Embr demonstrates plenty of potential to be a very enjoyable game to play either alone or with friends when it finally comes out. The developers at Muse Games have warned as more content is added and the game approaches the end of Early Access the price may rise slightly, so you may want to get in on the fire-fighting action before the flames become too large. [Early Access Provisional Score = 75]

While it doesn't add too much to the genre, it is easy to get into and makes sure that players who might be new to survival games shouldn’t be too overwhelmed. This makes it a very good entry point into the genre, but it may not do enough to set itself apart for people who spend a lot of time playing survival games. [Easy Access Provisional Score = 78]

Instead of being mysterious and enigmatic, it’s more of a Rubik’s cube: spatial, memory-based, and unfortunately something I didn’t have the patience for.

Despite recently leaving early access, Clandestine is a game that isn't quite where it needs to be. As it stands, it isn't worth its asking price. The gameplay shows glimpses of what could be, before promptly shattering those glimpses with yet another death caused by glitches, another death caused by being stuck in cover and another death caused by poor gunplay.

Crashday Redline Edition is most certainly a labour of love for the small development team, but it doesn’t hold up in a modern setting. There are games with better car handling out there, there are games with better car combat and there are games with much deeper and interesting story modes. Unfortunately, there just aren’t many reasons you would pick Crashday over them.

Apartment Story is two ideas mixed together, and one of them works really well while the other drags the experience down quite severely. I can't help but imagine that the core concepts of an interactive home invasion that asks the player to make choices and deal with the consequences couldn't have made for an enjoyable and tense experience if it weren't for the confusingly repetitive and out-of-place sim elements that necessitate walking and waiting in-between everything interesting. At the end of the day, the good parts don't quite seem worth the bad, and it's difficult to recommend the title when technical issues are also holding things back.

I ended my time with Realms of Ruin feeling like it was a game stuck between two genres. It has the combat rules, unit counts, and sluggish movement of a pure tactics game, set on a map scaled for an RTS, but it also forgot to bring either tactics or strategy in a meaningful way. In some respect it feels like a strategy game from before they were "figured out" in the 90s. It's a game of rock paper scissors, where each player knows what the other is throwing, and has but a single counter to it. There just isn't enough there, and for a game that is asking a premium price, I think the bar is much more visible, if not higher. And this is without taking into account the other, better, Warhammer strategy games already on the market. Just like its full title, Warhammer: Age of Sigmar - Realms of Ruin is a tad exhausting, a bit confusing, and could benefit from losing about 60% off the top.

Worse still is the insipid pop music that every venue in 2021 America plays at ear-popping volume. To add insult to injury, the music gets momentarily louder whenever you admit a guest to the club, making it even harder to ignore. The result is a mounting annoyance that drove me to mute the entire game.

Phantom Fury is, at its core, a very confused game that doesn't seem to know exactly what it wants to do, but what it does do, it doesn't do particularly well. What could have been a superb throwback to the classic FPS games it so obviously is influenced by, ends up coming across instead as a poorly-executed mishmash of mechanics from each of said inspirations, thrown together without any clear underlining rhyme or reason. Adding to that its bizarre technical shortcomings and hiccups, and Phantom Fury becomes a ridiculously difficult sell. Even for players looking for retro-inspired games, there are already so many better alternatives on the market, letting Phantom Fury dissipate like the disturbed lingering spirit it is may be entirely for the best.

It is a failure, plain and simple. While there is still hope that it can be salvaged, with time, that's no excuse for a launch like this. One can usually forgive a bad launch. However, it is far more difficult to forgive an unplayable launch...

If you are a sucker for an interactive trip down memory lane, especially one with pleasing aesthetics and entertaining writing, then Super Rad Raygun might be the game for you. If you’re looking for a quality platformer with good level design, interesting enemies, and solid gameplay on the other hand, look somewhere else. The developers may be able to whip the title into shape with patches in the future, but until then I can only recommend it to those with nerves of steel.

When it comes down to it, Rise & Shine is unable to create an engaging experience by itself, with mechanics that are not utilized to the best extent. Worse, the game feels like a chore to play, as I felt that I had to rely predominantly on luck in order to advance through much of the game. For all the strength of its graphics and introductory stages, Rise & Shine is unable to create a compelling experience worth playing.

The crux of the issue is simply this: Gods Will Be Watching thinks it is smarter than it actually is. It tries to weave commentary into its story but only succeeds in imparting pessimism.

With 2.5 hours under the belt, I can say the ending was sudden, surprising , and not fulfilling by any means. It did not strike a chord that rang in success or failure. In fact, thanks to the stiff animation of the scene, I actually blurted out a laugh. The setting, the lore behind it, they’re ultimately squandered as far as horror goes, or even as adventure. What Through The Woods ultimately boils down to, is a couple hour walking simulator with an interesting narrative trying to be played out by the most unlikeable character I’ve ever seen in a game.

It doesn’t look or sound particularly good, there are loads of issues, and there’s barely anything original about it. But when all is said and done, this is still a Tower Defense game.

With Construction Simulator being the fourth game in the series, I have a very hard time believing that the developers would release a final product with bugs that stopped game play like I experienced. What I was able to play was fun, but these bugs seriously diminished that enjoyment.

Kill the Bad Guy is a game that would feel right at home as a budget priced game on a tablet considering the basic mechanics on show. On a PC it looks boring, isn’t particularly fun to play, and there’s not enough content to merit the price tag.

The team at Orange Juice have tried hard to provide a retro feel to Flying Red Barrel, but in the end, it feels like a game that could have been made twenty years ago. The boss battles are enjoyable, but the lack of any upgrades means that each level feels basically the same - but with new opponents. The poor collision detection for enemy fire, the screen that limits your view and a storyline that can only be glimpsed at while you’re frantically fighting the enemy seriously let this game down. If you’re looking for some retro vertical scrolling action, I would suggest Shooty Skies. It does everything Flying Red Barrel does, only much better and with more variation.

The best adaptations feel like they exist in the world of the original, rather than trying to redo what has been done. Starship Troopers: Extermination accomplishes that. It gives you the familiar action from a new perspective. The fights herein are chaotic, seemingly-insurmountable, tactical, and satisfying. The Troopers' signature assault rifle feels as it should, the Arachnid are tough-but-not-to-tough, and building defenses feels meaningful. The biggest knock against its effort can easily be addressed as the game lives on: it is entering a crowded market without much innovation, and a relatively light plate of classes and weapons. As a package, it can be exhilarating, especially with a group of friends, big or small. [Early Access Provisional Score = 90]

It is a shame, then, that this is such a clunky, ugly mess of a game. It is rare enough that an English version of a Romance of the Three Kingdoms comes to Western shores by any other way than import and it makes me sad that – this – will be the first experience with the series for new players.

Evoland is a cheap, short adventure game and if you are looking for an afternoon trip down memory lane, the ten Euros it costs is not that big a price to pay. If however, you are looking for a good indie game to spend a few days with, you will be better off looking somewhere else.

The main thing lacking is the enjoyment.

Spectra is hugely disappointing as a music based racing game. There are plenty of games that try to use music to create gameplay, that have soundtracks nowhere near as strong as Spectra’s but they do it better.

Sure, the animations and the scenery are well made, the game is technically solid, and the voice acting is … bearable, but everything that makes a good graphic adventure an adventure is missing here.

Flat Kingdom is a platformer with a neat premise, but the idea of a trinity of characters performing different abilities has been done before, and better. There are ideas here that work, but the issues outweigh the positives. Unfortunately, Flat Kingdom’s biggest sin is that it’s just a bit boring.

Aaru’s Awakening could have used a couple of more months in the oven to tweak and test the controls and pace of the game. Who knows, if it’s well supported, those tweaks might be coming and they might actually improve the experience.

As the first episode stands, however, The Descendant is a poor adventure game that fails to engage the player on every front. It is tedious, bland and bizarre. This may be the first part of the game, but it’s a game I wouldn’t recommend anyone to try.

Forspoken is not worth either your money, or your time. Even were it offered for free, perhaps as part of a free weekend promotion on Steam, or as one of the rotating weekly free game giveaways on the Epic Games Store, it would still be too high a price to pay, as the time investment costs far outweigh the doubtful pleasure of experiencing what little Forspoken has to offer.

I went into this game looking forward to medically treating the undead. Playing this game makes me want to join the undead. If you're looking for a good management game, there are plenty of better options out there. I'm not sure if there are many worse ones, however...

Kraven Manor has made itself known as what a horror game shouldn't be; an unfulfilling experience.

With effort, dedication, and a painstaking amount of man hours, it is plain to see that Nether could become a game to rival the likes of DayZ and Rust. As it stands, I cannot suggest this game to anyone looking for a unique survival experience.

Bound by Flame could have been entertaining. It could have been a good action RPG with a promising combat system. Thanks to a bland plot, poor dialogue and a very frustrating combat system, Bound by Flame is just disappointing.

However, in the case of Zack Zero, rest assured, no such grace need be afforded. It is a convoluted mess, it is not fun to play most of the time, and its many sins overwhelm its scant virtues.

I wish Pizza Connection 3 would have matched the excitement I had for it since it was first announced, but it doesn’t even come close. I can live with the bugs, but it doesn’t capture what made the original Pizza Tycoon so fantastic, it’s just not... personal enough. It’s almost as if development of the game stopped when it became technically functional, and then they forgot to put the actual game in.

Technically, it’s not particularly well made either. Beyond the poor collision detection and weird invisible walls, I encountered multiple bugs.

With other, better platformers out there, it's hard to find a reason to recommend that you spend time with this one.

I don’t know how much Gemini: Heroes Reborn ties into the television show, but it’s hard to recommend to anyone except the most die hard fan.

Ravenbound comes across as an internal playtest version of an unreleased upcoming game. The barren open-world, the clunky and bugged game mechanics, and rampant balancing issues, makes the game feel like it's not ready for Early Access, let alone the full launch it's been given. It's easy to feel sorry for the many developers who likely put their hearts into this project, but sometimes it's not just ok, but often wise, to leave a game in the development oven for just a bit longer, rather than releasing it so prematurely.

Blind Fate is a game of interesting ideas, both in setting and in gameplay. There is a sense that the developers held back in far too many areas for fear of overwhelming the player, and it’s detrimental at every step. Watching it in motion is pleasing enough, but rote gameplay and a completely unremarkable story really hamstrung a game that could have ended up being something special.

Stretched out levels, punishing design, and imprecise controls make for an experience best avoided. It is a shame because there are some great ideas here, they just need a little more time and development to become consistently fun.

Plenty of games in this style come out all the time on Steam, but it’s quite rare we get a gem. Sadly, Red Goddess: Inner World has to be added to the pile along with all the other standard action platformers. Frustration occurs at regular intervals, whether it be to the platforming, the combat or the game just not working. Rage, indeed.

Despite a promising aesthetic style, the game’s formulaic story, lacklustre gameplay, and buggy mechanics make for an experience that is difficult to recommend. Better, more interesting titles in the genre are a dime a dozen, but unfortunately, not many of them offer local co-op. I will therefore conclude by saying that you should pick this game up only if you’re specifically looking for a couch multiplayer game to play with your friends and family. If you’re looking for a single-player experience, you’ll be better off looking somewhere else.

Worlds of Magic would have been passable had it not been so buggy.

I happen to be a big fan of FMV games, so I’m always happy to see another entry join the genre’s catalog. It may be unfortunate that too much of the game is focused on its least interesting parts, but the story is able to bring up questions of happiness, work, friendship, and mental health that I give it credit for trying to tackle. Your time is probably best spent elsewhere, but here’s to hoping the crew over at Superstring can learn from their mistakes and come back for a stronger sophomore effort.

In the end, Generation Zero is simply too basic and fails to do anything special with its otherwise interesting premise and pretty graphics. The negatives tend to leech into the positives in the game and even some of the smallest issues are magnified when there's nothing more interesting surrounding them. Wrap that all up with some clunky UI and Generation Zero is a beautifully garnished dish that clearly hasn't been left in the oven long enough, if cooked at all.

It’s cute, but it’s useless. Let’s just call it what it is.

As a strategy game, Death by Game Show is incredibly simple and not very fun to play. Combined with the repetition of arcade games, it becomes a tiresome puzzle game. Add in the aesthetic, and you have a game that I would not recommend.

I do think it’s worth commending We Are Chicago for its noble intent, even if that intent largely results in an endeavor that is unable to harness the enormity of its subject matter into something meaningful and digestible for its audience. I think there’s definitely room out there for games that explore real human issues, and We Are Chicago seems to have had the best intentions behind it. The story buried behind the bland presentation and emotionless dialogue is one worth telling, but it’s one worth telling in a way that can better represent the truth behind it.

Depths of Fear: Knossos holds very few redeeming qualities, however I will give it some credit for the premise. Playing as Theseus and fighting your way through dungeons filled with mythical creatures sounds great. It’s just not here. Also, Daedalus repeatedly made me laugh, which I’m sure wasn’t the intention, but we all need a good chuckle now and then.

Everything in the game has been done before, and done a lot better. To top it all off, the game is often buggy, spawning players in the middle of enemies, giving false score and player count readings, and saying there are new items unlocked when there aren’t (or visa versa).

While the game’s art is decent, if not particularly exceptional, the level and environmental designs suffer from a drought of creativity. Things change a bit in each of the game’s few different areas, but none are particularly interesting or unique. Environmental obstacles, a core part of the platforming experience, don’t fair any better. For example, there’s open electricity everywhere.. I had to sit and ponder a few moments what to even call the things, because they aren’t real things. They aren’t even electrified floor tiles or fence. They’re just two little protrusions that can be on just about any surface, always uniformly spaced, with open electricity flowing between them. I understand that it seems like a strange, small thing to get caught up on, but in a platformer the environments and obstacles are a major part of the experience, and having the screen constantly flooded with lazy, uninspired obstacles grew tired before I even got through the tutorial level. Tangentially, speaking of presentation and design, the writing’s pretty rough. The story, focused around a mad scientist that controls people through addiction, is fine, but the dialogue extremely unnatural, and there are a number of grammar and word errors that I spotted. The humor didn’t hit for me either, rarely getting funnier than Hey there, how good does my hair look?

Unknown Fate could have been a decent game but it is let down by lack of development. A decent level designer would have pointed out that the game’s levels don’t work.

Hexodius is the kind of game that you’re likely to forget a week after finishing it. That is, if you're not bored to tears by the time you do finish it. Trust me when I say that there are many more experiences that are better worth your time and money, because this is the kind of game that will make you ask yourself “Why did I buy this again?”

All things considered, XXL is without question the best version of the game to date but it should have been offered to existing owners as a patch and never have come to Steam at 40 bucks a pop. It’s high time that Focus Home puts this game to rest so that it can start fresh.

The mission structure is repetitive, the basic gameplay is far from engaging, and I might even have fallen asleep at some point while playing. Impire is monotonous, banal and boring, and I can’t wait to forget about it in the coming weeks.

Following Duke Nuken: Forever, Gearbox needed a hit to show that they could do more than Borderlands well. If their next game doesn't deliver, Aliens: Colonial Marines may well be remembered as the game that began their downfall.

Nom Nom Apocalypse is not a game I’d recommend. There are plenty of twin-stick shooters out there and most are better technically designed and offer better gameplay. The game’s only redeeming value is that it’s passably fun in casual couch co-op and it offers remote play together (a feature I absolutely adore). But again, you’ll probably find better ones on Steam without much difficulty. This solo project could really have used some more polish before being released into the wild or a helping hand to take care of the not-too-technical stuff like dynamic asset loading and automatic controller detection.

Writing a negative review can feel cathartic when it’s in response to lazy, sleazy, or greedy game design, but this isn’t one of those reviews. Of Bird and Cage is very clearly a passion project that aims to do something new and exciting, and, while it does a few things very well, it just doesn’t have a solid enough foundation to make it fun to play. I love the music and I like the story that they were trying to tell, but sloppy game mechanics, poorly developed narrative beats, and disappointing visuals make this a game I can’t recommend for most.

It is, simply put, not a good game. In fact, the lack of polish to the game mechanics almost make the 30 euro price tag laughable. If you're still interested in buying the game after reading this, however, at least wait until the developers have released a few updates to address the control issues. It will it infinitely more playable.

Stealth games are meant to be challenging and should feel like a tense, punishing experience. But Alekhine’s Gun is stretch too far and instead punishes you because of its poor mechanics and terrible AI.

There are some interesting concepts that are introduced but only minimally explored, and I found myself confused by the unfulfilled promise of a sprawling narrative. I’d be interested to return to this world again in a more fleshed-out game, but right now there’s not enough here to justify a purchase for most.

Cityconomy: Service for your City is a game that runs far worse than it should considering its looks.

Rekoil is an uninspired first-person shooter that fails to deliver on any of its promise.

Majestic Nights is a classic case of a game promising far more than it can deliver.

Raven's Cry encompasses a great idea, and it certainly looks nice until things are in motion, when they immediately start falling apart.

It is clear that a lot of hard labor went into Citadels, but it is difficult to ascertain whether it was a labor of love. If it was, it never shines through. Citadels feels empty of spirit, empty of passion and the crashes destroy what little fun there is to be had playing it.

Alone In The Dark: Illumination comes across as trying to be a Left 4 Dead 2 and Resident Evil 6 hybrid while doing absolutely nothing right, and favoring to do everything wrong.

If you like shooters, you might just as well give it a spin. But if you like space sims, avoid it and wait for a better game.

There are plenty of good hack’n’slash games out there, many involving vampires, and this isn’t one of them.

The final gripe I have with the game is the biggest one. At a specific point in what I will assume to be the game's final act, it crashes. After loading several times and finally replaying the entire plot in order to see if it was the save file itself, I can safely conclude that the game itself is the issue.

This dark swordsman is one mysterious figure that needs to stride off back into the night.

All in all, Kingdom Tales is probably best suited as a way of introducing youngsters into full-blown real-time strategies than anything else.

On the whole, the game feels like it was designed in patches with no one overseeing the quality of the end product.

In the end, it all boils down to the pacing. The story moves at glacial pace, and the interactive moments are too few and far between. The unfortunate result is that playing Icebound feels like watching snow melt.

The 'quests' are quite simply surviving through waves of enemies on different levels, and then on occasion you fight a boss or protect an NPC as you work your way through. That's it. No really, that's all there is to this game.

If you’re looking for something to scare the pants off of you, look very far in the other direction. Because Overcast isn’t a bad horror game. It’s just not a very good game at all.

The game truly feels like a beta that’s still using placeholder animations and sounds until it can be polished and filled with content, but it’s not a beta, and because of this Starlight Inception needs to be put on the no-fly list.

On paper, Chaos Domain has all of the elements needed to make a great run and gun platformer, but in practice it utterly disappoints with everyone.

If only Residue would dry up and disappear like the lake it’s concerned with.

Awful hit detection, awful voice acting, awful comedy, and the multiplayer doesn't even work.

StarForge may well be infinite, but it’s a rather small infinity.

For now, Motorama needs to stay in the garage like the rusty jalopies it so closely resembles.

With the current state of the game, this title shouldn't even be available through Early Access let alone considered a full release as it currently is. Do yourself a favor, avoid this title at all costs.

If you’re really on a budget and want to manage a football team, just buy an older version of Football Manager, it’ll still be better than this.

National Zombie Park exists. My advice would be that you don’t buy it.

The controls are bad and the whole thing just seems aimless. Even if you’re looking for a wacky few hours of randomness, you’re better off burying your head in the sand.

It’s hard to see Mechs & Mercs: Black Talon as anything but a sloppily made game.

A combination of simple gameplay options, a completely dead community days after release, and infuriatingly repetitive visuals and audio make this a game not worth your time or money.

As it is, The Dark Stone is a completely uncomplimentary mix of basic literary conventions and obnoxiously bleeping “level-up” screens.

Overall, however, it’s uninspired. It lacks any kind of depth, particularly when fighting without Spellcasters.

From the paltry selection of playable classes, to the lifeless levels, to the uninspired enemies, this game only barely justifies its budget price point.

Dungeon Crawlers HD is riddled with bugs, cursed with a lame narrative, and let down by lackluster combat. If you play long enough to get past the boredom, you'll only find frustration.

The Last Dogma is rife with spelling and grammatical errors, you get caught on bits of scenery, the AI is terrible, and worst of all, it’s just not that fun to play.

Between the ugly presentation and the poor gameplay, there just isn’t anything here to make it worth a recommendation, even for fighting game and kung fu movie aficionados.

Different circumstances have made the overall product a story of what could have been, a rose-tinted glasses breaking reality.

But in the end, the only scenario where I might recommend this game to others is one in which you and your friends are looking for a light, mindless game to complete in an hour or two and never play again. And even then I would be cautious, as there are plenty of other twin stick shooters out there that are far more enjoyable than Gunnheim.

ROOT is one of those games that seems like it was made by a very passionate and energetic developer who was excited to get his project out there, but it never got refined.

Everytime I think about Fullblast, I come back to a lack of variety. Little change in enemy type, repetitive levels, repeating music and the bland gameplay all evoke this. The best games in this genre are the opposite of that, with changes in nearly every level that make the game worth playing. Nothing of that sort is found here.