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.
Rhythm Doctor
Steam page
Release: February 27
Developer: 7th Beat Games
Launch price: $14.39 | £11.15 | AU$20.65
Rhythm Doctor generated a fair bit of interest back in 2019, and it was demoed as far back as 2014. It's a one button rhythm game starring a doctor (hence the name I'm guessing) who defibrillate hearts in concert with their beats. Seems pretty simple, except each patient is stricken with a unique illness that will confuse things a bit: some suffer a bad case of the polyrhythms, while others come with hectic unconventional time signatures. Despite how long it's been floating around, Rhythm Doctor is getting an Early Access stint, which features the first four acts and "several" bonus levels. More content will be completed during the roughly one year development period.
Geneforge 1 - Mutagen
Steam page
Release: February 24
Developer: Spiderweb Software
Launch price: $16.99 | £13.16 | AU$24.60
Here's a remaster of the 2001 cult classic indie RPG Geneforge, which not only boosts the graphics to be a bit more palatable on modern displays, but also adds new mechanics, vastly improved UI, inventory management and more. You play as a wizard (known in-game as a "shaper") who can, among other things, create beasts to do their bidding. It's a hefty 50+ hour RPG full of choice and freedom, and it's something I've been meaning to play for years - this seems like the best way to go about that, though the original is still on Steam if you fancy it.
Baobabs Mausoleum Grindhouse Edition - Country of Woods and Creepy Tales
Steam page
Release: February 26
Developer: Celery Emblem
Launch price: $15.29 | £14.39 | AU$21.55
Another reissue, though this package collates all three episodes of the Baobabs Mausoleum series: a strange 8-bit styled adventure game starring a sentient eggplant, and set in a mysterious town that appears briefly every 25 years. According to the description of the first episode it mixes Monkey Island and Zelda: Link's Awakening with the weirdness of Twin Peaks and SpongeBob. Seems like a good time to try this bizarre concoction.
Skid Cities
Steam page
Release: February 25
Developer: Vittorio Banfi
Launch price: $19.99 | £19.00 | AU$28.95
This Early Access cyberpunk city builder seems to be fairly early in development, but it looks promising. The star feature is that, in true cyberpunk style, you can build multi-levelled dystopias: buildings can stack on top of each other or even extend beneath the ground. Also, if you want to make your grim futuristic city nice instead of evil, you can do that too, because you can reject corporations and gangs (though I'm sure they'll put up some resistance). The Early Access features are fairly limited, but it's getting a lot of cool stuff between now and when it's expected to launch, which is in about 18 months.
Hot Brass
Steam page
Release: February 27
Developer: Walk With Kings
Launch price: $11.99 | £9.11 | AU$17.20
Hot Brass is basically a SWAT sim: played from a top down perspective, your job is to be stealthy, tactical, clever and murderous. Because the game is primarily about decision making and thinking ahead, you'll play as icons rather than 3D human models, which is an interesting touch. Some people are calling it a top down SWAT game, which seems pretty accurate, and as a bonus it has 1-4 player online and local cooperative play.
These games were released between February 22 and March 1 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.
