Favorite Steam Game

[stoutsytail]

Hey everyone! What is your personal favorite game/software that is available on Steam? I'm curious as Steam has a massive library and many would have unique favorites, also what is your chosen game about?

Mine has to be CS: Source as it both looks great and is very fun to mess around in. Plus the bots feature is a LIFE SAVER!

[killerscreen]

I would have to say based on playtime alone it is probably Starbound. Though definitely not vanilla. The only reason I even have like 900 hours in it is because of that one huge insane tech-based rehaul mod that half the community uses and the other half abhors. I try not to use it anymore, I think I have a good custom modpack going without it that retains my interest, so I'm good. But still racking up those hours.

[Bede]

I have a few faves!

• Fields of Mistria is a relaxing farming sim with some magic system elements and a 90s-anime-inspired aesthetic. The only Stardew-inspired game that I think surpasses the original! A game I love to play to calm down after a rough work day, and one so gorgeous that it inspired me to pick up pixel art again!
• I believe I've possibly brought up BAD END THEATER on this forum before? I'm basically always singing its praises whenever possible, so I wouldn't be surprised. I call myself a BAD END THEATER missionary. It's visual novel-style adventure/puzzle game, where you get to select your character and explore a wide variety of terrible fates! It's one of the most creative games I have ever played, and is delightfully queer, if you're looking for that sort of thing. The best way I can describe it is "mourning how queer lives are often plagued by tragedy (while never giving up hope)".
• My latest obsession has been In Stars And Time. Everyone who has ever played it ever has said that it has a very excellent and life-changing portrayal of mental illness. And I will also say it: In Stars and Time has a very excellent and life-changing portrayal of mental illness. It's also extremely queer, and seems to be, in part, inspired by queer people's resonance with certain tropes.

There's also, of course, Undertale and Deltarune, but I feel like everyone knows about those, hehe. I'm looking forward to see what everyone else recommends, too!

[Scootarooni]

Tiny Glade: A castle and cottage diorama builder. It's super relaxing to play! It has a ton of different options and interactions between all the props, buildings and tools so there's sooo much to experiment and have fun with! I had been following the development of this game for quite some time and it absolutely lived up to the hype. It's the perfect rainy-day game.

Hi-Fi Rush: A rhythm-based hack-and-slash. It's got a fantastic aesthetic, sense of humor and of course the gameplay is suuuuuper fun. It's gotta be one of my favorite games of all time :>

Bomb Rush Cyberfunk:: Another all-time favorite game. It's a JSR inspired action platformer. Made by the same team behind lethel league/lethel league blaze. Skate around, tag everything you can and be a general nuisance to the cops >:3c Hideki Naganuma provides a few songs alongside several other artists.

aaaand finally Coral Island: My go-to farmsim since Stardew. There's still a ton that's planned to be added, but as it stands now it's got quite a good chunk of content. It's heavily inspired by Indonesian culture, has a ton of interesting and diverse marriageable candidates and some really nice QOL changes that honestly make it hard for me to play SDV again XD

[batgal]

I would have to say based on playtime alone it is probably Starbound. Though definitely not vanilla. The only reason I even have like 900 hours in it is because of that one huge insane tech-based rehaul mod that half the community uses and the other half abhors. I try not to use it anymore, I think I have a good custom modpack going without it that retains my interest, so I'm good. But still racking up those hours.

YESSS Starbound is such a gem!  I was going to post about it as well.

I'm also a big fan of Terraria and Necesse--not space-themed but similar gameplay loop to Starbound. Core Keeper was also pretty good, but I was a bit disappointed that the 1.0 release didn't... really feel like a 1.0 release, at least to me. There were a lot of features that felt like they were tacked on rather than fully fleshed out experience. Maybe it will improve more over time!

Vintage Story is also another great survival/craft/boss fight game that leans more Minecraftian, but can only be bought on their own website and not on Steam. Super worth it though, I got a lot out of it and am eager to see it grow!

Other than the Terraria-like genre I am very obsessed with, I'm also a big fan of Hypnospace Outlaw, Subnautica, Dinkum, dotAGE, and many, many more.

...Realizing now I play way too many games...

[akyra00]

You should look into StarVaders.

Its So, So good.

[sycamore]

edit: added store page link

I'm kinda hesitant to make this recommendation because roguelikes feel so done-to-death at this point, but I have poured tons of hours into Dungeons of Dredmor since I first bought it a decade or more ago. It has an incredibly rewarding gameplay loop, excellent art and music (seriously, the soundtrack is so good), and a great sense of humor including countless little bits of flavor text for items, enemies, skills, and spells. Honestly, reading the funny descriptions is ~50% of the experience, so the fact that the actual gameplay is so fun too elevates it to legendary status in my book. Very underrated.