Reanimal exploits our love of theories and in doing so creates a game that’s bloated and narratively confusing. While it’s undeniably pretty and the boss designs are cool, two-player co-op is fiddly and unforgiving, detracting from any real tension the game tries to build.

With excellent maps, slick and expressive movement, and the superb new Overload mode, Black Ops 7’s core multiplayer experience is brilliant. Zombies fans have plenty to sink their teeth into, even if a lot of its modes return from past games. BO7’s campaign, however, is its biggest disappointment, and its Endgame experiment mostly falls flat.

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 fails to recapture the original’s magic, instead magnifying the worst parts of Troika’s classic, with janky combat and occasionally woeful performance issues. Long-time VTM fans may enjoy haunting Seattle’s snowy streets, getting to know its well-written cast, and testing each clan’s unique playstyle, but it’s a far cry from what it could have been.

Hell is Us starts strong, but quickly falls into a tedious loop of collection and delivery, with an uninspiring combat system and a story that loses its initial promise. The superb place-setting and unnerving tone can’t save this action RPG from stumbling across the finish line.

Gears of War's simple shooting and world design are as strong now as they were in 2007, but Reloaded's more technologically advanced visuals sap away the earlier versions’ grimy cartoon charm.

Echoes of the End makes a strong first impression with inventive puzzles and focused combat, but its uncompromising appetite for challenge and precision is painfully difficult to overcome, and undercuts the power of its protagonist in the process.

Both its greatest strength and biggest weakness, the precision that Broken Arrow demands often chokes its more abstract qualities. It's a stark spectacle with nasty, legitimately cynical overtones, but its unwillingness to compromise aesthetically and tonally almost makes it mechanically inflexible, to the point that the player often doesn't feel included in the strategy making whatsoever.

The premise of Siren's Rest is strong enough to plumb the depths of Still Wakes the Deep’s enduring mysteries, but as a compact story DLC, it’s just too shallow. The principal goal of tracking down collectibles siphons the tension from its claustrophobic environments, and The Chinese Room's overreliance on scripted sequences creates missed opportunities for emergent horror.

The Alters spreads itself thinly, approaching heady subject matter with little imagination and shallow dialogue. Coupled with irritating resource management, cumbersome traversal, and an ever-ticking clock that harms its narrative pacing, 11 Bit's ambitious survival game is only for those who love deadlines and suffering.

Stellar Blade often looks great, and it features solid combat design that remains exciting throughout. It’s let down, though, by a dull plot and a bland cast of characters who fail to make its story consistently compelling over the course of its runtime.

Elden Ring Nightreign shoots for the stars with a clean retrofit of familiar assets into a roguelike format, but it’s dragged back down to earth with repetitive encounters, overtuned bosses, and lacklustre meta-progression. Random chance and an urgent pace rewards blind haste over careful buildcraft, but I'm confident its biggest issues can still be fixed.

The Onimusha 2 remaster does exactly what it says on the tin. Sharp visuals breathe new life and color into a cult classic that merits a life beyond the PS2. However, Capcom’s dedication to the original experience means that decades-old problems remain unaddressed, and its capitulation to analog movement undercuts the authenticity it sets out to achieve.

Deliver At All Costs has tons of potential, but it doesn’t know what to do with it. A solid storyline is neglected in favor of chaotic quests, but the missions aren’t varied enough to stave off repetition for long. It's a game of competing ideas and intentions that would have been better explored across two entirely separate and fully realized projects.

With its weapon-building systems and deliberate, targeted combat, Blades of Fire has a lot of fresh-feeling ideas. Its control scheme is strange and will force you to press each button with care. Its granular forging system makes you consider every weapon in your arsenal. But however differently it approaches them, the game only offers the same thrills as other action games of its ilk. Blades of Fire feels unique, but just can’t get weird enough.

While its predecessor's floaty, unsatisfying combat remains, and its enemy variety is lacking, Revenge of the Savage Planet's freedom of movement and exploration make this short-but-sweet, eccentric Metroidvania well worth a go.

If you enjoyed Sekiro's parry-heavy combat and Nioh’s mission-based structure, The First Berserker Khazan will likely work for you. Even with few new ideas of its own and often unexciting levels, its build variety and brutal boss fights more than make this soulslike worth the effort.

While Amerzone - The Explorer's Legacy is a loving tribute to its source material, its gameplay remains trapped in the past. The world is more realized than ever before and, at points, almost feels real, but the addition of a few new puzzles doesn't quite inject the excitement that I'd hoped. Amerzone is a must-play for fans of Benoît Sokal, but is unlikely to wow the new generation of point-and-click adventurers.

The problems inherent to stealth games hold back Commandos Origins, but it's still a high-stakes, high-intensity RTS where even the smallest action can feel meaningful. Meticulous, difficult, and demanding, it will test your patience as much as your tactical insight, but when you finally get it right, Commandos Origins is rewarding.

With clever iterations on soulslike conventions and a sharp implementation of videogame fundamentals, AI Limit has frequent thrills. But its derivative art direction, tired level design, and uninspiring narrative make it hard to recommend over its obvious inspirations. FromSoftware’s oeuvre draws on literature and visual art to feel unique and daring; AI Limits’ influences are limited to other videogames, and it’s all the lesser for it.

South of Midnight is a monotonous action-adventure game plagued by boring, repetitive fights and boss battles, with a story that loses momentum when it needs it most. Thankfully, its strong characterization, setting, and soundtrack do a lot of the heavy lifting. If you’re able to survive the grind, you might walk away feeling satisfied, but you’d be forgiven for calling it quits before the credits roll.

While its open world is stunning, its combat is robust, and its dual-protagonist design is somewhat novel, Assassin’s Creed Shadows proves too repetitive and dramatically flat to wholeheartedly recommend taking its trip back in time.

Beneath Avowed’s mycelium-covered surface lurks a good RPG stifled by a lack of real stakes. The Living Lands feel anything but alive, and while the combat strikes the right balance between fun and challenge, it doesn't offer anything new. If you’re looking for a comfort-food fantasy RPG, then Avowed’s got you covered, but you need to set your expectations accordingly.

Firaxis combats the inherent bloat of the 4X genre with partial success. All of the big new ideas in Civilization 7 work well and it's tighter and more engaging than any of its predecessors. Nevertheless, your sense of connection still begins to wane by the midgame.

Booned by a timelessly pretty art style and fulfilling adventure structure, Tails of Iron 2: Whiskers of Winter is a beautiful, sprawling hack-and-slash soulslike let down by its overly forgiving combat.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard is an exceptional-looking game with initially exciting combat, but it’s let down by uneven storytelling that makes it duller than it should be.

A unique premise, great sense of style, and a number of novel design concepts aren’t quite enough to compensate for Slitterhead’s repetitive mission structure and lifeless combat.

With a campaign that takes a swing, the return of secret-packed, round-based Zombies, and multiplayer that makes some genuine improvements over years gone by, Black Ops 6 is a solid package that will please longtime fans and entice more than a few newcomers.

The Silent Hill 2 remake is a solid, respectful reimagining of a horror classic. The sound design is perhaps even more spectacular here, but modern graphics clean up some of the grit and grime, while overextended exploration and frequent cutscenes take away from the original's claustrophobia and fear.