Age of Wonders: Planetfall is a robust hybrid strategy game that adds a fifth X to the 4X genre.
Night Call is an absorbing noir adventure with plenty of heart.
It's a smartly designed game at its core, despite the distractions. Just like a lone zombie can bring about your demise, sometimes one strong idea is enough.
Imperator: Rome is grand strategy on a modest scale.
Pathologic 2 offers a hauntingly bleak tale, then does its best to stop you from experiencing it.
Anno 1800 is a beautiful and comprehensive yet strangely cold Industrial Age city builder.
Pathway is a workmanlike XCOM-lite whose breezy tone stumbles into some tired tropes.
Hypnospace Outlaw is a time capsule of the late '90s internet that has a message for today.
The Occupation is a smart, story-driven stealth adventure, the sort of game that gets under your skin in ways you didn't even realize.
Eastshade is a rare first-person open world game about doing nice things and bringing communities together, a genuinely feelgood and gorgeous experience.
With embellished diplomatic options and climate change bringing new strategic choices, Gathering Storm is a whole new way to play Civ VI.
The follow-up to Sunless Seas is an adventure that conjures up a journey of endless wonder, where seemingly anything is possible.
At The Gates is a fresh, invigorating, more personal take on the grand strategy game, but a lacking late-game holds it back from greatness.
The Eternal Castle Remastered is a stunning, evocative cinematic platformer that recalls a long-past era of PC gaming.
An emphasis on stealth, scouting, and ambushing give Mutant Year Zero's tactical combat a thrilling spin.
Underworld Ascendant misses the mark with almost every shot. Even when freed from the expectations its historical baggage brings, it is a clear failure.
11-11: Memories Retold is an exquisitely painted, touchingly told and occasionally tedious war story.
Call of Cthulhu is a mostly competent, occasionally chilling adventure ruined by unspeakable horrors.
Return of the Obra Dinn is a startlingly original detective adventure full of murder, mutiny, and monsters.
The Missing is a dark, confronting puzzle-platformer that offers light at the end of the tunnel.