Richard Cobbett
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Writing For
IGNLatest Reviews
Grim Dawn is one of the best action-RPGs out there, combining excellent hack and slash action with a world and progression curve that makes it worth fighting through. Alone or with friends, it’s hour after hour of top quality combat and looting, with the promise of many more excellent dark times to come.
After a poorly handled start, Prison Architect becomes one of the most in-depth, satisfying builder games in a long time. It’s a shame the non-sandbox options aren’t better, and the nature of the simulation inherently lacks the joy and beauty of other subjects, but few other games have done such a good job at capturing not just the nature of the job they simulate, but also the mindset required to do it ‘properly’.
Abyss Odyssey has everything it needs to be a great Roguelike, except the most important - a reason to keep coming back. While it lasts, it’s a gorgeous journey with great ideas and atmosphere, and in time, it may evolve into something with more longevity. For now though, just a few short hours are enough to see it, appreciate it, and never need to play it again.
Luftrausers is a carefully engineered game with finely polished mechanics under its simple graphics. Each round is a breathless rush, every death painless enough to make restarting from scratch absolutely no hardship. Don't expect great depth or long-term thrills, but the action while it lasts is a master of both second-by-second action, and the structures that effortlessly stretch it out into a good few hours without it overstaying its welcome.
Papers Please is a fantastic idea, beautifully executed. On the surface, stamping passports is the dullest job in the world. Wrapped up in Cold War chic though, it’s more than that from the start, with enough personality soon emerging from the greyness to keep it interesting even after foiling the hundredth attempt to sneak something nasty across the border. It’s not necessarily "fun," especially as you watch your family wither and die in the name of efficient immigration control, but it’s certainly compelling. Very few other games have so perfectly encapsulated just how being trapped in this kind of dehumanising role can be, in the best possible way, and both inside and out of the dreaded grey booth. If only there could be an achievement for reaching the exact moment you turn someone away for no particularly good reason, only to quietly tell yourself that, as ever, you were just following orders.