OVIS LOOP is a shockingly stable and well-put-together Early Access roguelike that’s sure to win over fans of the genre quickly. Its unique mechanics, story, and artistic direction help it to stand out in a genre of games that often wins me over in all three aspects. [Early Access Review]

The game, frankly, is amazing, and is incredibly undervalued at just $5. I recommend everyone who has gotten this far in the review go out and purchase the game, because for the price of a good cup of coffee, you can get hours of entertainment from this gem, which only promises to become even more entertaining in the future. [Early Access Review]

DAVY x JONES was a pleasant surprise; an action-adventure-platformer with a heavy emphasis on style and surrealism, this piratey journey through the sailor’s afterlife is sure to be, if nothing else, memorable. With a surprising amount of polish in the game’s Early Access state, the few issues I had with DAVY x JONES hardly take away from the overall experience, and players who get in on the game now are in for a stable and exciting, albeit unfinished, experience. [Early Access Review]

Mars Attracts is one of those strange little titles that shouldn’t work nearly as well as it does, and yet it manages to carve out a space for itself with charm, humor, and just the right amount of grotesque absurdity. Even in its Early Access state, there’s already enough here to keep you entertained while also leaving plenty of room for growth, and if the developers can polish up its weaker areas, this could end up being a standout management sim that no one saw coming. [Early Access Review]

The best part of Town to City, in my opinion, is the game’s voxel style and terrain. The lack of a grid not only creates a lot of buildable freedom, but the style of the models themselves (everything appears to be made of pixels! or tiny little lego bricks), hopefully, will also open the game up to the modding community, allowing for an infinite variety of new buildings to add to your town.

However, for more traditional 4X players, this focus on narrative is going to be a point of contention. For some, the focus on story and the way it shapes how you play will be an incredible addition to the formula that makes each new game unique. For others, the constant pop-ups to interact with the story will feel like distractions from the traditional 4X elements they came for. A potential issue I can also see with the storytelling is that the decisions you make are directly responsible for the rewards you receive. Multiple playthroughs will already see players exploring the same story over and over again, and the temptation to pick the optimal reward will discourage players from exploring other options simply for the sake of fully experiencing the narrative. [Early Access Review]

Ale Abbey is a delightful little management game that invites you to brew the day away in a delightful drunk stupor. However, the charm of its unique premise doesn’t outweigh the simple sim mechanics, which can quickly become repetitive and bore the experienced player. A relaxing, if underwhelming, title that sells you more on its setting than its actual gameplay.

Northwind is incredibly promising. It twists the formula in ways that I really enjoyed and provided a solid, if unfinished, gameplay experience in its Early Access state. I’m really looking forward to seeing what comes of the game as it continues to develop, and to see what the developers make of it when it finally launches. [Early Access Review]

As solid as it is, PIGFACE’s greatest flaw is simply that it’s still early on in the development process. For some, I could understand this being enough of a reason to avoid the title and come back to it in its 1.0 release. I, however, say the game is worth giving a chance even now, and that interested players should hop in and give feedback to help the game grow. Who knows just how different it might be when it leaves Early Access? [Early Access Review]

Perhaps not an improvement in every way, Castle of Heart: Retold presents a newer take on the original, fixing some clunky controls and difficulty problems at the cost of a bit of its charm. While a unique take on the platforming genre, this reviewer simply didn’t find himself all too impressed by what Castle of Heart: Retold had to offer, with its unique mechanics feeling more like a briefly interesting gimmick that isn’t upheld by the rest of the experience.

The Lacerator is horror comedy that works because of how well it understands the source material it is parodying. Beneath absurdist humor that pokes fun at its genre is a horror game that could easily fit alongside the rest, earning some genuine moments of tension and intrigue, only to be constantly undercut by a well-executed and utterly stupid joke.

Becastled is a game that plays slow, punishes those who want to speed things up a bit, and is far too forgiving with its management mechanics. It also has a surprising lack of depth considering how long it was in development, leading to a title that feels designed for children or players who have never played the genre. Most of the experience is waiting around for something to happen, only to realize that you’re usually vastly overprepared for what does, and it only provides a fair and engaging challenge if you’re willing to wait around for it for a good long while.

Super Fantasy Kingdom is a neat idea combining the resource-gathering side of city building with wave defense and the roguelite genre’s meta progression and randomized runs. However, in its current state, I just don’t feel like it does either side of the equation too well. The city building is underwhelming, and the roguelite mechanics feel poorly implemented, leading to a game that is overly repetitive as you’re encouraged to stick with an optimized build and rarely given meaningful choices to stray away from it. [Early Access Review]

Beyond pacing and some questionable balancing issues (I could just suck), I would say that Whiskerwood is shockingly well put together for an Early Access title. Essentially, I would just like to see more come from it. An expansion on its core gameplay with more buildings to build, perhaps more mechanics like defending from pirate attacks, and perhaps other maps and even exploration. I recommend you give this game a try and be on the lookout for what else comes from it in the future. [Early Access Review]

Though its RNG inventory can be bloated and it doesn’t communicate information perfectly, Vivid World is a highly fun combination of several genres that stands out for its replayable, engaging gameplay loop and super unique identity.

Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault was a pretty fun and fairly impressive romp for me. My biggest complaints are with how the game balances its adventuring and shopkeeping, and I wish that a little more depth and importance on running a good shop was present in the version of the game I played. With an early-access cycle ahead of us, however, we just might see that become the case. [Early Access Review]

Ayasa: Shadows of Silence is an artistic game with a dreamlike story that grows on you with its weirdness. However, the game lacks a certain level of polish expected in a launch title and needs more time.

I’m trying not to judge MIMESIS too harshly. The game is, after all, still in Early Access, and I’m sure has a wealth of content to come as well as improvements on its core mechanics. However, as it currently stands, I just did not find much in the game to appeal to me nor set it apart from others in the genre. The game’s horror does not really work thanks to its cartoony appearance and lackluster death screen, the gameplay does not do enough to set itself apart from others in the genre, and the core mechanic, the mimic, is a sort of gimmicky mechanic that loses its tension as soon as you catch on to it. What is more, the game has nothing to offer a solo player, but if you have a small group of friends, the price of entry is not terrible and the game might have a lot more to offer further on in its development cycle. [Early Access Review]

Cat Named Mojave is the video game equivalent of an independent art film. It may not be as exciting as the latest blockbuster, but it’ll captivate you in ways one never could. Full of striking visuals and a dreadfully good soundtrack, Cat Named Mojave feels like a living dream, one that might infect you with a sensation of dread rather than outright jump scares.

StarRupture is an impressive title, even in its Early Access state. While the game clearly needs more content, I am excited to see where it goes as development continues. By the end of its Early Access run, I can easily imagine StarRupture becoming one of the premier base-building games in the genre, standing out for its unique premise, engaging mechanics, and beautiful graphics. I highly recommend checking the game out with friends, but I can also confirm that the solo experience is also really good. [Early Access Review]

For an unfinished game, ODDCORE is certainly impressive. There is a lot to do in this experience, especially for the price tag, although the incomplete nature does show in a few areas. Most notably, there is a lack of variety in enemy designs and room layouts that, while difficult to notice during the moment-to-moment gameplay due to how fast paced and eerie it is, became more apparent in hindsight. If the game needs anything, it is more variety in its environments and in the enemies encountered within them. [Early Access Review]

The future for Hytale is promising, so long as the developers follow through with their promises and give the game the attention it deserves. Considering the overwhelmingly positive response to the title, I have no doubt that this will indeed happen, and it shouldn’t take another ten years to see Hytale fully fleshed out...If nothing else, the developers have created a bountiful future for Hytale thanks to the game’s ease of modding, making modding tools readily available to players and using the popular and accessible model creation tool Blockbench as an official development tool. If you ever feel like Hytale doesn’t have enough content, you can trust the game to have tons of mods readily available for you to play, and the game already has some created and available to download, developed before the game even launched. [Early Access Review]

The Early Access version of Hungry Horrors is a pretty great introduction to what can be both a unique and incredibly fun title, one that mixes up its own genre with unique mechanics and shows off some very fun character writing and creature designs. I highly recommend this game, even in Early Access, and can’t wait to see what comes with the full release. [Early Access Review]

In its current Early Access state, Blightstone is a promising roguelike with room for improvement. Subjectively, some of the character class identities feel odd, and the game’s progression feels kind of underwhelming and not as rewarding as it probably should be. Less subjectively, the Early Access build of the game clearly lacks in content, which is promised to be delivered later. Some players may find it worthwhile to wait for a patch or two before checking this game out, if not flat-out waiting for the 1.0 release. [Early Access Review]

Despite bugs that likely won’t be present in the game by the time it releases, I had an incredible amount of fun with The Fortress, as I was sucked in by the game’s great storytelling and art, and engaged by its unique approach to roguelike gameplay. However, the game’s poor balancing can unintentionally cheapen the experience, making the game’s brutal and unforgiving world a bit too easy to navigate.

Winnie’s Hole is not just horror-slop designed to capitalize on your nostalgia for a familiar, now public domain property. It’s a genuinely clever take on the deckbuilding roguelike genre, with mechanics that stand out from others before it. It’s also a uniquely fun, grotesque piece of body horror, which doesn’t take itself too seriously but also doesn’t shy away from terrifying mutations and morbid execution on its premise. It’s great, even for something in Early Access, and I’m looking forward to seeing where the developers take it next. [Early Access Review]

Bladesong is, in my opinion, exactly what it wants to be. It is not the most innovative or immersive blacksmithing game, nor is it an RPG full of player agency and choice. Instead, it’s a really cool sword-creation engine with a nice story and shop sim tacked onto it. If you want to make cool swords, the game is certainly worth the price, and there’s a lot to look forward to as it continues its development. If you’re expecting more from the game than that, you’re going to be disappointed. [Early Access Review]

Ghost Keeper fits a very unique niche, being a spiritual successor to a beloved cult-classic game that nostalgic fans should enjoy. In the current Early Access state, the game has a ton of potential to build upon, with some of the right ideas already in place. However, I think the game still needs a lot of work, and I would like to see the developers work on the points outlined in this review. Particularly, I hope to see more of the unique interactions and animations on each map expanded upon, because to me, that’s when the game is at its best. [Early Access Review]