David’s Steam Summer Sale 2020 Recommendations

My friends, I’m sure you all know just as well as I do that this year has been far from typical up to this point. Thanks to the dastardly COVID-19 pandemic and everything that has happened alongside and as a result of it, the vast majority of us are most likely still under strict orders to stay home as much as possible. I suspect it’s equally likely that by this point, many of us have hardly anything worthwhile to do.

We’ve scarcely even had any gaming conventions to look forward to so far this year. There has been no E3, no Gamescom, no BlizzCon, or anything of the sort. The most notable thing we’ve had so far was the PC Gaming Show, and even that underwent some drastic changes because of the pandemic. I don’t know about you, but this whole scenario is really starting to take a toll on my mental state.

However, all hope is not yet lost. I’m here to proudly proclaim that thanks to Valve, there remains at least some degree of normalcy in this otherwise uncertain and troubling year. That is to say, the annual Steam Summer Sale is upon us at long last. To that end, as is tradition, I’ve compiled a list of my personal recommendations for games (and a bit of DLC) that I think you should consider picking up while they’re discounted during the sale. Thankfully, you’ve got until the sale ends on July 9th to make any decisions and purchases.

You might recall that I’ve written articles just like this for both last year’s Steam Summer Sale and Winter Sale. The procedure here will remain virtually the same as it was in both of those pieces; the only change will be in the variety of games I wish to present to you. There won’t be a single game on this list that I haven’t played, and I’ll refrain from reusing any games from previous articles without a good reason for listing such titles more than once. With all of that in mind, all you need to do for the duration of this article is sit back, crank up your air conditioner, and relax. Let’s begin.

Not For Broadcast [Early Access] – Discount: 50% – Sale Price: $7.49

Rather paradoxically, I feel as though I have quite a lot and yet fairly little to say about Not For Broadcast within the confines of this article. That’s primarily because, although I do adore the game immensely, I’ve already said virtually everything I can currently think to say within the first two articles I’ve written about the game thus far.

Some among you may recall that I covered the game’s demo back in December, then subsequently reviewed its first full episode this past March. If you want to read my thoughts on its content in more detail, I suggest checking out those articles. However, despite not having very many talking points that I haven’t previously covered in other parts of my written work, I shall soldier on and provide you with a sort of “elevator pitch” in the hopes that I can convince you to pick up the game while it’s discounted so heavily.

Not For Broadcast’s premise is just as simple as it is complex. You inadvertently blunder into your vital role within the context of the game, as you find yourself in charge of controlling exactly what an unnamed nation sees and hears during its daily evening news program. This just so happens to take place on the same night that a new, more radical government is voted into power within that certain nameless country.

Then, the game presents you with a choice as you get the hang of controlling each day’s newscast. You can either do your job exactly as you’re supposed to with a “whatever happens, happens” attitude in regards to the new administration, or if you’re feeling particularly devious, you can participate in the more overtly political aspects of the game’s plot. That’s nearly all I can say about Not For Broadcast in the interest of avoiding both spoilers and the act of repeating anything I’ve said in either of my previously-written articles on the game’s content.

However, having said that, there are three final notes I want to ensure I pass along about the game. Firstly, it has just received a healthy dose of new content in the form of a bonus episode entitled Not For Broadcast: Lockdown. That is to say, there’s now more to experience than there was when I last wrote about the game. I think that’s a wonderful prospect indeed.

Secondly, I want to emphasize that the game has a sense of humor that’s right up my alley and I’m sure many of our readers will enjoy it just as much as I do. I hope to have illustrated that point more clearly via the screenshots of the game I’ve sprinkled throughout the entirety of this article. Finally, it’s worth noting that as more content is added to the game, its price will increase over time. This is likely the cheapest Not For Broadcast will be for quite a while. That’s just one reason why I wholeheartedly recommend taking advantage of this opportunity to pick it up despite any misgivings you may have about Early Access games.

Bomber Crew – Discount: 75% – Sale Price: $3.74 ($6.24 for the game and its season pass)

If you consider yourself a fan of military history or military simulation games and micromanagement games in the same vein as FTL: Faster Than Light, then I’d say this one is almost certainly for you. Within the context of Runner Duck and Curve Digital’s joint effort known as Bomber Crew, you’re tasked with managing aircraft within the British Royal Air Force (or United States Air Force, if you have a certain piece of DLC) during the Second World War.

As the game’s title implies, you’ll have a crew of soldiers to manage aboard your bomber as you carry out missions such as bombing runs, reconnaissance missions, the elimination of enemy “Ace Pilots,” and even real, historical missions such as Operation Chariot. The micromanagement aspect of the game comes into play in regards to ordering your crew around the aircraft they command while simultaneously ensuring their safety.

You’ll have to do such things as send crew members to repair broken or damaged systems, periodically order your gunners to replenish their turrets’ ammunition, and navigate to and from your targets safely without running out of fuel. These orders can range from routine to extremely risky. If, for example, one of your plane’s engines is damaged mid-flight, whomever you order to repair it will have to balance themselves on the wing of the craft and essentially hope they aren’t killed before they can return to the relative safety of the bomber’s interior.

Another example of Bomber Crew’s gameplay is that you lack the ability to pause the game at any point in a mission as is possible in the aforementioned FTL, although you do have the ability to slow time for a limited duration. You’re actively encouraged not to use this ability unnecessarily, however, as you’ll receive a small bonus to your earnings after every mission in which you don’t slow down time.

On a final note about Bomber Crew, I’d like to mention that it will soon be getting a sequel entitled Space Crew. I’ve played its demo, which is readily available on Steam if you’re interested, and I’m definitely looking forward to Space Crew as a result. That’s in no small part because its setting and gameplay will allow me to compare it even more heavily to FTL, a game which I equally adore in its own right.

Tropico 6 – Discount: 40% – Sale Price: $29.99

I mentioned in my recommendation roundup for last year’s Summer Sale that I usually need to be in what I’d call a more “dictatorial” mindset to play the three most recent games in the Tropico franchise due to the in-game powers I have as “El Presidente” of the small-but-thriving Caribbean nation. That remains the case, and I’m glad to report that the newest entry in the series, Tropico 6, allows me to satiate that mindset with even more enjoyment than I’ve gotten out of either of its most recent predecessors.

That’s primarily due to new and enhanced features which the newest game has added. Based on the detail of its tutorial alone, I feel that Tropico 6 has quite a lot to offer those of you who are interested in city-management games like this. I suspect that those of you who have played either Tropico 4 or Tropico 5 will feel right at home with the newest entry in the series.

Your ultimate in-game goals are still the same; you must strive to keep your people happy enough that they consistently re-elect you, while simultaneously ensuring that you set something aside for retirement in your totally-legal Swiss bank account. However, I’d feel fairly foolish if I recommended Tropico 6 without mentioning one of its new flagship features. Namely, you have the ability to recruit pirates and send them to steal world wonders from other nations for the sake of improving Tropico.

That’s right, folks. Somehow, a stereotypical group of pirates, scurvy and all, can set sail for France (as an example) and, if all goes well, return to Tropico a few months later with the Eiffel Tower in tow. This idea makes no logical sense to me, but that’s exactly why I get so much of a kick out of it. This mechanic is just one of the reasons I recommend Tropico 6 as readily as I do, and I think its current discount is a great reason to give the game a try.

War for the Overworld – Discount: 75% – Sale Price: $7.49 ($22.99 for the “Ultimate Edition” with all DLC)

In case I haven’t mentioned it here on Phenixx Gaming before, I’m a huge fan of the Dungeon Keeper franchise of yesteryear. I am, of course, far too young to have even been capable of playing these games when they first released, but that’s exactly why I’m thankful for GOG. Brightrock Games’ 2015 release War for the Overworld is, in my opinion, easily the best spiritual successor to the Dungeon Keeper series. I feel that this title keeps the evil spirit of the original games alive and well, while also putting a modern spin on them.

In case you’re unfamiliar, War for the Overworld tasks you with constructing and maintaining your own dungeon to fend off any pesky heroes seeking glory, righteousness, and loot. You go about this by recruiting monsters and other minions of various types. You also start building several particularly devilish types of traps for any unsuspecting goody-two-shoes to spring. Your ultimate goal, as the game’s title suggests, is to spread your evil empire to the extent that you conquer the titular Overworld and rid it of anyone brave or foolish enough to try and stop you.

The game also a wonderfully-dark sense of humor that greatly appeals to me. For example, you have at your disposal legions of imps who do menial work on your behalf, such as digging out tiles to allow you to build new areas of your dungeon. If you feel that any of your imps aren’t working diligently enough, you can give them a mighty slap across the face to entice them to speed things up. The phrase “slapping the imp” isn’t a euphemism in this context, but anyone who’s out of the loop would likely think otherwise. That is part of the reason I enjoy the game so much.

Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove – Discount: 30% – Sale Price: $27.99 ($34.99 for the edition which also contains the game soundtrack)

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m quite far from the best at platformer games. Despite that, though, I adore everything present within Yacht Club Games’ Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove. The games contained within this collection probably wouldn’t be quite so difficult to someone more comfortable with the genre than myself. Yet I can’t help but enjoy this collection regardless of how many times I’ve led the titular spade-wielding crusader to an untimely demise.

For the sake of anyone who might not know, Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove is not one, but five games combined into a single anthology. The main experience that was present before the game became known as the Treasure Trove is entitled Shovel Knight: Shovel of Hope. Three of the other games in the collection are campaigns that allow you to play as characters who originally served as bosses within the Shovel of Hope campaign.

These extra campaigns, namely Specter of Torment, King of Cards, and Plague of Shadows, focus on other playable knights from the evil organization known as the “Order of No Quarter” who were, as I alluded to, initially enemies who stand in Shovel Knight’s path. By playing through these additional games, you’ll get to see the events that take place within the in-game world from various different perspectives. I think this is a wonderful concept, even if I’m not exactly capable of speed-running through any of them or beating any other records of competency when it comes to their gameplay.

In addition to these four full stories, Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove also contains an interesting spin-off title called Shovel Knight Showdown. The best way I can describe this title is to say its gameplay seems like one of the more recent Super Smash Bros. games with an additional classic-style arcade mode. At first, I found Showdown’s gameplay a bit too hectic for me to keep up with, but I’ve gotten the hang of it and come to enjoy it a fair bit since it was first added to the Treasure Trove.

Cook, Serve, Delicious!: The Mouth-Watering Trilogy! – Discount: 64% – Sale Price: $13.57

If you’ve followed my written work here on Phenixx Gaming for a while, you might know I’ve previously reviewed the first two games in the Cook, Serve, Delicious trilogy. Because of that, I’ll be focusing more within this article on the newest addition to the franchise that I’ve yet to cover. I would suggest that you check out my reviews of the initial pair of games here and here if you’d like to learn my thoughts on them. Having said that, let us now briefly turn our attention to Cook, Serve, Delicious 3.

Cook, Serve, Delicious 3 is in Steam Early Access at the time of writing, and has been for some time. However, even in its current state, it’s readily apparent to me that the game has taken much of what I so greatly enjoyed about both of its predecessors and built upon those foundations. As I mentioned earlier in this article, though, I know some of you are concerned about buying Early Access games due to the nature of the Early Access system.

Those concerns are precisely why I’ve elected to recommend the entire trilogy of Cook, Serve, Delicious games rather than any individual one. This anthology is one heck of a deal considering the prices of each game when not combined with the other two, even when factoring in the discounts due to the Summer Sale. I also suggest getting the trilogy because if the yet-to-be-finished third game isn’t quite to your liking, you’ll at least still have the previous two to fall back on.

The Elder Scrolls Summer Bundle – Discount: 68% – Sale Price: $23.82

Let’s be honest with ourselves, folks. I’m not a gambling man by any stretch of the imagination, but I’d still be willing to bet that the majority of our audience already owns at least one game in the Elder Scrolls franchise on Steam. That’s one of the main reasons I’ve elected to include the so-called “Elder Scrolls Summer Bundle” on this list. It’s an efficient way for those of you who need to complete your Elder Scrolls collections to do so, and for everyone who’s never played one of these venerable RPGs to give the franchise a shot.

The Elder Scrolls Summer Bundle includes the Game of the Year Editions of The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, as well as the Special Edition of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. That is to say, if you purchase this bundle, you’ll be getting the most up-to-date versions of all three of these titles with all their various pieces of DLC included. I think this bundle is a steal, especially for anyone who’s unfamiliar with the franchise.

On a personal note, I wouldn’t quite describe myself as fond of Oblivion, but I most assuredly enjoy Morrowind and, to a much larger extent, Skyrim. That is in large part due to the absolutely massive modding scene present in both of these games and their communities. There are mods that let players do virtually anything their devious imaginations can concoct.

To name a few of my favorite examples, if you want to turn every enemy dragon in Skyrim into a recreation of the late professional wrestler “Macho Man” Randy Savage (complete with voice lines), you can do that. If you want Adam Sandler to yell, “you blew it!” at you every time you break a lockpick in Skyrim, there’s a mod for that. Having said all that, though, given that this bundle specifically contains the word “summer,” I wouldn’t be surprised if it disappears after the Summer Sale ends. If you wish to grab yourself a copy, I’d advise you to do so posthaste.

Sniper Elite Complete Pack – Discount: 79% – Sale Price: $28.35

The stealth genre is another type of game which I greatly enjoy, but am not very skilled at. In games like those present in the Hitman franchise, for example, I absolutely relish the openness and non-linearity of each in-game mission because these factors give me the freedom to do things exactly how I want to. Within the context of the two most recent Hitman titles, I could assassinate my targets by bludgeoning them with a fish while dressed up as a clown if I felt so inclined.

The Sniper Elite franchise, by contrast, still has quite large and sprawling levels, and it still grants players at least some degree of freedom to do things their way. However, it doesn’t offer players quite the same lack of constraints, and each game in the franchise (understandably) takes itself much more seriously than many Hitman titles do.

While stealth is critical to remaining alive in the shoes of the World War II-era sniper you control within the franchise, you can still go in guns-blazing if you so desire. There are many drawbacks to that strategy, as there are in most stealth games, but the Sniper Elite series usually won’t berate you too much for doing things that way so long as you accomplish your objectives and escape in one piece.

Additionally, there are certain aspects of this franchise that I find just plain amusing, especially knowing that others may find them increasingly tedious over time. For example, the series contains a “bullet cam” mechanic which, when it engages automatically, follows the bullet you’ve just fired from your sniper rifle as it makes its way through its target. During this process, it shows you the exact degree of havoc you’ve just wreaked on your enemy’s body. You can also take what I think is an even more amusing approach than that by shooting any grenades your target happens to be carrying, or deliberately missing shots right near your intended foe to send them into a panic.

Mortal Kombat 11 Aftermath Kollection [Honorable Mention] – Sale Price: $59.99

Hear me out on this one, folks. I know this is a sale recommendation list, and yet here I am pointing out what appears to be a full-price game. However, if you dig a bit below the surface of this suggestion, you’ll find what I consider to be an excellent deal. With this bundle, you get Mortal Kombat 11 itself which was my 2019 Game of the Year, in addition to its so-called “Kombat Pack” that contains six new playable fighters.

That’s not all, though; this bundle also contains MK11‘s recently-released Aftermath story DLC. What’s more, you get all of that for the price of the game itself when it first hit store shelves in April of 2019. I know sixty dollars might be a particularly bitter pill for some among our audience to swallow, but humor me while I explain why this is such a bargain.

For those of you who might not be aware, Aftermath is the first-ever expansion to a story mode within the context of the entire Mortal Kombat franchise. I’ve played through the entirety of Aftermath’s additions to the game’s original story mode and by my estimation, this DLC adds approximately an extra three hours’ worth of single-player content. This DLC pack also grants you access to three new playable fighters, namely Sheeva, Fujin, and guest “kombatant” RoboCop. That isn’t even taking into account the six additional new fighters you get with the included Kombat Pack.

On its own, Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath will cost you $39.99. Based on what I’ve described thus far, you might not think the DLC by itself is worth that potentially hefty price tag. I’d be at least somewhat tempted to agree with you on that point if not for the existence of this “Aftermath Kollection” bundle. In fairness, the Kombat Pack itself has had its base price reduced by half since I last discussed MK11, and it’s currently discounted even further beyond that thanks to the Steam Summer Sale.

So, if you already own the base game, you could just grab the Kombat Pack for fairly cheap if all you want is new fighters. However, I really think you’d be doing yourself a huge disservice by going that route. If you want more information on MK11 before making a decision about purchasing it, though, you can always check out my review of the base game right here.

Additionally, as a side note, I’d suggest that you keep an eye both here on the main site and on our YouTube channel if you’d like to hear my thoughts on the Aftermath DLC. I’ll be reviewing the DLC in depth within written form soon, as well as uploading a full playthrough of it to the channel in a couple of weeks.

Sid Meier’s Civilization VI: New Frontier Pass [Honorable Mention] – Sale Price: $39.99

Will I ever manage to get through a single Steam sale recommendation roundup without mentioning Civilization VI in some capacity? The world may never know. Regardless, Civ 6 has a new season pass that’s bringing with it ten months’ worth of both free updates and paid downloadable content. This DLC anthology is collectively known as the New Frontier Pass and you might recall that I reported upon its existence a while ago when it was initially revealed.

Currently, only one piece of announced DLC contained within the New Frontier Pass is actually available to be played upon purchasing the pass. The second piece of paid DLC that falls under its banner is scheduled to be released sometime this month, although it doesn’t yet have a concrete release date as of writing this article. Even so, I’d say the DLC that’s currently available brings quite a lot to the metaphorical table.

In exchange for the $39.99 that the New Frontier Pass and its only available piece of DLC will cost you, you’ll get two new playable Civilizations, each of which come with their own unique leaders., You will also get a new optional game mechanic called “Apocalypse Mode.” It’s worth noting that much of the DLC that’s been announced as part of the pass requires either the Rise & Fall or Gathering Storm expansions, if not both. This so-called “Apocalypse Mode” is a prime example of a new feature that requires the latter of the two expansions to function properly.

I’ll refrain from going into too much detail about the New Frontier Pass within this article. Instead, if you’d like more information on what it contains and what you can expect from it right now, I humbly suggest checking out my initial report on the pass’s existence, as well as a video I made last month in which I discuss my thoughts on its first piece of paid DLC. On a final note, bear in mind that if you buy the pass now, you’ll automatically be granted all of its additional content until it receives its final update in March of 2021.

There you have it, my friends! I assure you, there were so many additional games I wanted to include on this list, but I didn’t want to drone on for too long. Regardless, I hope this list has helped you determine what (if anything) you intend to purchase during this year’s most prominent Steam sale. I know I’ve said far more than my peace today, so now it’s your turn. If you have any suggestions for games I haven’t played or didn’t include here, do feel free to let me know in this article’s comments!