Enlarge / I'd like to pretend I'd built a settlement this neatly compact and organized—with street grids, even—but alas, this is a provided screenshot. (credit: Hooded Horse)

Back when WarCraft , StarCraft , and other real-time strategy games were all the rage, I could never actually play them against other people. Even playing against the computer, I might only eke out a victory through dumb luck or an opponent's huge mistake.

The problem was, I was never ready to attack until I had my base perfectly in order—until the workers carrying oil or crystals or whatnot had the most efficient route from the mine to the base or until my buildings were arranged for optimal use of the revealed land. I just needed one more little guy, one more tower. OK, maybe two. I'm a turtler's turtler .

Against the Storm , which releases from Early Access on Steam for Windows today, has been a deeply satisfying outlet for this pent-up need to build and prosper—in a delightfully WarCraft -ian manner—without the messy business of war. There is still adversity: an ever-advancing "Impatience" meter, hostile spirits you uncover in the woods, and the typical constraints of resources, supply chains, and worker morale. Plus the rainstorms in the title, which occur both in-level, slowing you down, and at a macro level, washing away your little towns to make you start again.

Enlarge / No bugs, or even weapons beyond a pistol, are seen in Rogue Core's initial screenshots. But you get the sense that it's a more cavern-like, combat-minded experience.

A lot of things can go wrong during a Deep Rock Galactic mission. Deep Rock Galactic: Rogue Core , a new roguelite spinoff from the makers of the cult co-op shoot-and-mine game, suggests that something has gone even more deeply, terribly wrong on Hoxxes IV. Now you, your friends, and a Processor Drone have to figure out what.
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And you'll die—a lot, probably—then try again with new gear and lessons learned, if the title and announcement trailer are anything to go by.

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You can wishlist Rogue Core on Steam now, and the game will launch in Early Access, which is anticipated to last for 18–24 months, in November 2024. Closed alpha tests will be announced on the game’s Steam page and fan Discord . Deep Rock ’s developer, Ghost Ship Games, promises “updates on the game’s direction right from the very earliest stage of development” and will be “adding new features to the game based on feedback and observations of how our community is playing it. Each feature will be tweaked, balanced, and polished as it is added.”
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Mikkel Martin Pedersen, co-founder and game director at Ghost Ship Games, said in a press release that the company intends to keep fans in the loop, as “our process of open development helped Deep Rock Galactic be the game it has become.” The developer also emphasized that support for the original game will continue.
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The game’s teaser trailer provides only a minimum of context for the plot. It’s heavy on the Ridley Scott Alien touches, right down to a Lego brick of a ship coasting toward a planet where the corporation has lost contact with workers who were mining near the planet’s core. Your “Reclaimers” team has to reestablish the dig. That's about all we know for now.

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  A dusty (or snowy?) piece of the abandoned core mine on Hoxxes IV. Your job is to keep moving through it. [credit: Ghost Ship Games ]

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Then again, the plot of Deep Rock Galactic itself, while certainly peppered with lore, is essentially “We need these minerals, these bugs are in the way, sorry if they kill you.” Rogue Core will have the same fully destructible environments, procedurally generated levels, co-op interplay, and greedy corporations, but with a focus on getting farther into a run each time.
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Your means of success is through customizing and upgrading your weapons and Phase Suit, using salvaged gear and Expenite, “a new wonder-mineral.” You complete tasks, find stuff, go deeper, and get stronger, until you inevitably fail and start again. Given the roguelite framing, you can expect some upgrades to stick with you from session to session. But R ogue may differ significantly from the far more casual, dig-by-dig nature of its foundation, if the claustrophobic, abandoned-station screenshots and trailer are any clue.

Enlarge / Kill monsters, pick up XP gems, upgrade character.

If you’re a fan of roguelites and haven’t heard of Vampire Survivors , let me be the first to welcome you to your new obsession.

The “gothic horror casual game with roguelike elements,” as its developer calls it, has been taking the indie world by storm over the past year, racking up over 120,000 “overwhelmingly positive” reviews on Steam and capturing effusive praise from critics. And until today, it was still in Early Access.

The game has even spawned a new sub-subgenre, with games of its ilk incorporating ideas from bullet-hell shoot-em-ups, roguelites, and timed horde-survival games. These games are almost all in Early Access, and every last one is curiously cheap—$5 seems to be the price cap. But while many pretenders to the throne have arisen, Vampire Survivors still reigns supreme. It was the second real game of its kind, after the 2021 Android-exclusive Magic Survival .