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 2021 games that are launching this year.
Dread Hunger
Steam page
Release: April 23
Developer: Dread Hunger Team
Launch price: $25 | £19.49 | AU$35.95
This survival game set in the Canadian Arctic has it all: Blood magic, cannibalism, betrayal, blizzards. It's an eight player online PvP and cooperative game, in the sense that you can either collaborate with your fellow stranded survivors or murder them for their wares. Either way, you'll still need to struggle against the elements and fend off natural predators, and you even get to commandeer a 19th century warship. Seems like a pretty novel take on the genre, and while the game seems mostly feature complete, it'll stay in Early Access for the next 6-8 months to gain user feedback and to smooth out the experience.
Underland: The Climb
Steam page
Release: April 23
Developer: Bursted Games
Launch price: $1.19 | £1.01 | AU$1.77
Here's a gorgeously styled puzzle platformer about escaping an underground civilization via the use of "picks, pumps, pipes" and other tools befitting a perilous journey upwards through dirt. The underground city Underland has been attacked by aliens, hence the urgency to reach Earth's surface. So you'll be platforming and puzzling upwards in Underland: The Climb, which follows closely behind the original Underland, which released a mere three months ago. That's a damn quick turnaround but early user reviews are positive.
Silicon Dreams
Steam page
Release: April 21
Developer: James Patton, Clockwork Bird
Launch price: $13.49 | £11.24 | AU$19.35
If a certain infamous 2020 blockbuster hasn't worn you out on the cyberpunk style, Silicon Dreams looks like an interesting and immersive take on the genre. It's basically an interrogation simulator: you'll be interviewing humans and androids in order to weed out "deviants among your own kind." So it's all about close observation and decision making, though you won't have to toe the party line. You can "lie to your superiors and spare deviant androids" if that suits you, towards one of several possible endings.
Smelter
Steam page
Release: April 22
Developer: X Plus Company Limited
Launch price: $20 | £15.49 | AU$28.95
A lot of great modern platformers mix things up with deviations into other genres: Monster Sanctuary is a platformer with monster collecting, Indivisible is a platformer with JRPG-style turn-based combat, and now Smelter is a platformer with an RTS bolted onto it. The pixel art is hard to resist if you're a fan of 16-bit chunkiness (I'm an absolute tragic for it), while the RTS sections will please anyone who ever boots up Into the Breach or Wargroove just to ogle at the sprites. Fans of retro-platformers are absolutely spoiled for choice these days, but Smelter looks like one worth prioritizing.
Orbital Bullet
Steam page
Release: April 22
Developer: SmokeStab
$11.69 | £9.26 | AU$16.65
Launched into Early Access last week, Orbital Bullet is a roguelite shooter set in orbital arenas that play similarly to Resogun (sadly, still not on PC). The levels are procedural and the action very fast-paced, with an abundance of pretty arcade fluorescents. Being a roguelite, there is some permanent progression here, as you can spend in-game currency to access permanent upgrades and skills. Orbital Bullet will stay in Early Access for one year, during which time it'll get "several new features and lots of new content," as well as the usual optimizations and improvements.
These games were released between April 19 to 26 2021. Some online stores give us a small cut if you buy something through one of our links. Read our affiliate policy for more info.
