Steam Marines: get killed by robots in squad-based sci-fi roguelike. Ooh-raaargh!

Death comes for us all eventually, but in the case of roguelikes, I'm pretty sure he takes the express elevator. Steam Marines is Rogue by way of Space Hulk: a randomly generated dungeon crawler set on a robot-infested spaceship. Like all the best roguelikes that aren't Spelunky, it's also turn-based – each turn consisting of a set number of moves, during which you're free to explore, shoot things, or destroy walls. That's probably not the best idea in outer space.

Where the game deviates from the traditional format is in its four-person squads. Having to take care of multiple characters, across multiple locations, makes this feel at times more like a strategy RPG, albeit a mercilessly difficult one. You can die – sorry, try the Steam Marines alpha for yourself, although you might want to hit the forums for some basic survival tactics first.

If you want to see Steam Marines on... Steam, self-deprecating devs Worthless Bums have also set up a Greenlight page , with the following video showing off its current state.

Tom Sykes

Tom loves exploring in games, whether it’s going the wrong way in a platformer or burgling an apartment in Deus Ex. His favourite game worlds—Stalker, Dark Souls, Thief—have an atmosphere you could wallop with a blackjack. He enjoys horror, adventure, puzzle games and RPGs, and played the Japanese version of Final Fantasy VIII with a translated script he printed off from the internet. Tom has been writing about free games for PC Gamer since 2012. If he were packing for a desert island, he’d take his giant Columbo boxset and a laptop stuffed with PuzzleScript games.