Rock, Paper, Shotgun's Reviews
Conscript's grimy, disturbing setting and gruelling combat are effective and poignant, and a sturdy and well-crafted survival horror skeleton keeps things compelling.
A smart, sporadically generic but on-the-whole exhilarating mixture of ideas from God Of War and Soulslikes.
Flock flexes your curiosity to chase down strange and wonderful little animals. It can be a little repetitive, but it's full of freedom and playfulness and is a treat after a long day being a grown up.
A carefree shadow-hopping puzzler whose colour and charm, combined with frogs, makes for a ribbiting time.
Neither Once Human's third-person combat or survival crafting are especially novel or exciting, made less so by reams of live service baggage and seemingly endless resources and collectables. But an idiosyncratic soul and great creature design keeps it from being uninteresting.
Two-thirds exhilarating and ingenious, one third asinine and frustrating, Anger Foot feels played out by the time you've finished the first few stages. Through great level design, constant novelty, and mostly solid fundamentals, it remains intoxicating for another sixty of them.
Sleek and stylish art direction won't make up for shallow combat and a tiring gacha treadmill.
Building on Sekiro's parry system in a layered and fascinating metroidvania world, Nine Sols is a punishing but encouraging 2D soulslike spilling over with personality and creativity.
A fussy and demanding, but utterly singular and impossibly absorbing planning and logistical sim that other city builders can barely hope to match.
A knotty, dense expansion that's home to some of the best moments in Elden Ring, but also some of its most frustrating.
A first-person North Sea horror that doesn't push the boat out but still excels within its genre
Engaging from start to arguably too-soon finish, Felvidek is a raw, strange, and brilliant RPG that alternates between deadly combat, plummy prose, crass jokes, and odd beauty.
A few bugs and grumbles are utterly brushed aside by a charming and accessible modernisation of 80s RPG detail.
A compact but effective expansion for an already brilliant game, The Splintered Sea's additions are sure to make considerable waves for your toolbox of destruction.
A puzzler and twinstick shooter that's just as pretty to discover as it is to look at. There's a hint of Super Mario Odyssey in there, too, if you're into that.
A more uncompromising version of the first game, Hellblade 2 offers a well told story and immaculate presentation. But it's also even simpler, to the point where it treats interaction like an inconvenience.
A colourful army building and smushing strategy game with clear rules and a heap of RPG levelling-powered possibilities.
Galacticare is a smashing space management sim in the Bullfrog tradition, with a great implicit and explicit sense of humour. It's not super challenging, but its levels are imaginative and fun.
A neo-noir adventure with an overly kooky cast and an obsession with video game references.
Mullet Mad Jack is a no-nonsense FPS that's super stylish and a lot of fun in short bursts.