These criticisms may be a personal taste thing (tough, I’m the reviewer), but genuinely, if you’re looking for a small puzzle-box game like The Room or GNOG, this might tick a few boxes. It will satisfy in much the same way as a Rubik’s cube or a wooden puzzle does but somehow manages to be a bit more obnoxious. Younger players especially may see the value in this, and it certainly has a place, just don’t expect to find yourself moved and bereft afterwards – you’ll probably just want to make a cup of tea and get on with your day.

It’s a shame that the combat is so messy, and that bugs and poor mission balance and visual communication obfuscate your ability to interact with a core mechanic that feels fairly novel. The inspired visuals of drones crashing around like droplets of water in a roiling ocean are at least fun for a while, but there’s little here to hold your interest in the long term.

It’s a neat, ambitious game that teases us with the silhouette of a rich, engaging mythology and the role of digital exorcisms in this particular world. Its stellar voice cast carries much of the game’s narrative momentum on their shoulders, especially Alex Grossman and Miguel Doucet, who play Brother Gideon. But even with all its ambition and aesthetics, Lucifer’s gameplay and narrative could have been refined into a leaner, meaner experience befitting its daemonic themes.

I’m confident that if you like the challenge that roguelikes offer then you’ll find Crown Trick to tick all of your boxes. It’s fun, beautiful, and challenging enough to keep you trying harder, but not so much that you want to delete your PC. It’s going to be a game I keep going back to, and on that note, I’m going to go and play it some more.

Ring of Pain understands what enamours roguelike fans to a new arrangement of rules and challenges. The focus on lateral movement and strategic interaction forced me to think ahead as I fought my way through a world full of beautiful and haunting creature designs. But an over-reliance on chance and an underdeveloped world cut the legs out from underneath all that polish and initial charm. Those hungry for something different will love the first taste, but I’m just not sure it will convince you to come back for a second helping.

If you’re not averse to a bit of grinding, there’s plenty of fun to be eked out of Space Crew’s enjoyable core gameplay loop. Its main flaw remains the somewhat lacklustre beginning.

Ikenfell’s pure heart won me over. The end of the epilogue alone made my gay little heart melt. I cared an embarrassing amount for the characters the game introduced me to, and the ways in which their interactions are examined is a high point of the game for me. Its sheer empathy, inclusive nature, and amazing soundtrack all make for an engrossing experience, especially if you’re queer and not used to seeing yourself represented in a respectful way. Just make sure that you fight more battles than I did along the way, else you might end up having a bad time by the conclusion.

Beatable within two hours but offering good replayability, The Solitaire Conspiracy is a short but sweet experience. Featuring some strong visual aesthetics, an engaging narrative and enjoyable gameplay, this bite-sized title proves particularly entertaining and left me wanting more. Though limited by the smaller scope, it marks another winner by Mike Bithell, making this one conspiracy we recommend investigating.

Breakpoint is a simple and incredibly honest game. It’s a new arcade game, and there’s nothing more to it. However, in a field of endless games and services, this approach is rather refreshing.

Against the Moon should be exactly what I’m looking for in a game. It’s got some deckbuilding, some tactical combat, and a cool setting. It is, on paper at least, an interesting game with some really cool mechanics. Unfortunately, none of it fits together as well as it could, and it feels incredibly short. This style of game is at its best when you can keep going back to it time and time again, and that’s not the case here. Some of the battles feel terribly balanced, and the whole thing just feels a bit off. It’s still getting regular updates though, so I’m quietly hopeful for the game it could become despite this being the full release.

However, Cyber Hook revolves around, and brace yourself, a grappling hook. You race through neon worlds at breakneck speeds and attempt to swing from tiny points up as high as you can to see if you can beat your previous score. It’s just a lot of fun, and I can see this being massive with speedrunners.

Building off of the XCOM style of strategy, you get to decide how you move and act or react as you’re fighting it out. While the strategy can be fun, it’s all a bit sluggish, and that can make each fight feel as though it takes an eternity. On top of that, it’s visually just a bit early 2000s, with the colour brown seemingly being the inspiration for everything. It’s not a bad game, but it’s not a good one really either.

While what’s there is a lot of fun, and all of it is incredibly stylish, I can’t really recommend you pick it up in its current form. That being said, if you’re in the market for an incredibly stylish game with some very fun power-ups and combat, then maybe HAAK will keep you entertained for a few hours. [Early Access Provisional Score = 70]

I found The Girl Of Glass: A Summer Bird’s Tale’s to be a rare, honest look at how complex people can be inside while appearing to be less than that on the surface, one that doesn’t shy from reminding the player that being a presumptuous person with a loud mouth might make for an amusing exchange in a game, but in reality, it will cause pointless hurt and tends to betray a lack of understanding from the joker. It touches upon societal issues like submission to authority and the place of business in the lives of common people in a way that’s absolutely not being discussed honestly in the predominantly American influenced video game scene and for that alone, if you are drawn to the power of interactive narrative, this game is worth your time and money.

Going Under manages to upcycle the refuse of our everyday routines; its a Big Art Attack of 2-hour commutes, stolen tips and that one pinball machine your boss bought to make a chill room after he laid off three of your coworkers during a global pandemic. It’s one of the most honest investigations of existential digitisation and corporate greed ever made in videogame form. It addresses the farce of employment with creativity and humour, two things no malignant narcissist with a modest cash injection could ever take from us.

However flawed your party members may be – and they are flawed – they carry on to Camlann because they share a belief in Arthur. They believe in each other, and believe in something better for Britain. It’s hope that moves the game forward, and mechanically speaking, it’s morale that keeps your pieces on the board, and resolve that lets them rely on each other and enact their unique abilities. Pendragon is built on balancing tensions that would break a lesser game to pieces, but instead creates something new and worthwhile in that space.

Altogether, this makes Dungeons of Naheulbeuk a real mixed bag. Its slick and well-observed aesthetic is undercut by rote humour and tired cliche, and its combat has great potential smothered by layers of random chance and obfuscation, with the great swell of combatants meaning that you can sit helplessly as a cavalcade of attacks all target and take down a character before you have a chance to act. There’s definitely something here to enjoy if you’re a diehard tactics fan with a keen eye for optimum strategy and luck mitigation, but it feels like a lot of effort for little reward.

Bullets Per Minute has an interesting foundation without bringing anything too complex, and then gives you just enough tools to mess around with it. Even if you’re not a big rhythm game player, it’ll keep you at your own pace, and you’ll get better and better as you go. This subgenre is barely starting, and whilst it is early to tell how it will evolve from here, others would do well in taking cues from this experience, where simplicity behind the premise and a set of rules is enough to hit the right notes.

Whether you’re a current owner of the original or thinking of getting the complete edition, these new chapters are superb. The new gun modes are great, the story content is fascinating, and the sheer beauty of the animation and environments of Control still shine.

While turning off frustrating features is a blunter solution than seeing them integrated into a better-balanced game, As Far As The Eye has a grounding in something really beautiful. I look forward to the opportunity to experience the game I saw parts of underneath its less well-implemented elements. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the one I got to review.

Finishing what was available, I found myself immersed in a sort of aesthetic meditation, with each finished platform evoking a deeply tangible sense of satisfaction. Depending on your speed, Cloud Gardens is a great contemplative puzzle with little pressure to stay stuck if you don’t want to be. I’d like to think that much of its charm is a reflection of the way we’re conditioned to respond to processes of growth, decay, and rehabilitation. Perhaps the secret ingredient to its appeal is buried in the psychogeography between environmental guilt and our relationship to abandoned spaces. Perhaps it’s our lizard-brain drive to help things grow and flourish in unlikely surroundings. Or perhaps, Cloud Gardens is simply a very good deconstructed variation of Katamari, albeit one that refuses to hold your hand. [Early Access Score = 90]

Hotshot Racing is everything a fan of arcade racers could want, especially if you have fond memories of those aforementioned classics. It truly captures a style of racing that is so rarely seen these days. It’s fast-paced, easy to pick up and play, friendly feeling and, most importantly, it’s so much fun to play.

Inertial Drift follows in the footsteps of Joy-con drift, meaning it has its issues. The game has great visuals, music and the drifting mechanic is a game-changer but it’s barebones gameplay apart from that makes this a game you’ll get bored of just as quickly as you learn to love. With some more refining, the ability to play against more racers and better and more varied game modes, this game could really be improved. I really wanted to like this game but for now, I’ll be keeping my eye out for an Inertial Drift 2.

I always remember Kingdoms of Amalur as a game that took risks, and then delivered on them despite the rocky development it went through. There are many other examples of games that have improved considerably using some of its design choices, but it’s undeniable that there’s no experience that quite matches this. I just wish it would have maintained that once present rebellious spirit here as well, coming up with the sorely needed update in the face of a new generation.

Star Renegades is an excellent game, one that will keep you entertained for as long as you’ll let it. It’s pretty, the gameplay is exquisite, and ultimately, it’s just a lot of fun. The fact that it’s also got some of the most interesting systems of a roguelike I’ve played helps a lot too. The difficulty can be a bit wonky in places, and the writing doesn’t always hit, but overall, Star Renegades is a deceptively deep and really rewarding game that’ll beat you over the head just as often as it’ll reward your ingenuity.

I think it’s important when looking at Underzone, to note it’s in early access and, for what it is, its a rather impressive release. There are some definite issues, but its base gameplay is rather fun, its ideas unique and story intriguing, if a little overdone. There is certainly enough here to be rather hopeful for its future. Like most roguelikes, if you enjoy that grind of slowly upgrading each run, there’s a lot to love here, but the promise of what it will be is perhaps a little greater than what it actually is.

It’s easy to see what Ary is aiming for. The ambition is certainly there, but the execution is off. Way off. At best it’s a clunky mess. At worst it’s broken and near-unplayable. It’s clear Ary was in need of a few more seasons of development before release.

It turns out that Metamorphosis is a wonderful little adventure game that has you exploring a world you know but from an unknown perspective. It’s just a solid game about being a bug and how strange that is. You get to solve puzzles, climb walls, and try not to get squished a few times as well.

Unfortunately, despite an interesting story, a good chance to learn some new folklore, and some solid combat, it just doesn’t reach as high or hit as hard as I’d like it to. This is a good game if you’re looking for something short, but it’s not going to change your world.

We have finally lived through the full release of Risk of Rain 2. With the full release comes a new character, who is excellent, and a true final level, final boss, and an ending. On top of that, we get even more excellent music from Chris Christodoulou. It cements Risk of Rain 2 as one of the best roguelikes of all time, and certainly one of the best co-op roguelikes too. There are a couple of things I was hoping to see with the full release, like more skills for the other survivors, but I’m sure they’ll arrive somewhere down the line. As it stands, if you’ve not played Risk of Rain 2, you’re doing yourself a disservice.

It’s a really interesting idea, and it’s very well executed. The flow of the game is never too fast either, even the more intense battles have a little more space than in most roguelikes, and it leads to a more relaxed game overall. I really like Dreamscaper and I hope that a lot more people will play it.

While it’s going to be a little too simplistic for some people, it’s a very good game if you’re looking to introduce somebody else to strategy games, then it might well be the perfect chance to do so.

Windbound is a lovely little adventure game in a beautiful world. You don’t always have to kill things, and you can generally be a little more relaxed as you journey from island to island and watch the wildlife. It’s not perfect, but I enjoyed my time in the world, and the emotional ride constantly swaying between immensely chilled out and “god d*mn it I died” was one I found quite fun.

If you’re already a fan of this type of game, then you’ve likely already been sold on Wasteland 3, and with good reason. But if you haven’t delved into an RPG of this size before it might be the perfect place to start. It’s a much more action-focused experience than some of its contemporaries, with a combat system that’s developed enough to carry the game even without the arresting narrative and its inviting pliability. Despite a couple of minor irritations, Wasteland 3 is the very definition of a game you can get lost in.

No Straight Roads won’t impress punk fans with its devotion to palatability and conventions; it’s not wont to hollering “F*ck off nazi punks“ and pointing a middle finger to the authority and the Man. Instead, it’s content with embodying the irreverent goofiness of pop-punk bands, with the dynamic duo of Zuko and Mayday making loud, emotional proclamations about saving rock music against the tyranny of EDM without a sliver of irony. It’s all the more charming for its lack of pretension, and the polished veneer of its absolutely heady soundtrack, which is perfectly in sync with the intoxicating rhythm of its boss battles, makes this a game worth headbanging to.

There’s a lot to love when it comes to Griefhelm and whilst that initial difficulty will be off-putting to some, I recommend you persevere. Whilst combat doesn’t hold a huge amount of depth, the variety in gameplay modes was appreciated and it features some challenging 2D combat, nice aesthetics and enjoyable multiplayer. The inability to save campaign progress is frustrating, but overall, the game took me by surprise, and I very much recommend it.

Peaky Blinders: Mastermind is a solid, if perhaps unexciting puzzle game with enough fan service for those looking to spend more time with the stylized criminals of old London to keep them on the hook.

For those who long for another Souls-like game, Mortal Shell will scratch an itch for sure. It has core gameplay and concepts that hearken to their inspiration and do well in living up to expectations on that basis. At a surprisingly low release price of £25, those tempted by the visuals and promise of an experience to fill the gap until FROM returns to take another swing at the genre they created would do well to give Mortal Shell their time and money.

Eastern Exorcist has a solid foundation, and launching in early access is definitely to its benefit. The game has some localization issues, as some key item descriptions were completely left untranslated from Chinese, which I couldn’t read (sorry dad). However, that didn’t impede me from progressing. With a bit of tweaking to its combat and polishing up on its localization, Eastern Exorcist can be an even better experience.

Each little mini-game is a full-throated paean to the glory of being young and broke, and your biggest problem is getting a sweet new pair of booties. Chances are that if you’re reading this, the odds are low that you’re a teenager. If you are, you probably don’t need to get this game. Teenage Blob is for people like me – people who need to extract the essence of this game and chop it up into a fine powder and find a reasonable way to carefully ingest and ration its power. Maybe sprinkle it in a protein shake or a green juice. Millennials can have a little Teenage Blob, as a treat.

While Bite the Bullet didn’t blow us away, it’s still a fun diversion for fans of old school run n’ gun action. Unfortunately, it came out a scant two weeks after Carrion, another much better side-scrolling retro pixel game largely also centred around eating people. If you only play one game this year about chomping on people, go that route. If you have room for two though, this Bullet is worth a taste.

It is what it is – an effective and stupidly addictive spider-killing and house-smashing game. There is, quite honestly, nothing more to say other than… kill it with fire.

Despite its faults, Swimsanity can still be great fun. Ultimately, this might come down to the power of friends, as cheesy as that sounds. While the progression is none existent, and the gameplay is occasionally frustrating, it knows just what makes these styles of games tick. Its visuals and music are a little lacking, but that ineffable, undefinable “fun factor” still exists. Swimsanity is a rather simple experience, but it manages to offer just enough content to stop it from being dead in the water.

UnderMine is a great roguelike game. It takes an awful lot from the genre’s heaviest hitters, but it manages to make it all entertaining thanks to a hefty dose of generally good vibes, and some very powerful upgrades. The difficulty will put some people off, but if you’re willing to persevere, then there’s an awful lot of game here to be played.

The often severe frame drops and occasional bugs that led me to restart a level aren’t that big of an issue, and they can be always be fixed after launch. But the specific tone around the game, and the message it leaves as it neglects to listen to the learned lessons in the past few years from similar experiences in the indie sphere, can’t be solved with a patch.

If anything, Spitlings is very relaxing to play. I can see it being great for people who are bored and need something light to occupy their time. While it may seem like it’d be a fun couch co-op game as well, there are plenty of other titles that come to mind that accomplish what Spitlings sets out to do much better. Despite this, the music is very fun to listen to as you button mash and watch all of the orbs of spit rain down and eliminate the evil goo on the screen, and the game is very aesthetically pleasing to look at. However, it leaves a bit to be desired in terms of engagement as the game goes on, and the novelty wears off pretty quickly.

Aside from the fact that you could legitimately play it forever, it also happens to have a plethora of ways to incentivise you to play as every single character, complete every dungeon, and keep playing in NG+ 200 if you can stick with it that long. If you like roguelikes, you need to play this, and you need to play it now.

The hitboxes are atrocious, the game is janky, laggy, and messy, and it’s all just way too derivative to be enjoyable. I really wanted to like Hellpoint, as I want to like all games, but especially soulslikes, but it’s just not going to happen.

It’s just pure gameplay, and sometimes, that’s all you need in a game. Unfortunately, it does suffer a little bit from repetition. While it’s nice to see this style of game back again, it’s a shame it wasn’t a full remake, as the technical limitations of the older consoles can be felt in some of the level designs.

It’s not much to look at, but it’s a huge amount of fun, and the satisfaction you’ll get when you can successfully predict the entire fight is euphoric. It’s a truly fascinating game, and it’s definitely worth your attention if you like chess, tactics, roguelikes, or dragons. It’s very different and it works very well because of that. The difficulty might put some people off, but there’s a very specific market for this game that’ll love it.

While the wonders of hiking around the beautiful world never really wear off, there are a lot of issues with how the game portrays women, how on the nose it is with some of its messaging, and there’s an overriding feeling of there being simply too many messages for one game. That all being said, the music is incredible, and it’s undeniably fascinating, even if it is marred by its story-telling failings.

One of the most interesting and enjoyable tactics games of the last few years. Each battle is a lot of fun to play, and while it can feel bloated in some places due to the sheer amount of stuff there is to do, it’s nearly always charming enough to keep you invested. It’s also easy on both the eyes and ears and I defy anyone who has missed the golden days of tactics games not to play this with a smile on their face.

Fight Crab certainly holds an appealing concept but, like many good ideas, gets let down by in the execution. Multiplayer is easily its strongest component and arming yourselves with a ludicrous weapon to floor opponents has a lot of fun. Unfortunately, the quest to become Supreme Crab gets bogged down in repetition, not made easier by janky controls. There’s an enjoyable game at FC’s core but ultimately, its best experienced in small doses.

Othercide’s story is by no means bad, but when compared to everything else the game excels in, story delivery is where the game stumbles a bit. With solid gameplay, mechanics, and visuals, Othercide is a standout title this year in the turn-based strategy tactics and roguelike genre.

Thankfully, walking around The Terminal a lot is not required to see the main plot to its conclusion, which is the star of the game. So don’t let what is ultimately an inconvenience keep you away from Necrobarista. This is a visual novel worth your time, not that it’ll ask for much of it in the first place.

By the end of the game, I felt invested in the characters to the point that I couldn’t help but get emotional when a catharsis occurs. Röki features a perfect feel-good story, with lighthearted characters that are easy to identify with and invest in. The world is so well-thought-out, and the way that the game guides the player throughout the story is an extremely welcome escape from the uncertainty of the real-world in our current pandemic times. I fully recommend getting lost in this beautiful world with Tove.

If you’ve played Rock of Ages before and enjoyed it, Rock of Ages 3 is worth picking up for these additions, and in particular, for the new eras explored in the story. If you’ve never tried it before, you should, if only because of how different of an experience it is to any other game you’ll find. Where else will you hear the high-pitched squeal of Genghis Khan, helpless in defeat, the Mongol Empire’s fall signed and sealed by the deadliest of weapons, now rolling casually towards him; the swollen mass of an inflated cow?

After several hours of playing Ooblets, I remain sincerely stunned by the level of attention to detail and how well polished this game looks, with an amount of content that is surprisingly large for an Early Access game. I’m curious and eager to witness where this fresh and cheerful experience will go next, and I really hope to get to meet more Ooblets along the road. [Early Access Score = 90]

We Should Talk simply offers players a chance to attack and dethrone their worst impulses. Even if you feel like sh*t, or can’t choose to say something closer and truer to how you feel, there’s always the gentle mental fallback that you’re simply selecting preset dialogue options. Whatever you want to tell yourself, really. Still, if you want to hit on everything around you, you can do that. If all you know how to do is drink, lie, and eat hot chip, you can do that too. If you managed to breeze through all of it without breaking a sweat, I salute you. You’re a better person than I.

Neon Abyss is a really solid roguelike that has a great visual style, some incredibly cool features, and a really fun build variety. The concept is fun, the bosses are generally quite funny to fight against, and the feeling you get when you’ve got an obscene weapon and a bunch of followers is excellent. It’s definitely got the makings of a really great game, and I’m excited to continue putting time into it.

While the gameplay is solid and manages to pack a punch; there isn’t much that’s new apart from a small health upgrade system and a few moves you pick up along the story. It takes such large inspiration from older titles that it often fails to properly identify itself as anything more than a nostalgia-driven passion project. There are so many little details that feel like they’ve come right out of old titles, but this ends up feeling a little bit dull after the shine wears off. Seeing old school stun locks and intentionally annoying enemy design can only get by on so much goodwill. If you long for a time of cartridges and broken controllers, this one is definitely for you. If not, I probably wouldn’t bother.

I can easily recommend this game — it’s enjoyable, attractive, and fleshed out. I do think having to wait around fifteen hours for an emotional hook might be pushing it (especially if, like me, you love story and character), but again, this could change as you push into your sixteenth hour and beyond.

Like many other life simulators, Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town will probably benefit from sunk cost fallacy (if you make it past the first 20 hours, why not another 20?), but if you want a farm sim to wholeheartedly commit to, seek your pleasure elsewhere.

The plot is meant to feel uplifting as hope is, literally, restored and trauma overcome. But it all feels too downbeat and too open to interpretation to make sense. What for some might be an intriguing journey of discovery was for me a baffling, meaningless grind.

It’s hard not to come away from The Otterman Empire feeling disappointed. It’s got a cute aesthetic, and the mere concept of space otters should sound appealing. Ultimately, however, Tri-Heart’s latest title gets let down by flawed gameplay. Whether its an experience redeemed with friends is hard to say, though missions provide some degree of fun. Parents looking for a new game will find some joy here, but for anyone else, Otterman is best avoided.

It’s an undeniably well-made platforming game, and both the music and the visual style help to keep this standing out in a field of platformers that want to make you cry. It’s just a really solid game, and one that you’ll enjoy a lot if you don’t mind dying constantly.

As it stands, it’s a bit of a mixed bag. While a lot of the puzzles can be fun, and it’s undoubtedly a very pretty game, it’s a little bare bones. Of course, it is in Early Access, and the devs seem very keen on continuing to build upon the entertaining foundations that are currently there. I think this game could be really good, but it’s hard to recommend at the moment.

There’s so much depth that a lot of people may find themselves drowning in it, but for a lot of hardcore tactics fans, they’ll be very much in their element. It’s all set against stunning artwork and a really interesting world, but the story can be a little lacklustre in places, and there are some pacing issues too.

The combat is good, the strategy is a lot of fun, and the only real thing that lets this version of Ancestors Legacy down is the lack of multiplayer. So, it’s perfect for those who’ve no interest in playing with others, but may miss the mark if you were hoping for a more inclusive experience.

It’s still an impressive accomplishment to have this game run in handheld mode; it’s just a shame that things are so marred by the performance and visual blur. If you’re looking for a new RPG to sink your teeth into, then The Outer Worlds may well be what you’re after, but maybe wait for a few more patches first.

A Day Without Me offers a very simplistic adventure-horror experience that has some interesting ideas. The game’s trailer definitely showed potential glimpses of dealing with a big demonic threat in your town. However, the final product falls short in capitalizing on its concept.

It’s reductive to suggest Little Witch Nobeta is just you running around, busying yourself between each boss battle, but they are undoubtedly the best part of the game. Its pacing is off, and the base game combat hasn’t got that much going for it, but it’s well worth picking up to test yourself against Little Witch Nobeta’s headline offerings.

Space Scavenger makes for an interesting debut from Red Cabin Games. It never reaches the lofty heights of fellow SHMUP titles but carves a unique identity, bringing enjoyable combat and versatile customisation. It’s a shame there isn’t more of it and comes across as rather barebones. Replayability only goes so far, but considering the low price point, this is easier to forgive. For genre fans looking for a new fix, it comes recommended.

The Almost Gone is a clever little indie. It looks great. The spare soundtrack is effective and evocative. The puzzles are smart, and the narrative is superb. It’s also a game that could easily get lost in the crowd of other releases. It deserves attention though, and is well worth playing.

It’s not reinventing the wheel, it’s not pushing anything forwards, it’s just good fun. It’s definitely a game aimed for the younger gamers out there, but I think, thanks to nostalgia and the horrific state of the world, that it should appeal to nearly everyone. The sheer undiluted joy that it delivers straight into your soul is exactly what we all need right now. So, are you ready kids?

As a story, My Beautiful Paper Smile is an 8, maybe even a 9 out of 10, especially if you’re patient enough to put up with a tale which is mostly revealed and cliffhangers disguised as a moving plot. But there are long stretches where the story takes a back seat for you to wander, and while the aesthetic is good, the game isn’t open-world and looking the part isn’t enough to carry it. My Beautiful Paper Smile is an ideal Let’s Play game, in that it’s probably much more fun watching someone else play than it is to do it yourself. One for the horror enthusiasts, but I don’t see it reaching across the aisles.

In theory, Waking sounds like a fascinating project, with the game showing hints of delivering a highly tailored, personal and transformative experience. But what begins as an exercise for intimate self-reflection wound up becoming an increasingly detached experience for the player. By putting them into the game in the most literal sense, Waking fell short when it was unable to capture all the nuances of its impossible protagonist: yourself. While I admire the boldness of its vision, I simply couldn’t connect with the extent of its execution.

Desperados III is a worthy successor to the previous games in the series, and a welcome return to a genre I’d long thought dead and buried. Now, how about a new Commandos?

It possesses a certain melancholy and longing that I admire. That mood is captured beautifully by its illustrations which in rare moments collapse and collide in colourful fractal parallaxes. Despite the flaws I’ve identified, the direction of its narrative surprised me, and its twists kept me on my toes. Like Seers Isle before it, Across the Grooves’ worldbuilding is its strength. It crafts a deep beatnik, classic rock mythology surrounding the record at its centre, and while I often felt like I didn’t belong in that world, I remained intrigued by the secrets it offered. When I finished Across the Grooves, I replayed Seers Isle. Then I began Across the Grooves again. I look forward to Nova-box’s next project as their work continues to delight.

Overall, Warborn is a colourful and fun tactics game. It takes a little bit from a few places and does good things with them. The gameplay is good, the tactical options are varied, and the soundtrack will drill its way into your brain and never leave. It feels a lot like this will do very well if there are a lot of people keeping the multiplayer alive, but it’s a great game regardless.

It’s been seven years since we first saw Ys: Memories Of Celceta but this PS4 remaster proves a welcome return for Nihon Falcom’s juggernaut franchise. Bringing us real-time combat, an enjoyable storyline packed with humour and appealing visuals, Ys is a must-have for JRPG fans. Whilst there’s no new content for those who previously beat it, MOC remains a thoroughly enjoyable title and, old fan or new, comes strongly recommended.

A Hand With Many Fingers illustrates the quiet fervour of trying to understand something much bigger than yourself – a web of obscure moving parts and shady characters who have, to this day, never been convicted of a crime. Even if you’re not as keen on the niche thrill of chasing a conspiracy, Colestia’s work is an important dissection of power, hegemonic greed, and corruption during the Cold War, as well as its ideological impact across the world – issues that unfortunately remain all too familiar in 2020.

Liberated is a peculiar game. While it explores some interesting concepts around surveillance, people’s privacy and how societies react to terrorism, I’m not sure any of its ideas are helped by being a video game. If anything, it has an adverse effect, actively drawing away from the team’s artistic skills and world-building.

Minecraft Dungeons is a lot of fun, but it’s a little lacking in depth, and it’s rather short to boot. It’s almost exactly what you’d expect from a game looking to fuse the cute world of Minecraft with the gameplay of Diablo, but it sadly never really reaches the potential of either. As I said though, it is good fun. It is replayable too, but it’s hard to really commit to doing so unless you’re helping along someone who is less familiar with games, say a younger sibling or your own kids. This puts it in an important bracket of gaming, where its perfect as an introduction to the genre, but it’s not going to offer much more than a distraction for anyone used to ARPGs.

It’s a really interesting take on a dungeon game, because you’re not actively controlling anything, and it often feels more like you’re just suggesting that your characters go and do something rather than actually getting them to do it. The mechanics are incredibly cool, and managing your power as you explore while trying to defend your home and also push further into the unknown is very satisfying.

It’s perfect for anybody wanting to play a game with a partner who isn’t normally interested, because it’s fairly hands-off. There are enough choices to make it worth a few playthroughs, and it’s an especially unique way to spend a night indoors with a loved one. It’s one of those games that can help bring new people into the fold.

Action sequences aren’t all just a case of spraying and praying either, a lot of the game looks like that, but you need to approach things in a more considered matter if you want to actually survive. There’s a constant cycle of fun decisions to make in your weapon choices, movement options, and tactical decisions, and they all elevate Huntdown far above many other run and gunners.

Maneater may not be as enthralling as the Nelly Furtado song, but it’ll certainly make you work hard and make you want all her love because the game’s snarky personality does make you want to continue playing all the same. I’d personally wait until it goes on sale, but whenever you do purchase Maneater, I’m certain you’ll have a whale of a time.

Old Gods Rising is unsettling. It does a wonderful job of making you uneasy, constantly convincing you you’re being watched by someone or something, which the story is happy to suggest. If you want a game with a story which has multiple twists, an ambiguous ending, a nice sense of creepiness (without playing a horror game) and a fun, small insight into ancient civilisations and the gods they worshipped, Old Gods Rising maybe for you. Although, I’d wait for it to be a bit more stable if I were you.

Simply put, Monster Train is really good. It’s fun, there are a nigh-on-infinite number of things you can change and mess around with for each run, and it’s difficult, but not soul-crushingly so. It’s got a nice look to it, some very good music, and the card-customisation and cloning is an excellent idea. I’m really looking forward to seeing more people with their hands on it, and I think Monster Train deserves to be huge.

Muse Games have done an excellent job with Embr, and it certainly holds promise for when it finishes development. There’s good depth to its mechanics, co-op play is great with friends, and it’s visually quite appealing. It’s a cautious recommendation at this time due to its brevity, though Muse Games are currently promising a wide feature expansion in future updates. All being said, what we’ve seen so far has been great and it’s one to watch out for.

Llaura McGee’s Ireland-based indie studio, Dreamfeel, is best known for 2014’s indie darling Curtain, a story of queer punks in an abusive relationship. Now with a full team of queer women and nonbinary devs (and music by 2 Mello), If Found… feels like the synergistic realization of all that its parts set out to do. It’s the rare game I would implore you to play without any question. The one that breaks the scale. I don’t care who you are or what games you usually like to play, play it. If not for the mechanical conceit, for the art, for the soundtrack, play it for me, because I want to share this story with so many others. That’s what a myth is, after all.

Cranked Up has the colourful charm of Overcooked, and enough platforming challenge to keep you engaged from start to finish. Frustration is core to the experience, and that may not be for everyone, but if snappy, repeated trial and error gameplay is your thing then Cranked Up is a good shout.

For fans of the oddball 90s game aesthetic – misproportioned bodies, warped perspectives, and bold colours – visiting Heffernan’s gameworlds is like spending time with an eccentric old friend. But in addition to some really great banter, Vol. 1 primarily unfolds through revealing conversations that touch on social issues like gentrification, corporate hegemonies, collective bargaining, and the complicated business of making a living; all of these topics are painfully applicable to current events, which makes Vol. 1 both visually anachronistic and thematically accurate. It’s meta-exploration through chat and movement – a thoughtful voyage through a community going through a slowly snowballing crisis. If you’re looking for confrontation and convention, this probably isn’t the game for you.

I enjoyed my time with Nimbatus, even though it’s been made for people far more capable in design than I am. If you’re one of those elusive professional Minecraft architects or someone with a penchant for computing, Nimbatus as a tool is a real achievement you should invest in. Meanwhile, I’ll stick to watching The Malcontent Orb as it drifts slowly through the universe and slowly drifting, soulless and accursed, into the abyssal nothingness of pixelated space.

If you’re looking for a meditative city builder and enjoy resource management and problem-solving, you should absolutely give Before We Leave a go. But if you’re accustomed to some of the bigger 4X alternatives, you might feel as if what’s here is a little lacking by comparison.

For a game which has spent the past three years in early access, it’s clear Awesome Games Studio has spent their time fine-tuning and creating a replayable experience. While not a perfect game with controls feeling a little loose when the heat gets turned up, and a storyline which isn’t finished or particularly interesting, Fury Unleashed was absolutely a pleasant surprise.