[Pc Gamers] 15 hidden gems in the Steam Summer Sale you've still got time to grab

[protaa]

 

 

Everything feels like it's happening so fast. I've barely had time to blink since our last Winter Sale roundup, and a fresh mountain of interesting and oddball indie games have come, been, and faded from memory already. But I remember, and I'm here to shine a belated spotlight on another set of games from the past year (and a bit) that I believe deserve a second look.

This time around, I'll keep things a LITTLE more focused, with a mere 15 games to spotlight and a handful of brief bonus mentions, but I've found a particularly interesting and varied crop this year. As always, I try to keep things within some self-established rules. Here's what I'm working with today:

Ideally released in 2024-2025, although I do bend this rule a bit here

Something I've played enough to consider being worth your (or my) money

Undersold & unknown—generally under 500 user reviews on Steam

The weirder, the better—Games that defy reason make for great little treats

30% discount at minimum—Bigger discounts, because we're all struggling

As broad a range of genres as possible. A little something for everyone

While the rules are slightly flexible, most games check off all the above. As always, I hope you find something fresh and special. Let's get started, and spread the word!

Price: $9.79 / £8.25 (30% off) | Developer: Hobo Cat Games

The genre says it all. A grungy fusion of Tony Hawk (or Dave Mirra) style stunt-chaining arcade biking, grinding and half-piping with Vampire Survivors style combat, heavy on the spam and auto-aim. Probably the most Tony Hawk-authentic take on the formula, even moreso than Helskate or Rollerdrome (both 75% off), with a fun metal-heavy soundtrack and enough unlocks to provide reason to play beyond just the joy of mashing thousands of demons as a pair of funny skeletons driving a sidecar bike.

Alternatively: Tuna Hake's Underwater (40% off, £1.49/$1.79) if all that violence is a bit much and you just want to flop around (extremely fast) as a fish with pure Y2K vibes. Bite-sized and priced to match.

From the developers of non-euclidean activity center Hyperbolica comes the most mentally destructive round of golf you'll ever play. Minigolf is tricky enough in three dimensions (getting those balls up hills is a pain), but trying to putt when the hole might be both on an incline and on a different, imperceptible plane of existence is something else entirely. At least it gives you multiple vision modes to help parse multidimensional space. Surprisingly beefy game too, introducing plenty of fun new brain-busting gimmicks as you unlock new courses, and with plenty of community-made holes to play, too.

Half price, and you're only getting half a game right now, but this one has incredible promise. From the solo dev behind the excellent Spark The Electric Jester series (so, someone who understands going VERY fast), what you get now is an extremely good riff on F-Zero's hyper-speed hovercar racing action. The other half (yet to come) is the story mode, which will include on-foot platforming and brawling (a bit like Spark, but slower, according to this dev footage) to fund your racing ambitions and let you experience more of a hovercar racer's life.

Probably the closest thing to mainstream you'll find in one of these roundups, but largely unknown outside of China and Japan. A lengthy, story-heavy squad tactics game set in the same post-apocalyptic sci-fi world (later in the timeline, even) as the Girls' Frontline series, but without any of the gacha stuff, and no desire to be casual, mainstream entertainment. Even the 'easy' mode here is XCom-hard. Normal is brutal, demanding you use every consumable item you have to even the odds. Hard mode is annihilation. Surprisingly, this is also a remake of one of the studio's first indie titles, and the original version is a hidden unlockable.

Still in early access, but I reckon Carter's Quest is still worth the money if 'Ocarina Of Time fused with Devil May Cry, fueled by intense bisexual energy' sounds like your jam. Featuring a weird (and very glam) fantasy setting with a fun sense of humor, plus combo and juggle-heavy combat. Right now you're getting just Act 1 of a larger game, but it's a real fun ride, featuring some great setpieces (including one particularly cool music-synched boss fight), fun character moments, and it'll still take you around 4-5 hours to get through, and Act 2 seems deep into production.

Why's a game from 2019 on this list? Well, I make the rules, but also the YIIK you can buy now is an almost entirely different game to the much-maligned original release. Still a bit oddly paced at times, but honestly, I dig it! Taking years of extensive critique of the original release to heart, the entire thing has been rebuilt with new story arcs and even a sorta-sequel. Most dramatic is the changes to combat—it's a whole new game, with a hand of "cards" determining each character's attacks but also acting as shields. Yes, protagonist Alex is still a deeply flawed person, but the game makes it clearer now that he is not someone you're meant to aspire to be.

A charming, if rather casual (and minigame-filled) point-and-click detective adventure, and possibly the most overwhelmingly Indian game I've played. Dotson is a bookish everyman and aspiring Bollywood star, dragged into solving a series of weirdly related mysteries starting as humbly as tracking down a missing pot of Biryani, and escalating into solving his father's murder. Plus, there's an hour-long prologue movie voiced fully in Hindi. The only real issue I have with Dotson is that the game currently ends on a cliffhanger: the developers have said they plan on continuing the story in a free update.