Cataclismo

Play it on: Windows (Steam Deck: YMMV)
Buy it from: Humble Bundle
Current goal: Complete the existing campaign

I’ve had a hard time putting Cataclismo down and even when I do I’m still thinking about it. The real-time tower defense hybrid of They Are Billions and a Lego city builder scratches a very particular itch in my strategy brain. It’s in Early Access and rough around the edges still—lots of missing quality of life features and some annoying bugs—but the bones are there and fantastic. You build towering defenses during the day and survive onslaughts of horrors at night. The aesthetic feels a bit like water color Gormenghast fan art, and the mood is post-apocalyptic gothic punk. One of the nicest features is that there are automatic time anchors at regular intervals. If you lose, the game makes it easy to navigate back to previous points in a match to fix your mistakes and chart a different course. It’s not quite save-scumming and it’s a big time saver. If you like building thick stone walls and ridiculously precarious medieval shanty towns, this is the game for you. — Ethan Gach