While the game excels in gameplay with its resource management, building mechanics, and satisfying sound effects that make abilities feel impactful, the visual presentation falls short. Character models and animations feel stiff and uninspired, with a lack of dynamic movement or style that detracts from the overall experience. The maps and enemies are slightly more engaging, but the design is still fairly generic. Additionally, the game’s difficulty curve needs tweaking, as early levels are too easy and lack a sense of accomplishment. Despite these issues, Achilles: Survivor shows great potential, particularly with its unique gameplay mechanics, though its visual presentation and difficulty adjustments could be improved to match the engaging core concept. [Early Access Review]

Stormgate seems like an interesting game, albeit one that has a bit of work to be done before it leaves Early Access. The game needs to work on its presentation of information, both visually and through in tutorial sources. It also could stand to bolster its factions with more unique and interesting designs, with the Infernal Host standing out as the most interesting of three otherwise bland factions. [Early Access Review]

Age of Darkness: Final Stand is an instant favorite of mine, cleverly improving and expanding upon tried-and-true RTS mechanics, adding co-op multiplayer, and delivering it all in an awesome dark fantasy RPG package. Grab a friend and face the darkness in what could very well be the best RTS game on the market. [Early Access Score = 100]

Everything else that I could think to request from the game, including more classes, more maps, and new game modes, is promised to come. So, as long as the developers keep that promise, I think Legacy: Steel & Sorcery will be an ultimately fantastic game—one that does what Dark & Darker does, but much better. [Early Access Review]

If I had any real criticism about the game, subjective though it may be, it would simply be that I wish everything was a bit more stylized. Where there are interesting settings and cool-looking monsters, generally everything seems to fall under the umbrella of generic dark fantasy, aka Diablo or Path of Exile. There’s a lot the game could have done to further stand out visually, and while the gameplay is arguably the most important aspect of a game, I think a better focus on style and worldbuilding could have made this title stand out from the rest. [Early Access Review]

While there is some nostalgia there for fans to enjoy, MY HERO ACADEMIA: All’s Justice is overwhelmingly disappointing, providing sub-par gameplay, stiff animation, and a lack of iconic playable stages from the anime. For all but the most diehard My Hero fans, this title is nothing more than an underwhelming and easily forgettable one.

As the title suggests, #DRIVE Rally is a rally racing format driving game. Rally racing means that rather than racing side by side with other vehicles, you are solo racing through treacherously twisty tracks and against a stopwatch to see how quickly you can reach the finish line. At the end of the race, your score is presented against other players locally and globally, as you all compete to have the best time on each track. [Early Access Review]

While the game captures a certain sense of wonder, Of Ash and Steel is unreasonably unpolished and miserable to play. If the game were still in testing, I would call it ambitious, but changes still need to be made to the core experience and a lot of QA still needs to be done on what is being called a finished game.

The Sacred 2 Remaster is a half hearted attempt to update a game that felt kind of dated in its heyday. Beyond updated graphics and a new, buggy HUD, nothing has been done to actually remaster the title and improve upon its original flaws, with constant bugs, crashes, and problems persisting throughout. Simply put, it’s not worth your time, as a new player or a nostalgic returner.

Garten of Banban 6 is not a game worth playing. It’s plagued with bugs, intentionally frustrating and unintuitive gameplay, cheap and unfrightening jump “scares,” and a poorly written story filled with uninteresting characters. Garten of Banban 6 is perhaps the most soulless cash grab on Steam and one I see the developers continue to ride until they can’t anymore.

While not perfect, Enshrouded has a strong foundation, and its early access state means it has plenty of time to grow. I hope to see the developers take some of my feedback to heart, but as it stands, the game’s pros far outweigh the cons. [Early Access Review]

Currently, PalWorld stands out among other titles as a highly unique spin on two separate and perhaps equally titanic genres. While there’s a lot of good to be seen in PalWorld, some flaws and hiccups hold the game back. However, it’s important to acknowledge that the game is currently in Early Access and is prone to big changes. PalWorld may not be the same game it is now in a year’s time.

Overall, the game could use some polish. While it’s to be understood that some of these issues could presumably be due to the game being in early access, these are still issues worth bringing up. Hopefully, the developer will take the time to iron the experience out before the full release. [Early Access Review]

Nightingale, in its current early access game, is a $30 release. I should under no circumstances be required to be connected to the internet to enjoy it. This, I feel, is especially true for the genre; Some of my best experiences in games like Conan Exiles, 7 Days to Die, and other survival crafts have been offline, especially when the game has such an emphasis on story content and PVE or exploration… like Nightingale does. [Early Access Review]

At its core, Winter Survival is a horror game, and it does a really good job with some of the creepy aspects it goes for. By far, one of my favorite moments was when I neglected my hydration, and an unfamiliar voice popped up over the radio and said, “Thirsty?” [Early Access Review]

I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it a thousand times: in a FPS game, one of the most important things you can have are guns that feel good to use. Unfortunately, many of the guns in Hellbreach: Vegas simply don’t. They have recoil that doesn’t feel punchy or strong, and audio that loops obviously and simply doesn’t sound very good. Audio design, in general, is not great in this game, with some sounds being way too loud or looping way too often, like the crows. There were a few times when the audio outright broke for a few seconds. Most tragically, the guns feel weak. This is due in large part to how the zombies increase in health, but also how they don’t stagger from bullets, and how you can’t blow limbs off or cripple them. Generally, the guns are just a big thumbs down for me, which is very disappointing, because they could easily have made the game much better on their own. [Early Access Review]

Lightyear Frontier is a charming, relaxing cultivation sim set on the reaches of humanity’s final frontier, space. Well-thought-out farming mechanics are mixed with an interesting mech piloting twist, leading to a game that is as unique as it is fun to play. [Early Access Score = 90]

Ditching these guaranteed starts and adding a larger variety of random events could make Infected Free Zone one of the best, or at least one of the most replayable, open-world survival games out there. [Early Access Review]

Boy, do those units and buildings look fantastic! The game has a super modern look that somehow also captures the style of classic RTS games. The textures are super crisp and high quality, as are the models they’re placed over, yet somehow they look super-nostalgic. [Early Access Review]

Revival: Recolonization is a 4X game that, while still feeling familiar, offers its fair share of innovation. Though it can be slow at times, it has a ton to offer, and with its unique takes on mechanics and style, the game is sure to offer something for the tired 4X fan looking for something new. [Early Access Score = 80]

Oddsparks: An Automation Adventure has been released into Early Access with more than a solid foundation, and if we have nothing but further improvements to make, expect that players have a title worth really getting excited for. [Early Access Review]

No Rest For The Wicked is a highly promising game that can only improve during its time in Early Access. It makes exciting changes to the ARPG formula, has phenomenal art and visuals, and has fun combat. While I would like to see some changes addressed to the game’s balance (particularly in the ability for players to grind XP / levels), it has quickly become one of my new favorites. [Early Access Review]

This game deserves all the time in the world needed to accomplish its true vision, which is clearly something spectacular and deeply engaging, but I’ll be damned if I don’t get a pressing sense of impatience thinking about everything to come. Manor Lords has me absolutely hooked, as I’m sure it will have you as well, and while updates may be a little slow, I’m super excited to see them come. [Early Access Review]

Overall, I’d say the game has a lot of promise; It just needs a little bit of paint and some tinkering under the hood. [Early Access Review]

As it currently stands, Necromantic is a solid bullet-hell title with some great gameplay and a super interesting setting. Some powers could be tweaked, some pathfinding glitches fixed, and above all else, a big focus on expanding the story and characters of the setting needs to happen before the game is ready to leave Early Access. Still, I feel like Necromantic is a promising title with a great future in story. [Early Access Review]

I think Soulmask has some good ideas but needs more work, especially on the non-mechanical side of things. The UI, menu navigation, building, and localization need some improvement before this game can shine as the ambitious survival craft the developers want it to be. [Early Access Review]

If your tribe has multiple clans or “units,” there is no reminder at the end of your turn to move them or an easy way to cycle between selecting multitudes of them. Sometime, the game will outright refuse to allow you to select your other clans, and you just have to watch them slowly die of starvation or predator attack as they are left defenseless and without direction. [Early Access Review]

Kristala already seems to be an exciting and unique entry into the Soulslike genre. With its unique setting and twists on the genre’s gameplay mechanics, the game has real promise. Though there are still bugs to be polished, optimization to be implemented, and tweaks to the controls and gameplay to be made before Kristala is ready to launch, Kristala has a lot to offer fans of Soulslike games, but it should be equally appealing for newcomers looking to make this cat-based world their first experience with the genre. [Early Access Review]