(Image credit: Larian Studios)
2024 games: Upcoming releases
Best PC games: All-time favorites
Free PC games: Freebie fest
Best FPS games: Finest gunplay
Best MMOs: Massive worlds
Best RPGs: Grand adventures
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 2024 games that are launching this year.
Underspace
Steam page
Release: April 10
Developer: Pastaspace Interactive
Underspace is a “spiritual successor” to Freelancer, a 2003 space trading sim conceived by Chris Roberts of Wing Commander and Star Citizen fame. But Underspace adds some cosmic horror spice: if the ship-on-ship combat of Elite Dangerous strikes you as a little dull, check out the monstrosities in Underspace, which wend and weave around lonely space like whatever the hell that thing is in Thumper. There are 114 star systems through which these terrors are spread, but you won’t spend the whole time fighting them: this is, after all, a space RPG, so expect lots of meditative exploration, ship crafting, faction politicking, and more. It’s an Early Access affair: development will last for “approximately a year” with more content and polish on the cards.
Incursion Red River
Steam page
Release: April 11
Developer: Games of Tomorrow
Here’s a tactical extraction shooter focusing on careful PvE maneuvering with—and this is the important part—no PvP. This is brilliant news if you love the idea of games like Escape from Tarkov but fail miserably in practice. Set in an alternate history Vietnam wracked by civil war, squads of up to four players complete contracts dished out by three different private military companies, with a variety of gadgets and loadouts to deliberate over. It’s an Early Access game, and development will take another two years, but it looks like there’s already plenty to chew on already. Oh, and it can be played solo as well.
The Game of Sisyphus
Steam page
Release: April 12
Developers: cream
As the name implies, this game is about rolling a big boulder up a seemingly endless mountain. Not just any mountain either: this one is riddled with obstacles ranging cactuses, spikes, unrealistic geometry and more, and if you lose control of the ball, well, it’s time to start jogging downhill, pal. It’s probably obvious by now that The Game of Sisyphus is, for lack of a better descriptor, a Foddylike: if you hated Getting Over It With Bennett Foddy, or Jump King, you’ll definitely hate this too. I’m hate-downloading it as I type.
Outside the Door
(Image credit: basandaika games)
Steam page
Release: April 10
Developer: basandaika games
This week’s most promising looking visual novel is set in an office where the protagonist has to listen to a bunch of bizarre monologues and make some tough decisions in return. I have a feeling there’s more to Outside the Door than the Steam description lets on: the trailer is quietly eerie, and the art style has a painterly quality that reminds me a bit of ye olde PC-98 visual novels. A nice 1-2 hour slab of surrealist bureaucratic noir is exactly what you need sometimes.
Turbo Kid
Steam page
Release: April 10
Developer: Outerminds Inc.
I’m pretty fed up with ’80s retro-fetishism but I can make an exception for Turbo Kid, which wraps gory straight-to-VHS vibes around a Metroidvania with one neat idea up its sleeve. That idea: in addition to exploring on foot, you also have a BMX. What results is a platformer with some neat movement variety, mixing the running and gunning of Contra, the close quarters slashing of Dead Cells, and the fast-paced wheel trickery of OlliOlli or Trials. Makes me wish I had a Steam Deck.
