James Cunningham
Outcast - A New Beginning is an excellent sequel with a lot of great gameplay elements that go a long way to make up for its need for further polish. Bugs are common, from an outpost with the robots stuck in the floor to breakable helidium crystals floating several feet above the ground they should be poking out of, and the conversation trees are in desperate need of re-ordering. Despite this, though, it's almost impossible to resist seeing what the next villager is up to and their relation to the rest of the world, following the dialogue and fishing out quests as an excuse to see and do more. The world is also beautifully designed, with each village having its own architecture and style while the world map is covered in points of interest and different biomes, providing gorgeous views from just about any spot in the landscape. Combat is also great fun, especially when stumbling on a particularly effective gun combination or figuring out how the latest upgrade fits into the flow of the next hostile encounter. It took over twenty-four years for Cutter Slade to return to Adelpha, but the wait has paid off with an epic adventure on an alien world.
Bore Blasters may have one rough edge in terms of its time limit, but the rest of the game is a solid blaster through a large series of fully-destructible levels backed by a pounding soundtrack. Each biome has its own hazards, like growing blocks that can regenerate right in your path, or lava blocks shooting fireballs, and all the firepower in the world isn't going to be a substitute for paying attention to the level hazards. Even a failed Bore Blasters run is a lot of fun packed with satisfyingly-explosive moments, but there would be a lot more them if there was time to amble to the end rather than sprint.
Expeditions: A Mudrunner Game has a lot of tidying up to do to become what it should be, but there's a wonderfully-rewarding game in there once you've learned its quirks.
What makes While the Iron's Hot work is a combination of a pleasant series of tasks and quirky, entertaining characters in every new town and point of interest.
Radiant Silvergun is considered a classic for a reason, and it holds up today as strongly as it did on release.
Tevi is an exceptionally strong metroidvania-RPG, with a detailed combat system and a large number of enemies with varying attack patterns to use it against in intricate levels filled with hidden goodies.
Oddly enough, though, that's kind of the charm.
The ambition of the game design makes it easy to overlook Wildmender's technical flaws.
Disney Illusion Island is a great all-ages platform-adventure that works hard to appeal to players of any skill level.
Nova Lands isn't the deepest automation game around, but it's also not trying to be Satisfactory or Dyson Sphere Project so doesn't need to be.
Up until the Dread Lords, Doomblade is easily one of the best metroidvanias I've played in a long time.
Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun is a solid throwback FPS that makes up for being too generous with the resources by its excellent weapon, monster and level design.
Lunark is a strong cinematic platformer, more than good enough to hang with the classics of its genre.
Atomic Heart is an "everything and the kitchen sink" type of adventure that feels like it should explode from the weight of its ambitions, yet keeps it together through a combination of good pacing of new elements and a deeply likeable world.
Once the controls are sorted out, Akka Arrh reveals itself as an absolutely fantastic shooter that plays like nothing else out there.
The Knight Witch is excellent in a lot of ways despite its forbidding difficulty, the kind of game you'll be glad to have beaten even if the journey to completion is sometimes a bit much.
Sonic Frontiers is a hugely ambitious new direction for the series that comes close to hitting on all cylinders.
Even with the story not living up to previous entries, Yomawari: Lost in the Dark does a good job continuing the unique horror series.
Vampire Survivors initially feels like a nice bite-sized adventure, something to dip into now and then for the joy of orchestrating a little mayhem as the heart of bullet hell rather than its recipient.
Terror of Hemasaurus is an immensely entertaining monster-fest that, while never backs down from the carnage, makes the violence work with a layer of cheerful dark humor.