New on Steam: A dreamlike role-playing game masterpiece awaits you

This week, the role-playing game highlight Clair Obscur and surprising Steam releases for strategists, builders, and more await you.

This week, the role-playing game highlight Clair Obscur will take you on an expedition to bizarre dream worlds. Expedition 33 into bizarre dream worlds. But horror fans, building strategists, and beat ’em up veterans will also find something to sink their teeth into. As always, we’ll give you an overview of what Steam releases await you.

Highlight of the week: Clair Obscur

A curse holds the world in its grip: Every year, the mysterious painter paints a number on a monolith – and all people who reach that age disappear without a trace. You lead Expedition 33, a motley crew of idealists, soldiers, and eccentrics who want to put an end to the artist’s work once and for all.

The journey takes you from the Belle Époque boulevards of Paris to surreal cloud palaces and crumbling industrial complexes. Thanks to the picturesque graphic style, every location looks like it has been taken from an oil painting.

On paper, Clair Obscur is a classic turn-based JRPG, but the combat is much more active: while you choose your attacks, you can parry, dodge, or use Free Aim to target weak points in real time to trigger combo chains. If your timing is right, you fill a momentum bar that unlocks particularly powerful skills. If you mess up, you’ll take extra damage.

Between battles, you can fine-tune your party: equipment, ink sets (magical dyes that give weapons elemental effects), and branching talent trees allow for extremely diverse builds.

Since each character also has their own synergy bonuses with certain teammates, it’s worth getting to know the characters better in side quests. Not only will you unlock dialogue, but also new duo attacks that can completely undermine boss mechanics.

More exciting Steam releases this week

Monday, April 21

• Rise of Rebellion: A single-player soulslike RPG that promises tough combat. In a dark fantasy world, you face godlike bosses that will make your hands sweat. Timing, dodging, and learning attack patterns are essential for survival in this genre.

Tuesday, April 22

• Escape The Mad Empire (Early Access): Are you in the mood for a crisp dungeon crawler with retro charm? In this party RPG, you assemble a team of heroes and fight your way through procedurally generated dungeons in real time with pause. In addition to tactical battles, you’ll need to build a base and manage scarce resources wisely.

• Post Trauma: Old-school survival horror, heavily inspired by Silent Hill & Co. You play a subway security guard who finds himself in a disturbing nightmare world. Expect fixed camera angles, eerie soundscapes, and tricky puzzles.

• Darkwater (Early Access): More horror, this time in the deep sea! This co-op title (1 to 4 players) lets you control a submarine trapped in ice on an alien planet. In Extraction style, you must salvage resources and then retreat alive – but of course, gruesome creatures and rival NPC crews lurk in the murky waters.

• Outworld Station (Early Access): More fuel for building strategists! Here you build a gigantic space station and expand your industrial empire across multiple planets. The game combines automation à la Factorio with the complexity of an economic simulation: you build modules, extract resources, produce goods, and sell them at a profit to grow even further. All in a stylish sci-fi look and even playable in co-op with friends.

Wednesday, April 23

• Viking Frontiers: A first-person Viking survival simulation. Stranded on an unknown coast, you must build your village from scratch, become the jarl of your own settlement, and lead your people through harsh times. You hunt game, gather wood, build longhouses, and brave hunger and cold. The game combines elements of survival, building, and role-playing. In short: Valheim meets RimWorld.

• Beholder: Conductor: The dystopian Beholder series enters the next round, this time on rails. As a train conductor in a totalitarian state, you monitor the passengers on a train. Your tasks: check tickets, search luggage, expose opponents of the regime, and make unpleasant decisions.

• Sunderfolk: This co-op tactical RPG aims to bring back the feeling of a board game night. Up to four players join forces in a fantasy battle – controlling their heroes not with a mouse, but with their smartphones as controllers. In Sunderfolk, you defend a magical academy against hordes of monsters for 100 days. During the day, you train, and in the evening, the enemies arrive in a turn-based grid similar to XCOM.

Thursday, April 24

• DARKEST DAYS: In this post-apocalyptic zombie online world, you team up with other survivors to build a refuge while the undead roam outside. During the day, you explore a dark, sprawling city, collect equipment, and upgrade your shelter, while at night you face large-scale zombie battles.

• FATAL FURY: City of the Wolves: Fighting game veterans take note: Terry Bogard and co. are back! After more than 20 years, the legendary Fatal Fury series is getting a new installment. City of the Wolves brings together old cult characters and new fighters. With stylish 2.5D graphics and an innovative REV system for special actions, SNK aims to build on its glorious Neo Geo days.

• The Hundred Line – Last Defense Academy: Tactical role-playing meets visual novel. Experience 100 in-game days at a military academy, build relationships with fellow students, and strengthen your skills through training and conversations. But when the siren sounds, the game switches to turn-based grid battles against monstrous invaders, in which you must defend your academy.

• Dolls Nest: A wacky action adventure starring mecha girls. You control a customizable android fighter through a gigantic factory world that resembles a post-apocalyptic labyrinth. Not only do numerous nasty robot enemies await you there, but also a philosophical question or two: What does humanity mean in a world dominated by machines?

• Monster Prom 4: Monster Con: The fourth installment of the popular comedy dating sim returns to its roots: competitive multiplayer for up to 4 players, hand-drawn cartoon monsters, and tons of dark humor. This time, the action takes place at the nerdy Monster Con.

• Amerzone – The Explorer’s Legacy: A classic adventure game from 1999 is making a comeback. Amerzone, created by the late comic book artist Benoît Sokal (creator of Syberia), has been completely revamped for this new edition. As a young journalist, you travel to a mysterious jungle land to return the last egg of the white bird – and in doing so, uncover the dark past of this paradise oppressed by a dictator.