Steam Hype Weekly - Issue #6

We're closing in on our grand unveiling, but if you're here behind the curtains early, thank you for your interest, and we hope we've still had plenty for you to read! This week was packed with big releases, indie or otherwise, and we only had the opportunity to cover a couple handfuls of them to the degree they deserved, which means another jumbo-sized end-of-week roundup.

Once again, we're organizing things by segment and then alphabetically, to help you navigate this mountain of games a little easier. Buckle up, and here we go:

(Note: This piece is still somewhat under construction - we'll be filling in the last of the entries without descriptions over the weekend!)

Update: Free retro horror adventure Cursed gets a remake

I've been a fan of the largely-unknown Cursed trilogy for a while. Three horror point-and-click adventures that increasingly grow into an action/RPG hybrid series. The first game, however, was released over 15 years ago, and was the solo developer's first attempt at making a game, so he's spent the past couple years remaking it from the ground up, adding new content along the way. It's still intentionally low-fi, looking like a lost DOS-era shareware game, but looks, feels and plays far better now. All three games are totally free, too!

Update: Darkest Dungeon ends a decade of horrors with new DLC

With Darkest Dungeon 2 released, and the series' iconic narrator now sadly passed away, you'd be forgiven for thinking that the original Lovecraftian dungeon crawl has been left to fallow. Far from it - the Fire's Edge DLC adds two more playable heroes to the roster, both new arrivals from the sequel, and bringing new twists and gameplay mechanics back to the Darkest Hamlet with them.

Update: Nioh 3 heads deeper into the abyss with its first DLC

Much as I loved the Nioh series thusfar (and all of Team Ninja's other Souls-adjacent hack n' slashers), I've been holding off on playing Nioh 3. Not because it's flawed, but because I KNOW that it will become a better, stronger game. Both the original and Nioh 2 saw massive overhauls, rebalancing and improvements to NG+ loops along with the release of their respective expansions, and this one looks to be no different. Still, the Hell Rising expansion DOES look fun, especially the new short-spear & shield fighting styles for both Samurai & Ninja forms.

Update: Fort-builder RTS Cataclismo expands its campaign with DLC

Despite being sent a preview copy by Hooded Horse long ago, I've scarcely scratched the surface of Cataclismo, which is a shame as it seems like a great, almost LEGO-inspired strategy game, demanding smart building of your fortifications to hold off waves of horrible monsters at night. The Old Kingdom DLC bulks out the campaign significantly more, adding a strategic management layer, with you calling in assets & reinforcements by day to prepare for the coming nighttime sieges.

Out Now: 10 Beautiful Postcards - Surreal adventures in art

A small, whimsical experience from TheCatamites, mad lad behind Space Funeral and Anthology of The Killer. This one's been around for a while on Itch, but this new edition has been polished up a little. Wander through 200 surreal photo-collage environments, soaking up the weird vibes. Pure games-as-art indulgence.

Out Now: Beastlink - Asymmetrical PvP kaiju battles

A multiplayer game I'd been hopeful for (I just love big kaiju battles) with a fun concept, of players racing to transform into a big monsters while the others attack on foot or with vehicles. Sadly, early user reviews for this one look rough, pointing out massive bugs (and not the cool kind that climb buildings), connection errors, and the monsters popping out of view far too early, making air attacks far harder than they should be. Here's hoping it does well enough to get the patches it needs.

Out Now: Blood In The Panopticon - Dark narrative ASCII shooter

Only had a chance to play this, but it's fascinating. A story-heavy roguelite twin-stick shooter with an ultra-low-fi ASCII aesthetic while you're in combat. The android girl that you're sending out on a one-bot crusade to destroy the human race frequently comes back with an fresh assortment of physical and mental traumas. I've only scratched the surface but there's promises of a heavily branching narrative and six endings to work towards.

Out Now: Bloodletter - Unsettling medieval medical deckbuilder

Another I've not had time to dig into despite being sent an early key. A dark medieval deckbuilder with a mythological and medical theme, solving your problems through trepanation, alchemy, and, of course, bloodletting. Really stylish, surreal gothic UI art going on, with juicy animations and audio, but can't speak for the gameplay.

Out Now: Brigador Killers - Guerilla mech assassin sandbox

The long-awaited sequel to the ultra-destructive mech war crimes shooter Brigador, entering early access. This time, you're playing as a crew of assassins hunting the pilots from the first game that destroyed your homeworld, in a more infantry-scale, sandbox style adventure. Only fly in the ointment is that one of the two lead developers (they're brothers) has said some utterly rancid stuff online (Content warning: Multiple flavors of bigotry). He claims to have turned over a new leaf, but it's hard to tell either way. Do your own research and go with your heart.

Out Now: Cicadamata - Marathon-inspired speedrunning FPS

Heavily inspired by the visuals of Bungie's Marathon reboot, the writing of the original trilogy, and early first-person platformers like Jumping Flash, this one looks a treat and plays great. I ran through the demo several times when it was available, and am sure that the full game is going to be even more enjoyable, twitchy, tricky FPS fun with a fantastic soundtrack.

Out Now: Crownhold - Incremental medieval strategy

A bit more complex than your average incremental game. Less clicking cookies, more juggling resources as you build up huge armies to invade your neighbors and protect your lands. Amusingly, some of the negative reviews complain that they only got 8 hours of game for $6. Which I guess is short by Endless Forever Game standards but seems reasonable to me?

Out Now: Dark Castle - A 1986 monochrome classic returns

You can't get more old-school than this. 1986 monochrome platformer, big among the early Mac crowd, before they invented colours. Runs better than on original hardware, but is otherwise every bit as uncompromising as the original release. Not really for me (outside of comedy challenge race events), but great to see it getting a fresh lease of life.

Out Now: Dash 'n' Drops - Smash-style roguelike platforming

One I'll be digging into this weekend for sure. A roguelite spinoff from the excellent Smash Bros-inspired (and exceptionally French) platformer Decline's Drops. All of the core mechanics are still there, but you're building out your move-set and perks over the course of each run, putting the focus squarely on the combat mechanics this time.

Out Now: Dreamcards - Oneiric, interpretive deckbuilding

Out Now: Drunken Rogue - Dungeon Crawl meets Pub Crawl

Promising comedy deckbuilding dungeon crawler from a Japanese indie studio. There's two playable characters, an overconfident vampire and an alcoholic rogue. The more heavily they drink, the more powerful and chaotic they become, at the cost of losing their grip on what's going on, unable to identify oncoming threats directly until you walk face-first into something deadly.

Out Now: Encroacher: Snakes - THE SNAKES ARE IN MY MIND

I never expected I'd see a tribute to Sierra's weirdest '80s adventure, Manhunter: New York. Even less so, a surreal snake-based pastiche of it. Cosmic snakes have taken over Mars. They have ordered you (a green ape) to track down a rebel. Your powers: The ability to project snakes from your mind to interact with the world. Your first goal: Get dressed. It gets so much weirder from here.

Out Now: Entropy - Dark, surreal RPG from Dread Delusion's dev

This one was a big hit during the last Next Fest, and folks seem to be loving the early access debut for this one too. A dark fantasy RPG with some great pixellated hand-drawn art and crunchy PS1-styled polygons. A semi-open adventure through a dying, demon-infested world, where only a bunch of oddballs, bards and mercenaries are daft enough to try to face the currently-happening apocalypse.

Out Now: Exark

Out Now: Feed The Scorchpot

Out Now: Gallipoli - Details

Out Now: Grim Trials

Out Now: Ground Zero Hero - irradiated comedy Survivors-like

Out Now: GUTTED: Infested Crypts

Out Now: Hearth & Hamlet

Out Now: How To Fish

Out Now: how to kill a fly [H2KAF] - Complete this captcha

Strange, grimy, darkly humorous cyberpunk puzzle adventure. You are a corporate-owned construct. You are tasked with infiltrating human society and interacting with the world. You can only speak using words you've heard other people saying. Not had a chance to play this one but the vibes are simultaneously awful and enticing.

Out Now: Hyper Primate - Donkey Kong's Ultrakill

Out Now: HyperCore: Rhythm Bullet Hell - The title says it all

Out Now: IAH: Internet War

Out Now: Ironsand

Out Now: KOTAMON: The full title is far too long for this format

Out Now: Lazy Witch's Factory - Make demons do your busywork

Out Now: Mexican Ninja

Out Now: Nimbit Frontier

Out Now: Project PITT

Out Now: Provoron

Out Now: Puppergeist - All dogs go to Rhythm Heaven

Out Now: Repterra - Dino-defense RTS leaves early access

Out Now: Roomballs

Out Now: Sensory Overload

Out Now: Stars Reach - Possibly overambitious space MMO

Another one I was hopeful for, but launching in a very rough state, even by early access standards. An ambitious sandbox space exploration MMO, inspired by Star Wars Galaxies and other pre-'theme park' designs. But even the positive few reviews so far bring up a laundry-list of issues that they're hoping are fixed. Probably not one to jump on early, then.

Out Now: Starsand Island

Out Now: T.W.I.R.L.

Out Now: The Lantern of the Laughless Saint - Morrowind'y RPG

Heck of a trailer for this one. A heavily Morrowind-inspired sandbox RPG set in a weird and clownly world, making its early access debut. The studio reckon they're going to be cranking out updates every week or two until the final release sometime next year. Big as it is, this is intended to be just the introductory chapter - it seems to be selling well and mostly pleasing people so far, too.

Out Now: The World Well: Blood of Caro - Post-Vampocalypse VN

An interesting-sounding visual novel that seems to be landing well with readers so far. Set in a magical post-apocalyptic sci-fi setting, a pair of women - a cyborg survivalist and an itinerant mage - seek to survive and unravel the lost secrets of a world wracked by war against vampires. It promises lots of choices and multiple endings, and the art is no slouch either, with a mix of 3D pre-rendered backdrops and hand-drawn anime style stuff.

Out Now: Theropods - Prehistoric point & click adventure

A great-looking point-and-click adventure with big, chunky pixels and no dialogue to (literally) speak of. It's the buddy-adventure of a young cavewoman and an alien robot on a planet full of deadly dinosaurs and less-than-friendly tribes. Some early adopters have found the 'no dialogue' concept better on paper than in implementation, because it sometimes helps for your character to say WHY they can't do something or use an item in the way you were hoping.

Out Now: Tukoni: Forest Keepers

A very cute, chill point-and-click puzzler about a friendly, fuzzy forest spirit on a trip through the woods, meeting all the adorable critter-folk, solving their problems and generally being cuts as a button. Pretty light and casual puzzles from what I've seen but it's hard not to love its hand-drawn watercolor world.

Out Now: Vholume - Brutalist first-person parkour

One I'm definitely playing this weekend. A first-person parkour platformer set in a desolate brutalist megastructure. There's a demo out, and having played it and fallen in love with its complex movement mechanics and flow-state action, I can confirm this one has the sauce. Not surprising, given that one of its three main developers worked on the excellent (and free) PvP shooter Straftat.

Out Now: Vitalis - Solo dice-based mysterious roguelike adventure

A mysterious artifact that was sent to me earlier this week. I've only had a chance to do one real run through it, but I'm fascinated to see how its story of several strange people lost in the woods comes together and interacts with the 'simulation' meta-layer above. It also reminds me a bit of Vermis, a game that doesn't exist, except in several guide-books. My only real gripe so far is that there's a lot of typos and, misspellings and clunky phrasings in a game that's meant to be heavy on prose.

Out Now: Voidface - Bullet hell arena boss rush

I'm a sucker for a good twin-stick shooter, and a well-designed boss fight is almost always more interesting than fighting waves of disposable grunt enemies, so this one has me eager to try it. There's a demo, too, but I've not had the chance to go hands-on with this one. But it certainly looks and sounds the part!

And with that, we slide into the weekend smelling of molten asphalt and unbound energy. Anything on this week's docket (all things I'd play if I had infinite time) tickle your fancy? Or think we missed something fantastic? We're here to spread the good word of gaming, so get up on the pulpit and let's hear your sermon in the box below.