Digital distribution of video games has been around for more than a decade now. For those of us who’ve been gaming for most of four lives, it means we’ve had the opportunity to amass quite the horde of games.Steam sales didn’t inventgaming backlogs, butit did make themfar more common.
Let’s face it, a lot of us have games that we keep forgetting we even own. Whether or not we’ve ever played them, there are some games you manage to find in everyone’s library. If you don’t have at least one of these games in your backlog, you probably don’t exist.
8The Escapists
The Escapists is a strategy game where your main goal is to orchestrate and succesfully carry out a prison break. Sometimes you succeed, but other times you fail and get sent right back to prison. This means the game has a few roguelike elements, although it defies genre expectations entirely if you ask us.
The game enjoyed some decent press when it first launched, and many of us added it to our libraries and wishlists, where it continued to linger until our short attention spans became ensorcelled by other games. It’s still a great play if you want a lighthearted strategy game that isn’t too unforgiving.
7Gone Home
Gone Home was one of the first notable games to appear in the ‘story rich walking simulator’ genre that enjoyed its heyday in the 2010s. The game received no shortage of accolades for its story, as well as its meaningful LGBTQ representation in a time where that hadn’t yet become commonplace in games.
Many of us bought Gone Home, and then we all moved on to other games. Other walking simulators, like The Stanley Parable and What Remains of Edith Finch, continued to explore what you could do with the genre. The answer, apparently, was ‘only so much’, as walking simulators themselves eventually waned in relevance and popularity in the 2020s.
6Year Walk
The 2010s saw a plethora of artsy indie games that strove to explore what the medium could do in terms of storytelling. Much like Gone Home, Year Walk is an atmospheric walking simulator. Unlike Gone Home, it’s far more puzzle-based and contains a few horror elements, including some jumpscares.
If you love mythology, you’ll probably like this game. Our story begins with Daniel, a young man in a 19th-century Swedish village who’s setting out to complete an obscure ritual on New Year’s Eve (the titular “year walk”.) During his quest, he meets a few different creatures from Scandinavian folklore. Things only get more wild from there.
5Helltaker
Helltaker is a free-to-play game where you embark on a journey into Hell to build up a harem of demon girls. The game is short, and you can probably finish all of it in one or two hours. But with such adorable character designs and a great soundtrack, it’s hard not to see why so many of us have picked this up.
For the low, low price of free, this game can be yours if you don’t have it already. Throwing money at the creator gets you some concept art and a recipe for ‘pancakes’ (they’re actually a type of crepe common in Eastern European cuisine.) Now go out there and date some demons.
4Baldur’s Gate 2
If you’ve finishedBaldur’s Gate 3and want more of the Forgotten Realms but don’t want to start another playthrough or join a D&D campaign, check your backlog. You might have a fun little surprise waiting for you. If you somehow don’t already own this game, it’s only 20 bucks.
Baldur’s Gate 2 differs from its sequel in a few respects. You can control more party members at a time in the second game, but the combat is also turn-based. This might take some getting used to if you’re accustomed to standard Dungeons & Dragons combat. Still, it has a great story and is surprisingly expansive for an older game.
3Battle Chef Brigade
Cooking video gamesare a common guilty pleasure when it comes to buying video games and never playing them. With its fun anime-style visuals, surprisingly engaging story, and sleek gameplay, Battle Chef Brigade is definitely a game worth trying. If this isn’t already in your library, some other cooking game probably is.
We’re not sure why Battle Chef Brigade in particular is a common entry in people’s backlogs. Part of us wants to blame the algorithm, since Steam can sometimes surprise you by showing you games outside of your regular sphere of interest. It’s also a common holiday gift, especially if you want to add something to your wishlist that your loved ones won’t judge you too much for.
2Graveyard Keeper
Graveyard Keeper is a cozy game with crafting and farming elements, along the likes of Stardew Valley. Unlike its more gentle counterpart, however, your farm is a graveyard and your crops are corpses. You can harvest the bodies of the dead for meat, perform necromantic rituals, or even run an honest mortuary.
You should definitely give this game a play if you’ve forgotten about it. The characters are more well-written than most cozy games on the market right now, and the dialog feels natural, which is something we can’t say about most farming sims. It’s a fresh take on a genre that sorely needs one at the moment.
1Cthulhu Saves The World
We’ll be honest: we weren’t able to find anyone who has actually played this game. We’re sure it’s good, as the Steam reviews are fairly positive. We just keep forgetting this game even exists. And yet it sits in thousands of Steam backlogs, untouched and unplayed.
There are a few explanations we can think of for why this happened. The game has been out for over a decade now, and at around three smackaroos, it’s pretty cheap. It’s probably a great stocking stuffer, if those exist in digital form. At any rate, if you want to give a friend a cheap little pick-me-up, this game probably fits the bill.
