Howdy fellers, today we’re gonna discuss a list of indie video games with great graphics. I’ve played many games in the last 11 years and I was always puzzled by how these small studios could come up with games that have incredible graphics, sometimes even better than on some AAA titles!
And that’s exactly what I’ll be talking about - indie games that despite having a relatively low budget, came out with surprisingly decent graphics. Anyways, let’s get started with our first game!
15. The Stanley Parable
A game that was made on the Portal 2 Engine - although to some the graphics might seem a bit old, I don’t really goddamn care - they kept up well to date and the game looks slightly cartoonish and realistic at the same time.
Not only that the graphics are decent, but you also don’t really need a beefy PC to run this game. The bare minimum for this game is an NVIDIA GeForce 7600 or an Intel HD Graphics 2000 - you can literally play this game on a toaster!
14. The Witness
This game is kinda strange and unsettling, way too quiet, but maybe just because of that, you can appreciate the beauty of this game - you wake up on a colorful island, which at the same time looks mostly cartoonish. I was also impressed by the water reflections - objects reflected by the water look exactly the same and when traveling on a boat, you can be stunned by how awesome it looks. Shadows also present themselves very great and don’t affect the performance too much!
The minimum graphics card required for this game is an Intel HD 4000 Series - just like with Stanley Parable, you can run this game on a potato!
13. Friday the 13th: The Game
Why be a serial killer in real life, when you can be the one and only Jason in a video game? That’s right, the game offers eye-pleasing graphics while brutally slaughtering poor baby boomers. The lighting is decent and despite the game being dark as hell, you can still spot out some graphical gems.
GeForce GTX 650 Ti (1024 MB) is the graphics card required at a minimum to run this game - it’s not that expensive and it’s barely above the potato tier of graphic cards. The game is awesome, by the way!
12. Black Mesa
The game is a remake of Half-Life and a great tribute at that. The graphics were completely overhauled in every definition of the word - the shadows, lighting, textures of walls, objects, humans, creatures, weapons - literally everything. If you haven’t played Half-Life 1 because of its graphics, now you’ve got a great chance to play Black Mesa, which is a top-notch remake!
The best parts are the requirements needed to run this game - 2 GB Dedicated Video Card or Greater and a 2.6 Dual Core Processor or Greater. You pretty much don’t need a PC to even play this game!
11. Gone Home
A mystery-solving game with fancy/cartoonish graphics. You’ll be spending most of the time indoors and exploring the well-detailed mansion. Each room in this game has an object to explore and everything looks modestly textured - in a good, minimalistic way. Props leave decent shadows and you don’t need much to run this short, lovely indie game!
The bare minimum for this game is a Video card with 512MB of VRAM - ‘nuff said. You really don’t have to worry about not being able to run this game!
10. No Man's Sky
I remember how much drama was caused at the release of this game, but let’s put our differences behind us and admire how pretty this game looks! Each time I traveled to a different planet I discovered a new set of graphics. I could not always judge the graphics due to something either chasing me or trying to kill me. The graphics look like something straight out of a cartoon book - in a good way, sunny weather makes everything look cozy and you can create a base with fancy lights coming out of everything. Alien creatures you encounter also look realistic and highly textured.
You also need an AMD Radeon 7870(minimum) to run this game. The game changed a lot in the last 5 years and you might enjoy it now!
9. Rust
The game used to look like ass back in 2013, textures suffered from low quality, shadows that looked like rectangles - you get the idea. But that was the Rust back in 2013 - modern Rust looks gorgeous!
A few months ago Rust got an update in which the graphics were greatly enhanced - the grass looks far better than before, shadows behind objects no longer look like rectangles, and genitals of player models still look small as before. The game is awesome if you like multiplayer combined with survival+base building.
8. Subnautica
If you’re playing this game on high, one of the coolest features you’ll see is how everything becomes slightly blurred, for example, creepvines overall texture quality will improve and its seed clusters will emit light. Shadows look identical to the shape of your character and reflections are also on a top-notch level.
Minimum to run this game: Intel HD 4600 or equivalent - this game is not really that GPU demanding, you should worry more about your CPU not exploding while playing this game!
7. Amnesia: The Dark Descent
Crap your pants today and download Amnesia! Seriously, this game traumatized me so badly as a kid that I was unable to sleep for the next 3 nights. For an indie game, this game has convincingly incredible graphics - monsters terrify you because they’re well-detailed and you can see every disfigurement on their twisted corpse. Since lights in this game are your biggest friend, they gotta look good and they do.
The minimum required for this game is a Radeon 9600/GeForceFX. Make sure to wear diapers while playing this game!
6. A Way Out
Probably my most favorite co-op game of all time. It’s also surprising that such a small studio came up with decent, high-tier graphics. Player models are relatively pleasant to look at, faces and bodies are generally decently textured and realistic looking. The world in this game looks most of the time warm and cozy, open and lively. Also, objects/characters leave realistic, round shadows.
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650Ti - minimum requirements to run this game. Again, it’s a fun and graphically appealing game. Try it out!
5. Observer
This game is an indie game but has the graphics of some AAA title. Gorgeous, everything looks nicely animated, the environment is filled with detailed objects and it doesn’t affect your performance too much. The game offers raytracing options and decent lighting/shadows - the prettiness of this game is off the charts!
The bare minimum to run this game is an NVIDIA GeForce 660. It’s surprising, that a game with these sorts of graphics can run on such a potato GPU!
4. What Remains of Edith Finch
Two fascinating things about this game are that at times, it looks cartoonish, especially outdoors, but there were moments where I entered a room and felt like it was photorealistic. The game looks and presents itself in a high-quality matter - objects that you see are highly detailed, the game emits accurate shadows and lighting is also top-notch. Sick game, both in terms of puzzles and graphics!
you need a GeForce GTX 750 to run this game at the bare minimum. It’s a shame though, this game looks incredible on high settings!
3. Dear Ester
From wandering around the island to exploring caves, you will realize how gorgeous this game is. Not only that an indie company made this game, it was also made back in 2012. This game looks extremely realistic - the grass has its animations, objects such as rocks or the sand look highly-textured, same goes for the skybox - it doesn’t look Minecraft’ish!
And you need an NVidia 7600 to run this game at the minimal settings. It doesn’t necessarily look bad on low settings, it’s still eye-pleasing and I’m sure that you’ll love it!
2. Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice
Texture resolution in this game is off the charts. Everything presents itself in a beautiful way. The face of the player model looks realistic as hell, the rest of the body looks highly detailed and textured. Realistic water physics and reflections exist and they’re absolutely gorgeous. Shadows can slightly affect the performance, but they look surreal nonetheless. The game is gorgeous!
To run this game, you need a Radeon R9 280X - I used to have this GPU on my older PC. Shame it burned to death. Good riddance!
1. A Plague Tale: innocence
The video itself will prove how much of a graphical masterpiece this game is. It is, handsdown, one of the greatest looking games out there, characters have realistic movements and present themselves in almost a photorealistic way, the lighting looks incredible and it gives out legitimate shadows. See this game for yourself, it has a long list of settings to fiddle around with, just make sure not to burn your PC down!
GeForce GTX 660/Radeon HD 7870 - these two GPUs are the minimum in order to run this game. Try it out, worth the price and the view!
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