Sarah Marchant
It's easy to have mixed thoughts about The Beginner's Guide, but as a game that aims to make you think, it does accomplish this goal. It has some features you don't see too often, such as narrator intervention during unplayable sections, and each level has something unique about it. I still don't know whether I truly like it, but I'm not sure it's meant to be liked, just taken for what it is.
Downwell is a simple and fun 2D platformer. Its unique gameplay makes it fast-paced and challenging, and its roguelike qualities keep it from growing bland or frustrating. Spend a little time with this game and you may get hooked too.
Though it may look like nothing special on the surface, DISTRAINT is a worthwhile adventure game about the toll greed can take. Horror imagery is used to display the main character's all-consuming guilt, and the smart sound design amplifies it perfectly. While the story isn't especially long, it's absorbing and gives you a lot to think about.
Dungelot: Shattered Lands is a fun combination of Minesweeper and a dungeon crawler that you'll surely keep coming back to. While not without its moments of frustration, overall this game rewards you for skill more than it ruins you with bad luck. What it lacks in story it makes up for in its variety of creatures, items, challenges, and treasures.
Road to Ballhalla is an insanely difficult rhythmic puzzler. It’s enjoyable and agonizing in equal measure, tossing a variety of trials at you then teasing you when you don’t overcome them on the first try. For those who can fight their way through and remain cool-headed, dozens of neat features and hours of playtime await.
Typoman: Revised is definitely a step up from the original iteration. It has more of its own style, and the gameplay mechanics rarely feel clunky. Though it hints at a meaningful narrative, ultimately it isn’t very substantial.
Dead in Bermuda is without a doubt an interesting game, from the comic book art style and oddball characters to the challenging resource management. Though this game is somewhat of a mixed bag, I'd say that you'll come away from it with mostly positive feelings. It is strange but enjoyable, and perhaps the vision was too ambitious for the final product.
LOUD on Planet X truly is the indie kid’s rhythm game. While the way it decides the beat of each song can be frustrating at the start, the incredible music catalog aims to keep you coming back.
Human: Fall Flat has its endearing, satisfying moments and its aggravating moments. The physics are fun to play around with and present a challenge, but the wonky camera movement is a weakness that’s hard to overlook.
The Preposterous Awesomeness of Everything is a strange little game that provides a satirical commentary on society today in both smartly subtle and knock-you-on-the-head obvious ways. The cast of characters is mostly comprised of caricatures, but your verb choices and dialogue options let you interact with them in numerous ways. If you're willing to spend some time with it in all its eccentricity and endure its low moments, it rewards you with different endings to uncover.
Though the visuals sparkle and small improvements have been made, overall Dead Island Definitive Edition isn’t different enough from the original to be worth a purchase. In fact, it seems worse in some ways. Only give it a buy if the arena mode sounds appealing, or if you want to show off how powerful your new graphics card is.
Cyber City 2157: The Visual Novel is a strange and vibrant game about an ever-changing futuristic city. The branches of the story give you a lot to chew on, but most threads are never tied up. Give it a try if you enjoy open-ended stories that leave you pondering.
If roguelikes are your cup of tea, you probably won’t find much gripe with Lost Castle. Seeing all the characters you could possibly be is enjoyable, and working through your skill tree feels rewarding, but the grind and repetition of much of the gameplay make you question whether it’s worth the hours.
Cibele has some things going for it, such as a narrative structure based on interaction with the main character's computer. It's a fairly predictable story told in a new way. Some parts of it were intriguing, but overall it didn't really wow me.
If you enjoy putting together model planes, then SimplePlanes is for you. The build mode presents you with seemingly endless possibilities, or you can sample from vehicles the community has created. When it comes to the simulation aspect of this aircraft simulator, it brings nothing new to the table.
Hunter’s Legacy is another platformer in a sea of platformers. Some of the puzzles are clever, going beyond jumping around to involve intriguing elements, but otherwise not much about it stands out from the crowd.
Lovely Weather We're Having has a solid foundation of eye-catching artwork and an ever-changing landscape based on your local weather. However, there are a few negatives that can't be overlooked, such as the rough audio, the lack of dialogue, and the small size of the world. Though I have to give it a low score based on what it is now, I do see potential in this game, and I'm hoping that there will be some updates after its release.
Slybots: Frantic Zone has its redeeming aspects as both a single player and multiplayer game, but without much variety in content or gameplay, the entertainment value wanes fairly quickly. If this game aims to have any sort of longevity, the team will need to continue pushing updates. In its current state, I am not overly impressed with Slybots.
Beat Cop is meant to be a tribute to cop shows from the 1980s, complete with snarky dialogue and questionable characters. When it comes down to it, however, it's a stressful sim that's heavy on time management and largely unforgiving. There are multiple endings you could discover, but after several hours with the game it's hard to muster the patience for even one.
Hero and Daughter+ boasts tons of dungeons to explore, powerful girls to summon, and enemies to defeat. Unfortunately, this seems to be a case of quantity over quality, as most of the characters have flimsy backstories and there are very few surprises. Instead of being treated to a richly detailed story about the world and its inhabitants, making progress largely feels like a joyless numbers game.