Gamescom 2023: the nine best indie games we saw on the show floor

Our pick of the best smaller hidden gems from this year’s Gamescom showfloor.

Gamescom 2023 might feature some pretty big game announcements every year, but in addition to triple-A titles with great gunplay mechanics and full open worlds to explore, there’s an abundance of smaller gems available to try out across the show floor. That’s why we thought it worth putting together a list of the very best indie games we’ve played (barring one, which was a hands-off demo) during this year’s show, all bursting at the brim with creativity and look set to impress when they eventually release.

These games are listed in no particular order, we were so impressed by them we couldn't possibly rank them, so if you're looking for which one to try out first, you'll need to decide for yourself.

Pixelated turn-based RPGs are big business these days on the indie scene, but rarely will you find one with as much musical influence or creativity as Fretless – The Wrath of Riffson. Setting you in the shoes of a lowly guitarist on a quest to play battle of the bands, getting there involves exploring a top-down world to uncover new riffs (acting as your attacks), gameplay-modifying pedal boards and modifications for your axe.

What could easily feel gimmicky in practice feels great to deploy, with riffs playing much like card attacks in deck-builder games, letting you line them up in sequence to take on rival musicians. Complete with large-scale crescendo attacks that are rhythm based a la Guitar Hero, Fretless is a guitar player’s dream.

Described to me as ‘part Ecco the Dolphin’ and ‘part Dig Dug’ by the game’s community manager, it only took a few minutes to recognize Pepper Grinder’s immensely satisfying sense of flow. It’s a traditional 2D platformer aside from the fact you’re equipped with a giant drill, which can be burrowed through sand to shoot yourself up to high locations, decimate enemies and control mechanical devices.

Pepper Grinder is almost entirely a one-man effort, being brilliantly indicative of the type of genre-twisting indie Devolver Digital is known for publishing. It’s a game that presents a similar premise, but so far from what I’ve seen executes it absolutely brilliantly. Learning how to deploy your drill in fun new ways gave me an instant satisfaction and sense of reward I’d not felt since playing Super Meat Boy.

At a show where I saw many Tactical RPGs – like Persona 5 Tactica – the indie I was perhaps most impressed by Classified: France 44. I was treated to a hands-off demo run through by members of Absolutely Games. The game takes place in France in the leadup to D-Day and sees you and your band of rebels preparing to sabotage the Nazi efforts and allow the allies to storm Normandy.

The team clearly has a great mind for the genre as I was run through some of the game's unique features. The most interesting – and game changing one – was the morale system, which makes even missed shots count as the devs put: getting shot at is scary. A higher focus on stealth also stands to make missions that much more intense. Fans of the tactical genre won’t want to miss this.

What would you get if you mixed the world and quirky scientist characters of Half-Life with the survival and base-building mechanics of Valheim or Ark: Survival Evolved? That’s the root of the question that Abiotic Factor ponders, swapping out tree-filled forests and endless island for a gritty and pedestrian underground lab. This sharp change of setting forces you to think differently about how to make progress.

My short time with Abiotic Factor saw me chop up aliens for protein, smash up computers for components needed to make a crafting table and generally just think outside the box in all other ways to try and fix a door my fellow scientist was trapped behind. As is expected there are multiple ways to survive and various solutions to solve circumstantial puzzles, which when played with a full party of six is sure to descend into all-out chaos.

The modern Resident Evil reboots are great, but the series has been left without a fixed camera angle since the Nintendo GameCube’s Resident Evil Zero. However, in what is very clearly a beloved tribute to this more classic era of survival horror, Post Trauma returns to this presentation style with great effect. In my short 30-minute demo I played as an average joe roaming about an abandoned hospital while trying to solve classic ‘find the right key to put in this lock’ puzzles.

Post Trauma is only being developed by a very small team, but it looks incredibly cinematic thanks to the fixed camera angles looking stellar and the fact it’s being built on Unreal Engine 5. The puzzles themselves are fairly standard for the genre and combat is awkward – on purpose, I’d wager – yet this indie darling has the potential to fill the gap left by the original Resident Evil and Silent Hill titles.

Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor is the latest entry in the auto-shooter genre popularised by Vampire Survivors. For a genre that is so seemingly simple at first, Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor reminded me that survivor-likes can still surprise me in many ways.

Being a spinoff of Deep Rock Galactic, obviously it has the setting and mechanics from the main game built in, mining and collecting resources is a central mechanic of this entry and will lead into more permanent upgrades as you progress through the game. It’s going to be hard to knock Vampire Survivors off the top of the mountain, but Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor is a promising attempt that brings something new to the genre.

Harold Halibut is one of the games that’s been seen and talked about forever on the games convention circuit, leaving me intrigued with its stop-motion art style and its fascinating underwater world. Playing it isn’t too dissimilar to what you’d expect from a Telltale game of old, but the voice performances are so strong and the framing of these conversations so cinematic, my short hands-on demo only left me wanting more to learn more about Harold and his fellow crew’s plight to try and get back to Earth.

My demo jumped me around in different chapters between the start, middle and end of the game, including the part where everything changes when Harold discovers an alien entity following a routine filter check. The moment played out incredibly beautifully as the entity slowly faded into view through the water-laden window, complete with engrossing light piano soundtrack to really tug on the heartstrings. Harold Halibut has been a long time coming but is shaping up to be something special.

I’m not sure that the style of game that Mike Mignola’s iconic comic book character was crying out for was a melee-based third-person action roguelite. That said, Hellboy: Web of Wyrd does well to translate this world of shady investigative organizations and fiendish monsters to a smaller type of brawler, absolutely nailing the look of the comics thanks to a cel-shaded visuals style and some stellar voicework by the late (and great) Lance Reddick in the titular role.

Actually playing as Hellboy feels fine for the most part, with most scenarios placing you in close-quarters arenas battling certain monsters. I only got to play around 15 minutes or so, meaning it was tough to entirely gauge how combat will develop. Having said that, though, blocking, parrying, and shooting foes from afar using one of three ranged weapons all felt great and looked dazzling. Hellboy: Web of Wyrd feels a tad budget, but it’s affection for its source material is absolutely apparent.

I went into Gamescom most excited to try out Luna Abyss. I’m a massive fan of fast-paced action games and this looked to mix two of my favourites from the last few years – Doom Eternal and Returnal. I played the opening missions of the game that was more atmospheric than action-focused, but the world is cool to explore.

The demo only featured two weapons, a sprint, and a slide, but from looking at trailers and chatting with the development team, it looks like the game will ramp up into something truly intense. While I do wish I had access to some of the later skills in the game, Luna Abyss is still one I’m watching closely.

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