Best Early Access games on Steam - and one to avoid!
Early Access, love it or loathe it, you still have to live with it - so here's our rundown of some of the best games right now, and one you'll definitely want to steer well clear of!
Early access is a much-loved concept because it allows players not just to get a taste of what a game's like before its main release, but also to shape the flavour and direction of that game. Developers use their analyses of how players interact with their games to understand which mechanics work, and which need to be tweaked, so early access players get their say in how the finished product should look simply by playing.
Or at least that's one viewpoint. Let's try another angle.
The early access trend is an irritating pustule on the skin of games development which should be disinfected and lanced at the first opportunity. Instead of actually testing and finishing their products properly, developers and publishers can rush out half-baked, bug-addled code, grab some fast bucks then move on to the next project.
Whichever side of the fence you fall, early access is a rising trend which isn't going away. The pros and cons briefly explored above are the risks and rewards you sign up for when you purchase one, so this guide should help steer you towards the better options out there.
Although we have reserved space to warn you off an especially bad culprit!
Besiege - £5.59
One of the better examples of how early access can work, Besiege is a physics-based game where you construct medieval siege engines (catapults, cannons, even the odd creatively built tank), and attempt to beat a series of levels featuring various enemy fortifications and soldiers.
With a large variety of parts available from which to construct your doom machines, there's a huge number of different ways to solve each level. Experimenting with different designs is hugely fun, especially when your painstakingly crafted mega cannon shakes itself to pieces before it even gets near its target.
Every failure is a learning experience, and the game develops the player's understanding at a pleasing rate. Before long you genuinely feel you could have been a useful asset in the Siege of Troy, although wooden horses are one of the few options lacking.
Besiege has 19,670 reviews on Steam overall, with an ‘Overwhelmingly Positive' rating overall. With regular new patches and hotfixes coming from the developers, and a huge number of often excellent pre-built machines from other players available on the Workshop, there's a lot of content here, and it's still not finished.
There are few better ways to spend under £6, and Besiege comes highly recommended.
Best Early Access games on Steam - and one to avoid!
Early Access, love it or loathe it, you still have to live with it - so here's our rundown of some of the best games right now, and one you'll definitely want to steer well clear of!
Rust - £14.99
A traditional survival game, Rust has been in early access for over three years already. With updates coming at a fair lick from developers antagonistically named Facepunch Studios, and community mods also on the table, there's plenty for players to do, and those options are ever-expanding.
However, there's been some irritation in the community of late at the nature of some of those updates, with some players up in arms at the perceived direction the developers have taken. Some have criticised the lack of certain long-promised features, whilst others lament the implementation of gunplay, or the framerate drop caused by the new game engine.
Rust is also a multi-player game, which is both a boon and curse. A boon because of the unpredictability, you never know if that scantily clad caveman with an axe approaching rapidly from the woods is a friend or an enemy. And a curse because, chances are, he's an enemy.
Despite the issues the game has over 164,000 Very positive reviews at the time of writing, and even the recent reviews, which take into account the controversial updates, are mostly positive.
Best Early Access games on Steam - and one to avoid!
Early Access, love it or loathe it, you still have to live with it - so here's our rundown of some of the best games right now, and one you'll definitely want to steer well clear of!
Darkest Dungeon - £18.99
If you like dungeon-delving turn-based RPGs in a gothic setting then you're in for a treat. And if you're also into psychological trauma, then we might just have found your perfect game.
Darkest Dungeon's twist is that it's heroes, flawed as they are, have a chance to suffer various mental conditions as a result of their battles. And there are lots of classes to choose from, with 14 available at present. So if you've been harbouring secret ambitions to control a Plague Doctor suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, you're in luck.
The game's getting good support from the developers, with new builds coming monthly at present. It's also proving popular with its community, with over 20,000 Very Positive reviews currently on Steam. There are some complaints about its fairly spiky difficulty curve, but that never seemed to hurt Dark Souls.
Best Early Access games on Steam - and one to avoid!
Early Access, love it or loathe it, you still have to live with it - so here's our rundown of some of the best games right now, and one you'll definitely want to steer well clear of!
Subnautica - £14.99
Set in a beautiful, alien water-world, Subnautica starts dramatically as you plummet from your stricken space ship in an escape pod, and are quickly knocked unconscious by flying debris inside the capsule as you descend. When you wake up, you're bobbing around in an alien ocean. Oh, and the escape pod is on fire. Good luck with that.
Another survival game, Subnautica's charming and beautiful sea life makes the task of ferreting out resources a joy. But the colourful and friendly world of the day quickly becomes sinister at night - the game truly captures the terror of being in a large body of water with no real clue of what might be out there looking for a snack.
The game has had many updates since its initial launch, with significant additions coming thick and fast, with new things to craft, new monsters to avoid, and new additions to the story (yes there's a story! No, we're not going to spoil it for you!).
Subnautica has been well received both critically and commercially so far, with almost 30,000 Very Positive reviews on Steam to date. It also has a VR mode, though apparently that can be quite nauseating according to some commentators, though we haven't tried it ourselves.
Overall, a top game, and one which is likely to keep getting better as the developers add more content, and refine what's already there.
And yes, that is our lovingly crafted base in the picture above.
Best Early Access games on Steam - and one to avoid!
Early Access, love it or loathe it, you still have to live with it - so here's our rundown of some of the best games right now, and one you'll definitely want to steer well clear of!
And now, one to avoid!
Battle Chess: Game of Kings - £22.99
It's not entirely clear whether Battle Chess: Game of Kings is still in early access or not. It appears unfinished, but the developers haven't released any new updates for over a year, causing no end of furious complaints from disappointed customers.
And it's a real shame too, because the original Amiga game on which it's based was fantastic for its day, and a modern update on the classic formula would have been hugely welcome, not to mention quite probably commercially successful.
But this version is not the game you're looking for, as the many negative reviews testify.
One review from Steam user ‘wkoziol' clearly advises against a purchase.
"DO NOT and I repeat DO NOT buy this game. This game IS broken. it does NOT work. It HAD potential but NOT anymore. If you read the forums on this game the people who got royally screwed like myself, haven't been able to play a full game. The S.O.B. took our money and didn't come through with the updates."
A more recent review, and the only positive one we could find praised the game's aesthetic, but even then mentioned the many bugs.
Surprisingly, despite a huge volume of negative reviews over the last two years, the game somehow rates as ‘Mixed' overall, though this is largely because of the initial optimism from early customers who assumed there'd be further development and improvement.
For our money you're much better off to buy the original Battle Chess in all its glory on GoG for under a fiver - you can thank us later!