3. Everybody's Gone To The Rapture
You wouldn't think a game whose base description is "Go for a walk around Shropshire" would be exciting, enthralling and emotionally impactful, but that's before you've seen what The Chinese Room have put together on PS4. Former developers of cult classics Dear Esther and Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, Rapture is highly mysterious, putting you in the shoes of an unknown protagonist as they explore an abandoned (or is it?) village named Yaughton. Gameplay involves figuring out what went wrong through a mix of following a spectral ball of light (itself a plot device), alongside investigating every nook and cranny of the extremely detailed village. Slowly you'll unlock memories from the past inhabitants, to which you'll get a glimpse of their last moments, playing out in through a visual theme that forgoes character models for approximations of their stature, represented in gold silhouettes of light. It's here where you'll realise just how much video game cutscenes or movie direction has had an effect on you, as with just the usage of voice acting and hints of where people were stood in their requisite scenarios, it's just enough for your mind to fill in the blanks. Through tons of items, art assets and lines of dialogue across an interconnected cast of characters, it paints an immediately relatable picture of English society - and humanity itself - plucked from everyday existence at a moment's notice, leaving you to pick up the pieces.