First things first this month: I was sick for most of February. I’m not going to divulge the specifics, but that’s why I disappeared for half the month. Apparently, not even I could continue to dodge all that nastiness in the last vestiges of the Winter season.
That said, I didn’t end up playing even remotely as much stuff as I did during January as a direct result of being bedridden. I got a lot of reading done though. Catching up on the latest volumes of Apothecary Diaries was a nice concession whilst being stuck in bed. However, that does mean that this month will be a little lighter than last as a direct result.
Though, I still managed to participate in a collaboration post on Luna’s Gaming Log despite the various complications that I faced last month. She reached out to myself, and 7 others asking the question: how have your gaming habits changed over 2025? She was an absolute joy to work with, and you can read our responses to her prompt here.
With all of the housekeeping sorted, here’s the few things I played in February, and several games to keep an eye on in March.
Navigation
The King is Watching
Keen-eyed readers will recall that I covered The King is Watching during a Demo Dive in February of last year. It’s a Roguelike, Tower Defence title where you build, and defend a town from waves of goblins, orcs, and other such fantasy baddies.
However, the main twist that differentiates The King is Watching from its contemporaries is that your workers only perform their assigned tasks whilst they’re being watched. This creates a unique balancing act wherein players need to prioritize which buildings are being watched, and when they’re being watched so they can collect resources for upgrades, and stack their army with powerful soldiers. Neglecting key infrastructure could lead to an early demise after all.
At the time of writing my impressions, I found The King is Watching to be compulsively replayable to the point where I ended up burning 5 hours on the demo. That’s kind of the norm now, but at the time it was an irregularity. Regardless, I quite enjoyed my time with the demo, and shared as much in my article.
Unfortunately, I don’t feel as strongly about The King is Watching now that I’ve had a chance to play more of it. That’s not to say that it’s bad, but rather the full game is more of the same. That normally wouldn’t be a problem, but I feel like I already got my fill of what was on offer from the demo. As such, I was very lukewarm about playing the full game after a couple more hours of playtime which is a bit of a damning statement to make about a Roguelike.
Actually, in a lot of ways it reminds me of 2021’s Loop Hero. That’s another game where I found the demo highly addictive, but once I played the full game I was a lot less impressed. The gameplay loop was solid, but there wasn’t enough variety in either Loop Hero, or The King is Watching to sustain me over the long haul.
Taking a look at the Steam Reviews (for either game), I appear to be in the minority, so your mileage may vary. Personally, I’d maybe recommend The King is Watching on a discount, but there’s a whole laundry list of other Roguelikes I’d rather talk your ear off about, and recommend ahead of it.
Hypogea
The other thing that I played last month was Hypogea. It’s a 3D Platforming game with a visual style that’s reminiscent of early 3D games, which I don’t have a ton to say about. It’s just good fun. The player character feels great to control, and is very responsive. The visuals, while simple, always highlight where you’re meant to go next. And there’s no question as to which elements of the environment can, and can’t be interacted with because the whole game prioritizes visual clarity above substanceless style.
It’s just a really, really good Platformer.
Though, I’m inclined to say that my favourite part of Hypogea is the length. It clocks in at somewhere between 2, and 3 hours depending on your skill level. It’s the sort of thing that slots nicely into a weekend afternoon when you don’t have anything else going on, and I love that about it. Doubly so since new ideas are presented to the player at a fairly even clip giving the game a great sense of pacing to carry you through that 2 hour runtime.
If you hadn’t heard of it already, and fancy yourself a Platforming connoisseur, then you need to play Hypogea. It was an absolute delight, and a small beacon of joy in a month where I was otherwise bound to my bed.
Indie Spotlight
Lost & Found Co.
I covered Lost & Found Co. as part of the June 2025 Next Fest, and found it surprisingly fun considering I don’t typically play Hidden Object games. That said, I think the cute art style, and characters did a lot to win me over. I’m intensely curious to see if the narrative that was set up in the demo actually goes somewhere, or if it’ll just spin its wheels.
Slay the Spire 2
I’ll be real with you: including Slay the Spire 2 here feels somewhat antithetical to what this block was designed for. That said, I figured people would raise an eyebrow if “the guy who writes about Roguelike Card games” doesn’t mention the biggest Roguelike Card game coming out this year.
That said, I haven’t really seen Slay the Spire 2’s X factor in any of the trailers they’ve put out. Co-op seems to be the focus, but I don’t really want to play it with other people. At all. Though, there are a couple new classes, and revisions to old ones that I can goof around with.
Regardless, I’m sure it’ll be good, but I don’t know if it’ll replace Monster Train 2 as my favourite Deckbuilder. I suppose only time will tell.
Timberborn
The beaver City Builder of your dreams is finally launching into 1.0 this March. As someone who has already poured almost 40 hours into various Early Access versions of the game, I’m extremely excited for the full release of Timberborn.
The hook of the game is managing water by way of building dams. This sees players raising, and lowering water levels across the map, while building reservoirs, sewers, aqueducts, and sluices to manage the flow of water throughout their settlement. It is an engineering wet dream (ha!), and Timberborn is intensely fun to play even when various water-related transportation ideas don’t go to plan.
Next Fest Highlights
As it would turn out, several games that I just previewed in my Next Fest post are due out over the following couple of weeks. As such, I wanted to highlight them here. Though, if you’re curious about the particulars of why you should check them out then you can read the article I just wrote, which I’ve linked above.
Esoteric Ebb
Puzzle Spy International
Rhell: Warped Worlds & Troubled Times
Hopefully there’s something in there that caught your eye. By all accounts, March looks like another stellar month, regardless of which genres are your focus. Though, as always, I’m curious if there is anything that you’re looking forward to that I haven’t mentioned here. Let me know if you’re so inclined.
Otherwise, I’ll take my leave. Thanks for reading, and stay safe out there!
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