m pretty certain most of you would at least like it.

 

Tiny Terry’s Turbo Trip

£10.04, was £14.99

If GTA was a collectathon and kid-friendly, it would be Tiny Terry’s Turbo Trip. Packed with weirdness and genuinely funny characters, this game is just good fun. And sometimes that’s all you need, something that lets you forget about what’s stressing you out by letting you immerse yourself in its joy. The game is available by itself, or in bundles with other games including Tinykin and A Short Hike. However you choose to buy it, I recommend it.

 

Lil’ Guardsman

£10.88, was £16.75

This is like a cross between Papers, Please and Simon the Sorcerer (minus the obnoxious lead character), and if that description appeals to you, you’ll probably enjoy this game. The premise is that you’re a 12-year-old who ends up in charge at the castle gate, and you have to decide whether characters should be allowed in or not. It’s daft and relishes in its silliness, a perfect Steam Deck game.

Beyond Galaxyland

£8.57, was £12.99

One of the main issues I have with JRPGs these days is that they’re too long; and I just don’t have time to play them. This is a short(ish) 2D JRPG which, while flawed, tells an engaging story with charming characters, for the most part. I saw one review describe it as ‘classic Final Fantasy meets Star Wars’; but I’d go with ‘Guardians of the Galaxy meets Paper Mario’ to give you a more accurate description of what this is.

 

Final Fantasy VII

£3.99, was £9.99

Wait…what?! Why am I recommending a game that really doesn’t need recommending? One simple word…mods. There are loads of great mods out there which breath new life into this game (including the one pictured) - some upgrade the graphics throughout making it look like a remake. Others tidy up the script, or enhance the soundtrack. There’s even a mod in which the game is fully voiced - I’ve not tried it so can’t vouch for its quality, but it exists. It’s worth picking up this game again even if you already own it on another platform, if only to play around with these brilliant mods.

[Devon Malcolm]

On 11/28/2024 at 11:58 PM, Dr. Alan Grant said:

https://www.fanatical.com/en/bundle/oddworld-complete-collection

I did find a bundle of Oddworld games for the stupid price of £1. There’s also a Star Wars bundle on the same site for around £15. It’s got both of the KOTOR games, as well as a dozen others. 

The Star Wars one is actually just a tenner so I got that and the Oddworld one, thanks!

[Dr. Alan Grant]

Echo the love for Tinykin. Lovely little platformer. Incidentally, I was playing it when they announced the Queen had died. 

That FF7 looks tempting. Sure, I’ve played it 896 times, but I haven’t played it with voice acting before. Might have a bit of a splurge tomorrow on a bunch of these games.

[RedTwoster]

19 minutes ago, Dr. Alan Grant said:

That FF7 looks tempting. Sure, I’ve played it 896 times, but I haven’t played it with voice acting before. Might have a bit of a splurge tomorrow on a bunch of these games.

I’ve not downloaded the voice acting mod but apparently even random people that you speak to are voiced, so regardless of the quality (and for all I know it might be strong, I’ve not tried it) it’s an impressive accomplishment for whoever made it.

I have, however, downloaded a graphical mod and an enhanced soundtrack mod and honestly, I had goosebumps watching the intro scene again - it felt like an entirely new version of FFVII. The music is high quality, but I’m undecided as to whether or not I like it more than the original soundtrack, which was pretty much perfect as far as my tastes are concerned. It’s better than the music in the Remake, though.

[Devon Malcolm]

Huntdown is down to £3.35 from £16.75 as well:-

https://store.steampowered.com/app/598550/HUNTDOWN/

Love this game, brilliant old-school platform shooter.

[FLips]

I can attest to TinyKin's brilliance. I would have wrote about it at the time but it will be long lost in the What Play You thread now, though I'm sure it was @RedTwoster that recommended it that time around too.

I picked up a few more games this morning, this time in the Steam Sale. That will be me for the year now!

I got Final Fantasy VII as I'm very keen to try those mods Twoster is bigging up. I haven't played through VII in a few years now so this should be a good way to go through it again. Plus the PC version I think has the fast forward which was a life saver when I played it on PS4 for some parts.

Two Point Campus which I honestly didn't think much of the first go around on release, but for that reason I never really gave it a fair crack and I think at the time I was just disappointed it didn't play similarly to Two Point Hospital. For the price it's at here I was willing to give it another chance.

The game I'm most excited about playing though is Halls of Torment, which looks like Vampire Survivors X Diablo 1, pre-rendered graphics and everything. Looks totally in my Q-Zone as I loved the gameplay of both but the graphics and atmosphere of Diablo 1 is up there with some of my all time favourites.

 

[Dr. Alan Grant]

Any Command & Conquer fans here? I’ve only ever played Red Alert on a PC when I was younger, but have good memories of it. There’s a bundle of 17 C&C games on Steam for under £6. You probably can’t go wrong with that price for so many games, but I was wondering if Red Alert is a typical game for the franchise.

[Merzbow]

I'd recommend getting the remasters which are also on sale for like 2 quid, it includes the original plus Red Alert and the expansions. They're really the peak of the series for me, not saying future games are bad but they never quite balanced things as well as those early titles.

[Carbomb]

I never got to play Command & Conquer. I got into real-time strategy games via Warcraft - would love to play C&C.