The Surge 2 is a much better, engaging, and rewarding experience than the first game. Dozens of quality of life improvements, more interesting environments and characters, and the addition of parrying makes The Surge 2 a must-play for anyone who even slightly enjoyed their time with the first game. However, the game holds itself back from being an excellent souls-like with some poor lighting in areas, intense difficulty spikes, and a final area that is just plain unfun.
The Sojourn is one of the best games of the year and one of the best puzzle games available, if not the best. Every single puzzle is meticulously designed and challenges you in satisfying ways, without ever feeling impossible. Carefully crafted, beautiful levels. An uplifting, philosophical story that asks you to reflect upon your actions and the world around you. All of these ingredients create an experience like no other and a game you will be thinking about even after the credits have rolled.
Decay Of Logos is the worst game I have ever played. It is filled with poor design decisions and mechanics that don't challenge the player and instead decide to punish them for no reason at all. The game actively tries to make your experience worse. The list of issues with Decay of Logos is long: a bad and jarring camera, no meaningful connection to the world or characters, framerate issues, pointless mechanics. I could go on. Just save yourself twenty dollars and don't buy this game.
Gunfire Games have created a deep looter shooter, with meaningful rewards and tough bosses, combined with a fascinating world packed with lore and story reveals that are worth experiencing. Remnant is a replayable, bitesize adventure that I will be hopping back into again and again. However, the PS4 version at launch is marred by frame rate drops, crashes, and a few fights that feel broken and unbalanced.
Discovering the secrets of the Freedom Town cult, who has power and influence where, as well as the inner workings of the leadership are the best parts of The Church In The Darkness. That combines with excellent stealth gameplay, a dynamic and engaging scenario-based narrative, and some excellent characters with great voice acting to create a memorable and unique experience. An experience that is only held back by a few technical issues and some missing quality of life features.
The Blackout Club is what happens when a concept isn't executed well. Everything about the setting and lore should lead the game to be a surefire hit. But, with the lack of a main story path, painfully repetitive levels, and a torturously grindy progression system, The Blackout Club feels unbalanced, unpolished, and immensely unrewarding. The only thing saving it from being a complete waste of time is that communicating and working as a team, planning out your strategy can be enjoyable, although only in short bursts.
Wolfenstein: Youngblood is an excellent stopgap before the inevitable Wolfenstein 3. You can dip your toes back into the world and the new combat changes come together to create the best combat in the series. Light RPG elements help add a new flavour to the franchise as well. Jess and Soph are the standout stars of Youngblood and help lift up the underwhelming and largely inconsequential main narrative. The overall package isn't as good as The New Order, but Youngblood is a silly, fun, and gory romp worth experiencing.
Etherborn is a great and unique puzzle-platformer with some smart level design and gorgeous views, thanks to its colourful, yet simple art style. It is a tad short and I would have liked to see a little bit more experimentation; however, Etherborn is clearly one of the better, more rewarding puzzle games in recent memory and well worth a playthrough.
Offering a better experience than the Homecoming tie-in, the Far From Home Virtual Reality Experience is exciting and fulfils the 'I am Spider-Man' dream by allowing you to swing around New York as much as you want. Although it doesn't have much replay value, it is free and offers a fun twenty minutes of fantasy fulfilment in its Story Mode.
A short and satisfying dungeon crawler with a litany of skins and crazy weapon designs to unlock and slash at a variety of enemies with. Co-op makes it a great family game when you combine it with how easy the game is. It may be a little long for how simple it is, but there is still a great five-to-eight hour experience here.