Steelrising never quite feels like a cohesive experience, but its warring halves of Soulslike combat and narrative RPG storytelling are compelling enough in and of themselves.
Soulstice's overwritten story and repetitive second half somewhat dull the catharsis of its glorious throwback hack-and-slash combat, but it's still great fun.
Squad 51 vs. the Flying Saucers occasionally overcommits to its retro vibe with punishing and unfair difficulty, but its action is tight and it's charming enough to overlook the flaws.
Cagliostro's Secrets presents a reasonably-sized extra chunk of Steelrising that doesn't reinvent the wheel, but gets the job done.
Elderand is, for better and worse, a fairly by-the-numbers Metroidvania. It does nothing exceptional, but it rarely slips up badly either.
Planet of Lana is a perfectly fine, if strangely unambitious, cinematic platformer, hitting all the right notes without writing a new song.
Lies of P has excellent combat and a raft of well-designed boss fights, but bad storytelling permeates a sense that you've seen all of this before.
Ruffy and the Riverside's swapping mechanic is great fun, but I wish it would shut up and give me more organic opportunities to use that mechanic.
Simulacra 2 is an improvement on its predecessor, but there's further to go. A tighter narrative and better interface design don't quite compensate for sketchy writing and silly horror.
Neon Abyss is occasionally great. It's let down by repetition, uneven difficulty, and the occasional game-breaking bug.
Cyber Hook has an insanely satisfying core gameplay loop. Unfortunately, it doesn't have much else to offer.
Shadow Man Remastered infuriates as often as it delights, but it's a solid experience, and Nightdive has done an excellent job preserving it.
Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights starts out promisingly, with a massive map, compelling exploration, and solid combat. Unfortunately, it collapses into frustrating, overly difficult repetition by the end.
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 is exactly what you think it is: another (rather fun) Space Marine game, albeit one with clunky new mechanics and a pretty forgettable story.
Hellbound's core gameplay loop is punchy, satisfying, and cathartic. It's just a shame there's so little of it.
Mortal Shell boasts responsive combat and gorgeous visuals, but it's let down by rote level design, poor storytelling, and a general unfinished feel.
Kingdom of the Dead has solid combat and good level design, but it's let down by an absence of challenge and some severe performance issues.
Whether or not you vibe with Restless Soul's comedy will entirely determine whether you have a good time with it. I'm growing rather tired of self-referentiality in-game humor, and I also like my jokes to come from real characters, so Restless Soul's comedy didn't entirely work for me. If your sense of humor is different to mine, you may find the comedy more tolerable, and if you do, there's a perfectly agreeable quasi-bullet hell adventure to be had here. The whole experience is rather insubstantial and lacks a solid core gameplay mechanic to hang everything else on, but it's got a lot of heart, and that counts for something.
Robobeat has a great soundtrack and its combat ticks all the boxes, but uneven balance and boring level design puts this one out of step with its peers.
Wildfire has a huge amount of potential, but it's let down by frustrating trial-and-error gameplay, clunky controls and poor level design.