Steam Gaming: The Year of Early Access Releases

Posted on August 17, 2026 by Aywren

While I do take care what games I pick up during Early Access, I have a weak spot for crafting survival games in particular. This year, for whatever reason, we’re seeing a bunch of the big hitter survival games coming out of early access and releasing into the 1.0 state. This is a good thing!

Here are a number of survival crafting games that I’ve played that have already or are releasing in 2026!

Soulmask

Soulmask is a game we haven’t played in a while, but one we did put over 100 hours into during EA. Compared to the other games on this list, Soulmask in early access was a good bit more jank, and from what I’m hearing, it still is. Though the game is in 1.0 status, they’re currently working on a building rework among other things – a good sign that the devs are still deving this one.

The interesting thing about Soulmask, aside from the mask-possession system, was the ability to build up a tribe of working NPCs. You can then train them in battle and take them along on your adventures, including several stages of boss battles, similar to what you see in the other survival games. However, death is a bit more annoying in Soulmask – at least, it was in EA – and this one remains, I’m fairly sure, the least polished of all the games on this list.

If you have any interest in this game, I highly suggest to wait until it’s on sale. I would also hold back on picking up the DLC as I heard that’s quite buggy. Make sure you know you enjoy the base game first.

Palworld

Palworld has been a shining beacon of fun for Syn and I since the 1.0 release. Actually, we restarted the game earlier this year during EA, and got pretty far into progression, having not played it since close to the original EA launch. I was truly surprised at how much content was added since the final stages of EA.

The devs suggested that you start over with a fresh new game for 1.0, and as loathe as I am to do that, I have to agree that it’s a good idea. There’s a new storyline that helps take you through the world, and while it’s nothing earth-shattering, it gives you a bit more background on why the world is the way it is.

Of course, catching pals, training them up, earning their trust, and building bases where they work to produce all the things you need to continue progressing through the game is the main game loop. We’ve clocked in well over 300 hours, and still going strong.

There’s just so much to do in Palworld! The world feels quite large with lots of big and small things to explore. I love building, fishing, catching pals, breeding pals… I mean, this is just so much more than “Pokemon with Guns” in the finished product. The fact that it’s multiplayer is the final ingredient that keeps us wanting to play deeper into the night than we should.  

Valheim

Valheim’s 1.0 release date is currently set for September 9.

I’d like to say that I’m excited for this, but the truth is, we haven’t played Valheim since January of 2023. That’s not because we didn’t have fun with it – we sank over 150 hours into the early access version. It’s just that Valheim seemed to want to continuously increase the difficulty level of everything to the point that it was getting less and less fun by the time we put a pin in it.

We’ll likely revisit the game again. Afterall, we put a lot of time and effort into it back in the day. And I know they’ve added some difficulty settings that might help us out. I really didn’t like some of the design choices, such as not being able to portal with ore in your pocket. Has that changed since early EA?

I know this is a game we’ll probably have to restart should we play again. I’m not sure I’m looking forward to it as there were parts that felt fairly tedious. But who knows, those parts might not be there come 1.0. I guess we’ll have to see!

Enshrouded

Enshrouded’s release date is currently set for October 15.

Though I haven’t written a whole lot about our more recent Enshrouded adventures, this is one game that we have kept coming back to every time they add something new. We’ve continued to play the same game that we started way back when Enshrouded’s EA was originally released.

This is one game we’re very excited to see launch into 1.0 as it continues to get better and better with every large update. I think between Palworld and Enshrouded, we’re pretty much set for survival game development for most of this year, in fact.

It’s been nice to have a number of these titles in our back pocket, that way, when we start feeling a bit jaded with one game, we can pick up another. Usually, by the time we get back to the first game, a big enough update has significantly changed the game and makes it worth exploring once again.

Really, I don’t mind that we did invest so much time into the early access versions, either. Of course, we’ve had a few that didn’t pan out over the years, but for the most part, watching games like this grow and develop – especially those created by good teams – has been a pleasure.

If you’re looking for your next crafting survival game, give these a good look, and maybe a try. They’re almost always a good price come the big Steam sales!

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