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.
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.
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.
Kaiserpunk is a city builder with some cool ideas and a novel premise, but lots of bugs, an interface that lacks basic functionality, and a cumbersome strategic map left me feeling shell-shocked.
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.
Blood Bowl 3 is a sloppy, muddy, buggy rehash of a better game.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2's Brushes With Death DLC isn't bad at all - it’s simply a bit threadbare as a standalone experience, and it didn’t feel like a strong follow-up to what had come before.
While Ara: History Untold is a visually captivating historical 4X with an interesting underlying economy, it gets bogged down well before the midway point.
Still Wakes the Deep's nearly on-rails structure and ineffective scares undersell its otherwise fantastic setting.
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.
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.
In Evil Genius 2: World Domination, a fiddly world map and confusing objectives foil the plans of this stylish, gleeful villain simulator.
King's Bounty 2 is a fairly strong tactical RPG that is dragged down by a mediocre plot and a lot of unnecessary jogging.
Tron: Catalyst competently gets the job done as an action game, but it's rarely more than just good.
Civilization 7's improved warfare and added bits of narrative flair give me reasons to keep clicking one more turn late into the night, but the desire to streamline and simplify this legendary 4X series feels like it has also gone a bit too far, particularly when it comes to the interface.
Stormgate pushes that classic RTS formula forward with a veteran's eye for what works and what doesn't, even if its Early Access launch still has miles to go.
Manor Lords is a gorgeous medieval city-builder that kept me occupied for hours building my perfect, cozy hamlets, but it definitely feels very early in its Early Access development.
Aliens: Dark Descent is a fascinating, tense, inspired survival horror RTS with a few too many technical bugs to recommend it without caveats.
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.
Dragonflight is a sharply-written and breathtaking experience for the first few dozen hours, but suffers from somewhat threadbare endgame options.