Project Warlock wears its 90s first-person shooter influence on its sleeve. It's fast, violent and perfectly paced—a must play, whether you harbour fond memories of its inspiration or not. Besides some minor setbacks caused by level design quirks, Project Warlock was pure, unadulterated fun from start to finish.
A compelling found-phone horror title which demonstrates a real love for and understanding of the Doctor Who universe.
An improvement on its predecessors in just about every conceivable way. Zombie Army 4: Dead War offers one of the 'gamiest', most carefree and satisfying shooting experiences of recent years. Technical bugs and a lacklustre horde mode prevent this from reaching its full potential, but it's just so hard to stay mad at a game that's this much fun.
I've sunk dozens of hours into Heroes of Hammerwatch and eagerly await the chance to spend dozens more. With numerous layers of progression systems, multiple distinct classes and more content than seems reasonable for its low price tag, Heroes of Hammerwatch is a must-play for roguelike fanatics or people after their dungeon-crawling fix.
Room to Grow stands apart from anything else available in the puzzle game market. It may not inspire a whole new era of puzzle gaming, but it does provide a novel and genuinely challenging experience.
Dezatopia is a spectacle that gets more impressive the better it's played. With the most satisfying-to-use weapons this side of DOOM and a seemingly endless variety of enemies to use them on, there aren't many stronger cases to be made for the return of the 2D scrolling shooter.
With a simple but engaging upgrade system; enough weapons and gadgets to make James Bond blush; and a great parrying mechanic that brings an unexpected rhythmic element to combat, this is one title that warrants a purchase even without any fancy VR setup. Repetition with enemy variety and level structure may mar the experience for some players, but it's easy to overlook these faults when the core game has so much to offer.
Atomicrops is frenetic, challenging and addicting in the way that all the best roguelike/lites are, with a silly streak that helps give the title its own identity. A lack of content does harm the game's longevity.
Varied items, engrossing gameplay and a killer soundtrack make Risk of Rain 2 one of the best roguelike shooters in recent years. The lack of a mid-game save feature and some uninspired environments hold this sequel back, but the astonishing translation from 2D to 3D more than makes up for it.
An experience that pulls from gaming's best (and worst) bits to create a wholly unforgettable few hours. There is No Game: Wrong Dimension, is not just a game: it's something very different and a little bit special.
The Falconeer absolutely excels in story and presentation. Sure, its aerial combat gameplay might lack impact or variety, but with such an interesting and visually stunning world, it's easy to overlook such shortcomings.
Rogue Company mixes casual and tactical gameplay styles to create a hero shooter that, while not particularly innovative, is incredibly entertaining. You've seen this all before folks, but sometimes good things stick around for a reason.
A good visual novel and introduction to the Werewolf: The Apocalypse universe. It may be far too brief, but its replay value goes a long way towards making up for that shortcoming.
With a simple but engaging upgrade system; enough weapons and gadgets to make James Bond blush; and a great parrying mechanic that brings an unexpected rhythmic element to combat, this is one title that warrants a purchase even without any fancy VR setup. Repetition with enemy variety and level structure may mar the experience for some players, but it's easy to overlook these faults when the core game has so much to offer.
Link's Awakening is a joyous adventure and a treat for the eyes, marred by some minor performance hiccups. It's truly a shame that this title is following up the most ambitious entry in the series' history and feels dissapointingly small in comparison.
The studio clearly sees potential in the format as a storytelling platform, and I definitely want to see them refine it in the future.
Despite some (mostly successful) attempts to tweak the formula, this is, at its core, Serious Sam exactly how you remember it.
Even with its many imperfections, SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom - Rehydrated ultimately succeeds as an attempt to spruce up a 17-year old game. It doesn't stand alongside the 3D platforming greats, but it's a fantastic, humour-filled tribute to a beloved show. People less familiar with the yellow sea sponge's exploits will find it harder to overlook the creaky, PlayStation 2-era quirks. It looks better, but that doesn't mean it plays better than it did 17 years ago.
A charming top-down dungeon crawler without quite enough challenge or content. Gods Will Fall is worth grabbing on sale, even if you won't ever be worshipping it.
Rack N Ruin might suffer from an abundance of items and enemies, but there's enough worth experiencing in the game's humour, combat and distinct visual design to make it worth a playthrough.