DeVuego

While Luto is a beautiful game with experimental visuals and storytelling, holding an impactful message on the emptiness of grief, its pacing issues, inconsistent tone and lack of actual horror kill off the momentum set at the beginning of the game.

While Everdeep Aurora doesn't break new ground (ha), it does offer a very polished take on the genre, emphasizing clever platforming and an initially simple narrative that unveils rich deep lore for those willing to seek it.

Camper Van: Make It Home is a beautiful and cozy organization game, with simple gameplay that can be as challenging or easy as the player prefers.

Blades of Fire could have been another Soulslike with a gimmick. Instead, MercurySteam has delivered a well crafted world with an intriguing adventure and the means to let players really find out what works best for them when they need to take hold of some cold steel.

There is nothing genuinely praiseworthy or notable about Detective - The Test. It's not a game. It's barely an idea for a game. This low-effort, uninspired, and unappealing project may be the latest in a long line of similar titles, but it shouldn't be.

YOUR HOUSE is a brilliantly creative text-based narrative puzzle game that uses every tool at its disposal to remain as interactive as possible while still delivering a great narrative in the form of a digitized novel.

The Stone of Madness innovates on tactical stealth and charms with the detailed art, but its survival mechanics bring too little to the table to sell me on this new formula.

The Spirit of the Samurai has more flaws than I could possibly list here and frustrated me for large parts of my time with it, but damn, does it have a vibe.

8/10: Radiant - Jess Recommends

Tormenture does a fantastic job at modernising Atari classics such as Adventure for a modern audience while also being one of the scariest horror games of the year. I recommend this both to fans of the Atari classics looking for a nostalgia hit and younger horror game fans.

Creatures of Ava is a mostly mediocre experience with few things to keep you interested and, across the board, rather mediocre execution of its ideas.

SKELER BOY tries to be too many things at once and fails to execute many of its premises.

While it is guilty of some irksome point-and-click puzzle game pet peeves of mine, Tales from Candleforth is still a neat little puzzle game with gorgeous visuals that you can complete in one sitting.

Although CLeM\'s story didn\'t captivate me as much as it could have, this is an enjoyable and challenging puzzle game which will put your skills to the test.

Laika: Aged Through Blood is a rather unique metroidvania experience that scores with very satisfying motorbike traversal, and a melancholic atmosphere that's supported by one of the best soundtracks of the year.

While fans of Jules Verne may appreciate this love letter to the renound novelist, "Verne: The Shape of Fantasy" is beautiful, yet lacklustre in its gameplay, voice acting and story.

Though its ceiling is apparently early on, Koa and the Five Pirates of Mara is an enjoyable speedrun game, just make sure to change up the default controls!

Frank and Drake has mild to bland gameplay and puzzles, confusing mechanics and a slow and confusing story paced out through multiple playthroughs.

After Us beats you over the head with paper-thin themes, but between the truly awful platforming and the frustrating level design, it'll be the least of your worries.

By Death or Treat’s end, however, these smaller bits of fun paled against the repetition of all the other issues. Throughout my playtime, I was left incensed at best and bored at worst. The story had little of interest, and I felt thoroughly unmotivated to continue. Interesting ideas threatened to burst forth here and there, but never came to fruition. Death or Treat ultimately fails to make the latter option of its titular ultimatum the more appealing one.

Hunt the Night attempts at being a difficult top-down action game, but because of its frustrating gameplay and poor design the real difficulty is wanting to pick it up again.

Offering a fun piratical adventure, excellent animation and a fun, engaging story with full voice acting, Curse of the Sea Rats is a great single or multiplayer romp despite some stumbling blocks.

The Knight Witch is a competently made game with some interesting ideas, but it doesn't always manage to live up to the full potential of them.

Endling is a beautiful and heartbreaking game that everyone should experience. With an engaging survival gameplay, stunningly beautiful visuals, and amazing music, it tells a sad yet true story about environmental issues.

Those looking for a challenging platformer would get their money’s worth in Caveman Warriors, and while the game can be unfair at times, I enjoyed my time with it. There’s much fun to be had regardless of whether you’re playing by yourself or with friends.