At Ben Pace’s recommendation, I recently played The Stanley Parable. Ben considers the game Tier 1.5. On reflection I consider this Tier 2. If you can spare the $15 for a short game, it’s Worth It to play.
If there’s one game I’ve played that needs to be played blind, this is it, so that’s all I’ll say.
If you’re still taking recommendations for games to play / review, I’d love to learn what you think of Into the Breach. It’s a top-down, turn-based roguelike that’s tactics-focused to the point of almost being a puzzle game (as opposed to Slay the Spire which seems to be more about strategy over the whole run). After ~40 hours the battles start to feel repetitive and 90% of runs are wins even on Hard, but there’s still a lot of challenge and the core gameplay loop is brilliant.
I’ve played it. Somewhere in Tier 2. It was fine, but definitely played itself out, I think after more like 10 hours. Dunno if I won on hard, I forget, I know I did win.
If you want another game like Slay the Spire, “Night of the Full Moon” (Steam, Android, iOS) might scratch that itch. I don’t know what you’d think of the game balance, but it’s definitely the same genre.