A winningly nasty turn-based cult sim with beautiful monochrome art and surgical orchestral audio.
A scrappy, open-ended, infiltrator's delight for the player who enjoys breaking levels more than beating them.
Not the charmer its predecessor was, but a jolly 40 hour epic with dashing combat and an engrossing empire-building subgame.
An oppressively beautiful portrayal of an undersea environment, and a well-wrought survival game with a vaguely eco-friendly message.
A continent-sized anthology of American campfire tales that will keep pulling you in deeper, once you acclimatise to its slow pace.
Weather its bugs and lacklustre stealth, and Ghost of a Tale is a quietly ravishing potted epic with a serious subtext.
A mournful yet bright and enormously warm-hearted adventure with a novel landship mechanic, sublime backdrops and a brilliant score.
A magnificent nightmare, for those with the stamina to master the gruelling card game that houses it.
Another fine turn-based battle system and some charming dialogue and visuals make up for an occasionally dry ensemble campaign.
The Metroidvania at its best: a swaggering role-playing beat-'em-up that's very easy on the eyes and dense with secrets.
Sterling hack-and-slash combat meets raw, fractured prose in one of gaming's most essential nightmares.
Far from just another map-clearing game, Metro's first above-ground outing is an atmospheric, characterful voyage across a ruined Russia.
A moody, well-wrought action role-player with striking, desolate landscapes and a couple of great dungeons.
An ungainly but hypnotic exploration of worlds in the making and unmaking, and a fresh spin on the ethos of Team Ico's games and Journey.
An insidious, combat-free horror escapade that works marvels in a tiny space - and an intricate portrait of family and superstition
There's a twofold joy to Outer Wilds - the thrill of discovery itself, as you slowly decipher the variables that swirl around each not-so-distant world, and of seeing that thrill reflected in a phrase scribbled centuries ago by some castaway alien boffin.
A one-of-a-kind splicing of PS1 with 16-bit aesthetics and formal conventions, streaked with self-aware humour, sorrow and yearning.
A tough, well-wrought action-platformer distinguished by some toe-curling portrayals of sin.
A serene, quietly uplifting afternoon's entertainment for urban explorers and platform fans alike.
An absorbing, tense and well-wrought samurai adventure let down by a little too much recycling and some muddled new systems.