Aliens: Dark Descent is an atmospheric RTS, but it irritates me because of raw gameplay elements, half-baked stealth mechanics and identical mazes.

This is a solid RPG/action game. Some elements of the game are unusual and fresh for single-player parts of the Final Fantasy series, but some are too dull and rudimentary.

Front Mission 1st: Remake is an interesting museum piece, but not a fun video game.

This is a small, ingenuous and surprisingly enjoyable game.

Baldur's Gate 3 isn't a great game. It is a sloppy sketch of a great game.

The System Shock remake is a boring shooter. It will not surprise old fans and can hardly attract new players.

Resident Evil 4 is a good remake. It is not as creative as RE 2 reincarnation, and it follows the original too diligently, but it still looks very decent.

There is no sense in pointing out any specific bad decisions — The Lord of the Rings: Gollum is awful on some basic level of a game design. Almost every task infuriates me in this game.

Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse is a good remaster. It can give you a dozen hours of a solid thriller about a terrible disease, scary rituals and haunted houses.

It's hard to stop playing this game. Finally the day has come, when I can say that about Jagged Alliance 3.

This is the most exciting Star Wars action game since Jedi Academy.

Hogwarts Legacy is a great adventure, but only for those Harry Potter fans who rarely play video games.

Tchia is an exotic adventure. Awaceb put a lot of effort into this game. There are lots of nice little things there, but these little things did not impress me.

Atomic Heart surprised me, this is a solid game. And it is very frustrating to see her flaws. I hope that in the sequel, Mundfish will not try to grasp the immensity and focus on what's important.

Age of Wonders 4 didn't overwhelm my expectations. But even now, without all planned DLC, you can easily spend dozens of hours on this game.

A new concept for the Amnesia series works not well. There is a lot of tension, but no real horror and no real fun.

A mildly boring escape from Alcatraz in deep space. It’s neither great or abysmal — an epitome of mediocrity.

This remake is so faithful to the original game released in 1994 that it ignores achievements of many successful rivals released over the last 28 years. If you wanted to play Master of Magic with improved graphics and modern controls, this game was made for you.

Mount & Blade 2 transports us into an endless chaotic world full of events, battles and amazing adventures. At times it feels like a victim of its own complexity — some of the game's intricate systems don’t mesh together or never work as advertised, the economy is flawed, there’s a frightening dearth of conventions… Yet this elaborate medieval world will eat up at least a hundred hours out of your life.

A nice adventure for one playthrough with zero replayability and a host of technical problems, which is quite baffling for a linear 4-hour game.

"It’s yet another game with huge pixels and a mouthful of a name,” I had thought upon hearing the announcement a few years ago, and I am so glad that I was proven wrong. If not for Wadjet Eye Games, I would have missed this excellent adventure with delightfully crafted suspense and brilliant dialogue.

The queen is back and she is here to impress. Bayonetta 3 is flawed, but these flaws are easy to overlook when you’re having so much fun.

Requiem is trying its best to make everything even more beautiful, impressive and varied, yet it is still just a decent sequel to a good game. The overall impression is let down by the muddled third act, rudimentary stealth mechanics and forced combat sequences.

Moral dilemmas do not mesh well with low-brow humor, while the game’s Souls-like approach is hampered by poorly implemented combat. The Last Oricru might entertain you… but will not excite.

Intriguing as a concept, the core idea of The Dragoness turned out to be a half-baked disappointment on arrival, especially its turn-based combat.

The developers chose an unusual path, but the product of their labor is neither roguelike nor a full-blown RPG. The game’s original concept is running idle.

Steelrising is a stylish, original game, despite its numerous blemishes. There is fun to be had in saving Paris during a revolution.

No one asked Guybrush to return, but he came anyway and crashed his own party. In the beginning, you try your best to acclimate to the unusual visual style, hoping that your patience will eventually pay off. In the end, you wonder how they managed to screw up a decent game with such a vile ending.

Stylish presentation and a hefty dose of nonlinearity spark the initial interest, but the humdrum narrative and simplistic gameplay mechanics discourage from exploring the "what if" alternatives.

Hard West 2 lives in the same weird supernatural world and displays the same shoddy workmanship as the original game, but lost a lot of variety. One boring playthrough is the limit.

OverBorder Studio is probably capable of creating a rival to Sekiro, but their first game is just an experimental try.

Stylish, unusual, funny… and incoherent. While the idea of a cute Satanic cult seems alluring, don’t rush to sign the contract in blood.

Sniper Elite 5 is a mission pack disguised as a sequel, with a bunch of small, unremarkable adjustments to the tried formula.

Besides the 6-player co-op mode, very little reminds us that this game debuted in 2022. Shredder’s Revenge lifts most of its ideas verbatim from the arcade classics, sprinkling some modern niceties and a handful of minor bugs. If you can recite the TMNT theme song by memory, this is definitely your game.

A cute kitty is wandering in a beautiful city of robots — now that’s a cool idea to scribble on a napkin during a brainstorm session. Unfortunately, Stray never develops it into a full-fledged game.

Despite a myriad technical flaws, Swansong does have a well-crafted world (even though it pummels you with TMI at first), non-linearity, nice vibes and even an air of intrigue.

In theory, Frozenheim is something of a middle ground between a classic RTS and a meditative city-builder. This is a good concept, and the Nordic setting adds to the flair, but Frozenheim never nails either of its halves.

A strategy equivalent of a summer blockbuster, wiped from your memory as soon as the credits start rolling. It’s not as intense as Verhoeven’s movie, not as varied or expensive as other games in this genre, a simplified Company of Heroes, if you will.

The Quarry is a retread of the familiar genre tropes and Supermassive's own debut game, Until Dawn, but the quality bar is somehow lower than 7 years ago. Still, it’s entertaining enough for one playthrough if you like ”QTE movies”.

This is a one-of-a-kind saga about a space rigger, but it needs some memorable moments in order to shine.

Stranger of Paradise is a parody of the Final Fantasy series. Problem is, it was not conceived that way, and the more you play, the less funny it gets. At the same time, it’s buggy, ugly and dull through and through.

Oceans of Time is intriguing at first, but quickly overwhelms with a staggering amount of repeating, dull hassle. And that’s all there is to do, unless you want to count how many tired sci-fi tropes were crammed into this game.

Deadly Dozen Reloaded gives you the same bad experience as the original game did back in 2001.

Squad management, vigorous combat and expanding Camelot combine into a compelling dark adventure, which forces you to live with the consequences of your missteps (especially when manual saving is turned off). Weak story is an obvious letdown, but don’t let it turn you away.

This massive Star Wars amusement park spanning nine movies is a perfect way to spend 20-30 minutes before going to bed.

With all its delicious insanity, Golden Light works better as a viewing, rather than playing experience. It does have a style and a smattering of bold ideas, but the core of its gameplay is searching for keys in similar-looking hallways, with bad gunplay, weak stealth mechanics and poor resource management.

At times, The World Before failed to impress some of its important plots upon me. The narrative is so rife with small inconsistencies that you can't help but notice them, and character models look so poor against those luscious backgrounds. But the more you get engaged with this seemingly simple story, the more you want to find out how it ends.

Taking over the series development reins, Paintbucket Games chose a path of imitation by rehashing elements of the first two games without adding anything new. Diligently copying rules, gameplay mechanics and visual attributes, the developers missed the whole raison d'etre of the game — making tough decisions under pressure, because Beholder 3 is incapable of driving you into a corner.

This immensely ambitious game promises much more than it’s able to give. By focusing on player agency, Weird West stifles everything else.

If you liked Zero Dawn, you will probably enjoy Forbidden West, even though the sequel lost that pioneering spirit and Aloy stopped developing as a character.

Submerged: Hidden Depths is full of beautiful post-apocalyptic landscapes, but the gameplay will still put you to sleep.

Know by Heart could have been a nice romantic movie in the vein of Perfect Sense, free from its mediocre gameplay. Still, it is somewhat satisfying to play.

It’s a solid detective story, but gameplay-wise, Frogwares made a mistake by using its previous game, The Sinking City, as a basis for Sherlock Holmes.

Elden Ring is massive, sometimes to its detriment. A thorough walkthrough might take up more than 100 hours to complete, and at some point it becomes clear that From Software did not have enough manpower to produce that much unique content. Still, it remains incredibly addictive even after those 100 hours pass…

Authentic environments, pleasant music and visuals will only get you so far. The second part of the story is very predictable, but the narrative is presented in such a confusing manner, that the first part becomes incomprehensive in hindsight.

An ugly-looking, tedious, monotonous, incredibly empty game. I see no reason to shell out for it, when you can get Dynasty Warriors 8: Empires or Samurai Warriors 4: Empires.

Shadow Warrior 3 is fun at first, but combat situations quickly become repetitive, and there’s little variety in the gameplay itself.

In contrast to the original Elex, this awkward sequel is a typical Piranha Bytes game. And no, it’s not a compliment.

Age of Empires 4 is based on a solid foundation created way back during the last millennium, but it suffers from a plethora of annoying little flaws and drawbacks. Some of them will be fixed with patches and maybe future DLCs, if we’re lucky, but even then, it’s a far cry from the stellar Age of Empires 2.

Dying Light 2 cannot manage its massive scale. It tries to put the accent on the narrative, but fails miserably at storytelling, and fills its unusual sandbox with soul-sapping drivel.

Conway feels like a detective thriller that doesn't question the mental abilities of its players.

An absurdist collection of pseudo-tactical puzzles.

A bit more polish on the story, better attention to technical details and improved camera/editing would have turned it into a masterpiece. Still, this solid interactive thriller is absolutely worth one full playthrough.

The Artful Escape is an art installation where you for some reason have to press buttons. It's pretty to look at, but not that entertaining.

The worst problem is that combat, skill management and trying out tons of various swords are quite boring as a main dish, and Expeditions: Roms has nothing extra to offer.

Guardians of Galaxy makes you laugh out loud, and that’s a rare feat. The story and production are so good that they offset its flawed gameplay, especially combat.

With all its simplicity and a very short-lived campaign, Severed Steel offers a decent shooting practice for an evening or two.

The developers seem to revel in their weak game design as if saying, “Yes, we know that our quests are atrocious, enjoy!” No interesting conversations, no stories, just emptiness decorated with mediocre puns and overly dumb situations. The same emptiness permeates the main storyline, which riffs on age-old cliches featuring UFOs, Nazis, Sherlock Holmes and medieval poems. There is no thought behind this madness, and all these quirky characters don’t come off as actual people.

Thunder Tier One has one very steep requirement if you want to enjoy it — it’s almost impossible to play it with random strangers. Find a good group, and the game will flourish.

Halo Infinite was supposed to become a flagship title for “the most powerful console in the world,” but in reality we got an interlude of a story devoid of epic set pieces, a template for something greater that may or may not arrive in the future, an empty “open world” punctuated with interior design circa early 2000s. If not for the awesome shootouts, Master Chief should have been jettisoned back into space.

A surprisingly solid game, despite some questionable balance choices. Multiple runs always feel fresh and tense thanks to complex gameplay mechanics, excellent randomization of various situations and a good progression system.

Undungeon is a victim of development hell. A promising roguelike with a weird multiverse and a plethora of original characters turned into a dreary action/RPG with a broken combat system, bad dialogue and poorly designed quests.

The remastered version retains the familiar gameplay with all its quirks and problems, but looks much better than the original, especially textures. The improvements are not as drastic as in Diablo 2: Resurrected, but definitely put Mass Effect: Legendary Edition to shame.

The worst part is that there’s zero intrigue. This setting would have been perfect for misadventures of Alan Wake, a mystical thriller or a murder mystery, but Lake is different. It’s very grounded, true-to-life, sterile and a bit janky, a primitive middle ground between Bus Simulator and Death Stranding.

Gamedec tries to cram a complex world created by Marcin Przybyłek into a 15-hour adventure, and, in doing so, spreads itself too thin.

The weakest first-person shooter in the history of DICE. Even, by some miracle, the studio manages to fix the most glaring mistakes and reanimate the abysmal netcode, this game will not become Battlefield at its core.

Far Cry finally got rid of the most annoying bits (like the infamous towers), but that’s pretty much the extent of the series’ progress. Far Cry 6 doesn’t improve on the core concept in any way. Still, all the expected mechanics work as advertised and keep the game above the line.

The sheer scale of "cosmetic surgery" in Resurrected is mind-boggling, and that’s exactly what we’ve been promised. At the same time, 20-year old gameplay tropes raise quite a few questions, especially if you’re used to the conveniences of modern action/RPGs.

Trudograd is not as varied and expansive as I expected, but, all in all, it’s a very decent role-playing game and a notable improvement over the original Atom RPG.

Weak story with forgettable characters is punctuated with cookie-cutter multiplayer modes. Vanguard is a sum of its mediocre parts.

True Colors is the most “alive” Life is Strange so far thanks to a technological leap, but it lacks spark and tries to compensate for it by referencing or imitating the original game.

Inscryption does a lot of things right. At the same time, the abundance of superfluous elements upsets the internal harmony of this game.

A thrilling adventure for a couple of nights. You’ll probably see all of its major plot twists a mile away, but the clash with horrors lurking in an ancient temple is definitely worth your time.

Too much hand-holding, some glaring omissions in the narrative and its somewhat weak AI do let Deathloop down, but still, it’s a rare and exciting game made for both fans of Corvo Attano and those who never set foot in the Empire of the Isles before.

The world of Encased is scant on exciting adventures, yet it’s overflowing with gibberish to the point that it breaks any suspension of disbelief.

Since 12 Minutes locks us in the confines of a small apartment, one would expect a high level of interactivity and variety, but after a few time loops you realize that you’re given a very limited set of useful actions. The gameplay quickly devolves into repeating the same routine actions with miniscule changes and unskippable dialogue in hopes that you get a new result.

Banners of Ruin evokes a weird comparison to pictures painted by beginning artists. It’s nice to look at, painstaking, but ultimately unexciting.

Modern Storyteller did right by rewriting its popular mod for a new world. Aside from some rookie mistakes and an apparent lack of budget, the story is exciting and memorable, and I really did not want to leave this cursed city. I definitely wouldn’t mind a few additional quests.

The Vale puts binaural sounds and simple controls to good use, but the repetitive combat and copy/pasted towns quickly get old. This adventure is good for exactly one playthrough, and that’s it.

A swarm of bugs is the only serious flaw of Wrath of the Righteous. While the developers managed to avoid a Kingmaker-level catastrophe, please do save this game for the upcoming holidays, or maybe even take a vacation — it’s worth it.

Amplitude still has its work cut out to make Humankind a more welcoming place: improve the balance, fix the second half of the campaign, increase the performance… and release the inevitable DLCs. So, maybe then it will be able to go toe-to-toe with Civilization.

The official description of Road 96 promises “thousands of roads across the authoritarian nation of Petria.” One might think that this is a truly non-linear game with a highly replayable campaign, but in reality you’ll get one full playthrough, with maybe a smidge more. Still, this playthrough, despite some flaws in logic and overall simplicity of the game, will bring you joy and a dozen awesome songs for your playlist.

Foreclosed is short, yet it still manages to outstay its welcome long before you run into one of the two abrupt endings and leave the game without an ounce of satisfaction.

Black Book holds a lot of promise… not as a game, but rather an interactive guide to local myths and legends. In all other aspects it’s an exercise in mediocrity.

King’s Bounty 2 feels slapdash. It selectively ignores advances made by fellow role-playing and strategy games over the last 20 years. The role-playing part is underdeveloped while potentially stellar turn-based combat is playing the second fiddle. And the finale of this 35-hour journey is so abrupt that I had to ask the publisher if this is an actual ending.

Bad writing and repeating gameplay bring the overall experience down. You will be collecting shards and activating pillars from beginning to end. With a more polished concept, Unbound could have been so much better.

You know that a cooperative game is stillborn when you spend several minutes looking for random players to team up with even on a launch week. Probably because it’s one of the worst D&D games in ages.

The return of Orcs Must Die is a bit awkward. The action is fun and entertaining, but you can clearly see that this series is all out of fresh ideas.