Gareth Brierley

If you like games like Myst and the more recent newcomer Obduction you are going to love Quern - Undying Thoughts on Xbox One. With the amount of content included it is great value for money, and whilst the puzzles can seem pretty hard everything you need is around you; trial, error and patience is rewarded.

Help Will Come Tomorrow is most definitely one of those games that survival enthusiasts should try. The options available and the reliance on stats and daily tasks while balancing the needs and traits of your characters is a constant tension and some will relish in the challenge.

Active Neurons on Xbox One provides a pleasant and enchanting experience, with its few hours of running time near perfect for what it delivers. You can complete this game at your own pace, maybe a few levels a day, or purge it all in one afternoon. And that said, while some points are reasonably tricky, it is never soul-draining, instead creating a relaxing atmosphere that ensures you are never left frustrated or stressed.

Bus Simulator on Xbox One is going to new heights and with the Official Map Extension you get access to a bunch of new missions, areas, and much fun to be had, either alone or online with others. It’s a pretty neat package if I’m honest, providing some great variety to be had in terms of towns, locations, and tricky routes to master.

Deliver Us The Moon on Xbox One is a game that I have thoroughly enjoyed from start to finish, fully immersed in its 6-hour or so running time. There is a nice range of puzzles to play with, a great piece of storytelling on offer and some excellent exploring to be had. It’s all helped along by good visuals and some wonderful sound in both the music and voice-over departments.

This is a brilliantly designed game that delves into the human psyche in an emotional and beautiful manner. I love the way The Inner Friend on Xbox One is presented with huge, strange distorted worlds and mazes of corridors, and when monsters appear it delivers genuinely frightening moments. It is a short playthrough though, but for some that length of time is perfect, however that needs to be taken into account along with the price asked.

Sunless Sea: Zubmariner Edition on Xbox One is a game that gets better every time you die. It is this which brings a great sense of a big wide world that needs discovering, as you are constantly tempted back in with a new character and the promise of a new story.

If you loved the likes of Myst and Riven back in the day, then Obduction on Xbox One is a must-buy, if only because of the different pace and puzzle solving methods it brings.

This version of Construction Simulator is the best I've played so far. There is a ton of stuff to enjoy in this new world with a real varied mixture of missions and items to collect. The RPG levelling up system and collection of vehicles are both great features and these deliver a real incentive for you to put on that hard hat in the morning. The German setting is a positive step forward from the last hellish world too, and Construction Simulator 3 - Console Edition on Xbox One is a fairly pleasant place to work in, and drive around.

Horror of the Deep on Xbox One provides a smattering of short gameplay that puts you in a strange dark world, refusing to hold your hand at any point. The sense of exploration, mystery and terror around every corner is served well here, and the game is good at taking you on a journey through an underground hell. It does unfortunately lack a solid story and any form of reason to why you are playing it.

Curious Expedition on Xbox One is a unique, interesting and solid game. The ideas that mix choosing your own adventure with rogue-like gameplay are more intriguing than I thought they would be, and the survival hardships and elements when combined with a fantasy world that harks back to 1950's adventure movies is a great tone to pick.

The Complex on Xbox One is a good sci-fi experience that delivers a decent tale about pharma-terrorism with many complex and interesting themes running throughout. The production values, acting and the script are all very good and it's a very enjoyable yarn, with all this helped by the fact that there are several different - and hugely interesting - outcomes in place. But the actual choice-driven gameplay has not been able to make me feel connected to the story enough

For those who like to build stories of their own, want to work with interesting and unique structures, and are ready to use their mind to create new creative ideas, Memories of Mars certainly works. But on the flipside, it really could do with a few more markers and a ton more help for potential newbies struggling through the early stages.

If you’re a platforming fanatic then Inops is going to be a game for you, and it’s nice to see that there is a decent challenge available. I’ve enjoyed what the game has done in the terms of short bursts of fun and interesting gameplay, but certainly found the repetitive elements and unlocking of levels a bit tedious and demoralising at times.

It is the sense of wonder where Bless Unleashed excels, and it is with that where it will continue to thrive successfully in the future.