Sea of Solitude dives into a broad range of mental issues and treats them carefully enough to be both educational and emotional. It's just a pity that the bland gameplay drowns out some of its best parts.
The Sinking City is a decent adaptation of Lovecraft's work, meshing dark themes with a variety of great investigations that culminate into tricky decisions. If the combat was less clunky and the world more polished, it would have beckoned all to its desolate shore.
Repetition and a general lack of polish crushes Warhammer: Chaosbane before it has a chance to put up a fight. Although the game has decent visuals and competent action, it is just too stagnant, with the same basic enemies filling poorly-randomized levels.
Diverse movie scenes, twisted dynamic levels, and a handful of good scares help make Layers of Fear 2 a fine piece of horror gaming. Better story pacing and a clearer start might have seen it outperform the competition.
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.