5 can feel like a trade off between scale and polish at first, and although this throwback third-person shooter has some incredibly frustrating quirks, it’s still proof positive that a solid concept doesn’t need much polish to shine. Like a magnifying glass pointed at a hill full of giant bastard ants.
Creative Assembly's love for history absolutely bleeds through.
There’s a reason why it’s a classic.
If you're new to the series, I'd still absolutely recommend starting with the original. For fans, though, it's more Valkyria Chronicles, and that's reason enough to pop a giant red exclamation mark above your head with excitement.
All things considered, Crackdown 3 being this enjoyable represents a minor miracle, and I’d love to see what these teams are capable of with the franchise without being dicked around by corporate for half a decade.
A derivative, uninteresting and fundamentally broken stealth action adventure that fails to capture anything interesting about Tolkien's fiction
This first-person shooter from Rick and Morty's co-creator pairs a barrage of nihilistic jokes with flimsy gameplay
The player in this TV series tie-in game is more like a frustrated foot soldier than a gangland kingpin
Encodya has some lovely elements – the soundtrack, a few interesting plays on dystopian fiction and the heart at the core of its story – but uninteresting puzzles, lack of environmental variety, and unremarkable storytelling mean I can't recommend it over its contemporaries.
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.
A bright, simple turn based strategy game with some interesting unit abilities, that fails to engage in any meaningful way. Unless you've played every other strategy game out there, it's honestly not worth your time.
Behind the screams and stunningly-costumed demons, this is escapist junk food for gamers – which may be exactly what you're after
Our compulsion for profit is smartly skewered by this simple game set in a trading-market where the currency is body parts
Relic returns with this safe but solid modern revitalisation of the classic real-time strategy series
Writer Alan Wake searches for his missing wife while tackling a malevolent force disguised as darkness in this clunky but atmospheric reboot
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.
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.
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.
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.