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.
Kill It With Fire 2
Steam page
Release: April 17
Developer: Casey Donnellan Games LLC
As a former arachnophobe who’s now a proselytizing member of Team Spider (thanks to the charms of these things) I can understand why people might take pleasure in a game about destroying spiders. That’s what 2020’s Kill It With Fire was all about, and this sequel adds online coop and PvP into the mix. It’s a pretty simple concept on the surface: use spider-tracking technology to hunt down spiders and then kill said spiders, usually with fire or a gun, but also by other unconventional means, if you want. It’s a bonkers first-person shooter in some ways, with maybe slight influence taken from the hidden object genre? Anyway, it’s in Early Access now, with a 1.0 launch expected later this year.
共鸣 ReMix
Steam page
Release: April 17
Developer: GameSmith
If Crypt of the Necrodancer’s genius combination of pixel art, rhythm game and roguelite pleased you, then 共鸣 ReMix will probably rock your socks. It’s kinda a bullet hell dungeon crawler, except the different classes are musicians specializing in different genres, meaning you’ll have to adjust to the sonic qualities of say, funk, if you want to roll out with that character. Someone in the Steam reviews described it as “Rhythm Vampire Survivor” and, well, that’s me sold.
The Mildew Children
Steam page
Release: April 18
Developers: The Growing Stones
The Mildew Children brings point ‘n’ click adventure and visual novel elements to a story about scary children. Sure, most children are scary, but the ones in The Mildew Children follow “savage pagan traditions”—and presumably not in pursuit of Robux. You can chat to some of these children, which will lead to some pretty heated conversations, I’m sure, since the protagonist is a witch sent to presumably liberate the village from these diminutive miscreants. The art style is painterly and slightly eerie, and your decisions, in case it wasn’t obvious, will matter.
Vivat Slovakia
Steam page
Release: April 18
Developer: Team Vivat
Vivat Slovakia is an ambitious open world action game set in 1990s Bratislava, shortly after the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the Czechoslovak Federation. As a secret police officer you’ll undertake missions that are—and here’s what appeals to me—”based on real events set in the ’90s of the young Slovak Republic”. So it’s partially a historical effort, and that’s supported by the vehicles you’ll drive too. It’s developed by a Slovakia-based studio, and while some players are reporting performance issues at present, that’s kinda par for the course with Early Access. It’ll launch into 1.0 later this year with, among other things, a dog companion.
Jo ‘n Jo
Steam page
Release: April 19
Developer: Ethan Robichaux, Dean Goodson
That’s the beauty of PC gaming in the 21st century: this game about two giraffes tied together and forced to complete a terrifying obstacle course in a world of hyper-exaggerated ragdoll physics can release to almost no fanfare, because people are just so used to how many great games there are! This is free and looks really stupidly fun, in the same way QWOP, or Getting Over It, or Jump King, or last week’s The Game of Sisyphus. It’s also free, so no excuses.
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