To me, Ctrl Alt Ego is not well known enough. It is an immersive sim in the style of Prey. You play as a robot roaming a station, where your Ego (like a spirit) can pass into and control all sorts of objects to solve puzzles, evade, control or kill enemies. The graphics aren't impressive (it was made by a 2-person team) but the gameplay is so interesting and the story is surprisingly compelling and funny!
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HyperRogue has 352 reviews. It is a rogue like that is played on a hyperbolic plane rather than a euclidian one.
If you're not familiar with hyperbolic geometry, don't be fooled by the videos. It has the illusion of looking like it is on a sphere in many of the videos. It's not! Also, you don't need to be some master of hyperbolic geometry to play. I don't really understand it but can still play the game well enough.
Essentially, imagine a hexagonal grid. Now, replace some of those hexagons with septagons (7 sided). The further away you get from a point there will be way more tiles in the hyperbolic grid than the euclidian.
The UI is pretty bad, the menus are pretty icky. Those are my only real complaints.
The game is charming. It has.a very retro feel to it. The music reminds me of something of hear from an old school point and click game or RuneScape. The graphics are minimal but charming.
The mechanics are easy enough. You get hit and you die. Most enemies die in one hit. There are no weapons or stats. It's more like chess in a way. The game will also not let you accidentally move somewhere you'd die, so, yes, very much like chess with checkmates.
Because the game is so simplistic you can get into a flow state where you quickly move and attack enemies. It's very satisfying to play.
Hyperbolic bonus: Hyperbolica, a first-person walking simulator set in a universe with hyperbolic geometry. You do odd jobs and play games that explore the strangeness of this geometry. Also, there's a slight digression to explore spherical geometry as well.
Hyperbolica is much better than the rogue game
Martha Is Dead is a grim psychological triller about twin sisters, set in Italy at the end of WW2. It's not about war, however. This game left me with deep emotions no other game could do. Heed the warnings given by authors, though. It may come too disturbing to some people.
Tinykin
I know you said less than 1,000 reviews but this is at 1,500 so I think it just squeaks by.
This game for lack of a better description, adorable and over too soon.
Like a mashup of pikmim, Spyro 2, and Tony Hawk Pro Skater. It's got lots of fun platforming and new puzzle mechanics in an ever adding open world that is a true joy to traverse and cute silly little side plots that make for rather grand set pieces when it all comes together. I got 100% in 12 hours but also collect-a-thons are my jam and I was plowing through the game with grin on my face for everything but the platinum time trials.
Don't know about broad appeal, but Corn Kidz 64.
Requires a controller, looks like an N64 title, and controls like one as well. Isn't as long as some games, but it's long enough that I got hours out of it before finishing. Heard of it from someone on Lemmy a long time ago.
Has 1140 Steam reviews, so I figured it's just barely above the 1000 reviews.
Clanfolk, a (very alpha and also very playable) game that draws clear inspiration from Rimworld, but has a kind of tech progression that feels spiritually similar to bootstrapping a factory in Factorio, while being set in the Scottish Highlands.
Ignore that heretical work of The Guild 2/3 et co. Only the ORIGINAL is truly worthy.