There are so many excellent details here. Both games in the series so far don’t just have a black-and-white aesthetic for a gimmick – they really explore the possibilities the palette offers. There’s exceptional use of light and dark here. I also love the the way it embraces the nature of the TV series it’s based on, with the almost invisible threads holding up the aeroplane as you see it flying through the storm.

But it’s also a really fun thing to just pick away at while listening to a podcast, or browsing YouTube – second-screen entertainment stuff. And as much as I tried, I just kept playing it instead of getting around to writing about it. I mean, it’s literally sitting behind this browser window, peeking out the sides, trying to lure me back in right now.

There's so much ambition here, and it's delivered with such brave pacing, within a world that competes with Dunwall on looks, and some of the best voice acting I've ever encountered. While it occasionally frustrated me, if nothing else, Conway's soothing, mellifluous voice saw me through.

So yes, clearly this is a hefty tribute to Lovecraft’s world, and in that sense it’s why this game needed to be set in his creations. Although their writing chops are strong enough that they could have developed something creepy and funny from their own imaginations. Whether you care about this or not is up to you. I find that I can think Lovecraft a ghastly and pathetic man, and still enjoy a very well made game set in his stories. This is such a game, and I’m glad I played it. And replayed it.

Nightmare Reaper is a procedurally generated retro FPS, with fresh levels every time you play. Levels that are of such high quality they often feel deliberately composed, only every now and then giving themselves away with an errant dead end. For the majority of the time, these chunk-based designs are fantastic, and then surrounded by so many clever ideas.

No, this doesn’t compare to something as extraordinary as what Supergiant are making now, and that’s OK. Honestly, I find Hades overwhelming, and a game like Ravenswatch is a far more approachable. There’s no doubt that this game is a broad, shallow pool, with wonderful details on its surface. This isn’t Diablo, disguising plunge-pool depths beneath its glossy sheen–it’s the glossy sheen. Sometimes, that’s exactly what I want. It’s also testament to the peculiarly mercurial nature of the gaming press that after Curse of the Dead God was scoring 9s from the likes of IGN, the follow-up game just gets completely missed, even with a year-long early access run-up...Plus, the idea of Little Red Riding Hood being a werewolf is just brilliant.

This is facile, but in the best way. A big, dumb, silly game of making a giant mess. And that can prove pretty cathartic – getting to smash up stuff is always a fun release. It reminds me of that children’s game show of the early ’90s, Finders Keepers. And who doesn’t want to get to do that? Plus arachnid genocide.

This is a really strong yet extremely approachable deck-building game, and after eight months in Early Access it’s fully released now. And really deserves a lot of attention.

But gosh, there’s so much effort. On top of the 40 levels, there’s a daily challenge level, plus Steam Workshop support so you can create new challenges for other players, or download those others have made. And the levels offer so much variety, adding new twists deep into the game to keep it always interesting. It’s a really fantastic game, and it’s so far gone completely under the radar. Given it’s under $15, it’s well worth a try, and then yell at everyone else to do the same.

If you’ve got the chops, grab hold of this. And there’s a good way to find out, since the game has a demo. I shall sadly bow out, which I realise doesn’t make this the most helpful of reviews. But you know, sometimes things are hard.

I really love this! I cannot justify this well. I guess sometimes it’s just fun to be rubbish at something. But it’s really nicely presented, the music is fun, and it’s no slapdash effort – the controls and timings are incredibly precise. And if you happened to be good at it, well I cannot imagine how thrilling that would be.

The timing of this is perfect. If you’re worried it’s insensitive to make a game about the deluded thinking of extremist far-right Americans just now, know that actual real-life America has far out-satirised anything this game has to offer – it feels positively mundane compared to reality’s present offerings. Plus, any wisps of discomfort I had were removed by the brilliant reveal at the end. Which is then, I’m delighted to say, followed by a song.

I’ve had a fine old time with this. I’ve carried on playing for far longer than I’d planned, and am about to carry on playing once I’ve finished writing this. Which is a useful reminder that it’s important not to dismiss games because they do what other games have done a lot, especially when they do it this nicely. Also, to remember that storylines based around the enforced wearing of trousers are always welcome.

I’m so pleased this is still so much fun to play. It has all the same irritations, like the slightly dodgy tiny-thin platforms in some rooms being a little flaky, and the way you have to re-press a direction key after jumping or the dude stands stock still. Oh, and the sound is awful. But for £3-4, this is a lot of fun and a decent challenge, that feels really remarkably contemporary. I’d really recommend giving it a go!

The result is a game that’s silly and macabre, and wants you to wonder why. It’s perhaps ironic that something that’s so smartly a piece of Brechtian estrangement also falls foul of some of the genre’s most typical issues–flaky player direction, predictable puzzles–but in some peculiar way these (undeliberate) shortcomings lean in to the meta-commentary in their own way. Oh, and be sure to stick around through the credits, because there’s a whole bunch more game to come after.

There’s so much love and detail poured into Lucy Dreaming. That this was written and drawn and developed by one guy, Tom Hardwidge, is mindblowing. This is an enormous game, both in terms of length and sheer detail. I thoroughly recommend you give it a look.

While meddling with the linearity of reality is hardly new for first person games, what I love about how Paradox Vector delivers its impossible corridors is the speed. Normally when exploring corners to find real life is looping impossibly, that you’ve taken five right-angled right turnss and appeared somewhere else, it’s done with a pace that ensures you take it all in. Here you’re zipping about almost (but not quite) as fast an old-school FPS, and realising your shredding of the Euclid’s surviving texts as you zip on by.

Each round I get a higher score, a little bit further in, and gain a smidgeon more understanding of the process. Plus it has kick-ass music, and a superbly bemusing visual style.

Oh, and the whole thing is beautifully rendered, every scene looking stunning, and the voice acting is AAA-standard. I’m so very taken with how it subtitles conversations in floating text around scenes, with shimmering outlines of half-remembered people. The Gap is pretty special, handling its tough topics without histrionics, and is splendidly constructed.

It would be silly to directly compare this to Returnal, given the enormous difference in scale, but I can’t help but be reminded of it. That sense of enjoying failing at the earliest stages, with a constant sense of improving as I do.

Most fun of all is when you find a pan. You can repeatedly lob it at enemies for one-hit kills, until, tragically, it breaks. It’s also splendidly gory, blood spattering messily across the screen as bullets fly in all directions. Just like grandma used to love.

It’s worth adding that it’s all presented in a tiny, two-colour rectangle in the middle of your screen, and looks lovely. The art is incredibly simple, but this belies the detail in the animations, the movements, and the perfect sound effects. This could have been much more throw-away, and still worked, and I love that it’s not. It is definitely a shame that the text is so incomprehensible, because it’d have been the cherry on top to have a great little story told as you played. As it is, however, you can just click through it.

Sheinman has displayed just what a talent he is. Coding, creating the art, writing the game, writing and performing the music (with vocals from the actors)… that’s all sickeningly impressive. Having it manage to come together as a pretty tricky puzzle with so many moving parts is deeply impressive. But more than that, there’s a depth of knowledge here that I find daunting, an understanding of music scenes based on a lot of reading, listening and thinking.

There’s a really smart use of melody here, in amongst some really beautiful drawings. It’s not quite Gris, but hey, at least it’s not Gris. There’s a real feeling of visual poetry here, made all the better by the complete lack of dialogue. It’s pretty short, coming in around one to two hours, which is just about perfect for the tone.

I love this. It’s just so splendid, and I’m absolutely bloody determined to keep getting better at it. It’s a slow process for me, but I’m definitely improving! And in the game.

Overwhelmed‘s presentation is great, feeling very slick and modern, yet with ingenious nods to the genre’s history through its colour choices and ship designs. (And yes, I mean the real history, the one preceding a hidden bonus game in 2003’s Project Gotham Racing.) This absolutely doesn’t have the life-changing profundity of Geometry Wars, but not is it trying to. Instead, this is six brilliant little arcade vignettes, each compelling and compulsive, that form an excellent cohesive hole. And all the work of one guy – Paul Giovannini – but for the music by Mathieu “Richie” Dubois. My magical powers remain unchallenged.

It’s lovely, it’s cheap, and it’s longer than you might expect.

Keep things in perspective: this obviously isn’t No Man’s Sky. It’s a small indie game with a far more limited scope, and a far greater desire to tell you an interesting tale. (There’s a very generous demo, too.) But it’s such a massive achievement, the aesthetic is wonderful (including excellent music), and it entirely entwined me in its compelling loops. Loved it.

More than anything else, Loop is a dollar. In fact, it’s 90 cents this week, during the sale, just in case you needed 8p for something more important. That’s completely daft, and I’d have been delighted to have spent a fiver on this. This is very smart, very nicely designed, and gorgeously presented. The only negatives are the boring name, and the peculiar developer name of “Lofi Robot”, the trademarked name of a popular Polish robot construction kit.

There are far too few investigative games, and almost none where the solutions aren’t made inevitable by the process. For that, I found Between Horizons refreshing, if somewhat unsettling. But more importantly, this is a hefty, involving, and characterful game, with a novel setting, deep mystery, and a whole heap of interesting characters. And, unlike so many that boast of multiple endings, here the results can be light-years apart. The core beats of the story play out the same, but the results of your actions mightily effect the experience, and can dramatically alter how it concludes.

It’s that maturity that has stuck with me. That this is a cozy-game rug-pull is a treat, but despite only being two or three hours long, it’s the characters who have really stuck with me long after finishing. One frog called Liv especially, who in most other games would be played as a cranky old lady to patronise, but here is a force. I once knew a Liv – Jean her name was, she died at around 90, and I only met her when she was in her 80s, and she was the most splendid curmudgeon I ever spent so much time with.

It’s very nicely put together, and the simple pixel graphics and four-colour palette belie some pretty clever physics. The tether operates according to proper underwater floaty properties, meaning you can wrap it around obstacles to complete some challenges, or allow it to swing you upward when taut (I’m not quite sure how realistic is the latter).

This is a brilliant little puzzle game, at a very decent price, and despite its seemingly simple beginnings it really has its claws in me.

The game, essentially, plays like the first chapter from a larger project. This hour-and-a-half of levels ends in a satisfying boss fight, and then runs its entertaining final sequence. Which left me with an odd combination of feeling delighted at such a neat morsel of a game, and saddened that I wasn’t going to carry on playing something so fun and well made.

That Matt and Mike Chapman are still making new Homestar content brings me so much happiness. It’s sporadic now, the two brothers having gone on to work on many other TV animations since, including a bunch of Disney projects. That they’re making entire games, albeit pretty short ones, is mindblowing.

I was just so intrigued by this. I loved learning so much through playing, and it’s just shocking to remember that Holiday Destination Spain was a place of such turmoil and upheaval within my own lifetime. At £20, its four or so hours feels short, but as I mentioned, it’s immediately intriguing to go back and replay making different decisions, or deliberately failing to help certain people, to see the implications playing out.

I had a lovely time with this especially interesting approach to the genre. Had it just been chapter 4 alone as a short adventure I’d have still been recommending this, but that it has the other four excellent conceits around it makes it into something novel and delightful.

This is a massive undertaking, and seemingly the work of just two people, which is mindblowing. The story didn’t hit at all for me, but I’ve found myself absorbed in that hypnotic ARPG space where I am delighted to just keep attacking and looting, while the other half of my brain listens to podcasts. And as much as I might wish for a world where indie developers are pushing the Diablo-like into entirely new directions, that world doesn’t exist, and I’m just so grateful that there’s anything else at all in the space that’s soon to be filled by the entirely standard arrangements of Diablo IV.

Created by one person, this is an excellent use of pre-made assets to build an Unreal Engine horror game. I love that there are tools that allow someone to piece something like this together, without the need for being able to build complex 3D models or record swathes of sound effects. It’s about the smarts in how they’re put together, and Alexandr Reshetnikov shows a lot of those here. The jump-cuts, the constant rearranging of locations behind you, the application of so many horror tropes at once – it all comes together so nicely for a very scary hour.

This sense of dreadfulness is taken further by how absolutely nothing else in the game is OK, either. Stewie doesn’t exactly stand out in this company, the motel’s guests barely any better, while the local area is broken, falling apart, and riddled with abandoned horrors. It’s all so bleak, so hopeless. The chief cop is corrupt running a protection racket, there’s a dead body in the local diner’s freezer, the rivers are all filthy and poisoned… But you’re using the vinegar on the rusty lever to release the potatoes! It’s an adventure game! Sure, the falling potatoes were meant to be the means of killing a prisoner, but everyone involved seems to have died before anyone got around to it, the prisoner included. But it’s a fun game with puzzles!

Running at about an hour long, that this is free feels such a brutal shame, but invariably the correct thing to do with a student project where there’s no actual company registered behind it. Still, if they’ve any sense they’ll form one themselves and embellish this into something even longer and more involved. Because this is a huge demonstration of talent, and extremely worth your time.

I was really, really impressed by so much of this. As a piece of visual art, I haven’t seen anything so pretty in forever. As an idea, it’s fascinating. In its execution, it occasionally lets itself down. But I’m still so glad I spent time with this.

I cannot fathom why this is free. I even asked the developer, Daniel Carr, and he sort of shrugged and said he wants as many people as possible to be able to play it. So, take him up on this!

It’s about 20 minutes long, and right now costs less than 50p. I went into this thinking it was a cool approach to being outright strange, and left being surprisingly touched by its depth of truthfulness, if lacking in tangible hope.

I really enjoyed this. It’s so lovely, and if you ignore its rather clumsy attempts to pluck on heartstrings, it holds together well. There are a bunch of decent puzzles in there, plus there are whole sections of the game you won’t find the first time through. It’s sweet, but there’s a depth to the design of the tower that reveals itself as you climb. It’s cheap too. And most of all, there’s all that waving!

This gobbled up a couple of hours of my life in a really enjoyable way.

So, yes, it makes absolutely no sense. And yet within its own doolally world, it makes all the sense. It’s a lovely, daft, interesting, deep and complex game, with no combat, no death, just choices and consequences. Ethical dilemmas and questions of morality. And, perhaps most importantly, a head-banging puffer fish and a breakdancing crab.

This is a fantastic piece of work, and a satisfying experience in its own right. There’s a solid couple of hours of game here, that I’d have been happy to have paid for (although perhaps then more annoyed by the lack of resolution), that honestly should be all any indie publisher needs to throw money. And for us, it’s a fascinating experience, unlike anything else I’ve played.

Oh, and it has a very brilliant, and extremely reachable ending (something I think too many post-Papers Please games make unrealistic for most to ever see), followed by a new game+ that will address any lingering questions you may have. I know this has received more coverage than some other games featured on Buried Treasure (including some pretty huge YouTube attention I wasn’t aware of until after reviewing–it’s fair to say our audiences don’t overlap much), but for some bizarre reason this hasn’t extended to reviews, and all-important review scores, so here we are. Home Safety Hotline is certainly too repetitive, lacking that one extra twist that would have propelled players to the ending, but its imagination, writing, and performances ensure it succeeds.

I found two really satisfactory endings. One that bloody scared the bejesus out of me, and another that I’d consider a “good” ending. All extremely worthwhile. And yes, because people always ask, it does have jumpscares.

It’s exhausting. That it’s a story means you’ll want to read to the end, but doing so requires a really concerted effort. Which is, obviously, the point. It’s an extremely effective window into the routine life of those with dyslexia, and has very quickly revealed to me how much I don’t take that seriously enough. The idea that the whole world would be encoded behind these shifting, frustrating, bemusing glyphs is utterly overwhelming, a realisation that’s a complete “well duh” for millions of people.

I can’t over-emphasise how pretty it all is. The backgrounds are wonderful, the meticulously detailed character animations on par with the best I’ve seen. That the vast majority of this game, including not just the art and writing but also its fabulous music, is all by one guy, is astounding.

This would be great for kids comfortable with using a mouse (and indeed would work far better on a tablet, but sadly seems only to be on PC). It’s never difficult, but often grin-inducing. The cats are lovely, and giving them hats makes them happy! So much so that every single hatted cat gains you an achievement almost all with the exact same words: “The cat is happy!” I made the cats happy!

I’m not entirely sure what earns it the grandiose name! I feel like a completely unnecessary storyline might have been wisely cut at some point, leaving just the mystical title behind, and rather love that. You can imagine your own overly-grand reason for pointing light in specific directions as you play. And play it you should.

But there’s so much that’s great here, so many inventive ideas and interesting exploring. For the longest time you don’t have any means of attacking at all, and when hours in it eventually does give you a way to fight back, it’s not with a conventional weapon. I love it for that.

Mimic Search definitely feels like something that could become a very engaging longer game. There’s a lot of unrealised potential in the whole idea of the Mimic possibly being one of the few people in these woods, and that’s certainly not helped by the game’s one rather enormous flaw: it uses character models that don’t blink. Oops. I really like the idea of a game like this, with a larger forest to explore, more buildings, and a different NPC as the Mimic each time you play. Someone make me that, pronto.

Is my life better for playing General Horse And The Package Of Doom? Unquestionably. It is it also worse? Very probably. Is there £7 worth of entertainment in here? It very much depends upon your definition of “entertainment.” If you love the idea of something that exists at the midpoint of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and The Room, then goodness gracious, is this the game for you.

I enjoy playing it though! I’m not wholly convinced I’d be as enjoying it had I spent £15 to do so. Although I’m pretty convinced that aficionados would understand the pricing a lot more. I mean, it’s certainly of note that my highest score is around 18 million, while there are scores on the leaderboards over 2 billion. That is clearly indicative of a lot more game than I’ve been able to touch.

It’s pretty, it all works very simply, and yet there’s a good amount of depth to the tactics. Sure, if you’re used to playing elaborately complicated turn-based RPG/strategy games, it’ll perhaps seem a little twee. But it’s not for you, so there.

A twin-stick action game that crams in everything I want from the genre, into a few-hour vignette.

And yeah, part of me craves the mind-melting tricksy puzzle game this could also have been, where I’m juggling times of day, weather conditions, who’s in an area, and innovatively using stickers for non-conventional puzzle-solving purposes. But that’s someone else’s game to make. A Tiny Sticker Tale has its own motivations, and they’re fantastic. It’s a sweet, warm and gentle game with a novel mechanic, and we can use as many of those as we can get.

This is a simple, original idea, done really well. I don’t know that I’ll ever unlock those blue levels, but it’s a great time trying. And for less than £3, it’s a pretty low-risk choice. This is an easy one to recommend.

It deepens the more you play, as more attacks appear, and more complicated enemies join forces to buff each other. And it’s all rather fun! It’s not too hard, which is a pleasant relief, but it’ll get trickier if you don’t properly try to engage with the tactics of it all.

And really, that one element of moving around the mine by where you match is so smart, and adds so much. The deeper you go, the more involved it gets, the more tile types there are to bust through, and upgrades to add to your town. And it has me completely hooked.

CHDC is a very peculiar game, in both senses of the word, and I mean them both positively. While it definitely reminds me of Dreadrock, it’s certainly a unique little creation. It’s also packed with bonkers details, asides, letters sent between NPCs hinting at deeper stories, incredibly silly jokes, and a constant sense of variety. I wish to god that there were more opportunities to sell crap from your inventory. I wish the magic storage chest and cooking stations appeared a bit more often in the first half of the game. And I really wish there were a way to save mid-level, given you have to start each over no matter how far through. But I’m really enamoured with it despite all my wishing. It’s daft and breezy and very cleverly put together...I’ve not even mentioned that there are three different weapon styles to choose from, or if you’re mad you could pick from all three. Or how you need to manage food and water, but it’s never onerous. Or just how much it delights me every time I light a torch and the word “Fwoosh” appears on screen. I just love the word “fwoosh”. And the art! The drawings between levels are so splendid. It’s all a good time.

This is a ton of fun, bright, silly, fast and tough. I think there’s definitely potential to build it out into a larger game, especially with the building mechanic. However, it works just as it is, a morsel, and you’ve nothing to lose in giving it a go.

It’s also worth noting the excellent underground spooky sound-effects, and some lovely music. This all adds up to a very fun little game, with just enough Lemmings to remind me of happy times, but not so much that I can feel it triggering my anxiety. Oh, and good gracious, it only costs a pound. Which is silly. Put that price up!

So yes, this is plainly daft, and yet incredibly effective. I dearly wish I could play any level from the start, but beyond that I’ve ended up having a lot of meticulously careful fun with a game I wasn’t even sure about why I’d installed it. I’m really glad I did.

I really never thought I would ever be someone who played deckbuilding games. I never managed to get into Slay The Spire or Darkest Dungeon, and figured it wasn’t a genre I’d ever get to grips with. And then I stumbled on Meteorfall. It was love at first sight. It clicked. I got it. I got really good at it! I played it until I was on game+++ modes for every character, in a way I never play games! I’m having very similar feelings about Iris And The Giant.

At £20, I’m hesitant to recommend it. At £10, I’d be demanding you buy it. But then, value is relative to the person purchasing, and you’re a big girl/boy, you can make that decision for yourself. Either way, this is a fab puzzle game, with just adorable art and music.

So what price beauty? Patience. And how much you have with the game will determine your enjoyment. For me, an hour or so after finishing it, I’m already finding the memory of the irritations melting away, and the lovely art and story taking over. But the exasperation happened, and it’s my job to say so.

Fortunately the rest of the game is a cute little puzzler, that has its difficulty ramp up slowly and calmly. And there are over 100 of them, so you’re getting a good deal.

For under £4 you’re getting a solid couple of hours, especially if you’ve the sense to take your time and challenge yourself to evaporate as much as possible in every level. Plus it’s incredibly hard not to just start over again the moment you’ve finished, the mechanic never growing tired no matter how much it repeats.

I am now absolutely fascinated to see what R_Games does next, to see if the scope can be expanded, and the ambition raised even further.

The Amateur Deity Society is a splendid thing, combining interactive fiction with point-n-click in such an inventive and successful way. I don’t know developer Robert Carlson’s plans, but if there were a way to make this Godot-based game an engine others could use to script their own adventures, it could lead to something extraordinary. In the meantime, I really do recommend grabbing this for a fun short story told in an intriguing way.

Shiner is primarily this concept, the surrounding story rather slim (although kudos for the ranch dressing-based religion), and it would be lovely to see such a mechanic built into a larger, more established RPG. Of course, this is a student thesis project, and as such is an excellent proof-of-concept for an idea that merits further realisation. Also, it’s free, so if it sounds interesting you’d be a right berk not to check it out.

Add in some lovely music, and I’m having a great time. I love these simplified versions of larger genre, and while I certainly do wish for more complexity in the battles, I’m still hooked on having yet another turn after each failure.

This is from Minor Key Games, who blew everyone away with 2013’s Eldritch Reanimated, and have since put out a series of very odd little projects, none of which have really caught on. In amongst them is Eponymous, which also received seemingly no attention at all, which is a shame – it deserves some, hence my highlighting this now. And for a couple of pounds, it’s an hour’s oddness well spent.

There are a fair few hundred puzzles here, and each grouping also comes with a mosaic mega-picross, the sections unlocked by solving each other puzzle in the group. Which is a lot more effort than was necessary for this to be a good package, so a proper delight to see.

Where you might be used to Breakout clones offering bonus drops, and that dilemma of trying to catch it before zooming across the screen to get the ball before it drops, here with so much more going on that becomes a much more interesting proposition. You might be in hand-to-hand fisticuffs with an eyeball, trying to blat it before it explodes fireballs in all directions, while seeing a fall of coins to your right, and an iron ball power-up falling to the left, all while trying to judge in which direction the ball’s going to eventually come down.

The whole game is a twisted tribute to Italy’s Ravenna docks, and Romagna mythology, as well as an almost impenetrable folkloric cautionary tale about nostalgia and its erasure of time. Which isn’t something I’ve been able to say of any other game. I love the artistic choices made, and still don’t know if the game suffered from translation issues, or if its blending of English and – think – Catalan was a deliberate decision – I liked it about it either way.

In the end, if you’re after solid, satisfying puzzles, it really doesn’t much matter the layout of the puzzle book. And here you get exactly that, which is why I am enthused to share it with you.

This is by far one of the more interesting escape games around, if you’re looking for something silly and strange and relatively simple. It’s not trying to be the lofty intricacy of The Room, nor the Lynchian faux-narrative of Rusty Lake. It’s just goofing around, and that’s important too. And at this, it does very well.

You can apply the positive words of this review to any of their products. They’re all the same design, and all feature a collection of hand-made, extremely finely crafted puzzles, and they play just as well on phone as they do PC. Miracle Sudoku combines all these puzzle types in interesting new ways, with a focus on trying to include as few starting clues as possible, but I think it gets too difficult too soon.

There’s nothing innovative here. It’s just a really adorable execution of the current trend for monochrome hidden object-me-dos, that made me smile a whole bunch while I played.

At such a low price, I really do recommend this for those looking for a janky horror kick, especially with how successfully it delivers on those spooky PS1 vibes. I'm very interested to see what this team does next.

Gosh there are too many “explore an abandoned space station” games, but I keep finding myself drawn to them, and it’s for exactly the reason that I hope they’ll offer what Spirits Of Xanadu includes. I mean, it’s not amazing, and I’ve still yet to find the Solaris of videogames that I’m desperately hoping for, but it’s nice to have something that delivers it all in a satisfying way.

This is a short game in the Metroid-like sense, but it’ll offer you a fair few hours for a very reasonable price. There are imperfections that will lead to frustrations, but there’s plenty more here that makes this a pretty interesting play.

Honestly I’m not entirely sure if I’m a kitten, and I’m solving these puzzles for food? Or if I’m a scientist who’s motivated myself to solve these challenges else my pet cats will starve? I don’t want to think about it too hard. I just want to sit back, solve little puzzles, and be pleased that there are kitties to watch.

Booth outstays its own conceit, but is so often excellent along the way I still want others to experience it. Until it loses its head, it’s a smart reinterpretation of 1984, an intelligent commentary on the current state of certain rather large dictator-run nations, and an ingenious evolution of the Papers Please concept. Right up until it isn’t any more.

This is an often fantastic adventure game, with some really surprisingly deep puzzles, incredible art, and a combat system that survives the wholly inappropriate engine in which it’s built. And its atmosphere will certainly stick with me. Congeal with me, perhaps.

No, it’s no great science fiction classic, but it’s a bright, silly tale with what were once one of the best ever Whovian enemies, managing to be scary once more. (I shall never forgive Moffatt for the Statue Of Liberty. Ever.) And at just a fiver on PC, or three quid on phones, it’s a good two or three hours of distracting fun.

That aside, this is a very decent first-person puzzle game, albeit heavily weighed down by its derivative nature, that constant sense that you’re playing ideas from other games pasted together. However, when there doesn’t appear to be another Portal or Talos Principle coming along any time soon, this is a great scratch for anyone with that itch.

There’s no depth here, no sense of ambition to do anything novel with the genre. But it’s just a good time, and picking out super-long-distance headshots is never not satisfying. Don’t expect to have your life changed, but do expect some 90s-ish FPS entertainment.

I just adore the art, which is what caught my eye first of all. Monochrome, 2.5D, with a sort of pop art aesthetic. And there are some lovely details within that, especially the intricate reloading animations on the pistol.

It’s a shame that there will only be bug fixes from now on – it’d be great to see this embellish into a bigger, more complex idea. Also, I would love to see a change where only one mouse button moves the screen around, as it’s currently tricky to move branches and leaves without accidentally moving about. But there’s definitely enough right now for your weeny £4, and it’s captured me (and oddly, my 6yo) for a decent amount of time. Ooh, and as I type a thunderstorm is rolling in over my latest tree.

But do check this out, because it’s an original approach to a familiar genre, and one people with cleverer brains than mine are certain to enjoy. Also, it has a super-chilled jazzy soundtrack that I love.

It’s a worthwhile couple of hours. It’s always spooky, sometimes scary, and as I’ve said over and again, the creatures are incredible.