Five new Steam games you might have missed (May 23, 2022)
On average, about a dozen new games are released on Steam every day. While we think that’s a good thing, it’s understandably hard to keep up with it. Unless you sort through every game released on Steam, potentially exciting gems are sure to be lost in the plethora of new games. That’s exactly what we do. If nothing tickles your fancy this week, we’ve rounded up the best PC games you can play right now, along with a running list of 2022 games coming out this year.
recursive destruction
Steam page
Posted: May 18
Developer: Bit Rot
On sale price: $13.49|£11.69| AU$19.35
Recursive Ruin is a first-person puzzle game set in an “infinite recursive landscape”, a concept that will be instantly compared to Manifold Garden. But while Manifold Garden explores a labyrinthine Escher-like structure, Recursive Ruin draws visual cues from the fractal world, and not only will you have to navigate these ever-expanding patterns, but you’ll also enjoy a relationship far removed from reality. The setup is cool, but also expect to meet some really weird characters, including but not limited to your cat companion Behemoth. It’s a surreal narrative-driven event that seems to bring something truly unique to the first-person puzzle formula.
Fear X Collection 5
Steam page
Posted: May 21
Developer: Various
On sale price: $9|£6.47| AU$13.05
Dread X horror collections hardly need an introduction these days, but for the uninitiated: these are collections of indie mini-horror games, usually contained within a single theme, and this new collection’s theme is entertainment. That means you should expect alien-themed parties, ceremonial celebrations, gory karaoke booths, scary sports centers, and more. As always, this fifth installment offers a variety of genres, from psychological first-person to more bloody third-person affairs. Naturally, quite a few look like they were originally made for the PS1.
death spell
Steam page
Posted: May 20
Developer: Marvelous Inc.
On sale price: $22.49|£18| AU$31.45
Deadcraft is a game about murdering hordes of zombies, but interestingly, the player character is also a “half-zombie”. This means you’ll build your own army of undead to fight another army of undead, resulting in double the zombie carnage (I guess?). You’ll build your army of zombies by planting the corpses of aggressive zombies underground and “breeding” them, while collecting new weapons and tools to equip them. In general, Deadcraft is when game developers ask: what if we make a zombie game, but there are more zombies? Oops, are you a zombie too? This is Zombie Day.
virtual circuit board
Steam page
Posted: May 21
Developer: Reverie Foundry
On sale price: $13.49 | £10.25 | AU$19.35
Launched in Early Access last week, Virtual Circuit Board is a sandbox “logic simulator” that basically gives you the tools to make any complex logic circuit you like. But please note: the virtual circuit board itself is not presented as a game, as there are no pre-set issues to resolve. By contrast, you need to set your own goals, and studio Reverie Foundry recommends you have “some basic knowledge” about logic gates, as well as a little programming knowledge. It’s a niche event, but if you spend a lot of time playing Minecraft Redstone Blocks, it’s probably just what the doctor asked for.
eternal clues
Steam page
Posted: May 19
Developer: Astronaut Studios
On sale price: $27 | £22.49 | AU$40.45
It’s another first-person puzzler, although Eternal Thread lets you manipulate and make sense of time rather than a non-Euclidean fractal world. In contemporary England, your job is to examine the decisions and events that led to deadly house fires and manipulate the past to avoid disaster. The entire 7 days leading up to the fire can be explored immediately, during which time you need to constantly move forward and backward to understand what’s going on and ultimately stop it.