The Indie Decade Is Here — These Three Games Prove It
There was a time when "indie game" implied compromise — smaller scope, rougher edges, something you played between major releases. That era is over. Balatro, Hades II, and Vampire Survivors each hold a Metacritic score of 90 or above. Together, they cost less than a single AAA game at launch. And any honest conversation about the decade's best games has to include all three.
This isn't a deals post. These games aren't on sale. This is simply: if these aren't in your library, here's why they should be.
1. Balatro
What Is It?
It looks like poker. It uses poker hands — pairs, straights, flushes, full houses — as the scoring foundation. But Balatro is not a poker game. It's a roguelike deck-builder that borrows poker's vocabulary to build something genuinely novel.
The structure: complete poker hands to score points, hit a score threshold to advance, pick up Joker cards between rounds that bend and multiply your scoring in increasingly absurd ways. The rules fit on a single screen. The number of viable Joker synergies runs into the thousands.
It was made by a single developer, LocalThunk, who released it in February 2024. Two million copies sold in the first month. GOTY nominee at The Game Awards. Metacritic 90. A solo developer did that.
Why It's Special
The "just one more run" pull in Balatro is unlike anything else in the genre. Runs are short — 15 to 30 minutes — which tricks you into thinking you'll stop soon. You won't. The moment a Joker combo clicks into place and your score multiplier hits numbers that feel accidental and inevitable at the same time, you're already planning the next build.
The failure loop is also well-designed. When a run ends, you can see exactly why. That clarity makes you want to try again, not feel cheated.
Who Should Play It
- ▶Anyone who enjoys deck-builders (Slay the Spire, Monster Train)
- ▶Players who want a high-replayability game under 30-minute sessions
- ▶Steam Deck / portable gaming users — this is purpose-built for it
- ▶Anyone who wants 50+ hours of content from a $14.99 investment
$14.99 for 50+ hours of some of the most addictive design of the decade. That math works.
2. Hades II
What Is It?
Hades II is still in Early Access. It has a Metacritic score of 94. Let that sit for a moment — an unfinished game is scoring higher than most finished ones. That's the situation Supergiant Games has created.
The original Hades launched out of Early Access in 2020 with a Metacritic score of 93. The sequel already exceeds it.
You play as Melinoë, daughter of Hades, fighting upward (and in new directions) through the Greek underworld. Where Zagreus was trying to escape, Melinoë has a different mission entirely — and the shift gives the game a fresh narrative identity even for players who know the original inside out.
Why It's Special
Supergiant has always been exceptional at making you feel something while you play. Hades II doesn't just have better combat than the original (it does) — it's also more emotionally layered. The cast of gods, spirits, and characters you encounter across runs builds relationships incrementally. Defeat doesn't reset that. Come back after a failed run and characters remember, react, evolve.
The combat system has expanded: new weapons, new boon combinations, an Arcane card system that adds another layer of pre-run customization. Build diversity is wider than the original. But the moment-to-moment feel — the fluidity and precision of Supergiant's action design — is still what sets it apart from every other game in the genre.
The voice acting, score, and art direction are AAA-level production values in an indie package. Nothing about Hades II feels like a game that "only" costs $24.99.
Who Should Play It
- ▶Action game players who also want a real story
- ▶Fans of Greek mythology and lore-rich worlds
- ▶Anyone who played the original Hades (or missed it and wants to start with the sequel)
- ▶Players who want session-length roguelites (40–60 minutes per run)
At $24.99 in Early Access, this is the best value in action games right now. Price may increase at full release.
3. Vampire Survivors
What Is It?
$4.99. Metacritic 90. Over 350,000 Steam reviews. A game that created an entire sub-genre.
Vampire Survivors is a bullet hell auto-shooter: your character fires weapons automatically — you just move. The depth comes not from aiming but from what you choose to evolve, stack, and combine as the run progresses. Weapon evolutions, passive item stacking, and build synergies create a complexity that the visual simplicity completely obscures.
At $4.99, the risk of trying it is essentially zero. And that low barrier of entry has made it one of the most-played games of the past three years.
Why It's Special
The first ten minutes of Vampire Survivors might not grab you. The second ten minutes will. By the third ten minutes, you will have missed an appointment.
What makes the loop work is the progression across runs: unlocking new characters, weapons, and stages builds a sense of meta-progression that makes every session feel meaningful even when you die early. The game has also received substantial free and paid DLC since launch, expanding the already-large roster of characters and stages well beyond the base content.
More recently, co-op multiplayer was added, so the experience that already worked solo now works as a social game too.
Vampire Survivors didn't just succeed — it spawned a genre. Brotato, 20 Minutes Till Dawn, Halls of Torment, and dozens of others exist because of it. Those games are good. The original is still the best.
Who Should Play It
- ▶Anyone who hasn't played it yet (seriously — there's no reason not to at $4.99)
- ▶Roguelite newcomers — this is the ideal genre entry point
- ▶Players who enjoy short, complete sessions (15–30 minutes per run)
- ▶Fans of the Brotato/auto-shooter genre who somehow missed the originator
$4.99. If you need more justification than that, re-read the Metacritic score.
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Game | Price | Metacritic | Hours of Content | Session Length | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Balatro | $14.99 | 90 | 50h+ | 15–30 min | Card game and deck-builder fans |
| Hades II | $24.99 | 94 | 80h+ | 40–60 min | Action + narrative players |
| Vampire Survivors | $4.99 | 90 | 100h+ | 15–30 min | Everyone — especially newcomers |
| Combined | $44.97 | — | 230h+ | — |
Under $45 total. Over 200 hours of content between them. All three at 90+ on Metacritic.
Where to Start
- ▶Tightest budget: Start with Vampire Survivors — $4.99, genre-defining, impossible to regret.
- ▶Want story with your action: Hades II first — the best writing in the genre.
- ▶Maximum addiction potential: Balatro — nothing pulls "just one more" harder.
- ▶All three at once? $44.97. Yes.
Indie games are having the best decade in their history. These three are the reason why.