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It feels like the folks at The Bearded Ladies have taken everything they’ve learned from Mutant Year Zero and put it all in their new game. Miasma Chronicles is a much better designed tactical adventure with a more appealing story. Despite the tongue and cheek writing, the game is more serious than Mutant Year Zero.
Blooming Business: Casino is a good tycoon management game and will satisfy gamers who want to create attractive gambling rooms, keep them in tip-top condition, and find the best ways to satisfy customers and VIPs. The title’s mechanics are good and the presentation and narrative offer a laid back atmosphere.
Dead Ink’s core gameplay is built on ideas inspired by the very popular Dark Souls but it is not part of the forgettable recent wave of titles that simply copy them. The vertical layout of the tower is a big twist with major consequences for exploration. Players need to move carefully and pay close attention to ladders and ledges that will lead to new places.
Dungeon Drafters delivers on its core concept of mixing turn-based tactics with card play. It takes a little time to get going and get a clear idea of how to modify the deck and what kind of cards are best suited to a particular strategy. But there’s a wide variety of approaches and the tactical puzzles are fun and challenging.
City of Beats mixes a good set of gameplay mechanics with atmosphere and some great music. Dashing across the rooftops, noticing a sound at the last second that lets you avoid an attack, and striking back at the perfect time, is very fun and engaging. The rogue-lite elements are very familiar and deliver a sense of progression but don’t add much otherwise.
Mail Time is a delightful experience, filled with interesting characters and almost no conflict. All the different quests are fun to engage with and the game offers a nice sense of discovery. I love being helpful and trying to make this small patch of forest a better place for everyone. The party at the end is also a great reward for all the exploration.
Strayed Lights is a simple game that had one novel idea and the will to turn it into a sensorial experience. Despite the fact that the combat feels like it’s been inspired by From Software’s games, Strayed Lights lack that challenge of a soulslike title.
Batora: Lost Haven is a competent and mostly enjoyable action game. It has one big idea, the two natures of both Avril and her enemies, but never uses it in any truly unique ways. After a few hours, only the boss battles manage to break up the monotony.
Mr. Sun's Hatbox is a delightful video game that combines ideas from a range of genres and delivers a fun result. Jumping on enemy hats and heads never gets old, especially when the player’s character only has one health left and the kidnapping target is in sight. Big firefights manage to be chaotic and entertaining, even when failure is the end result.
Although my journey throughout the world of Acrea has been enjoyable, I think that some of the design choices drag the gameplay experience down rather than enriching it. The basic crafting system feels like it’s been added to gate the loot (armors and weapons), while the character progression for both protagonists is quite linear and uninteresting.
Hunt the Night has good core mechanics and an interesting universe to explore. But this is the kind of experience that will cause frustration and players need to be ready to deal with that. A big time and energy investment are needed to master combat scenarios, especially when bosses are involved.
Wildfrost takes the core ideas of the very popular card-driven genre and makes enough changes to add freshness to it. It does take some time to unlock all the town buildings and the three tribes that can provide leaders and cards. But once that happens, the game offers a wide range of tactical options and it’s fun to discover how various combinations will perform against the capable bosses.
Beyond the Long Night is a fun, focused experience that makes good use of both the time loop and the associated rogue-lite structure. Combat might not seem hard but it’s very easy to lose a heart focusing on enemies rather than their actual attacks. The universe is filled with discovery potential but some players might struggle to invest in that.
Wartales is the perfect game for those who love turn-based action and min-maxing their characters. The progression system is well-thought to keep you engaged while you explore each map. Combat and crafting are two other complementary systems that add extra layers of strategy.
The adventure game genre has been revived in the last couple of years, so it has become harder for such a game to stand out. Rendezvous is trying to offer its own take on the genre by adding action elements, but more often than not it’s these moments that make the game worse.
The Library of Babel has a solid setup and some nice narrative moments. It’s well presented and the central quest is good enough to keep players engaged. The title’s problem is that it struggles to make gameplay fun or varied.
Murderous Muses is a rare full-motion video-driven video game that uses the concept in interesting ways. The central mystery is compelling and it’s worth exploring the weirdness of the island where everything takes place. There are plenty of videos to unlock and investigate and some decent extra puzzles to solve.
Wall World offers a competent mix of ideas. Mining is pretty boring but combat sequences are exciting and tense, with a big ramp-up when the boss shows up. The rogue-lite structure works but the prices on most things are high enough that pure grinding is required.
Nine Years of Shadows is a good Metroidvania with an impressive presentation and intriguing world. Gameplay mechanics will be instantly familiar to any genre fans and easy to understand for newcomers. There aren’t too many surprises in the narrative but it is imbued with a sense of optimism that kept me engaged.
Troublemaker has energy, even if it doesn’t deliver a ton of variety when it comes to gameplay. The fights are exciting at first but tend towards the tedious as the narrative nears its end. I wanted a little more variety when itcame to the challengers. The single sneaking section doesn’t really work,