The Wand Report

A compact-but-deep monster taming playset that’s built around (near) endless replayability and customisation. It looks great, and feels slick for the most part, but you’ll need to dial up the difficulty if you don’t want to burn through every stage in an afternoon.

Despite making waves in the gameplay department, Dave the Diver’s In the Jungle DLC presents a problematic narrative premise that blemishes everything it touches.

Letter Lost may appear to be a cosy experience about processing letters and parcels as a postmaster, but this cosiness eventually gives way to a rich narrative experience about a mysterious isle and its perpetually confused denizens. Getting stuck in a puzzle may prove to be frustrating, but the game is fulfilling in many other ways.

Gothic is an idiosyncratic and sometimes stale remake, with a multitude of technical issues. Yet the purity and strength of the original game’s vision shines through.

In being genre-authentic, distinct, and wildly exciting, Psyvariar 3 makes for a glorious series return. It’s looks won’t be for everyone, but its generous package, riveting gameplay, and engrossing depth make it essential if you have more than a passing internist in bullet hell shooters.

Disconnected, desultory, and missing the sense of discovery that elevates the survival sim genre, Solarpunk is a survival sim that manufactures friction, without stakes, from its library of borrowed mechanics and ideas.

First Light is an incredibly accomplished, charming, and exciting execution of a well-worn genre, and its stealth action is deeply satisfying, although the Hitman fan in me can't help but mourn the game it might have been if IO had prioritised the type of design they do better than anyone else over linear thrills.

Mole is a tactile, claustrophobic scarefest that could benefit from cooling the jumpscares in favour of letting the atmosphere do the talking.

In many ways, Luna Abyss feels defined by unrealised potential, but it's the kind of unrealised potential that comes from an already incredibly impressive work trying so many things that no individual element feels quite as accomplished as it could be. If nothing else, though, it's a masterpiece of evocative environmental design.

Legacy of the Dark Knight embraces the past to fashion an experience that will please existing Lego players, but offers enough novelty to entice new players to stick around through a surprisingly empathetic approach to design in a gaming landscape so often lacking in it.