Arcade-style giant fighting robot action overcomes repetitive missions and a sometimes-nightmarish HUD.
A thoroughly decent-to-good mech game with some weird design choices and a not-always-good retro feel.
Finally, a roleplaying game where you play a role instead of “press button, make the number go up.”
The timeline idea is a neat gimmick but this is a pretty basic strategy game. If you want something simple or are a John Wick completist, it’s worth a gander. Otherwise, get back into the Long War mod for XCOM and blast alien scum.
We’re through the initial burst of Blood/Souls enthusiasm and into the second era, when “It’s like Bloodborne/Dark Souls, but…” is the pitch on the lips of every would-be cash-in. Code Vein is one of those.
Untitled Goose Game is one of those quiet little games that come along and shake everything up, the kind of hit a major publisher would kill for.
This one’s pretty niche. If you need action and accomplishment, give it a pass. If you like atmosphere, dialogue trees, and sometimes running into cats that tip well, you will enjoy.
With space combat that feels just like the 90s and some nice, new quality of life features, Rebel Galaxy Outlaw is the game your 14 your old self would’ve killed for.
Close to the Sun wants to be Big Important Art, but it tries so hard to be Big Important Art that it undercuts itself.
This one’s a very niche game, but if a puzzle game that could turn into a six figure salary sounds intriguing–or if you just like dressing up cats–it beats another run through CodeAcademy.
The tongue is in cheek but not far enough.
That said, despite the frustrations, there’s no other series out there that captures the thrill of running around with a detailed fighter plane model in your hand blasting bad guys.
Ultimately, I feel like you have to buy in. If you want to start picking plot threads or quibble about level design, you can, but I don’t think there’s a lot of value to it. Get in, loser, we’re going to find humanity.
It’s not cutting edge. I mean “Souls-like” is a genre of its own now, not just an interesting experiment. So we wind up with Below, which is like one of those weird evolutionary offshoots that is never quite successful.
Achtung! Cthulhu Tactics is a beer-and-pretzels tactical game. It’s not hard or demanding. It’s more like a puzzle game than something like Final Fantasy Tactics.
Ultimately, The Bard’s Tale IV is a very good game, but it’s an old school launch in both senses.
If you like your dungeon crawls with a ladle of gothic atmosphere, you haven’t seen anything like this in an eternity.
This Is The Police 2 is shooting for something morally grey and messy but never quite has the narrative heft to carry it.
Airheart is worth checking out for twin-stick shooter fans that need a new fix, but otherwise, skip this flight.
We’re in an era of good shooters right now. There’s no reason to buy a mediocre one.