u/still_mute

Blew Me Away:

• Death Howl - Wow - what a game! The deck building, grid combat, souls progression structure and art/music are all expertly crafted and they work perfectly together to build something really special
• The Alters - Absolutely incredible journey and one of the best video game stories of all time; a completely absorbing and powerfully affecting trip

Awesome:

• Crime Scene Cleaner - Super addictive and satisfying; I didn't like Powerwash Sim, but this game is far more cohesive, interesting and varied with no time limits, lots to discover, secrets, good plot
• Little Rocket Lab - Don't be fooled by the cover art, this is an equally demanding and rewarding factory building game
• Escape Simulator - Great puzzles with an interesting variety of themes

Really Good:

• Dome Keeper - Didn't quite hook me in single player, but local multiplayer made it great
• Sifu - One of the most stylish games ever made
• Abyssus - A fun and addictive rougelike arena shooter; does a lot of things right that most roguelikes get wrong
• Atomfall - Refreshingly novel game design of following leads that is more streamlined and logical than it first appears
• Plate Up - A more strategic and challenging co-op cooking game than Overcooked and I think I prefer it to Overcooked
• Minishoot Adventures - The gameplay is smooth and precise and the power curve is addictive, however, the exploration is not quite as enjoyable
• Pacific Drive - If you get excited when your "check engine" light turns on, you'll love this game; you also have to enjoy scavenging, because that's 80% of the gameplay
• A Game About Digging a Hole - A video game distilled to its most essential elements and can be finished in two hours

OK:

• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 - Coming to this as more of a Souls fan than a JRPG fan: the gameplay was solidly entertaining and addictive, but I wasn't a fan of the story, presentation or structure
• Talos Principle 2 - The puzzles never quite felt hard enough, but they're definitely fun, and the simple solutions kept the game moving along at a zippy pace (sans the overdone story bits)
• Total Chaos - A pretty impressive indie horror game that feels strangely balanced but never tedious
• Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound - As a big fan of Blasphemous, action platformers and NES games, I expected to automatically love this game; unfortunately, I found it quite mediocre
• Dredge - Extremely simple gameplay, an addictive upgrade hamster wheel and a pleasantly concise story
• Trepang2 - It does one thing very well and not much else: it's a pure arena shooter
• Absolum - Fun at first in local co-op, but the rougelike trope in which the entire game becomes easy except the final two bosses, gets quite tiresome
• Winter Burrow - An enjoyable and cute survival game overall, but many minor design issues hold it back from its full potential

Didn't Enjoy Much:

• Disco Elysium - Cleverly mixes nihilistic grandeur, political theory, and absurdism (with a dose of mystical surrealism), yet none of these aspects resonated with me and I was mildly bored for much of my playthrough
• Indika - Story kept my interest with its discussion of emotion vs instinct vs faith but the gameplay wasn't very enjoyable
• Lost in Random: Eternal Die - Bland Hades derivative but completely functional
• Easy Delivery Co - The vaguely PSX graphics, snowy Japanese mountains and jungle DnB carry the mood but there's not much else here
• Wheel World - Cool vibe from the pretty world and chill music, but the AI, physics and performance don't really hold up

Just finished up the game after 12 hours (beat the final boss around hour 8). Controller support is great (aim assist has a slider, but I left it on the default), graphics are sharp, and performance is mostly flawless.

I don't tend to love roguelikes or arena shooters, but this game hooked me. I think that's due to 3 main reasons:

1. Satisfying meta-progression. Similar to Hades, you feel appreciably stronger each run and even early losses get you a decent amount of permanent currency. Also, new guns and equipment are found often early on.
2. Fun gunplay. All the guns are fun in different ways, and the bow is pretty sick. Movement is fluid and the basic enemies aren't too spongey or punishing (after you start stacking upgrades).
3. Good length. I don't really want to grind out a roguelike for more than 10 hours, so being able to beat a run in under that was nice. I even kept playing a few hours of challenge runs just because I was enjoying the gameplay.

Stuff that's not great:

- Limited variety. For some reason only the first stage has an alternate, so you're playing essentially the exact same bosses (they can be tweaked in the post-game) and levels every run.

- The story and the notes you find are pointless and empty.

- Some upgrades are far superior to others, so sometimes RNG leaves you pretty weak by the end, but such is the genre.

Since restructuring of the GP tiers happened in October 2025 (excluding EA Play and Early Access games)?

Edit: I looked into this further and there have been 3 games only since October: Scott Pilgrim (Ubi Classic), Starbound, Core Keeper.