Empire of Sin is a promising strategy game but one that feels woefully incomplete. I can't recommend it, but I can recommend following it's hopeful transition into something genuinely wonderful.
Tenderfoot Tactics' uncompromising design and freeform structure might feel alienating to some, but persevere, and you'll find a deeply thoughtful, nigh on meditative experience layered with creative, confident turn-based combat.
A confident, creative approach to the RTS genre that falters in its structure and progression systems.
A compact, confident, bite-sized roguelite with a bit too much emphasis on the 'lite'.
Iron Harvest's incredible presentation and scrappy, dynamic battles can't always save it from uneven mechanical depth and arbitrary-feeling limitations. A celebration of the some classic RTS, but not an evolution of it.
The player in this TV series tie-in game is more like a frustrated foot soldier than a gangland kingpin
Popup Dungeon nails the papercraft look, has some endearing and funny writing, and provides an intriguing framework for community-created content. The core of its tabletop-inspired combat system isn't engaging enough to hold it up alone, ultimately leaving it up to whatever community it attracts to decide whether it's worth putting your own paper on the table.
Fae Tactics is a charming, ambitious homage to classic tactical RPG's with plenty of its own ideas, but it never quite add up to greatness. It fails to explain so much of what's going on under-the-hood that victories often feel unearned and defeats often feel arbitrary. The great presentation and some solid core systems means it stays entertaining in small doses, however. I'd still tentatively recommend it to dedicated genre fans.
In Death: Unchained is a good game, it's a hard game, and it even feels great when you're losing. A really solid little roguelike that's absorbing enough to make you forget that you're technically exercising while you play.
My only real major disappointment with Atmomicrops is that the advertised simulation bits turn out only to be a few light nods to the genre. It’s got some simulation-shaped aspects, sure, but they’re flimsy plastic ferns in comparison to the very much alive and dynamic creeper vines of its shooty-dodgy core. This said, the farming does make fighting more interesting simply by providing a worthwhile distraction, leading to almost unbearably chaotic instances of frantic multitasking. As long as you know what you’re getting into, and are up for sewing a few hours of practise in before you reap the rewards, I think it’s well worth your cashews. Which I’ve only just realised are a play on ‘cash’. Ooh.
It’s a winner. Sixteen tons of detail, sixteen tons of character, sixteen tons of riotous bug blasting, spelunking co-operative goodness. Deep Rock Galactic is a company I’ve got no qualms about selling my soul to for hours more to come.
While the starring wayward sons of A World Betrayed offer flavourful and dynamic new campaigns, neither quite manages to leave the shadow of the dramatically different playstyles in the Mandate of Heaven DLC.Nic Reuben
It’s a game that pays homage to genre conventions like hacking and exploration, but with forward facing design. Rather than backwards. Then side to side. Then 90 degrees to the left. Monch monch.
This compulsive genre-crossing title combines animation studio with design toolkit and social network as it teaches game creation
There’s a reason why it’s a classic.
Iceborne is an essential expansion for a game that is paradoxically both enormous and niche. I’d recommend it to everyone – even if only because it’s likely to convert a few of you to veganism.
I had a genuinely good time with it for at least 75% of the time I spent playing it. If you’re actually into the series as a whole, I imagine you’ll have an even better one.
I had a great time with John Wick Hex. It tiptoes the line between tactics and puzzler in an engaging way, has a ton of character, and feels exactly as minimal as it needs to be
Warsaw has the makings of a genuinely fascinating, unyielding tactical game with a lot of heart and reverence for the events it’s based on. Still, as is, it’s currently a hard sell unless you’re really intent on a challenge that, while thematically resonant, often feels more arbitrary than it is complex.
Hugely satisfying combat and some smart world design carries a decent Souls-like that feels like a solid, if safe, alternative for genre fans. The Surge 2 is competent, with flashes of excellence, but loses some of its own identity in the shadows of its inspirations.