Just Vibing
Every game in this list could sit in multiple other categories, but something about these experiences demands more than just sitting them under a simple genre convention. All of these games just drip with atmosphere; they seep into your soul and curl up to rest, whether it be through skill crawling existential dread, overwhelming melancholy, or something altogether unexplainable. These are games you pay attention to, you soak in; you just vibe with. (This is easily one of my favourite categories, with the coolest of experiences.)
Spirits Mirror:: Digital Possessed
Free: Name Your Own Price
From the creator of the brilliant That Night, Steeped By Blood River comes an absolute feast of digital art, a first person experience unlike any other.
The Immaculate Drag
Soak in the 80s Vibes down this Miami strip as you smoke your pack of cigarets and chat to others while "on a melancholic journey through themes of depression, nostalgia, mortality, and the meaning of creativity."
Iron Lung
The steam description of Iron Lung says it all: "A short horror game where you pilot a tiny submarine through an ocean of blood on an alien moon."
PANELKI
Take on an intensely solitary role as a handyman across an open Siberian city, completing odd jobs through a dynamic weather system and day/night cycle. An unmistakably Eastern European, USSR influenced experience.
Glitchhikers: The Spaces Between
A Philosophical mood piece about the times between the here and there - focusing in on the to and from. Think of those long trips and late nights, spent with a friend or a stranger, divulging innermost secrets and the thoughts sitting in the deepest recesses of your mind.
Employee of the Month
An unsettling night spent working the late shift all alone in a convenience store, a survival horror game balancing humour and terror. Wander the store in first person with chunky pixelated graphics to suit.
Project Nautilus
Free
First person under water cave exploration via remote drone. Delve into the unknown, place beacons along the way for your corporate overlord, and discover what lies at the depths below.
Angels Bleeding
A reverse first person horror game in which you must Kill the five Chosen Ones to achieve World Peace.