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Schrodinger’s Cat Burglar is an impressively fun puzzle debut from Abandoned Sheep. Every puzzle was enjoyable and well thought out, with a natural and well-paced evolution of mechanics.
Zero Parades: For Dead Spies is a spectacular sophomore effort that takes the subgenre and grafts new and interesting mechanics onto it. Minor bugs do little to impact the consistent delight of narrative twists, beautiful prose, fully realised characters, and top-tier voice acting. Thematically deep and tonally diverse, CASCADE’s return to Portofiro and the fate of the Whole Sick Crew will be a story we’ll be dissecting for a long time.
Outbound struggles to justify its own loop. It presents a beautiful, yet empty, isolating space that exists without tension or inscribed drive.
Legacy of the Dark Knight tries to honour many legacies at once, and struggles to serve them all effectively. A familiar but fun LEGO game, a functional and simplified continuation of the Batman: Arkham series’ mechanics and an unambitious and only intermittently funny Batman story all sit alongside one another in a final build of a game that will still be enjoyed by many, but is never quite the sum of its bricks and will unlikely have much of a legacy of its own.
Call of the Elder Gods is a really well-designed puzzle game with great characters and a story that grips you the whole way through. It’s a shame that some of the plot developments don’t continue the whole way through the narrative, but it’s still a story well worth following. I can’t wait to see what eldritch ventures this team will send us on next.
Mixtape is an adventure specifically for those of us who grew up in the angsty 90s. For those players, the top-tier soundtrack selection and unpacking themes you may have been avoiding for a few decades is going to hit very hard. For others, the rose-tinted glasses and hammy dialogue may feel distant or indulgent. Just like an actual mixtape someone makes for you, not every track lands. But it’s so clearly made with love, and the tracks that do will stay with you long after it’s over.
WILL: Follow the Light offers a few glimmers of promise amidst its fog of missed potential, but they are too few and far between to recommend. Stiff delivery, rough writing and uneven puzzles all would have been better served by being thrown overboard so WILL could focus on its atmospheric sailing strengths. Instead, WILL is better left adrift at sea with only its lost promise to keep it company.
Wax Heads makes you feel like you are part of this safe, wholesome, creative world of Repeater Records, surrounded by alternative and queer folk who just want to keep rockin’ as long as they can. Finding records for people is fun, but also challenging, so you’ll have to not only scour Repeater’s records, but watch cutscenes, search through your apps, and pay attention to the customer’s vibe. For someone who grew up in 90s indie record stores, longing to hear something that would change my teen life, Wax Heads really cultivates an atmosphere of curiosity, love and respect for musical communities, and how much better music is when it involves human connection.
Gambonanza isn’t as feature-rich or varied as it could be, but it remains hypnotically compelling all the same. Whether you’re a champion chess player or don’t know your Rooks from your Pawns, Gambonanza’s short, sharp matches and varied Gambit mechanics are engagingly addictive, and are worth checking out for any roguelike fan.
inKONBINI: One Store. Many Stories is a delightful, bite-sized exploration of finding beauty in the mundane and the importance of being kind. The setting feels intimate, like an episode from a slice-of-life anime. While the cast of characters is small, they are each equally as enjoyable to get to know, and their stories feel real and relatable. The simple gameplay style is satisfying, and the small touches, such as sticky notes from the day shift commending the work done on the night shift, brought a whole world of unseen characters to life.
Moomintroll: Winter’s Warmth is a heartfelt adventure that understands the magic of its storybook world. Jansson’s childhood series is rendered with such love and care that I quickly fell in love with the Moominverse. Hyper Games has very clearly treated the source material with great care and respect, creating an experience that feels made for longtime fans while also remaining warm and welcoming to newcomers. While the gameplay can feel repetitive at times and the firewood grind did sour my experience, it was still good to explore the snow-covered Moominvalley as the adorable Moomintroll to experience a winter that would send any Australian into shock.
After an initially positive impression, Aphelion fails to achieve liftoff. Shallow and outdated climbing mechanics, coupled with an abundance of boring stealth sections, make the narrative the only hope for this mission. However, with a lack of compelling characters or performances, the gravity of two unlikeable leads proves too strong for Aphelion. Despite strong visuals, instead of reaching for the stars, this sci-fi journey ends up falling back to Earth.
SAROS delivers Housemarque’s best-in-class gameplay, backed by a genuinely intriguing narrative and a unique world. But it’s lacking polish, with performance and optimisation issues that are impossible to ignore for a game so reliant on precision.
Titanium Court possesses the spirit of the fool and the wit and insight to match. It is a joy of a game to clown around in – a hilarious, richly designed and ingeniously made roguelike that also gleefully points the finger back at us through the screen, daring us to prove that we don’t enjoy running around in circles for its own (and our) amusement. If it pleases the queen, this is a play of a game that deserves front row tickets.
Diablo IV: Lord of Hatred tries to make the game better in all the right places. The story hits harder, the new systems give you more freedom to play your way, and everything feels more purposeful. The systems may be getting a little too complex now, and there is still some recycled content, but if you’ve been a Diablo fan so far, this may be the expansion that pulls you back into the game again.
REPLACED feels simultaneously over-scoped yet under-designed. An incredible visual style and rich world immediately catch the eye, but only the former holds up across the entire adventure. Likewise, the gameplay is initially rewarding, but fails to expand its simple foundations over a journey that’s far too bloated. REPLACED’s repetitive gameplay holds back the gorgeous aesthetics, but there’s still a charming core underneath the grime that may just win you over.
Featuring a cute lizard protagonist and an imaginative archipelago of puzzles, Gecko Gods is just too rough around the edges to earn its stripes. At its best, it emulates the same wonderful feeling of free exploration you get from the Zelda series, but these moments struggle to shine through frustrating controls and low graphical fidelity.
OPUS: Prism Peaks is a heartfelt journey about the human condition and the importance of friends and family. While this is a slower-paced experience, focused on imagery and storytelling, every aspect felt engaging and enjoyable. The 3D anime art style and vivid colours make the landscapes really pop and become the perfect backdrop for photo taking. A real orchestral soundtrack adds a beautiful layer of depth and emotion to the already emotional story, and it’s hard not to fall in love with the charismatic cast of characters. While this style of gameplay won’t be for everyone, the story is one that will stick with players for a long time.
Filled with striking vibes, the entire adventure melts in your mouth and goes down well, lingering within your brain like that one childhood dish you just can’t get enough of. There’s good eatin’ here, folks.
Though none of its individual pieces is all that original: a sci-fi setting where a tragedy has befallen a space station, a side content emphasis and a cute young companion aiding you on your journey, Pragmata is still a certifiably damn good time. Though we’ve seen plenty of hacking in games before, its intrinsic link within the combat makes for some juicy action-packed and tactile fights that feel satisfying to pull off. Diana, while not the deepest of characters, endears the player and is a trusty sidekick with her technological know-how that aids the protagonist’s combat prowess. Less of an evolution for Capcom and more of an homage and fusion of their prior works under a new skin, Pragmata may not light the world on fire, but it is still a great success with plenty of promise should they choose to revisit its world in a sequel. A worthy space mission indeed.