10. Papers, Please
When building a game, it is so important that its narrative meshes well with the gameplay. While Papers, Please‘s core mechanic is repetitive, the game adds complexity at a fairly good pace. The result is a game that isn’t excessively long and is hard to stop playing. A point-and-click game about a somewhat-mundane border checkpoint isn’t the place you expect a compelling narrative, but Papers, Please offers a wonderful branching story that made me go back and replay it. READ MORE
Knack, from Sony’s Japan Studio, is the company’s attempt to bring a colorful, family-friendly action game to the PlayStation 4’s launch. Built around a character that can change size, its visual effects are made to show off the hardware’s ability to process lots of little parts at once. Whether it makes for a compelling game is, of course, another matter entirely. READ MORE
Combining real-time ideas with turn-based mechanics, strategy title Battle Worlds: Kronos joins a growing list of projects using Kickstarter to find success. Does it meet the promise of its crowdfunding pitch? READ MORE
Valhalla Knights 3 takes the series onto the Vita, and with this transition comes a major change in tone: it’s much darker and grittier than the previous games. The big difference is the setting, taking place inside of a prison complex and the surrounding area, as opposed to the usual fantasy locales. The result is a collection of decidedly-seedy characters and stories. READ MORE
At first glance, Armored Core looks a lot like a mech-based action game. When you go deeper, you realize it’s more simulation than action, and certainly not comparable to anything else on the market. Grizzled mech fans will find that the Armored Core franchise offers a lot of familiar concepts to go with all of the exclusive mechanics. READ MORE
