Rock, Paper, Shotgun's Reviews
Well-written characters and a tense atmosphere set the right tone, but the signals of this Oxenfree sequel feel garbled compared to the original.
A beautiful remaster of one of the greatest murder mystery puzzle games of the last two decades, Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective feels every bit as fresh and lively today as it did back in 2011.
Trepang2 is a short but joyously violent first-person horror shooter and the closest we've had to F.E.A.R. in years
Aliens: Dark Descent is an authentically atmospheric campaign borrowing from both turn-based tactics and survival horror, stymied by a seemingly deep paranoia you might mistake it for one of those strategy games for nerds. It's not. It's not for nerds. It's for cool Aliens fans. You can use a controller. It's not for nerds.
A simple, but sweet natured story about a young girl finding her feet and trying to do what's right to fix the rifts in her family. Dordogne doesn't demand much of you, but it luxuriates in the details that make life so special.
More creative and cartoony than managerial, thus a bit of a treat for people less boring than me.
Mask Of The Rose is an anthology of eldritch mysteries in a deliciously gothic world, but Failbetter's philosophy of weaving your own tale feels at odds with its dating sim promises.
Amnesia: The Bunker is a compact, focused and refreshing horror game that brings new excitement to one of horror's modern classic game series.
More than a simple Hypnospace Outlaw spin-off, Slayers X: Terminal Aftermath: Vengance of the Slayer is a brilliant retro FPS with a boisterous personality and a sincere heart.
The Tartarus Key has puzzles so hard it's basically an immersive sim. Puzzle haters will baulk, but for genre fans it's a weirdo breath of fresh air with distinct and careful design.
Smooth online matches and an impressively in-depth story already put Street Fighter 6 leagues above the competition.
Diablo IV is a beautiful, frictionless grey toybox that puts nothing in the way of you playing it for hours and wondering what you've done with your life.
While its refusal to let you cheat the exam will prove too punishing for some, the new System Shock is a breathtakingly beautiful and astonishingly faithful remake that proves the enduring power of Looking Glass design.
It's unfortunate, but The Lord Of The Rings: Gollum fails to expand the world of Middle-earth in any meaningful way. There are glimmers of something good(ish) in there, but it's suffocated by a disjointed story, awkward controls and dull stealth.
The Bearded Ladies have been working their formula of turn-based tactics and real-time stealth for three games now, and it shows for better and worse. Miasma Chronicles is the studio's most ambitious effort in scale and depth, but carries over the flaws of previous titles as well as their strengths, and wraps its clever combat in dated humour and world design.
You, a shiny shiba inu, must lead the people into the light. Humanity's flowy puzzles require a satisfying blend of intuition and experience to complete, but story mode's unrelenting ambiguity makes my brain itch.
A fast and joyously entertaining rampage through a spot-on recreation of the Warhammer 40,000 setting, Boltgun is the FPS that 40k fans have dreamed of since the first time they inexpertly splodged too-thick paint all over a Space Marine. Pacing issues can't prevent it from being a bloody good time.
Planet Of Lana is an action-packed, story-rich adventure across a wonderful sci-fi landscape filled with dangerous machines, but a mediocre middle act just stops it short of achieving true greatness.
HROT is a retro shooter that uses nineties style 3D graphics to build an oppressive late Soviet dictatorship afflicted by an unspecified disaster. It offers a masterclass in classic FPS map design, but has a weaker arsenal than other boomer shooters, and becomes less coherent as it progresses.
A chaotic kart racer with wonderfully imagined open zones, imaginative tracks, and robust building tools, hampered by meaningless live service progression.