The Wand Report
The latest PC game reviews, previews, interviews, and features. Make Gaming Magical
Cozy Game Restoration Review Review · Oct 30, 2026
This cleaning sim asks you to scrub away your free time for minimal reward.
On the desk
Everything else our team has been wrestling with. Early-access impressions, deep-dive features, and reviews you might have missed.
stars Review Queen’s Domain Review
Queen’s Domain is revelatory and miraculous, so long as you’re ready for a throwback.
visibility Preview ATMOSFAR Early Access Impressions
This ambitious survival title shines at its core, but isn’t without growing pains.
stars Review Planted! Review
Horticultural chaos reigns in Cloth Cat Games’ bid to become Overcooked’s supplier.
stars Review Probably Stolen Review
A cyberpunk shop simulator laden with moral ambiguity and rat faeces.
stars Review Anomalith Review
A stylish supernatural adventure with a focus on action and linearity.
visibility Preview Everlast: Undying Tale Early Access Impressions
A promising world that's off to an unbalanced start.
stars Review Terrible Lizards Review
Far from terrible, Terrible Lizards is a breezy, occasionally uneven, parkour platformer with style.
Permafrost makes survival feel like a Metroidvania
SpaceRocket Games frozen postapocalypse is fascinating, but a suite of bugs make it feel less crisp than it should.
Tenebris Somnia Review
A novel dual media concept is bogged down by odd design choices.
Hubert Review
A dog simulator with too many fetch quests and not enough new tricks
Recent verdicts
The reviews our critics have pinned to the cork board in the past 30 days, in score order. Click any row to read the full review.
A snacky, riveting, and joyfully chaotic gem of a roguelike racer.
9/10 02Neon, noodles and nuanced narrative – Nivalis Nights serves up something entirely special in this cyberpunk sim.
9/10 03Queen’s Domain is revelatory and miraculous, so long as you’re ready for a throwback.
9/10 04Levers, buttons, and headaches galore in this smart co-op puzzler.
9/10Our critics
The team of writers behind the verdicts. Independent opinions, no scoring algorithms, no sponsored editorial.
Ben's first experience of gaming was at three years old, sat on his dad's lap playing Revs on a BBC Micro. He went on…
Grace's love of both games and writing has been strong since the 90s. Studying journalism at university and then running a gaming YouTube channel…
Diego Nicolás Argüello is a freelance journalist and critic from Argentina. Video games helped him to learn English, so now he covers them for…
Geoffrey Bunting is a disabled journalist, author, and recovering book designer. Besides The Wand Report, he is featured in The New York Times, The…
Nic Reuben is secretly several Skaven in a trench coat that have somehow made a career in freelance writing. A former staff writer for…
Khee Hoon Chan is a freelance writer and journalist from the internet, who enjoys investigating the fringes of entertainment, culture and games.
Grace is a freelance writer at large and has written for some websites and publications you’ve heard of and others you haven’t. She is…
Award-winning writer and journalist Phil made his start in print media, and has subsequently spent the last 15 years un-learning the compulsion to add…
Ben Sledge is a reporter and critic from Liverpool, UK. He likes playing obscure demos and any game that feels like you're reading a…
Nick is a gaming and sports writer who has bylines with Eurogamer, IGN, GameSpot and many others. He's also the author of a book…
Will has been a game journalist, design consultant and industry writer for over 20 years, contributing to the likes of The Guardian, Edge, PC…
Reid McCarter is a writer and editor whose work has appeared at outlets like Wired, Kotaku, The AV Club, GQ, Playboy, The Washington Post,…
Kirk McKeand is a freelance writer and consultant, who really likes immersive sims. He wrote a book called The History of the Stealth Game,…