Hades is a steal at 5$, if you're into more casual gameplay vampire survivors is also a steal at 3.50 (includes all the dlc), if you want something in between brotato has been a wonderful purchase for me. If you want more of the frantic play style, but shorter sessions and less RPG decision making elements, 1 finger death punch is only a buck.

All of the source games are on sale, I recommend portal> portal 2 /half life 2 > left 4 dead 1&2

Slay the spire for < 2$ is an absolute steal, if you think you might like deck builders that's one of the o.g's. another most excellent deck builder, monster train, is also less than 2$, I cannot recommend them both highly enough.

The room is an excellent puzzle game, especially for 75 cents, not personally sure about it's sequels but I've heard they're equally good.

Don't starve for 2.50 is amazing, but if you're at all multiplayer inclined, get 'don't starve together' (I believe it comes with a second copy you can give to anyone)

Hexcells, hexcells 2, and lyne are great if you like puzzle games (everyday genius square logic is also great, but not on sale and no longer supported by devs) delete is also good, and on sale, but it's much more once over it's done game (like the room)

Doom (2016?) Is a great first person shooter at 4$, and fallout new Vegas is a great first person RPG at the same price.

FtL at 2.50 is amazing, and after you've sunk a hundred hours into it, download the 'across the multiverse' fan made expansion, and sink another thousand hours into the game.

And if you're considering Diablo 4, I plead with you to give path of exile a fair shake first, it's free to play, only cosmetic micro transactions, and so much more fleshed out of experience.

I stand by each of the above games, if you give any of them a fair shot and walk away considering it an actual bad game, hit me up, let me know what made it bad, and I'll toss you a game key (of my choosing) of equal or greater value (than the sale price of the game you thought was bad)

Edit, not sure where the hell I got those prices from, I think it may have been showing me "complete the bundle"prices on games I already owned that had bundles with everything else I also owned? I'll go through and change my reviews based on the prices I find, it'll definitely change a couple of my "absolutely must have at this price"

[–] Vcio 23 points 6 months ago

Links for the games:

[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Hades is actually $12.49

[–] EK13 1 points 6 months ago

Yeah I’m not sure if they’re in a different region or something but Slay the Spire is also definitely not < $2 for me - I wish it was!

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Don't Starve no longer gets updates since the studio only focuses on Don't Starve Together now. So I would recommend Don't Starve Together even if you don't want to play multiplayer.

[–] Vcio 1 points 6 months ago

Oh, this is important, i have "dont starve" and was planning to get the dlcs eventualy.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

How did you find out about this ?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

My friend who loves the game told me about it when they stopped adding content to DS a few years ago. You can see it on the steam updates. DST gets content updates all the time but DS only gets the occasional bug fix update.

[–] Godric 3 points 6 months ago

Seconding the FTL recco, it's an absolute steal that cheap!

[–] rehydrate5503 1 points 6 months ago (3 children)

Regarding your comment on Diablo 4… Is that really the case? I played Diablo 2, skipped 3 and then played Diablo 4 a few weeks back during the free weekend on Steam. I’m admittedly a casual player, but I enjoyed it a lot. I didn’t love it, though I like it. It was familiar with clear improvements, and I was able to jump right into the game and had an enjoyable experience (I’m aware others could have a different experience especially end game). Gameplay was smooth, UI was simple to navigate while chilling on the couch with a controller, story was interesting, fights were satisfying, and the choices I made for skill progression and weapons all made for a decent experience in the 6-7 hours I played till the level 20 cap. I don’t care about character customization with cosmetics, and have never/will never spend money on mtx especially in a game with this hefty price tag. With all that in mind, the trial was enough to make me consider buying it on sale, and am now considering it again.

But I’m frugal, and have heard from sources online and friends that Path of Exile is Diablo but much better, so I tried it. I gave it 2 hours, and I was personally lost. Not sure if it was the UI which felt clunky and unfamiliar, or the story that didn’t draw me in, or the fact that it felt almost expected to read through wikis to be able to get a decent build, but after two hours I didn’t have fun and uninstalled it. Is it worth it to try again and see if it will scratch the arpg itch?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Path of exile is a love letter to diablo 2. It also has materia from ff7 and the sphere grid from ff10 turned up to 11.

It is also deep as fuck, and thus easy to get lost in. There's tons of side projects in the game (mining, heists, hunting, just to name three I remember). The skill grid is huge. The in game economy is complicated.The core game is huge and then there's a huge end game about exploring maps that has its own skill grid. It's like a decade of content.

You can play it casually. Just go and click on monsters , pick good sounding stuff on level up, and have fun.

You can also look up a guide for your build. You'll probably do better, but then you're following a guide.

If you want a game that has a lot of depth, it's fantastic. If you want something shallow but fun, it can still work but it's possible you'll hit parts where your character is built poorly and struggles.

[–] rehydrate5503 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

That’s cool, yeah I can see that it can be as deep as you want it to be.

I gave it a shot again last night, and enjoyed it more. Watched a short beginner video that clarified some of the clunkiness I felt with the UI, and my controller worked this time. It crashed 7 times in 2 hours, which is 7 times more than Diablo 4, but it’s a free game so not complaining. Each time the UI would stop responding for 4-5 seconds while the game kept going, then it would show a frozen start of the GGG intro, then crash to desktop. Last time I played it didn’t do that. Meh.

I do find the economy very complicated, and am finding it a little hard to identify the worthwhile loot so that I’m not going to Nessa to sell a few random pieces every 5 mins.

I do also find the fights somewhat repetitive, but that could just be my uneducated witch/necro build. Minions do the tank duties, while I sit back with chain lighting, lobbing fireballs at everything moving. Pretty satisfying, though I feel it could get tired soon. I think I only used a health potion 4x and mana 3x while playing last night, getting up to level 10, doing the main and side quests up to “The Way Forward”.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

That's weird that it crashed so often for you. I don't think it's crashed 7 times in the 300 hours I've played. Did you do the usual "update your drivers and os" stuff?

You can get a loot filter that will make it more obvious what items to pick up. https://www.pathofexile.com/item-filter/ladder/follower . Some items sell for more valuable currency (like an item with all 3 color sockets linked together, or one with six sockets, etc).

The game does pick up as you go farther. You get more sockets on your equipment so you can add more support gems and skills. The beginning is pretty easy, though.

There are also other potions you can slot in for like more speed, resistances, and such.

There's a lot of depth. More than I really know in detail.

Now I'm thinking of downloading it again :thinking:

[–] Jjcool27 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I loved diablo 2 and 3 but 4 was very meh for me. Path of exile was very confusing to me so I dropped it. You should give grim dawn a chance. It's so good.

[–] rehydrate5503 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Oh nice, grim dawn looks neat, and very inexpensive for the base game. I’ll check it out.

[–] Jjcool27 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Game often goes on sale along with the dlc. If you decide to give it a chance, check out grimtools for fun builds, calculators, and many more tools. The game is actively being developed after so long, and it's just so fun to play. It's what diablo 4 should have been.

[–] rehydrate5503 1 points 6 months ago

Thanks for the tip, much appreciated. I picked it up while it’s on sale, and will check it out in the coming weeks!

[–] clearedtoland -1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I appreciate this. I loved 3 and was crushed when 4 got such harsh reviews. I prefer to play alone, focusing on story and smooth gameplay. Cosmetics and online gameplay aren’t really factors for me either but I guess we’re in the minority. 40% off has me seriously considering it.

[–] rehydrate5503 1 points 6 months ago

Yeah this is exactly it for me as well. I did try path of exile again last night, after watching a short intro video for beginners that seemed to clarify some of the clunkiness for me. My controller also started working in the game, so that’s a bonus. I dislike using mouse and keyboard while trying to chill on the couch.

Having said that, in 2 hours of play time last night, the game crashed on me 7 times before I stopped counting, a few during big fights, but hey, it’s a f2p game so I can’t really complain.