The Hand of Merlin’s narrative takes place in medieval times, in the corrupted lands of Albion, and your mission is to guide a party of three adventurers all the way to Jerusalem in order to prevent the coming apocalypse. Alas, I stubbornly insisted on sticking to the rather challenging Normal difficulty mode, which resulted in more deaths and failures than I care to admit.

The ratio of indie versus AAA games has seemingly shifted in the past few years, at least judging by the recently-held Steam Game Festival. However, a numerical advantage in itself – no matter how much gamers longing for an indie renaissance desire it – is hardly a guarantee that the majority of the games we end up getting will offer more than a regurgitation of the easily marketable formulas so prevalent in the industry. With that said, our staff set out to fish out some of the more promising titles from the crowd – below are my brief impressions of all the games I’ve personally tried, from best to worst.

The Sinking City sees you take on the role of a private detective haunted by mysterious visions, who then journeys to the city of Oakmont to uncover the truth behind his unsettling dreams. This, as one might expect, brings him face to face with all sorts of unusual phenomena and a host of peculiar citizens as he explores streets stricken by flood and famine alike.

I have long since been a fan of tactical shooters, which is precisely why I booted up Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden with a feeling of excited anticipation. I grew quite fond of the two main leads within minutes of starting the campaign, and as I began my journey back to the Ark, I was thrust into a twisted, grotesque world with a truly exceptional atmosphere.

Anyone that had ever attempted to imagine what an apocalyptic ice age could contribute to humanity will likely come to the same conclusion as 11 bit studios – “nothing good”.

Merely six months after we unanimously decided on exactly which promising horror titles we’d be looking forward to this year, we got our hands on Conarium, ready to step into a virtual representation of H.P. Lovecraft’s haunting world.

The town of Thimbleweed Park is the perfect setting for a gripping story: we have a small population of 80, a murder, two federal agents coming in to investigate said murder, as well as a seemingly ever-present local sheriff who appears quite eager to stick his nose into everyone’s business. The premise appears by-the-book, yet as the plot is untangled, you soon realize that in Thimbleweed Park, not everything is as it seems at first glance...

If you think The Crow’s Eye is a simple “escape from the room” type of adventure game, think again. Still, that’s how the game posits itself as: an adventure with a dark atmosphere and horror elements...

Had I been asked to organize the marketing campaign for Alien: Isolation, I probably would’ve come up with a slogan that goes something like this: “Wanna try the most terrifying electronic hide-and-seek game ever created? Because it’s time to play as Newt!”