Steam has a new big sale! Valve’s slugfest event puts the spotlight on virtual combat. Classic hack & slash titles, but also other action and role-playing games can be found here at reduced prices.
We searched through the offers and found seven titles that we would like to bring you closer to here. Maybe you’ll discover your next fall project with it!
But if you are more interested in brand new games, have a look at the following article:
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New to Steam: This week is packed with exciting new releases
Ghostrunner
8:22
Ghostrunner – Bloody Cyberpunk Mirror’s Edge test video
Alexander Bernhardt: Mirror’s Edge is really cool. A bit of climbing, a bit of a fight every now and then and the white town looks nice too. But why play Mirrors Edge when Ghostrunner has all of that, only better?
Climbing is faster, smoother and more fun. The fights are more present, more exciting and more challenging. And the game world is less monotonous (because everything is white in Mirror’s Edge haha), looks slicker and is…okay, admittedly it’s similarly repetitive.
It should also be forewarned that Ghostrunner requires a certain amount of patience. It took me more than 100 attempts for the individual levels before I correctly divided my opponents in two with the katana. One hit is enough and we bless the time.
But a successful run is all the more satisfying! As silly as it sounds, I just feel incredibly cool dodging projectiles, slashing enemies with my katana, dashing past walls over their heads, and redirecting my own shots back at them with a perfectly timed counter. Great, now I feel like playing Ghostrunner again.
The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing: Final Cut
1:53
The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing – Überblicks-Trailer zur Final Cut-Version
Peter Bathge: A lot of game for little money – if this formula rules your life, then you’ve come to the right place with this hack & slay complete package. Because it’s three games in one, albeit later merged with saved games and uninterrupted story. So you get 60 to 90 hours of action role-playing games that may not be able to compete with the greats of the genre, but are completely convincing in one discipline: charm.
The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing can also be played through without a skill guide, you don’t necessarily need to min-max or spend hours comparing uniques. But it’s just fun to beat up thousands of monsters in this dark steampunk universe, accompanied by a cheeky NPC lady. The atmosphere is great, the humor a rarity in the genre.
What I remember most are the fun tower defense battles in the course of the varied campaign. But also the hunt for loot motivates, thanks to comfort functions and a good inventory. I put together my ideal slouch-hat-wearing monster hunter from six classes. It might not be as complex as Path of Exile and Grim Dawn, or as massive as Diablo, but if you’re into hack & slays and haven’t tried this game with the miserably long name, now is the perfect time to do so!
But I have to make one restriction: If you like to go on item and monster hunts in multiplayer mode, you should keep your distance. Because developer Neocore never really got the co-op mode and onl ine savegames to work smoothly.
God of War
2:54
God of War: PC trailer shows first scenes from the PlayStation masterpiece
Steffi Schlottag: God of War (2018) is an exceptional game that I almost missed because I don’t particularly like hack’n’slash. If I had paid more attention to what the reboot actually offers earlier, I definitely wouldn’t have played for the PC version! So if you’ve made the same mistake I made and mentally relegated God of War to the corner of dull bang-bang games – now’s the best time to put that right.
In addition to really excellent gameplay, there is also a moving and superbly staged story that will captivate you for hours in front of the monitor. Kratos and his son Atreus move to the highest mountain in the Norse mythology to scatter the ashes of his deceased wife. Only gradually do the two learn to trust each other. My personal highlight: The Midgard Serpent Jormungandr. Be sure to turn up the bass when she talks to you for the first time! Here in the podcast I tell you in detail why God of War has become my relaxation game:
link to Podcast Content
So, story fans take note, even if you didn’t like or played any of the previous ones. God of War definitely deserves a chance. And even those who have been waiting for a sale instead of hitting the PC release can take advantage of the current offer. The successor God of War Ragnarök will be released on November 9, 2022, but initially exclusively for PlayStation.
Cat Quest II
link to YouTube content
Gloria H. Manderfeld: What’s better than going on an adventure with a cute cat hero? That’s right, two adventures with a cute cat hero! In the second part of Cat Quest you even play in local co-op with a friend to prevent the advance of the dogs from the Lupus realm to troubled Felingard. Again, you grab your bag of tricks with both paws, overcome traps, face tough opponents and wield a fine selection of weapons. Alternatively, you can heat up your opponents with a fun range of spells.
The new passive skills, with which you customize your heroes, make it particularly interesting – alternatively, you can go on an adventure as a dog for the first time. If you liked the furry charm of the first part or are looking for an entertaining pastime with a cuddly look, you won’t go wrong with the almost five actions for Cat Quest II. Aside from that: You won’t find a greater density of cat-tastic descriptions and sayings again so quickly!
Bastion
7:14
Bastion – Action game test video
Phil Elsner: Everyone talks about Hades, many know Transistor. But most have forgotten the game that came before all these games: Bastion! With this inconspicuous adventure, the journey from Supergiant Games to the renowned and award-winning studio that they are today began.
Back then, Bastion was small, unknown and, above all, unusual – a voice actor comments on the protagonist’s every step through the fantasy world and utters cynical remarks, fascinating story details or words of encouragement from the off. Sounds annoying on paper, but in Bastion, thanks to the excellent narrator and beautifully written texts, it meshes perfectly with the game mechanics and rounds off the beautifully hand-drawn game world in a special way.
Bastion isn’t a perfect game, but if you fire it up today, you can clearly see where the talent that’s fueling milestones like Hades today is coming from. For less than two dollars you can dare a journey through time to the beginnings of the developer Supergiant and at the same time experience a great action role-playing game with a lot of atmosphere and a touch of melancholy.
Scarlet Nexus
1:38
Scarlet Nexus: Launch trailer sets the mood for the action role-playing game
Markus Schwerdtel: When schoolchildren fight tentacle monsters, the professionals know: this is a Japanese role-playing game! After all, we know such encounters well enough from the excellent Persona series. And while Scarlet Nexus looks like a second-tier Persona at first glance, it’s actually a game in its own right. And one whose test for publication in summer 2021 divides our readership into two camps. For some it’s another teen drama in JRPG disguise, for others a refreshing change from the genre’s usual rat/orc/dragon chops. You probably already know which faction I belong to.
In Scarlett Nexus, I’m the youthful member (gender selectable) of a special forces unit in a modern, Japanese-themed city. The task of the so-called AAS: It fends off the attacks of the so-called others with supernatural powers. These are monsters that regularly and predictably attack the city. What is told here in three sentences takes a few hours at the beginning of the game – just JRPG! But staying tuned is worth it, because Scarlett Nexus will then reward you with crazy monster designs, gripping action fights and cracking effects. While there are skill trees, the options are as limited as the environment graphics are lifeless. But that doesn’t matter, because the focus is on the fights. And of course the teen drama!
As befits a JRPG, the protagonists are very young and looking for true love. That’s why the conversations in cutscenes and dialogue often revolve around who likes who from the AAS squad. In special bond missions you go for walks or just chat. This also has practical effects in combat (friends fight more furiously!), but you have to endure such lengths first. The bottom line is a varied, unusual action role-playing game that – as written above – does not suit every type of player. At least you can now find out which camp you belong to for a moderate amount of money.
Torchlight II
9:39
Torchlight 2 – Diablo competitor test video
Christian Schwarz: The Torchlight 2 hack-and-slash title, which was hotly anticipated by many as a great alternative to the Diablo series at the time, is still worth recommending today. If you want to experience uncomplicated role-playing action with coherent comic graphics from the familiar iso perspective, you will get a lot for just under ten dollars.
The large worlds are designed in a varied way and, with grassland, steppe, mountains and Co., offer all the areas known in modern Europe as biomes that we know from comparable titles. As is typical of the genre, we experience a random redesign of the world every time the game starts. With up to five co-op companions, we can go on an exciting hunt for monsters and items, splitting ourselves up into four classes. In contrast to Diablo 3, Torchlight II relies on detailed character development with specialization through talent trees.
Anyone who finds themselves in these lines and has not yet had the opportunity to take a look at Torchlight II should take the opportunity. For a good price you get a first-class action role-playing game from a comparatively small indie studio, which at the time sent an exclamation mark to the established top dogs with a small budget, a lot of talent and passion.
What do you think of our recommendations? Will you grab one of the titles or do you prefer to save your money for the next sale? Tell us in the comments!
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