First Winter
Steam Page
Released: May 9
Developer: Dan Sanderson
Publisher: danthaigames
Price: $3.99
First Winter is a first-person horror game set on a mysteriously abandoned Soviet-era submarine. Designed to be completed in one sitting, but boasting multiple endings, “it's up to you to figure out exactly what has happened on board the stricken submarine and to ultimately save the world from a nuclear catastrophe”. The game has a sinister PS1-style aesthetic, as well as a “nostalgic 80s soundtrack” and full voice acting. Seemingly dozens of horror games release on Steam every month (really!) and it’s really hard to figure out what is interesting and what isn’t, but I think you’re making a safe bet with First Winter, especially since its creator Dan Sanderson made the lauded itch.io horror title Pacific.
Subaeria
Steam Page
Released: May 10
Developer: Studios iLLOGIKA
Publisher: Studios iLLOGIKA
Price: $12.99
In Early Access since 2015, this top-down action puzzle game follows Styx as she seeks to avenge her murdered family. Since she’s not a particularly violent person, she eliminates enemies by tricking them into murdering each other. Nice! Subaeria is set in a lush underwater city awash with aggressive robots, but Styx is accompanied by a drone companion which plays a pretty big role in getting robots to slaughter each other. Each playthrough offers a new randomised world, with unlockable skills, buffs and skins helping to make each session feel new.
Fortune-499
Steam Page
Released: May 11
Developer: AP Thomson
Publisher: AP Thomson
Price: $4.99
If existentialism and deck building are your two favourite things, Fortune-499 is the game you’ve been waiting for. You play as a fortune teller, but you’re not vendoring your wares at exotic markets or behind thick satin curtains: you’re doing it in a drab “magical resources department” of a corporation (corporates appropriate everything, even magic). You’ll be tending to your emails, going to meetings and engaging in combat with monsters. This combat is carried out via cards naturally. I’m not really a fan of card games, but this looks fascinating enough that I’ll give it a shot anyway.
Lake Ridden
Steam Page
Released: May 11
Developer: Midnight Hub
Publisher: Midnight Hub
Price: $19.99
Lake Ridden is a first-person puzzle and exploration game set in a mysterious estate. Set in 1988, you play as 13-year-old Marie. She’s searching for her sister, who ran off into a forest during a camping trip in the Maine wilderness. Developed by “former Minecraft and Paradox developers”, the studio mentions a few times on the game’s Steam page that Lake Ridden is not a walking simulator. No, it’s very much a puzzle game, and the trailer embedded above makes that abundantly clear. It also looks very beautiful, in wistful autumnal kind of way.
Rogues Like Us
Steam Page
Released: May 12
Developer: oddByte
Publisher: oddByte
Price: $9.99
And here’s this week’s rogue-lite, a 3D, isometric-style hack and slash action game with solo and local cooperative play. While the lush green overworld stays the same, each of the dungeons you’ll battle through are procedurally generated with each play. All the usual rogue-lite stat-crunching and gear gathering is here, with over 150 of the latter including weapons, armor, enchantments and dyes. Studio oddByte claims Rogues Like Us is “a hack n’slash rogue-lite unlike any other”, but you know, there are a lot of these. This one, at least, has nice chunky 3D graphics and not a retro pixel in sight.
These games were released between 05/07-05/14. The first page of this list is updated every Sunday and previous weeks are archived on the following pages. Some online stores give us a small cut if you buy something through one of our links. Read our affiliate policy for more info.
