Shadows Tactics' coup de grace is Shadow Mode, which lets you queue up moves for your whole team to perform at the same time. This leads to myriad options within a single level, creating a playground of possibilities. Others are stuck to the ground, but bring traps and tricks to help clear a path. Some are nimble, able to navigate rooftops and tricky terrain. Your motley crew brings a variety of different ways to distract, dispatch and disappear your foes, and it's these asynchronous abilities that make the difficulty so satisfying to overcome. The real pleasure here is being dropped into large maps full of guards, and slowly picking apart the puzzle of their intricate patrol routes as you work your way through. Phil: One of the most rewarding stealth games of recent years, embracing the hardcore, unforgiving attitude of the genre but still modernising it where it counts. Every mission is a lovely puzzle and there's an immense joy in meticulously setting up and pulling off the simultaneous kill I envisioned using all of my party members. Lauren Morton, Associate Editor: Shadow Tactics is the immaculate tactical stealth success that proved Mimimi Games had the chops to take up the Desperados series.

I can't think of a suppurating psychic wound I'd rather spend my time in. It's the perfect cyberpunk setting: grimy, dank, and claustrophobic, soundtracked by the thrum of distant machines, and always, always raining. Josh Wolens, News Writer: Dragonfall is my favourite Shadowrun game, but Hong Kong's take on Kowloon Walled City is a triumph. It's a great magical cyberpunk yarn, but just as great as a story about cities, and how they-and the people living in them-can become victims of the machinations of the wealthy and powerful. Hong Kong, and especially the Walled City, are messy, chaotic and feel even more alive thanks to the magic that alters them in ways both subtle and significant. Robin Valentine, Print Editor: The excellent Shadowrun: Dragonfall has been in our list for a few years now, but I definitely prefer Hong Kong for its brilliantly evocative setting.įraser Brown, Online Editor: I've got a big soft spot for urban fantasy, and Shadowrun: Hong Kong does it a lot better than most. They're one of the best RPG parties around. Your whole crew is made of misfits, including a rat-spirit shaman who treats garbage like gourmet. Bringing him along on heists and infiltrations means fast-talking guards and civilians to convince them he's an actor or a cosplayer.

Jody: One recruitable companion in this cyberpunk-fantasy RPG is a Japanese ghoul samurai.

Shades of elysium unpacked