Dunno how up to date on gaming news you are in general, but there’s a game released this year called Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 made by a relatively small French studio. It’s been extremely well received and is most likely winning Game of the Year as alluded to by the devs of Baldurs Gate 3, the previous year’s winner.
The story and dialogue is exceptionally well written, graphics and artistic style is stunning, and it’s got probably the best soundtrack to a game I’ve ever heard.
It somehow melds the best of French culture with JRPG mechanics and improves upon it with like much better storytelling.
President Macron even acknowledged what an achievement it was for a French company.
It’s the best gaming experience I’ve had in years and you should really play it if you haven’t already. That is all.
I’ve almost beat the game and I still have no fucking clue what it’s about but I love the fight mechanics and I have them all looking as stupid as possible like mimes with electroshock hair.
Seriously the fight mechanics are damn good.
STALKER and STALKER 2 are made by a Ukrainian studio.
STALKER 2 had a difficult development finish due to the war breaking out, half the studio had to evacuate to Romania, the other half stayed and took care of the servers before the data could be migrated. A lot of the devs got drafted (one was actually joining stand-ups from his trench on the frontline, whenever he could).
The release was shaky, but a friend tells me that right now the game is excellent. And they’re still patching and improving it!
Adding on to this: Metro 2033 is also made by a Ukrainian Studio and published by Austrian publisher Deep Silver.
If you like factory building games you might like Satisfactory (swedish).
Since you’re asking for interesting I will skip some obvious ones that you likely already know.
Deliver Us the Moon & Deliver us Mars, puzzle games made in The Netherlands. You might also recognize one of the voices if you’ve played Baldur’s Gate 3.
Last Train Home, tactical strategy game made by a Czech (afaik) studio.
Stray, puzzle game where you play as a cat made by a French studio.
If I think of more I will add them later :)
Don’t forget the Kingdom Come series.
Minecraft - Sweden, Cyberpunk 2077 - Poland, THE FINALS - Sweden, Ultrakill - Finland, Forza Horizon 5 - UK, Hunt: Showdown - Germany, Into The Radius 1/2 - Estonia (and I think Ukraine too?).
Cross Code is a pixel action RPG made by a German studio that was pretty well-received!
I love Cross code. For me it is for classic SNES action adventures what shovel knight was for platformers. It feels like the old games feel in our memory but with very modern technology and game design.
Try Daedalic studio games if you care about the adventure genre.
Keep in mind that Deadalic is nowadays only a publisher and doesn’t do games anymore…because of golum… Their past games are recommended for sure.
Helldivers 2 is made by Arrowhead a swedish developer
A lot of good games are EU based thankfully:
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Factorio (old but goody): Czech Republic
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Police simulator: Patrol Officer. Strange game with mediocre quality and plays in a US setting,but is made in Germany.
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The witcher series is polish
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Arma series is Czech
Btw, iirc The Witcher is from CD Projekt, the same ones that made Cyberpunk77, and they also are partnered with GOG.
CDPR is not partnered with GOG, they made GOG before making any games in 1994 and still own it
shapez and shapez 2 from Germany
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The Anno series:
You build on islands. make an economy, provide your peoples needs Go to different regions to set up cities there where these cultures need different needs than the starting one and you manage the trade routes.
They also always tackle different things
In 2070 they tackle climat change and heavy corperatism 1404 religiouse fanatism 1701 colonialism And the new one 207 seems to be tackling Assimilation and coexistance of culture
Settlers is also european and its a little build up strategie game
Hearts of iron, crusader kings, europa universalis, stellaris, imperator rome (RIP), all strategie games set in different times by paradox interactive. They are fun…but the company behind it is a greedy money hungry shit stain. Adhorent pricing, putting vital core mechanics into DLCs. If they run out to make money on expanding, well you lose the DLC you paid for because now its integrated into the base game without compensation or ‘thanks’
- Chained Echoes which is an indie jprg from germany. Nothing much to say, it’s a quite good story based rpg
And The Game Bakers is a studio in france (to be fair the team is international) that has done games like:
- haven, a rpg you play a couple, standed on a planed. It’s about their relationship and how to go on
- fury, very exhausting game, you just fight bosses after bosses, so it’s just a technical game about battles, but kind of addicting…but you will probably lose a lot
You could also add Clair Obscure: Expedition 33 to the list which got a lot of hype this year
I’m Romanian and know that this game is definitely made here https://store.steampowered.com/app/1239080/Door_Kickers_2_Task_Force_North/
Well, Finnish game dev apparently topped the list of wealthiest companies a few years ago. Which is kind of funny with national gambling government monopoly.
The ones randomly on top of my head are
- Angry birds
- Liero
- Luanti
- Noita
- My summer car
- Ultrakill
There was also Finnish armi simulator recently, on the national news, they said it was quite a popular thing on Steam and such, but I haven’t seen it for myself neither remember the name.
Also, need to note that Stalker is totally european!
Well, Finnish game dev apparently topped the list of wealthiest companies a few years ago. Which is kind of funny with national gambling government monopoly.
How is it “funny”?
There’s a world of difference with those three small added letters in the word “mbl”.
Gaming and gambling are nowhere near the same, no matter how much RAY has made their fruit machines resemble games.
Finnish Army Simulator and it’s more of a humouristic game afaik.
Max Payne is Finnish. So is Alan Wake. Unsure about how Finnish the sequels are, but at least these are in a different class than the sort of indie/small games you list.
I had no idea what gambling is like, never felt anything towards it. I thought it’s like playing casual games but you can’t do it without pants on and also you lose money.
Sure there are way more Finnish games; I just like small indie games more (unless it’s Morrowind), thus they were on top of my head.
And Liero was a regular game at its time, all were small and indie. Luanti on the other hand is a big one.
For some of that dark gameplay that’s also small and indie, but also Finnish, there’s Fear and Hunger along with it’s sequel. I recommend you defeat the literal lohikäärme in it, but prepare by getting gnome eggs to feed it.
Fear and Hunger
Wow, looks cool, thanks!
The dude on wiki screenshot of a sequel is a statue of 3-handed traffic cop in Espoo, sweet!
Paradox Interactive has many strategy games that span from Roman times all the way to the present. The more well-known ones include Hearts of Iron IV (HOI4), Europa Universalis IV (EU4)—with the next installment in development—and Victoria 3 (Vic3), among others.
