I hate Steam Next Fest. My inbox gets destroyed, announcements drop 24 hours a day, some games barely scrape alpha status, and it feels like there’s no way to pick favorites. Still, the odd title manages to sneak through, and Over the Hill is one of the scrappy few you need to wishlist.
Over the Hill was originally revealed in January 2025, and after its limited-time demo, the ongoing wait seems very much worth it. This is exactly the type of game we need in 2026: a lo-fi, chilled, methodical traipse through the great outdoors in a 4×4 — one you can also enjoy with friends, so long as they don’t mind winching you out of a bog, or helping you navigate a surprisingly treacherous river.
If it’s the first time you’ve heard of it, Over the Hill has a real ace up its sleeve: its creator is solo dev Funselektor, A.K.A. Dune Casu, a guy who literally lives the life he’s portraying by ditching Vancouver in favor of a converted van to travel the continent and create his game along the way. He also created the stunning Art of Rally and, most recently, the underrated F1 management sim Golden Lap.
Over the Hill continues to run with Funselektor’s ethos of finding beauty in the journey, but takes it to the next level. It’s a game about seeing where each drive takes you; effectively pointing in the direction of something that looks interesting and just going for it, seeing if there’s anything nice. If there isn’t, who cares?
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Gameplay-wise, Over the Hill is like MudRunner meets Overpass. There’s a light focus on specific, lightly dull mechanics, e.g. your handbrake, winch, or high/low gear, but it’s not enough to get in the way of the experience — rather, it enhances the trip as you navigate weird obstacles that require you to think carefully.
There’s no doubt that ‘Over the Hill’ looks absolutely gorgeous.
Funselektor Labs
For all its great ideas, the demo wasn’t exactly perfect. Over the Hill is in dire need of optimization; my half-decent gaming rig sounded like the Helicarrier when I initially booted it up, and while it performed to solid visual standards without any framerate loss, I can’t quite understand why it’s so demanding. It’s also essentially unplayable without a controller. As a left-handed fella who spent years customizing keyboard layouts to match any game, spurning WASD and using the mouse with my dominant hand, I couldn’t play it as intended without my ever-trusted Victrix Gambit Prime.
You can’t check out the demo anymore — it’s been withdrawn after community feedback, and Funselektor is now “polishing all the areas, optimizing performance, working to provide a more stable multiplayer experience, and improving the overall gameplay” based on feedback.
‘Over the should deliver an experience similar to the gorgeous ‘Art of Rally’.
Funselektor Labs
If the dev journey stays on track, you’ll get Over the Hill on PC this year, and after meeting gamer expectations, it’s headed to the Xbox, PS5, and Switch 2. I’m excited for Big Walk in particular, arriving in August — even if Peak managed to slightly take the edge off the wait by delivering very similar mechanics — but I can’t help but feel that the real, relaxed multiplayer experience of the year will feature the little cars that could.
