Return of the Obra Dinn is the most complex and imaginative whodunnit-style murder mystery puzzle game, ever! Despite the aesthetically pleasing 1-bit design, underneath lies a perfectly crafted 3D world full of emotion, tragedy, murder, and deception. With two possible endings to uncover based upon how many people you correctly name, along with their cause of death, you could be trying to solve the mystery for many hours based upon your skills as a sleuth. If you have any interest at all in puzzle, mystery, narrative, unique, or cryptic games, you need to buy this today on whatever platform you own.
Zombie Army 4: Dead War is by far my favourite zombie-based game of all time. I’d even go as far as saying that I believe this is Rebellion‘s best game this generation – I love Sniper Elite and Strange Brigade, but this is on a whole new level as it combines the best aspects of both and adds nazi zombies and undead sharks! Although the game is clearly designed for co-op, it scales perfectly for single players and those wanting to play with only one or two friends, rather than making it impossible to proceed without all four players active. Not only is this one of the most satisfying and fun third-person shooters I’ve ever played, the accessibility options, control choices, and performance options further enhance the experience to one which won’t be easily beaten.
Two Point Hospital is a very satisfying and rewarding management simulation game, something we need more of on consoles. Whether you’re pulling off peoples heads in order to replace them with a fleshy alternative, or managing your team of top doctors via training and providing them more clown posters to look at, there’s always something to do. There is a steep learning curve once you’ve completed the first island, but patience and dedication pay off as the greater the challenge, the greater the satisfaction when you hit three-stars! If you have any interest in resource management, simulation, or strategic games, you need to buy Two Point Hospital – it’s that good.
Paper Beast took me on a journey filled with magical moments and fantastical creatures – I didn’t want to come home. The puzzles are all well thought out, the environments are beautiful, and the beasts are simply amazing, when combined you get an experience which is unlike any other, especially when you factor in the terrain manipulation and realistic physics. The sandbox mode was a fun addition, allowing you to mould and sculpt your own mini-island, playing God has never felt so good!
Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories was so much bigger and more in-depth than I originally thought it would be. Try and find your way home as you abuse desperate people or try to help those in need, the way you react and deal with the various situations all comes down to your own personality. Although the core narrative is set in stone, only deviating at set waypoints, the comedic and down-right silly interactions you can have are all rather unique and special. I’m very grateful that we were able to experience this fantastic game, easily one of my favourite games of the year so far.
Desperados III is by far one of the best stealth-based games I’ve ever played, offering multiple ways to not only complete your objectives but also kill your targets. The brilliant Showdown mode further enhances the immersion and strategic gameplay by letting you simultaneously control all five protagonists in a synchronised string of events, single-handedly set up by the sole gamer. The very challenging badges, difficult goal criteria, and multiple routes will all have you replaying each mission numerous times until you know it like the back of your hand. Plus, once you’re done with the exciting and thrilling story, the Baron’s Challenges allows you to take on new mysterious and even more challenging missions – if you’re brave enough!
Neversong, the video game formally known as Once Upon a Coma, is a gorgeous journey through a twisted and deranged mind of a silently suffering coma patient. Although the puzzles aren’t too cryptic, and the combat is rather straight-forward once you’ve learnt the patterns, I couldn’t help but return to the world Thomas Brush created numerous times – it absorbed me and I didn’t want to leave its strangely grotesque beauty. The story is delivered through incredible voice acting and stunning cutscenes, although I will admit that I was a little confused in regards to the conclusion. But, that just gives me another reason to replay the game and once again become a prisoner to its charm.
Despite being seven years old, Game Dev Tycoon still stands up as one of the best casual simulation games of all time. If you’re a couch-dev who likes to abuse real-life devs over their creative choices and decisions (don’t do this), now you can put your money where your mouth is and take a shot at creating your own games – albeit via a much more casual and simplified process. From your single-person studio in a garage to a multi-million dollar console manufacturer and publisher, 35+ years will simply fly by due to how much fun you’re having.
Despite being on a few platforms now, Control: Ultimate Edition on the PlayStation 5 is by far the definitive version of the game. The 60fps mode is super smooth, the 30fps mode has realistic ray tracing, and all modes fully support the DualSense controller, immersing you within the action and making you truly feel like you’re Jesse. Although not technically adding anything new over the base game (plus DLC via the Season Pass), it was a joy to play through the game once more, exploring the world Remedy Entertainment created and discovering the secrets hidden within the new DLC floors. Whether you’ve played it before or not, Control: Ultimate Edition is a game which everyone should play on the new-gen consoles, this fantastic experience has just got even better!
Hitman 3 is the definitive way to play the modern Hitman games, simply import the previous two games and experience them all at a locked 60fps on the PS5. The six locations are all very different, offering many ways to progress and lots of creative methods of killing people – there’s never a dull moment in the world of Hitman. The developers are continually providing Elusive Targets, Timed Events and Escalations, as well as allowing people to make and distribute their own contracts to prolong gameplay – you’ll end up getting many, many hours of entertainment out of this game. Hitman 3 is the best death-based sandbox game I’ve ever played.
Call of the Sea is one of the best puzzle-adventure games I’ve ever played. Each puzzle requires you to think logically and gather all the clues to figure out the solution, you’re rewarded with a trophy and more context to the story for exploring and finding documents, and your eyes are given a treat by looking at this visually stunning game. This is the first time I’ve played a Lovecraft-inspired game that isn’t focused on horror, jump scares, or disturbing themes, instead it’s a peaceful adventure that uses the influences perfectly to create a very interesting and memorable experience.
Ironically, The Forgotten City is a game I’ll never forget – it’s a brilliant narrative adventure that requires you to think about how your actions will affect others in order to achieve your goal. I never played the original mod but if it was even half as good as this, I can see why it was universally praised by the three million people who played it – it’s a very unique and well-executed concept combined with an interesting narrative, fun gameplay, satisfying multi-possibility solutions, and trophies that push you to change the way you play the game. All-in-all, it’s a fantastic experience that is best played with no guides or walkthrough, simply set aside a few hours and see if you can solve the many small events which lead up to the big mystery.
Conway: Disappearance at Dahlia View is a brilliant thriller that fully immerses you as you spy on your neighbours and take a look at what secrets they have hidden behind closed doors. Each of your suspects has something to hide, but is it related to the attack and kidnapping which you’re unofficially investigating? With very little hand-holding, you must observe, investigate, and piece together just what is going on in Dahila View – overcoming your physical disability and letting nothing stand in your way of discovering the truth. Simply one of the best narrative adventure games I’ve played all year, enhanced by fantastic voice acting, well-written dialogue, and an exciting and intriguing story.
As with every other game I’ve played from Enhance, I was in love with Humanity as soon as I started playing it. The puzzles are challenging yet very satisfying when you work out the solution on your own, watching as hundreds or thousands of tiny humans shuffle around the floating stage following your commands religiously, even if it means they’ll end up jumping off the edge into oblivion. The incredible soundtrack enhances the experience and VR adds another level of immersion to this truly unique and mesmerising puzzle game.
The Persistence is an amazing roguelike FPS with full immersion within VR. When you’re not salvaging the ghost-ship “Persistence”, looking for Stem Cells and other useful items, you’ll be either hiding from or taking out the mutated clones who roam the decks of this doomed ship. The only downfall of the game lies within its clarity as the game can get a little fuzzy at times, but this is more than made up for with its incredible stealthy combat mechanics and progression system. The Persistence is great to play on your own but it’s even better to bring along a friend as you work together (hopefully) in order to find a way to regain control of the ship. This is another ‘must buy’ PSVR game which everyone should own.
A clever puzzle mechanic makes WILL: A Wonderful World stand out from similar multi-story visual novels. Become a God and help out those in need by, amusingly, swapping out aspects of one person’s life with another or simply alternating the order in which certain events occur. Despite the game being rather linear with its main narrative and triggers for progression, there are numerous outcomes to each and every letter you interfere with, temporarily changing the writer’s life until you opt for the best possible outcome. The writing is brilliant, the characters are interesting, and the overall concept of the game is fascinating – what more could you want from a fifteen-hour puzzle-based visual novel?
As someone who hasn’t seen a single episode of Fairy Tail, I bloody loved this game! It felt like a re-skinned Atelier game, minus the synthesising, with enhanced combat and a whole host of addictive mechanics, such as the rebuilding of the guild. I wasn’t impressed with how they used the source material (the anime), but the expanded interactions, character stories, and unique game-only events made up for the lack of animated anime segments and chunks of the game reduced to the storybook-like narration. Fans of the franchise will enjoy playing as their favourite characters and reenacting various arcs from the series, and newcomers will enjoy the interesting stories and solid gameplay mechanics.
The Chant is a very atmospheric horror game that has a perfect balance of combat, exploration, puzzles, and frights. It’s refreshing to play a character that acts like a real person, not someone trained in martial arts or a closet bad-ass just waiting to beat the crap out of anything that moves – instead, she waves the weapons around, falls over when rolling, and reacts the way I would; she runs away! There were a few good jumpscares, the combat was heavy and satisfying, and the narrative had me hooked from beginning to end, I seriously can’t recommend the game enough. The only thing which would make it better is a robust photo mode and a NG+ mode.
Slime Rancher is an amazing take on the farming genre with a very slimy twist. The game may start off a little slow as you try and make money with very limited slimes and resources, but once it picks up, you'll be rolling in the profits every few minutes! There's never a dull moment down at Far, Far Range as you venture out to explore unmapped territories, create new machines to help make your life easier, and round up all the various slimes in order to create over 150 combinations of Franken-slimes! Sure, some people may feel it's a bit monotonous as you seem to do a lot of the same tasks each day, but Slime Rancher is an open sandbox, it's only as monotonous as you let it become!
The Adventure Pals is an amazing platformer which is fun for people of all ages with no difficult controls or adult subjects. The dialogue and overall story are crazy, wacky, and fun with tonnes of humour and plenty of WTF moments which will have you going "ahhhhh" at the TV. The controls are among the best of any 2d platformer I've played this generation and The Adventure Pals is proof that not all Kickstarter games are amateur or unpolished. With it's added co-op mode, this game can be played both solo and with a partner offering an experience you will both remember for a long time. Recommendation – Go and buy this game now