Indie Game Roundup – July 2023

July is upon us and with it come not only the best indie games released in July, but also the oppressive heat and humidity that some weirdos claim to love. Not us though, you can find us in a dark room praying for rain and tweeting how awful it is to be too hot. You’ll also find us stuck in the best indie games in July, because why wouldn’t we? Seriously, have you seen what we’re getting this month?

Oh yeah, maybe you didn’t, but that’s only because you’re still reading that intro (and bless you for it) instead of jumping into the list of July’s best indie games below. . We went ahead and picked our seven favorites from the upcoming releases and made a good argument for each one. So let’s go and get stuck. Treat yourself to an ice cream while you read too, you deserve it.

Oxenfree is one of those indie games that kind of transcends the indie label to be far more popular than even some AAA games. It’s no surprise that Oxenfree II: Lost Signals is a game worth waiting for. This game is set five years after the original game, and you have to return to Camena to investigate strange radio signals, and we’re sure you’ll be fine.

Battle Bows is a virtual reality game where you and some other friends can become the towers in a tower defense battle. You can each choose a type of arrow to command, and then you can lose your bow to every weird and wonderful enemy that comes your way. It also has a single-player mode, but we think the co-op mode is where this one will shine.

If your idea of ​​fun is hiring mercenaries and taking them through a country where the president has disappeared and a paramilitary group is staging a coup, then good news, Jagged Alliance 3 has you covered. You must guide a group through battle after turn-based battle in an attempt to save the land of Big Dog, and you can loot and salvage what you can after each battle to upgrade your troops. Sounds like a massive amount of fun and is sure to be a good shoutout for tactical fiends.

The finder looks a lot like what could be the next portal. It sounds really reductive and boring, but seriously, it’s true. This game lets you take pictures to solve puzzles, then you can place those pictures in the real world and either create new paths using them, or remove boxes you might need, and much more. It’s a cool concept, and we’re excited to see how it all comes together.

Dating sims still get the bad rap of not being “real games”, and we’re sick of it. The genre has evolved in fascinating ways in recent years, and From Madness With Love is a prime example. In this game, you play as someone who just transferred to a new private school for rich kids, but only because your last school blew up. You must navigate the intricacies of social class to try and woo some of those in the academy. It sounds like a cool concept, but things get really interesting if you scroll down the Steam page a bit, as it also warns that it contains a lot of stuff that most people wouldn’t expect from a dating sim.

Remnant II pushes the limit of being an independent, we know that, but also, shut up. Remnant II is the sequel to the colossally underrated Remnant: From the Ashes, which was a Soulslike third-person shooter with just a bit of roguelike energy sprinkled in. It was also absolutely sublime in terms of gameplay, story and the scale of the boss fights. Remnant II seeks to build on all of that with a more comprehensive class system, while retaining the cooperative gameplay and excellent gunplay that made the original so appealing.

Appropriately, Beary Arms is a cute game with a cute name, but it’s actually bullet hell, so buckle up. victory. Enemies also have their own factions, making them easier to categorize, but you’ll need a bit of luck as well as solid strategy and good reflexes to survive this game.