Screenshot: ANTHEM#9 ANTHEM#9 is a game of "buts." It is the debut title from self-taught solo developer koeda, but it feels surprisingly polished in its presentation. It has some serious style and seriously catchy music, but a gameplay loop that makes me feel like it’s missing that certain something. It features a clever gem-matching combat system that feels great when it works, but the world around it feels empty.

We recently got to play a preview build of DarkSwitch that shows off a little bit more than the Steam demo does—and few colony sims have grabbed me quite like this. I probably haven’t been this invested in the genre since the original Frostpunk thrust me into a “what if” frozen world and tasked me with keeping its residents alive. But instead of a frozen wasteland, DarkSwitch drops you into a lush fantasy world where being on the ground means being subjected to a creeping fog