PlayStation 4/5, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, PC It turns out that what we really needed in this troubling year was a skateboard romance role-playing adventure about a second-generation Indian immigrant returning to her home town to battle her ex-lovers.

It’s atmospheric, clever, challenging and mysterious. Bounty hunter Samus Aran lands on a dying planet, and slowly augments her spacesuit with blasters, bombs and grapples to aid her exploration and find out what happened there. Nintendo Switch A throwback to a time when first-person games weren’t all about shooting, this immersive 20-year-old science fiction adventure has yet to be bettered and is a treat to revisit. Historical hitmen … Assassin’s Creed Mirage. Stalking your targets, sneaking around enemy buildings or exploring the landscape on camel or horseback all provide exquisite pleasure – the products of a development team in full command of their richly conceived universe. It is a much more focused and deliberate tale than Origins or Valhalla, and you are mostly confined within the city walls, which has allowed the designers to pack every street, square and alley with convincing period detail.

PlayStation 4/5, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, PC Ubisoft returns us once again to its world of historical hitmen and underworld subterfuge, this time focusing on Basim Ibn Ishaq, a street thief turned apprentice assassin in ninth-century Baghdad. A dream for linguists, but fun for anyone who enjoys testing their brainpower. The beautiful, minimalist art is reminiscent of Monument Valley and the contrasting colour palette creates a sense of otherworldliness. PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC As a traveller in foreign lands, with no knowledge of the local languages, you must piece clues together from context, making this part puzzle game and part adventure game.

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