John Cantees
Loopmancer doesn't get enough right to make up for its shortcomings, but certainly has some bright spots that roguelike enthusiasts will appreciate.
Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series is an excellent remaster that more or less, manages to honor its source material.
Arcadegeddon has solid gun play mechanics and a setting that most will appreciate but its generic structure and lack of enemy variety hold it back from truly shining.
DNF Duel’s approachable take on the genre might hold it back for some, but will likely hit the sweet spot for many newcomers and mid-level players.
The solid story, good graphics, and decent amount of content make SpellForce 3 Reforced a reasonably good time if you can put up with the side effects of it being forced into a console experience.
Dolmen relies too much on the Soulslike playbook to be much of anything other than a middling iteration of the formula.
Roller Champions loses its momentum too fast, but provides great bursts of genuine fun along the way.
Salt and Sanctuary checks all the boxes for what a 2D Soulslike should have but doesn't do much beyond that, delivering a worthy, albeit conventional addition to the sub-genre.
Teardown has some genuine moments of chaotic fun that are sometimes interrupted by long periods of tedium and some minor performance issues.
The Serpent Rogue keeps its head above water with its handling of its world and challenge, but struggles to excel very far beyond that.
MotoGP 22 is better than several of its predecessors, but leaves most of its potential wasted.
MLB The Show 22 still has room to improve for the future, but makes more than enough changes to remain a great baseball experience at the end of the day.
Stranger of Paradise does indeed feel like a stranger in the Final Fantasy series, but mostly succeeds because of it.
Tunic executes the ideas of classic RPGs with such confidence that it's nearly impossible to not enjoy it.
The new ideas Dawn of Ragnarök plays around with are fun, but it can’t fully flourish under the weight of inconsistent writing and janky combat.
Despite not expanding on its gameplay ideas enough to avoid tedium, the ambience, atmosphere, and ease of play do make Submerged Hidden Depths a competent addition to its genre.
ELEX 2 doesn't have much going for it outside of some incremental improvements over the first game, limiting its appeal more than it needed to.
GRID Legends misses a few opportunities to be truly excellent, but still exceeds the limitations of its predecessor to become arguably the best GRID game yet.
Despite a of couple hang-ups, Sifu should be commended for injecting a sense of danger and realism back into the beat ‘em up genre.
Despite some slight performance issues, God of War not only lands on PC well but also proves to be a much more natural fit for the platform than any other PS4 exclusive so far.