At first glance, these games don’t seem nearly as complex as they actually are.
Some of the most fun or challenging games have a lot of layers and rules, while others are simple but still fun to play over and over again. Still, there are a few books that surprise you more and more the more you read them.
At first glance, the idea behind these games may seem simple enough. But they all have extra layers of complex that go against and add to what they look like on the outside. You never know when a game will be more than you thought it would be.
Imscared
Imscared looks like any other first-person pixel horror game at first glance. But when you turn it on, it tells you that the game is supposed to be smart and tries to trick you. In other games, stories like that are used to scare players, but this one has mechanics that work with the story.
Its levels are full of secrets, and game files and crashes are all part of a complex experience that makes you want to keep coming back until you figure out what’s wrong with your game. Despite the limitations of its graphic style, it manages to get under your skin because of the twists and turns it throws at you.
Pony Island
The more you play Pony Island, the more complicated it gets. When you look at the game’s settings and see that you can’t turn off the “Cheerful Facade” option, you know there’s more going on.
Right away, the game’s mechanics play around with different puzzles and genres as you try to get to the end. This game also does some pretty amazing things that break the fourth wall, like going into your Steam friends list.
Doki Doki Literature Club
Doki Doki Literature Club is another trick game that makes you feel safe with its visual novel style, anime tropes, and text-based gameplay that seems easy. At one point in the game, everything goes wrong, and you get stuck in a loop of secret files, horrible endings, and disturbing images.
It’s best to jump into this experience without knowing too much about it and let yourself fall down the rabbit hole. Just get ready for the game to mess with you quickly.
Dorfromantik
You might think that Dorfromantik is just a relaxing game in which you build your ideal village, but it is so much more than that.
Even though this game is good for relaxing on the go. If you want to get a high score, it ends up being more complex. You’ll notice this more if you play on hard mode. Where you really have to think about the hexes you have and which tiles you’re going to place.
Rimworld
There are a lot of colony simulators out there, but Rimworld has stood the test of time because of how complicated it is and how big it makes you feel. This game can easily keep you busy for hundreds of hours. And that’s not even counting the many DLCs and mods you can use.
It’s easy to get confused by the sudden complexity of the game when you’re trying to master it. This is because the vanilla experience is easy enough to understand with a little bit of playing around. There are a lot of things to think about. And if you don’t, your colony could be gone in an instant.
Alien: Isolation
Alien: Isolation is a survival horror game that will stick with you for a long time. The setting is beautiful and the crafting is simple but fun. But it’s the big bad that really makes or breaks the game. Even though you also fight other people, the Xenomorph is the thing that keeps scaring you.
Here, the game gets harder, especially because the Xenomorph uses an adaptive artificial intelligence that is pretty smart for what it is. It figures out how you play and gets rid of pre-written patterns to really find you. Even worse, the console version lets you use your mic to listen for sounds.
Inscryption
Inscryption is one of the best games on Steam for building decks. Not only does it do a good job of being an interesting deck builder. But it also keeps changing the rules as you play.
The puzzles you have to solve aren’t hard. But it’s the story and how it’s told that makes it feel like you’re trying to solve a Rubik’s Cube. This game is built around repetition, but that only makes your choices feel more important.
Oxygen Not Included
You’d be hard-pressed to find a conversation about complex games that didn’t include Oxygen Not Included. It can be played over and over again and is almost too hard to play. Strategy is a must if you want to stay alive. And the way physics is used is great and makes sense. When you’re building your colony, every choice you make matters, and each part fits together well.
Every time you think you know how to play this 8 Ball Pool game, you find out something new that changes things. Who knows what might be on a rock in space?
