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 2021 games that are launching this year.
Half Past Fate: Romantic Distancing
Steam page
Release: February 15
Developer: Serenity Forge
Launch price: $4.97 | £3.97 | AU$7.05
The original Half Past Fate was a "heartwarming rom-com adventure" that mixed point and click adventuring with visual novel trappings. This offshoot is, as the name implies, all about navigating a blossoming romance lockdown style. A nice and timely idea, though what appeals to me most is that you can "judge (or admire) each other's home decor, peculiar roommates, and musical tastes." You don't own the complete Bell Witch discography? Sorry, no dice. This looks great for fans, but may also be a nice (and cost effective) way to sample the 2020 game.
Becastled
Steam page
Release: February 9
Developer: Mana Potion Studios
Launch price: $13.49 | £10.25 | AU$19.35
Launched into Early Access last week, this elegantly titled outing is all about building and defending a castle. So as you'd expect, it has elements of town planning, tower defence and resource management. At the time of writing the game is perfectly playable, with all the functionality required for you to build and defend your castle, as well as four types of player and enemy units, seven resources to manage and 26 building types. During the Early Access campaign, which is expected to last for two years at most, a campaign will be added in addition to more of, well, basically everything.
Sudoku RPG
Steam page
Release: February 10
Developer: RainbowStudio
Launch price: $2.69 | £1.88 | AU$4.05
I'd rather change the cat litter than play Sudoku but the game is obviously popular, so this blend of the number puzzler with a retro-styled JRPG may be of interest. Instead of the usual real-time hacking and slashing or turn-based gameplay, you'll be solving Sudoku puzzles to demolish your foes. All the puzzles are randomly generated, so if you're a big fan of the game this could keep you busy forever, though you'll need to perform quickly: apparently monsters can lob rocks at you while you're deliberating over the grids, which sounds just great.
Nominal
Steam page
Release: February 10
Developer: Offworld Systems LLC
Launch price: $14.99 | £11.39 | AU$21.50
If you love games about figuring out complex processes that are usually dealt with by highly paid professionals (think bomb defusal), Nominal may be of interest. While it can be played in single-player, the local cooperative functionality sounds really cool: one person reads the manual, the other person tries to apply those learnings to a very complex alternate-history 1960s spacecraft. It can either be very serious or extremely funny, depending on your friend.
Medievalien
Steam page
Release: February 12
Developer: d00b games srl
Launch price: $16.99 | £13.59 | AU$24.60
Described as a "story-rich action roguelike," this Early Access newcomer seems to hit most of the notes you'd expect from a permadeath ARPG: you'll shoot aliens, you'll loot aliens, and certain unlockables carry over between games, such as new playable characters. The crisp and smooth polygonal art style is appealing, and seem to serve the procedurally generated environments quite nicely. The game is expected to launch into 1.0 by the end of the year, with new playable characters and an extra chapter planned.
These games were released between February 8 and 15 2021. Some online stores give us a small cut if you buy something through one of our links. Read our affiliate policy for more info.
