More Steam Holiday Bargains You Shouldn’t Miss
By Kyle Mann | December 29, 2011 | Features | No comments | Share
The Steam sale is close to wrapping up for the year, so if you’re short on games to get you through the year be sure to hustle over to Valve’s storefront to check out the Daily Deals through the first of January. But if the high-profile games up for grabs aren’t catching your eye, peruse both Part 1 and the following continuation of our list of great, hidden offers on the download service.
Dark Void Zero
This “legendary lost project” from Capcom, off the radar for over two decades, was revived last year for recreation. A modern 8-bit classic out of time, Dark Void Zero is a commercial demake of the best sort, with retro stylings and intense action alike. It’s sure to please those with coin-op nostalgia to spare, and is even easier to recommend now that it’s only a buck.
Store Page
$0.99
Defy Gravity Extended
As its name suggests, Defy Gravity Extended is based on gravitational puzzles wrapped in an old-school platforming shell. Revolving around the use of a gravity gun that lets its brave heroine bound about the levels twisting the laws of time and space, the indie game takes players on a space-bound quest across many dozens of levels. It’s cheap at its normal price of $3, so there’s little reason to not pick it up for less than half that during the sale.
Store Page
$1.35
Knights of the Old Republic
Bad news: you may have already missed the daily deal on this one a few days back when it rang up for just a couple dollars. Good news: it’s still easily worth the $6 asking price. While all your cool, up-to-date friends are bounding around BioWare’s latest Star Wars RPG, The Old Republic MMO, dig down and find your inner hipster by playing the game that started it all. While the first world is linear and dull, stick it out past that and you’ll be rewarded with one of the most shocking storylines and best roleplaying experiences of the past decade.
Store Page
$5.99
DEFCON
On a uniqueness scale ranging from Call of Duty to Viva Piñata, DEFCON ranks just shy of three Katamaris and a Frozen Synapse. That is to say, it’s awesome and wondrously different from most anything else you’ve played before. The TL;DR of it is that you nuke your friends before they can nuke you, and then everybody dies in white-hot clouds of radiation stabbing the night sky as you cackle maniacally and pet your villainous talking cat. Just buy it.
Store Page
$2.49
Blocks That Matter
This one’s an oddball. Blocks That Matter is an indie puzzle game that pays homage to retro puzzle games in its mechanics and presentation alike, asking players to create tetronimoes to overcome platforming challenges. It’s as if Braid and Tetris had a cute baby whose cheeks you just want to nibble on. Seriously, it’s got really cute cheeks. Usually a bargain at only $5, it’s a steal now at $1.25.
Store Page
$1.25
Critical Mass
Yeah, yeah, I know: yaaaaaaawn, another Tetris-like puzzle game. You stop yawning this instant, young man or woman, because Critical Mass is a great puzzle game for fans of Bejeweled and its ilk. You match three blocks and rotate the three-dimensional jumble o’ cubes in the middle as fast as you can to whittle down the daunting pile. Simple, fast to learn, tough to turn off.
Store Page
$1.25
Ben There, Dan That!
Here’s something different: a humorous point-and-click puzzle game in the vein of classic LucasArts adventures. Perfect for those who don’t like games that take themselves too seriously, this one’s worth a look for any adventure fans out there. Perhaps best of all, Ben There, Dan That! is packed together with a second game, Time Gentelmen, Please! for double the adventuring at 75% off the normal price.
Store Page
$1.24
Eversion
A cutesie indie platformer that’s deceptively simple and light-hearted, Eversion under its unassuming exterior is a harrowing and utterly different game. It pushes the envelope of what 8-bit graphics can do for a game’s atmosphere and should be experienced by all gamers at some point. Though there is a totally free version hosted by the developer, the Steam release gives players the chance to support the developer financially with some extra goodies and “HD” graphics thrown in as well.
Store Page
$1.25
Smart Shopping
Remember, as always with these Steam sales, buying right away isn’t always the cheapest route, as some of these games may pop up on Valve’s Daily Deals each morning through January 1. At the same time, it’s hard to imagine any of these games’ getting much cheaper at this point, and a dollar or two for any one of these titles is an absolute steal. So have at it, we say! Be sure to drop us a note in the comments if you’ve stumbled across hidden gold yourself, and happy shopping out there.
