Draugen is a short exploration game with not a whole lot to explore, but its majestic Norwegian vistas and its amusing companion engagement make it worth the trip.
Months after the final release, Gwent: The Witcher Card Game is still going strong. The minigame-turned-esport continually goes through iterations and patches, shedding skins and morphing into a real beast of a card game. It has a wistful past, a solid present, and a bright future.
Band of Bastards is essentially a short side quest consisting of five combat-driven missions and an extremely unsatisfying conclusion.
The Amorous Adventures of Bold Sir Hans Capon is a bundle of glorified side quests that you might enjoy if you already enjoyed the base game quests featuring Hans Capon and the Charlatan of Sasau.
From the Ashes meshes well with the base game, and it might help you discover some overlooked side quests. The village building and management is interesting, but ultimately superficial. The conclusion feels somewhat anticlimactic.
The Occupation is a taut investigative simulation and stealth thriller. It's infused with a realistic and multidimensional approach to mechanics, systems, and level design. This is a must-play for fans of Deus Ex and Dishonored.
While it doesn't offer much in the way of closure, The Forgotten Sanctum is a satisfyingly eccentric expansion with Cronenbergian elements and an atmosphere vaguely reminiscent of Planescape: Torment.
Eastshade is an immersive and contemplative adventure set in a quirky fantasy universe. In spite of some performance issues and underdeveloped mechanics, it achieves a memorable gaming experience.
There was a lot of potential in Kingmaker, but also a lot of wasted potential. The developers might still be able to salvage this potential if they listen to criticism and are willing to overhaul the game in every possible way.
Seeker, Slayer, Survivor plays like filler DLC. It's below average and lukewarm at best, with very little of what makes an Obsidian RPG in the mix.
Slay the Spire is a vertiginously challenging and infinitely replayable roguelike deckbuilder set in a highly original dark fantasy universe.
Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden is a competent albeit narratively underwhelming tactical RPG with novel stealth mechanics and solid turn-based combat.
Even if you can get past the countless technical issues, Underworld Ascendant is a poorly designed abomination that ruins the Underworld series even to those who've never heard of it. This is the final nail in the Immersive Sim™ coffin. Bury it and salt the earth.
Though tainted by a broken difficulty mode, Thronebreaker stands on the shoulders of The Witcher as a morally complex and often harrowing Macbethian tale of royal revenge and revolt.
Return of the Obra Dinn breaks the mold of the gaming medium as an enthralling first-person mystery adventure with overtones of Edgar Allan Poe. This is an extraordinary conjunction of cerebral puzzle, supernatural nautical tale, and ornate art direction.
Shadows: Awakening doesn't do much that is new or interesting, but it does achieve a mostly enjoyable ARPG experience that will appeal to diehard fans of the genre.
What Beast of Winter lacks in content it makes up for in depth with an intriguing plunge into the history of Eora.
Phantom Doctrine is a life-consuming espionage simulator that offers a deeply complex cluster of systems to explore. Its turn-based tactics gameplay is a feat of engineering that will offer players many hours of combat thrills and stealth schemes.
Unavowed succeeds as a mature point-and-click adventure set in an urban fantasy world, though it falters in some of the fine print.
A short and mystical experience marred by several flaws, Gray Dawn falls short of its great potential.