So far, 2024 has been a wonderful year for gaming. Perhaps not the triple-A titles in particular, but the indie gaming community feels quite content. Thanks to games like Palworld, Helldivers 2, and Stellar Blade, there’s a restoration of faith in the industry’s future and all the games we could potentially play.
While it’s surprising how so few triple-A titles are taking any spotlight, it’s good news for the industry at large that smaller studios are in the focus now, and we can expect a lot of creative experiments going forward.
It started with Palworld, and Helldivers 2 has been carrying the hype for indie games
Towards the end of January, the world saw the arrival of an MMO game that challenged the nuances of giants like Pokémon and Digimon and revolutionized the idea of creative survival games. To this day, Palworld is considered to be one of the biggest surprises in the industry, and millions of players are enjoying the game’s creative open-endedness.
Just a month later, Helldivers 2 took the world by storm and brought in a player base that’s still loyal to the game’s DnD-esque gameplay system. In fact, the game’s live-service model is something a lot of games will potentially try and mimic, given how successful the design has proven to be.
At the time of writing, Stellar Blade’s playable demo is out on the PlayStation 5 and shows a lot of promise for the game to be yet another masterful exclusive. Despite the game’s many controversies, it’s proving to be a solid action-adventure title with combat mechanics that demand decent reflexes.
Indie games are setting the bar for the industry, one genre at a time
All three games make the best of different subgenres of gaming. Not everything appeals to everyone, yet, these titles have managed to find their home within the hearts of different gamers worldwide. Whether it’s a single-player title or a live-service game, there’s no denying that the relatively smaller studios behind them know how to build good games.
It’s almost funny how indie titles seem like strong, compelling pieces of art that don’t feel as short or half-done as they used to years ago. In fact, many people on various forums online discuss the same. For instance, a Reddit post by user action_lawyer_comics discusses the richness of smaller, tighter games as compared to triple-A projects.
While lackluster content from the likes of Ubisoft and Rocksteady has been putting a dent in the gaming community’s faith, double-A games are making a name for themselves and fans are all up for that.
What are your thoughts on games like Palworld and Helldivers 2? Do you think there’s a bright future for indie games? Let us know in the comments below.
