What are your favorite "ugly" games?

Dwarf fortress and RimWorld are both... Pretty ugly

Dcss is the greatest game of all time. Everything about it is good.

But Dwarf Fortress is also good with bad graphics.

Factorio is like crack and looks terrible.

I have had some people refuse to even try Baba Is You, because it looks ugly.

I had The Hex a few years even installed, so I have tried it, but only after getting familiar with the style of Daniel Mullins' games with Inscryption I pushed far enough to get interested. Still very clunky, but worth it.

does Doom count? Because my friends and I still play the game to this day, all the various community mods and maps.

gorillas.bas Classic😎

FTL, it's not very ugly, but it could be improved

I would say Kenshi with assests that show it was done by one person and a rough UI, also maybe pathologic 2, although for that game I wouldn't say it's the graphics that put people off it's mostly the gameplay, but the geaphics are weird and really grey/depressive

Battle for Wesnoth. Best.Game.Ever (slight exaggeration)

Tales of Maj'eyal. A free to play open source roguelike that I hate. This game is amazing. Fuck this game. Also definitely recommend. But fuck this game. After numerous 10-12 hour long runs, I have yet to win.

SPORE from late 2000s by Maxis

Kenshi came to mind as that's a butt ugly game but probably not as "hidden". Graphics look on par with Empire Earth 1 zoomed in but it's really unique and original and the low poly look helps it run on my aging PC so no complaints.

Simutrans is great, but looks like dogshit.

I haven't played it, but Cruelty Squad beats 95% of these in uglyness. Probably because they (hopefully) do it on purpose.

West of Loathing and its sequel Shadows of Loathing have a bland grayscale artstyle on the outside but they're absolutely hilarious RPGs that have a lot of heart to them.

I never got far in it, but I didn't see anyone mention Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines. It's fun to explore a world where everyone has noticeable neck seams.

Unpopular opinion but I thought Return of the Obra Dinn was ugly. However, I really like it and it's one of those games you can only experience ones.

Mindustry. It's a mix between an RTS and Factorio. It's pretty nice and Open Source

Caves of quid.

Hardly 'hidden', but there is always Nethack

I second Stone Soup and FTL! Both amazing, but ugly. Also:

The Binding of Isaac
Slay the Spire
Mario 64

Some people find Slay the Spire's art ugly. Personally I find it creative and original, definitely more personality than if it was just another pixel art game. 😁

Although you are asking for lowkey ugly graphic gems, I'm gonna go for Vampire Survivors.

There's that addictive gameplay loop that just keeps me going back

Bannerlord! Although maybe it could be argued that it’s not “ugly” per se.. curious what others think

Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead I find ASCII more charming than anything though

Oh hi, have you considered joining the best Lemmy community, !dcss@lemmy.ml? 🙃

If you're into zombies and post-apocalyptic survival, CDDA always looks like a blast to play: https://cataclysmdda.org

Had a lot of fun with Elona (rougelike) a short time ago, didn't know a game like that existed

I always thought Quake was pretty ugly, great fun though. And I guess much of it was probably supposed to be ugly.

Tibia, an old 2d mmorpg

The Case of the Golden Idol
Some people dislike the pixel-art style and weird character design, but I find it charming.

Not sure about ugly, but Stardew Valley's graphics are pretty basic. Great game though.

From the games I can recall, Anuto TD (Another Ugly Tower Defense).

I cannot say whether or not it would get attention because of the graphic quality, but I know there are plenty of people who wouldn't play it since it is not 8k super ultra 3D high def masterwork quality graphics and would gladly shit on it because it doesn't have the most realistic graphics out there.

EverQuest.

Card Quest (Android) has similar dated graphics, but I got kinda into it lately. It's a card-based roguelike, with a fixed deck that only changes with inventory/skill changes.

TradeWars

I haven't seen anyone mention it yet so... Golden Light!

A creepy, funny, challenging, confusing, silly mess if a roguelite. Art looks almost PS1-esque. It's gorgeous in an ugly way!

Project zomboid

Deadly premonitions, everything about it is jank but I love it

I remembered thinking teleglitch was absolutely fascinating a while back. Not exactly a pretty game but it's not ugly either, the chromatic aberration effects on collisions is real pretty imo, even if the underlying art is rather spartan

Imbroglio (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/imbroglio/id969264934) is one of my favorite minimal purchase iOS games. I haven’t played it in awhile, but it’s a unique dungeon puzzle game where you place attacks as floor tiles on the board ahead of playing. There’s some consistent rules with ramping challenge, which made it super replayable for me. I loved trying different floor designs, finding strategies, and there’s a small progression system that’s fun. Hasn’t been updated in a few years, but it was a great design despite the rough appearance.

Zombie Highway for iOS

Planetside 2 for PC

Jump Ultimate Stars, not everyone is fan of the sprites 🫤

To be fair I have seen better, but they have their charm.

Ravenfield is ugly but fun

Cruelty Squad

Dominions 5

oolite

Valheim! The graphics may look like a PS2/XBOX Game, but it is very fun.

TagPro - minimalist graphics, straightforward gameplay and an insanely high skill ceiling. So good it was banned from AskTheBadWebsite because it was always the top answer for every question regarding good webgames etc.

Stardew Valley, hands down one of the graphically ugliest modern games, like 80's console style. Though it's a really good game and I've put a of lot of hours into it. People say it's meant to look that way as intentional retro styling, but damn it's ugly. I actually added a mod on PC to use AA on the blocky graphics and it makes it look a lot better.