Games like CRUEL

A game is here when it shares the strongest of CRUEL's Steam community tags, Steam genres and IGDB themes, each shared tag counting for more the fewer games carry it: two metroidvanias are alike, two action games barely. Games of CRUEL's own series that play like it stand apart, above the list, and take no place on it. A similar typical length breaks near-ties, and a game sold twice is shown once. Games that share the same kinds with CRUEL stand together, under those kinds. Up to 30 games are shown, and the list stops where they grow much less alike. Where to start: the closest; the best loved of the closest fifteen with 10,000 reviews or more; the shortest of the ones 80% or more recommend; and a hidden gem, 90% or more but under 10,000 reviews.

Under each name, how it differs from CRUEL: a kind of game it is that CRUEL is not, a feature its strongest Steam tags carry that CRUEL's barely do, how many hours people play it beside CRUEL, and how its reviewers feel beside CRUEL's.

The sticker on a case is the hours its own page leads with: half of the game's Steam reviewers had played that long or less when they gave their verdict. It is not a time to beat. Under a name, the share of its Steam reviewers who recommend it: loved at 90% or more, liked at 80%, mixed at 65%.