A powerful, rich, and exceptionally well written narrative experience, with exploration mechanics that heighten the power of its stories, Where The Water Tastes Like Wine is let down by its own central premise. Fascinating, but flawed.
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.
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.
A confident, creative approach to the RTS genre that falters in its structure and progression systems.
Dakka Squadron's fast, varied, and challenging aerial combat make it a lot of fun, but it's so singularly geared towards a specific audience that it's hard to recommend to anyone who doesn't already know their squigs from their squiggoths. Otherwise, it's the most fun I've had playing a Warhammer 40k action game since Relic's Space Marine.
An undeniable passion project with incredible world design, addictive gunplay, and a great soundtrack, let down by jank, weak storytelling, and half-baked systems. I could see this getting rave reviews if it had been released in Early Access, though. Give it six months. It's got the makings of a corpse-grinder cult classic.
Fantastic new units and the best lizardmen campaign yet, paired with a cathartic but comically overpowered beastmen stampede.
Aliens: Fireteam Elite has a lack of mission variety, technical issues, bad matchmaking, and a repetitive structure. All of that said, it's still a fun time. I'm off to play some more right now.
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
A compact, confident, bite-sized roguelite with a bit too much emphasis on the 'lite'.
The main story soon falls into repetition, and its side content is bloated with busywork, but exploring and fighting your way through Tango’s eerie, detailed rendition of Shibuya is where Ghostwire: Tokyo shines.
An unsettling, deeply unpleasant management sim, drenched in waves of melancholy and nausea. My Lovely Daughter is affecting, but exhausting, and you'll likely become numb to its horrors long before it concludes.
A visually unique, inventive tactical roguelike with a satisfying combat loop. All Walls Must Fall attempts to offer variety in mission approaches, but fails to make alternative approaches anywhere near as enjoyable as combat. At the same time, combat fails to remain tactically interesting throughout. It's not a flawed masterpiece. It's a failed masterpiece. But fragments of absolute brilliance still remain.
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.
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.
An ambitious RTS/Twin Stick hybrid with a lot of potential and some great moments, let down by technical issues, inconsistent flow, and a lack of tutorials. One to keep an eye on if the premise appeals, but not worth diving into straight away.
SkateBIRD is a charming game with fun writing and a great soundtrack, but can't strike a good balance between offering precision boarding and silly physics chaos.
Writer Alan Wake searches for his missing wife while tackling a malevolent force disguised as darkness in this clunky but atmospheric reboot
Relic returns with this safe but solid modern revitalisation of the classic real-time strategy series
Our compulsion for profit is smartly skewered by this simple game set in a trading-market where the currency is body parts