Truck Driving should have been a fun simulation game. Instead, it focuses on basic levels and refined gameplay. Although this makes it accessible, the action quickly becomes stale, and it can only be tackled casually. With daytime missions and a nighttime cycle to unlock, there is plenty to do. However, I’m not sure it offers enough variety to keep you hooked.

Ultimate Games has developed this simple driving affair. It is a single-player game with some customisable assets to keep you focused. Sadly, this doesn’t add enough depth as you steer your virtual vehicle around basic courses. 

Truck Driving has no story and no depth. 

There is no reason as to why you are hauling items from point A to B. I guess it doesn’t matter, but a story would have added some depth. Alternatively, maybe a competition with your virtual foe or best friend would have offered an end goal. Instead, you must repeat the same task from beginning to end. 

The aim of the game is simple. Jump in your truck, move it across the course, and get to the end while avoiding every obstacle. This should have been challenging, but it wasn’t. The roads are wide enough to offer no difficulty. Moreover, the obstacles comprise a few cones, some speed bumps, and the widest corners you’ll ever see. Therefore, this is aimed towards younger gamers and no one else. 

Simple ideas. 

Truck Driving tries to add depth with its night mode. This was a great idea in theory, but in reality, it is more of the same. This was unfortunate as it doesn’t drag you back in. Additionally, I knew it had failed when my kids put it down after around 10 minutes. 

I thought that maybe it was too tough, and maybe they gave up. Sadly, I was wrong. I flew through the stages without challenge or consideration. Consequently, my kids’ attitude to the action was a fair representation of the depth and challenge on offer. Paper-thin, watery gameplay that was tepid and disappointing. 

Truck Driving has below-par visuals. 

Graphically, Truck Driving is pretty dated. The vehicles are boxy, and the stage design is horribly refined. Moreover, the animation is a little clunky, and this was a shame. Although everything works, it doesn’t live up to modern standards. 

The audio blends upbeat moments with aggressive engine noises. This works with the core gameplay and the trucks, even if it is a little rough. Therefore, it delivers a reasonably accurate soundscape.

Arcade controls. 

Truck Driving lacks realism. Instead, it has an arcade edge that works with the short, sharp levels. Mastering the controls takes a few minutes, and this was good for you get gamers. Yet, it lacks challenge, and this will be underwhelming for most advanced players. 

Replay value and longevity are lacking. Although the developer attempted to add depth, it fell short. Therefore, it isn’t worth the low asking price unless you are fascinated by arcade action and mindless gameplay. 

Truck Driving falls short. 

Truck Driving could have been fun, challenging, and interesting. The developer should have added more depth, and the theme had plenty of ideas to nurture and play with. Sadly, the courses are too simple, and the arcade mindset undermines any sense of realism. Accordingly, I don’t recommend buying it! However, more information can be found here! Can you move your truck around the course? Pick your vehicle, avoid the obstacles, and deliver your load. 

There’s something inherently cathartic about turning workplace frustration into pixelated chaos. Monday Syndrome takes that idea and runs with it — hard.

Instead of running with the theme of most rouglites with slow starts and runs taking a while to take off. Monday Syndrome throws you into chaos from the get-go. As soon as players reach their designated floor, hop out the elevator they have to be ready for the havoc. Devilish co-workers, destruction and projectiles.

Great premise

Think Hotline Miami within the rouglite genre and taking place in a office from hell. Players in between the chaos will unlock stationary, chairs or anything else one could potentially find in the aforementioned setting. As well as unlocking the weapons, players will use their collected wages to unlock traits and modifiers that can be slapped onto their weapon of choice to make them even more powerful. Sometimes very game breaking.

During the runs there are to bars players will fill up, and exp bar and ‘boons’ bar. Quite self explanatory the exp bar will reward skill points that can be distributed into a variety of passive bonuses. Boons however will pop up when ready and give players a choice of three traits alongside their flaws that can cause some interesting synergies.

All of this sounds like a perfect game to hop on for a run or two to relax and slowly unlock more and more gear, unfortunately the premise is far greater than the execution.

Just like the in game traits.. everything has a flaw attached

Monday Syndrome ‘officially’ left early access and fully released on February 9th 2026. Yet upon launching the game, the version number still reads v0.7. A small detail that immediately raises eyebrows. More concerning is how much of the structure still feels like an early access build.

Systems appear partially gated in ways that suggest unfinished implementation. More critically, progression doesn’t consistently function as expected. You can unlock new weapons and invest in upgrades, but the game frequently fails to acknowledge those changes until you fully restart it. In a genre built around tight iteration loops — die, upgrade, jump straight back feeling stronger — this kind of friction is deeply disruptive.

There is only one skill tree as the other 3 are ‘unavailable in early access’ and every floor feels the same. Enemies do not scale meaning by floor 5 the player is un-killable, to top it off when you get to the boss… it the same TV every time, which also doesn’t scale in difficulty.

My Conclusion

There is a genuinely good game underneath these issues. The combat works. The progression ideas are solid. The random boon system introduces meaningful variety. The concept is clever and thematically cohesive.

But releasing under a 1.0 banner while still displaying a early access restriction and lack of polish makes it difficult to recommend at this moment. Not because the core design is flawed, but because the experience doesn’t yet feel complete.

Monday Syndrome is fun. It’s chaotic. It’s cathartic. The foundation is there. The price tag doesn’t ask much but once again that’s not the issue. Once the developers bring this title up to what has been promised I’d be happy to change my score but for now, I say give it a miss.

There’s something immediately disarming about Dead Pets. It looks loud, colourful, and chaotic — a cartoon fever dream about demons trying to make it in a punk band. But spend a couple of hours with it and you realize: this isn’t just about playing gigs. It’s about burnout, ambition, friendship, and the uncomfortable reality of still “figuring it out” in your 30s.

And somehow, it blends all these struggle with humour extremely well.

Good morning Void City!

You play as Gordy, front woman of the band Dead Pets, living in the wonderfully weird New Void City. The world is surreal — Demonic characters, neon-soaked streets, absurd side designs — but emotionally, it’s grounded. Bills are due. Relationships are fragile. Energy is limited. Dreams cost time… and a lot of money.

The setup is simple: keep the band alive while juggling life. The execution? That’s where Dead Pets shines. Dead Pets blends narrative adventure with light management mechanics. Each day you decide how Gordy handles situations.

• Work a shift at the diner to earn cash
• Practice with the band
• Go to Yoga
• Burrow money

These among others are choice and every choice affects stats like money, mental health, social standing, and band progress. The loop isn’t punishing, but it is tight. You can’t do everything. Something will slip.

And that’s the point.

The game captures the modern creative grind beautifully — the constant trade off between stability and passion. Do you take extra shifts to stay financially safe, or risk it to rehearse for a show that might flop?

It’s stressful in a very real, very relatable way.

Perfect blend of gameplay and story beats

To keep the pacing lively, the game weaves in small minigames, including rhythm-based band performances and fun interactive shifts as a waitress. They’re not mechanically deep, but they add depth and prevent the experience from becoming a graphic novel. Performing with the band, in particular, feels satisfying because it represents the payoff for your earlier decisions. When a show goes well, it feels earned.

Where Dead Pets truly shines is in its writing. The tone swings comfortably between absurd humor and emotional vulnerability. Characters are messy and flawed in ways that feel human despite their demonic appearances. Conversations are sharp, awkward, and often painfully honest. The game explores creative burnout, fear of failure, drifting friendships, and the quiet pressure of falling “behind” in life. It doesn’t offer easy solutions, but it does offer empathy.

My Conclusion

Dead Pets is a fantastic combination of minigames, graphic novels and life simulation. For a very affordable price you can experience all the struggles of life in a stylised, overflowing with humour and wacky characters game. If anything about this game intrigues you, rest assured everything surrounding it will pull you in even more.

Anomaly games have become well known within the horror genre over the past couple of years, currently cementing itself as one of the most popular sub-genres in 2026.

You’d only have to go back to 2023 when they really took off and made a name for itself. In comes The Exit 8, where you’re trapped in an endless Japanese underground passageway and you have to pay close attention to your surroundings, trying to spot any anomalies to escape from the unnerving underground.

Not long after it was released the feedback was overwhelmingly positive and it became a viral indie sensation, being played by huge streamers and amassing many views on social media. If that wasn’t impressive enough, it was announced by the developers and publisher last August that it sold over two million copies and if that somehow didn’t manage to pique your interest, there was even a film released about it last year, debuting second just behind Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle, attracting over one million viewers in Japan.

So it was a pretty big success, and there’s no surprise that the anomaly genre has become popular ever since it was released. It truly was a massive influence and you can tell by playing some just how much of an inspiration and impact it has had.

Now not every game of the genre has taken inspiration from the king of anomaly games, some have gone down their own route and stray from the same setting and mechanics, just like The Attic 18th.

In this psychological horror you play as James, a man trapped in an attic with his beloved cat, armed only with a camera to snap pictures of anomalies within the environment as he hunts them down, with each photo taken unlocking a new memory of his mysterious past.

Most anomaly games lack the scare factor to truly make them a terrifying and tense experience, something that The 18th Attic easily succeeded at.

I’ve played my fair share of anomaly games and most of them I’ve never really wanted to continue, purely because they become very boring since the spotting anomaly aspect is all they really have to them. I’ve never actually been anxious or tense when playing any, that was until I played The Attic 18th which I was actually relieved to finally finish.

What made it so effective in the scare department was that each floor had you feeling anxious, whether it was because of an anomaly jumping out at you after successfully capturing one, or getting jumpscared after leaving the floor failing to capture one. The latter really had me tensing up each time I walked up the stairs, especially when I spent minutes searching the floor certain that there was nothing present only to get surprised by a disfigured thing appearing halfway up the stairs.

I always preferred having to deal with an anomaly than not having to. Mind you sometimes they were easy to spot and other times they weren’t, but seeing the message pop up that I detected it lifted a weight off of my shoulders, since I knew I could walk up the stairs without having to worry about getting jumpscared again.

But it worked so well, it had me doubting myself even though I looked everywhere positive that the floor was safe. That feeling never really went away no matter how thoroughly I checked the area, it was always lingering throughout the whole playthrough and I prepared myself each time I ascended the stairs which was exactly why it was so effective in that aspect, something a lot of games within the sub-genre failed to execute.

Make sure to snap the anomalies

You see, something else I really liked about The Attic 18th was how you interacted with the anomalies in the environment, which was using your trusty camera to take pictures of them.

Successfully capturing them would allow you to proceed to the next floor safely, and on some occasions you would be met with some rather horrible jumpscares, which only reminded me of the horrors I forgot lurked in the shadows. Photo cartridges were essentially ammo for your camera, you came across some every five floors, so naturally they were a limited resource which you had to use wisely.

If you happened to find yourself with none left then capturing anomalies was impossible, no photo cartridges was practically a death sentence so you had to pray that you found some on the next few floors otherwise you’d be finding yourself respawning in front of your furry little friend, which is the only comfort and sense of normalcy you’ll have throughout the whole game.

Not only was it a unique way to spot them compared to other anomaly titles, but it just made the atmosphere so much better. If you’ve played any horror games which implement cameras or recorders as your main form of defense, then you’ll know just how much scarier they can make the experience. It’s a mystery how something which simply records/takes pictures can flip the atmosphere within an instant, but I imagine we’ll still be questioning this for years to come.

Tarsier Studios gave new soul to the puzzle-platform horror adventure by mixing it with grotesque fairy tales and their truly amazing world creation and storytelling.

Little Nightmares 1 & 2 have their strengths and flaws, but they are amazing games that have a special place in my heart as someone who really loves dark-themed games. I really had high expectations for Little Nightmares 3 (not developed by Tarsier), which sadly did not exceed them, and it fails to match the quality of its predecessors. So now all my hope is on Reanimal, and I have really high expectations set by Tarsier themselves.

Tarsier Studios promised a darker world with Reanimal, which is very exciting, to see a darker world than their previous games that already had an amazing dark world. Now that we have set our expectations for Reanimal, let’s see if it exceeds them or not.

STORY

The story uses the same formula they used before, which doesn’t give a straight answer. Instead, it leaves it to you to decide, and everyone will have their unique take on the story based on their personal perspective. This is great, and it was the perfect choice not to change that formula.

The beginning of the story highlights dehumanizing individuals who obey without having an identity of their own, becoming mere shells created by a leader solely to obey. This strips humans of their most important right: to be different.

This is the prologue of the story and the beginning of the dehumanization. The rest of the game shows how this process continues to grow, with animals demonstrating it through metaphors and showing that it worsens the more it proceeds.

The ending shows one of the outcomes of dehumanization in a great way, which makes you think deeply about the whole story you experienced.

While the story is really great and its meaning can differ a lot with different perspectives, it has one problem, and that’s the length of the story, which takes around four hours. Even though Tarsier has always said they prefer quality over quantity, the game would have benefited from an additional hour or two and perhaps another boss fight to feel more complete and have a decent playtime.

GAMEPLAY

Reanimal is fully 3D, unlike Little Nightmares, which was 2.5D, so you can now move in every direction at any time, which is very exciting and can make the gameplay completely different.

The combat has been greatly improved, and there are more combat sections and mechanics in the game. Still, it isn’t perfect, but it’s way better than Little Nightmares. You have different weapons and some really high-tension fights that are truly enjoyable.

The platforming, however, takes a step back. It introduces no new mechanics and, in fact, features less platforming overall compared to Little Nightmares. This is unfortunate, as the shift to a fully 3D design presented significant potential that could have allowed it to surpass Little Nightmares rather than fall short.

The puzzles also took a hit, being both fewer in number and less challenging.
The full story can be played in single-player, online co-op, and local co-op.

Overall, the gameplay suffers more drawbacks than it achieves improvements.

VISUALS

The amount of talent Tarsier Studios has in creating dark worlds and atmospheres is unbelievable. If not the best, they are definitely among the best people on Earth to do it. Not Little Nightmares 1, not 2, and not Reanimal, none of them have fallen short in this regard.

Everywhere you go gives you a chill; you might see something or someone, but you can feel that thing being empty, alive but dead inside. Everything in the world has a duality of being dead and alive, not only living things but even locations give that same feeling.

For example, the cinema looks abandoned, but it has an audience watching a disturbing movie over and over again. They are there, but they don’t react to you.

The graphics are also great and better while having perfect performance, tested on both PS5 and PS5 Pro.

SOUND DESIGN

The sound design is great and it’s successful in communicating the same feelings that the visuals do, so you have fear crawling through your eyes and ears at the same time.

The soundtracks of Little Nightmares 2 were a masterpiece. Reanimal also has great soundtracks; they’re calm, stressful, and match the atmosphere and gameplay. They’re not better, but they’re still great and connect what you see and what you do to what you hear.

CONCLUSION

Reanimal has a dark story, carefully crafted for a deep exploration into the concept of dehumanization using animals as symbols. The gameplay is fully 3D and features improved combat, but falls short in its platforming and puzzles. The visuals are outstanding, creating an eye-catching dark atmosphere and world with high-fidelity graphics and perfect performance. Sound design and soundtracks harmonize with the visuals to further immerse the player in its darkness. Reanimal has both improvements and drawbacks, with enough shortcomings to place it slightly below Little Nightmares 2.