There was a time when independent games were viewed as lower quality products and in no way comparable to their AAA counterparts. Today this has changed with titles such as Undertale or Cuphead not only proving to be on par with any other game but also surpassing them by far.
Born from a dream of a few developers, a Kickstarter, or all the savings of a creative mind, 2020 was an excellent year for indie games. So, while market giants like Resident Evil 3: Remake or The Last of Us 2 received mixed reviews, many other games of which there were not too many expectations got all the attention. Therefore, with many new releases and others not so much, today I will show you the best indie games of the moment.
Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout
Speaking of surprises, Fall Guys came out of nowhere and quickly became the game of the moment, displacing Scrutinized, the spiritual successor to the popular Welcome to the Game. Developed by Mediatonic, a small British company that was on the verge of bankruptcy in 2016, the problem they have today is managing to contain the millions of users they receive daily.
The game is a battle royale of 60 players, who are tested on different maps full of obstacles that will gradually eliminate them from the competition. Thus, the last player standing on his feet (or claws, depending on the skin) will be the winner of the match.
By playing it, one quickly understands why it was so successful. Unlike other highly competitive games, Fall Guys games are very short and do not give the player any ranking, so the player can play it just to relax or have fun. The graphics help this, with very friendly pastel colors that never stop being nice to look at. On the other hand, not being competitive doesn’t make it boring. Its gameplay goes from being frenetic to become intuitive and calculated as fewer players are left. Also, its reward system, customization of character post-game, and its servers that rapidly find games make the adventure very addictive, making sure that you will never want to leave it.
Phasmophobia
If we speak of independent successes, the genre of horror must have a place of obligation. Although not many know it, many of the horror titles that are considered to be the best in history are independent, such as Amnesia, Outlast, or Layers of Fear. Likewise, Phasmophobia is a game that, despite being in early access and having been released in September of this year, is already competing for a place among the most terrifying games of the millennium.
As the game begins, we play as a paranormal researcher who enters different locations looking for ghosts. There are several types of them (Onis, spirits, demons, etc.) and each one of them interacts with the players differently. Based on different tests, the objective of the game is to discover which ghost are we dealing with, take the evidence we need as part of the objective, and escape.
The exciting thing about the title is that, whether we are playing alone or with friends, we are defenseless against a ghost that almost always wants us to leave. Moreover, the only way to meet the objectives is to provoke the entity, so every time it will frighten us with more and more activity to the point of killing us if we are not careful. The game also has several tools proper of paranormal researchers, featuring even a voice system to interact with the ghost, which will react according to what we say to it. All this added to the possibility of playing it in VR makes Phasmophobia the ultimate horror experience (and we can’t get enough of it).
Rocket League
All the entries so far are games that exploded recently, but there is one aspect that makes the Rocket League unique: its consistency. The title developed by Psyonix in 2015 has remained at the top since its release, improving more and more over time, where it was revealed that today it has more than 75 million users.
The idea of the game is simple: mini destructive cars playing soccer with giant balls. Moreover, the developers didn’t stop with that excellent idea. The aesthetics of the game that seems to be taken from the dystopic future of Mad Max combined with the best style of Twisted Metal in its golden years are a resounding success. In addition, the fun car customization, the possibility to play it with and against friends, and the excellent maintenance of the servers make us think that with a brilliant past, Rocket League expects an even brighter future.
Among Us
Did anyone have any doubt that this game was going to be here? To the surprise of many, Among Us is a title that was released in 2018, only that it only exploded in 2020 (and it really did). The game developed and distributed by InnerSloth has more than 100 million downloads and is actually the most-watched game in Twitch.
In March 1962, the television broadcast chapter number 24 of the third season of Twilight Zone called “To Serve Man”. In it, some aliens arrive at planet earth to conquer the humans, disguising as them to destroy them inside. When discovering this, the neighbors of a town begin to enter paranoia, attacking each other, distrusting everyone but depending on one another to discover the mystery. This, ladies and gentlemen, is not only one of the main inspirations of Among Us, but a summary of its premise.
In this case, there are no aliens, but two impostors infiltrated among 8 crewmates. Their objective is to kill the humans before they accomplish a series of tasks or find out who the impostors are. if the humans see a murder or suspect some strange activity, they have the option to report the impostor in front of their other colleagues, who have the possibility to eliminate him after a group vote.
This is where the fun of the game comes in: the impostor can defend himself by accusing other crewmates. Besides, crewmates don’t always make the right decisions, so if one suspects the other, they will report it and create a feeling of paranoia and constant suspicion. Besides, the impostor will have countless tools of sabotage and even escape, so crewmates cannot be careless at any time. Thus, several friendships will be tested by knowing that one of those friends you spent all your childhood with may be lying to your face and laughing behind the screen (and possibly you will too). Finally, its lack of mechanics and abundance of platforms makes it a casual game that anyone can play, whether a gamer or not. Thus, in an endless 2020 that separated family and friends, Among Us became that bond that brought them back together independently from their liking for video games.