Rock, Paper, Shotgun's Reviews
Farlanders is a strange, ultimately disappointing beast. Strong storytelling isn't enough to hold up this turn-based city builder with flawed city building.
This wavepunk survival game offers a serene sketch of life in a post-automation deep sea society. Unfortunately, it takes the concept of "automation" a little too far. Aquatico is so straightforward it basically plays itself.
Lil Gator Game is a short but sweet adventure set on a cosy island, with a loveable bunch of characters that had me laughing throughout.
Fatshark's bone-crunching co-op is deliciously gory and grim, but an uninspiring progression system and short, repetitive missions hold this Vermintide successor back from reaching peak rampage.
A straightforward remaster of the 2007 PSP original, Crisis Core is a perfectly fine action game that's received a handsome glow-up for 2022, but its story adds little to the wider FF7 plotline.
A weird meme turned survival horror game with a compelling elevator pitch, Choo-Choo Charles sees you stalked by a half-spider, half-train monster.
Ixion elegantly balances the dynamic play of a colony simulation with a grand, meticulously directed sci-fi narrative. Its perilous journey through a cold and dangerous universe is vivid and engrossing, although its complex routines occasionally obstruct its storytelling ambitions.
It's Dwarf Fortress as we know it, but much more approachable for both new and returning players. The new interface makes it easier to get started, but there's still a huge amount to learn and the game isn't great at teaching you. If you can give it the time and patience it requires, you'll be rewarded with one of gaming's most intricately detailed and deeply satisfying story generators.
Folkloric life sim Kynseed is like a gingerbread house with a witch inside: made up of excellent parts and unpleasant surprises. The pretty bits are delightful, but not nearly enough to hold it together.
The Callisto Protocol isn't that scary and has potentially annoying combat, but it would still be pretty fun if it didn't run like your three day old reheated takeaway.
It's a better superhero game than it is strategy game, but if you're a fan of the MCU, Marvel's Midnight Suns is absolutely essential. Not only is this an ambitious tactics RPG that captures the fast, frothy fun of its comic book source material, but it's also a brilliant marriage of Into The Breach's intellectual conundrums and the turn-stretching power fantasy of Gears Tactics. The best Marvel game by a country mile.
Iterates on the first Warzone with tweaks that make your decisions more meaningful, all backed up by a new map and DMZ mode that make this a complete Call Of Duty package.
Two final girl sprints forward and one terrified limp back, The Devil in Me is the strongest Dark Pictures to date, but still feels like Supermassive are yet to find the right balance between fun and frights, camp and terror, and interactivity and storytelling.
A simulation of the everyday reality of being a nuisance sheep, Goat Simulator 3 is more than just the sum of its fart noises.
Mechanically simple but visually engrossing, Somerville offers an interesting, if not particularly deep, sci-fi adventure.
Pentiment is an enthralling murder mystery that uses the rich backdrop of 16th-century medieval Europe to masterful effect.
Vile Monarch's post-apocalyptic city-builder puts its people first to great success but walks a fine line between providing too much or too little to do.
A thoughtful, wry and vivid exploration of future tech and its impact on humanity, Flat Eye is a gripping narrative management hybrid game from the makers of Night Call.
Probably the best Sonic has been for a while, with open zones that make for scrappy fun and incredible frustration in your hunt for the Chaos Emeralds.
An engrossing JRPG that uses the framing of a life sim to ground its twisty and overblown story.