Dune: Spice Wars is a layered, clever, generally well-balanced RTS with great faction diversity that feels more or less finished even in its current early state.
Punchy, side-scrolling combat and a richly realized, anime-inspired world make Anno: Mutationem a blast, but the script is a bit rusty.
Most evident in its clunky, annoying combat system, Elex 2 is living in a janky Euro RPG past that its closest peers have nearly all transcended by now.
A fitting capstone to the trilogy, the story-heavy campaign and an armload of exciting new factions lead Total War: Warhammer 3 to victory.
Crusader Kings 3: Royal Court is the best kind of strategy expansion, weaving in new features that make running a kingdom a more complete and cohesive experience.
Expeditions: Rome deserves a Roman triumph as one of the most impressive tactical RPGs of the last several years, despite occasionally bending under the weight of too many systems.
Aiko's Choice is a polished, challenging, and welcome – though a bit short – standalone expansion to the exceptional Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun.
While park management and customization aspects are a bit shallow, Jurassic World Evolution 2 has tons of excellent dinosaurs and exciting ways to interact with them.
Shin Megami Tensei V's excellent JRPG combat and deeply rewarding customization shine bright, even when it sometimes feels like Persona without the heart.
Age of Empires 4 is an enjoyable RTS throwback that often plays it too safe, but excels when it doesn't.
King's Bounty 2 is a fairly strong tactical RPG that is dragged down by a mediocre plot and a lot of unnecessary jogging.
Humankind is an interesting but fairly safe riff on historical 4X that doesn't always rise to meet its potential.
Tribes of Midgard is a hectic, exciting, Norse-flavored action RPG that is best faced with a shield wall full of friends.
An axe-cellent compromise between hack-and-slash fun and skill-based medieval melee makes Chivalry 2's 64-player medieval brawls a ton of fun.
Subnautica: Below Zero is a leaner, meaner standalone expansion to Subnautica that improves on the story and mechanics, but doesn't give us as much room to explore.
Total War: Rome Remastered makes a grand old game feel less old – but it doesn't make it feel new again.
In Evil Genius 2: World Domination, a fiddly world map and confusing objectives foil the plans of this stylish, gleeful villain simulator.
Stronghold Warlords has a refreshing East Asian setting and satisfying castle building, but it looks and plays like an RTS that was asleep for most of the last decade or two.
Valheim is already a paragon of the survival crafting genre, with excellent art and music highlighting a world that generates endless exciting stories from only a few simple ingredients.
Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Earthblood has decent stealth going for it, but its weak story forces you into painfully mediocre combat too often to be worthwhile, wasting the potential of the World of Darkness universe.