There are few games quite as curious and beautiful as Abzû, and fewer of its kind on the PC. It’s a short, dense journey filled with intense wonder and inherent beauty, and every inch is worth seeing.
Lovely Planet Arcade is a fast, challenging deconstruction of old school FPS design that can be frustrating, but makes up for it with heaps of charm.
A stylish mix of bullet hell and deft swordplay, Furi is only held back by rare bugs and poorly designed difficulty spikes.
VR can’t elevate Edge of Nowhere’s mediocre climbing, shallow combat, and contrived story.
Despite a drab multiplayer mode and limited level creation tools, Doom is a cheeky and fulfilling return to pared-down acrobatic gunplay.
Sprawling level design, thrilling combat, and masterful indirect storytelling make Dark Souls 3 the best Dark Souls yet.
The Division is a challenging co-op cover shooter and a gorgeous open world diminished by bloated and unnecessary RPG tropes.
Despite an impressive variety in art direction and environments, Soul Axiom's puzzle design is shallow and frustrating.
Layers of Fear is an intriguing experimental haunted house, but without a proper sense of pacing, it fails to scare.
Aquatic Adventure distills the Metroidvania into its most essential parts and says something meaningful with it.
Baba Yaga has more of Rise of the Tomb Raider's fun platforming and gorgeous Siberian cliffsides, but the condensed format only strengthens its problems.
That Dragon, Cancer tells a valuable story despite its uneven delivery.
Rainbow Six Siege is a pretty dopey military FPS at first glance, but insists players learn to work together with minimal error. Further, it invites a maddening cycle of thought—it makes me think about how I'm thinking the more I play. We were constantly disrupting our own habits.
Kingdom is a fun, gorgeous management game, but trying to learn its mysteries eventually becomes a slog.
Blood Bowl 2 is the flashiest iteration of the game so far, but its dice rolls are frustrating, and its amble ruleset isn't introduced well to newcomers.