Mina the Hollower Digs Deep Into Retro Adventure Greatness
In Mina the Hollower, developer Yacht Club Games trades Shovel Knight’s side-scrolling action for a tough-as-nails isometric adventure inspired by The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening, classic Castlevania and some Bloodborne-esque risk.
Town to City Builds a Cozy Voxel World Worth Settling Into
Galaxy Grove’s Town to City is a relaxing voxel city-building sim that trades stress and micromanagement for warmth, creativity and simple town-building joys. For anyone looking for a cozy builder that values imagination over pressure, Town to City is well worth settling into.
Battlestar Galactica: Scattered Hopes Turns Desperation Into Great Strategy
With tense fleet management, excellent real-time battles and a constant stream of hard choices, Battlestar Galactica: Scattered Hopes captures the desperation, paranoia and pressure of the TV series better than most other licensed type games ever do.
R-Type Dimensions III Gives a Tough Classic a Flashy Remaster
R-Type Dimensions III, the remastered version of R-Type III: The Third Lightning, captures the visual punch and old-school intensity of the SNES classic, but frustrating hitbox issues keep it from being the definitive version just yet.
007 First Light Delivers Bond at His Best
With a sharp young James Bond, an espionage-heavy story, flexible mission design and action sequences worthy of the films, 007 First Light feels less like a licensed game and more like a great Bond movie that happens to be playable.
Constance Gives a Fresh New Coat of Paint to Metroidvanias
Constance may not reinvent the labyrinthine platformer, but its hand-drawn world, relatable story and polished exploration make it an easy title to recommend.
Full Metal Sergeant 2 Marches Forward With Smarter Combat
Developer CarloC’s latest indie military sim keeps the boot camp charm, tough training choices and offbeat camp events that made Full Metal Sergeant memorable, then adds a much stronger turn-based combat system that finally lets players put those hard-won recruit skills to proper use.
Crimson Desert Is One of the Boldest RPGs in Years
With spectacular combat, a massive world full of distractions and more systems than most action RPGs would dare attempt, Crimson Desert offers a bold and often thrilling adventure even if its story does not always keep up.
Crime Simulator Never Quite Pulls Off the Ultimate Heist
Crime Simulator has an interesting premise, a decent toolkit and a clear co-op focus, but on PlayStation 5 the experience feels too clunky, too buggy and too rushed to deliver the kind of fun its best ideas promise.
The Last Gas Station Blends Cozy Management and Charming Mystery
The Last Gas Station is a cozy sim in which players manage a remote gas station where they must grow their business, serve customers and uncover a low-key supernatural mystery about what happened to the gas station’s previous owner.