Endling may look nice, but it is a monotonous animal adventure with simple fox-feeding gameplay, bland skills, and restrictive exploration.
There is an interesting story in Someday You'll Return and a potion-crafting system that works suitably well, but players must endure an overlong adventure through a confusing forest with questionable puzzles, bad stealth, and too many clunky mechanics.
Wolfenstein: Youngblood is an adequate shooter, buried under a glut of unnecessary RPG elements and an obnoxious focus on cooperative play. Fans should look to the other games in the series to quench their thirst for straightforward Nazi killing.
Escape Dead Island is an unnecessary spinoff to a franchise that deserved better. The awkward melee, flawed stealth and erratic shooting produce a bland adventure.
The uncompromising investigation process, misdirected horror, tedious clue-searching, and unsatisfying story make Sherlock Holmes The Awakened a bit of a sad case.
Although Life is Strange 2 offers varied themes and visually exquisite moments, it falters by featuring an unappealing road trip adventure with disconnected episodes that lack character growth. Lethargic pacing and shallow interaction make for a boring sequel about two brothers that should have stayed home.
Simple puzzles and bland chases prevent Close to the Sun from living up to its numerous inspirations. While the game has a decent retro style and an intriguing horror narrative, it never makes the player a true participant.
Stories Untold is clever when it comes to delivering the narrative, and its brief text-adventure is interesting. Unfortunately, most of it is pushing buttons and turning dials on command, and this leaves much to be desired.
While some walking sims have evolved, Open Roads is stuck in the past. Its two good characters cannot offset the bland interactivity and mystery that is as flat as the game's 2D conversations.
Atomic Heart's captivating Soviet robo-topia crumbles under the weight of a poorly delivered story, clunky action, unnecessary open-world traversal, and a glut of technical issues.
White Shadows is a middling puzzle-platformer with interesting Orwellian themes. Although its black and white world design is commendable, it is limited by bland gameplay and an ungainly eleventh-hour exposition dump.
With amazing art and music, Backbone has a killer introduction and a great vibe. Unfortunately, due to a dreadful turn in the narrative and underdeveloped gameplay, this is a classic case of style over substance.
Contrast is underwhelming due to basic and unrefined platforming mechanics. The adventure fails to capitalize on strengths and the resulting experience falls flat.
Deliver Us Mars comes crashing back down to Earth because of presentation failings, story missteps, and technical issues, despite a somewhat compelling personal tale involving the majesty of space travel and exploration of the red planet.
Last Days of Lazarus sets itself apart with lasting religious themes and compelling interior spaces. Unfortunately some tedious item-hunting and unappealing walks outside prevent this first-person adventure from rising above.
Managing a small group of bums becomes addicting in Garbage, with the objective to keep them alive and train them to fight. Unfortunately some leveling grind, repetitive and random fights, and technical blemishes mean that the game does not go the full distance.
Twin Mirror is a teaser for an exciting adventure that it never delivers. There are some good ideas here, like the interesting Mind Palace world and a helpful imaginary twin, but they needed to be expanded. Ultimately it has a short and bland story, with minimal interaction, limited player choice, and a lack of memorable characters.
The story and puzzles are decent in Aporia: Beyond The Valley, so it's a shame that the world is roughly designed, there are consistency and technical issues, and the horror element is shallow.
The Medium is a flawed horror experience with an interesting story and a visually captivating spirit world. Fixed camera angles add excess clumsiness and the terrible framerate drops make it difficult to enjoy the split-screen views. With some glacial pacing and a lack of genuine scares or challenges, it fails to create a strong bond with either of its two worlds.
GRID is an average racing reboot with no real personality. Despite the short races, strong AI, two new street tracks, and the shift towards arcade, it struggles because of so many recycled tracks, poor damage modeling, and disappointing multiplayer.