Hey, today we're talking about one of our favorite types of games, single player experiences.
We just wanted a good excuse to talk about some weird games. So, here are 7 of the best single player games that maybe you've never played. We're not going full indie today, but talking about some gems that just kind of slipped under the radar for mainstream audiences. While you were maybe busy playing "Call of Duty" or "Grand Theft Auto", we were squeaking by having fun with these ones.
Starting off at number 7,
we have "Alice: Madness Returns". First off, it's just, we gotta mention, it's a shame that they're not making another one of these games. The Alice games have a cult following for a reason. They're just really creative, visually stunning games, and "Alice: Madness Returns" was a really good example of that. Nowadays, some of the platforming and combat might feel a little clunky, but this is just a straightforward, satisfying adventure with platforming, combat, some abilities, a lot of wild, weird visuals and just- I'd honestly say an adventure, a vibe that you don't get with games nowadays.
These games were unique and beloved for a reason. Even if they were flawed, they just had really great art direction, music design, and it's a shame that we might not ever see another one. Still, "Alice: Madness Returns" is out there. It's still playable, so you should go check it out.
Next over at number 6,
we're shifting gears a little bit and mentioning "Night In the Woods". Now, this one isn't too old, but essentially this is a point and click adventure with a really good art style to it.
And I'd say if you like things like "Oxenfree" or maybe even "Life is Strange", "Night In the Woods" is for you. It's certainly not action packed or anything like that, but it's kind of like a mystery, coming of age adventure, set in a small town.
This town is a beautiful, well designed town, filled with characters that are all cute critters. But they're also really, really human. I mean from a dialogue sense, as you walk around, learn about the town, learn about the characters, learn about your character, the player, you get wrapped up in a pretty compelling story.
Yes, it's not about anything crazy, like zombies coming to take over the world or anything like that, but it's a surprisingly real story told by cartoon cats. I don't wanna give too much of it away without spoiling anything, but this is another game where I hate to overuse the word, but it's about the vibes and the story, and when it released, it just did not get enough love. So, you should check it out.
Next, over at number 5,
for our JRPG friends, we got something a little bit different to recommend today. It's "Astlibra Revision". Yes, despite the weird name, this is a really, really challenging and fun 2D RPG, just like the old school days and there are a lot of games in this kind of subgenre.
We've seen a revival of the whole classic JRPG aesthetic more recently and a lot of those games have been talked about, but we haven't seen this one been highlighted a lot, so we figured we'd mention it. This is a side scrolling one, but it is absolutely gorgeous.
The graphics, the way the battles go down, everything just looks really good. There's a lot going on on screen, of course, but it's a battler, so you're gonna have your stats, you're gonna have your numbers, and the systems are pretty good. Like the items, the equipment, everything really works out here. The boss battles are pretty over the top. You have a cool talking Bird companion named Karen, which is kind of, you know, definitely relevant to your interest if you're a Game Ranks viewer, you know, talking bird companion.
Anyway, this won a bunch of awards, it got a lot of great reviews, players are loving it, it only released in 2022, but you never see this one get mentioned anywhere, so consider it.
Next, over at number 4,
we have "Binary Domain". Now, this was published by Sega and back when this released, on the surface it seemed kind of a Japanese "Gears of War" clone, just like, big hunky, clunky, third person action shooter. But instead of shootings aliens or monsters, this time you're shooting high tech advanced robots in a futuristic Tokyo.
And you know, it's a little corny. It's kind of like cheesy B-Movie action type stuff, but underneath it actually is a surprisingly good story with good characters, good moments, and just fun shooting. I think a lot of people did not give "Binary Domain" a fair shake when it first released a lot of people were just kinda like, "eh", but if you give this game a shot, you'd be surprised.
Just a good, fun play through of a solid third person action shooter, which we don't get enough of these days. But "Binary Domain" had some fun encounters, some good destruction, and some really good boss battles, and like big, crazy moments. If you miss games like this, consider checking it out.
Next, over at number 3,
if you're looking for a story based game to play through, consider "As Dusk Falls" because this didn't release that long ago, but it seems like it dropped and nobody really cared. But surprisingly, once you get past the look of the game, which is mostly just kind of static images and art, there's a really good story here with some good branching storyline, choice decision type stuff.
So basically if you're into games from Quantic Dream like "Heavy Rain", "Detroit: Become Human", anything like that, "As Dusk Falls" kind of continues that trend. Granted it's a little bit more lo-fi and it's a little less of an over the top story, but still there's a compelling one here. It's kind of something that starts off simply, a family road trip where they're stranded, they have to go to a gas station and suddenly that gas station is robbed.
Kind of turns into a thing spanning different generations and it gets pretty complicated. But it's really cool and very ambitious. Again, it did not really get too much love when it first released, but you should consider it.
Next, over at number 2, we have a game called "The Pathless".
This game dropped around the time of the launch of the PlayStation 5 and it kind of got lost in the scuffle, but essentially this is a really fun, third person action, open world exploration game, with some pretty simple puzzles. But just some satisfying moments of discovery and kind of figuring things out in this really simple area- Like not a lot of dialogue, not a lot really going onto it.
It's more of, like I said, with other games on this list. This is more of like a lo-fi thing, but what it really nails is the environments themselves, and the sense of movement. You probably remember this game from next generation game videos, but essentially it's around high speed movement, chained around firing your bow, and hitting special nodes with arrows that boost you and make you go faster.
And you can do this in mid-air and kind of jump and dash around and it is really satisfying to groove and move around these environments, because like I said, a lot of it is kind of like dungeon puzzle solving type stuff.
So, the actual getting around to the exploration, the actual traversal, if you will, is the most fun aspect of the game. They really nailed it. There's also some big looming enemy encounters that can be satisfying as well. You know, "The Pathless" definitely isn't perfect, but they made something really cool here. It's a very unique adventure.
If you like things like "Shadow of the Colossus" you should consider "The Pathless".
Next, over at number 1, we have "Mad Max".
This is a game we've talked about quite a bit on the channel now at this point, but we're throwing it in here just in case you didn't see our other videos. "Mad Max" was released the same day as "Metal Gear Solid V" and for a lot of people, this kind of got tossed to the wayside, especially considering people still don't trust movie tie-in games.
The thing with this one though, is that it wasn't really a tie-in to "Fury Road". There were some references here and there, but this was once again, just kind of like a fresh Max interpretation, and it's a very, on the surface, formulaic, open world action, adventure game, but once you really dive into it, you got fun car combat, that's actually interesting, you got a pretty good upgrade progression, armor, car upgrade loop, that really encourages exploration.
You got a world they built here that feels lonely and desolate and cool, and post-apocalypticy. And combat where you just kind of Arkam style punched the shit out of dudes. It was very satisfying, believe it or not. Still underrated, still not talked about enough to this day. "Mad Max" just lends itself to a video game and this is like the definitive experience for it.
Not enough people did. Of course, there are plenty of other games to talk about. We've talked about some in the past, we'll talk about more soon, so let us know yours down in the comments.