Receiver.

[Vy'drach]

This is on sale on Steam right now for 37 hours as of writing this, and I must urge people that have the $2.50 to spend to get this game, it is fantastic. Probably my favourite game on Steam, and it's so simple, it's original version was made for a "7 day FPS challenge" where developers were given a week to make an FPS game, and Receiver is one of the results. The idea is that you can manipulate every part of the gun independently and have to learn it through muscle memory. Knowing how handguns work is helpful but not required. Anyway, it's a perma-death game where you die and the entire world is rerolled.

 

Now more on what is probably at least 60% of the game, the gun play. Now then, the gun isn't simply a  basic tool used to defeat the enemies in the game, it is what makes the game. You don't just walk around and right click to aim, left click to fire, and hit R and pop in a new magazine when you need to. Every single part of the handgun that can be operated is usable. Last I played, there were three guns, a Colt 1911, a Smith & Wesson Model 10 revolver, and a Glock 17 with full-auto capabilities (not actually a thing and it doesn't operate in game as it would in real life, namely how the select fire works on it). Each one operates differently, since the Colt 1911 is a single-action semi-automatic pistol, the Model 10 is a double-action revolver (and lacks safeties, of course), and the Glock 17 is select-fire and Glocks have no active safeties. These all can come into play in the game, and it is important to learn what you need to do with the gun in order to operate it, because when your gun is empty you don't just hit R and insert a new magazine, for the 1911, you manually eject the magazine, either insert a new one or load the empty one with loose cartridges, put it back into the gun, and what you do next depends on different criteria:

 

If the gun has a round chambered, you're done.

If the gun was emptied and the slide locked back, you either operate the slide or the slide release lever (either works).

If the chamber is empty but the slide is forward, you have to pull the slide back and release it.

 

As for what else the game is about, the story is offered up to you piece by piece and I don't want to explain it too much, but you awake in a randomly generated building type deal and must find 11 audio tapes while avoiding automated turrets and taser drones, while collecting ammunition, the audio tapes, and a flashlight or two. You want to avoid the turrets when possible, or neutralize them with a single bullet if you can by hitting a weakpoint (you really want to conserve your ammunition). The graphics are very simplistic but very aesthetically pleasing.

 

In all seriousness, I can not think of a game on Steam I enjoy more, not even Aliens vs. Predator: Classic 2000. Receiver is the Hope's Diamond of "diamond in the rough" indie gems and you don't even need to be a gun lover to enjoy the game, just so long as you don't mind learning how to operate them and shooting turrets and drones with them.

 

Seriously, it's $2.50 and I'd regret nothing for paying full retail price for it, and I give it 1,000,000 papayas/10.

[Arashikage]

Receiver is indeed an amazing game, and I can vouch for this post's credibility.  It's insanely cheap, even when it's not on sale.  If you don't buy it, you'll miss out on probably the best game to ever come out of a week's worth of work.  Wolfire Games, the developer of Receiver, is known for a few more games too, Black Shades, Overgrowth, and Lugaru: The Rabbit's Foot are among their most well known games.  It's largely one guy, but I think he has some people who help out.  Wolfire is also behind the Humble Bundle, so there's that to keep in mind.