I have absolutely no idea how long the campaign is or how long it might take to get through given how methodically I’m playing, but I’ve sunk a good number of hours into the adventure and enjoyed every minute. I haven’t rolled credits yet, but even so, I have no reservations recommending Tangledeep to people who might appreciate a masterfully-done roguelike.

There’s no denying that Riot: Civil Unrest is earnest in its attempt to bring game mechanics to a complex, weighty topic, but ultimately it fails to execute on its ambitions, delivering neither a satisfying strategy game nor a novel exploration of its chosen topic beyond its evocative and memorable art style. And as we’ve learned from political movements throughout history, enacting lasting change is about more than presentation.

As a VR experience, however, Intruders is jarring and involving in equal measure. Most importantly, the developers understand how to create the experience of being a child in a high-pressure situation — everything is too big, too scary, and too fast. It’s only by resolve, wit, and bravery that the little boy can survive the night and save his family, and Intruders makes players work for it by putting them through some genuinely frightening situations. There are emotions that only VR can get players to feel, and Intruders is built to push those exact buttons.

Astroneer‘s a neat little game full of little quirks and things to discover, but near the end of my time with it I was definitely starting to burn out on the loop of creating equipment on one planet before blasting off into space, landing in new, harsher environment, and starting from scratch once more. Grab an Astropeer and a couple of Astrobeers and this title could easily provide a few evenings’ worth of entertainment. Beyond that, the numerous bugs and repetition of the core experience make it a less appealing prospect.

The replayable Outposts and Expeditions are a blast (even moreso in co-op) and the mild RPG mechanics of base building is a great start, even if it needs to be expanded upon. However, in a larger sense, the adventure is brought down by a comparatively small size and cookie-cutter bad guys. New Dawn isn’t a terrible experience, but it would have been better served by being delivered as DLC material, not passed off as a full game.

Metro: Exodus is a journey worth taking, and the destination’s worthwhile as well. In this day and age, it’s fantastic to see some developers have the guts to strive for a solid single-player experience that isn’t afraid to try and tell a story of bitter survival in post apocalyptic Russia while also allowing players to absorb the exceptionally detailed world around them and occasionally blow the heads off ravenous mutoids. That’s worth celebrating, I think.

The vast array of options in Etrian Odyssey Nexus could easily scare away players who are unfamiliar with or who dislike RPGs, but Etrian Odyssey Nexus is welcoming to all skill levels and would be a great starting point for players new to dungeon-crawling RPGs. It’s also an enjoyable and fitting send-off as the series’ last installment on the 3DS.

YIIK: A Postmodern RPG is a bizarre title that connected with me on several levels despite a number of issues, and it kept me coming back until credits rolled. While it did take a significant amount of time to get to the ending, the characters and the themes of coping with loss and Alex’s growth made the investment of time worth the effort. That said, I don’t know if I would recommend this game to anyone but myself, yet it’s so strange and offbeat that I think there’s something worthwhile here to check out for everyone who’s not me.

Even if it doesn’t have the scope that one would expect from a Jagged Alliance title, Rage! nails the combat and captures the essence of the series. Stripped of the larger strategy elements, the game can be completed in under twenty hours, but it doesn’t feel hollow or rushed. Jagged Alliance: Rage proves that its classic mechanics work well in a modern strategy millieu, and it makes a strong argument that bringing the series back in full would be a great idea.

Angry Birds VR launches with the promise of more content to come, so my complaint about it feeling like a brief, tantalizing experiment may be short-lived. It gives me hope for the future of VR to see such a massive brand dip its feet into this format, and it’s a joy to finally appreciate Angry Birds as a damn game once again. This is a great pairing, and I’m eager to see more of it.

Overcooked! 2 is the perfect sequel that manages to improve on its predecessor in every way, and it’s easily one of the best games of 2018.

After so many years Kingdom Hearts III needed to be a strong send-off for the series, and for the most part, it is. The gameplay is still top tier and encourages diving back in once the credits have rolled to track down missed items and a secret boss. The individual worlds are gorgeous, and deserve to be combed through for every last scrap of treasure. It’s just a shame that plot stumbles over itself so many times because it really does drag the game down, but if I turn off the analytical part of my brain just enough, there truly is something special here.

With over 300 maps available as of the time this review was written, there is a wealth of content to tackle. People looking for a singleplayer experience in Wargroove should prepare themselves for how difficult the campaign gets, but those open to multiplayer should jump in immediately.

I want to love Battle Princess Madeyln. NPCs exude personality, the dialogue is always clever, and I admire Madelyn’s pluck, self-confidence, and determination. She is forthright, strong, and always willing to lend a hand — she’s a tremendous hero, and I’d love to see more stories about her in the future. But in her current incarnation? I’m just not patient enough to ignore the flaws despite all the good she’s trying to do.

Apex Legends is fast, fluid, and quite possibly the best battle royale game yet.

Override: Mech City Brawl is a series of contradictions – it’s a brawler with more depth than it requires, it’s a game showcasing hulking mechs that lack weight, and its one unique twist has been pushed to the wayside for the sake of more conventional design. It’s enjoyable in bursts and easily the best of its genre, but given that Godzilla-style games have been almost universally horrendous, it ends up being small praise.

In spite of the game’s issue with providing a good challenge curve, I enjoyed my time with Mechanicus. It’s a great way to experience this side of the 40K world, and it remains a solid tactics outing that delivers the power fantasy of ridding the world of evil, along with multiple endings to discover. While players who are more invested in the Warhammer universe may get more out of Mechanicus than I did, it’s still worth a recommendation.

Here at the end, as The Council reveals all of its cards, it becomes clear that the developers clearly and fundamentally understood the importance of player impact on interactive movies. While the skeleton of the game is rigid – certain characters will always make it to the final chapter, and others are clearly less vital to the proceedings – the interactions with them are satisfying and consequential. Whatever ending players end up earning, The Council always makes it easy for players to feel like part of the story, and more importantly, it had a good story to tell them.

While the game doesn’t run optimally (some framerate chugging and stutters are quite prevalent, especially in areas with a lot of special effects) the upgraded, enhanced formula that XCOM 2: War of the Chosen offers is absolutely superb. I was fully engaged in this rebellion against humanity’s extraterrestrial overlords, and I’d have no hesitation recommending it to anyone in search of a top-tier tactics experience. And for those, like me, who bounced off of the original XCOM 2? It’s absolutely worth coming back.

In the end, Desert Child is best played as an interactive tribute album to Cowboy Bebop, where its multitudinous soundscapes can carry the weight of expectations and leave an element of surprise to its various mechanical bits — the soundtrack really is that good. Even without that charitable framing, however, I can squint and see a more cohesive and expressive game hiding in this hard luck heap. Though Desert Child’s eclecticism may not hold up when it’s weighed against the conventional expectations of what makes for a Great Videogame, it’s certainly interesting. For players willing to brush off its rougher edges, that may make it even more worthwhile.

Ashen now holds the dubious honor of being the first game I couldn’t bring myself to finish before posting a review. Well done, Ashen — you broke me. It’s just a shame you didn’t do it in a more interesting or cleverly-designed manner.

Everything in Genesis Alpha One ultimately boils down to being over-ambitious. I appreciate the attempt and see something great beneath the surface somewhere, but in its current state it’s just too rough to recommend. With more assets, more things to do, and shortening the grind of finding resources and blueprints, it might be worth building a spaceship and breeding a clone army. For now, it looks like humanity’s mission to repopulate is a failure.

Thematically, Broken Toys is a hit-and-miss. The ideology of peace involving no violence against humans nor walkers is a high point for me since it’s a new approach to viewing the apocalypse. Personally, I’ve always thought ‘the more zombies that get killed, the less there are to roam’, but his new tack did leave me thinking about it. On the other hand, much of the content here feels like ground the series has covered several times before, and the lack of standout characters dulls the entire experience.

I probably won’t spend hundreds of hours the way some do with Football Manager 2019 Touch, but I’m glad I gave it a try. It might not convert sport sim non-fans, but those who enjoy this kind of content will surely feel right at home.

The retro appeal is lost, the mechanics aren’t updated for modern times, and it offers nothing of historical or archival value. Frankly, I have no idea who Toki’s intended audience is – someone obviously loved it enough to dig it up and give it a fresh coat of paint, I’m just not sure why.

Yes, the Switch has a solid touchscreen, but it handles controls so much better with a joystick and buttons. Not even providing the option to use the joycons in handheld is an unfortunate omission. Just a few stages shy of the end of Solar Flux, I gave up directly due to the lack of controller support in handheld mode. As somebody who primarily plays the Switch undocked, it’s too big a problem to look past.

Capcom has taken their one of their greatest triumphs and successfully modernized it for today’s audiences — it’s quite an accomplishment, and even if it can’t deliver the kind of grueling visceral horror that Resident Evil 7 did on PSVR, it’s still a hell of a ride.