Sword of the Necromancer is a game that will scratch a very particular itch for fans of rogue-lite experiences that feature more narrative than the genre is known for. The gameplay mechanics deliver one cool idea, the monster resurrection, but fail to make full use of it, especially when players need to deal with bosses or the more capable enemies of later levels. I wanted the game to give me more reasons to use the monsters I revived, to understand them, to build strategies around the ones I chose to carry around. The development team clearly understands how important is to ground players into a narrative. But they need to make sure that there’s deeper integration between the world and the gameplay to create a successful rogue-lite. Right now Sword of the Necromancer is like one of its monsters, intriguing at first but quickly dropped when it no longer seems useful.

Even if the developers made great strides from 2018, they still don’t have enough time to fix all of the existing problems. And that’s too bad because, above all else, Pro Evolution Soccer 2019 is really fun to play. If you can ignore some of the minor issues I laid out, I’m sure that any football fan will be more than happy to give it a go.

At the end of the day, NHL 22 just feels like a transition to a kind of gameplay that would eventually feel even more real, probably not this year but in the upcoming releases. It’s still fun to play, and the graphics are clearly the best improvement on new-gen consoles, but otherwise, those who want to get the game on old-gen wouldn’t necessarily notice a massive refresh.

Game of Thrones - The Ice Dragon is a good closing chapter for the first season of the video game, managing to deliver some satisfying final moments for the main protagonists and to confound the expectations of players to some extent.

#IDARB is a fun experience when it comes to local co-op play, offering enough wacky elements to keep its general premise as interesting as possible. Unfortunately, control issues, poor online matches, and a few other problems keep it from really impressing.

Nom Nom Galaxy is an interesting hybrid, although the variety of experiences might mean that a lot of players will have to fail a lot before they discover exactly how to approach the problem of soup production and shipping.

The Holy Gosh Darn is a great adventure game, especially for those who love irreverent humor. It has its flaws, especially when it comes to the precision of the control, but it is darn fun to play around with time manipulation and see Cassy become more and more aggravated with the folks around her who have no clue about what is going on. On the downside, having to travel back in time so much and the piling up of secondary tasks can become a bit overwhelming. It will take a long couple of hours before you get your bearings, and even then, it will feel like you have a lot to do. But when did that stop any true adventurer?

WRC Generations is unfortunately a game that leaves a lot to be desired, and in many ways, this will disappoint quite a lot of fans of the franchise out there. While it does come with intriguing improvements, such as the addition of hybrid cars, it fails to impress in the areas that you’d expect it to shine, such as the graphics. The DualSense integration feels nice, but this should no longer be something to praise a game for given it’s already 2022 and the PlayStation 5 has been around for a while. Should you buy WRC Generations? This depends on your expectations. If you’re a WRC fan like I am, you’ll probably end up having some fun with it, but otherwise, you’ll notice every little shortcoming from the moment you fire it up the first time.

Combat Mission: Red Thunder is a complex strategy game that comes to Steam with two expansions and a community that will probably take full advantage of the modding capabilities of the Workshop. The campaigns and the scenarios capture the complexity of late World War II battles and showcase the different approaches of the Russian and German forces. But this remains an older game, which is reflected in its presentation and some of its historical assumptions. The Combat Mission gameplay system is relatively easy to learn and offers plenty of tactical freedom. Red Thunder will appeal to fans who like Eastern Front World War II action and want to craft complex battleplans.

Wales Interactive clearly has great ideas, but Soul Axiom shows that the company needs to focus a little more on execution to make sure that they unlock their true potential for the public.

Schrodinger’s Cat and the Raiders of the Lost Quark is a good puzzle platformer that manages to innovate and deliver a hilarious time. There are some issues, however, that weigh it down, from the slight platforming quirks, to the camera or some visual elements. Even so, if you're a fan, you can certainly have a great time with it.

Arsène Lupin – Once a Thief" is a decent but flawed adventure. Its premise of experiencing the world both through the eyes of Lupin and the detective chasing him is engaging, and some puzzles are genuinely enjoyable. However, the deduction mechanics feel cumbersome, and the trial-and-error approach prevents the game from reaching its full potential. Those who appreciate a good mystery and strong character-driven storytelling may find it worthwhile, but players expecting an innovative or fast-paced experience should temper their expectations. Despite its imperfections, the game may still serve as an inviting gateway to Maurice Leblanc’s original stories and, hopefully, will warrant future iterations and further glimpses of some of the most famous gentlemen thieves’ lives.

Dungeons 2 is nowhere near the level I wanted it to be. It would have been nice to see an evolution of the dungeon management genre that takes things to the level of complexity of city-builders like Pharaoh or Zeus...Instead, the title is a low complexity strategy game with some real-time strategy mechanics, providing a fun experience if you’re looking for something that could be described as a modern day Dungeon Keeper.

Darksiders III brings the best from the previous games as the story is good, the world is diverse, and the design is detailed. Unfortunately, its emphasis on difficulty doesn’t match with the promise of controlling Fury, a powerful rider of the Apocalypse. If you have to avoid even the lowliest enemies because they do so much damage, how can you ever bring about the end of the world?

Po and the rest of the cast might be interesting initially, but those who love the genre in itself probably already have access to a Wii U and Super Smash Bros, with its larger cast and more polished core mechanics.

Time Master is one entry in a crowded genre that manages to stand out thanks to its unique mechanics. The fact that the game has a demo makes it easy for anyone to play it and see how they like the time manipulation concept. I, for one, appreciate the way players need to think about two timelines and coordinate their actions to move through levels as quickly as possible. The problem is that the unique time mechanic is the only thing about the title that really stands out. The narrative and characters are just sketches, with nothing to make them interesting. The presentation is almost the definition of average. Time Master is part of a big group of games that have one cool unique idea to show off but its developers at MorpheusZ need to deliver more to make their next title really stand out.

Silicon City will be interesting to any fan of the city-building genre that loves the classics but feels more modern titles never captured their magic. The inspiration is classic Sim City but with an extra layer of attention for citizens, their needs, and how quickly they can turn on a mayor who doesn’t build carefully, invest in public services, and invests money to keep them happy. The Classic game mode features a decent advancement system, although money fails to be a challenge pretty quickly. I appreciate the many ways the game offers information to reveal options for how cities can be improved. Silicon City has strong execution and a solid retro vibe, although I wanted the game to do more with its citizens and their interactions.

The Settlers: New Allies has a good core loop that, unfortunately, lacks a solid connection with the series' history. There’s too much military action and not enough focus on delivering products to citizens. The land-claiming concept is interesting but under-used. Ubisoft could have used the same gameplay and another name and players might be more interested. But the game does not do enough to differentiate itself from better experiences in the genre. The Settlers: New Allies wants to tweak a classic formula but never finds the best way to do that.

The Farm 51 has created an atmospheric and challenging game that mixes plenty of inspirations in a cool new way. More variety in terms of locations and more options for combat would have made Chernobylite an instant classic.

Not only does it respect the huge legacy but it also brings the franchise to the present day. It offers a lot of content and, while it's generally enjoyable, there are some sequences that might leave players frustrated.

Transmogrify is a simple-to-understand puzzle platformer with an interesting core idea. There are a lot of possibilities centered on the transformation mechanic and some cool Eureka moments linked to the puzzles. The title’s creators have worked hard to create levels that steadily add complexity and require just enough brain power to solve. Considering how much potential the transmogrification process has, the game is very tame in its overall approach. The janitor and Grace also fail to become interesting as a pair, which makes it harder to move forward for someone who does not love platforming. Transmogrify’s unique idea is good enough to be used in more interesting ways and I hope the team at Odyssey is exploring them for a future game that would offer higher narrative stakes and expand the world.

Goosebumps: Terror in Little Creek is not a long game, it will take you anywhere from 3-5 hours or so, depending on how you play. It’s fun to play, it encourages puzzle solving and exploration. It will require you to focus on stealth as you tackle some of the enemies, and those parts of the game can be quite engaging and fun. Despite being short, I think it manages to tell its story very well, without boring you too much. Yes, the visuals could be better, but as a package, I think Goosebumps: Terror in Little Creek is well worth a shot. The story is great, it’s engaging, and it’s not too long for its own good. The game doesn’t take itself too seriously, it has funny moments, but also some interesting horror content as well. It’s still suitable for kids, while delivering a story that adults will like, too. Especially if you’re a fan of the 90’s horror movies or the Goosebumps books, of course.

Overall, Strayed Lights is an enjoyable experience as long as you’re not expecting another challenging soulslike game. The eerie atmosphere, gorgeous visuals and outstanding soundtrack make it stand out from the plethora of action-adventure games. Its only fault is that character progression and combat are too simple, so the gameplay can quickly become repetitive. Despite having built a beautiful world, there’s really no exploration incentive and most of the landscapes are empty and devoid of life.

Slow Down, Bull is a delightful casual experience about dealing with stress and learning to cope with a desire for perfection. Even so, it can get quite frustrating as progress through its campaign and the controls take a bit of time to get used to, both while using a mouse and keyboard configuration or a controller. The lack of 1080p resolution support is also a bit of a disappointment.

With all its evident flaws, Graveyard Keeper Last Journey Edition is dangerously captivating. It is a shame that the developers did not spend more time making sure that the technical issues presented by the new content are ironed out. Fortunately, everything seems to be fixable by patches, that hopefully will soon be released. With its morbid humor, geeky puns and quirky characters, spiderweb likes mechanics and character arcs, this game managed to grow and stand on its own. There are still moments when it succumbs to grind but snaps out and makes you push forward. With plenty of content and just the right amount of challenge it makes it really hard to put down the controller.

Bear With Me - The Complete Collection is one of those titles that you'll either love or hate, depending if you're a fan of the Point and Click or noir genres. The Complete Collection doesn't actually bring anything new to the table besides having all episodes made available from a single main menu, which is only a bonus if you're a fan of the series. All in all, it is a game series that will definitely feel memorable, even if it doesn't appeal to such a wide audience like other genres.

The Bookwalker: Thief of Tales relies on an intriguing concept, and for the most part is quite enjoyable. The adventure sequences are immersive and motivate you to push forward and discover more. The game becomes even more remarkable if we take into account that it has been developed by a team of four people. However, I believe that instead of investing effort in building the combat system, the studio’s time could have been better used to polish the story. Nevertheless, The Boolkwaker: Thief of Tales is a solid adventure that will most certainly keep you engaged from start to finish.

Bygone Dreams is an interesting project from Bygone Dreams and a very exciting romp in the fantasy action-adventure genre. The RPG elements feel undercooked at times, and the game could use a map, along with other quality of life features. But don’t let that push you away. The combat is great, and the music, as well as boss fights are standouts, at least for me. Sure, it feels like a budget game at first, but as you progress, you’ll find yourself enjoying the gameplay mechanics, visual style and bosses. It might seem like a weird game at first, but Bygone Dreams slowly unveils a creative, beautiful soulslike experience in a fantasy setting. Plus, you even have some time trials and no-damage boss challenges to prove your might, so even if you beat the game, there are reasons to continue playing.