Not even a fever can stop me, because Saturday is crucial for checking out the latest RPGs and strategy games that launched over the past few days.

Yeah, I caught a bit of a fever, nothing serious. I was a little out of it for just one day, but today I’m already feeling great. I know you don’t really care about me, and you’re here to see what’s new to play, so let’s see what’s new on the table, because this week offers a solid range of options, thanks to the release of several titles I consider genuinely intriguing.

RuneQuest: Warlords

• Developers: Virtuos
• Platforms: PC
• Release date: December 9
• Steam page

I’ll kick off this recap with the release of RuneQuest: Warlords. A battle-scale, turn-based strategy game set in Glorantha, adapting Chaosium’s RuneQuest universe into grid-based tactical fights where positioning, zones of control, and action points drive every engagement.

Released on PC on December 9, 2025, it runs a story campaign across 18 missions following Hahlgrim of Talastar as his tribe pushes back Chaos spilling out of Dorastor, with iconic RuneQuest figures showing up along the way; on the battlefield, heroes and units spend AP on movement, attacks, special abilities, and spellcasting, while systems like opportunity attacks, counter-attacks, and a Sentry mode reward careful turn pacing.

Armies are built from multi-model units (from 1 to 7 models per unit), with health tracked per model, and magic is a constant tactical lever through Spirit, Rune, and Sorcery, plus rune affinities that unlock god-linked powers as heroes grow.

Beyond the campaign, it also includes competitive scenarios and online PvP for replayable faction matchups between Talastar, Chaos, and the Lunar Empire. We’ve also played and reviewed the game, so if you’re looking for a complete overview, you’re covered.

Keep the Heroes Out

• Developers: Brueh Games, YarnCat Games
• Platforms: PC
• Release date: December 9
• Steam page

The pull of Dungeon Keeper is still incredibly strong despite all the years since its release, so when a game puts you in charge of beating up unlucky heroes trying to invade your dungeon, it’s love at first sight.

That’s exactly the case with Keep the Heroes Out, a cooperative dungeon-defense strategy game where 1–4 players run the dungeon as the “monsters,” trying to keep their treasure from being looted by invading heroes.

Each player picks a monster with its own special abilities, a different number of creatures to control, and a unique starting deck; on a turn, cards are played one at a time to take actions, and the icon order on a card isn’t strict, so actions can be split across multiple monsters before the hand refills back to five.

As the run goes on, loot cards can be crafted to upgrade the deck, and team play leans on role variety (crowd control, defense, support) as an evolving puzzle.

After a player finishes, the heroes push into the dungeon and attack; monsters can die and return, so nobody gets knocked out, but stolen treasure is gone for good—and if the vault’s hoard is emptied, the team loses. It launched on Steam on December 9, 2025, from Brueh Games and YarnCat Games.

Death Howl

• Developers: The Outer Zone
• Platforms: PC
• Release date: December 9
• Steam page

One of the titles I followed very closely throughout its entire development finally launched this week, and so far it’s delivering strong results. I’m talking about Death Howl, a soulslike deckbuilder from The Outer Zone, published by 11 bit studios, built around tactical, grid-based fights and open-world exploration in a grim Spirit World where a hunter named Ro tries to bring her son back from the dead.

Cards drive your options in combat and progression, with more than 160 cards to shape builds, plus Totems and region-by-region unlocks as the world opens across four realms and 13 regions.

Lots of enemy types, side quests, and “grim boss battles,” with an estimated 25+ hours for a full run through the journey. It launched on PC via Steam on December 9, 2025, with PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and Switch versions slated for 2026. And here you can find our review.

Dissimilar

• Developers: Opal Grave Games
• Platforms: PC
• Release date: December 9
• Steam page

Another very distinctive adventure that I strongly recommend you check out is Dissimilar. A mystery RPG from Opal Grave Games, built around freeform exploration and turn-based tactical battles inside “the Haven,” a sprawling, handcrafted castle you can search in any order for secret passages, locked doors, and clues tied to Amelia’s family history.

The setup has Amelia’s best friend hacking her car and dragging her back to the childhood holiday castle against her will, kicking off a strange “game” that mixes present-day investigation with childhood memories and leans into speculative-fiction themes about technology, ethics, and buried trauma.

Combat focuses on planning around enemy behavior patterns, team positioning, and skill use, with the developers framing it as a battle system that sits between puzzle design and RPG tactics.

When fights go wrong, defeat pushes you to try new routes and strategies with different fighters and abilities. It was released on Steam for PC on December 9, 2025, and there’s also a playable demo.

The Temple of Elemental Evil

• Developers: Troika Games
• Platforms: PC
• Release date: December 10
• Steam page

This is definitely a delightful gem that couldn’t be left out among the most notable releases of the past few days. The Temple of Elemental Evil, a party-based Dungeons & Dragons CRPG set in the Greyhawk setting, where a ruined cult temple near Hommlet and Nulb becomes the center of a new threat as bandits hit the roads and darker forces gather at the old site.

This Steam release is billed as an updated edition of the 2003 Troika Games RPG, with “over a thousand” fixes and improvements credited to long-running community efforts like Circle of Eight and Temple+, including stability, AI, UI, and quality-of-life work alongside the original tactical, turn-based combat.

Players build a group with five controllable characters plus up to three followers, customize builds with skills, feats, and spells, and steer through multiple story paths and endings with support for different alignments. It launched on Steam for PC (Windows) on December 10, 2025, published by SNEG.

Unto Deepest Depths

• Developers: McCollum Games
• Platforms: PC
• Release date: December 11
• Steam page

Unto Deepest Depths is a single-player, turn-based strategy roguelite from McCollum Games where the core twist is a hard rule: every unit must move and attack each turn, so there’s no turtling and no “wait” button to stall for better angles.

Parties grow through XP earned in battles and events, which is then spent to hire, promote, and upgrade units, with promotions unlocking elite specializations and upgrades forcing tradeoffs since not every unit can become good at everything.

Runs play out through procedurally generated conflicts across five biomes, with bosses, elite enemies, and event choices that shape your route as you push further underground. Released on December 11, 2025, there’s also a demo available on Steam.

Lords of the Void (E.A.)

• Developers: BoargamesStudio
• Platforms: PC
• Release date: December 11
• Steam page

Lords of the Void is a 2D, turn-based fantasy strategy game from BoargamesStudio set after a world-shattering magical Calamity, where battles and campaign missions frame four asymmetric factions: the last remnants of humanity, “mistical” magicians, demons inspired by Slavic mythology, and steam-powered lizards, each with its own units, heroes, and faction-specific abilities.

Steam describes the Early Access build as launching with four fully implemented campaigns (five missions each), plus a map editor that supports triggers and events for custom scenarios.

Outside the campaigns, it also supports local hotseat play for up to eight players in free-for-all matches, team skirmishes, or games against AI, with online multiplayer listed as a planned free update.

Unity of Command II – Ardennes 44

• Developers: 2×2 Games, Croteam
• Platforms: PC
• Release date: December 11
• Steam page

And don’t say I never talk about hardcore strategy wargames. This week saw the release of a new DLC for a title that, in my view, has a very strong community behind it. I’m talking about Unity of Command II – Ardennes ’44.

A DLC campaign for 2×2 Games and Croteam’s operational WWII wargame that shifts you to the German side for the winter of 1944–45, starting with the Ardennes Offensive and continuing into the desperate late-war fighting as the Red Army closes in during spring 1945.

It comes with 14 scenarios split into two tracks: a seven-scenario historical branch that follows the Ardennes push and the final stands in the East, and a seven-scenario alt-history branch that lets the campaign break away from real events.

The DLC also adds two new maps (a wide-angle Ardennes view and a zoomed-in route focused on Kampfgruppe Peiper), plus new units and late-war “red” specialist options that are limited to a single unlock and often represent specific formations or equipment. It was released on Steam on December 11, 2025, and requires the base game to play.

Wartales – Expansion: The Curse of Rigel

• Developers: Shiro Games
• Platforms: PC
• Release date: December 11
• Steam page

The world of Wartales keeps getting bigger, introducing a brand-new county packed with a ton of compelling new content.

Wartales – Expansion: The Curse of Rigel is Shiro Games’ DLC that sends a mercenary company into the County of Rigel, a secluded valley in the Alazar mountains dominated by the Weald, a sun-starved forest where navigation breaks down, and light becomes a survival resource as you push deeper into shifting trails and hostile encounters.

The expansion frames its new content around the spreading corruption in the woods: “corrupted” foes and attacks on locals, plus a graft theme where survivors can study and potentially harness powers found in the Weald while trying not to lose themselves to it.

Back at camp, it ties progression to research and alchemy experiments meant to decode those grafts, and it introduces the Thaumaturge, a new class built around fumes and concoctions that can buff allies and weaken enemies, with a self-risk angle from inhaling vapors to amplify effects (and the class is also made available to all base-game players).

The Curse of Rigel was released on Steam on December 11, 2025, and requires Wartales to play.

Mirage Miracle Quest demo

• Developers: Toe Bean Club
• Platforms: PC
• Release date: December 9
• Steam page

*Mirage Miracle Quest *demo lets you play the first chapter of Mirage: Miracle Quest, a retro-styled, hand-painted RPG where Mirage, a young exorcist, travels the continent of Andafy and confronts restless spirits while a larger mystery unfolds around her hometown and her family’s past.

Combat is turn-based, but it borrows deckbuilding ideas for customization, so battles lean on synergies and build choices and the demo is positioned as an early-development slice (English-only) that’s only available on Steam until December 23, 2025, with progress not carrying over to the full game. There’s no release date yet for the full game.

Infinity: HexaDome Tactics Demo

• Developers: Blindspot Games
• Platforms: PC
• Release date: December 10
• Steam page

Demo to Infinity: HexaDome Tactics from *Blindspot *Games just debuted this week. We are talking about a turn-based tactics take on Corvus Belli’s Infinity universe, drawing directly from the Aristeia! tabletop game and framing matches as arena combat built around champion synergy and shifting objectives.

It plays like a competitive 1v1 where you command a squad of four champions, each with distinct abilities and class roles, and you’re pushed to win through positioning and timing, using a cover system, points of interest on the map, and a “goal post” objective that keeps moving as the match evolves.

Turns hinge on resource decisions, whether to spend power now or bank it for an ultimate-style swing, while the presentation leans into the HexaDome spectacle, complete with crowd and sponsor flavor. The demo was released on December 10, 2025, and was published by Polden Publishing. No release date for the full game yet.

Happy Bastards (Playtest)

• Developers: Clever Plays
• Platforms: PC
• Release date: December 10
• Steam page

One of the titles sitting at the very top of my personal list is definitely Happy Bastards. An open-world tactical RPG from Clever Plays where the player controls Kev, a shameless would-be “hero” who stays out of danger while a squad of recruitable mercs takes the hits, earns the loot, and (often) pays the price.

It mixes real-time overworld exploration with tight, grid-based turn-based fights on small battlefields, and it leans on procedural merc generation so each recruit comes with different attributes, skills, perks, looks, and personality quirks that can shape how a run unfolds.

The game calls out a harsher edge to progression; injuries, dismemberment, and permadeath, alongside “unorthodox” fixes like grafting, transmogrification, and raising the dead, plus a hand-crafted world of towns, dungeons, and events where NPC and monster activity is simulated in real time and can shift based on what you do.

If you want to get hands-on early, the developers are running playtests, and they’ve recently rolled out a “Combat Playtest Version 2” update; the full release date is still listed as TBA.

That’s everything I had that was worth showing you this week. Now I can head back to bed and wish you a great weekend. See you.