LogFAQs > #977516972

37. Braid
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqtSKkyJgFM

Braid felt ahead of its time and basically set the standard for indie games and puzzle platformers for years to come. This is the very great mix between challenging puzzles, fun gameplay, a cool art style, and a compelling background plot. I think this is one of the big points where we really started to see indie games used to present a unique and layered and interpretable story in a way big budget games rarely try to do. But also fuck that two hours of real time to float on a cloud to try and get a puzzle piece, trying to do that on a shared desktop computer suuuuuucked.

36. Antichamber
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKU6mUFMnHk

Yet another one of the reality-bending first-person sci-fi puzzle exploration games, I know, but I think Antichamber is legitimately the one that sets the standard for them (aside from Portal, which is fantastic but isn't an indie game). If you enjoyed The Witness, I think you'll get a lot out of Anitchamber. It follows a similar structure of putting you in a big, mysterious place and letting you explore it freely at your own pace, and letting you slowly unlock/uncover new areas with constantly changing game mechanics. It's super challenging and even more trippy. It's difficult to explain exactly how the game works; there's like blocks, and barriers, and Witness-like little wall puzzles, and various guns to alter your block placement. Just a really cool experience.

35. A Plague Tale: Innocence
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4FOb16Nenk

This is such a weird one to try to rank, because it is an indie game, according to tons of different publications, but it doesn't really feel like one. And as far as I can tell, A Plague Tale: Requiem is considered a full non-indie game now, so I guess that's the kind of budget jump that makes the difference. I will say, if A Plague Tale: Requiem was considered an indie game, it would place in the top 10 of this list. APT:I is fantastic as well, and way more terrifying that I expected it to be going in. There are AAA-quality performances from everyone here, especially Amicia, who between this and Requiem has secured a spot as one of my all-time favorite video game characters. It's an escort game that never really suffers for it, and in fact always having companions of some sort really makes the characters feel real. Just some incredible and haunting storytelling at work here.