Simple puzzles and bland chases prevent Close to the Sun from living up to its numerous inspirations. While the game has a decent retro style and an intriguing horror narrative, it never makes the player a true participant.
With more interaction and better player choice, The Walking Dead: The Final Season might have transcended its predecessors. But as it stands, Clem's adequate goodbye is aided by strong characters, long episodes, and apt nostalgia.
Freeform investigation with multiple outcomes is scarcely as good as it is in The Occupation, so it's disappointing to see it paired with clunky stealth and an unwillingness to give players enough time to find the game's best-kept secrets.
With excellent vehicle handling, DiRT Rally 2.0 finds itself in a strong position. It also has superb visuals and brutal simulation aspects. Apart from AI issues and track repetition, it should please most rally fans.
With its razor-sharp gunplay, slick movement, ping system, and great combat arena, Apex Legends takes the Battle Royale genre to the next rung on the ladder and challenges its competitors to do better.
Just Cause 4 is an easy-to-play sandbox of chaos with a sprinkling of extreme weather. It holds strong due to an improved grapple and varied tools, and while this explosive sequel won't set the world on fire, you can blow up enough things to make it interesting.
Battlefield V offers incredible pace as it sidesteps into the hardcore realm with modest success. Maps are open and satisfactory for Conquest, albeit with design issues, and some modes are too linear and chaotic. These inconsistencies, along with numerous technical issues, make it a good game that may eventually become a great one.
With no campaign, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 is still a capable sequel with three decent multiplayer offerings. Blackout is an addictive campfest. Zombies has more content than ever before but remains stuck in its ways. Last but not least, traditional multiplayer remains strong as it puts emphasis on teamwork and brings a few intelligent new modes across solid maps.
The Gardens Between is an enjoyable and minimalistic adventure that has you watching two friends ascend abstract memory islands. The puzzle mechanics involving time manipulation are simple, but deliver ample variety over the short journey.
Vampyr is a smart action game that poses regular moral dilemmas as you decide to either heal or kill characters in a wonderfully dark city. With decent melee combat and an interesting story, there are not many vampire games that taste as sweet.
Unforeseen Incidents presents a delightfully captivating conspiracy with wonderful characters and perfect pacing. Its puzzles succeed because they are rational and connected with the story. The icing on the cake is the pleasant and striking visual style.
On the surface, Lake Ridden does not appear much different from other adventure games. But it doesn't take long to see the flaws: a confusing narrative, busywork tasks, fetch quests, and a depressing and dreary world. The handful of good puzzles are simply not enough.
The tactical combat in BattleTech is excellent. Building a roster of gigantic killing machines and managing sundries offers a long-lasting gameplay loop. With a sharper narrative and more polish around the edges, the turn-based 'Mech-killing experience would have been unstoppable.
The wondrous Dwindling Heights is well designed and gives Tilo plenty of opportunities to use his mousey avoidance skills and disguises to help characters. Although there is occasionally too much backtracking, Ghost of a Tale holds a memorable journey in its tiny paws.
Despite interesting choices that alter events, Batman: The Enemy Within is not quite a stellar experience. Watching Joker come alive as he interacts with Bruce is alluring and the finale is impressive, but the second season squanders the best features of the original season and has the same problems as Telltale's other recent efforts.
Like the original, Q.U.B.E. 2 keeps the emphasis on smart puzzle design and maintains a core group of mechanics that fit together like a glove.
Chuchel's overt humor and slick animations will make for an entertaining few hours but its simple puzzles and throwaway mini-games fail to ensnare deep imagination.
BLIK uses a typical first-person puzzler template to produce a substandard game. Because of its bad reflection mechanics, playing with mirrors has never been so irksome.
Subnautica links progression to dive depth and it pays dividends. It also provides useful tools and varied submersibles that facilitate the steady exploration of wondrous biomes far below the waves.
The story and characters in Life is Strange: Before the Storm help to make it a valued addition to the universe. An alluring friendship between the two main characters is the key to its success. It's just a pity that ineffectual player choice, weak adventure mechanics, and a lacklustre ending prevent it from creating a lifelong bond with the audience.