Gold-Plated Games

This is one of those weird weeks of Weeklong Deals where I have almost as many cautionary tales as I do titles to laud. There are a couple of notable franchises up for grabs, like The Surge and the Sherlock Holmes games, as well as some particularly solid recommendations like QT and The Cat Lady. But there’s also plenty of junk that I’ve had enough experience with to warn you away from, so enjoy a few takedowns alongside the more positive fare!

GO GET

The Surge 2 (Review) – A visually stunning and mechanically deep soulslike

The Cat Lady (Review) – One of the darkest psychological horror games I’ve ever played

Conarium (Review) – A tonally spot-on Lovecraftian horror adventure

Submerged (Review) – Light on gameplay but big on atmosphere, if you like sunken post-apocalypses

Abyss: The Wraiths of Eden (Review) – A goofy Bioshock-rip hidden object joint that’s actually pretty fun

QT (Review) – Pure exploration, and utterly adorable and captivating

9 Clues: The Secret of Serpent Creek (Review) – Intensely B-horror hidden object game, plenty of cheesy fun

Grand Ages: Rome (Review) – Solid Roman city builder with some neat RPG progression elements

Hero of the Kingdom: The Lost Tales 1 (Review) – A passable entry in the series, but definitely losing the magic

Out There Somewhere (review) – Clever little puzzle platformer in space

6180 the moon (Review) – A particularly brilliant platformer themed around the solar system

Earth Atlantis (Review) – Neat open-world shmup with a unique style and structure

GET GONE

Owlboy (Review) – A poorly-designed and miserably-written metroidvania

Transient – Absolute train wreck of narrative nonsense

Knights and Merchants (Review) – One of the clunkiest RTSes I’ve ever played

Doorways: Holy Mountains of Flesh (Review) – The most interesting game in the Doorways series, but that’s not saying much

Doorways: The Underworld (Review) – Very much not worth your time

Ultionus: A Tale of Petty Revenge (Review) – Kludgy platformer with some particularly gross overtones

Everybody Loves Skeletons (Review) – They don’t, unfortunately

Sugar Cube: Bittersweet Factory (Review) – Sadly not a very clever puzzle platformer