PC Gamer - UK (2022-02)

ROBIN

VALENTINE

More recommendations

from me? Sounds very

tedious. Instead, here

are eight favourites

from my mother, a

retiree who started

playing videogames five

years ago.

HER STORY

herstorygame.com

The game that kicked off her new

hobby. With its simple interface and

premise evocative of the murder

mystery TV shows she loves, I was

convinced she’d enjoy it – and once

she gave it a go, she was hooked.

Thanks to Sam Barlow for turning my

mum into a gamer.

CLIP SHOW

SLAY THE SPIRE

megacrit.com

From there, I thought card games

would be a gentle ramp in to the

hobby, and introduced her to Slay the

Spire. This approach was arguably

too successful – at last count she

has over 2,000 hours logged, though

for some reason she still

mispronounces the word ‘shiv’.

DEAL HER IN

DISCO ELYSIUM

discoelysium.com

For her birthday one year, I bought

her this game and wrote up a simple

guide for its trickier RPG elements.

These days its her favourite game

ever – despite its surreal streak, it’s

exactly the kind of detective work she

loves, and achieves wonderful depth

without being inaccessible.

WHODUNNIT

RETURN OF THE OBRA DINN

obradinn.com

Another game she likes for its

intricate mystery-solving. Usually

first-person games give her motion

sickness, but the lo-fi look seemed to

prevent that here – that is, until she

upgraded to a proper gaming laptop,

and the suddenly smoother

framerate proved nauseating.

SHIP SHAPE

HEAVEN’S VAULT

inklestudios.com/heavensvault

A sci-fi adventure focused on

archaeology. Mum enjoys the

relaxing glides between planets, and

loves the puzzles because they

remind her of solving cryptic

crosswords. Unfortunately she keeps

remembering the name as ‘Heaven’s

Gate’, which is a very different thing.

PURE PARADISE

A SHORT HIKE

ashorthike.com

She describes this one as about “a

penguin walking up a mountain”, but

despite the ornithological confusion

she was charmed by its low stakes

adventure and adorable character

designs. When I bring it up, she

starts imitating the character’s jerky

jumps and wing flaps. Undignified.

TRAIL RUN

WILMOT’S WAREHOUSE

wilmotswarehouse.com

Mum has always been neat and

organised, and this game of

warehouse micromanagement taps

directly into those instincts. Perhaps

a little too well – she keeps this one at

arm’s length, worried that she could

become obsessed with it. A true

gamer’s dilemma.

STACK OVERFLOW

SHERLOCK HOLMES CHAPTER ONE

sherlockholmes.one

Lured in by the mystery solving,

she’s now having to grapple with full

third-person movement, an open

world, and real-time combat. She

praises the game’s tutorialising for

helping her acclimate, though we

may have to turn the aim sensitivity

down if she ever wants to hit anyone.

WHAT’S ON

M U S T

PL AY

A PERSONAL LIST

OF THE BEST

GAMES YOU CAN

PLAY RIGHT NOW

by Robin Valentine

EXTRA LIFE

NOW PLAYING I UPDATE I MOD SPOTLIGHT I HOW TO I DIARY I WHY I LOVE I REINSTALL I MUST PLAY