Everything we finished, in the order we finished it

Reviews stay online permanently. Where our opinion has shifted, the revisit note sits above the original text — never instead of it. Use the filter to narrow the list by genre.

How to read an entry
Play time is wall-clock, not in-game clock. Hardware lists every machine the reviewer used. The verdict is one of three words: worth it, mixed, or not yet — the last one meaning we intend to look again after patches.

Showing all 6 write-ups

Role-playing

Hollowmarch: a map that trusts you to get lost

Hollowmarch removes the compass ribbon entirely and asks you to navigate by landmark. For the first six hours that felt hostile; by hour thirty it had rewired how we read the horizon. The quest design is unusually confident — side stories end without ceremony, and several of the best ones can be missed forever. Combat is the weakest element, functional rather than expressive, and the crafting menus badly need a search field. Accessibility is strong: full input remapping, three subtitle sizes and a colour-blind palette that is actually tested rather than merely offered.

Worth it91 h · desktop, handheld · revisit due next spring

Science fiction

Nine Lanterns and the art of the quiet corridor

A detective story set across four rain-soaked districts, where the strongest writing hides in rooms you have no obligation to enter. The audio work deserves particular praise — footsteps change convincingly across six surface types, and the score knows when to stop. The final act, however, replaces investigation with a chase sequence that no amount of atmosphere can rescue, and one late puzzle relies on distinguishing two shades of teal. We would still recommend it to anyone who liked slow, talkative science fiction, with that caveat attached.

Mixed34 h · console, laptop · one correction logged

Small studio

Lamplight Hollow: gardening as grief work

Two developers, one hand-painted village, and no way to lose. Lamplight Hollow is about tending a garden left behind by someone who has died, and it earns that premise by refusing to explain itself. The letters you find are written in a real voice, occasionally clumsy, always specific. Our disagreement on the desk was about the ending, which arrives on a fixed in-game date whether or not you are ready. Runs flawlessly on modest hardware and the handheld build is the one to choose.

Worth it22 h · handheld, laptop · no review copy accepted

Driving

Border Stage Rally and the honest handling model

There is no rewind, no racing line and no forgiveness for entering a wet left-hander too fast. That sounds punishing and occasionally is, but the handling model communicates so clearly through the pad that improvement feels earned rather than granted. We drove eleven of the stages on a wheel and the rest on a standard controller; both are viable, though the wheel exposes a small dead zone the developers have acknowledged. Stage variety thins out after the fourth region.

Worth it47 h · desktop · wheel and pad both tested

Desk with monitor showing a fantasy castle

Role-playing

Revisited: Ashen Verse, twelve months on

When Ashen Verse launched we called it structurally exciting and technically miserable. A year and nine patches later the technical complaints have largely gone, which changes the recommendation without changing the original text. What has aged less well is the writing in the second half, which we praised too generously at the time. This entry keeps our launch paragraphs intact above the revisit so you can see exactly where our judgement moved and where it did not.

Worth it63 h then, 18 h now · desktop · revisit published

Small studio

Paper Kites: an ambitious build that is not ready

A three-person puzzle-platformer with genuinely novel momentum mechanics, released in a state we cannot recommend yet. Two of our four machines dropped inputs during wall transitions, and a save-corruption issue cost one reviewer nine hours of progress. We have kept the write-up short and factual, sent our crash logs to the developers, and scheduled a fresh look once the next update lands. This is the only entry currently carrying our third verdict.

Not yet14 h · desktop, laptop, handheld · recheck scheduled

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