Leana Hafer
Scorn is a relentlessly unsettling delve into a surreal, macabre world of alien mystery, but the scariest thing about it is the dreadful combat.
The Entropy Centre is a more than competent Portal tribute with clever time-manipulation puzzles and an endearing cast, but it doesn't take its clever concept as far as it seems like it should.
Dragonflight is a sharply-written and breathtaking experience for the first few dozen hours, but suffers from somewhat threadbare endgame options.
The Great War: Western Front is a deep RTS that shows a lot of attention to historical authenticity, though that can certainly bog things down.
Aliens: Dark Descent is a fascinating, tense, inspired survival horror RTS with a few too many technical bugs to recommend it without caveats.
King's Bounty 2 is a fairly strong tactical RPG that is dragged down by a mediocre plot and a lot of unnecessary jogging.
In Evil Genius 2: World Domination, a fiddly world map and confusing objectives foil the plans of this stylish, gleeful villain simulator.
A rousing mystery brought to life by a great voice cast and nuanced character writing can't really save Deliver Us Mars from its shortcomings.
Cities: Skylines 2 is an ambitious sequel that might have bitten off more than it can chew – be prepared to do a lot of terraforming if you don't want your metropolis to look like a nightmare.
Blood Bowl 3 is a sloppy, muddy, buggy rehash of a better game.
Millennia focuses too much on the ways it wants to mix up the Civilization formula without building the base of a strong Civ-like first.
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.
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 roguelite sequel that takes a few steps forward and one or two back from the original, but keeps the gloomy but intense spirit alive.