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 2025 games that are launching this year.
Off
Steam page
Release: August 16
Developer: Mortis Ghost, Fangamer
Originally released as freeware in 2008, Off is a cult retro-style RPG that served as partial inspiration for Undertale. The trailer above makes that connection pretty clear: the art trades in the same striking, clashing color schemes and off-the-grid pixel art. Writing for PC Gamer back in 2015, Heidi Kemps described it as a “memorable and haunting RPG, filled with tricky puzzles, bizarre symbolism, and challenging thematic elements”. This remake retains the original’s charming RPG Maker primitiveness while making some mostly cosmetic changes to help it play nice with modern platforms and screens. Though some may miss the original soundtrack, the new one features a contribution from Toby Fox.
Shadowed: The Demon Castle of Ooe
Steam page
Release: August 17
Developer: Lab Rabbit Games Ltd
Few things in life look as gorgeous as old school roguelikes, and Shadowed: The Demon Castle of Ooe is proud of the 1980s severity it channels. Like Caves of Qud, it foregoes ASCII for more vivid, character-sized graphics that manage to pay tribute to rogues of old while being much more readable (and pretty) to modern audiences. Set in medieval Japan, and with a focus on “stealth, combat, and long-term planning”, Shadowed looks pretty traditional, and is probably less dizzyingly complex compared to Caves of Qud. But if you’re after something to get the imagination churning well into the early hours, it looks bloody great.
The Dark Queen of Mortholme
Steam page
Release: August 16
Developers: Mosu
The Dark Queen of Mortholme is a single-sitting game about being the final boss in an action platformer. This means having to do battle against the same gnat-like hero again, and again, until the hero either gives up or defeats you. But wait, it’s not all about pixel art violence: you also have to speak ominously when questioned by the hero, and the dialogue choices you make determine the outcome of “the story” (there is one).
Ovis Loop
Steam page
Release: August 15
Developer: Lifuel
This early access roguelite platformer doesn’t bring many new ideas to the table but it has a lot going for it. The apocalyptic setting is chunky and ornate, leaning heavily into a pixel style that SNK perfected. The combat has a Dead Cells-like fluidity to it, and each new run has the chance of being dramatically different to the previous thanks to a labyrinthine skill tree that lets you either evolve held skills or chain newer ones. Despite being in early access it already has nearly 250 “very positive” Steam reviews.
Abyssus
Steam page
Release: August 13
Developer: DoubleMoose Games
Abyssus is a “roguelite brinepunk” first-person shooter with a focus on cooperative play and increasingly bizarre weapon customization. Because the weapons, you see, are powered by brine, which is an ultra-powerful resource found in mysterious subaquatic cave networks beneath the sea. The objective is to retrieve this resource from the depths, but to do so you’ll need to fend off all the unspeakable monstrosities that lurk down there. To make every run feel fresh there’s the usual array of weapon mods, suits and skills. While Abyssus can definitely be played alone, it’s really all about playing tactically with friends.
