Embr manages to stand apart from most party games in two ways. For one it’s played from a first-person perspective, and secondly, it ain’t half bad as a single-player experience. That’s an achievement, not even granddaddy Overcooked can claim.
Sheltered 2 feels like an interesting combination of several other games. The Sims meets Rimworld with a healthy splash of Fallout Shelter and Oxygen Not Included. The result is something is that feels unique.
Gears Tactics convinced me that pretty much every videogame IP should get the X-COM treatment. Halo, Death Stranding, The Elder Scrolls, all of it. It’s incredibly fascinating to take an existing game and watch all of its mechanics translate into a tactical turn-based version of itself.
Do you want to know one of my dirty little game reviewer secrets? I don’t like Doom, or games like Doom. The hyper-paced arcade-style shooting and gallons of gore aren’t my style. But take Doom and make it a tactical traditional roguelike. Then you have Jupiter Hell and my attention.