Skate Story is a fantastic game for fans of the street skating genre, mixing things up with an incredibly unique setting, striking visuals, and thought-provoking ideas, while still encapsulating both the culture and the mechanics of the genre we love.
Though I felt the game’s progression system was somewhat flawed, Death Howl still managed to impress me thoroughly with its incredible storytelling, art, and unique blend of genres, creating something utterly unique and highly memorable.
While the game captures a certain sense of wonder, Of Ash and Steel is unreasonably unpolished and miserable to play. If the game were still in testing, I would call it ambitious, but changes still need to be made to the core experience and a lot of QA still needs to be done on what is being called a finished game.
She’s Leaving is a unique horror game with a strong premise, interesting narrative, atmospheric setting, and unique mechanics. However, said unique mechanics sort of lose their magic when you run into their limitations, something that can also be said about the game’s horror. While it feels like it could have been better with just a little more effort, She’s Leaving is still worth checking out for its story and setting alike.
A.I.L.A features an incredible first act filled with psychological horror and clever puzzles, making for one of the better horror games I’ve played. Everything after, however, is just a fine, bordering on boring and clanky action horror game that simply fails to be as good as what came before. Still worth a try if the game caught your interest, you just might find yourself disappointed after the first hour.
Mount and Blade II: Bannerlord – War Sails does everything a DLC for a game like this should. It doesn’t just add new mechanics to the game, but forever changes how the game is played, overhauling the entire experience into something fresh and exciting even for the most veteran of Bannerlord players.
Cross Blitz has only gotten better since I first played it in Early Access, improving upon its unique and fun-to-play core mechanics with over five hundred cards and even more ways to play. While the AI can seem to slow down during a match, creating a bit of a tedious drag, it was not enough to prevent my enjoyment of the game, which I easily recommend to anyone looking for a new Slay the Spire type deck builder with its own unique flavor.
News Tower is a rare kind of tycoon game, one that puts a lot of care and effort into simulating a very interesting and niche business. While the early game can feel slow and the loop might be repetitive for some, it’s otherwise a fun, detail-oriented simulation game with a decent amount of diversity in its progression systems and overall content, enough to keep you printing papers for hours.
The Sacred 2 Remaster is a half hearted attempt to update a game that felt kind of dated in its heyday. Beyond updated graphics and a new, buggy HUD, nothing has been done to actually remaster the title and improve upon its original flaws, with constant bugs, crashes, and problems persisting throughout. Simply put, it’s not worth your time, as a new player or a nostalgic returner.
Demonschool is an interesting title with a unique, puzzley approach to turn-based combat and phenomenal art direction and aesthetics. The story in this story-driven game, however, is all over the place and fails to feel cohesive or satisfying, while also playing more into laughs than solid characterization. If the game has caught your eye, I still suggest trying it out, but beware that you may also find the writing disjointed, confusing, and whacky in a not-so-intentional-feeling way. But maybe you’ll find more fun in the randomness than I did.
Though its RNG inventory can be bloated and it doesn’t communicate information perfectly, Vivid World is a highly fun combination of several genres that stands out for its replayable, engaging gameplay loop and super unique identity.
Sanatorium – A Mental Asylum Simulator provides a unique coat of paint over a deckbuilding-style puzzle loop. That coat of paint is about as deep as the theme goes; however, the game unfortunately lacks a lot of immersive features or mechanics beyond color-matching cards. If you know what you’re getting into, it’s not a bad game, but the promise feels like more than what the title actually delivers, which also feels a bit like it should still be in Early Access.
Dispatch brilliantly sets the stage for AdHoc Studios to fill the void Telltale Games left and do it better. This superhero workplace comedy is full of heart, incredible character-driven storytelling and art, and is worth all of the praise it’s received and more.
Winter Burrow really stands out for its unique setting and the bold way it chooses to approach its narrative and character writing. Mechanically, it’s less bold, being a solid game to play, even if it’s a little overly similar to others in the genre and too linear for my personal taste. It is definitely a cozy take on its genre, one that can be played at your own pace without worry of a big difficulty curve or trouble, while unironically having a more solemn story than a lot of its peers.
Double Dragon Revive is no revival of its franchise. If anything, it feels like mindless filler. The graphics are nice (though it seems that’s a rare opinion), the combat is solid, if incredibly simple, and the levels don’t do enough to really excite or tear away from what quickly becomes a repetitive tedium. The game feels terrified to try anything new and therefore settles for mediocrity, providing just enough to briefly entertain a player before failing to offer anything more.
Once Upon A KATAMARI remains as iconic, colorful, and fun as the rest of the franchise, once again using its signature formula to create an entertaining and unique puzzle game. While the title does not do anything different or reinventive for the franchise, it does not necessarily need to, providing another delightful helping of the series for fans and new players alike. PC players will be pleased to have another KATAMARI title on the platform, though they are better off avoiding the awkward keyboard controls and using a dedicated controller.
Painkiller is an enjoyable experience, though one that varies greatly from what many fans were expecting it to be. The gunplay is fun, and in co-op the game can be a good time. However, it suffers from a lack of content and endgame, which may be made worse by the game’s dwindling player count
Devil Jam has a great premise, fantastic art, and a fun mechanical twist on the survivors-like genre. However, it feels unfinished, providing not a whole lot of content and making players grind pretty hard to get what is there. Mechanically and narratively light, the game would be in a great spot for an Early Access release, but short of a full launch.
The Outer Worlds 2 improves over the first with a more compelling story and better combat, while still delivering and even expanding on the game’s great setting and character writing. While the story isn’t shaped by the player’s choices as much as in other RPG titles, you’ll still find a lot of immersive roleplaying to be done in this game’s stand-out original universe.
ARC Raiders seems to be a good contender for the extraction shooter genre, offering solid, if familiar genre gameplay and a unique aesthetic. However, overpriced monetization plagues this already pay-to-play title, and as something of a tourist to the extraction shooter genre, I can’t personally say that ARC Raiders does anything too different or exciting, proving to be an inoffensive experience, albeit one that failed to win me over.