Vampyr is a smart action game that poses regular moral dilemmas as you decide to either heal or kill characters in a wonderfully dark city. With decent melee combat and an interesting story, there are not many vampire games that taste as sweet.

Shio evidently understands the appeal of gliding elegantly between obstacle-riddled levels like an invincible pro, and often comes across as a more casual Super Meat Boy. Yet, the foggy storyline feels distanced from its rapid-fire level design, which can make the attempts at a meditative atmosphere feel forced and alienating.

The lack of players might be its undoing, but Laser League is well worth looking into if you’re a fan of arena style multiplayer titles.

Copy Kitty exemplifies Nuclear Strawberry's emphasis on fun, and through an accessible control scheme and periods of glorified heroic power, it could very well open the action platformer genre to wider audiences.

Omensight is perfectly competent in every major category, but isn’t strong enough in any one instance to truly stand out. The unique story-telling from Spearhead Games is definitely engaging, but I can’t say the same for the rest of the game.

Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire is a fine game that makes it easy to get swept away in the pirate life and the thrills of ship combat. It’s a solid evolution on the first outing, though the technical flaws are significant and ultimately detract from the overall impression.

Unforeseen Incidents presents a delightfully captivating conspiracy with wonderful characters and perfect pacing. Its puzzles succeed because they are rational and connected with the story. The icing on the cake is the pleasant and striking visual style.

Developer Quantic Dream continues to solidify their pedigree in creating narrative driven cinematic experiences. Aside from a few story and design stumbles, Detroit: Become Human offers an engaging adventure with great presentation, meaningful choices, and plenty of replay value.

State of Decay 2 refines and builds upon the formula of managing the survival of a group during a zombie apocalypse, with mostly well balanced difficulty and smooth co-op integration making up for plain visuals and some rough edges.

39 Days to Mars is serviceable, but there isn’t a ton of substance here. Most of the ingenuity and overall appeal can be found in the charming art style and some of the creative cooperative puzzles interwoven nicely into the gameplay.

Trailblazers is a fun arcade racing game – from its varied modes to the solid presentation and unique gameplay, the formula for success is definitely there. However, a relatively high price, inconsistent AI and barren multiplayer prevent this title from reaching the podium.

Thrones of Britannia is a thoroughly competent entry into the Total War series, though underwhelming battles and a lack of fresh ideas mean it will satisfy your craving for historical conflict, but without much excitement or many surprises.

On the surface, Lake Ridden does not appear much different from other adventure games. But it doesn’t take long to see the flaws: a confusing narrative, busywork tasks, fetch quests, and a depressing and dreary world. The handful of good puzzles are simply not enough.

The tactical combat in BattleTech is excellent. Building a roster of gigantic killing machines and managing sundries offers a long-lasting gameplay loop. With a sharper narrative and more polish around the edges, the turn-based 'Mech-killing experience would have been unstoppable.

Though not without some minor issues, Light Fall manages to overcome its fairly typical visual design and platforming gameplay thanks to the unique Shadow Core mechanics and an engaging narrator.

Frostpunk is a solid entry into the city-builder genre with a unique survival twist, and one that's bound to appeal to those who have enjoyed similar games. Still, it lacks the personality and depth to win over anyone who doesn't already love micromanaging workforces and watching numbers go up.

Despite an unsatisfying final act, Owlboy is an enchanting and dazzling adventure. The heartfelt tale will tug at your heartstrings, while the solid gameplay will make you want to see Otus' journey to its conclusion.

Tesla Vs Lovecraft serves its function well enough as a simple action shooter. There isn’t much to the gameplay, but sometimes you can find a good time paddling through even shallow waters.

Shadow Bug is a unique platformer with some interesting ideas, but one that doesn’t always stick the landing.

A straightforward puzzle game that uses an established formula without much deviation. Vandals should satisfy anyone looking for this certain type of gameplay, but aside from a nice soundtrack, it does little to stand out.

Star Allies is a respectable entry in the Kirby legacy, but it isn't likely to be held up as one of the better entries. Maybe with some more content, I'd be warmer to the whole experience, but I did have fun and definitely appreciate Nintendo making yet another co-op platformer I can enjoy with my family.

God of War takes a classic franchise and reshapes it into the modern fold. The end result is a dramatic, polished, visually impressive and somewhat by-the-numbers PS4 blockbuster that slots along nicely beside the other exclusives in the console's library. It has plenty of content and fairly robust combat to entertain newcomers, while fans of the original games will likely enjoy the second half of the adventure a bit more.

The twist at the core of Minit, that you play it sixty seconds at a time, is initially intriguing and engaging, but ends up clashing with the puzzle and exploration-heavy gameplay in a way that left me feeling agitated rather than charmed by this nostalgia-driven indie title.

Umiro makes for a relatively straightforward trial and error puzzle game, and if that piques your interest and you can ignore the frustrations of repetitive gameplay, it's worth a look.

An improvement over the previous instalment, Attack on Titan 2 tweaks its combat, character setups, and online modes to create an overall more engaging experience. Unfortunately, the core gameplay loop becomes boring after extended sessions, which takes away from its potential longevity.

The wondrous Dwindling Heights is well designed and gives Tilo plenty of opportunities to use his mousey avoidance skills and disguises to help characters. Although there is occasionally too much backtracking, Ghost of a Tale holds a memorable journey in its tiny paws.

A Way Out pretty much succeeds in spite of itself. The storytelling is amateurish and a weak third act threatens to sour the whole experience. However, the hours before that are the dreams co-op games are made of.

For most of my time spent playing Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom, I loved the beautiful world and engaging combat - the core of the game. But every once in a while, everything would grind to a halt and I'd have to deal with the overworld strategy mechanics that feel poorly integrated. Luckily, this sequel has enough great moments to overcome those annoyances.