Six years in the past, a Souls-like sport appeared that hardly anybody had on their radar,and it turned a shock hit. This week, its sequel is arriving, and it’s turned out to be considerably larger, full with an open world.
Issues are getting crowded, as everybody desires to make a splash earlier than gamescom: You’ll get Lovecraftian horror, a sandbox MMO from a style legend, and three main expansions. As we do each Monday, we’ve summarized all of the essential Steam releases for you right here.
- The Spotlight of the Week: Mortal Shell 2
- Extra Thrilling Steam Releases This Week
- Monday, August 17, 2026
- Tuesday, August 18, 2026
- Wednesday, August 19, 2026
- Thursday, August 20, 2026
- Friday, August 21, 2026
The spotlight of the week: Mortal Shell 2
Style: Motion RPG / Soulslike – Developer: Chilly Symmetry – Launch Date: August 20, 2026 (Steam)
Mortal Shell was an actual essential success in 2020:a compact Souls-like from a small studio that didn’t wish to copy FromSoftware however had its personal distinctive imaginative and prescient. You play as a being that slips into the our bodies of fallen warriors. Every of those our bodies comes with its personal stats, weapons, and playstyle.
That’s precisely what the sequel builds upon:There are eight shells to select from this time, and the world is now not a sequence of interconnected corridors however a cohesive space with over 60 dungeons which you can deal with largely in any order you select.
Chilly Symmetry has additionally tweaked the fight system: The stamina bar is gone; as an alternative, Mortal Shell 2 now makes use of a stance system. Mixed with the “Harden” skill—which turns you to stone in the course of an animation—this creates a fight expertise fairly completely different from the everyday “Souls-like” dodge-and-roll spam.
Anopen beta has been working on Steam since June 5, and the numbers look promising: The builders report round 600,000 downloads, together with a 93 % optimistic ranking.
The Commonplace Version prices 50 euros, whereas the Religious Version prices 60 euros and unlocks entry as much as 72 hours early—that means as early as Monday. The common launch is on Thursday.
Extra Thrilling Steam Releases of the Week
Monday, August 17, 2026
- The Lantern of the Laughless Saint (Early Entry): Should you’ve been ready for The Elder Scrolls 6 for years, you must examine this out. The builders are constructing an open-world role-playing sport that’s clearly impressed by the basic Morrowind.
- Tukoni: Forest Keepers:Kyiwer Studio Dream Operator is adapting the image books by Ukrainian illustrator Oksana Bula, who serves as artwork director on the mission. You play as a forest spirit who sews pillows, gathers herbs, brews tea, and solves hand-drawn puzzles earlier than the primary snow falls. The story is advised fully with out textual content, utilizing solely animations and pictograms. The demo has a 97 % optimistic ranking, and the sport has already gained a couple of small awards for its visuals even earlier than its launch.
- WE ARE SO DEAD (Early Entry):Friendslop is a must-see once more this week: Considered one of you is already lifeless and, as a ghost, can see what’s lurking in a haunted home—however can solely talk by way of a Ouija board. The remainder should work with him to banish a demon.
Tuesday, August 18, 2026
- The Sinking Metropolis 2: Frogwares returns to Lovecraft’s world, this time with out open-world detective work. The sequel is a basic survival horror sport set within the flooded Arkham of the Twenties, the place sources are scarce and also you, as an occult researcher, should set issues proper after a failed ritual.
- Stars Attain (Early Entry):Raph Koster was the lead designer of Ultima On-line and inventive director of Star Wars Galaxies; his new mission, Stars Attain, is a sandbox MMO set on a single, persistent server. There are not any lessons—you’ll turn into a service provider, explorers, politicians, fighters—or the entire above without delay. Whether or not the know-how can reside as much as expectations, nevertheless, stays to be seen.
- Darkest Dungeon: The Hearth’s Edge (Enlargement): The primary DLC for the unique Darkest Dungeon since 2020, launched simply in time for its tenth anniversary. Pink Hook brings over two heroines from the second sport—Duelist and Runaway—and provides three new Hamlet districts.
- Starsand Island:The second 1.0 launch of the day comes from the anime world. Seed Sparkle Lab’s life and farming sim launches in full with on-line multiplayer for as much as 4 gamers, in addition to a fall occasion centered round pumpkins. Anybody who jumped into Early Entry again in February can lastly deliver associates alongside.
- Twisted Tower: For anybody who misses BioShock: a shooter set in an deserted Nineteen Fifties amusement park
Wednesday, August 19, 2026
- STEINS;GATE RE: BOOT:Maybe the world’s most well-known visible novel returns with utterly redrawn paintings. All voice recordings have been re-recorded, the music has been re-produced, and there’s an extra storyline and a brand new ending.
- Hero’s Journey: One other Story:This spin-off of Hero’s Journey: Highway to Ardour sends you again as a anonymous fighter right into a pixelated China filled with monasteries and martial arts colleges, the place your choices shift the stability of energy.
- Nioh 3: Hell Rising (Enlargement):Group Ninja delivers the primary DLC for Nioh 3, sending you to the Edo interval of 1651, which has been reworked right into a hellish panorama. New weapons, gear, and an extra problem degree are included; the growth is a part of the Season Go.
- Fireside and Hamlet:A mixture of city-building and idle clicker: You begin with a campfire, assign staff to assemble wooden, stone, and meals, enact legal guidelines, and analysis your method as much as the Mage Academy. Based on writer Runic Forge, the demo attracted over 100,000 gamers and has an 86 % optimistic ranking.
Thursday, August 20, 2026
- S.T.A.L.Ok.E.R. 2: Value of Hope (Enlargement):The primary main story growth for Coronary heart of Chornobyl runs parallel to the principle marketing campaign and unlocks two new areas, together with the Chernobyl Nuclear Energy Plant itself. It additionally options new weapons, new enemies, and a battle between Responsibility and Freedom by which you will need to take a facet. On the identical day, Replace 2.0 might be launched free of charge to all homeowners, upgrading the Zone to Unreal Engine 5.5.4. You’ll be able to see what it seems like right here:
- Gallipoli: BlackMill Video games continues its WW1 sequence—following Verdun, Tannenberg, and Isonzo—on the Ottoman fronts. 25 vs. 25 gamers, ten historic lessons starting from officers to medics, over 50 period-accurate weapons, and the sequence’ signature one-hit kills.
- Brigador Killers (Early Entry):On this insurgency simulator, you battle on foot and in autos, construct up an arsenal, after which kill “wealthy bastards,” because the builders name them.
- Trip Cafe Simulator: In an Italian coastal city, you run a small café, cook dinner pizza, pasta, and bruschetta by way of mini-games, purchase elements from native winemakers and farms, and embellish the café to your liking.
- The right way to Fish: After a boating accident, the 4 of you’re stranded on an island and begin fishing. Promote your catch, improve your gear, take down boss fish, and so forth.
Friday, August 21, 2026
- VHOLUME:In a dystopian concrete metropolis, you run, leap, and slide by way of large ranges à la Mirror’s Edge to retrieve your loved ones’s meals rations.
- Settler’s Area: A single developer spent two years crafting this pixel-based constructing sport, by which you assemble over 80 buildings, handle sources to fight starvation and illness, and both negotiate with—or select to not—competing neighboring settlements.
- Detective Sherlock: Shadow Stalker (Early Entry):A primary-person investigative sport set in Victorian Dartmoor, the place interrogations and dialogues are generated in actual time by an LLM. Whether or not this ends in cool investigative work or rapidly offers you the sensation that you just’re speaking to a chatbot—we’ll have to attend and see.
What’s ending up in your purchasing cart—or no less than in your want checklist—earlier than Gamescom takes over every little thing subsequent week? As at all times, be happy to tell us within the feedback part!
By the best way, regardless of the upcoming Gamescom, there are a couple of blockbusters arising subsequent week. You’ll be able to already see which of them they’re in our month-to-month video preview.
