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. These are September 2026's Steam games we think genuinely deserve your time.

If you like cool action dudes with man-buns, September was THE month for you. Not only did we have a whole raft of great, long-awaited AAA hits stick the landing, but we saw some indie breakouts, a new multiplayer juggernaut to rival Battlefield and some long-awaited, low-key must-haves. Plus, two of them are top notch RPGs about being a vampire. Here's what we reckon are September's finest:

The Blood of Dawnwalker PC

It's easy to tell that this excellent vampire RPG is from a crew of Witcher 3 veterans. The dense open world, the meaningful decisions, the gory action combat love of European folklore. A crew of vampires have taken over your homeland, establishing themselves as tyrannical new nobility and are plotting a grand ritual in just one month. Freshly turned vampire hero Coen plots to save his mostly-still-human family and overthrow their bloodsucking oppressors across thirty tense days and nights where you're probably not going to be able to do everything and save everyone. The tense time management turned off some, but fans will tell you that it's one of the strongest parts of the game.

ENDLESS Legend 2 PC

The latest entry in the long-running Endless series left early access this month, and is a great antidote for those disappointed in the changes Civilization VII made to the classic 4X formula. This is classic one-more-turn, hex-based strategy compulsion incarnate, elevated with a fantastic aesthetic and a thrilling science-fantasy setting. Each civilization here plays almost entirely different from their rivals, with distinct imperatives. The Aspects - a race of psychic, part-coral cyborgs - are peaceful, empathetic and focused on improving the planet's ecology. The Necrophage are an ever-hungry insectoid race aiming to eat everything in their path, diplomacy be damned. Seeing how all the clashing motivations play against each other is fascinating, especially when minor and 'rogue' factions get involved.

Dressmaker PC

One that flew under our radar at launch, but has been a breakout hit, and it's easy to see why. The wild thing is that this shockingly in-depth dressmaking simulator (with a story mode where you create outfits to order for some especially fussy clients) is from the developers of Broforce, Gorn, Stick It To The Stickman and... Genital Jousting. South African indie outfit Free Lives have a LOT of range, it seems. This is a genuinely high-powered simulator too. From picking out materials, to cutting individual panels and sewing them together, there's a whole lot of room for player skill and expression. The femme counterpart to the masculine Bladesong, then - not that gender roles are real.

WARDOGS PC

An overnight multiplayer mega-hit. Imagine a slightly grittier, more realistic three-way Battlefield where absolutely everything has a cost. Each player starts with $100k to spend on equipment, but everything from guns, helicopter rides to the front-lines and fortification to build at objectives costs money, which can only be earned back by pushing your team closer to victory. This makes for a fascinating dynamic where sticking your neck out and being a hero isn't cost-effective, so players communicate, bargain, bribe and jostle for position even within their own team. The lead developers have made some unfortunate statements about how crunch and high-pressure work environments are vital to make games happen, though, which many industry figures have strongly disagreed with.

Valheim PC

Another indie mega-hit graduates from early access. With a distinct, crunchy low-fi polygon aesthetic and a fun mythic Viking setting, this is still one of the best survival sandbox games around, especially as it takes its notes more from Terraria than anything. Your main threat isn't starvation or the cold, it's monsters, including some big ol' trolls and Jotun that can smash your Longhouse into a short pile of splinters. Work your way up the tech-tiers through dungeon delving and boss-hunting, eventually setting out on a final expedition to the Far North, where the final boss awaits. As is standard for the genre, this one's good solo, but exponentially cooler in co-op with friends.

Onimusha: Way of the Sword PC

It has been over twenty years since the last major Onimusha game, but you'd never think it given how effortlessly confident this demon-slaying, swordfighting epic is. Capcom's winning streak continues uncontested. With some of the best character animation (especially the protagonist, loosely modelled after Toshiro Mifune) in the business, some truly gnarly bosses and an enormous (possibly even over-long) 30-ish hour campaign, there's just so much to chew on here. And despite all the gore, death and dismemberment, there's a vein of humor and whimsy running through the whole game, with lesser demons feeling more like the mass-produced mooks from a Power Rangers show, and greater villains having big pro wrestler grandstanding energy.

Nighthawks PC

You wait forever for a good vampire RPG, and two land in the same month! While Nighthawks may have a modern-day setting and not a single polygon in sight, it shares a surprising amount of DNA with Dawnwalker, especially in the time-management mechanics and constant tough decisions you're forced to make. You're just one vampire and there's only so many hours in the night, so choose what you do wisely. Beyond that, it feels like all of the best parts of the classic Vampire: Bloodlines - wandering the streets, meeting the folks (undead or otherwise) that live in the graveyard hours, all accompanied by some fantastic voice acting and plenty of narrative reactivity.

CONTROL Resonant PC

Remedy take their biggest (hammer) swing yet, taking the third-person shooter Control out of the warping corridors of the Oldest House and out into a transfigured New York, transforming the game into a full open-world superhero hack n' slash adventure in the process. While the combat here might not be the deepest in the genre (although it unfurls all the way into NG+ mode), the environments, storytelling and characters are stunning. The twisted streets and impossible environments (the result of three world-warping apocalypses happening all at once) are stunning, the side-quests are always fascinating and the musical needle drops capping off each major adventure are pitch-perfect. No studios expands my musical horizons like Remedy.

Normal Golf Game PC

The sicko's pick of the month. Channeling the spirit of Bennet Foddy, Normal Golf Game (from the developer of Jetpack Joyride & Fruit Ninja) asks you to master your golf swing using the single most overly complicated golfing interface you've ever seen. And if you were just playing a casual nine holes, that would be difficult enough, but this game asks you to solve puzzles, explore through an unhinged golf course and unravel the secrets lurking in the bunkers (the concrete kind, not sand) below, all through the power of golf. It is fiddly, frustrating, funny and also a shockingly good golf game once you've got a feel for the esoteric fully two-handed control setup.

We could probably have crammed in another six and still not run out of must-plays this month! As ever, you should check out the rest of our September coverage for all the best. October is already looking like it's going to be packed to the gills with spooky delights, with Hellraiser and Silver Pines launching next week, and the less-spooky Ace Combat 8 due tonight. As ever, if you reckon we missed something essential or just want to tell us that our taste is impeccable and making you buy too many games, let us known in the comments below.