10 - Evil West 9 - Outcast - A New Beginning 8 - The Thaumaturge 7 - Trine 5 6 - Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden 5 - Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew 4 - My Time at Sandrock 3 - Chorus 2 - Kena: Bridge of Spirits 1 - Metal: Hellsinger

Single player story mode/campaign gamers meet here 👇🏾

Indie and double A been doing better then most triple A games

Dont be fooled by kena's cute pixar aesthetic. That game is BRUTAL.

Kena is a trojan horse of difficulty. The appearance and music will mislead you into thinking you're playing some old cutesy ps2 platformer action game, and then it will kick your ass. Over and over. Lol. Beautiful looking and sounding game though.

I'm so happy you brought up Evil West. It feels like a modern day version of a good 2000s game, in the best way possible. It feels like a high-caliber spiritual successor to Darkwatch on the PS2.

Kena: Bridge of spirits is one of my favorite games of all time. Beautiful graphics, smooth and well tuned gameplay, and amazing PIXAR level cutscenes. The story is very effective and emotionally moving. Really a shame it got overlooked by some.

Ghost Runner 2 is one that really caught me off guard with how good it was. Definitely a great example of a lower-dev-cost AA game (maybe even single A cost).

Hi Falcon, it's folks

Kena's a great game. It plays well and looks beautiful, plus it doesn't overstay its welcome. Definitely worth a shot.

The chapter titles should definitely include the game title.

I want a Kena Bridge of Spirits sequel man, Ember Lab's does amazing work, Majora's Mask A Terrible Fate was amazing so to see that kind of animation prowess in a game was fantastic, i really wish there was more that we could experience from the team at Ember Lab's, incredible stuff

Vampyr. Best atmosphere in a game. Fun gameplay and interesting story. Also pretty cool how your decisions can make the game very difficult or how you can become OP.

Kena is such a good game, insane graphics. Need more games like that

Thank you for mentioning My Time At Sandrock - it's become of my favorite games after buying it on a whim and I think more people need to hear about how great it is! The gameplay loop is incredibly addicting, the characters range from wonderfully weird to so, so lovable and the story is very well written and at times far more serious than one would expect from what many consider a 'cozy game' - the aforementioned twistssss especially. Pathea (the studio behind the game) is still actively creating content for the game, updates regularly and is very involved with the fanbase via multiple social media platforms (like Discord for example). There's so much love and care and passion stuffed into Sandrock, it's practically dripping from the screen while playing. Seriously, I cannot recommend this game enough.

Absolutely loved Kena when I played it. Story is great, environments are beautiful and fun to explore, and the combat can be surprisingly challenging at times. A must play for all fans of adventure games.

I looked over Kenya for ages, HUGE mistake, played it at the start of the year and it is such a fun game.

My Time at Sandrock is truly incredible

The story of Chorus was definitely weird, and I’m not really on board with it, but the gameplay is super tight. I love a good dogfighting game, such as Ace Combat and Everspace as mentioned. I loved Chorus. I’ve recently put over 50 hours into Everspace 2, and they have a lot of positive similarities.

I think the plaque tale series fit in this category really well

Can you please type out the name of #8? I cannot understand "Thaw Materge?" I really prefer it when you have the game titles in the chapters.

Glad hellsinger is getting mentioned. I loved this game.

Chorus is such a good game. While the interactions between the protagonist and ship is a bit awkward, the combat and fast-paced action is so fun and the side quests have substance and are worth it.

Can’t believe you forgot to mention the absolutely gut wrenching storytelling in Kena. My mom called when I was playing towards the end of the first act with the siblings (iykyk), and when I had to explain that the reason I answered the phone sobbing and gave her a panic attack was because of a video game, I genuinely think she considered disowning me.

I spent about 8 hours playing Evil West on Game Pass and I would definitely recommend it. Kind of like Bullet Storm mixed with a God of War. Levels are very linear but there is a lot of opportunity for mixing things up in combat: Combos, finishers, knocking enemies off cliffs, impaling them on the environment, blowing them up, hitting their weak spots, etc. I played it on hard difficulty and I think that is the way it was meant to be played.

Evil West is my top reason I'm glad I'm subbed to Gameranx, because it still is the only place (in my life) I've seen or heard it brought up, and I LOVED it. Anyone who's a fan of bad ass action and cheesy 80s style story & dialogue, should definitely check it out.

If you play Kena Bridge of Spirits, it'll break your spirit with its difficulty, then smash your heart with the story, I think it's a crime that there's no sequel for this game, it's no joke of a game, I had an easier time fighting Elden Ring bosses than the bosses in this game (You can't cheese the bosses in this game), the first boss alone killed me so many times that I got hooked on the game so bad and ignored all of my other games to focus my muscle memory and reaction time, but the real challenge is to not cry or stop your heart from bleeding because of the story, it's right there with Mircale in Cell Number 7, Hachiko, and The Steve Irwin Story.

Kenna is such an underrated game

I'm playing outcast right now, and it is such a beautiful world to explore. Gliding through the jungle trees with that relaxing music in the background is such a nice feeling.

If you liked kena, i HIGHLY recommend Asterigos. Its similar combat but with more weapons and gear choice. It also has an interconnected world, backtracking for secrets, and hidden side quests like dark souls!

I was a day one buyer of Kena bridge of spirits. I highly recommend that game.

Glad Kena is getting some love again. Its an incredible game. Some of the bosses are brutally hard. Specifically on Expert+ Settings.

Love the videos! But just a suggestion to the editor, instead of putting number 1-10 when you click pause or touch the screen you should put the name of the game then "#1" would be nice just incase you want to skim through the video but still see what the title of the game is . Keep up the great work guys!

Just platinum evil west last week . And must say it was surprisingly a hit!!!

Kena Bridge of Spirits is a must play especially if you like difficult games with good combat, It’s basically if Pixar made a Soulslike. I might be wrong but it’s also the Devs first game too, before that they made Pixar style animated short films, which is pretty obvious in the art style and cutscenes.

Kena Bridge of Spirits is so much fun. I just played it last month for the first time. The perfect game to play after a 100+ jrpg like Persona 3R

Banishers is a masterpiece, criminally overlooked. I truly can't recommend it enough

Kena is just so beautiful & a really great game. I cannot wait to see what Ember Lab does next.

Shout out to Gunfire Games Remnant from the Ashes 1 and 2. (We dont talk about Chronos/Before the ashes other than its lore lol) One of my personal favorite shooter RPG's with fantastic build craft and variety of enemies. Cool lore too

I've been playing Metal HellSinger since the Open Beta and I've loved it since my first go and it grew on me the more I played, so needless to say, I bought the Full Game the day it was released, and that year....It was my Game of the Year !! It's an Awesome, Fun and Fast-Paced Shooter that gets your heart rate up, once you've got the hang of it and understand all the mechanics of the weapons and damage buffs to help boost your score etc.....Which is the same with any new game, simply put-in a little time to practice and learn it and you'll see why people are loving this game !! Enjoy People !!

Evil west is absolutely brilliant!!! It's so so good, finished it twice on Xbox series x it's basically god of war with van helseng.... Just buy this game it's soooooo good. Stick with it past the first two hours definitely, there's alot to love.

Now hold up. The weapon customization is one of the best parts of Outcast 2, besides the incredible traversal. This is a baller list though. Quality games all around. Now this is a list from someone who plays indie games for real! There's a bunch more worth checking out too. Asterigos Curse of the Stars, Tchia, Atlas Fallen, En Garde...

Kena - not new, but must play, period. My time at Sandrock (first game of this genre I played) kept me engaged for far longer than I thought it would (about 300 hrs). Not just for the gameloop, but especially for the really good writing (dialogues etc). And yes, there are twistssss. Trine 5 - looks awesome, great co op as well. Metal Hellsinger - wouldn't even touch it with forceps, because thats def not my kind of music. Does Palworld count as a AAA game in your book, or why is it not included here? Other than that - good list, will check out some of these.

Kena is an excellent game. I played it twice, first on PS4 and later again on PS5 at 60 fps. One of my favorites.

I dont think the words "Boring empty starfields" were used accidentally lol

Surprised RoboCop : Rouge City isn't on here

Evil West was so refreshing. Just keep moving forward shooting vampires in a western setting. I'm sold.

PLEASE don't ever stop making these types of videos. Often the most ambitious ideas come from these games and they stick with me just as much as AAA games. Def gonna check out a few!

Evil West felt like a spiritual successor to the Van Helsing game from the 2000s. Both take the gameplay and mechanics of the God of War games from their respective eras and both are way more fun then they have any right to be!

Evil West looks a little like Darkwatch, which was a very cool PS2 Weird Western from the early 2000s.

Chorus definitely worked for me. I don't play flight games in general, but the RPG elements and puzzle dungeons kept me interested all the way through.

Metal Hellsinger absolutely deserves first place here. I've sunken fifty or so hours into it and have managed to stay top 100 on some of the levels. It is an utter banger.

You missed the absolute best AA game!! A plague tale requim, soooo damn good it gives naughty dog a run!

I absolutely love Kena, the game is perfect in my mind =)

I been playing Chorus because it was on a great sale last week. It's honestly the best Sci Fi space shooter I've ever played in terms of how fluid and fun the gameplay is.

Kena is one of my all time favorite games. The writing is PHENOMENAL.

Loved Kena and Hellsinger, gonna give the others on this list a try 👍🏻

Loved Chorus, really great game.

Loved the video. I enjoy AA games a lot. Thank you for giving me a list of games for my backlog.

Man, it's been a while since I last played Kena. It was a surprise that I enjoyed it as much as I did, and it certainly ought to get a sequel or two. There's a _lot_ of potential in there for both the story and the developer. It would be a real joy to get to do more with that world. It's _impressively_ solid. Sure, it's got a couple of rough patches (control scheme is a little unintuitive, as I recall, which could create some fake difficulty) but they never really detracted from the experience all that much. Just enough to be noticeable in a "well, that's there" kind of way rather than controller-breakingly infuriating to deal with. It's pretty, the core ideas are really intriguing, and it really does draw you in in a way that's astonishingly kinda rare in modern gaming.

Evil West is really good but they just won't fix the lvl replay bug.

Loved KENA it reminds me of immortals phoenix rising

I've discovered half of these on my own and loved them. Problem is SO much to play and finite time to play them... Thanks for the video!

Love that you talked about Kena! I also highly recommend Asterigos and Blacktail. Both are excellent indie games with interesting worlds and story.

Outcast and kena are fantastic games

Banisher ghost of new Eden reminds me more of Greedfall

What a great list. There are 3 games here I will definitely be picking up! Would love to see another list like this down the line.

Kena is the best souls game to start with: incredible beautiful, amazing soundtrack, some insane difficult here and there... Nice puzzles and cute creatures are a bonus! 9.5/10

Shadow Gambit has SBI all over it. It's a shame it tanked their studio but I hope other AA studios learn from that...

Bruh who is recording these gameplays, missed 3 shots in a row in Hellsinger 😭😭🙏

Surprised to see Sandrock! Thank you! I got addicted to this for 2 months straight when it finally came out. The combat is definitely clunky but it was a huuuuge improvement from their previous game title tbh! That was what kept me coming back to it when it was still in EA last year.

Evil West. What a blast. Gow style, Arcade shooter. Loved it. Hope there is a sequel on the way.

Dropped Evil West since twice it's bugged out on me during the Mines part where my character got stuck permanently...

yeah like my budget pc can run modern games

I’m actually super glad you said that about evil west. I started it the other day and it hadn’t clicked with me yet, going to give it a few more hours

0:15: 🎮 Evil West, a solid game with a generic title, offers wild west vampire combat experience. 2:58: 👽 Exploration of alien worlds in a quirky package with a goofy story and unique setting. 6:12: ⚔️ Exploring haunting mysteries in a colonial America setting with solid writing, combat, and emotional storytelling. 9:14: 🎮 Unique farm life sim game with massive content, entertaining gameplay loop, and unexpected plot twists. 12:21: 🎮 Innovative platformer with Pikmin-like Spirits, stunning animation, and challenging gameplay. Metal music-themed FPS with rhythmic shooting. Tammy AI: Get video info faster & better

I really liked Kena, but I was very very dissapointed by Evil West. Ugly graphics, interrupted gameplay by jumping, gliding etc and overall not a fun gameplay loop. Gonna give Banishers a try when it's 50% discounted.

I only play AAAAA games.

I actually backed Sandrock on Kickstarter because I loved My Time at Portia. I agree that it's one of those games you should definitely play to support the developers.

Random request, but at the end of each entry, would you guys be able to put a blurb about title and platforms its on? I know you do some of your list videos, but I honestly wish it was on almost all of them so I could find them easier. That's all, great videos! Keep up the good work!

Be advised that Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew is filled to the brim with DEI and BRIDGE policies. It was made with the "help" of Sweet Baby Inc. If you want to stay away from that, don't support that game.

yeah ill pass on everything here

Trine 5 is absolutely stunning (Volume 3 almost made us drop the series, and I'm glad we decided to stick with it. )

I loved Kena! I bought it thinking it was a chill game, but those boss fights can get intense. A lot of fun!

This list had a lot of bangers on it. I added at least four of these to my wishlist, and even bought Evil West, since it's currently 65% off. Thanks!

Agree with a lot of these and happy to see you guys put Kenna at spot 2, surprised its not talked about more. Its one of my favs

Kena is just awesome. I was sold when the PSAccess team did a play through. The dev team does commercial animation (ads) and feature films and they’ve applied that talent to the game. The story is also pretty good - it’s rewarding to say the least, but there are certainly some tear-jerking moments.

tbh, i wasnt even aware of double aa games existing. i guess i was too busy enjoying indie titles and emulating my classics. however, they certainly look interesting.

Kena was so damn good. I truly hope it sold well enough to warrant a sequel. It had such old school Legend of Zelda vibes.

Kena is an absolute masterpiece. Easily made my top favorite games list

I loved Outcast. It reminded me of 80s and early 90s action films. A bit cheesy, a bit cheeky, pure fun. The exploration felt so free. It reminded me of the time when games didn't feel like a second job. Liked Banisher and Thaumaturge too.

*Kena: Bridge of Spirits* , GREAT game!! I have just completed the game and spent 24.6 hours with it. Thanks, Ember Lab team for making such a great game!!🙏🙏 Those who are still considering buying this game, this game is 👍💪❤❤ In terms of the graphics, arts, environment, visuals, play style, items exploration especially the OST!!👍👏🚀 Story wise, just so so to me, at least... One thing though, this game is not that easy even though I am playing Apprentice level difficulty... I thought it was fine to play the third level which is considered Normal mode, but I was wrong😅

Most fascinating thing about AA games is how few you actually know exist, despite plenty of them around. Their marketing is so small or non existent that you really need someone tell you about them, or stumble across it in some recommended algorithm. The old days of wondering into a shop and seeing dozens of boxes on a shelf would sometimes result in buying AA games but now you'd have to go digging in virtual stores to find them, making them much easier to disappear into the ether.

I’ve bought kena because of gameranx and i really enjoyed it. Played it on hard and it got really hard in several Boss fights. Gonna try some of these on The list, too. Thank you

Pleasantly surprised how much I like Evil West and playing it on my OneXfly handheld is awesome!

@gameranx finally i see a vid where you talk about my time in sandrock and filled me in on it my time at portia is also really good also recomend Atom RPG

Love this. Please do more in the future. Really enjoyed Evil West and I’ve added Banishers to my wish list.

Everspace 2 is always on my recommendations list. And if you have an ultrawide monitor? My god the game just becomes so much more immersive its insane. And the ship combat is so damn good, plus every location is soooo beautiful in space.

Decent list, thanks. I recently beat Evil West and recommend it (it's also a little better using a controller than a m/k). Kena: Bridge of Spirits I kept getting confused as to what to do so I quit it, but it's a beautiful game, just may need a walkthrough at certain parts.

as an honorable mention, i'd like to include Last Train Home. Played it a few months ago. really enjoyable gameplay and story. love the stealth and turn-based tactics.