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The RPS Selection Box: Katharine’s bonus games of the year 2023Enjoy some extra personal picks that didn’t quite make the Advent Calendar
Enjoy some extra personal picks that didn’t quite make the Advent Calendar
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun
In any case, my list of honourable mentions is so long this year I’ve taken the cheeky liberty of cramming some extra entries into my 2023 Selection Box, bringing you five more personal picks that I think are just smashing and that you should absolutely play when you get a spare moment or three.
Videoverse
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Kinmoku
If you’re someone who grew up during the early days of the internet and had any kind of online community in your life, you need to playVideoverse. This touching visual novel is such a perfect portrait of how those nascent internet forums were often a lifeline for the people who hung out there, and at a time when our own online social networks are visibly degrading with every passing week, its themes of connection, empathy and simply being a good human become even more vital and powerful.
Season: A Letter To The Future
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Scavengers Studio
Aside from some truly beautiful scenery to take in, Season’s greatest achievement is its extraordinary sense of place. As you cycle through its abandoned towns and villages, meeting folks still in the midst of packing up their stuff and moving to safer climes, you really get the feeling this place has been lived in to the full. There’s history here that you’re not necessarily privy to, and working out what to save and record can feel both momentous and overwhelming. How will you choose to remember the efforts of the people who grew up here? And what will your interpretations mean and say about this era for those who come to your scrapbook years down the line? Ultimately, Season is a game about looking at the world through an historian’s eye, and that’s something I’ve never seen a game try to do before. It’s a game that revels in peaceful and considered contemplation, and it’s a journey you won’t forget in a hurry.
The Wreck
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/The Pixel Hunt
Junon has a tough decision to make. Her estranged mother’s just gone into hospital with a serious brain condition, and it’s up to her to decide what to do about the next stage of her care - a role Junon never wanted or agreed to play in her mum’s life, but one that’s now been thrust upon her all the same. There are deep divisions between the two women that get examined and dissected in brilliant forensic detail over its five-hour run-time, from their choice (and subsequent success) of their careers to how they’ve formed and raised their respective families, and who, in particular, is responsible for the most terrible, unspoken secret that finally drove them apart. In order to process and sift through all this emotional baggage, Junon must excavate and untangle her memories to try and move forward. These take the shape of looping vignettes that see you swooping and diving through scenes and objects at critical moments in Junon’s life, and you can fast forward and rewind them Life Is Strange-style as you seek out certain words in the environment that will further Junon’s internal monologue. It all culminates in a devastating finale that will leave you feeling raw and vulnerable, but hopefully also grateful for having played it. It’s not for the faint of heart, but this is a special game all the same.
Cobalt Core
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Brace Yourself Games
At the start of each run, you assemble a crew of three to pilot your ship, each of which have their own deck of cards to reflect their various roles and specialities. Naturally, this alters the tactical rhythm of each run quite a bit, and the thrill of trying to make the best moves possible with that turn’s randomly dealt hand of cards is what makes Cobalt Core tick. It’s veryMarvel’s Midnight Suns, to throw yet another game comparison into the mix, and I absolutely thrive on that stuff. And with each successful run, you get just a little bit closer to finding out why your entire crew is stuck in a pesky timeloop, too. Moreish and very good fun indeed, Cobalt Core is a real treasure.
Let’s! Revolution!
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Buck/Hawthorn Games
Another dazzling roguelike for your consideration and my final Selection Box pick,Let’s! Revolutionis arguably one of the best looking games of 2023. With superb animation and fluid, fast-moving tile-based warfare, this really is the fantasyMinesweeperroguelikeyou never knew you needed.
The Minesweeper element comes in as you try and figure out how best to move your warrior around its randomly-generated tile maps. Your goal is to find out where the game’s wonderfully repugnant King is hiding so you can chase him to the next level, but you’ll also need to avoid running into his guards stalking the roads and highways. How do you figure out where those road tiles are when they’re all upside down, I hear you ask? Minesweeper logic, baybee, as each non-road tile has a little number in the corner denoting how many road tiles it’s currently touching. What follows is a fiendish and gorgeous little puzzle ‘em up that’s genuinely been one of the best surprises I’ve played all year. Don’t sleep on this revolution, folks.
