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.
The Sin
Steam page
Release: May 21
Developer: Baba Nura
Launch price: $4.49 | £3.59 | AU$6.75
Here's a bleak and atmospheric visual novel about "the ancient folklore that permeates the life of the inhabitants of the former USSR." The trailer above is in Russian, but the game itself has English dubs. It's a gorgeous looking game, albeit quite frightening, and it seems like something fans of Pathologic 2 will certainly want to investigate. According to the Steam description, The Sin is "a vortex of acute social problems mixed with the silent mysticism of endangered villages," so if you're after something a bit less intense maybe go play, I dunno, Wobbledogs instead.
Fabled Lands
Steam page
Release: May 21
Developer: Prime Games
Launch price: $12.74 | £9.68 | AU$18.27
As old school as they come, Fabled Lands is a new Early Access CRPG based on the 1990s gamebooks of the same name. The freedom to be who you want is a major priority for Fabled Lands: Apparently you can be an explorer, merchant, priest, scholar, thief, wizard or "soldier of fortune," and as any one of these you can either take on the hundreds of quests available or just do your own thing. The launch Early Access build has six player professions and the first of "two big areas" of the main continent, but expect a significant expansion of the map before the 1.0 releases some time in 2022.
Of Bird and Cage
Steam page
Release: May 20
Developer: Capricia Productions
Launch price: $13.49| £10.25 | AU$19.35
Of Bird and Cage is an interactive symphonic metal album featuring contributions from present and former members of Guns N' Roses, Epica, Within Temptation and more. Protagonist Gitta Barbot is a drug addict who must "escape the physical and metal prison of her captor Bres Lupus." As you can probably tell it's very narrative-focused, and interaction seems to boil down to split second choices that will affect the final outcome. It's hard to get a read on how successful Of Bird and Cage is, based on its trailer alone, but if you're a fan of metal and novel takes on gaming, it's worth a closer look.
Mind Scanners
Steam page
Release: May 20
Developer: The Outer Zone
Launch price: $15.29 | £21.14 | AU$21.55
From the creators of Yes, Your Grace comes Mind Scanners, a game about—you guessed it—scanning peoples minds in order to determine whether they're mentally stable or not. It's a "retro-futuristic psychiatry simulation" in the dev's words, and as you can expect, having the authority to determine another's mental wellness is rife with ambiguity. Interestingly, in addition to diagnosing patients you'll also be treating them with various devices, all of which are operated by arcade mini-games. Definitely an interesting concept, and Andy was favourable when he played an early build a few months ago.
Lacuna
Steam page
Release: May 20
Developer: DigiTales Interactive
$13.59 | £10.53 | AU$19.50
Lacuna is a sidescrolling detective game starring Neil Conrad, an investigator tasked with solving a case "that will soon turn your life and the whole solar system upside down." There's a huge emphasis on consequential conversations and tough decision making, and while its premise may recall a point and click adventure, the developers are adamant that the annoying parts of the genre (the pointing, the clicking, the pixel hunting) have been streamlined out of Lacuna.
These games were released between May 17 to 24 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.
