The First Descendant

Kicking things off with free to play third-person looter shooter The First Descendant, this co-operative RPG tasks teams of up to four with saving humanity from a string of hostile invaders. It harbours everything you could ever want in a modern-day shooter: flashy gunplay, intricate visuals, and a varied cast of colourful characters each with unique skills and capabilities. However, there are problems in its frustratingly slow progression, non-existent story, and atrocious balancing. Sort these issues out and The First Descendant could achieve some longevity in what is becoming an increasingly challenging domain.

Nine Sols

You may be asking: if Nine Sols sold well, hit all consoles after a successful PC launch, and garnered two nominations at the upcoming Indie Game Awards, is it genuinely underrated? Well, aside from a convoluted story told via overabundance of dialogue, Nine Sols is the Hollow Knight sequel we’ve been waiting for. Its evocative world with cyberpunk-adjacent tech provides the perfect playground for exploration and discovery, but – most importantly – its robust combat demanding a clever mix of parrying, combos, and powerups should be elevating Nine Sols above what its already achieved. If you’re waiting for Silksong, play Nine Sols.