Planet Coaster 2's flexible creation tools are as compulsive as ever, but the fun butts up against an exhausting UI, uninspired management gameplay, and conspicuous content gaps that feel like cynical spaces for DLC.
A beautiful, elusive mood piece, Phoenix Springs' blend of taut dystopian detective noir and meandering surrealism is likely to frustrate as much as it intrigues.
Suspicious Developments' latest builds a witty, wonderfully generous adventure around a smart, rewarding, and endlessly imaginative turn-based tactics core.
Developer Coal Supper's relentlessly inventive absurdist comedy might, by necessity, keep a tight rein on players, but this is an impeccably constructed masterclass in gag-telling.
While Still Wakes the Deep is a beautiful work of atmosphere and tension, all that can be shattered by its strictly linear trappings.
Bleak realism meets absurdist fairytale in a stylish, surreal, and astonishingly surefooted - if mechanically unadventurous - exploration of faith, free will, and demonic temptation.
Developer Balloon Studios cultivates a beautiful puzzle game with the timeless allure of a summer's day stroll.
Ubisoft's long-in-the-works pirate adventure boasts a beautiful world and bombastic ship-to-ship combat, but it sinks amid boring busywork and tedious traversal.
Structural complexity and a magpie's eye for pilfering makes for a strange, fragmentary journey into nightmare.
Developer Harebrained Schemes returns with an evocative and pulpy tactical adventure, where enjoyable turn-based combat just about offsets some woeful real-time stealth.
Lorenzo Redaelli follows up 2020's uncompromising The Milky Way Prince: The Vampire Star with a pulverising, shape-shifting visual novel of friendship, post-COVID trauma, and horror in the blistering Italian sun that's as artistically dazzling as it is emotionally raw.
Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew is a cerebral but hugely characterful stealth tactics game filled with creativity and depth. And fun pirate stuff.
Far more than just a Monster Hunter clone, Wild Hearts exceeds expectations and then some, mixing streamlined action with inventive new toys.
An imaginative co-op experience that demands communication and teamwork, and conjures something memorable and unique as a result.
A stylish, dreamily wrought open-world detective adventure that dances masterfully on the edge of cosmic nightmare.
A characterful, frequently charming sequel that doesn't quite match up to the original - and somehow performs worse.
A stylish and smart take on the beloved theme park formula, Parkitect is a winner.
This ambitious survival game emerges from Early Access fully featured but just as in danger of toppling in on itself as ever before.
Sega's brilliant puzzler Puyo Puyo makes a long overdue return to the west as part of this outstanding package.
This colourful co-op puzzler is an ingenious treat that's sadly a little on the small side.