Image: Pexels/Alexaner Kovalev
Steam (and the whole gaming industry) has a problem, it’s becoming flooded with new games (indie and otherwise). So I thought I would start a new monthly series, covering what I am playing – new games and old games. For those who don’t know, I have a rather large Steam collection, and I’m always curious to try new games, even just for a short while. I thought this new series would help people find new and interesting games in an ever increasing sea of noise, plus some hidden gems that many might never discover. Ideally I’ll write something up once per month, starting this month, end of October 2026.
Indie pick 1 – Darkenstein 3D
Press E to talk to rat.
This is a free game (with paid DLC), so no reason to hesitate with it. The back-story is yet another world war 2 game. Inspired by Wolfenstein 3D. However the main character is a homeless person with a beard and an attitude. He has a pet dog and seems to be quite friendly with animals.
The gameplay is similar to old shooters, but upgraded graphics. Not quite AAA style, the entire world is block-based, like Wolfenstein 3D, with doors you open and items you run over to collect, like treasure.
One difference it has is a flashlight, which comes in handy as it is dimly lit. Another above, is some amount of storytelling and narrative expressed through the game. You are looking for your dog that got separated at the beginning.
I’ve only played about an hour of this game, but it’s got something quirky about it that keeps me coming back. Will I finish it? I don’t know but it’s on my favourites list!
Store link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2195910/Darkenstein_3D/
Classic pick – Deus Ex: Revision
In the future, vending machines are exactly the same.
I remember playing and finishing this game in college, circa 2006-2008, on my gaming PC at the time, likely an ATI X1900 XT graphics card, AMD Athlon CPU, or there about. But I think it’s an important game to re-play again, being older and wiser.
The Revision mod upgrades textures, music, audio, while keeping it fairly faithful to the original game’s style. With my new 4K monitor, I’d much rather play this than the original game, to make the most of a higher resolution display.
For those who haven’t played Deus Ex, it’s an immersive sim – which means the environment gives you many options to explore to complete missions, including secret keypad entries, secret entries, NPCs to talk to or bribe with food, etc. With your skills you can hack cameras and robots, or just take the brute force approach.
The story is about technologically augmented humans in a somewhat dystopian society with a lot of poverty it appears, and government organisations conspiring to control the population. I’m only about 1/4 through the game, but I do intend to complete it again.
I’m not finding it as challenging as my first play-through, which is adding to the fun.
Store link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/397550/Deus_Ex_Revision/
Indie Pick 2 – Brutal John 2
A lot of references in this game.
I am a big fan of first person shooters, you can thank Half-Life 1 and 2 for that, and Counter Strike, Quake, Unreal Tournament, Serious Sam.
Brutal John 2 has an amusing premise, you are fighting your way through cryptocurrency server farms, among other things, to rid the world of an alien that has taken over the world’s economy with GPUs.
The game feels quite similar to Duke Nukem and Serious Sam, but still has it’s own unique colourful identity. You play as Brutal John and his loyal companion, Brutal Dog, through many different missions.
The gameplay feels more like Serious Sam, hordes of enemies to shoot at. But with a more gritty Duke Nukem style environment. There are many different weapons, and a kick action. Not overly complex gameplay, but the game makes up for it in many other ways.
It’s full of humor and references, which add to the experience, and you’ll either love or find a little cringey the voice acting, which they make no apologies for being spoken by local voice actors which I believe are from Brazil.
I’m enjoying this game a lot, and the intention is to finish it.
Store link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1859620/BRUTAL_JOHN_2/
In addition, I’m playing more Counter-Strike 2, weekly Deep Rock Galactic sessions, Killing Floor 3 occasionally, which I find okay, I may cover it in a future post.
Yeah, 3 first person games, next time I’ll hopefully try another genre/perspective. Although I do have a few other similar theme games of note.