Eternum (warning: NSFW) is an adult visual novel that keeps touching me with every new update. It's completely free, and I can't help but think of the creator as a master of the genre.

The characters are all well written and (those who are meant to be) lovable. The story is interesting, compelling even, and the humor is often hilarious. When you go to the website, you might think "Porn game!!!", and not be entirely wrong, but Eternum is so much more. It's a story about love, friendship, and a mystery.

Setting: Orion moves back to the USA after a long time. In recent years, a video game called eternum has been gaining traction, that allows going into virtual worlds, think full dive VR like in Sword Art Online. I'd say about 60% of the story happens IRL.

I can only recommend this masterpiece of a visual novel.

Original game page

Archive.org mirror of the game download

I genuinely have NO clue if this game is known, but i suspect it mostly isn't.

It's Keyboard Drumset Fucking Werewolf! It's kinda like a music video, but it's a music video game 👉😏

It's a collaboration between 2000s indie weirdo darling gamedev cactus and Swedish synthpunk band Fucking Werewolf ASSO.

it's aggressively strange and moderately challenging, but I think it's just a goddamn delight and maybe you will too.

Magium

Not a pc game but rather on mobile. It's a really solid fantasy CYOA game and (if you wanted to) play through the next set of story chapters completely for free as long as you meet the achievement requirements. Barring that, buying books (as the game calls it) has a rather fair price. Unfortunately the game is incomplete as the solo developer has sadly passed away, but what is here is great with a decent length since there's been years of book chapters. Genuinely a hidden gem that I discovered on a whim back early in highschool, and it's sad that I won't be able to see the end they envisioned, so with that in mind I'll be replaying this game again in the near future.

Metal Fatigue

A fun little 2000 era RTS with customisable mech chassis units/base building/multiple fighting levels per map (separate air/land/underground maps). In hindsight, it has a fiendishly difficult campaign which I remember it being a lot easier than I find it now...

Heaven's Vault is a game about archaeology and translating a dead language. You explore a unique solar system and discover ruins, in which you uncover artifacts, and bits of text. Through context clues, you translate the passages to uncover the storyline. It's not difficult, so if you're looking for a puzzle, this won't really do it for you, but it's more of a narrative experience. If you aren't sure about a word or phrase, you can give it a guess (based on assigning words from a collection of possible translations to specific symbols), and the game will remember that choice and let you slowly revise your translations as you find new text that rules out prior incorrect guesses. There's an interconnected storyline with multiple paths to follow, and a very unique world - haven't seen anything like it in other games.

The game has a NG+ mode wherein you start with all of your translations from the first playthrough intact, but, most of the bits of text are considerably longer and more involved, letting you use your prior knowledge to uncover more of the story and the lore of the world, which is also neat.

Vangers is a postapocalyptic and fundamentally strange top-down driving/exploration/mystery/action-RPG.

It has a unique back story, hostile worlds and an intriguing and expansive vocabulary that helps tell the story. If you are the type of person that appreciates poetic neologisms because they get your brain going, guessing at the etymology and sucking up the layers of connotation, this is up your alley.

Even if you manage to complete the game, you'll be left wondering whether what happened was even meant to happen. It's sort of post modern with deconstructed words, rituals and behaviors all jumbled up and muddled together as a result of a great and important event that once had meaning to creatures that may no longer even exist.