Andrew Shaw
Visually ugly with inelegant, outdated gameplay, Dead or School is flunking all of its classes.
An uninspired take an overly familiar material.
If Thanos snapped Marvel's Avengers out of existence, no one would travel through time to get it back.
Encodya is a disappointing attempt at reviving the point-and-click genre. It has none of the charm or challenge of the greats of the past and offers nothing new.
In many ways Commandos 2 HD looks and feels like a classic real-time strategy game but it is not fit for purpose on a console.
Bookbound Brigade feels less like a literary Avengers and more like a literary Suicide Squad. It simply has not done enough to justify itself. Strictly for diehard Metroidvania fans.
Terrifying visuals are undermined by choppy controls and a frustrating use of procedurally generated levels. Monstrum could have been a terrifying horror experience, instead it became a boring one.
Praetorians HD may not be as advanced or detailed as games that have come since but it is an incredibly effective throwback and one I greatly enjoyed.
While it is reliant on grinding and lacks the sort of customisation that the simulation fans crave, WWE 2K Battlegrounds is the most entertaining WWE games in years.
West of Dead adds enough new elements to an overdone genre to keep things interesting and the visual design is truly stunning. If it had more to offer in terms of exploration and map size along with some more enemies to shoot, this would be even better.
More impressive than terrifying, The Inner Friend favours inventive ideas over bloodcurdling ones.
While it does not do anything radically new with the visual novel style, Arcade Spirits has plenty of charm and personality to make it a worthy addition to the genre. Now to imagine a world where ET the video game didn't completely suck. What a happy place that must be.
If you miss the days of old school BioWare (back when BioWare were still good) then Element Space may be operating on the exact retro wavelength for you.
This will never be a title that I to return to it in the way I do with Civilization V or Rome: Total War, but it was a solid experience nonetheless.
Hunt: Showdown is a solid game, with genuine thought put into making it play in a distinct way, but it feels too anonymous in every other key area to be essential within the genre.
Shot In The Dark really is a terrific experience for those who can appreciate their retro gaming going pre-Nintendo.
Suzerain is a compelling political drama/simulation and if you have the patience for great walls of text and often punishing decision-making, this is the game for you.
Visage has so much going for it as a horror experience that even the most frustrating control issues are easily forgiven. The deep themes of dread and trauma may be too much for more casual gamers who just want a good jolt, but Visage is an absolute must for hardcore horror fans looking for some substance behind their scares.
The best Watch Dogs game yet. While it's dragged down by long load times and some repetition, Legion is a hugely enjoyable game that offers players a level of freedom that is rarely seen in this genre.
While Star Wars: Squadrons cannot touch the depth or importance of X-Wing vs TIE Fighter, this is easily the best Star Wars space sim since that game-changing classic, and the best Star Wars game of the Disney era.