On an average day about a dozen new games are released on Steam. And while we think that's a good thing, it can be understandably hard to keep up with. Potentially exciting gems are sure to be lost in the deluge of new things to play unless you sort through every single game that is released on Steam. So that’s exactly what we’ve done. If nothing catches your fancy this week, we've gathered the best PC games you can play right now and a running list of the 2022 games that are launching this year.
2023 games: Upcoming releases
Best PC games: All-time favorites
Free PC games: Freebie fest
Best FPSes: Finest gunplay
Best MMOs: Massive worlds
Best RPGs: Grand adventures
Terraformers
Steam page
Release: April 22
Developer: Asteroid Lab
Launch price: $18 | £16.19 | AU$27
Here's another strategy and management game about settling and exploiting Mars, but Terraformers takes a different approach to the likes of, say, Surviving Mars. Launched into Early Access last week, Terraformers zeroes in on strategy a little more; when Jon played an early build last year he praised its resemblance to a board game. In addition to sending expeditions out to discover and gather resources, you'll also found cities, manufacture goods, and tie it all together with an efficient transport system, while working to create useful living eco-systems, from bacteria to bears. The Early Access stint is likely to last around six months, with a lot more content planned for the interim.
Skabma - Snowfall
Steam page
Release: April 22
Developer: Red Stage Entertainment
Launch price: $18 | £13.94 | AU$26.05
This narrative-focused third-person adventure is a "never before seen representation" of the Sámi people, who are indigenous to the northernmost parts of modern Scandinavia (and a little bit of Russia). Protagonist Áilu lives in a village affected by a mysterious disease, and amid all this, he finds an enchanted drum containing "the long lost knowledge of Sámi healers". And so follows a journey to find the four Familiar Spirits, which will not only help rid the village of its disease, but also grant Áilu increasingly handy traversal skills. Expect a little bit of puzzle solving, a lot of exploration and some gorgeous world building.
Lila's Sky Ark
Steam page
Release: April 21
Developer: Monolith of Minds
Launch price: $12.74 | £9.68 | AU$18.27
Lila's Sky Ark is a pixel art Zelda-like with a dreamy color-scheme reminiscent of Hyper Light Drifter. Lila and her friends live in a kind of psychedelic utopia focused on music and magic, but some squares—namely, the Conductor's minions—are trying to make things less fun. This will not stand, of course, so Lila embarks on a quest to stop these foes. There's puzzles to solve, musical bosses to obliterate and a steadily growing arsenal to wield. Oh, and there appears to be a fox-unicorn hybrid, as well as a fairly normal looking sheep.
Samurai Bringer
Steam page
Release: April 21
Developer: Alphawing Inc.
Launch price: $10 | £7.19 | AU$14.50
Samurai Bringer is a high speed action roguelite about obliterating hordes of samurai and demons.The combat looks like a Diablo / Dynasty Warriors hybrid, the former because there's a big focus on loadouts and combat style, the latter because there's countless enemies on screen at once. In addition to the hordes, you'll also face off against "over 100" legendary Japanese warriors, but the ultimate goal is to beat the Yamata-no-Orochi, a eight-headed dragon who does not stuff around. It's hard to sell a new roguelite in 2022, but the combination of the setting and art style helps Samurai Bringer stand out.
EndCycle VS
Steam page
Release: April 21
Developer: 12B3
Launch price: $30 | £23.79 | AU$42.95
There is truly no shortage of deckbuilding roguelikes on Steam but, likewise, the public's appetite for them remains huge. EndCycle VS is the latest, and it arrives as a pretty substantial package: there are over 4,000 attack combinations, an online competitive mode, and a simple pixel art approach to environment design that feels slightly less monotonous than the likes of say, Slay the Spire. There's also a map editor, which features character and build editors, so the possibilities for experimentation are basically endless.
Steam has changed its policy on DLC content and season passes, so now players are entitled to proper compensation if future plans fall through: 'Customers will be offered a refund for the value of unreleased DLC'
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