Top 5 Best Upcoming Indie Games of September 2019
It’s a honking mixed bag of thrills and mischief this month.
September marks the release of a mixed bag of indie darlings for your enjoyment. This month, we’ve got several horror picks that will take players to foe-filled dungeons and monster-saturated small towns. These games are sure to beat the back-to-school/end of summer blues— and maybe even get you ready for Halloween a whole month early!
If horror isn’t your cup of tea, we’ve got a couple of games that are so different from anything else we’ve seen that they are practically in a genre all of their own makings. Read on to see what games you should add to your wishlist this month.
5. Blasphemous
Players looking for some gory platforming action this month should check out Blasphemous, which combines hack-and-slash mechanics with a big, non-linear world to explore. Blasphemous seems like a bit of a Souls-like game, in that the player will take on challenging bosses and the Steam description straight up calls it “punishing.” Of course, you can always try the demo first.
Blasphemous is releasing on consoles and PC on September 10.
4. Daymare: 1998
Just as its title hints, players feeling a little nostalgic for the 90s have a new indie game to look forward to this month — if they’re nostalgic for 90s horror, that is. A third-person survival horror game from Invader Studios, Daymare: 1998 puts players to task investigating a research facility in which a freak incident transforms a small town of people into nasty monsters.
Resource management is a key part of the game — which means you should save those bullets. In addition to taking on the zombie-like foes, players will collect items to make better sense of what happened and will have to solve puzzles as well.
Daymare: 1998 is coming September 17 to PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4.
3. Overland
Overland has all the necessary ingredients of a post-apocalyptic game. From frightening creatures to a canine companion and an emphasis on resource management, it’s all there. In this turn-based survival game from Finji, players will need to carefully plan how they will make it through the world by choosing their battles — literally. Because the player can’t take on all monsters in an area, they’ll have to decide whether or not they can save a stranger in trouble, for example, or if they have enough time to scavenge for fuel.
Players can also scavenge for other items, like medkits and axes and the like, to help them through their journey. They’ll have to carefully choose where to go at each stage of the game, deciding between such dilemmas as upgrading their wreck of a car or raiding a pharmacy.
Overland is coming to PC and the Switch on September 19.
2. Creature in the Well
Players take on the role of the only standing robot engineer, BOT-C, in Creature in the Well. The upcoming game from Flight School Studio combines game mechanics from pinball as well as hack-and-slash games and classic dungeon crawlers.
As players navigate from room to room, they come across massive circuit board-like fixtures that they must bounce around an energy orb through in order to collect enough points to open new doors and level up their character. For now, the easiest way to describe it is ‘pinball… with swords.’
Creature in the Well is coming to PC (via Steam), Nintendo Switch, and Xbox One on September 6.
1. Untitled Goose Game
There is a time for action and a time for honking — and in Untitled Goose Game, it’s always time to honk. While players will have a dedicated button simply for honking, the other buttons in this game will allow them to mess around with the people of the goose’s village by setting up pranks and other inconveniences for them to stumble into. This highly-anticipated indie release from Melbourne developer House House has been in the making for a few years, and still has the same impressively non-title title after all this time.
The Steam description calls Untitled Goose Game a “slapstick-stealth-sandbox,” and you can find out exactly what that plays like on September 20, on PC, Mac, or Nintendo Switch.
There’s really something for everyone this month in the world of indie games — especially for those who love horror and survival titles. If you’re looking for something to dive into right away, be sure to check out our top 20 indie games of 2019 (so far). We’ll be back next month with more top indie games to check out in October.