Shunal Doke

“Phantom Fury is quite easily one of the most refined boomer shooters in the market today. It combines classic action movie tropes and 90s shooter gameplay with more modern visual technology and level design, making for a fun rampage across America.”

“Despite its rather simple combat system, Broken Roads is a fantastic new entry in the RPG genre. It offers up a fresh take on morality systems with its use of a moral compass, and the game's setting alone does an incredible amount of heavy lifting in keeping things interesting.”

“Horizon Forbidden West's PC port offers plenty of options for tinkerers to play around with, delivers great performance and plays on a wide range of hardware. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to claim that Horizon Forbidden West sets a new standard for PC ports.”

“When it comes to the joy of off-road driving, few games can capture the feel as expertly or effortlessly as Expeditions: A MudRunner Game. The lack of online co-op at launch, or even a central narrative might hurt it a bit, but it's still an excellent driving game owing to the thousands of small player-driven emergent stories that can pop up, and the sense of exploration is still downright fantastic.”

“Terminator: Dark Fate - Defiance is a strange game that doesn't seem like it would be all that fun at a cursory glance. Dig deeper, however, and you'll find that all of its smaller systems mingle together in a way that brings about one of the more fun and unique real-time strategy games out there. It's also the only one where I've had to count individual bullets on soldiers.”

“While Wrath: Aeon of Ruin might give off the impression that it's just another boomer shooter in a market already well-past saturation, it manages to forge its own identity by being a throwback to classics of the genre with a flair of its own. And of course, the incredible level design and gunplay go a long way in making the game incredibly fun. The only real downside is that, for its wild settings and visuals, the weapons never really break the mold of classic shooter archetypes.”

“Last Epoch offers a middle ground between its contemporaries in the action RPG genre, offering players plenty of deep character customization options while still managing to stay understandable and approachable. While its story might feel meandering, the endgame content is plenty fun on its own, and its dungeons are some of the most fun bits of content in the entire game.”

“Graven feels like it's a game with a identity crisis. Along with being a boomer shooter, it also feels like it's trying to be an RPG, a dungeon crawler, and an immersive sim. Sadly, none of these ideas really feel like they come together well enough, and even the core combat feels incredibly unsatisfying owing to a lack of hit reactions from enemies. This is a shame, considering how interesting its world actually ends up being.”

“Blood West is an excellent game for fans of stealth games. It makes use of classic design ideas from games as wide ranging as the seminal Thief titles, to more modern ones like S.T.A.L.K.E.R. in order to shape its mechanics and general gameplay loop. The progression system encourages exploration, which is made all the better thanks to excellent level design.”

“Despite being from a time when console shooters had awkward controls and terrible visuals, Turok 3: Shadow of Oblivion has aged really well thanks to this remaster. The campaign is incredibly fun and offers plenty of replay value thanks to its multiple characters.”

“Realms of Ruin features a fun campaign that showcases four unique factions. Unfortunately, when it comes to gameplay, there just isn't enough depth to allow for more tactical and strategic options.”

“Naruto X Boruto Ultimate Ninja Storm Connections is the best way to experience the story of Naruto, both for long-time fans as well as beginners. Naruto's story mode offers a host of content in itself, and the versus mode can be plenty of fun if you have friends that like the series. Just don't expect much in the way of actual gameplay depth.”

“Achilles: Legends Untold feels like there were several great ideas thrown together but were ultimately let down by poor execution. The game has some interesting aspects, like fusing Souls-styled gameplay with a loot-focused action RPG gameplay loop, but the combat never really feels satisfying and the setting is little more than an excuse to get you out there to kill things.”

“Despite having an interesting story concept, Quantum Error's underwhelming gameplay, terrible cinematics and horrendous voice acting drag down what could have potentially been a great horror experience.”

“Skull Island: Rise of Kong, more than anything else, feels like a hollow attempt at cashing in on the Kong brand. The game has no real redeeming quality aside from the fact that it didn't accidentally set my PC on fire, and it can't even bother to be the kind of bad where it's interesting, rather, just being bad enough to be a boring waste of time.”

“Witchfire is a game rife with potential that will hopefully be realized throughout its stint in early access. It has an addictive gameplay loop that makes you attempt at least "one more run" thanks to its fast-paced melding of first-person gunplay and magic. The only real downside right now is the relative lack of content.”

“The console release of Gloomhaven continues the trend of making it one of the best board game-to-video game adaptations out there, and there are a lot of deep combat mechanics for players to sink their teeth into. Inconsistencies in the interface and being balanced around multiplayer are the only real downsides to Gloomhaven on the PS5.”

“Daymare 1994: Sandcastle acts better as a period piece for the early 90s than it does a horror game.”

“Sprawl isn't trying to reinvent the wheel when it comes to retro-inspired shooters, delivering a rather by-the-numbers fast-paced shooter experience.”

“30XX carries with it the legacy of the Mega Man X franchise in its aesthetics and general gameplay, but its more modern features like a level editor and its randomly generated levels add more replayability to the game. The core gameplay might seem simple at first, but its superbly designed levels and boss fights will quickly demand that you get familiar with its movement techniques as much as possible if you want to make any sort of progress.”