Catherine Daro
To sum it all up, Torment: Tides of Numenera is an amazing game set in a unique and easily recognizable setting. It has a very steep learning curve and a lot of complexity to the systems. Adding the sheer amount of information thrown at the Castoff, the game might be overwhelming for a new player. The companions are well written and varied in their behavior and reactions. Many NPCs are memorable and quest text quality is befitting of a book. In short, Numenera is a decent successor to Planescape: Torment and pays respects to the classic games of the genre.
Styx: Shards of Darkness is everything you could expect this game to be and more. It offers hardcore stealth gameplay for those who are interested in it while simultaneously lowering the skill cap for those who just want to finish the game and do not shy away from a messy slaughter or alarm or two. It is hard to resist Styx’s wits and cockiness even in the middle of situation he gets into. If you were waiting for a sign that Styx: Shards of Darkness is an amazing game worthy of your time, consider this to be just it.
Mass Effect: Andromeda is a very solid game. BioWare had obviously taken their lessons both from original Mass Effect trilogy as well as Dragon Age series and mixed it with fair dose of experience of other AAA titles of late. It is not Inquisition in space, although the influence of it is clearly seen.
Divinity: Original Sin 2 is one of the best story-driven CRPGs of late and the year has not been shy of them. For me, it hit certain marks that Tyranny or Tides of Numenera might have missed.
Dungeons 3 is a solid Dungeon manager that will keep you entertained for many hours between the fun gameplay, loving the attention to the details and endless puns and jeers of Thalya and the Narrator towards each other and famous franchises. If you are tired of the paladins and people who play them, this is the game for you.
Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire has taken Obsidian's formula of success and brought it to the new heights.
Mechanically, the DLC is as polished as any Obsidian's work. However, personally I have come to expect a different product from the company, especially when it is set in the story-rich universe of Eora. Seeker, Slayer, Survivor is not only focused on combat, it is almost purely combat with very little else. If you are not a hardcore player who seeks to push the Watcher's party to the limits and are more interested in the story than battles, this particular DLC might leave you with mixed feelings.
There's a lot to unpack in S:EE. It's head crushingly deep, and those of us who enjoy the fast-paced roguelike stealth 'em up will find a boat load to love about it. Under the clunky UI and questionable progression choices there is a gem of a game that will offer dozens of hours of exploration, questing and a story in a world that'll have you dreaming of electric sheep all night long.
Much like its predecessor, the game comes in two parts. The first part is a tower defense game. The second part involves you carefully meandering your own boulder through all the traps the enemy has set down in part one, before hurtling yourself at the enemy gates.
As a single-player experience, Team Sonic Racing is a competent, if entirely derivative, kart racer with a great cast of characters and vibrant, inventive tracks. But in multiplayer modes, it excels and stands out in its crowded field with new and exciting innovations and cooperative features that challenge the tried-and-true formula.
Summary: SpellForce 3: Soul Harvest is an excellent RTS with RPG elements that smoothed out many rough edges of its predecessor. The developers put a great deal of effort into the expansion in order to improve the game in every aspect.
Like many first titles in a newly born series, GreedFall is a game that features a great idea with a flawed execution. At times, it feels that the game is unsure of what it wants to be and what exactly it wants to show to the players, which brings out its imperfections. I hope that overtime Spiders has a chance to iron out the identity of the game and manage to withstand the weight of the expectations that will now fall into their laps.
At its current state, Crossroads Inn is a niche project plagued with technical difficulties, spoiling the good impression from the game. It can be a lot of fun when it is working as intended but at the same time annoying when it does not. The game could have benefited from a lengthy Early Access/testing stage.
Unfortunately, the finished product ended up being not much of an upgrade over the classic version of the game.
The Llama of Wall Street provides players with several hours of gameplay as you complete the cheeky and charming mission that is so uniquely Tropico. However, compared to the scale of the base game and to the DLC released for previous games of the series, The Llama of Wall Street is light on content for its price.
For the fans of the admittedly niche genre of turn-based RPGs, Wargroove is quite a find considering its price and the amount of content it offers. If you have ever wanted to bask in nostalgia and step back into the waters of classic turn-based titles, Wargroove can offer you a trip back in time and a couple of dozen happy hours.
Even in the Early Access phase, Gordian Quest is a polished, solid game. If you enjoy the genre, you will get a few hours of enthusiastic card-slinging in the first Act as your party of brave heroes struggles to remove the curse plaguing the land. The game already features plenty of content to keep players happy and manages to carve its own little niche by combining CCG gameplay with roguelite and RPG elements.
Mask of Mists is a lighthearted magical adventure that can provide the fans of the genre with few enjoyable hours of puzzle-solving and dungeon-delving.
The Dark Eye: Book of Heroes is a fantasy RPG available on Steam for $30. At this point, I can not recommend the game due to its outdated graphics, clunky mechanics, boring combat and other problems.