Steam Hype Playlist: June 2026

Keeping up with all the new games on Steam can be a job unto itself, and potentially disappointing if you're rushing to grab stuff the second it launches. That's why every month we wait for the dust to settle before picking the best new Steam games we've played and adding them to our Steam Hype Playlist. Something funky was in the water this month, and we drank deep from June 2026's weird well.

Road to Empress Ⅱ PC

You'll obviously want to start with Road to Empress 1, but this is a fantastic example of what Chinese studios are doing in the once-fallow world of FMV games. What you're getting here is a branching choose-your-own-adventure period drama, leading a young girl from novice courtier to the seat of power in ancient China. The sets, costuming and cinematography are a feast for the eyes, and the acting isn't half-bad either. The game is just non-stop drama as many choices lead to highly elaborate deaths. There's a surprising amount to chew on here, including online leaderboards for many interactions.

MECCHA CHAMELEON PC

An explosive breakout hit. Meccha Chameleon is a bit rough-edged and janky, but proves that a simple, funny concept at the right time can change the world. This is online multiplayer hide-and-seek, with a fun twist: The hiding players can pose and contort their bodies, stick themselves to any surface, and then paint themselves in custom camouflage. The best thing is that, by default, you're scored not on how long you stayed hidden, but on how long other players looked in your direction without seeing you, making bold disguises and hiding in plain sight the winning (and frequently hilarious) move. Plus, Steam Workshop support means you'll never run out of places to hide in.

Lost Castle 2 PC

Like a roguelite take on Castle Crashers, best played in co-op with pals. Simple, compelling hack n' slash gameplay through procedural routes and dungeons, with a bit of space to decompress, upgrade your camp and gear up before the next run. With a zoomed-out camera angle, the player characters are cute little blorbos, allowing for enemies (and especially bosses) to be huge screen-filling presences, with big, well-telegraphed attacks making for reasonably fair combat. Despite some players running into frequent technical and connection issues, it hasn't stopped Lost Castle 2 from becoming a hit, with thousands online at any given moment.

MOLE PC

A fragmented, nightmarish psychological horror experience that constantly has you question how much is real, how much is allegory, and just how much mortal danger you're in - probably more than you'd expect. Rendered in crunchy low-fi style (PS2-ish, minus the texture filtering), most of the game is spent operating an underground exploration pod, drilling deep underground in search of a mysterious sequel. Except when you're suddenly exploring your character's history and home life in an oppressive slavic state. Full of twists, turns and fragmented storytelling to interpret however your brain decides to process it.

Gothic 1 Remake PC

An excellent remake of a cult classic. While the series kinda lost its way with Gothic 3, the original still stands as one of the best examples of an RPG that makes the player feel like part of the world, and not an invincible Chosen One. You're a nobody, thrown into a fantasy prison mining colony with a one-way magical barrier around it. Pick one of three very different factions to work with, slowly work your way up to power and explore a small but very dense open world full of very dangerous creatures and individuals. The remake makes it a little more accessible and fleshes out weaker parts of the story, but retains that friction.

The Last Salvage Squad PC

Pure arcade FPS fun with a bit of Earth Defense Force flavor. Mankind is extinct, wiped out by giant alien tripod mechs. Only a squad of giant humanoid engineering robots remain, and they've only got one gun to share between them, fighting on Virtual Boy-inspired battlegrounds. If you die, your next 'life' has to scramble to where your last fighter fell to reclaim the weapon and rejoin the fight. Short and sweet, with credits rolling within two hours, but there's a full NG+ loop with heavily remixed levels and additional goodies to unlock. Zero fat on this one's robot bones. All action, no filler.

The Message from Deep Space PC

An excellent hard sci-fi puzzler about the first scientific team to make contact with an alien intelligence, broadcasting from a passing meteor. Starting with simple call-and-response stuff (pinging back their signals) and slowly building up a mathematical-based language, defining vocabulary through shared observable scientific concepts. It's remarkably thoughtful and dramatic stuff despite being set almost entirely in front of a retro '80s style computer terminal, with your unseen but characterful scientific advisors chipping in with their thoughts and ideas (and sometimes bickering) while you're trying to puzzle out what the linguistic inverse of a diameter might be.

Voidling Bound PC

A very refreshing take on the creature-collector genre. Primarily a third-person Ratchet & Clank-esque platform shooter in a bright sci-fi world. But instead of collecting guns, you're playing as the creatures you collect and hatch, mutating them into distinct elemental variants with their own cooldown-based attacks and quirks as you tackle bigger, more dangerous missions. The combat is fast and snappy, and the creatures are a fun bunch of alien weirdos, evolving into even weirder critters after just a few deployments. The developers have also laid out a roadmap of updates to come, including quality-of-life improvements, new creatures, levels and missions on the way,

Pronoun Palace PC

A sharp, satirical and painfully funny word-puzzle roguelike. Your pronouns have been confiscated by the government for being too disruptive, sending you on a quest to fight for them. And you fight with a grid of Scrabble-style tiles, spelling words to attack with more fiddly letters dealing more damage. Each enemy has their own gimmicks. One might force you to use certain tiles, others might make some off-limits, while some reshape the board itself. Fantastic music, smart art, funny writing and absolutely zero punches pulled at pointing out the absolutely unhinged world of modern gender politics, and those in power who would tell others what they're allowed to be.

Now THIS was an interesting month. Not much in the way of big-budget AAA releases, but a few breakout hits, including a new multiplayer juggernaut. Things are never dull in the world of PC gaming. Have you been playing any of this lineup or thought we missed a gem? Let us know in the comments below.