Balan Wonderworld is an occasionally inspired, often unimaginative platformer lost to time.
Disco Elysium is a detective RPG that sets a new standard for storytelling.
Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion is a fleeting but delicious Zelda-inspired romp.
As a remaster, Nier Replicant ver.1.22474487139… represents another kind of second chance, this time for a cult game to find an audience that eluded it the first time around.
Stonefly is too weighed down by unwieldy combat and grind to get off the ground.
Grime is a highly accomplished Souls-like action-RPG that delivers a hefty challenge without being punitive.
Humankind is a flawed but fascinating attempt to reinvent the Civilization-style 4X strategy game.
Lost in Random tells a sweet tale with surprisingly deep combat to brighten an otherwise dreary world.
Aragami 2 is a stylish, aggressive stealth game that's a little too lean at times.
Sable’s non-linear structure is liberating and lets you explore at your own pace and in whatever direction your whim takes you. But its many technical issues–including poor performance and game-breaking bugs–contrive to stymie your journey to the extent that your Gliding may never leave the launch pad.
The Good Life is a charmingly silly RPG with a little too much daily grind.
Inscryption is an excellent deck-builder that fades after an astonishing start.
Pupperazzi struggles to go beyond the obvious premise suggested by its witty name. Other than photographing a lot of dogs – so many, many dogs – there’s almost nothing else to do. While it remains charming and silly throughout, you’re not able to form any sort of lasting bond with any of these dogs. Your interactions with them are too fleeting, too inconsequential. That cute little pug I found snoozing under the picnic table doesn’t have a name, and she’ll be gone the next time I drop by. I can send you a photo of her I took, I suppose, but we both know you’re just going to delete it.
Creative Assembly's Total War: Warhammer 3 is a spectacular fantasy battle simulator with a flawed campaign.
Vampire The Masquerade: Swansong is a dialogue-driven RPG that stakes everything on writing that isn't up to the task.
If Silt has anything to say beyond ‘You might dig this moody atmosphere’ then it was lost on me. Some of its scenes, however, will stay with me for a long time to come.
Beautiful, charming, smartly-designed and a joy to play, Please Fix The Road is one of 2022’s best puzzle games.
Stray gets so much right about being a cat. It's not just the way you travel through the world. There are moments when you stop to rub your side against someone's legs. You can press a button to scratch the carpet and there are even a couple of puzzles that make smart use of this ability. The way you stretch out one paw to tentatively bat at a suspicious object or how you curl up on a cushion in the perfect pretzel… it's just so exquisitely, believably cat-like.
Hard West 2 is a hardy, accomplished turn-based tactics game with several flashes of genius.
Wayward Strand is a delicate piece of work, as its title might imply. Despite the flight of fancy proposed by the very idea of an airship hospital, it's a remarkably unassuming game–not literally down-to-earth, but certainly grounded in its portrayal of lives nearing their end and one just beginning, and the common hopes, dreams and fears that connect all those lives together.