Derek Johnson
One Step From Eden has an interesting premise, surprisingly deep mechanics and an insane amount of content, but as a result of unfair bosses and no tutorial, it's a tough sell to anyone who isn't a diehard fan of the genre.
In Other Waters plays like a visual novel with more depth and better graphics, which makes it a perfect game for players to relax in provided they don't mind coming up with how the game's creatures look by themselves.
Help Will Come Tomorrow is a video game instead of a survival experience, which is fine provided that players aren't looking for anything deeper than something to kill a bit of time.
Receiver 2 is the only game that properly simulates how firearms work while also offering a campy story and nice-looking visuals.
SnowRunner's core gameplay is unique and satisfying, but there are too many simple design flaws to make the game anything more than Death Stranding without the intrigue.
Total Tank Simulator could've been something great, but because it lacks the depth of strategy games and the charm of parody battle simulators, it offers little more than whatever enjoyment can be found in sending fifty Soviet war bears into battle against a hoard of German conscripts.
Writing that's worth wincing at does little to drag down a hyper-relaxing and educational diving game. Beyond Blue lets you take a breath in a medium packed with games that try their hardest to make your blood pressure skyrocket.
Golf on Mars is a fun, relaxing and addictive game that engages players just enough to not make them bored, but never forces them to dedicate more of their brain to it than can be expected of something that's best suited to staying on their second screen.
SUPERHOT: MIND CONTROL DELETE is one of a select few games that forces you to earn the right to feel like a demi-god and one that offers the best gameplay this side of its predecessor.
Willy Morgan and the Curse of Bone Town would've been a decent game if it had come out in the nineties, but as one that chose to be released in 2020, it only serves as a reminder of how far games have come in the past thirty years.
Company of Crime's writing and music are both top notch, but its gameplay is so painfully mediocre and tedious that it's hardly worth putting up with when The Holy Grail is still on Netflix.
Microsoft Flight Simulator has enough quality-of-life features to make it well worth a purchase for any virtual pilot, but the ability to fly anywhere on the planet makes for a game that's uncanny and impossible not to recommend to anyone who's remotely interested in the view from above.
Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning is an immensely enjoyable fantasy RPG that doesn't have as much remastered content as it could, but one that's still well worth a purchase for anyone looking for a change of pace from modern sword and board games.
The Dungeon Of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet Of Chaos is the game equivalent of a Netflix knockoff of an HBO show: it's not terrible and it has occasionally fun ideas, but it's still worse than the source material in almost every conceivable way.
Going Under is a superb dungeon crawler wrapped in some stupidly stylish and silly art that comes packaged with writing that hits a little too close to home for anyone who's ever held a job.
Serious Sam 4's core shooting is as fun as can be, and the writing is on par with Hollywood's best action flicks, but everything else in the game is too dated for the overall experience to be truly enjoyable.
Mafia: Definitive Edition maintains its source material's amazing story, adds some solid gameplay and brings the graphics into the 21st century for an overall experience that's one of the few remakes that is genuinely worth a purchase.
Trollhunters: Defenders of Arcadia's gameplay is okay, its visuals are fine and its story is either a mess or passively engaging depending on your level of interest in its source material, which all makes for a game that should be skipped unless you're insanely desperate for another form of media from the Trollhunter universe.
Squad may not be for everyone, but if you're willing to deal with its slow-paced combat and communication-heavy gameplay, it offers an experience that simply cannot be found anywhere else.
Partisans 1941 combines fun real-time stealth strategy gameplay with some stupidly enjoyable base-building mechanics for an overall experience that genuinely makes you feel like a leader of a group of guerrilla fighters.