Sin Vega
A familiar yet solid revival of late 90s FPS action that brings back a few annoyances but still sticks the landing.
An underexplained but ultimately rewarding tactical RPG with a rich and broad character customisation system that grew on me the longer I played it.
An ambitious hybrid of RTS, management, and narrative history masterfully put together to represent a unique war story that easily smooths over some AI quirks.
An engaging zone-based city builder that balances simulation with ease of play, but offers little that feels substantially new or improved enough to warrant a sequel.
An undemanding but enjoyable large scale 4X, with an emphasis on exploration and remixing possibilities in a familiar but somewhat flexible setting.
A strong turn-based foundation and colourful setting held back by grind, blind chance, and a need for efficiency over tactical variety.
Another solid entry in a unique story-generator series that rewards a fascination with human cultures, but demands acceptance of failure and misfortune.
A detailed and moody setting wasted on a dull and repetitive RTS/management hybrid with the strengths of neither genre.
Physics and realism offer flavour rather than undermine the raw joy of flight and space hoovering. ΔV: Rings Of Saturn is a sim for players who didn't even know this was their niche.
UI niggles and a wincingly unfunny tone can't sink a strong hybrid of old and new design ideas.
More creative and cartoony than managerial, thus a bit of a treat for people less boring than me.
An accomplished fantasy 4X with RPG leanings and cleverly interlocking systems that plain hasn't grabbed me personally, despite some colourful ideas.
An accomplished interplay of tactical and strategic challenges with some dissatisfying but thematically appropriate compromises, and poor performance.
Satisfying and spectacular mech fights, let down but thankfully not sunk by frictious menus and a mediocre strategy layer.
An original and beautiful hybrid of builder, management, and RTS games whose design just doesn't work well.
The exact same old battles sewn onto a perfunctory, shallow RPG and an elaborate but undramatic and robotic feudalism sim
Some unevenly mighty magic aside, Songs Of Conquest is a comfortable, satisfying tactical RPG with lots of potential for fiendish spellcasting tricks.
The Iron Oath is a tactical RPG with distinct classes, good combat and fun missions. If the developers can flesh this out and lean into the differences it could really stand out.
Distant Worlds 2 is a vast 4X game built around a simulation, and you need to meet it in the middle. I can only partially recommend it. But I really do recommend it for that part.
Sands Of Salzaar is an army-building, slashy action RPG whose personality and spectacular battles carry it through some pacing and clarity issues.