14 Best Indie Games Made With Unreal Engine

Summary

• Indie games using Unreal Engine showcase a variety of artistic styles and unforgettable worlds.
• Unreal Engine allows for impressive scale and detail in games like Astroneer and The Vanishing of Ethan Carter.
• The graphical power of Unreal Engine enhances the immersive experience of games like Hellblade and Kena: Bridge of Spirits.

Where would we even be without the Unreal Engine? While it is a mainstay for big-budget triple-A experiences, Unreal has also helped many indie developers bring their visions to life. Whatever the style, Unreal has been able to make dreams happen.

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Plenty of indie games have used Unreal as their engine of choice, and all render their worlds with a specific artistic flair. Whether it be hyperrealistic or highly stylized, these games are unforgettable.

Updated on December 12, 2023, by William Quick: As the year comes to an end, recent announcements make us wonder how the indie game environment is going to change next year. In many ways, the accessibility of so many software and design tools makes game development that much more of an attainable dream to chase.

Of these tools, Unreal Engine continues to stand tall and has had a role in creating some of the most impressive titles out there. Here are some of the best ones in the lot.

14 Astroneer

Explore New Worlds And Set Up New Outposts

Space is only on the final frontier in real life because we're running out of space ideas in the realm of video games. One game that presents quite a colorful and enjoyable depiction of what could be out there among the stars is Astroneer.

This is a great example of the scale that can be achieved with the Unreal Engine. You're playing an energetic astronaut with rounded features whose job it is to travel to different planets and learn everything you can. When you're not researching, you can gather resources to set up encampments with facilities that will provide for more voyages into space to discover even more planets.

13 Unbox: Newbie's Adventure

Help Packages Deliver Themselves

As you may have seen on the news, companies are trying to find the fastest and cheapest ways to get deliveries to people without having people simply carry them. Such a way can be found in the oddly fun title of Unbox: Newbie's Adventure.

This is because the game follows sentient boxes that can deliver themselves! The challenges take the form of traditional 3D platform games where you'll be jumping a box through a bunch of thematic worlds, over huge gaps, and past hazards. To make the deliveries even more extreme, the main box has learned how to fight off the big baddies who desperately want whatever's inside.

12 Grip

Drive Futuristic Combat Cars All Around The Track

When you get down to it, racing is a simple form of competitive competition that anyone can get behind. It's exciting to watch cool vehicles go as fast as possible alongside other fast vehicles, and Grip takes this and literally flips the script.

The coding of Unreal Engine is to be exact because the cars in Grip are designed to defy gravity and other elements of physics. Looking similar to the RC cars that appeared in all those commercials from the 90s, these cars are made to be fast, adaptable, and tough. You'll be racing along tracks straight out of an engineer's dream journal while fighting to stay on and knock other racers off with your car or whatever weapons you can get your wheels on.

11 The Vanishing Of Ethan Carter

Talk To Ghosts And Solve A Disappearance

Considering how often they have to deal with the occult, it's no surprise that private investigators aren't well-adjusted individuals. Still, no one else is stepping up to check out the things that go bump in the night and why, as is seen in The Vanishing Of Ethan Carter.

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The visuals of this game deserve such praise that Unreal Engine should get an award of its own. Some of the environments look so real that they may just burst off the screen. Of course, you're encouraged to keep your distance as you follow Paul Prospero's investigation into the disappearance of Ethan Carter. This case will take you down some dark paths as you summon the dead, dig up family secrets, and never fully feel safe.

10 Stray

A Cat's Adventure Through A Cyberpunk City

Everybody wants to be a cat. Stray, a game about a cat in a dystopian future city, is cramped, dark, and punctuated with neon lights. You’re just an average cat, separated from your family, wrapped in some complicated story that has nothing to do with you. You’re just trying to get home, though you’ll take a few naps to gather your strength.

Stray is a neon dream, a meticulously crafted underground city filled with robots and AI who have somehow made you a focal point in their struggle. Cats are well-known for their place in the class struggle, after all. It’s short and sweet and uses its graphical engine to the full extent.

9 What Remains Of Edith Finch

Discover The Truth Behind A Family Curse

You never really forget your first playthrough of What Remains of Edith Finch. You’re immersed in a messy family history that reveals itself through vignettes. As you travel through your ancestral home, you live through the final moments of the Finch's who died tragically before you.

They vary in tone and artistic style, some leaning heavily on realism, while others are comic strips. Like many other walking simulators, Edith Finch doesn't want you to rush through it - take in the lush wilderness outside, the glowing sunset that illuminates your way through this labyrinth of a home.

8 Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice

Fight Inner And Outer Demons To Save Your Lover

This could be cheating, kind of. Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice is what people would call a double-A game - it has the graphics and gameplay of the triple-A experience but is shorter and made by an independent studio. Hellblade is small compared to games like Horizon: Zero Dawn or God of War, yet it has no less impact. Its brevity is one of its most vital assets.

Hellblade does not just excel because of its gorgeous visuals or solid combat experience - part of its allure lies in the incredible performance that it breathes life into Senua. It carved out a place in video game history by pushing the game’s engine to the limits.

7 Rocket League

It's Football With Rocket Cars

Listen - what if you could play soccer (or football, if you will) but in a car? Rocket League is a chaotic multiplayer game where you and your teammates take control of a team of rocket-powered cars and attempt to score goals. That’s it. There is not a premise more basic, or a little absurd, than this one - and yet, it quickly became one of the most popular multiplayer games of its generation.

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Half demolition derby, half soccer game, the chaotic nature of Rocket League is its most appealing aspect. Regardless of platform, you can gather your friends together and just let loose - there is no game less serious.

6 Observer

Hack Into People's Minds To Maintain Order

If there’s one thing no one should want in this world, it’s a cyberpunk future. Observer takes place at the tail end of the 21st century in Poland, after a digital plague known as the Nanophage wiped out a chunk of humanity. You’re a detective for the corporate-government, an 'Observer' who hacks into people's minds in the name of order. It’s a lousy job. It’s an imperfect world.

Observer is a dark, heavy game that never lets up. Grotesque in its detail, filled with body horror and flickering screens, it paints a picture of a world balancing on the precipice - right before the fall. The perfectly crafted tension is palpable. And inescapable.

5 Goat Simulator 3

Be A Goat Unbound By The Laws Of Physics

Are goats agents of mayhem? Perhaps not in real life, but in Goat Simulator 3 (and all its predecessors) they sure are. This is a strange game, where your only goal is to cause as many problems as possible. On purpose, of course. Real-life goats are content with eating grass and licking minerals. Not your goats, though.

Goat Simulator 3 is a surprisingly pretty game, with natural vistas that can rival some of the best open-world games. Not that you particularly notice - you're way too busy creating chaos. It’s one of those games that feels impossible to explain the appeal of, yet it is undeniably a hit. Maybe we all just want to be rude little goats.