Latest Mac games

Andrew Hayward looks at this month’s best new releases

On the hunt for a fresh and exciting game to play this month? Luckily, there’s always something new worth checking out in the world of Mac games, and we’ve put together our picks for the 10 best new titles. Survival smash Rust recently exited Early Access, while Descenders is a frenetic new downhill biking game, Never Stop Sneakin’ is a speedy take on stealth-action classics, and Sailaway lets you explore the world’s oceans on a digital dinghy.

1. Rust

Price: £27.79 from Steam (fave.co/2oM3cSZ)

Rust is easily this month’s biggest full release, and it’s one that has already been available via Steam Early Access for more than four years now, and has sold several million copies along the way. Facepunch Studios’ game is all about survival: from the moment you emerge into the world, naked and alone, you’ll have to fend for yourself.

And you’ll have to do so while playing on online servers, as you harvest resources from the world, build tools, craft weapons, battle (or cooperate) with other players, and hunt animals for food. It’s a big, rough, yet seemingly appealing experience that has drawn in loads of players up until now.

2. Descenders

Price: £19.49 from Steam (fave.co/2oLVNTI)

Descenders fills a gaming void by delivering a freestyle downhill mountain biking game, and it looks thoroughly intense, flinging you through forests and down steep slopes as you try to stay upright and zipping ahead. And you’ll never run out of new terrain to ride across, as the game is fully procedurally generated. You can also ride at night and across snow, which should only make the highspeed antics even more exhilarating. Descenders has launched in Steam Early Access, so it’s not fully complete, but even so, the initial user reviews are strongly positive, praising the game for its impressively realistic trick and handling systems as well as the polished physics.

3. Never Stop Sneakin’

Price: £9.29 from Steam (fave.co/2oRsL5t)

Konami’s beloved Metal Gear Solid stealth-action series may never make its way over to Mac, but Never Stop Sneakin’ looks like an admirable substitute. It’s the latest game from the creator of Dust: An Elysian Tail, and it’s built in the mold of the original Metal Gear Solid from the first PlayStation, albeit much simpler, much faster, and somehow even wackier. For example, one of the main bosses you’ll face is Vice President Helicopter, an actual helicopter, while another is Dr. Acula. This is a super-streamlined take on stealth action, tasking you with speedily rushing through levels while avoiding guards and surveillance cameras… and probably enjoying a few laughs along the way.

4. Dungreed

Price: £7.19 from Steam (fave.co/2H7zuik)

What happens when a peaceful village and all of its inhabitants are sucked into a mysterious dungeon? Well, you dive in and rescue them. Dungreed puts you into the tiny pixel shoes of the adventurer tasked with that unfortunate objective, and you’ll need to fight your way through the dungeon and restore the town and its people to their former glory. It resembles an old-school, side-scrolling action game, and the dungeon takes a new form every time you jump in. And you’ll do that often, since your hero dies for good each time he falls, plus there are no checkpoints in the mix. Luckily, you can improve your hero’s stats over time and employ a wide array of weapons to keep things interesting.

5. Farm Together

Price: £11.39 from Steam (fave.co/2oLgYWa)

Farming games are surprisingly popular, and they come in varying shapes and sizes, but Farm Together seems to find its own niche in the space: it’s colourful, cartoonish, and targeted at casual players, plus it’s best enjoyed cooperatively with pals. As the name suggests, you can play Farm Together online with friends and plant crops, raise animals, and expand your farmstead alongside allies. And it seems pretty chilled: Steam reviewers suggest that it feels like a casual-minded, almost FarmVille-esque mobile game, albeit without freemium annoyances in the mix. It’s in Steam Early Access now, as well, so it still could see deeper gameplay and larger features added in the future.

6. Sailaway

Price: £29.99 from Steam (fave.co/2oNb4E1)

Sailing isn’t easy, cheap, or accessible to everyone, but if you have a capable-enough Mac, you can hit the waves any time you please with Sailaway. This simulation offers up painstaking recreations of the world’s oceans, with varying waves and water colour, plus wind and weather conditions pulled in real time from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. You can sail solo, chat with fellow sailors, invite them on board to help run the ship, or even take part in boat races. Sailaway includes an array of customizable boats, and the game claims to ease in newcomers while allowing more serious sailing aficionados some tougher conditions to contend with.

7. Delver

Price: £11.39 from Steam (fave.co/2HcAXUC)

As with Rust, you might have encountered Delver before now – that’s because it has been available in Steam Early Access for more than four years, plus it started life on Android before that. But this dungeon-crawling role-player only just hit a full 1.0 version on Mac, which means it’s worth putting fresh eyes on whether or not it’s already been on your radar. It might be tough to tell from a still screenshot, but Delver is a 3D game made with crisp, pixel-packed 2D graphics – almost Minecraftesque, but with more detail and personality. Despite the colourful look, Delver promises to be tough as nails, dropping you into a newly-generated dungeon with each attempt, plus death is permanent.

Price: £7.19 from Steam (fave.co/2oM4CNj)

Modern technology has us plugged in and sharing our lives in new and seemingly exciting ways, but our social network feeds and Internet activity only add to the amount of ongoing surveillance on us. Orwell: Ignorance is Strength turns that modern surveillance state into a game, as you use and even manipulate data to protect a fictional nation. As a top-secret agent, you’ll investigate a journalist who is inciting riots and unrest in a neighbouring country. That includes reading his private communications and stories, as well as spying on his family and allies and fabricating information as needed. It’s a sequel, so check out the original first (£7.19 from fave.co/2H948HT).

9. Stellaris: Apocalypse

Price: £15.49 from Steam (fave.co/2oMeS8z)

Stellaris was one of the biggest Mac game releases of 2016, and if you’ve been itching for more reason to set sail across the stars, then here’s a good excuse. The game’s Apocalypse expansion adds some significant new elements to the core experience. The 4X real-time grand strategy affair sees additions like a Colossus planet-killer unit, which can wipe out entire worlds, as well as Titan ship units and nomad Marauders that can be either friend or foe. Ascension Perks and Civics bring some non-combat enhancements, as well, plus the Apocalypse expansion has been timed alongside the game’s 2.0 version release, which itself is surely worth exploring if you haven’t played in a while.

10. Exiled Kingdoms

Price: £5.79 from Steam (fave.co/2oLi8Rw)

We’ve seen newer games like Tyranny and Pillars of Eternity update the old-school, isometric computer role-playing game (CRPG) format, but Exiled Kingdoms is a new game that looks as old as its inspirations. There’s no modern gloss here: it has the look and feel of a game like Blizzard’s original Diablo, as if it was 1996 all over again. On the other hand, it’s £5.79, and Steam reviewers have been pretty positive about Exiled Kingdoms so far. It offers up a huge fantasy world to explore as you battle, take on quests, and chat up the locals, promising 120+ hours of content to take in. It’s like a blast from the past, albeit one that was just released on Mac.