We're currently on Day 7 of the Steam Summer Sale, and much to my annoyance I'm already running out of funny quips to lead these articles with, so let's just get straight to business.
As before, here are my humble recommendations on which games to grab during today's Steam Sale. I've chosen the following batch of games based around two factors, their quality and the depth of their discounts, while the order in which they appear is completely and utterly random:
Titan Souls is essentially a boss-rush mode turned into an entire game, and then seasoned with a bit of exploration and passive-storytelling. You will spend all of your playtime running across a gorgeously pixelated world, finding where exactly the aforementioned Titans are hiding, and then attempting to obliterate them before they transform you into a smear on the wall. The trick is that while you die in one shot from every single attack, so do all of the enemies, hence every single boss fight is less about frantically dodge-rolling around in order to 360° noscope the boss, and more about figuring out a series of patterns you can use to exploit the bosses weak spot. If you're a fan of short and challenging games, especially ones that give you an optional "insanely difficult" mode, then by all means, give Titan Souls a try.
Unlike most other grand strategy games, Crusader Kings 2 isn't about constant war and conquest. Rather, its about ensuring that your pants-on-head crazy offspring don't ruin everything you've spent countless hours building up. In order to achieve this goal you will need to strategically marry your family members to your most bitter enemies, sabotage your relatives in order to maintain a hold on your crown, assassinate your brothers because they looked at you funny that one time ten years ago, and all that other fun medieval stuff.
If you think I'm kidding, well... I'm not. All of this is completely true, and its what makes Crusader Kings 2 one of the most unique and exciting strategy games I've played in a long, long time. This insane amount of depth does come at the cost of accessibility, however, so if you aren't prepared to watch at least 30 minutes of Youtube videos before heading in, you're probably not the type of person for Crusader Kings 2.
Grim Fandango Remastered (-75%)
Grim Fandango Remastered is a modern recreation of the LucasArts classic, and I'm happy to say that it manages to hold up even today. The characters are intriguing, the story is bizarre yet approachable, and the writing manages to perfectly thread the line between being serious and completely insane. The puzzles are unfortunately the standard point & click affair, which means that you will often get stuck because you aren't operating on the same sort of Moon logic as the developers, but if you can disregard this little annoyance you will find a world well worth exploring. If you're a fan of point & clicks, or LucasArts games in general, give Grim Fandango a try, its one of their best.
Crypt of the Necrodancer (-75%)
While I can almost guarantee Crypt of the Necrodancer started off as an small little joke between developers, the end result turned out to be a surprisingly addictive roguelike with plenty of unique elements to it. Instead of your usual dungeon crawling and monster slaying, Crypt of the Necrodancer will task you with delivering beat-downs to the beat. In other words, everything you do in the game, from walking, to fighting, and even purchasing items, is based around the music and its beat. While it might sound confusing right now, its all surprisingly accessible and you will be able to pick up the concept in no time flat and start rocking out on your way to the deepest corner of the Necrodancer's lair. If you enjoy roguelikes, and especially if you enjoy music-based games, then I'd suggest you give Crypt of the Necrodancer a try as its a splendid combination of the two.
Do you enjoy skill based gameplay, but really, really hate losing? If so, Speedrunners is the game for you as it allows you to not only secure victory by being outright better and faster than the other players, but also by sabotaging their chances at success while also propelling yourself towards victory. While there is an online mode available, I would recommend you grab Speedrunners with a couple of friends as there is nothing better than constantly messing with each other both in-game and on voice chat. If you think you might enjoy this type of "runner" gameplay, then I would recommend you give Speedrunners a shot. Its fairly cheap right now, and it should give you a good few hours of enjoyment.
And there you have it, these are all of my recommendations for today. As always, I would suggest you take the time and effort to search through your "Discoverability Queue" in order to find some niche games that might only interest you and you alone, as these are the types of games I would have difficulty recommending to a wider audience. If you'd instead prefer to slack around, you're always welcome to come back tomorrow for Day 8 and another batch of games.