Zero Parades: For Dead Spies may not be Disco Elysium 2 on paper, but it certainly might be in spirit. ZA/UM delivered a stellar narrative-driven RPG, building on the foundations of their critically acclaimed masterpiece, and making something new and exciting. Sure, it might not have the same level of raw weirdness or nonsense that Disco Elysium had, but there’s still quite a lot of that around, too.
The first Industria is, by all means, a stellar title, able to jump into the fray made of countless FPS already on the market and carve its own niche. From developer Bleakmill, the expectations on this sequel were high, especially for fans of the series. Unfortunately, Industria 2 released in an unacceptably broken state: between severe performance issues, bugs of all kinds that range from game-breaking to annoying, and clearly unfinished visual, design and gameplay components, anything good that could come out of it is overwhelmed by its negative aspects. Calling this a finished, release-ready game would be preposterous for any studio, Indie or otherwise.
Lay of the Land isn’t a long game; in fact, it took me about 18 hours to fully explore the map and defeat all bosses, but it’s nonetheless a solid open-world survival, with some caveats, that manages to stand out from a very thick crowd. In some aspects, it’s as generic as they come, but in many others, it’s very much unique and surprising. If you like titles like Minecraft and Terraria, and have a knack for customizing every little bit of your home base or building monumental masterpieces, this is definitely a solid pick.
Despite some surprising drawbacks, Death Stranding 2 remains an exceptional game, as its overhauls, novelties, and additions to an already excellent formula take it a step further when compared to its predecessor, in almost every aspect.
Esoteric Ebb is one of the most unique, well-crafted, superbly written pieces of gaming I've had the pleasure of delving into for a long time. I wouldn't be exaggerating by putting it on the same shelf as Disco Elysium or Baldur’s Gate 3, as far as the quality of roleplaying and writing are concerned. It’s nothing short of a masterpiece, despite it lasting just about 25-30 hours, not counting the excellent replay value. To think a few people in some basement managed to craft a roleplaying experience of this level is astonishing: it makes much bigger and infinitely higher budget titles eat the dust, and a lot of it too. If you’re a fan of CRPGs, or even just narrative-based games in general, this is a top pick you shouldn’t miss for any reason.
Inky Blinky Bob wants and tries to be a lot of things: a vehicle-based FPS, a survival horror, an open-world RPG and, at times, a quest-based nonlinear adventure and a stealth game. The saying goes: ‘too many chefs spoil the broth’, and in this case, perhaps ‘too many genres spoil the game’. In some ways, this mish-mash of genres actually works pretty well; in others, much less so. It’s good and all to experiment and blend things together to craft a fine mix, much like cocktails; however, even for the most experienced studios, never mind an Indie one on their first Steam release, this would be a daunting task. The result of great ambitions and only passable execution is still better than most similar cases: a game that works and plays out just well enough to be passable, but not nearly well enough to be actually good, let alone great.
Cronos: The New Dawn is a competent, interesting, and enjoyable survival horror, but it underuses interesting concepts and has a story that feels obscure for the sake of being obscure more than anything else. If you’re a fan of survival horror, you should definitely consider it, because it’s good at what it does.
After the 25 hours it took me to complete Atomfall on Veteran (Very Hard) difficulty, I realized that it is a suboptimal, amateurish, half-assed attempt at an Immersive Sim by Rebellion. Despite some good points and a decent narrative, its utter, abysmal failure in most gameplay departments and evident lack of polish completely demolishes any enjoyment you might try to get out of it. It’s just not good enough—not for a AAA title or compared to its contemporaries in 2025, in a time and place where many extremely successful examples of the genre exist, all of which are infinitely better than this mediocre slop. Without exaggerating, Atomfall is one of the worst Immersive Sims on the market currently, and something I would not recommend getting under any circumstance.
Eternal Strands is a solid action-adventure title that stands out from the crowd thanks to its original gameplay formula and setting, but leaves you wanting when it comes to its narrative. It took me around 30 hours to complete it on Hard difficulty, taking considerably extra time to complete all side quests and explore each area thoroughly. The story and content are linear, offering no tangible reason for a replay. Still, do I recommend it? Absolutely, yes. If you enjoy third-person action games that focus on player freedom and diversity of approaches, and don’t mind narrative drawbacks, then this is a great pick.