Iji

Iji is a platformer shooter made by Daniel Remar of Ludosity games (makers of Ittle Dew and Card City Nights). You shoot/platform throughout the game, attempting to deal with an alien invasion. The game features multiple endings you can achieve by playing in different manners, as well as in game character interactions changing depending on your actions in game. The game features surprisingly interactive environment, allowing you to do things such as shoot out lights to hurt enemies below with the shower of glass. As you level up you can put points in different skills while at charging stations, but since you're only allowed to level up a certain amount of times each level you can't max out every skill. Your skills not only determine your stats but also what weapons you can use, with one skill even allowing you to combine weapons together to make whole new weapons.

My opinion: I love Iji, just like most things that come out of the people at Ludosity. I always love it when games make pacifism a legitimate way of progression, and Iji is probably the closest a platforming game will ever get to Deus Ex. While Daniel Remar has repeatedly stated that he's none to happy with the script I found it to be better than scripts in plenty of games I've paid money for. I also enjoyed the actual gameplay more than I expected. The first time I used the environment to take out an enemy without facing them directly was tons of fun. Iji is somewhat short, but it has very good replay value and is probably one of the best free indie games you can find.

Iji is by Daniel Remar. You can find it here.