1. Path of Exile 2

If there’s one game on this list that could’ve fooled us into thinking it was already a complete package, it’s Path of Exile 2. It’s not an exaggeration to say that Path of Exile 2 stands as the best action RPGs available right now, and it’s still early days with the full launch a year away. Between the intricate build customization, varied macabre environments, and story oozing with rich lore, we’re looking forward to just how much more jam-packed with content Path of Exile 2 will get with its full launch sometime in the coming year.

2. Hades 2

The first sequel from the beloved indie dev, Supergiant, is already amazing and it’s still only in early access. Hades 2 takes the brilliant roguelike structure of the first game and adds a whole lot of magic (literally) and added polish to the mix. The sequel expands upon the well-written Greek pantheon featured in the prequel, introducing a new protagonist in Melinoe, the sister of Hades 1’s hero. Hades 2 aims to outdo Hades in every respect, which is already evident by the sheer number of new locations and the plethora of content present in its early access state.

3. Wild Woods

This four-player co-op indie game tasks players to defend a wagon going through some dangerous woods. Sounds rather simple, right? Well, it shares some very creative elements from Kunitsu-Gami, another game that has you gathering resources during daytime to prepare for night combat. The four-player cooperation elements serve as a good foundation for added maps and challenges leading up to its full release. Though, since Wild Woods just became available for early access on December 9^th, odds are that it has a ways to go until its complete launch.

4. Palworld

With well over eight million units sold and record-breaking Steam player counts, Pocket Pair’s Palworld is doing well for itself despite the looming Nintendo lawsuit. Palworld drew in a substantial number of players disillusioned by Pokemon’s latest offerings. The base building and gun-toting Pal battles are great fun, and with the Feybreak update coming December 23^rd, players have a lot more content to look forward to.

5. Enshrouded

Enshrouded may be yet another survival crafting game, but it executes each of its components well above most of the competition. The combat is rather satisfying with its action RPG mechanics and parry-laden fights. If you’re struggling to make ends meet in this hostile open world, there are 15 other players who can help (or hinder) you in your journey. Enshrouded is notable for meeting a majority of its roadmap goals as it inches ever closer to its full 2025 release.

6. Manor Lords

What really sets Manor Lords apart from other city builder strategy games is its unwavering attention to medieval historical accuracy. There’s a laudable amount of detail regarding town expansion and resource management with historical systems like burgage plot structuring all in play. These intricate town management systems raise the stakes of the real-time strategy battles tenfold, adding a level of immersion and urgency to the genre. We’re looking forward to seeing how this one-man passion project turns out with its official launch.

7. Astrometica

This survival crafting game just released in early access on December 10^th and I’m already invested in what it offers. Unlike other endless space exploration games (like Starfield), the variety of ships within Astrometica are actually used to explore various anomalies and secrets. There’s even asteroid belts to navigate your ship through. You’ll need to settle down in a base to survive the cold hostility of space, though, and Astrometica delivers with its compelling tech tree and outpost crafting.

8. The Rogue Prince of Persia

Made by the studio that put out the acclaimed Dead Cells DLCs, this roguelite Prince of Persia title is in a quite the polished state half a year after its early access debut. As the title suggests, The Rogue Prince of Persia features procedurally generated levels filled with the kind of acrobatic platforming and action that the genre has been known for. Players who enjoyed Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown or classic 2D platforming titles will find a lot to love with The Rogue Prince of Persia.

9. Rogue Command

Rogue Command is another roguelike game on this list, yet in the form of a classic RTS title. I don’t know if I’ve seen a classic RTS in this roguelike format before. It’s an intriguing gameplay conceit to have entirely different builds and units with every run, but Rogue Command does a good job keeping runs approachable and fun thanks to convenience features like a 10% time slow-down. Despite its early access status, there’s quite a lot of content here already, including 100s of units and over 20 map types.

10. Finnish Cottage Simulator

Consider me surprised to see Finnish Cottage Sim achieving an overwhelmingly positive rating on Steam with thousands of reviews as of its November 15^th early access launch. The charming graphics and quant atmosphere help it stand out among the more budget-minded ‘simulator’ games. But it’s really the variety of quests and dynamic 6-player multiplayer that have hooked players into this fun and relaxing take on cottage living.

11. Dunjungle

If you like The Rogue Prince of Persia, Dunjungle is another early access title worth checking out. This fast-paced action platformer roguelite distinguishes itself with customizable equipment and classes to exploit enemy weaknesses with. The gameplay loop is more frenetic and punishing than something like The Rogue Prince of Persia with its lack of checkpoints, but thankfully there’s plenty of equipment and progress that stays with you between runs. Dunjungle is one of the most instantly gratifying early access games on the list thanks to its poppy drop-in, drop-out gameplay loop.

12. Cataclismo

Strategy players with a love for Legos need to try out Cataclismo. The game’s combination of real time strategy battles with brick-built base building forms a rather unique experience. Structures are effortless to construct thanks to the clear piece-by-piece process of building them. Seriously, if you like stacking bricks together, Cataclismo satisfies with a bevy of architectural pieces to get creative with and RTS combat to test your structures against.

13. Aska

Aska isn’t just another survival game; besides careful resource management and fights against wildlife and scavengers, the game asks you to manage your own tribe. This management wrinkle really adds a lot to the game. Take the unique way you add villagers to your village; you essentially craft villagers into existence out of resources, how cool is that? This fresh perspective on the survival genre further personalizes the village management aspect of the game, making survival that much more interesting and engaging.

14. New Arc Line

This early access game is for the classic role-playing fans. New Arc Line is set in a dystopian magi-tech setting where you begin as a penny-less immigrant aboard a steam ship to ‘the new world’. Between the range of NPC companions that you can recruit and build relationships with and the blend of mechanical and magic-based combat styles, New Arc Line has been an early access favorite for those who love choice-heavy RPGs.

15. ATLYSS

ATLYSS is one of those comfy and casual online RPGs that hits the sweet spot for those pining for some old-school nostalgia. The open world is rewarding to explore and quest through and the colorful PS2-stylized graphics really make it stand out. Players will have no trouble finding others to adventure with, considering the high concurrent player counts, though ATLYSS is unique in that none of the content is locked to multiplayer and can be experienced solo.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

"What we want to achieve with New Arc Line is to create a fantasy setting that reflects the imperfections of the real world; the social issues you mentioned are all rooted deep in the world-building, and we try to present them to the player as neutral a perspective as possible, as well as making them feel like a natural part of the world, not being too “in your face” about it."

New Arc Line’s part-fantasy, past-steampunk setting is looking quite fascinating, even if it’s just its genre-blending aesthetic we’re looking at. What served as your primary inspirations when coming up with the game’s setting?

For us, it was like traveling back in time, trying to explore the boundaries between different genres while learning from previous successful projects. For example, Planescape: Torment offered players almost endless worlds with unique creatures and ideas that pushed the boundaries of everyone’s imagination. On the other hand, Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura features a world where magic and technology conflict, but somehow coexist to create a complex society with a rich history.

These games showed us how deep you can go into creating a world where every corner is filled with exciting stories. We wanted to create something similar, but with our unique perspective, where you, as an explorer of ancient ruins, discover not only buried treasures but also the forgotten stories they hold.

But we faced a so-called “threshold of entry” into such a complex philosophy. After all, a long time had passed since the release of those games, and many players were used to more familiar, traditional fantasy settings. At that moment, Disco Elysium came to our attention and showed us how to create a clear entrance to an unusual world with the most phantasmagoric solutions, with the main plot revealing itself to you step by step. You seem to start as an ordinary detective, but gradually, the plot unfolds, and you discover more and more intriguing layers of the story. Each new character you meet reveals more and more details about the game world, and each task you encounter allows you to delve deeper into the strangeness of the fictional world.

Moving beyond the aesthetic, the game’s setting is also looking like a thematically charged one, with things such as segregation and official corruption seemingly having a part to play in the story, and players playing as an immigrant. How central will those elements be to the story, and how have you ensured that they’re tackled with the necessary care and nuance?

How significant of a role will choice and consequence mechanics play in New Arc Line? How radically can the story change course based on choices being made by the player?

The two questions are closely connected, so let me answer both simultaneously. What we want to achieve with New Arc Line is to create a fantasy setting that reflects the imperfections of the real world; the social issues you mentioned are all rooted deep in the world-building, and we try to present them to the player as neutral a perspective as possible, as well as making them feel like a natural part of the world, not being too “in your face” about it.

So, for example, the player might encounter some form of slavery being practiced at a factory. They might decide to step in and stop it, endorse it, and encourage the owners to continue, find a different option altogether, or decide just to walk away and not get involved. The world will react to players’ choices like this one, but we are not preaching to them what is good or evil; there is no morality meter or anything like that. The player can also try to stay out of the “big picture” as much as possible since they are on quite a personal mission; they can simply focus on saving their family; they don’t have to become a world-changing hero/villain if they don’t want to.

These choices accumulate and can affect the story significantly, leading to many different endings. Admittedly, it will be less than twelve thousand, but players will be happy with the variety and impact their choices will make.

What can you tell us about New Arc Line’s character creation toolset and how much freedom it will offer to players in making the protagonist they wish to make?

I would call it “classic” for the cRPG genre. It has many tools for making the character exactly as the player wants.

"The conflict between technology and magic is the central theme of our game. The history, philosophy, different classes, and mechanics are truly diverse."

New Arc Line’s two central pillars – magic and technology – are looking like they’ll be integrated into the gameplay experience in some really interesting ways as well. Depending on which of the two players lean towards, what sort of variety can we expect from characters’ abilities, builds, and their progression curves?

The conflict between technology and magic is the central theme of our game. The history, philosophy, different classes, and mechanics are truly diverse. All this will give a deeper understanding of the motivations of both factions. As for the classes, all fit their archetype, and the number of tactical options available to the player is large and varied.

Speaking of which, what can you tell us about New Arc Line’s progression mechanics? Across its six classes and 12 subclasses, how much room for build diversity can players expect?

Player progression consists of several components. First, there is player character development (characteristics and skills) and their armor — there is another layer to the progression system, but I can’t tell you more about it right now. Secondly, the main setting (different cool techno and magic stuff) — a big headache for our testers. But despite the ability to control a party of 4 characters, the player will need quite a lot of replaying to explore and reveal all the possibilities of available classes. We are trying hard to make the gameplay fun and exciting for the player. For example, suppose you pump up the Hellfire mage skills. In that case, you can be a burning half-naked berserker, destroying everything and everyone with a huge flaming hammer, or you could be a typical fire mage or even shoot fireballs from cool fire cannons. There are many diverse options, and we can’t wait to see what character builds our players will come up with!

Personally, as a lifelong turn-based defender, New Arc Line’s combat is looking like one of its more intriguing elements. Still, there is a sizeable contingent of players who prefer real-time combat. We’ve seen a few instances in the past of games that offer both turn-based and real-time combat as options- is that something that you’ve thought about for New Arc Line, or is it an experience that’s been expressly designed as a turn-based one?

We experimented with the combat system for a long time: we had combat with active pause, time slowdown, and other variants. We tried a lot of options and decided that turn-based combat was the best option for New Arc Line. The player will be able to take their time to think everything through and choose their tactical preferences – like dominoes lined up in a row and pushing the last one, looking at how your plan is brought to life. Or, build nothing and just destroy everything round after round.

"We experimented with the combat system for a long time: we had combat with active pause, time slowdown, and other variants. We tried a lot of options and decided that turn-based combat was the best option for New Arc Line."

Roughly how long will an average playthrough of the game be?

We live now in a world where every second counts.  Everyone has too much to do now and too little time. We don’t want to see the final statistic that only 20% of players finish our game because it’s too long. So if you ask, “How long will it take to get through New Arc Line?”, well, my answer: imagine you’re on a hike. If you go straight to your goal, it will take you about 30 hours. But if you decide to stop, explore the neighborhood, and talk to the locals – it will take up to 70 hours. We want everyone to find something different in our world and enjoy it.

Do you have any plans to eventually also bring the game to Nintendo Switch?

We’re focused on the current platforms but also looking at Nintendo Switch. So, we’re flirting with the idea right now: we’re winking from afar but still need to get to the ‘dating’ stage. But we’re thinking about it because we know how many players would love to take New Arc Line on a journey without taking a break from their favorite console.

Going by the game’s trailer and official website, it looks like New Arc Line will take place in a world where magic and technology exist side-by-side, with some art on the website showing off an airship in a battle against an electricity-breathing dragon.

The website describes the game’s setting as a world undergoing a technological revolution, and compares it with the United States on the brink of the 20th century. Magic and technology in this world seem to be incompatible with each other.

The story in New Arc Line seems to focus quite a bit on the politics of the world, with tensions bubbling under the surface, leading to inequality, corruption and segregation, all of which are seemingly setting the world on the path to a civil war.

While the studio hasn’t provided many details on gameplay, it looks like New Arc Line will feature a turn-based tactical combat system, while also allowing for freedom in exploration and interactivity.