Best Indie Games In 2022

Our list of the 25 best indie games to play in 2022 offers just a taste of the variation, creativity, and innovation you can find in the lower budget area of gaming. Indie games have been a part of the medium in some form or another since its earliest days, but their influence and popularity has only grown relatively recently. The space offers a break from the often homogenous nature of AAA gaming, allowing indie titles to be more experimental or radical in their design, and present stories that appeal to groups that aren't as well represented in the industry. So no matter your platform or preferred genre, you'll find something that stands out in this list of the best indie games you can play right now.

Best Indie Games: Papers, Please 

Papers, Please is a part puzzle, part simulation game with a heavy focus on player choices that can shape your indivdual story. You take on the role of an immigration officer at the border of a fictional country called Arstotzka, which is modelled after the Soviet Satellite States of the USSR. You'll manage a booth at a border checkpoint, musing over the documents of people attempting to enter the country, but you're limited by time and need to make enough money to take care of your family.

The game presents a lot of moral dilemmas to the character, often emphasising the struggle between taking care of your own or helping to make a better world. It can be a deeply resonating experience, and it's ability to harness your empathy for a series of 2D pixel sprites is fascinating. 

Best Indie Games: Hollow Knight

Hollow Knight is a 2D metroidvania heavily inspired by Dark Souls, causing it to make quite an impact on the souls-like genre. It's a title where every component combines for an enchanting experience, thanks to its gorgeous art style, excellent worldbuilding, and extensive narrative.

The perspective and metroidvania design allow you to explore a wide variety of locations which you often get to revisit with increased power and experience. It's deeply challenging at points, but getting to grips with its tight combat mechanics to take on powerful bosses throughout the world is endlessly satisfying. The sequel, Hollow Knight: Silksong is set to come sometime this year, so if you enjoy this adventure you've still got more to look forward to soon. 

Best Indie Games: AMID EVIL 

AMID EVIL has been one of the standout titles from the retro shooter revival that has taken the independent scene by storm during these past few years. Harkening back to titles like Quake and HEXEN, AMID EVIL presents a dark fantasy universe where a corrupting force has taken over the known realms. As the Champion who earned the right to ascend to a higher plane, you'll travel across each realm and defeat the evil corruptions plaguing them.

AMID EVIL focuses on speed and intensity, pitting you against large forces of varied enemies with a creative cast of weaponry. A trident that shoots lightning, a staff that plucks planets out of the cosmos before launching them like rockets, a mace that fires crystals like a shotgun - it's par for the course here, and you'll need to use each one effectively to take on the hordes of enemies and god-like bosses. 

Best Indie Games: Baba Is You 

For fans of deeply cerebral puzzle games that excel in giving you those eureka moments, Baba Is You is for you (Baba Is For You?). The game revolves around the literal manipulation of its own rules, by letting you move around sets of tiles that define its logic to reach a specified goal. For example three tiles Baba, Is, and You define who you control, but sometimes the solution to a level is to change who is You.  

There are hundreds of brain bending levels that provide a gradual rise in difficulty, really letting you get to grips with its concept before bashing you over the head with challenges that will occupy your mind for days. Completing this game is a real victory, and it's worth it for that first eureka moment alone. 

Best Indie Games: Celeste 

Celeste was a surprising experience for any player back in 2018, as what could have been just another side scrolling platformer turned out to be an experience of utmost quality thanks to its engaging gameplay and emotional story. You play as Madeline on her journey to the top of Mount Celeste, as you platform across challenges sections that require pinpoint jumping, dashing, and climbing to reach your goals.

One of the reasons it stood out so much, was that it serves as an allegory for the trans experience, allowing it to speak to an unrepresented group in gaming while also having wider appeal that allowed its message of acceptance to spread farther. It still stands tall as one of the best platformers in recent memory, and with its availability on multiple platforms, anyone can play. 

Best Indie Games: Death's Door 

Death's Door was one of the big indie hits of last year, letting players dive into a beautiful world as a crow who works as a reaper of souls. In short, you slowly uncover a conspiracy about your current boss, the Lord of Doors, and venture off to figure out the mystery.

While the gameplay is simple, it provides a deep challenge thanks to the design of enemy encounters and bosses. It's a melancholic experience throughout that thematically explores how we deal with the inevitability of death, but it tackles this heavy concept with enough levity and personality to stop it from being emotionally draining. Fans of the souls series and isometric action adventure will find a lot to love here.

Best Indie Games: Disco Elysium

Disco Elysium seemingly came out of nowhere to give the CRPG genre a kick up the backside, showcasing a level of worldbuilding and writing that is unparalleled in gaming as a whole. You'll play as an amnesiac cop tasked with solving a murder mystery, giving you free rein in deciding what kind of character you can be, from your political beliefs, all the way down to which aspects of your personality you favour.

Your skills are different representations of your own personality, so gaining XP will let you magnify things like your Logic, Pain Threshold, or Empathy. This allows the game to be incredibly creative with the dialogue of your inner thoughts, flipping between absurd humour and poignant self-reflection at a moment's notice. It offers a profound dive into the human experience, and is a game that's not easily forgotten. 

Best Indie Games: What Remains Of Edith Finch 

What Remains of Edith Finch is a title that provides a truly compelling story while taking full advantage of the video game medium. It's a first-person adventure game where you explore your family home and unravel the history of your family members. The Finch family is afflicted with a curse that seems many of them die in unusual ways, and throughout the game you'll be presented with vignettes that detail their fates.

There's more to this family than the curse though, and you'll get to experience what led to the demise of many members, retold in dramatic ways that make use of fantasy elements, magical realism, and myth. It's a short but engrossing game, and the ways it manages to combine narrative and gaming mechanics to deliver its story makes it a standout in the medium as a whole. 

Best Indie Games: Stardew Valley 

Stardew Valley is one of the first titles many people think of where they hear the term "indie game," and for good reason. It's an example of the kind of quality that even a single developer can provide when they have a strong idea and the will to make it happen.

The game sees you running a farm left to you by your deceases grandad in the fictional location of Stardew Valley. It's extremely open-ended and lets you take on whatever tasks appeal to you, from building your farm, growing crops, raising livestock, and socialising with townspeople. Stardew Valley is a peaceful and enchanting experience, and the complete control it gives to players to live their in-game life makes it a must-try for anyone who like to set their own goals. 

Best Indie Games: Inscryption

Daniel Mullins has a flair for creating meta games that seemingly break every rule in the book, and Inscryption is no different. At first, it maintains the facade of a simple deckbuilding roguelike, where you move along a randomised board, gaining cards and upgrades while also battling during encounters and boss fights. We won't spoil how  Inscryption begins to change over the course of the game, but it doesn't limit itself to a single genre or aesthetic. 

It's really something you have to play to experience, but the tight card-based duelling works really well and allows for a tonne of strategy potential. The developers also recently added an endless mode, so if you want just to experience it as a simple roguelike, you've got the option. 

Best Indie Games: Kentucky Route Zero

Kentucky Route Zero is a game that took a long time to finally see the light of day, with its five episodes seeing release between 2013 and 2020. It's a 2D point-and-click that follows a truck driver called Conway on his adventure along the mysterious Route Zero to deliver a final package for his employer. 

Along the way you'll meet many strange and intriguing characters that help to build the strange, absurd, and often magical world you find yourself in. Aside from its engaging storytelling and writing, the beautiful, but simplistic graphics help to elevate the atmosphere, with a number of standout visual moments and scenes. 

Best Indie Games: Mark of the Ninja Remastered 

This remastered version of the 2012 stealth classic is the best way of experiencing Mark of the Ninja. It's a 2D stealth action game where your clan of ninjas has finally been discovered after hiding in the shadows for centuries, forcing you to protect them and stop the military forces attacking. 

The game's environments are divided into light and dark, letting you employ the darkness for stealth as you try to sneak your way past increasingly more difficult enemies and their technology designed to counter you. With its line-of-sight mechanics and strong audio design, the stealth gameplay is massively enhanced, making it one of the better examples of this genre in recent years. 

Best Indie Games: Post Void

Unique seems like a word that doesn’t quite begin to capture the hypnotic chaos of Post Void. The core game-loop is an engrossing blend of roguelikes and 90s twitch shooters, where you feverishly battle your way through 11 stages, and an epilogue, of procedurally generated hallways whilst fending off a swarm of cursed monsters.

It features a dizzying blend of disorganised imagery and sound; psychedelic, vibrantly coloured visuals, and an eclectic, synth music track that all converges into a playable fever dream. The visual noise and busy gameplay means Post Void isn't for everyone, but it will treat you to a very carefully and purposefully crafted, high-octane thrill ride quite unlike anything else currently on the market.

Best Indie Games: Sifu

One of the more recent releases of this list, Sifu is a stylish and challenging action beat 'em up where you'll take part in visceral martial arts battles across multiple levels to avenge your father's death. There's a key mechanic which affects the game's difficulty though, as whenever you die, you'll be resurrected and age up, giving you more powerful attacks but less health. 

This means you'll need to master the game's combat so that you can successfully make it through without getting too old and permanently dying. There are over 100 unique attacks to learn which can also be linked to create combos, along with skills that specialise you in some way. As our Sifu review adds, it takes determination to get to the end, but the joy of mastering the combat and learning how to progress consistently makes for an endlessly satisfying brawler. 

Best Indie Games: Reigns

Reigns is the simplest game on this list due to it being designed primarily for mobile phones, but don't let that trick you into thinking it lacks the quality of the other entries. It's a simulation strategy game where you undertake the role of monarch for a fictional kingdom, with the gameplay consisting of you looking over various suggestion cards from advisors and making decisions by swiping left or right. 

Each decision you make will affect an aspect of your kingdom though, so you'll need to carefully balance the church, population, army, and wealth. Neglecting one or favouring another too much will lead to the end of the game, and your goal is to reign as long as possible. It's one of the cheaper games on the list, and can be played absolutely anywhere, so it's one to get for filling up free time. 

Best Indie Games: TUNIC

TUNIC is an action-adventure game that harkens back to classic titles like Legend of Zelda, dropping the player into a large and mysterious world, while tasking them wth slowly uncovering its secrets. It's well designed in almost every facet, but the most standout and novel feature - as highlighted in our TUNIC review - is the in-game instruction manual. It provides hints and direction to the player, forcing you to engage more thoroughly with the game to solve its mysteries.

The world is a treat to explore and invokes a consistent mood of nostalgia, with a feeling that the land you explore is long past its best days. There's also nice bit of variation with combat too, thanks to the different abilities and magical equipment you gain.

Best Indie Games: Hades

Hades took the world by storm with its incredibly well-designed combination of Greek mythology and dungeon-delving roguelike gameplay. As the son of Hades, you are tasked with escaping the Underworld to reach Mount Olympus, but along the way you'll fight a number of enemies and bosses in a series of randomised rooms and locations. 

It doesn't do much new with the roguelike genre, but with its varied and satisfying hack-n-slash combat, procedural narrative storytelling, and pronounced art direction, it combines into a fantastic whole that provides a great introduction for anyone into the genre. 

Best Indie Games: Weird West

The world of Weird West is fantastically odd and twisted, presenting a macabre, magical, and mysterious version of the classic American frontier setting. It also makes for a unique genre combo, with elements of both CRPGs and immersive sims thrown into the pot for a deeply interactive and player-driven experience. 

Over the course of the game's five chapters, you'll play as five different characters who are drawn together by fate and the shadowy hands of a group attempting to control the west themselves. There is a lot of potential here for playing your way thanks to the quest choices and gameplay options, so it's well worth a try for those who appreciate player freedom, and out Weird West review dives more into its open-ness. 

Best Indie Games: Outer Wilds

Outer Wilds is a game where you'll objectively get more from it by knowing less, so we recommend a completely blind playthrough for you to get the most out of your experience. Read the rest at your own risk.

Outer Wilds lets you explore a solar system while trying to uncover the mysteries of the civilizations that came before, but with a twist, you are caught in a twenty minute time loop. You'll slowly increase your knowledge of the surrounding planets and ancient ruins, learning more about the past and the universe itself. It provides a viscerally emotional exploration of death and finality, making for one of the most unique titles ever made.  

Best Indie Games: A Short Hike 

A Short Hike is a beautiful and charming little experience where you have to climb a nearby mountain to get cellphone reception. It's incredibly simple gameplay-wise, as you'll explore the island and look for golden feathers which give you the stamina you'll need to climb the to the mountain peak.

The island is also populated by side characters who come with small quests and activities to take part in, adding a feeling of community and closeness to the already wholesome mood and aesthetic of the game. It's short playtime, peaceful vibes, and low price make it the perfect uplifting game for those rainy afternoons. 

Best Indie Games: Cruelty Squad

Cruelty Squad is a surreal dive into the world of a cyberpunk dystopia run by powerful conglomorates who control every aspect of mundane life. You'll take on the role of a bio-augmented assassin who performs black operations for a large corporation, forcing you to kill powerful rivals and influential members of the corporate class.

Every aspect of the experience almost seems purposefully designed to put you off the game, from its grotesque, eclectic, and disorganised visuals, to its clunky gameplay, and general difficulty. Despite all these hurdles to enjoyment, the purposefulness of its design oddities and open-ended gameplay make it a strange but fascinating game. 

Best Indie Games: Vampire Survivors

Vampire Survivors recently ballooned into popularity after its early access release in December. It's a time survival game where you're tasked with surviving the night by fighting off thousands of strange, gothic creatures. It has elements of bullet hell and rogue-lite gameplay, and it's chaos will very often lead to your quick demise.

Surviving for longer allows you to gain more gold and use it to gain benefits in subsequent runs, so it encourages replaying it often. With it set to get more characters, stages, and content as it continues through early access, why not dive in right now. 

Best Indie Games: NORCO

NORCO is a point-and-click adventure that's inspired by Southern literature and pulp fiction, allowing it to create a unique twist on the industrial cityscapes and verdant swamps of Louisiana. Story-wise, it starts as a simple hunt for your missing brother, before turning into a mystery thriller that takes place across multiple generations.

It's a rich narrative experience that follows multiple complex and layered characters, while tackling multiple themes, ranging from the intersection of technology and nature, to the concept of memory and how it shapes us. As one of the newer games on this list, it shows that the point-and-click genre has a lot left to offer in the medium, and that it can produce compelling narratives like any other. 

Best Indie Games: Rogue Legacy 2 

The sequel to the incredibly acclaimed and popular Rogue Legacy, this follow up transforms the original and improves upon it to build a rogue9lite of immense quality. The full version has just been released into the world, building upon the already popular early-access version with more content, refinement, and quality. It's the best way they could have pushed the series forward, which is something our Rogue Legacy 2 review champions. 

It's presented from a 2D perspective, with a focus on platforming that's inspired by metroidvania design. You'll steadily gain in power throughout your runs as you collect gold for upgrades and heirlooms that give you permanent ability upgrades. Just like the original, it's a mark of the quality experiences that roguelieks offer, and stands as one of best in the genre. 

Best Indie Games: OlliOlli World 

OlliOlli World stands as the premier indie skating game right now, building upon the first two titles by changing up the artstyle, presentation, and some gameplay mechanics. OlliOlli one and two were pixel art games, but the change to a 3D artstyle with comic book inspired visuals allowed the developers to add new types of skating jumps, grinds, and more.

The game is played from a 2D perspective, where you'll ride along preset tracks, chaining together tricks, grinds, and more to build up combos. There are also additions such as side quests, giving you even more to do outside of acing each of the courses. It's an experience that allows you to play casually and enjoy the vibe of skating, or trick-out hard for the high scores and bragging rights.