Five new Steam games you probably missed (May 13, 2019)
Sorting through every new game on Steam so you don’t have to.
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. These games were released between May 6 and May 13 2019.
Snakeybus
Snakeybus is a driving game with a twist: as the name implies, it borrows from the mobile classic Snake, tasking players with navigating an ever-growing bus through a series of increasingly bizarre maps. The objective is to pick up passengers and drop them off, but you’d better watch out that you don’t crash into yourself. It looks fast and fun, and will probably appeal to fans of that other ridiculous game about heavy vehicles, Clustertruck.
Pax Nova
Launched into Early Access last week, Pax Nova is a sci-fi 4X strategy game set in a new, unplundered planet called Eos. Having migrated there from a destroyed Earth, the objective is to establish civilization on Eos, which involves joining a faction and exploring the surrounding space. “Explore new worlds and new star systems filled with exciting secrets as well as terrible dangers,” reads the description. “Build great cities and expand your influence through efficient diplomacy, or prepare for battle on land and in space when diplomacy fails or for when you’re just a warmonger.” The studio reckons it’ll launch into 1.0 within three to six months.
Infected Shelter
Infected Shelter is a gratuitously violent game described by its studio as a mixture of Mortal Kombat, Dead Cells and Castle Crashers. In other words, it’s an RPG roguelite with local cooperative support, and a focus on loot and over-the-top weaponry. The combat is described as “brawler-like”, with an even mix of ranged and melee weapons, and there’s the promise of “guitars” and “wheelchairs” too, though it’s a matter of pure speculation how those objects might be used in game (my guess: violently). The game’s in Early Access and will likely stay there for another six months.
Astrologaster
Astrologaster is a narrative driven comedy game starring a 16th century doctor hustling for his medical license in London. In order to do this, he’ll need to convince his patients to write him letters of recommendation: easy enough, as there’s a plague and all the good (and cowardly) doctors have left. But the problem starts in earnest when the plague ends and competitors flock back into the city. You can probably see the opportunity for comedy in there. It’s even based on “a true – and truly ridiculous – story”.
Swag and Sorcery
Swag and Sorcery is for fans of looting and grinding: you’ll need to grind for resources, in order to send soldiers out into the wild to collect more resources. It has gorgeous pixel-art graphics (it’s created by the folk behind Graveyard Keeper), and sits somewhere in the middle of a fully-fledged RPG and an idle game. I’m not sure how close Lazy Bear Games has come to finding a good middle ground between those two styles, but if you’re fond of the less stressful parts of RPGs (and if you just want something to do while you’re also watching TV) this looks pretty good.