Astral isn’t the worst game I’ve played, but it’s a game in which virtually everything that it aims to do is done better elsewhere. Even if you’re looking for something in the niche of horror-esque side-scrolling platformers, you’d probably be best served looking elsewhere.

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.

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.

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.

So Boss 101 is a strange beast, at the same time jam-packed with guns, costumes, and perks, while also and deeply lacking any features that make time investment seem worthwhile. There’s an argument to be made that this makes it the perfect game to pick up and play in short bursts, but there are better options out there, so I can’t really recommend it for that either.

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.

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).

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.

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’s a little unsettling to see just how unfinished and unbalanced the game really is after two years in Early Access. Sovereignty: Crown of Kings has all the markings of a grand strategy game, but they’re just that – markings. The developers set out to develop a deep game but someone must have fumbled the marching orders. The playable part, at least when the game is not crashing, boils down to a game of Risk with more different units and the occasional card to boost the units in the field and everything else is just fluff and distraction. Recruit, move, attack, defend – rinse and repeat. It’s serviceable but not a lot of 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.

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.

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.

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

There’s truly a decent game here with its foundational systems that could be developed into a more well-rounded title. But as it stands this is a £45 game, it is neither fair nor warranted that this game is just okay. Codemaster’s had already promised ahead of its release that Grid (2019) would be receiving a bevy of further racetracks, cars and modes for its player base. Yet with a dwindling interest, this seems too little too late.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

I could see someone who’s really into Little Witch Academia loving the chance to be in a VR world with their favorite characters. That being said, even if I were to put myself in the shoes of that fan, I can’t help but feel I would be disappointed in what this game has to offer. The characters didn’t have enough story to work with to flush out their emotions and quirks, the gameplay was uninteresting, and there were a few too many bugs. If you are a diehard Little Witch Academia fan that just needs to get a little more of it in your life, then this might be something you could pick up - but understand that it will be an underwhelming 2 hour experience. You’d be better off just rewatching the show.

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.

Black Sand Drift clearly wants to stand out in the crowd. Its atypical visual, musical style, overly complex plot, and high level of difficulty makes it feel like the developers tried to squeeze too many ideas into one game. And while I admire their ambition, I feel that they stumbled in the execution.

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

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

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?

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.

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.