New gems and bona fide classics
If you're getting into PC gaming, Steam is the first place to look for new games. There are over 23,000 on the platform.
Buy one and you can download and install it as many times as you like.
The only problem is choosing what to play. Steam is a giant labyrinth of games, and if you are tempted in by its frequent sales you may end up with a stack of titles you've never booted-up.
We have the solution. Below you'll find some of the very best recent Steam titles and some older games we think you should not miss. We update it regularly, so come back soon for more suggestions.
What Remains of Edith Finch
This indie smash arrived in 2017, but as it recently won a “best game” BAFTA awards, it’s time to give it another plug. What Remains of Edith Finch is a narrative-led adventure in which you walk, first-person style, around as Edith Finch, exploring the house in which you grew up.
You look over the preserved relics of dead family members and are sucked into vignettes that tell the stories of how various Finches died. This sounds grim, we get it. However, its charming style and magical realism tilt make What Remains of Edith Finch involving and touching rather than depressing.
It plays out a little like an interactive movie. You can’t fail as such, aside from getting lost, and the entire experience lasts 2-3 hours rather than 20.
Don’t buy this if you’re going to feel short-changed by its length, but if you’ve played and enjoyed Firewatch, Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture or Gone Home, you’ll love What Remains of Edith Finch.
Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdon
The first Ni No Kuni game was a collaboration with Japanese animation masters Studio Ghibli. Ni No Kuni II is not, but retains the same charming art style.
It also changes the fighting mechanics. Instead of training up avatars to fight for you, Ni No Kuni II has a fun real-time battle system. You command three fighters with fast, slow and magic attacks, and the ability to dodge. There’s a more action-packed feel this time.
It’s not all about action, though. While Ni No Kuni II is an action-adventure RPG, you also build up a kingdom, which plays a role in earning bonuses for your characters. This part is surprisingly moreish.
The story is more conventional than that of the first game, which might be down to Studio Ghibli’s limited involvement. However, there’s plenty of fantasy fuel and it’s more involving than your average game.
Into the Breach
Not every top steam game is an epic open world title that would sell for $60 on PS4 and Xbox One. Into the Breach is an elegant sci-fi strategy blast you can play on your lunch break at work.
It is made by the team behind Faster than Light, still one of our favourite PC games of the last decade. And for the handheld gaming veterans out there, there are shades of Advance Wars to it too.
Earth has been invaded, and almost taken over, by aliens. In Into the Breach you control groups of mechs sent from the future to reverse this fate.
That may sound like a mind-bending premise, but it actually proves the plot doesn’t matter too much here. We know Earth will come out tops, it’s just a case of how.
Each encounter takes in an 8x8 block grid, your battlefield. Play unfolds in turns, and your mechs have to stop aliens from destroying too many of the field’s buildings and outposts. It has the tactical purity of chess. As you play you can upgrade your mechs to improve your chances.
Like FTL, Into the Breach is moreish, smart and deceptively deep.
Surviving Mars
Some screenshots make Surviving Mars look like The Sims: Red Planet edition. However it’s closer to Sim City meets The Martian.
You build an outpost on a patch of Mars, and have to keep it running to avoid your colonists dying in on the planet’s harsh surface. It’s harder than it sounds.
Mis-managing resources in Sim City or Civilization may make your inhabitants angry, or lower your income. But in Surviving Mars it can cause a chain reaction that sees life support systems fail.
You’ll hear “a colonist has died”, and be left scrambling to fix the problem before other inhabitants start dying like bubbles popping as they touch the ground.
There’s work to be done on Surviving Mars’s interface but its survivalist approach to “city” building is compelling.
(continue on page #2)