Today, March 27, is a pretty big day for new releases on Steam. There’s the survival action game Atomfall, the challenging soulslike The First Berserker Khazan, and the horror thriller Karma: The Dark World, among many others. But I can guarantee that none of them are as weird, or as highly rated, as ENA Dream BBQ – a surreal first-person experience that’s essentially an interactive acid trip, but that already has a cult following behind it. Boasting strong player counts and an unbelievable 98% user score already, this could end up being one of the best rated new indie games of the year.
We’ve seen some pretty abstract and unconventional games find surprising levels of popularity on Steam in recent months. There’s the wild psychological horror game Mouthwashing, or the chaotic Peggle-like Nubby’s Number Factory. But ENA Dream BBQ looks set to trump them all. Completely free, and completely absurd, it’s the debut game from popular YouTuber and animator ‘Joel G’ and is based around the bizarre, psychedelic ENA series they created.
For the unaware, ENA is a character physically split into two distinctive sides, represented by different colors and geometries. When their emotional state changes, their facial expressions can shift to either the left or right side of their face, the colors can change, or they can take on alternate forms. Portraying surreal adventures and using visuals and audio that often feels like it’s been plucked out of old PC games from the ‘90s and early 2000s, it’s incredibly trippy. You can check out an episode below, to see what I’m on about.
The ENA series first came to life in 2020, and Joel G’s sporadic episodes attract huge viewership when they’re posted. We’re talking upwards of 3 million views on most episodes.
It’s no wonder then that its cult following has flocked to the first chapter of ENA Dream BBQ, titled Lonely Door, which is totally free to play on Steam. Its launch day peak concurrent player count hit almost 11,000 players, a number that would please any indie dev dropping a new project.
The game’s been in the works for a while and was announced way back in 2021, and more episodes will arrive in the future – albeit, these will be paid and not free like Lonely Door. In this debut episode, you play as ENA herself as “she searches for the Boss that everyone wants to be,” while also meeting a cast of very unusual characters.
It’s hard to place it into an actual genre – think of it as an interactive narrative experience with some light exploration, platforming, and puzzle solving. What is certain though is that players are loving it. Thousands of positive reviews have poured in on launch day, and at the time of writing, ENA Dream BBQ is sitting on an outstanding 98% rating.
ENA Dream BBQ is out now, and its first episode, Lonely Door, is available to play for free. You can learn more about it and download it for yourself here.
To find more unexpected sensations, head to our best indie games guide. Alternatively, our list of the best single-player games is full of amazing narratives – I doubt any are as bizarre as Dream BBQ, though.
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