Survival horror on display as Steam Greenlight approves six new titles

Mystery, survival, and action titles feature in the latest batch of games to find approval through Steam's Greenlight program. Thanks to community support and Valve's judgment, the following games should see release on Steam as development finishes and they are brought into agreement with the Steamworks apparatus:

• Assetto Corsa
• DreadOut
• Ether One
• GunZ 2: The Second Duel
• Stonehearth
• The Forest

While the action shooter GunZ 2 and the racing sim Assetto Corsa look like strong outings within their respective genres, a survival theme seems to permeate the rest of the titles to find success in the Greenlight process this week. Ether One tasks you with repairing—from the inside—the fractured identities of people suffering from mental illness. As we see in the screenshot above, DreadOut demands that we conduct an investigation of a deserted town rooted in an atmosphere of Indonesian horror. Even though its art direction and style stand out in comparison to the rest of games in this batch, Stonehearth has also made survival and exploration a central theme in its approach to a fantasy city-builder.

The Forest in particular looks like it will offer an eclectic mix of environmental-based survival gameplay, while under the surface a darker and more deadly truth is lurking and waiting to be uncovered. The game positions you as the only person to survive a plane crash and unfortunately, the forest you have crashed into also houses a community of what the developers call "cannibalistic mutants." And with the proposed support for the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset, The Forest may offer an unsettling interpretation of what could happen when we come face to face with the natural world.

For a closer look at The Forest, check out the trailer of pre-alpha gameplay below.