Its been a good run but all things come to an end. Today's Steam Sale is going to be the final one with the overall ending being tomorrow. Luckily the Christmas sale is just around the corner so even if you end up missing something you'll have ample opportunities to pick it up.
Here are my recommendations for the December 29th Steam Sale, the final one of this batch:
NOTE: Make sure to buy the Ultimate Edition, it contains the expansion as well as all of the DLC but Steam is for some reason allowing you to buy the inferior version at the same price.
That aside Dragon Age: Origins is one of my favorite games, one that holds the highly prestigious position of games I am willing to replay multiple times over the years. With a ton of ways to build your character and plenty of dialogue options and ways to role-play this is a simply amazing game. You can play it as a tactical RPG by using the pause function in battle or you can play it like an Action orientated game by just doing everything on the fly, its up to you.
DA:O has a ton of content, a great story and set of characters as well as a well balanced difficulty setting for any type of player, and if that isn't enough it has a whole host of mods that add both new content as well as new characters and builds. If you want a game that you can really sink your teeth in I fully recommend Dragon Age: Origins, its one of my favorites.
If you have even an inkling of desire to play a turn based strategy game I'd suggest you go with Xcom. It is highly polished, infinitely replayable and with a wast array of mods behind it I can't help but heartily recommend it. This version contains all of the DLC, a few items, a bunch of new missions as well as the expansion Enemy: Within. While you will leave Xcom cursing random chance and never trusting 98% ever again you will find yourself 6 hours past your normal bedtime wondering where the time went.
Xcom has a couple of flaws, most notably in how the battles start with aliens always getting a free turn but even with all of the issues considered its one of the most engrossing games I've ever played.
Its easy to look at Terraria, say its a 2D Minecraft clone and simply never think of it again. If you did that you missed out on an excellent game, one that combines base building and crafting with features most commonly found in ARPGs. Your purpose in the game is to dig ever deeper, collecting ore and various materials in order to create better gear (or simply find it in dungeons) so you can fight increasingly difficult enemies. You will start out with a wooden sword but 20 hours later when you've finally reached the last few pairs of bosses you will have a jetpack, magical armor and your weapon of choice will launch meteors from the sky at the enemy.
And best of all, you can do it all in multiplayer. So grab a few friends, create your own Terraria server (its easy), and start digging. You won't regret it till you hit hell itself.
Dead Island is buggy, cheesy and terribly paced but if you want a game with a great combat system, some fun weapon customization and tons of zombies to use those weapons against I'd say go for it. This is one of those games that definitely do get better with multiple players though so I'd heavily suggest you grab a friend or three and go zombie whacking as a group, it'll help you through the bloody hour long sewer section that comes out of nowhere. Don't go in to Dead Island expecting a smart game, it really isn't one despite the beautiful trailer. What it does really well is the combat system, the melee weapons feel heavy and the swings are impactful. Despite not being a fan of the overall game it has one of my favorite melee combat systems around, its that satisfying to beat up zombies.
If you're looking for a game to help you unwind or just want to beat up zombies in creative ways I'd say Dead Island will be good at that. Just remember, it gets much better with a couple of friends.
The Binding of Isaac Bundle (-10%)
This one isn't on a massive sale but I'm adding it here anyway because Isaac has been my go to relaxation game, something I start up whenever I have 20 minutes to lose but still want to have them be enjoyable. If you want a more detailed opinion on it check out my review of The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth but long story short Isaac is almost infinitely replayable with hundreds of items and item combinations to play around with. Despite it not being on a big sale I can still recommend this bundle simply because given the amount of time you'll spend playing it the price is really small.
If you like roguelikes or games with randomized levels and items give Isaac a try, it is one of the best, if not the best.
And that is it for the entirety of this Steam Exploration Sale. I hope you found some cool games to play and my opinions of at least some value.
I will continue this series once the Christmas sale comes around in a couple of weeks so stick around, there will be plenty more games to come.