Gold-Plated Games

It’s always exciting when rare games make an appearance in the Weeklong Deals, like Thumper and Sacred 2. There are quite a few RPGs and adventures worth picking up this time, in addition to unreviewed games like A Plague Tale and MAXIMUM Action. The Stronghold games are on sale too, but I’ve listed them so many times I have to assume you either have them or don’t care by now.

I was able to get some real work done this weekend, so we’re finally going to make some progress on our Reader’s Choice reviews! Look for a review of Horizon’s Gate on Wednesday and words about ZeroRanger on Friday. That just leaves One Step From Eden to cover for us to be all caught up, just in time for a new Reader’s Choice selection next week. And for fans of new and upcoming space games, check out our Twitch channel this Friday when we’ll be looking at Everspace 2 and Starpoint Gemini 3!

 

QUALITY

Wizard of Legend (Review) – Solid arena roguelike with a neat magic crafting system

ABZU (Review) – Gorgeous and peaceful exploration of a fantastic ocean

Thumper (Review) – Intense, thrilling rhythm game

Cogmind (Review) – Intimidating but incredibly deep traditional sci-fi roguelike

Sacred 2 Gold (Review) – An older, jankier ARPG, but one with an absolutely massive world and tons of potential

Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones (Review) – Engrossing Lovecraftian RPG

Technobabylon (Review) – Excellent cyberpunk point-and-click adventure

Grim Legends: The Forsaken Bride (Review) – One of the more colorful and engaging hidden object games on Steam

The Dream Machine (Review) – Creative and creepy claymation adventure

King’s Bounty: The Legend (Review) – A true classic of the TRPG genre

Catmaze (Review) – Charming indie metroidvania with some unique themes

Golden Krone Hotel (Review) – Neat little roguelike built around classic monsters like vampires and their quirks

Ghoulboy (Review) – A solid retro platformer

Reveal The Deep (Review) – Short, atmospheric platformer about exploring a sunken wreck

Earth Atlantis (Review) – Pretty neat mix of exploration and shmuppin’

 

DISQUALIFIED

Bloody Trapland 2: Curiosity (Review) – Offers nothing special in the precision platformer genre

The Bridge (Review) – Not nearly clever enough to be the mc escher puzzler it wants to be

ADR1FT (Review) – Somehow made a space catastrophe tedious

Forward to the Sky (Review) – Too thin and awkward for what it wants to be

The Inner Darkness (Review) – Sadly just not much to this promising platformer

Woodle Tree Adventures (Review) – A tragically atrocious take on Mario 64

Dune Sea (Review) – Awkward and boring when it should be charming and peaceful

rooMaze (Review) – This dungeon crawler hates you so much

Smart Cube (Review) – Really not that smart at all

NeverEnd (Review) – Not even sure why this exists

Ultionus: A Tale of Petty Revenge (Review) – Nnnnnnnnnnope

Crab Dub (Review) – *screaming internally*