(Image credit: Bandai Namco)
2023 games: Upcoming releases
Best PC games: All-time favorites
Free PC games: Freebie fest
Best FPSes: Finest gunplay
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 2023 games that are launching this year.
Pluto’s Island
Steam page
Release: November 30
Developer: Valentino Quijano-Moeckel
Pluto’s Island is a game adaptation of the solo developer’s indie comic book, adopting the same art style and the same surreal, disarranging art style. It’s a third person adventure RPG with a mood that kinda puts me in mind of a nightmarish, hauntological Ocarina of Time. The art is probably the chief thing going for Pluto’s Island but there’s a fun-looking collect ’em up in there too: you’ll need to collect souls to feed to a volcano in order to develop the protagonist’s strength. The combat looks fairly rudimentary, but the baddies at least look like they deserve it. There’s a talking pig, too.
The Exit 8
Steam page
Release: November 29
Developer: Kotake Create
Here’s a disturbing game about being stuck in an endless underground passageway beneath an unspecified Japanese city. The objective is to escape, of course, but you’ll probably be traumatised by some bleak / horrifying images before you make it. Think P.T. via the Backrooms. It’s a short one hour experience, which is probably for the best. In the words of Steam user DRsamael666: “IT WAS TORTURE, I FEEL NOTHİNG MORE THEN PAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!! nice game dough”.
Reaver
Steam page
Release: December 1
Developers: Mad Trio
This Early Access boomer shooter presents itself as “fast” and, well, aren’t they all? But Reaver is super fast. If the trailer is anything to go by, it puts the running speeds in turn of the century shooters to absolute shame. But wait! There’s more than legs here, pal. There’s grappling hooks, tether beams, crouch-sliding, recoil-boosting… there are many and varied ways to go fast in Reaver. I myself am, alas, too old for this bullshit, but it’s fun to watch at least. This Early Access build has eight levels, an endless arena, ten weapons and eleven enemy types, but that will increase before the game hits 1.0 some time in 2025.
Brush Burial
Steam page
Release: December 1
Developer: Knife Demon Software
Brush Burial is another woozy revisiting of early 3D first-person games, and like a lot of recent similarly styled titles, it has immersive sim elements reminiscent of Thief. Honestly though, what appeals to me most about Brush Burial is that it lets me be a “knife-wielding swamp devil” with an insatiable lust for gold. That desire will need to be put by the wayside though, because the swamp devil’s more pressing task is to slaughter the Witch God Yenneloch. Thankfully, some bizarre and powerful abilities are at your disposal towards these ends. A bizarre and beautiful looking game.
Wizordum
Steam page
Release: November 30
Developer: Emberheart Games
I love it when a retro FPS has an art style closer to ye olde Apogee platformers than to Wolfenstein or Doom, and that’s the case with Wizordum. No coincidence, perhaps, that it’s published by the recently exhumed Apogee Entertainment. This Early Access build comes bearing the first of three planned episodes, in a manner recalling the glory days of shareware. While Heretic is referenced on the Steam page, Wizordum actually looks more like first-person Hocus Pocus: its bright, easy going pixel art does not look scary at all, though there’s still a lot of blood.
