Hauma – A Detective Noir Story is a unique and refreshing visual novel that doesn’t follow the normal formula for its genre. With a rich story and a mystery that’ll have you scratching your head, these are perfectly paired with the comic book art style to create a game that you’ll have a hard time putting down. On a more fun note, there might only be one neo-nazi in the game, but you’d be surprised how fun it can be to annoy him to the point of exploding.
Smurfs Kart had a lot of potential to be great if there was a story or even just a bit more of the usual Kart Racer madness added in. It has a few fun and redeeming qualities, like the unique powerups and unique track designs, but Smurfs Kart comes off as a more generic Kart Racer that would’ve been great during the movie releases. It’ll need a lot more substance to gain good traction on the wild roads of gaming.
MythForce is a brilliant 80’s inspired game with nearly endless potential. While it does give you a lot to explore and discover, even more so to work with to take down your enemies, it falls a little flat, with the game being semi-unbalanced and overly grindy. A few simple quality of life and bug fixes might just take it to the top as a memorable release.
Chants of Sennaar is a brilliant puzzle platformer that will take you on one hell of an adventure through the lands of several people, cultures, and languages. Deciphering the languages adds a lot of intrigue to the game and makes it difficult to rush through the game and, instead, gets you thinking outside the box to reach the answer you need. The smaller puzzles, while mundane, do add a nice change of pace when you need it, but the bigger world-sized puzzle will always be there.
Gord is a little rough around the edges and maybe a little too unforgiving, but not impossible. With its incredibly rich story to experience and diverse mechanics, you’ll feel the struggle as much as your tribe will feel it every step of the way until you can reach the Golden Route in Lysatia. However, you’ll need to survive the horrors standing in your way while uncovering a darker plot.
Blasphemous 2 is yet another masterwork from The Game Kitchen and a brilliant sequel to Blasphemous. With the mountain of strange lore and even stranger things to fight against, you’ll find yourself coming back for more each time and trying even harder to get to the next part of your adventure.
Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew seems to be another masterpiece from Mimimi Games and embodies their core values down to the last. You’ll get to live the life of a pirate from a top-down perspective, explore the various different islands, and experience a great story that’ll keep you sucked in for hours. Not to mention, the many different characters and mechanics keep things from going stale.
Atlas Fallen might be Deck13 Interactive’s crowning achievement with its story-rich and narrative-driven environment combined with the Soulslike aspects in combat. The combat and level mechanics are a refreshing take on how things should be done, and it definitely keeps you going. Even if fighting isn’t always your go-to pleasure, there’s a brilliantly crafted world and mountains of lore to explore too, if you really want to go all in. Atlas Fallen is definitely one of those games that would be approachable by anybody because of how forgiving it can be while also being challenging for veteran players.
Baldur’s Gate 3 is the long-awaited masterpiece we all need. It might not have all the mechanics from Dungeons & Dragons, but it does have enough for even a newcomer to start getting into it while getting an intensely rich story to experience as well. With its epic character customization, dialogues, and vast world, this is definitely the type of game you’d get lost in for hours on end. Aside from the unfortunate downside to going multiplayer, this game is still best experienced with friends, provided you get along well enough. Or not, the chaos is still great.
Remnant II is a brilliantly unforgiving game that can and likely will go extremely far, though this is what makes the game so great. Combine that with the droves of lore and detail in the world, and you end up with a game that’s damn near impossible to put down because you’ll feel the need to keep trying and see what happens next. The best aspect of Remnant II is that you don’t have to play co-op, with the right Archetype and weapons loadout, solo is definitely possible and still makes the game extremely approachable for players of any skill level… As long as they have the patience for it.
Jagged Alliance 3 might not exactly be for people who are new to the Turn-Based Tactical genre, but it’s great for the genre’s veterans. For those who want to try it out, there might be a bit of a learning curve and you’ll definitely need some patience for it but it’s well worth it in the end for the story, brilliant visuals, hilarious commentary and the fun change of pace in gameplay while getting a fair amount of brain exercise at the same time.
Testament: The Order of High Human is one hell of an achievement of a game made by a team of 15 people. It has all the best parts of the RPG genre with some new features that just keep you coming back for more. This combined with a gripping story and inspired world design, you’ll have a hard time putting the game down. Things just get better with the odd puzzles you’ll find and the literal mountains of lore to be discovered. This is one of those games that you just have to take your hat off when you consider the detail and the developer team size but also, The Elder Scrolls has some serious competition now.
Noob - The Factionless is like a love letter to JRPG games of the past and definitely pays homage to the game we grew up with. The visual side of the game might not appeal to everybody, while it can still be a really nice change of pace with its simple design and relaxed gameplay. What really makes the game stand out most is the unholy mountain of funny references used in the game, for example – ‘Lord Moldevort’. Get it?
Kingdom Eighties is a fun blast from the past and maybe even a window into what life once was. The attention to detail on the world design combined with the music already add a lot of life to a scene that’s been mostly abandoned and it’s refreshing to see that pixel art still has a home in gaming. For now, we can only hope that other studios might do the same and take a break for something simple but fun.
Aliens: Dark Descent is definitely a game you’d want to play because of its interesting twists in the RTS genre and the gripping story to go with it. Between the visuals and sound engineering in the game, you’ll likely feel a similar stress as your marines while getting the same satisfaction from gunning down aliens when they try charging at you. From top to bottom, this game is great for newbies or old fans of the franchise.
Trepang2 is a fun blast from the past with a lot of modern aspects and a story you’ll need to work for. You’ll be left guessing after each mission until you can piece everything together, though this is a really nice driving point that’ll keep you coming back for more. This is a first-person adrenalin pumping game that can appeal to any player because of its simple but wild, chaotic atmosphere.
After Us is one of those rare masterpiece level games that need to be experienced, with an incredibly touching story, amazing gameplay and drool-worthy music to go with it all, you might come for one thing but you’ll likely stay for it all or maybe just to see the story through to the end. After Us has nearly endless layers underneath the overall design, but going deeper is what makes every second spent playing the game so much more rewarding.
Teardown is an incredible heist simulator built in a very detailed voxel world that would put any other game like it to shame. With the nearly endless options to lower or raise the difficulty, Sandbox and Creative Modes, tons of tools to unlock and choose from, and the ability to mod the game, Teardown is definitely a game that can appeal to any type of gamer regardless of their skill level. Going on heists or just coming for rampant destruction, there’s always a good time to be had.
Nocturnal is a brilliantly executed game with an amazing story, if you can find it in the notes. For those who don’t have the patience for it, this game might seem more like a drag, but it is well worth the effort if you want to know more about Ardeshir and what happened on Narhan. If you’re still not sold on it, then you might end up staying just for the music and amazing visuals, at the very least.
World War Z: Aftermath DLC is a must-play if you’re a fan of anything zombie related, with the weapons and classes to choose from, you’ll likely end up coming back for another round of chaos in the undead infested lands before you. To top it all off, you even get to experience the chaos in several parts of the world combined with the stories of several groups of people. The only downside is that almost everything comes at a cost which can be a mood killer if you don’t know what to expect.