In brief: Many of Steam's recent sales have focused on specific genres, setting the stage for developers to offer steep discounts, release significant patches, or showcase free demos. This month, the spotlight is on first-person shooters, with plenty of new and interesting content to check out.
Steam is running an event focused on promoting first-person shooters until April 22. Here are a few highlights from the sales, demos, and game updates that developers have presented.
Valve's FPS Fest happens to coincide with a large Fallout promotion that Bethesda is running to celebrate the release of the TV series on Amazon Prime. Big discounts are available for every Fallout title until April 18, including Fallout 3, Fallout New Vegas, Fallout 4, Fallout 4 VR, and Fallout 76, which are technically first-person shooters. The games are also on sale on other platforms.
Another promotion running alongside the Steam sale that happens to include first-person games is Capcom's sale celebrating Japan's Golden Week until April 29. The first-person Resident Evil titles – VII and Village – are at least 60 percent off. Other Resident Evil games are also on sale along with titles from other Capcom franchises like Monster Hunter, Street Fighter, and Ace Attorney.
The FPS fest also enables upcoming and Early Access games to garner attention with new free demos. Some are available indefinitely while others are only open during the promotional period.
One example is EvilVEvil, a PvE co-op shooter featuring vampires in a cyberpunk setting. The game, coming later this year, was previously only playable through closed betas, but developer Toadman Interactive is currently hosting its first open demo.
Exfil is another upcoming FPS that switched from closed playtests to an open demo for the Steam event. The squad-based tactical military shooter might interest fans of games like Squad and Arma but has considerably steeper system requirements.
Meanwhile, Momentum Games LLC recently unveiled Anthasia with a free demo. This horror-themed indie immersive sim resembles a fusion of System Shock and Jurassic Park, where players explore dense environments and use various tools to survive against dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures. Other interesting-looking demos for upcoming first-person titles include Peripeteia, Parkside: Decayed Soul Manipulation, Selaco, and Agent 64: Spies Never Die.
Additionally, some already-released games are trying to pick up new players by timing major updates with the FPS fest. They might be worth another look or a reinstall.
Ultrakill's new Full Arsenal update adds a new stage, weapon variations, and a very hard difficulty mode. The free patch also introduces numerous fixes and other changes to rebalance the game, which is 25 percent off at $18.74.
The remake of the original System Shock, which Nightdive Studios released last year, received a major update earlier this month and is more than half off at $17.99 for the FPS Fest. The 1.2 patch adds an optional female player character, cloud save support, and myriad other significant changes to optimize the game and improve its performance on the Steam Deck. Moreover, the game's final battle has been completely rebuilt.
Black Mesa, the fan-made remake of the original Half-Life, is 80 percent off at $3.99 and received a patch to improve performance and handheld compatibility. The new renderer should work better on Vulkan, the game now officially supports official console gamepads, and higher graphics settings have been added.
Turbo Overkill, which is rated "Overwhelmingly Positive," also received an update that adds an endless map, bug fixes, and plenty of minor changes. The game has a free demo and is on sale for $17.49 at a 30 percent discount.
Steam FPS Fest (as in first-person shooter) offers tons of deals and free demos
