Steam launch: New free-to-play open-world survival sandbox game has full destruction mechanics and "Positive" reviews
Nighthold: Number 1 launched on Steam as a free-to-play survival base-builder on December 11, 2025, and for a new game, early user sentiment is slowly getting more and more positive. The game is being marketed as the first mission in a bigger Nighthold universe, which spins out from the related premium title, with no release date yet.
The game is set on the hostile world Sandrax-66b, and it casts players as colonists who are investigating a corporate starship crash and salvaging its aftermath. Speaking of the core gameplay loop, players will be exploring the crash zone and surrounding biomes, securing resources, and preparing for the nightly emergence of a threat known only as "the Rot." Each sunset changes the pacing of the game from scavenging to defense-heavy survival, with the Rot attacking bases and forcing players to maintain, fortify, or abandon positions.
The main mechanical hook is a fully destructible environment: players can tear down almost any structure, repurpose debris, and rebuild shelters around new chokepoints or terrain features. On top of that, there's a deep base-building layer, where walls, traps, and infrastructure determine whether a colony survives the night or is wiped by Rot incursions and other threats like raiders. Nighthold: Number 1 is free to play on Steam, and it looks like the studio is using that status as an entry point into the Nighthold setting rather than a standalone premium release.
On Steam, Nighthold: Number 1 is sitting on an overall "Positive" rating aggregate from a few reviews, with a clear majority of user reviews recommending it at launch. Early access impressions on YouTube call out the game’s day-night tension, base defense pressure, and destructibility as its strongest traits, while also flagging difficulty spikes and punishing enemy behavior for new players. Some community reviews say that starting enemies like sand monsters can feel somewhat unavoidable when players are undergeared, but most players frame the experience as "chilled yet stressful".
You can check out the Steam store page for Nighthold: Number 1 here.
