Dying Light: The Beast plays like the greatest hits of the series' formula with its brutalist combat and slickest parkour yet, and the return of the terrifying night cycle, making it the best Dying Light experience yet.
Cronos: The New Dawn is easily Bloober Team's best original work, delivering a challenging sci-fi survival horror experience with brutal combat in an immersive and tense setting. It's just a shame that it doesn't quite nail the resource management that would elevate it to greatness.
Rosewater combines the Wild West and traditional point-and-click mechanics with relative success, taking players on a road trip that is more about relationship building than the trip's purpose. Which is both its biggest selling point and frustration. Rosewater is full of well-written and performed characters, but it's hard to care about all of them when they're not your headline.
The Drifter has everything you want from a modern point-and-click adventure – a banging story, excellent characters that are unabashedly Australian, and expertly designed puzzles. It's one of the best adventure games you'll ever play and it feels like an evolution for the genre, and Powerhoof deserves all the acclaim about to come its way.
Siren's Rest is an enjoyable, if a little short, dive beneath Still Wakes the Deep's waves that doesn't capitalise on its strong narrative, leaving players a little unsatisfied. The premise and setting do manage to build some solid tension, but it never elevates to a genuine scare factor that would take the experience to the next level.
Slender Threads is a point-and-click adventure with an abundance of visual spunk and entertaining characters that knows how to respect your time and reaps the rewards as a result.
After more than 10 years in the works, Asylum shows its age in some areas, but great atmosphere and an interesting narrative makes checking in at Hanwell Mental Institute a worthwhile time.
Although its gameplay is merely servicable, South of Midnight's dark yet compelling narrative is the shining light, elevated by excellent sound design, enchanting characters and a spectacular art style. It's proof that the industry still has the creative juice when allowed to be squeezed.
Returning to the gorgeous yet brutal world of Tails of Iron was a blast thanks to some improvements that makes Whiskers of Winter a brilliant sequel that excels in what makes the series standout.
With genuinely funny writing, superb voice acting and animations, Loco Motive is a modern homage that is sometimes a little too faithful to the LucasArts adventure games that pioneered the genre back in the day.
When Indiana Jones and the Great Circle plays to its strengths it's a captivating adventure led by Troy Baker's exceptional performances, but sadly some design choices bog it down and stop it from being a generational treasure.
With some gameplay mechanics that ultimately work against the experience, A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead doesn't manage to capture the tension that the world promises.
Until Dawn remains a fantastic horror experience that should find a whole new audience to appreciate it, but with no upgrade, this remake is an expensive sell for returning players.
Other than the new fantastic Rush mode and a greater focus on tactics, EA Sports FC 25 is a familiar yet solid football experience that doesn't do enough to keep the questions about annual releases at bay.
Just as it was in 1996, Broken Sword – Shadow of the Templars: Reforged is an adventure game masterpiece, with Reforged offering players a remarkable trip down memory lane and giving the classic a new lease on life for a new generation of adventurers.
Despite an intriguing premise, The Casting of Frank Stone doesn't hit the heights of Supermassive Games' previous works thanks to a confusing story and some tension-sapping gameplay.
With an incredibly colourful and infectious art style, fun combat, clever puzzles, and a relatable narrative about burnout and escapism, Dungeons of Hinterberg is one 2024's most captivating experiences.
With a cracking setting and emotional narrative that's expertly brought to life by fantastic voice acting and writing, Still Wakes the Deep is a solid horror title that falls short of greatness due to its generic gameplay and limited scare factor.
Harold Halibut's amazingly hand-crafted stop-motion visuals buckle under the weight of the game's repetitive and shallow gameplay and drawn out runtime.
Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden is a compelling tale of love and loss brought to life by phenomenal writing and performances with solid combat to boot, and it serves as a reminder that good storytelling remains a crucial element of video games.