5 December 2025

Steam Users Have Until December 8 to Try This City Builder with Overwhelmingly Positive Reviews for Free

By newsgame

Fans of city builders and Steam have a great opportunity to try out Songs of Syx for free until December 8. Developed by Gamatron, Songs of Syx has been in early access since late 2020, and in that time it has racked up more than 6,000 user reviews, giving it an Overwhelmingly Positive overall rating on Steam.

Songs of Syx is a low fantasy city-builder where players turn a colony into an empire, eventually commanding armies of tens of thousands in real-time battles. The pixelated game presents would-be rulers with a variety of fantasy races, cultures, and odd creatures to conquer and subdue, and plenty of gods to worship. Roads will be built, plazas constructed, and ports busied with commerce. It’s an indie game run by a one-man development studio and funded by a successful Kickstarter campaign.

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Songs of Syx Is Free to Play for a Limited Time

A player looking at their taverns in Songs of Syx

To coincide with the release of its “Riders of Doom” update, Songs of Syx will be available to play for free until December 8 at 10 AM PST. Those unfamiliar with the game will not only get to try it out but also see the improvements brought with Version 0.70. “Riders of Doom” adds spearman and cavalry to the archers and infantry already in the city-builder, and they will provide flanking and defense to the player’s conquering army.

Songs of Syx of course places a lot of importance on battles, allowing players to build an army with up to 50,000 individual soldiers. These can be citizens, allies, and even conscripted mercenaries, and they will be led against equally numerous opposing armies. In that vein, the 0.70 update enhances enemy AI, an ongoing process that Gamatron is constantly tweaking. “Riders of Doom” also lets rulers abandon camp and relocate to greener pastures if desired, bringing resources and earned levels along to make resettlement faster. The update also brings a number of bug fixes and quality-of-life adjustments to a variety of gameplay elements. And for players who end up really enjoying the game after the free-play days are over, Songs of Syx is currently on sale for 25 percent off.

Other Free Games to Check Out on Steam

Songs of Syx is just one of many pixel-style simulator games currently on the market, and there is a wide range of settings and moods to choose from. Moving from the tactics and chaos of Gamatron’s indie city-builder, players can dive into the demands of maintaining a cemetery with Graveyard Keeper or focus on creating the perfect attractions in Let’s Build a Zoo. And 2018’s side-scrolling strategy game Kingdom Two Crowns may change the genre’s standard isometric POV, but the level of player enjoyment is equally high.

For those looking to try out more games for free, there are usually at least a few to be found. There are numerous free-to-play games available on Steam, and they include everything from single-player RPGs and MMOs to dystopian isometric stealth games with an animal protagonist like Not My War.

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide is also currently free to play on Steam until December 8 at 10 AM PST. December 2 saw the launch of a major update that introduced the Hive Scum class, as well as some new weapons like the Crowbar, Shivs, and Dual Auto Pistols. The free Darktide DLC resulted in a surge of players hopping into the action shooter, showing that the player base is still thriving three years after the game’s release.

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Switching platforms, Amazon Prime Gaming just revealed 14 free games that members will be able to claim throughout December. Some are available now, while others will be added as the month progresses. Those that can be claimed now include Tequila Works’ survival horror game GYLT, Forgotten Realms: The Archives – Collection One, and LEGO 2K Drive. Later in the month, the other two collections of Forgotten Realms games will become available, along with Deux Ex: Mankind Divided, the first two Fallout titles and, for the holiday season, the hidden object game Christmas Adventure: Candy Storm.