Matt Wales


23 games reviewed
72.3 average score
80 median score
56.5% of games recommended
Are you Matt Wales? If so, email critics@opencritic.com to claim this critic page.

It might not have quite the same wow factor second time around, but Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 builds on its astonishing predecessor with intelligence and precision - making an already impressive achievement richer and more welcoming.

Read full review

Nov 22, 2024

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.

Read full review

Oct 7, 2024

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.

Read full review

Aug 23, 2024

Suspicious Developments' latest builds a witty, wonderfully generous adventure around a smart, rewarding, and endlessly imaginative turn-based tactics core.

Read full review

Jul 30, 2024

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.

Read full review

Jun 17, 2024

While Still Wakes the Deep is a beautiful work of atmosphere and tension, all that can be shattered by its strictly linear trappings.

Read full review

4 / 5 - Indika
May 13, 2024

Bleak realism meets absurdist fairytale in a stylish, surreal, and astonishingly surefooted - if mechanically unadventurous - exploration of faith, free will, and demonic temptation.

Read full review

4 / 5 - Botany Manor
Apr 9, 2024

Developer Balloon Studios cultivates a beautiful puzzle game with the timeless allure of a summer's day stroll.

Read full review

Feb 21, 2024

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.

Read full review

Dec 21, 2023

Structural complexity and a magpie's eye for pilfering makes for a strange, fragmentary journey into nightmare.

Read full review

Oct 6, 2023

Developer Harebrained Schemes returns with an evocative and pulpy tactical adventure, where enjoyable turn-based combat just about offsets some woeful real-time stealth.

Read full review

Sep 11, 2023

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.

Read full review

Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew is a cerebral but hugely characterful stealth tactics game filled with creativity and depth. And fun pirate stuff.

Read full review

Recommended - Wild Hearts
Feb 16, 2023

Far more than just a Monster Hunter clone, Wild Hearts exceeds expectations and then some, mixing streamlined action with inventive new toys.

Read full review

Recommended - The Past Within
Nov 2, 2022

An imaginative co-op experience that demands communication and teamwork, and conjures something memorable and unique as a result.

Read full review

Recommended - Paradise Killer
Sep 9, 2020

A stylish, dreamily wrought open-world detective adventure that dances masterfully on the edge of cosmic nightmare.

Read full review

Jul 10, 2020

A characterful, frequently charming sequel that doesn't quite match up to the original - and somehow performs worse.

Read full review

Recommended - Parkitect
Dec 6, 2018

A stylish and smart take on the beloved theme park formula, Parkitect is a winner.

Read full review

No Recommendation / Blank - Ark: Survival Evolved
Sep 1, 2017

This ambitious survival game emerges from Early Access fully featured but just as in danger of toppling in on itself as ever before.

Read full review

Recommended - Puyo Puyo Tetris
Apr 26, 2017

Sega's brilliant puzzler Puyo Puyo makes a long overdue return to the west as part of this outstanding package.

Read full review