Summary: Explore a dream world, collecting butterflies and solving puzzles in an attempt to wake up.
My opinion: The graphics are the best part of Painajainen. Everything is very distinct and vibrant, which makes exploring the world just for the sake of exploring really worthwhile. I'm not a big fan of the puzzles, but people with more patience than me will probably appreciate them.
Media: Here's a gameplay video, thanks to WingedDrant:
Summary: Guide a broken robot through a cave, and try to escape before your battery runs out.
My opinion: Lovely little game. There's a cool map drawing feature that you'll have to utilize if you want to escape but don't have a photographic memory.
Media: Here's a gameplay video, thanks to TraskNari:
Summary: Start out as an egg, then hatch into an epic bird by collecting upgrades, fighting bosses, and exploring.
My opinion: An Untitled Story is very ambitious, to say the least. Everything is so well done, from the gameplay to the music to the graphics, that I find myself with very little to say besides "just play it."
Media: Here's a gameplay video, thanks to hateworkboy:
Summary: The Nameless begins in a spaceship above a terraformed planet. You jetpack down to the surface and explore different complexes, trying to figure out what happened to everyone. Rescue survivors, move stuff with a tractor beam, kill enemies, and find upgrades.
My opinion: If you're looking for a really long and challenging exploration game, The Nameless is a great one to try out. The game started out a bit slow, but once I gained access to more areas, everything opened up and turned out to be a lot of fun.
Media: For some reason, screenshots didn't work for this game. Luckily, good ol' Caiman has a bunch.
Summary: An exploration game with a focus on rather difficult puzzles.
My opinion: I love the graphical style in The Wasteland. There are cool little particle effects and bright colors, but overall everything remains very simple. Some of the puzzles are really hard but rewarding.
Summary: Control a genetically engineered experiment gone wrong and try to escape from the laboratory that created you.
My opinion: The graphics and lighting in Abandoned are great. The main character is fantastically bizarre looking. Everything is pretty repetitive, but seeing the occasional freaky looking statue or strange background scenery makes Abandoned worth playing. And the music and sound effects are awesome.
Media: Here's a gameplay video. Check out the uploader's website, it's great!
About: Nifflas has been making exploration games for years, but his latest, FiNCK, is more of a puzzle game. His game before that, Saira, is an awesome exploration game that I'd highly recommend, but it costs 9 dollars. In keeping with the freeware theme, I'll focus on Nifflas' three older games, which are some of the highest quality exploration games out there.
Within a Deep Forest: Nifflas' first (?) game is about a bouncing blue ball that must stop a bomb from freezing the world. I discovered this game late one night, and ended up staying up well into the morning playing it. There's tons of great platforming and puzzle gameplay, and the graphics are beautiful. There's an almost intimidating amount of awesome stuff to see in this game.
Knytt: Nifflas takes the awesome graphical style of Within a Deep Forest and removes pretty much all of the gameplay. This results in a game where the reward of playing is found in what you see, not what you accomplish. Exploration gaming at its finest. It's like hiking, but in a platform game, which is awesome because there's air conditioning.
Knytt Stories: Knytt with a great level editor, which makes for infinite fun.
Summary: Explore a colorless world, collecting orbs and feelings.
My opinion: The music is epic, the graphics are fantastic, and there are some great particle effects. Damn, every time I really like a game, I have very little to say about it!
Summary: Use your submarine to find underwater treasure, then buy upgrades so you can find more!
My opinion: Playing Treasure Seas Inc feels like being on a beach on a sunny day. It's just a really chill, simple game. I've always been a fan of Mausland. It's nice to see them kicking back and making a pleasant, non epileptic seizure inducing game.
Summary: Explore a retro world, killing bats and collecting swords.
My opinion: It would have been nice if The Fantasy of the Sord had a map. I'd constantly get lost and end up back in the same place I'd been to a thousand times. Kind of a buzz kill. I also didn't realize you could hold the down key and press X for a low sword hit until I'd been killed by the frogs a thousand times, but that was my bad. The spell and weapon collecting system is quite well done. The boss battles are great, and the prizes you get for winning tend to be pretty epic.
Summary: Albero and the Great Blue Emblem has a bit of a silly story which I won't get into here. The gameplay is a nice mix of RPG, exploration, and precision platforming. There are also several multiple playable characters.
My opinion: Albero and the Great Blue Emblem seemed a bit lame at first (what can I say, I'm a really, really cool person), but I'm glad I stuck with it. It really got interesting once the other playable characters became a part of the game. The butterfly is a boss. Albero is pretty damn long, and the screen is tiny, so if you want to keep from going blind be sure to resize the game window.
Media: YouTuber Slumlord27 has a great series on underrated indie games. In the below video, he shows some gameplay from Albero and the Great Blue Emblem.
Summary: Level Up! is a great platform game with, not surprisingly, a lot of leveling up. You can level up by doing anything: jumping, standing still, taking damage, running, you name it. Your skills acquired from adventuring go away at the end of each day, but you learn them back faster and faster each time.
My opinion: The whole daily skill reset element of Level Up! is really well implemented, and the world has so much to see and so many different directions to go that taking it slowly and retreading old ground every once in a while isn't a bad thing. I've always been a fan of RPG elements, and Level Up! has a ridiculous amount of them. The great presentation, unique sense of humor, and nice pixel graphics make Level Up! a top notch exploration game.
Summary: In I Can Hold My Breath Forever, your friend who can hold his breath forever jumps into a pond and you're all like, "aww come back I wanna chill," so you go in after him. Anyone who has read Starfish (and if you haven't, you should!) will feel right at home with this game.
My opinion: ICHMBF really left an impression on me. I thoroughly enjoyed holding my breath in unison with the character on the screen for an extra dose of atmosphere. The graphics are simple and pretty, they suit the game perfectly.
Summary: Go to an exploration amusement park and play through all of the rides.
My opinion: The Fabulous Explorationsland is a very lighthearted take on exploration games. There isn't much gameplay beyond simple puzzles, but there are some funny sites to see, like an ancient burrito stand, and a set of portals made out of toilets. In retrospect, I'm not sure if I found this game funny, or just peer pressured myself into laughing.
Summary: Glum Buster is a beautiful game that takes place in a world fit for an art museum.
My opinion: Play it. It's amazing. The graphics are really quite astounding. The attention to detail is awe inspiring. Each new environment is one that begs to be explored. When I beat Glum Buster, I stared at my computer monitor blankly for five minutes and then played it again.
Media: YouTuber rinkuhero uploaded a complete playthrough of Glum Buster. Below is part one.
Summary: Use the mouse to control a little rocket. Land on planets and solve puzzles to win pink stars.
My opinion: Little Rocket is just a very pleasant game. The graphics are pleasant, the music is pleasant, and solving a puzzle just feels overall really rather pleasant and rewarding.
Media: Here's a screenshot. Such pleasant, simple graphics.
Summary: Invader is a game about a lone Space Invader who gets shot down and stranded on an alien world. He must then escape on foot, with nothing but dual pistols that shoot infinite ammo for protection.
My opinion: The simplicity of Invader really works in its favor. The game commanded all of my attention, never quite becoming overly repetitive. Right when one environment started feeling boring and overused, I would advance to a new set of rooms with nifty new graphics to ogle at.
Summary: Stranded on an island, you must go into different caves and search for your girlfriend. A dangerous monster lurks outside, and the caves are the only source of safety from it.
My opinion: Where We Remain is absolutely eerie. Being outside feels like being in the eye of a storm, and actually being in that storm and frantically searching for a cave to take shelter in is very intense. I love all of the different beautifully written little notes that are scattered around the island. The music is another really strong point of this game, it's very surreal and Zelda sounding. Where We Remain may be short, but there's a lot to say about it.
Summary: Control a fox who must reactivate a bunch of runes, which you can then teleport between. Find little hidden areas, eat mushrooms, and avoid monsters intent on making your mission harder.
My opinion: Playing William and Sly really made me want to be a fox. Or a guy with a pet fox. Elegantly prancing through the forest climbing trees and listening to birds singing seems like a fun life, and this game captures that lifestyle quite well. The music is really nice, too. Come winter, this will be a great game to play while rainfall can be heard outside.
Summary: Acaban is a couple years old and still hasn't received the internet love it deserves. In the game, you're armed with a flashlight and an energy gun and must wander around in darkness killing monsters and saving the world.
My opinion: The darkness aspect of Acaban is really well implemented. You're forced to constantly shine your flashlight around looking for spikes and monsters, especially as the levels grow in size and playing through trial and error stops being an option.
Summary: In Fleamind, you explore a little pixel world described by the author as a human brain. The very low resolution representation of the brain contains unique enemies to dodge and puzzles to solve. The game is won once 100 points are collected.
My opinion: I've always been very partial to Fleamind. It has been available for download for over three years, yet it has only been played by around 300 people. The movement is very slippery, but can definitely be mastered. Despite first playing Fleamind three years ago, I still fire it up every once in a while.
Media: Below is a screenshot of the game. The graphics are pretty minimalist, but don't let that keep you from trying it out!
Summary: Control a depressed little boy as he swings around with his monster buddy and travels through space solving puzzles.
My opinion: Aether is another game that was love at first play for me. Every element of the game is polished to perfection, from the fun swinging physics to the clever puzzles to the beautiful graphics. It feels like you're actually stuck in some tortured soul's gritty subconscious.
Media: Below is a screenshot of Aether that I took hella days ago.
Summary: Seiklus is pretty much synonymous with freeware exploration games. You control a little guy separated from his girlfriend and explore a variety of lovely environments, collecting orbs of various colors as you go.
My opinion: I first played Seiklus seven years ago. It was the first game I played that gave off a sense of freedom. Wandering around seeing new things was completely rewarding in its own right.
Media: The screenshots displayed on the bottom of the Seiklus homepage are, if I remember correctly, the same ones I saw upon the game's release seven years ago. The one of the guy sliding down the hill is completely epic, definitely one for the ages.
Below is the first part of a Seiklus speed run recorded by tjp7154. But a low quality video really doesn't do Seiklus any justice. You're much better off simply playing the game!
Summary: Noctis IV is an awesome procedurally generated space simulator. The sole purpose of the game is to fly around in a super fancy spaceship and explore the universe. Surfaces of planets can be landed on and examined further.
My opinion: The graphics are pretty dated, but in my opinion the grainy 3D just serves to make everything extra fuzzy and vibrant. Noctis IV is an easy game to get lost in. Happening upon something new and unusual on a strange, uncharted planet, all within a procedural galaxy, is a unique, eerie feeling.
Media: A series of Noctis screenshots collected by MobyGames can be viewed here.
YouTuber neuzd has a bunch of great videos of Noctis in action. The one below shows a birdlike creature taking off and disappearing into the distance.
