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Cocoon is a mesmerizing debut for Geometric Interactive that's filled with ingenious puzzles that will unlock your animal instincts.
Once you understand what the game’s chilling, intimate story is saying and how it’s reinforced by gameplay and aesthetics, you’ll have a hard time putting it down. El Paso, Elsewhere is one of the most captivating indies of the year. It might make you uncomfortable, but that’s very much the point.
Payday 3 doesn't shake up its predecessor's formula much, but a strong batch of initial heists sets the live service shooter up for success.
With a strong spy story and performances to match, Phantom Liberty gives Cyberpunk 2077 the extra chapter it needed.
Mortal Kombat 1's creative Kameo system helps reinvent the classic fighting series, but poor single-player offerings feel like a step back.
The Teal Mask contains your average monster catching fun, but it doesn't do enough to address Pokémon Scarlet and Violet's biggest problems.
Lies of P makes it clear that developer Neowiz has a deep appreciation and understanding for FromSoftware;s games that goes beyond a surface-level copy.
Chants of Sennaar is an ingenious linguistic puzzle game that takes the right notes from genre greats like Return of the Obra Dinn.
Starfield isn’t the generation-defining video game that overeager fans might be expecting; it’s a fairly typical, though impressively constructed Bethesda RPG where depth and stability often come at the expense of scope. The surprisingly limited base adventure isn’t so much the draw here, though. The enormous intergalactic playground feels custom-made for modders who want to explore the infinite possibilities of space just as much as Constellation and Bethesda itself.
Baldur's Gate 3 is a staggering CRPG with a level of player freedom that make its possibilities feel endless.
Sabotage Studios blends aspects from Super Mario RPG, Illusion of Gaia, and Chrono Trigger to create Sea of Stars, its largest RPG yet. It incorporates combat quirks like timed hits and dual attacks that force you to pay attention way after you’ve selected a move, and keeps encounters exciting with the diverse enemies throughout the colorful, pixelated landscapes. All that, plus respectable storytelling, make it the best indie RPG that I’ve played this year.
Samba de Amigo: Party Central is a charming hit of motion-controlled nostalgia, though inconsistent controller detection can be a buzzkill.
Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon is a powerful mech flying with faulty thrusters. A fast-paced action game loaded with thrilling dogfights and stimulating mech customization is dragged down by all too familiar FromSoftware quirks like illegible UI and a headache-inducing third-person camera. It’s not enough to fully spoil an exciting ride, but it does leave me wondering how far a good tune-up would have gone.
I went into Immortals of Aveum expecting a linear experience akin to Call of Duty but found a game with unexpectedly vast levels, a world rich with intriguing lore, and vibrant combat that kept me on my toes. It’s a solid choice for those looking for an inventive shooter that stands out from the crowd in that genre, although boring puzzles and cloying dialogue drain some magic out of the experience.
Blasphemous 2 doesn’t break any new ground for the Metroidvania genre, but it delivers a holy trinity of important genre staples: rewarding exploration, top-notch boss design, and deep secrets. Those strengths are balanced out by a slew of sins, as tedious backtracking and some eye-rolling sacrilege make for a tough trial that’ll sift out the non-believers from the devotees.
Atlas Fallen has some ambitious ideas for a game of its scale, but its poor presentation holds back a promising combat system.
Venba delivers an elegantly nuanced story about cultural identity through sharply written dialogue and meaningful cooking interludes.
Disney Illusion Island is a charming all-ages platformer that acts as a breezy introduction to the Metroidvania genre.
It may have the brains of a dodo, but that’s what I find so endearing about it. It’s a flightless bird that carries itself with the confidence of a swan.
Though faithful fans might be put off by a more laid-back sequel that’s over-eager to hold players’ hands, Pikmin 4 is a purposeful reconstruction of Nintendo’s most niche series. A stressful comedy of errors becomes a digestible puzzle-strategy hybrid that gives players valuable organization strategies that are just as useful in real life as they are on their Nintendo Switch adventure.