A gleefully gory throwback to 90s shooters wrapped in a rogue-like shell, Strafe is let down by uneven pacing and underwhelming guns.
Swathed in atmosphere and crammed with detail, Take on Mars is let down by frequent bugs and some enormously frustrating design decisions.
An impressive work from a single dev, but fans looking for further stories in the Half-Life universe should temper their expectations.
After Dark makes some big changes to the visual variety of Cities: Skylines, but does little to alter the underlying simulation.
Trine 3's vibrant world and creative physics puzzles are as appealing as ever, but the transition to 3D is a painful one.
Visually stunning, Adr1ft is hindered by shallow core mechanics and a serious lack of interactivity.
Shadow Warrior's surprising new direction makes the sequel a riotous blast, though it can't quite live up to its predecessor.
An extraordinarily detailed economy and range of interlinking systems make Victoria 3 a grand strategy to rival some of Paradox's best.
Bounding Box delivers an anachronistic high-wire act, and the perhaps the best shooter outright since Doom Eternal.
Slight repetition can't diminish the incredible atmoshpere of Farm 51's post-apocalyptic survival game.
Total War heads to the Bronze Age for an entertaining and evocative brand of strategy.
A thrillingly authentic take on the first-person shooter's 90s heyday, delivered with nerdish enthusiasm.
Tyranny's depiction of evil is fascinating and thought-provoking, albeit somewhat obscured by convoluted quest-lines and repetitive combat.
Through its invasion mechanic, Sniper Elite 5 achieves the ultimate goal of any sniping game, to capture the tension and drama of Jude Law and Ed Harris squaring off in Enemy at the Gates. If, like me, you watched that film when you were too young to do so, and thought "I wish there was a game that let me do that", rather than the more balanced "wow, war is terrible," then Sniper Elite 5 is that game, just without the Russian setting or Rachel Weisz. Couple that with eight superbly flexible sandboxes and the most imaginative interactive representation of the second world war in at least a decade, and you've got yourself one of the most entertaining games of the year.
Finally complete after fourteen years, Crowbar Collective's remake is more than faithful to Valve's masterpiece.
A CRPG of unparalleled breadth and dynamism, Original Sin 2 is Larian's masterpiece.
The stars are lost in a swamp of poor writing and buggy combat in this wearisome reimagining of the 1992 survival classic
Riddled with bugs and bizarre mechanics, Underworld Ascendant is a bafflingly poor debut from OtherSide Entertainment.
Despite occasional flourishes, Arkane's latest game feels fundamentally at odds with itself
This visual novel spins a passable yarn in a noirish atmosphere, but would benefit from more space to explore it