Top 5 most anticipated indie games for 2024

The new year is upon us and there is much to look forward to. Especially when it comes to gaming. With one of the best years in terms of video games behind us, this year will have some pretty big shoes to fill. However, when looking at what's on the horizon it sure looks like it will be promising.

With so many games coming out each year it's hard to keep up and last year left us with an even bigger backlog of games than we had before. Still, though it's hard to not be excited for what's to come, so here we present you with some of our most anticipated games for this year.

Pacific Drive

One of the most talked about games right now is Pacific Drive, labelled as a "driving survival" game and developed by Ironwood Studios. You'll be exploring the Pacific Northwest in a customized station wagon. Which will not only serve as a means of transportation but also as the player's "companion". The car will serve as a central component in the game and will be one of the primary components of keeping the player alive in "Pacific Drives" harsh environment.

After almost four years of development, the game is set to release on the 22nd of February on the PlayStation 5 and PC

Replaced

This is my "MOST!" anticipated game of the year. After finding out about the game about 2-3 years ago I've made sure to keep tabs on the goings on of this game. And this looks like it will be the year when it sees the light of day. While progress on the game did stall somewhat because of the Russia-Ukrainer war (the developers of Sad Cat Studios are from Belarus), the latest is that game development is progressing as planned.

Replaced will take place in a retro-futuristic 1980 America where an A.I called R.E.A.C.H has been trapped inside a human's body. With the help of its new host, R.E.A.C.H will embark on a journey to uncover the truth of its existence and the various mysteries that lurk beneath the surface of this industrialized society.

Replaced appears to be a promising action-platformer with an intriguing story, captivating art style, and engaging gameplay mechanics. While the official release date is still pending I'll be wishing and praying that it gets a release sometime this year.

Path of Exile 2

In these past few years, when I've started playing more indie games. I started wondering why more indie games don't have sequels to them. The reasons may vary but this year might be set to change that trend.

One of my most beloved video game genres is the ARPG genre. It's a genre that I just can't get enough of and always find myself complaining about how few games there are for it (and I still think so). This is however ridiculous because I still have several games I need to play here (Titan Quest, Grim Dawn, Diablo 4, Wolcen, Lost Ark). But, I always get stuck. I always find myself starting a certain game, end up playing it for hundreds of hours, get burnt out, leave it. And after a while come back to the same game. This can't be more true for any games than for Diablo 2(the old one, not the remaster) and Path of Exile.

So imagine the joy I felt once I found out that Path of Exile 2 was announced for 2024. Being slated for a closed-beta release in mid-2024. You can expect more of what Path of Exile is. More classes, more items and weapons, more acts, more monsters just more. And I for one won't probably get enough of it.

Manor Lords

I've been a sucker for Creative Assembly's historical Total War games for years. Having played almost through each and everyone by now it's sadly a series I've had to leave behind as time went on. The reason, for this is that they are too damn long. Actually, they can be however long you want them to be depending on your selection of campaign but I always made sure to pick the grand campaign victory settings. I've always thought that picking anything else was just half-assing it.

However, set on the horizon is a game that is going to take Total War's epic scale and shape it into a more personal affair. Manor Lords will set the players in the shoes of a medieval Lord. Hence scaling down the scope of the empire to the mere manor. Players will required to administer and manage their holdings in a much more detailed manner than would be otherwise required in one of the Total War games.

While the management portion of the game might be a bit more detailed, the combat aspect will be right up anyone's alley that's experienced any of the Total War games (unless you by some chance played through it by auto-resolving every battle).

So if you're a fan of medieval strategy games, Manor Lords will definitely be worth checking out. Let's just hope it also gets a full release at some point considering the scope of the game.

Still Wakes the Deep

This one came out of nowhere for me and I'm a bit surprised that I didn't find out about it a bit sooner. I'm also surprised that this is actually the first horror entry. While researching for this article it doesn't look like there are that many horror games coming this year. At least not that I know of.

Developed by the highly acclaimed developer The Chinese Room, who are behind such hits as Dear Esther and Everybody's Gone to the Rapture (which are games I have yet to play). Still Wakes the Deep will be a first-person experience landing you in the shoes of ex-boxer turned oil-rig worker Caz McCleary.

Set on an oil rig in the North Sea, drilling for oil of course it will soon appear that the rig workers drilled a bit too deep (no pun intended this time). Unleashing a chain of events that will leave you as the protagonist running for your life, solving puzzles and trying to figure out what has happened and if there's any way you can fix it and get out alive.

Given the pedigree that the Chinese Room have and the interesting setting in which the game will unfold, it sure has caught my interest in the sea of games coming out this year.