10. Don't Starve Together

Don’t Starve Together gameplay

The Multiplayer expansion of the popular single player survival game, Don’t Starve.

You and your friends, or online strangers, are spawned into an unforgiving world full of monsters and things that go bump in the night.

Players have to work together to maintain their health, hunger, and sanity while battling the elements.

There are many characters to choose from, each with their own personality quirks, strengths, and weaknesses. How long can you survive?

A lineup of the characters you can play. I particularly like the nightmare spider girl.

The epitome of thriving in the wilderness.

9. The Forest

The Forest gameplay

The Forest is an exciting survival horror with a vast, dynamic environment. You play as the sole survivor of a plane crash...unless youuse multiplayer mode in which case up to 7 of your friends also survived. Explore the forest, underground caves, and lakes. Watch out for the tribe of cannibal mutants, though. Getting eaten would be a real bummer.

Go ahead, just unleash a Molotov Cocktail on some mutant cannibals, why not?

A very handsome lizard, and some crafting going on.

8. Oxygen Not Included

Oxygen Not Included gameplay

Man, people really like their survival/crafting games! Oxygen Not Included takes place in space, where you are in charge of a subterranean asteroid base. The goal, to survive and thrive in the harsh environment of outer space. This game is delightfully thorough, with mechanics for physics, wiring, thermodynamics, and, of course, oxygen. The name of the game here is maximum efficiency. Oh, and space madness, you have to worry about space madness.

You’ve got heat vision, now make sure your people don’t freeze or burn or something. Keep that climate controlled!

A thriving little colony.

7. Cuphead

Cuphead gameplay 

Cuphead! I remember Cuphead, everyone seemed to be Let’s Playing this game when it came out. Cuphead is a run and gun game in the style of a 1930s cartoon, including hand-drawn animation cells, rubber hose animation, and the classic 1930s cartoon nightmare fuel. Fight alone or with a friend through the insanely difficult boss fights in an attempt to repay your debt to the devil.

If you are what you eat, someone ate a lot of giant carrots with crazy eyes.

Don’t make deals with the devil.

6. MORDHAU

MORDHAU gameplay

An all out medieval war! If you so choose, you can fight in a battle with up to 64 people. This game has high character customization in both appearance and mechanics. You’re a melee person? Go for it. You’d rather just build some fortifications? That works, too. You can fight against online players, or test your skills against an AI. And with realistic combat, gore included, the bloodlust you can’t express in normal society is sure to be satiated!

The one against the many. How will you fare, fair knight?

The throes of battle!

5. RimWorld

RimWorld gameplay 

RimWorld is a very in-depth sci-fi colony simulation. You start with three colonists: the survivors of a passenger ship in orbit around a distant planet. Every event is picked out by an AI storyteller, and you can control what kind of story it tells. An entirely new planet is created every time you restart the game. Injuries your colonizers sustain affect their ability to live, and their thoughts are constantly influenced by the world world around them!

Keep track of the whole dang planet.

Build yourself a shelter and try to avoid death, I guess! Also, solar panels, very forward thinking!

4. Darkest Dungeon

Darkest Dungeon gameplay

A roguelike with turn based combat where you fight stress and disease as much as you fight the monsters. There’s a mystery to solve, and you must journey into the depths to solve it. There are 16 classes of characters to choose from, and the replayability is insane! Plus there’s a narrator to comment on your wins and your loses, that’s always fun!

Fight some spooky monsters!

Try not to succumb to afflictions of the soul.

3. Divinity: Original Sin 2

Divinity: Original Sin 2 gameplay

A game of tactical turn based combat in which the divine is dead and you must fight to become the next god of this world. You can fight alongside three of your friends. Fight together to take down your enemies!. Interact with a nearly endless world, a world that is available in beautiful 4k graphics.

Impressive architecture and some destruction.

DESTROY ALL THAT LIES IN YOUR PATH!

2. Stardew Valley

Stardew Valley gameplay 

A charming farming game perfect for getting your zen on! You play as a cute little pixel person who, weary of working for a big corporation, moves onto their grandfather’s farm in the quaint town of Stardew Valley. You grow crops and raise animals, you can even create an irrigation system. The real charm, however, lies in the townsfolk, you can interact with them, strengthen your bonds, and even marry.

A neat and tidy farm!

Make friends and revive a farm from the dead!

1. Undertale

Undertale gameplay

One of my personal favorites, Undertale is amorality RPG where nobody has to die. It has charming 8-bit graphics and turn based bullet hell combat. You are a human child who has fallen into an underground realm of monsters. Every battle’s outcome will affect the ending and the world around you. Guide the fallen human through a world of unique characters, self-reference, and epic music!

All sorts of twists on a central mechanic! Who knew a bullet hell could also be a quiz show!

Look how many dogs!