Image: Behavior Interactive & Devolver Digital

Another week down, and it's time to dig through a mountain of games - everything on our radar we didn't have time to do a full story on. As you may have noticed, I've been away for most of the week, which means the backlog has grown. On the plus side, that means all the more for you to chew on, and a festival of trailers to wade through, as this was another dense week, full of both big AAA releases (most of them hitting the mark, even) and more than a few indie bangers.

As usual, we've got demos and updates first, followed by an alphabetical roundup of this week's interesting releases. Let's mosey:

Update: Whiskerwood adds shipyards, naval battles and trading

Whiskerwood might still be deep in early access, but it's quickly becoming one of Hooded Horse's growing stable of town-builders, with you managing a colony of cute cartoon mice living under the oppression of an ever-greedy cat government. Rebellion seems all the more within reach with this latest update, letting you build shipyards and start assembling a fleet to trade with neighboring islands and fight against seafaring foes.

Out Now: Allumeria - 3D voxel dungeon crawler sandbox

Launching moments after I finished my roundup last Friday, Allumeria has been a solid hit for developer Infinimelon. It's an obviously Minecraft-inspired voxel sandbox world, but with more than a bit of Terraria influence, with much heavier RPG inspiration and more progress mechanics, and a focus on working your way through dangerous dungeons, fighting huge bosses, and adventuring through the world instead of just building.

Out Now: Asterika: Phantom Rose Refrain - Grid-based rhythm dodger

A spinoff from the Phantom Rose series of roguelike RPGs, this one couldn't be more different genre-wise. It's a rhythm bullet-dodger, played on a 6x6 grid. Move to the music and try to parse all the warning signs and oncoming projectiles that are working their way across the battlefield. A bit like dodging attacks in Mega Man Battle Network, meets Crypt of the Necrodancer? Good user reviews so far.

Out Now: Breathedge 2 - Subnautica in space, ex-Soviet style

Early access sequel to the Subnautica-esque space survival comedy Breathedge, recently given away on the Epic Store. While initial reviews on this one are positive overall, I'm still a bit wary of the writing. In the first game, it crossed the line from self-aware parody into some outright painful 'angry boomer yells at cloud' grumbling about equality and gender roles. The fact that the protagonist is still known as Ordinary Man, and is now accompanied by a lady sidekick named 'Babe' doesn't raise hopes, but I've yet to try this one, so that's just my distant impression.

Out Now: Chaos Front - Sci-fi grand strategy

The latest in a long-running space strategy series from Chinese indie developer Han Zhiyu. I've had an eye on these games for a while but have never found the time to properly dig into them, but I do like the mixture of sci-fi and historical Chinese designs on the characters, plus the cool mech designs in the Super Robot Wars/Advance Wars-esque tactical battles. Initial reviews here are a bit patchy, but patches already seem on the way to address initial issues.

Out Now: Chaos Warrior - Dragon Quest-inspired NES retro RPG

A fully retro-authentic, NES-style RPG harking back to the days of the original Dragon Quest. It looks, sounds, and feels the part from the little I've played so far, after getting sent a preview key. Interestingly, this is developed by Myolden, who is a pillar of the Doom mapping and modding community, exploring a whole new medium with this game.

Out Now: Cosmo Tales - Cartoony roguelite space shooter

Bohemia Interactive might be a big name (the publisher/studio behind the Arma series of mega-scale military sims), but this early access space combat roguelike has completely flown under the radar, with only a couple of user reviews so far. A shame, because I'm always on the hunt for good new space combat games. This one looks neat, too, with a funny 'cheap beater cars in space' aesthetic, slick graphics, and some nice explosions.

Out Now: Crimson Moon - Co-op souls'y roguelike

A big seller that has seen fiercely disputed user reviews. Crimson Moon is a solo or co-op roguelike with Souls-ish combat, and a color scheme with SO many shades of red, both outside and inside its characters. While the majority of reviews are positive at the time of writing, the negative ones are full of reports of bugs, an unwieldy camera, and a lack of long-term progression options. Nothing that can't be hammered out with patches.

Out Now: Donutal - Alien immigration sim from Guilty Gear's studio

A big studio tries a small, weird experiment. A game about interviewing aliens visiting a space station, finding out what they're up to, and keeping things running smoothly between the many species. Early in-development versions of this had a lot of AI-generated art, but after backlash, ArcSys has since removed it all and replaced it with hand-drawn character designs, all of which are (unsurprisingly, given the studio) pretty cool.

Out Now: Dungeon Settlers - Subterranean colony sim RPG

Off to a flying start, this hotly-awaited early access title blends tactical dungeon crawling with Rimworld-esque colony building, as you build out your town, level up your heroes, and then send them out on quests to neighboring regions of the mega-dungeon that you're setting up camp in. There's still a long way to go on this one (aiming for a 2028 full release), but initial players seem to approve of the foundations.

Out Now: Future? No Thanks! - Old Man Shakes Fist At Progress Adventure

After weeks of wrangling with Valve (including a while where it was mis-flagged as an adults-only game), Molleindustria's comedy adventure about a cantankerous old man crossing stuff off his bucket list before tapping out of utopian future society is out. It does appear that a small mission about getting horizontal (the good kind) has been removed to appease Valve's slightly paranoid content team, but it's good to see the game released at all.

Out Now: Grail - Experimental roguelike auto-battler

From the indie development collective that gave us the hit Stacklands, Grail is another game about cards, but using them in unusual ways. It's a Hearthstone-esque roguelike card battler, but you don't play the cards. Instead, you build the deck and stack the odds of what's drawn and when it's played, making this one a game of long-term strategy over moment-to-moment tactics. It is also extremely critterful.

Out Now: He Who Watches - First-person block-based puzzling with a bow.

An exciting new puzzler about navigating a magical labyrinth, armed with a bow. It might look like a dungeon crawler - block-based movement and all - but it's more of a Portal-esque spatial puzzler, with your single, retractable arrow being your only means of interacting with buttons and blocks. You can also walk on almost any wall, with gravity bending if you're stepping UP, but not down off ledges, making navigation an intentional headache. It's a puzzle game, after all.

Out Now: House 2 - Time-looping haunted house horror sequel

The original House was a properly nightmarish horror puzzle-adventure game. Trapped in a time-loop in a cursed house that wants her dead, a young girl struggles to find the exact chain of actions that'll save her family. House 2 continues that story, with our protagonist down one arm and still cursed to see everyone (and herself) die endlessly unless you can unravel the solution. The sequel makes the switch from crunchy sprites to detailed hand-drawn art, but the core remains, and the deaths are more grisly than ever.

Out Now: Isle of Reveries - Game Boy Color-style retro Zelda-like

Game Boy Color aesthetics are just the in thing lately, huh? Operating in the same space as Colorgrave's games and Mina The Hollower, Island of Reveries is a Zelda-like action-adventure that fully commits to the low-fi style. Chunky little pixels and crunchy chiptunes abound, but it properly takes advantage of modern controllers, so you don't have to cram everything onto two buttons.

Out Now: Monk Took Book - Co-op haunted librarian job sim

Not many user reviews on this one, but every one is positive so far. Like a fusion of Wilmot's Warehouse and Lethal Company, you (and optional friends) are a monk running a haunted medieval library. Books arrive, you sort them by color/theme/numbering onto your shelves, and need to make sure that you've got your own system memorized when people request books to check out. Plus, you (and your books) are under attack by ghosts and ghoulies.

Out Now: Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault - Action roguelike store manager

Leaving early access to mixed praise, the original Moonlighter felt like a spiritual successor to Japanese indie gem Recettear - by day, you run an item store, selling gear to adventurers. By night, you raid dungeons for loot, which you stock your shelves with. When do you sleep? Not nearly often enough! The sequel is more of the same, but now in fetching 3D. Most of the negative user reviews come from major fans of the first game that don't like the changes that the sequel has made. We'll see how this one shakes out.

Out Now: PHANTOM: Phantom of Inferno

A 26-year-old visual novel, remastered. Anyone familiar with VNs has probably heard the name Gen Urobuchi. If not, then have you heard of Madoka Magica? He wrote that. And many other stories featuring doomed romance, questionable morality, and frequently extreme violence. Phantom is a modern-day neo-noir crime drama following a brainwashed assassin, and Urobuchi's first major release. This remaster includes a lot of art from the anime adaptation of the original, repurposed to give it a little extra sheen, along with voice work from the anime cast.

Out Now: Red Rocket Defencism - Big red action tower defense

A fun, fast-looking tower defense with a satirical soviet theme. You and your slightly unhinged robot adjutant are tasked with defending your nation's rocket bases against capitalist incursions. As well as placing defenses, you get to run around and beat on enemies directly, Orcs Must Die style. One I want to try, and the store page opens with a mention that it'll take most people less than three hours to get through.

Out Now: Rogue Blight - Grimy 2D souls-like

Another that I hope to carve out some time for over the weekend. Rogue Blight is a side-scrolling 2D souls-like, very similar in style to the excellent Salt & Sanctuary series, especially in the paper-doll style animation. It's even in a bundle with it. Initial reviews on this one are almost all positive, and I really like some of the bigger, gnarlier monster designs that they've been showing off.

Out Now: Broken Arrow: Russian Guard DLC - Cold-war-gone-hot RTS expands

If you were to just look at the user review score for Broken Arrow, you'd think it's a widely hated game. This cold-war-turned-hot is, in fact, one of the few competitive RTS games in recent years to maintain a decently sized active player-base - they are just a very salty bunch. Playing a lot like the classic World in Conflict but with a little more gritty simulation, there's a good-sized solo campaign and bots here if you're not ready to wade into the feral multiplayer mosh pit. This DLC expands the game a little, adding a new Russian sub-faction along with two more solo/co-op missions.

Out Now: Scavland - Grimy STALKER-inspired top-down shooter

Launching into early access just as we went to publish, Scavland looks like a nice 2D alternative for those who are put off by STALKER 2's daunting hardware requirements. Another game with heavy soviet collapse theming, set in an irradiated wasteland. Hunt, scavenge, fight with rivals, and trade in what you can find for the resources to keep your expeditions going. No hands-on impressions on this one yet, but the developer estimates this one's a long-hauler. A minimum of one year of development to go, maybe two or more.

Out Now: Serious Sam: Shatterverse - Roguelike co-op spinoff FPS

Another one splitting opinion down the middle. Developed by Dead by Daylight studio Behaviour Interactive, this is what happens when you rework the anarchic Serious Sam series of semi-retro FPS games into a co-op roguelite with a multiverse-hopping theme. Each of the playable characters is an alternate Serious Sam from another universe, with their own gimmicks, and the combat here looks to be on a slightly smaller scale than the absurd swarm-grinding combat of the originals. I've yet to go hands-on with this, but my impression is that it seems like a decent shooter, but not what Serious Sam fans crave.

The original SpeedRunners was an immensely popular multiplayer platform racer, and is still relatively well populated to this day. Unfortunately, community response to the sequel has been largely negative. While there have been some improvements (such as the netcode - big for an online multiplayer game), the most common complaints are that there's just not enough game here compared to the long-supported original. Too few maps, characters, and a shorter solo campaign. Hopefully things will improve, but the original seems to be the one to play for now.

Out Now: Sucker For Love: Crush Landing - Putting the 'Love' in Lovecraft again

Hear me out: What if you could smooch the unknowable cosmic horror from The Color Out of Space? Bad idea? Definitely. Funny? Probably. This is the third in the Sucker For Love series, games that have surprised and impressed me so far. The first game was a parody dating sim with some puzzle elements, as you attempt to steal a kiss from an eldritch god without dying horribly. The sequel was a full-on horror-comedy adventure that blended genuine scares and laughs. Based on rumblings from the nightmare peanut gallery, this one's a good one too, and full of grim moral choices to make.

Out Now: Tactical Annihilation - Total Annihilation: Turn-based Tactics Style

Another released just as we were closing shop last week. Clearly inspired by the classic RTS Total Annihilation, this one adapts its mega-scale strategy and huge super-units into something a bit more manageable and turn-based. While this could be completely overwhelming and tedious, this one looks to keep the pace high by letting you give orders to whole formations of units at once, and assigning AI (the good kind) standing orders to your grunts so you can focus on moving the big pieces around.

Out Now: The Adventurers - Open-world tactical RPG

One more early access graduate. Splitting the difference between a traditional party-based RPG and an open-world sandbox like Battle Brothers, this one's very old-school. Send your fully customizable party out into a big procedurally generated world, completing quests and fighting monsters in hex-based tactical combat. The full release adds mod support and improves balance, but isn't a huge departure from the well-liked formula.

Out Now: Tyr - Free-to-play offworld PvP future-tank combat

World Of Tanks meets a hero shooter, and judging by initial responses to its early access debut, this one's onto something. Anyone familiar with World Of Tanks or War Thunder's ground combat should be able to just pick up and play this one, but each tank has its own series of interesting upgrades and cooldown-based powers. One type has a heavy ramming plate on the front and a charge attack, and one can transform into a jet to fly short distances, etc. Interestingly, as this is the future, you have scanners so you can see an X-Ray scan of your target, telling you how thick the armor is where you're aiming.

Out Now: WheelMates - Co-op RC car platform puzzler

A possible next stop for those who have finished It Takes Two, Split Fiction, and others. A purely co-op platform puzzler where both players are driving cute little RC cars through huge (well, normal-sized) environments. It has a friend pass system, so only one player needs to buy the game, and the other can just jump in online, or play the whole thing side-by-side in split-screen mode. Looks pretty fun, but might be for the younger crowd as the puzzles are reportedly a bit light.

Out Now: Withering Realms - Gothic horror action RPG

After a couple of days of delays at the hands of Valve's overzealous content verification team, Withering Realms launches into early access, and I'd be buying it right now if I thought I had time for it this weekend. Sequel to the excellent Withering Rooms, this gothic horror action-RPG shifts from side-scrolling to overhead action, but retains its grim, grimy turn-of-the-century setting. You play as an animated doll soldier, protecting a ghostly girl as you explore the realm. Interestingly, this is already a complete game, playable from start to finish, and the developers are using the time in early access to tweak, tune, balance, and work on endgame modes.

Out Now: Worming from Home - Would you still love remote work as a worm?

I like to think that this game was spawned wholesale from a typo. A physics'y fumblecore comedy game about doing office work and also being a wriggly little worm. Want to enter data into a spreadsheet? Get ready to carefully crawl between those letter keys and only hit the right ones, because backspace is WAY over there. A great concept, and I'm hoping to take a wriggle at this one in the nearish future, but as it came out just as we're wrapping up here, I can't speak to its quality.

And so, another weekend begins, and we've got an all-you-can-eat buffet to chew on. I'll be taking my first proper bites at Blood of Dawnwalker and Onimusha 5 these next couple of days, and continue nibbling at a stack of exciting indie releases. What's on your playlist? Let us know in the comments below, along with any great releases of the past seven days that we've overlooked.

Have a great weekend, and we'll be back on Monday with more game news!