The idea of this thread is simple. With so many games on sale it's easy to miss a hidden gem. So if you want to recommend some less known game that you've enjoyed a lot please go ahead. It would be nice if you give some details about the game not just a "Buy it, you won't regret it" remark. Try to focus on less known games, we all know that Witcher 3 is a great game ;) I'll start:


<span class="bold">The Nations Gold Edition (a.k.a. Alien Nations 2)</span>

First of all I have to admit that the Nations improved on almost everything over its predecessor. Alien Nations was a bland strategy game, heavily inspired by the Settlers series and with a few (almost) game breaking bugs. The Nations, however, is a very solid game with a few brilliant ideas, I'll try to mention the most important:

- Realistic development. Add a few dwellings and your unit limit will increase? Forget about it! You can build as many houses as you wish but that alone will get you absolutely nothing! The basic unit of your society is a family (duh!). After some time children will grow up, move out from their parents and look for a spouse to start a new family. And then you are supposed to provide them a nice place to live and a suitable job. They can live without them for a short time (unemployment is not as bad as being homeless) but will get unhappy if it takes long enough. In practice that means you have to develop your city all the time. You cannot say to yourself: my economy is fine, I don't need more workers because I don't want to feed them (yes, you have to provide food and water for every worker!). If you don't create new workplaces unemployed folks will become criminals and being a mayor of a SinCity is not an easy task ;)

- Technological advance has its drawback too! After fulfilling a few requirements you can advance to a new era which enables you to make better inventions. But be careful! The demands of your people will increase too. They may want some luxury items and/or more temples so make sure you can cope with it because otherwise... have I mentioned SinCity? I believe I have!

- Trade and diplomacy. Now, that's where the game really shines. Trading is a very important part of the game. I wasted a lot of time during a few first missions because I didn't realize how important it was to trade! First of all there is a merchant guild (run by the storks, no less). In most cases they are willing to trade everything but they tend to be greedy. You can, however, trade with your neighbours. They won't accept every offer but you will get a much better deal with them. And most important of all trading influences your relations so sometimes it's advisable to strike a deal even if you don't need their resources badly. Just to show them you are cooperative. You will have a lot of problems if you forget about that. It's also important to mention that each nation can produce only a few luxury goods and you'll need all of them so you are bound to trade!

- Military units. Build a barracks and spam your enemy with countless warriors? Well, forget about it too! You can only build limited amount of strongholds and all you can do is to hire a warlord to occupy them. But remember! You'll have to pay something in advance and a daily fee. Otherwise the warlord will leave you. Each warlord has a different demands and what's most important - he comes with a different army! So it's not advisable to hire a cheap warlord who has only one or two followers. He won't do much in battles and he will occupy one of your strongholds! Set a reasonable hiring standards! Oh, and by the way. Warlords are the only units you can directly control (their followers will... well, follow them ;). The idea of hiring your military units is really great but unfortunately battles are a bit messy and tedious - conquering a fortified city is not a pleasant task (and sometimes it's your mission objective!)

The game is really good and I can wholeheartedly recommend it.

TL;DR buy The Nations Gold

<span class="bold">AI War Collection</span>

At the beginning I planned this little review differently, with a lot of details and examples but then I've realized that important part of this game is discovering new things yourself, learning from each game and exploring vast universe of AI War. Therefore I decided to give a more general impressions with just a few examples so that I won't spoil any fun you should have from this game. It also means that some examples are not 100% accurate so please do not correct me if you see something and know that it's not really like this. I'm well aware but let us not spoil the game for people who haven't played it yet. And definitely they should :)

I'll start with the obvious thing: the game is difficult to get into. Right from the beginning you are overwhelmed by the number of units, types of ships, turrets, buildings, planets, units' stats, buttons, type of orders and so on. Yeah, the game is really complex but don't worry, you don't have to know everything right from the beginning. Start with tutorials, they will give you a rough idea how to play and then you will start discovering new features. After some time you will realize that despite the first feeling they are very well implemented and make the game incredibly deep and fun to play so I beg you here: don't let the first hours discourage you! Keep playing!

The second thing I would like to discuss is AIs themselves. As you can imagine the whole story of the game is that humanity is facing an extinction and has to fight against powerful AIs to survive. Right from the beginning you are informed that you shouldn't really discuss if AIs are cheating or not, is the game fair or not. The point of the game is to offer a challenge so AI controlled enemies are different then you and have different set of rules. I can guarantee that this concept works amazingly well and makes the game special. Even though AIs in most cases use similar units as you do their attack and defense mechanism are different then yours. At the beginning of the game they mostly neglect you but your actions can increase their suspicion that perhaps those humans are not as weak as they seemed to be. So you have to be really careful. Obviously you have to progress, conquer new planets, find artifacts and research new ships/weapons. But if you do it to fast they will send a huge army that will crush you immediately.

You can expect your fleet to be huge as units cap is rather non trivial. Not only there are many types of ships but you can research their upgrades as well. The thing is you are only limited per unit type per its level so when you research an upgrade you don't have to get rid of older ships to build better ones - both caps are completely independent so it's beneficial to get them all, even the lowest level ships (at the very least they can serve you as cannon fodder). As I've mentioned earlier this can be a bit overwhelming, especially because besides standard ships you can produce larger starships which can boost certain stats of your fleet and sometimes you will get even bigger units that will have special abilities. After some time you will learn how to command your whole fleet efficiently.

I've just mentioned that you can research upgraded versions of your ships so it's nice moment to mention how research works because it's rather nontrivial. In many RTS games you have to spend some resources to research things but you usually aim to research everything and it's not THAT important in which order you will get new inventions. Here however, knowledge is a separate resource on its own. Each planet you conquer can give you a limited amount of knowledge so have to plan carefully which inventions you should get first. Getting a new type/level of ship makes your fleet bigger and better but you should keep in mind that turrets are much better in defense because cap limit is not only per turret type per level (as it's for ships) but also per planet! So each of your planets can have the same defenses without limiting other planets. You can't do that with your ships! So at the beginning it's good to invest in ships so that you can conquer a few planets but then you should probably get some turrets because you won't be able to defend every planet you have with your fleet as you may need it elsewhere. Once again this concept works perfectly and you can use any strategy that suits you best.

In the end I would like to briefly mention one thing (without spoiling anything). The universe is very rich. It's not that you just conquer a few planets so that eventually you may destroy AIs. Many planets have some secrets, artifacts or other inhabitants that may help you. During the game you will get a lot of secondary objectives that fulfilling may be beneficial. The very good thing is that you can solve them as you like. Or even abandon them as soon as get something nice - for example you get a great super-ship that you are supposed to use in a secret mission but you may still decide to take the ship and use it against AIs and forget about the mission. It's really mind blowing how many things may happen while you explore the universe. I've played this game many times and I'm still finding completely new things.

I can wholeheartedly recommend the game. As I mentioned earlier, it's not that easy to get into it but then it's pure awesomeness. Just give it a try, struggle through the initial WTF-is-happening phase and you'll love it!

TL;DR buy AI War Collection

<span class="bold">Dracula 3: The Path of the Dragon</span>


For us, gamers, it's pretty obvious that Dracula does exist in this series but the main character, a catholic priest, does not believe in vampires. He is sent to Vladoviste to investigate a life and death of a doctor because local church authorities claim she should be canonized.

As you can imagine he starts to experience a lot of anomalies, people tell him strange stories and he has mysterious dreams...

The best thing is that supernatural is not bluntly thrown at you in this game. Your main task is to analyze numerous documents, talk with different people, search for clues and solve elaborate puzzles. Most of the time our good priest will actually find proofs that vampirism is just a myth but at the same time he will get a feeling that there is something else going on... something elusive... something incredibly well concealed... concealed by a sentient being. And it's teasing him. Teasing to follow this path... the Path of the Dragon...

As much as Dracula 1 and 2 are typical adventure games about human vs vampire struggle the third one is one of the best games I've ever played. I was in awe how marvelous this story was and how well it was told. Puzzles are hard but it gives a lot of satisfaction to solve them. And in a sense - some of them are quite similar to "The Ninth Gate". For example you'll be shown a few copies of the same painting and only by analyzing the differences between them you'll be able to solve some puzzles (trust me, it was not a spoiler, one character will directly explain that you have to do so but she won't give you an actual answer and neither did I so don't worry - I didn't spoil anything)

I can't recommend it strong enough!


TL;DR buy Dracula Trilogy and play Dracula 3: The Path of the Dragon

TRI: Of Friendship and Madness

Tri is a very very good game. It is a puzzle-exploration game. In each level there is a locked teleporter, which require three keys to open. Your task in each is the find the keys, find the teleporter and continue to the next level. Off course things do get complicated as you go along. To help you navigate the levels, you get the "Tri" - an artifact capable of producing triangle. The triangles can be created anywhere, as long as each corner is anchored somehow, and they are not too large. As you go along, the "Tri" can be used in more or less three ways - to create platforms, to be used to walk on walls and ceilings (dont ask...) and to bend light. The use of the "Tri" is fundamental to complete the levels.

There are in total 16 levels in the game, and if you know exactly where you are going and doing, some of them can be beaten in 10 min or so, though others require 20 min just to walk from start to exit through mazes. However, this is if you know the puzzles already, your first play through expect to spend 20-60 min on levels just to solve them. Added to this, there are an x number of idols hidden on each level, some of them very devious. These are not required to finish the game, but you unlock concept art and such by finding them. Finding all will take a lot of time searching and head-scratching.

The game in not "trippy" as such, it is in fact quite serene. The mood of the game is peaceful, and it is much more cerebral than twitchy. The puzzles are logical, and the physics are 'real', so do not expect any subversive puzzles like Antichamber. The game is highly recommend.

TL;DR buy TRI

Anima Gate of Memories

It's a really ambitious indie game made by only 3 people.
A good cross-platform, Action hack&slash with rpg elements... something like Devil may cry but with more rpg elements.

to get more info just read my review on the game page:
https://www.gog.com/game/anima_gate_of_memories

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Shadwen

One of the few 3D stealth indie game. Frozenbyte made a good but rough product with this one.
the main problem (for me) is that they removed the point system from the demo, but the final product is full of little area where you can tell it was a rushed game.
Also they made the terrible decision of link the editor to windows and steam workshop...

It is still a really fun game and I love it. You can also still find the cross-platform early released demo on the humble bundle page.
And you can of course get more info from my review on the gog store page of this game:
https://www.gog.com/game/shadwen

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King's Bounty: The Legend
A massive game where you play as a Treasure hunter. You hire troops and expand you're world trying to defeat or avoid every enemy you can without lose troops (because when they are gone they are gone forever and you need to find other troops).
It's a game where every battle it's like a chess game, and every troop got it's own power and ability, and where you can use you're own ability to change the game.
I love it so much that I forgot to make a real review but there are many more info about this game on the store page:
https://www.gog.com/game/kings_bounty_the_legend

https://www.gog.com/game/kings_bounty_the_legend

Bad Moju Redux -90% = $0.59

Story: You have been transformed into a cockroach. Bad mojo!
Arrow keys to move, Enter or Space for menu.

In this truly original adventure title, you tank-control a cockroach throughout a real nasty-ass apartment. The video on the sales page gives a good feel of the games weird trippy style, but check the screenshot to see what the gameplay looks like. Unlike other adventure games, there is no inventory. You just navigate the giant (to you) landscape, push stuff around and try to avoid the numerous death traps. (You respawn instantly on death)

The game comes with a LOT of extra stuff too:
- manual
- wallpaper
- soundtrack (FLAC) (With printable cd label and cover!)
- soundtrack (MP3)
- the Bad Mojo team
- 4 developer's commentary videos
- 6 video hints
- making of Bad Mojo (Pretty good videos. Worth a watch!)
- 4 storyboards
- avatar
- 28 concept artworks
- gallery

The current version has ugly black borders. How to fix it:
1) Navigate to the games install folder: C:\GOG Games\Bad Mojo
2) Right-click on the 'Launch Bad Mojo' shortcut. Under the Compatibility tab, enable 'Run with 640 x 480 resolution'

Driftmoon

A remarkable, charming, funny, delighful game, one of my favourite RPGs ever. It's not very long, it's not "epic" and the graphics won't impress anyone, but it's just such a joy to play. It's very old school, but also very accesable. The writing is great and the gameplay is just immensly fun. It feels like the kind of fantasy adventure I think we all wanted to go on when playing our first RPGs. It's a passion project, and that passion of the devs shines through in every pixel, every location, every minute of the game. It's the perfect indie game- it's not trying to ride some bandwagon, it's not a hardcore roguelike with pixel graphics and random levels or "Dark Souls meets whatever else is popular right now". It's what the devs wanted, dreamed it to be. If you have any love for RPGs you need to play this.

Does it run on windows 10?
The gamecard lists only XP, VIsta, 7 and 8.

Good thread!

RETURN TO MYSTERIOUS ISLAND

I've bought this game on sale, and knew nothing about it, and when I played, it was pure joy!

- First of all, very relaxing! A mid sized island you can explore, and that is your playground for the entirety of the game.
- A very original system that allows you to mix items to obtain others. Some of them mandatory, and some bonus.
- A very simple story with nice plot twists.
- Puzzles that FEEL integrated, instead of "let me push this switch". They always feel integrated!
- Likeable characters. You care for them.

On sale, it costs $1.99, and it's TOTALLY worth it! :) Buy a coffe or have this game in your collection :D It's a very unique, light hearted game.


https://www.gog.com/game/return_to_mysterious_island

Now that's a game that actually slipped under my radar. Thanks for bringing it to my attention! Although the price might still a bit high for me right now, but I'll put it on the wishlist.

love this thread, its good timing as most are on deep sale now, also, some of the titles mentioned i was pleasantly reminded i already own but had forgotten about. the AI game im looking into, its one of those games I would love to learn how to play but bet that i wouldnt have the patience for, lol may watch a lets play on it tho.

https://www.gog.com/game/beneath_a_steel_sky

for me this was a charming surprise, its a freebie here on gog and by its date really didnt think it would be much but by golly, i enjoyed it tremendously. the story is very good, it draws you in, something most modern games are leaving behind in favor of the latest flashy graphics. the artwork is great, at times very quirky and fun, other times grotesque. gameplay is intuitive but there are some puzzles you have to think about hard. hotspots can be hard to find as well but still, very enjoyable if you like adventure games.

https://www.gog.com/game/gabriel_knight_2_the_beast_within

i found the motion video aspect of this game very immersive, as well as exploring real images of museums, castles etc. the acting was enjoyable tho can be a bit cheesy at times. its one of my favorite top ten games to play for nostalgia sake

https://www.gog.com/game/nox

just finished a first play thru of this diablo like game and enjoyed it. it played seamlessly on my pc with only an auto save failure towards the end. there are different starting areas and stories for each of the three classes so you can replay the game as you wish. its just an easy rpg to run with

https://www.gog.com/game/legend_of_grimrock

for dungeon crawler goodness, lots of puzzles, secret areas, exploration and a creepy story that slowly builds, diff monsters need diff spells or weapon attacks. its a newer game so is easier to enjoy than say true old crawlers like Stonekeep, which is also excellent but pretty old school and lacks things like auto mapping.

anywho, i could go on but these are some pleasant surprises that found their way into my heart

I just ran it -- seems fine!

Yeah, it's always hard to decide beforehand, and also considering that different people have different tastes, and even then you can't always afford to buy all the good games at full price ... But I very much appreciate the suggestion. So far it's the only game in this thread that I hadn't heard of even though it's in a genre I'm not averse to. So thanks again! :)

<span class="bold"> Tzar: The Burden of the Crown</span>

One of the personal favorite RTS games of all time! Let me highlight a few important features:
- Interesting story. Definitely not original but interesting nevertheless
- Even if the mission is "destroy your opponents" there is enough background information to make it interesting
- Most missions have more complicated objectives like preparing to defend your capital city (the upcoming army is really huge and it's not an easy mission), rescue a hostage, steal a magic book, consult the oracle (again, not that easy as you may think) and many more
- Side quests which may turn out to be nearly indispensable
- Excellent leveling system. Take care of your veteran units, they are much better than rookies. Train your heroes as much as possible - their experience is not lost from mission to mission!
- Idle peasants will automatically join other nearby working peasant in his task. No more baby-sitting!
- Three significantly different nations
- Well designed difficulty system It's not the game without flaws, nations are not perfectly balanced if you plan to play with your friends. Some features and units are virtually useless. But nothing frustrating nor game-breaking.
Sure, there are a few flaws here and there (bad path finding, dumb AI) but I recommend it to any RTS fan!

TL;DR buy Tzar