CHANTS OF SENNAAR

How Babel helped a world of stealth become a world of words

MEGHNA JAYANTH

Around the industry in eight games: one writer's journey through indie to triple-A and back again.

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Blacklist

Sam Fisher's final outing is also his most enigmatic

Post Script

How low should a boss go?

TWO POINT STUDIOS

How a new studio rose from the ashes of Lionhead success not simulated

RAIDERS OF THE ARCHIVE

Wolfenstein-style shootouts are just a small part of the picture in MachineGames' maximalist Indy game

SPLITGATE 2

If it ain't broke, don't fix Split

KINGDOM COME: DELIVERANCE II

A bigger, better - and funnier Bohemian rhapsody

Narrative Engine

Write it like you stole it

The Outer Limits

Journeys fo the farthest reaches of interactive entertainment

Trigger Happy

Shoot first, ask questions later

Go north

How does A Maze’s first UK outing compare fo the Berlin original?

Independents' pay

With publishers dwindling and funding drying up, is your next favourite indie production at risk of dying on the vine?

Bulwark: Falconeer Chronicles

Anyone familiar with the concept of kitbashing is already halfway to understanding what Tomas Sala’s open-world builder is all about.

Children Of The Sun

René Rother’s acrid revenge thriller – an action game with its limbs broken and forcibly rearranged into the shape of a spatial puzzler – is at once a bonafide original and an unlikely throwback. Cast your eyes right and you wouldn’t blink if we told you this was a forgotten Grasshopper Manufacture game from the early PS3 era (we won’t be at all surprised if this finds a spot on Suda51’s end-of-year list).

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What does Rise Of The Ronin say for PS5 exclusivity?

Rise Of The Ronin

Falling in battle simply switches control to the next person up, and then quick revive fixes everything

Post Script

The pawn and the pandemic

Dragon's Dogma 2

The road from Vernworth to Bakbattahl is scenic but arduous. Ignore the dawdling mobs of goblins, and duck beneath the chanting harpies that circle on the currents overhead, and even moving at a hurried clip it is impossible for a party of four to complete the journey by nightfall.

BLUE MANCHU

How enforced early retirement eventually led Jonathan Chey back to System Shock

THE MAKING 0F.... AMERICAN ARCADIA

How a contrast of perspectives added extra layers to a side-scrolling platform game

COMING IN TO LAND

The creator of Spelunky, plus a super-group of indie developers, have spent the best part of a decade making 50 games. Has the journey been worth it?

VOID SOLS

This abstract indie Soulslike has some bright ideas

VISIONS OF MANA

The action RPG series returns, as light on its feet as ever

TAILS OF IRON 2: WHISKERS OF WINTER

It's rats versus bats in Odd Bug's chilly sequel

PHONOPOLIS

Enter a corrugated dystopia, where everyone's card is marked

Narrative Engine

Write it like you stole it

The Outer Limits

Journeys fo the farthest reaches of interactive entertainment

Trigger Happy Shoot first, ask questions later

An on-rails driving simulator can be surprisingly immersive. I may be pootling along strictly under the speed limit, but as I turn a corner I find myself leaning over in my seat as though that will help me get a better view of what’s around the bend.

DISPATCHES JUNE

I love playing games. As an almost 40-yearold with a family, though, I spend more time reading about games and writing lists of the games I want to play than actually playing them.