Nine Sols
PS4/5, Xbox, PC, Nintendo Switch
Taiwanese studio Red Candle Games broke through in 2019 with the first-person horror game, Devotion. Its follow-up, Nine Sols, is less grungy but no less distinct, a robust 2D action-platformer with an exquisite “taopunk” aesthetic. This vivid sci-fi world feels as if it is constructed as much from bamboo and jade as steel and microchips. Lewis Gordon
PS4/5, PC
In a year of great Metroidvanias, the psychedelic sci-fi platformer Ultros trod a distinct and unusually green-fingered path. Alongside absorbing exploration and blistering combat, you study and grow various strains of alien flora found aboard a labyrinthine spaceship. The ultimate goal is escape, but you may never actually want to leave the strange, bioluminescent garden you come to cultivate. LG
PC
An unexpected breakout hit, despite still being a work in progress, this strategy game mixes economic management and city survival, with an eye towards historical authenticity. Content updates haven’t arrived as fast as some would have liked, but there’s no denying the meditative romance of shepherding a medieval hamlet through famine and fortune. Callum Bains
SteamWorld Heist II
PS4/5, Xbox, PC, Nintendo Switch
With fetching hats and tactically varied turn-based gunfights, this nautical sequel proves once again that two-dimensions needn’t feel flat. You can explore the world in your submarine this time around, but nothing beats the simple joy of lining up a shot to send laser beams ricocheting around the room. Wonderfully silly steambot shootouts. CB
PC, XBOX
A survival shooter that nails trying to stay alive in the face of relentless radiation, mutants in one of the most unforgiving environments ever. This sequel is a satisfying mix of horror and shooting, with a huge open world, branching narratives and multiple endings. The game is the result of 15 years of work since the previous instalment, made all the more remarkable by the fact that its developers at Ukrainian studio GSC Game World have become caught up in a real-world war. Bex April May
PC
Described as a “thirst person shooter,” The Crush House takes you inside a 1999 Big Brother-type production where the audience is always right. You’re the producer, whose dream job is taking a sinister turn. The result is a send-up of MTV reality shows and Love Island as well as society’s unquenchable current appetite for content. What better playground for all things a bit dark and exploitative? BAM
Frostpunk 2
PC (PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S planned for 2025)
Few games have managed to blend the survival and city-builder genres as well as the original Frostpunk. While the much grander scope of this long-awaited sequel doesn’t quite strike the same chilling, thrilling chords as its predecessor, it’s still an incredibly compulsive evolution that I’ve lost dozens of hours to. Elliot Gardner
Peglin
PC, iOS, Android, Nintendo Switch
While you could sum up Peglin as “Peggle … if it were a roguelike”, that would undersell its unique charm. You are a little goblin who inexplicably battles monsters using magic orbs dropped into a pachinko machine. Nothing quite beats the satisfaction of blowing up a giant ooze after popping hundreds of pegs with a lightning ball. EG
Braid, Anniversary Edition
PC, PlayStation 4/5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox
Braid changed the game in 2008, proving beyond doubt that shorter indie titles could be just as influential as those made by multimillion dollar studios. The anniversary edition, with improved graphics, remixed sound, new levels and a unique developer “commentary world”, shows this intelligent, puzzle-solving, time-bending platformer is still one of the best ever made. EG
Kill Knight
PS4/5, Xbox, PC, Nintendo Switch
Twin-stick shooters, in which players aim with one thumbstick and move with another, generally keep the basics pretty simple. Kill Knight, however, piles on the complexity with ranged and melee combat, special attacks and a brilliant reload system. It’s a dense but surprisingly approachable chunk of mayhem, and the death metal stylings are beautiful. Christian Donlan
Caravan SandWitch
PS5, PC, Nintendo Switch
This compact open-worlder explores the pleasures of van life on an alien planet heavily inspired by Provence. It’s beautiful stuff, with gentle puzzles and absolutely no combat. Best of all is the landscape, with shards of warm rock poking through the honeyed earth and hidden caves filled with glowing fungi. CD
PC, Mac
Here’s a novelty: a puzzle game in which you actually put together puzzles. Every morning, you wait for the posty to deliver a new jigsaw, and you then spend the day sorting through the pieces, clipping promising chunks together and eventually framing your creation and placing it on the wall. It’s been a stressful year; Wilmot Works It Out is a perfect response. CD
LinkedIn games
Browser-based
This year, LinkedIn launched an offering of daily puzzles, newspaper-style. The four logic games are perfectly decent, if only briefly diverting. What distinguishes them from the newspapers is the stats. Based on my scores, LinkedIn assures me I am smarter than 75% of CEOs, a measure on which Wordle has never offered an opinion. Duncan Fyfe
Pepper Grinder
PS4/5, Xbox, PC, Nintendo Switch
A short, inventive dash through 2D platforming levels, Pepper Grinder has you wielding a drill to carve your way through snow, rocks and enemies to reach your goal. It might not be long, but weaving through the ground and popping up on unsuspecting monsters like a buttered worm is endlessly entertaining. Daniella Lucas
PS5, Xbox, PC, Nintendo Switch
A storybook come to life, The Plucky Squire celebrates the art of storytelling as you adventure between pages with text playfully guiding your way. Sometimes you’ll slash your way through enemies with your fountain pen nib sword, other times you’ll chuck words around to rewrite the story and solve puzzles. DL
Phoenix Springs
PC
Reporter Iris Dormer searches for her brother in this neo-noir detective game, and the clues lead her to the strange, isolated community of Phoenix Springs. But it’s up to you to join the dots: much like David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive, nothing is spelt out here, and the appeal comes from pondering what it all means. Lewis Packwood
Death of the Reprobate
PC
This is the finale of Joe Richardson’s trilogy of point-and-click adventure games made from bits of Renaissance paintings, and it’s easily the funniest of the lot. Richardson’s Reeves and Mortimer-style humour runs the gamut from witty to silly to downright rude, culminating in an absolutely riotous, joyously blasphemous ending. LP
The Crimson Diamond
PC
As well as harking back to the 16-colour palette of 1980s PCs, The Crimson Diamond revives an all-but-forgotten genre: text adventures. Typing every action feels clunky at first, but you soon realise the freedom of possibilities it affords, and this Canadian detective mystery can end multiple ways depending on the avenues you explore. LP
Star Wars: Dark Forces Remaster
PS4/5, Xbox, PC, Nintendo Switch
Star Wars: Dark Forces, the 1995 cult classic FPS from LucasArts’ pre-prequels golden age, receives an adoring tribute in this pristine 4K remaster from Nightdive Studios. You play as the rakish mercenary Kyle Katarn in a mazey, key-and-puzzle-oriented shooter that puts an appealing Star Wars spin on Doom and Wolfenstein. Calum Marsh
Duck Detective
PC
Duck Detective: The Secret Salami is a rollercoaster whodunnit that asks you to uncover a criminal conspiracy in a sea of cute, overworked critters. Through a mixture of point-and-click investigation and mad libs – here called Deducktions – you’ll fall down a noir rabbit hole of office politics and test your inner gumshoe instincts. And before you ask, yes, there is a button to quack. Sarah Thwaites
Arctic Eggs
PC
Can you fry eggs on top of Mount Everest? It’s a question that satirical dystopian cooking simulator Arctic Eggs persistently ponders as you serve up curious yolky meals to the warbling citizens of a frozen city. Ingredients such as cigarettes, beer bottles and whole pizzas complicate the gyroscopic wrist gymnastics as you sautee and flip your way to a soiree with The Saint of Six Stomachs. ST
PC, PC VR, Quest
A revitalising remake of Cyan Worlds’ ambitious 1997 sequel to Myst, Riven asks players to point-and-click their way through a gorgeous conjured world on the brink of disaster. To unseat a tyrant and solve some pithy familial turmoil, you’ll learn Rivenese language and numerical systems, as well as tinker with captivating, meticulously designed mechanisms. A theoretical head-scratcher flooded with sensational set pieces, working through Riven is a brilliantly brainy experience for puzzle-hungry players. ST
PS5, Xbox, PC
Caz, an electrician who has fled to an oil rig to avoid some bother with the polis, soon finds himself one of the only survivors as his colleagues drill into something deeply disturbing at the bottom of the North Sea. A tight and absorbing horror-thriller with exceptional 1970s period detail and a tremendous Scottish-accented cast. Keza MacDonald
PS4/5, Xbox, PC
This series never disappoints when it comes to melodrama and silliness, and despite a slow start, once our lovable ex-criminal protagonist Ichiban makes it to Hawaii, Infinite Wealth has him exposing its criminal underbelly while also working as a delivery driver and doing up his own island. KM
Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess
PS4/5, Xbox, PC
One of the more bewitching genre mashups of recent years, Kunitsu-Gami has you protecting a dancing priestess as she shimmies through demon-ravaged villages: daytimes are for planning your defences, rescuing villagers and stationing fighters, nights are for chopping your way through the demons that spill forth from cursed gates. KM
Wild Bastards
PS5, Xbox, PC, Nintendo Switch
After your gang of robot cowboys is nearly wiped out by the dastardly Jebediah Chaste, you must fight across the solar system to resurrect your crew and find sanctuary. A roguelike shooter from one of the directors of Bioshock, Wild Bastards is filled with bite-size gunfights, tactical challenges, and infectiously kitsch wild west one-liners. Julian Benson
PS4/5, Xbox, PC, Nintendo Switch
In this peaceful puzzle game set within a sprawling country home, its rooms and gardens filled with plants, you create the perfect conditions for each seedling to grow. Secrets to each plant’s care wait to be deciphered in the scientific charts, photographs, and books of old nursery rhymes dotted throughout the manor. JB
Homeworld 3
PC
After a 20-year wait, Homeworld 3 returns you to the commander’s seat, putting you in charge of hundred-strong fleets of spaceships in glorious battles. With scenes often resembling the cover of a golden age pulp sci-fi novel, few real-time strategy games look so stylish or play so well. JB
Bore Blasters
PC
It’s best not to question Bore Blasters’ story. You’re a dwarf in a helicopter shooting through the planet’s crust to retrieve gemstones; just accept it. What matters is how intensely satisfying it is to drill through rocks with a machine gun in a race to the escape pod before you run out of fuel. JB
Nobody Wants to Die
PS5, Xbox, PC
With its bleak dystopian vision of New York City in 2329, a place where a substance called ichorite allows the rich to have their brains hard coded into new, healthier bodies (a process which tends to involve the poor serving as the sacrificial lambs), this sci-fi noir feels like Philip K Dick and Mass Effect had a baby. Developer Critical Hit Games packs nuance into every detail and, despite all the flying cars and cyberpunk textures, you feel more like a character in an old Hollywood murder mystery. A future cult classic, surely. Thomas Hobbs
PC, PS5
What Half-Life 2 needed more of, posits survival-exploration sim Pacific Drive, was car. Way more car. Salvaging parts from the environment and turning them into car. Repairing individual components. Driving through an enigmatic wasteland even the Combine would be hesitant to visit, and feeling smugly self-sufficient while you’re at it. Who needs headcrabs when you’ve got head gaskets? Phil Iwaniuk
PC
A racing game that juts out its chin and refuses to respect the rules of automotive engineering. Nowhere else will you find yourself guiding a car on long legs as it runs between woodland creatures in the forest, or use your vehicle as a motorised football to score a goal. Every new level, the definition of “car” is stretched beyond its elastic limit, along with your level of delight. PI
