Gaming/Features

Before 2011, Toronto-based brothers Kenny and Teddy Lee never spent more than $1,000 making any video game. Then, the two invested 18 months and $15,000 into the addictive 2013 hit Rogue Legacy, now returning with Rogue Legacy 2. Aiming to make the infamously obtuse roguelike genre more accessible, Rogue Legacy places you in a cursed family, having to explore a cursed castle because one cursed ancestor got this whole curse rolling. Every time you die, loot and skills are passed along to your new character, while this next of kin adds weird new quirks like gigantism, colourblindness, pacifism and flatulence. With the sequel’s new class system, adding on skill sets for bards and gunslingers alike, each game is refreshing, frustrating and compelling. Heck, you may just find the cursed lifestyle suits you well. Rogue Legacy 2 is now available on PC and Xbox.

Ever get déjà vu? In 2013, Stanley found himself at his desk job, pressing buttons every day as he was commanded. Every attempt to escape revealed a postmodern labyrinth, his every action described by a wry British narrator. Hell a la Duck Amuck. Like it or not, Stanley is back at his station for The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe, a new edition of the irreverent and surrealist classic. In the years since the original, the creators have published a number of meta-narrative projects and collaborations with Ricky & Morty co-creator Justin Roiland. Expect The Stanley Parable to reveal more tricks when it begins again on PC, Playstation, Xbox and Nintendo Switch April 27.

Even among the stars, paradise will have to be what you make of it. In Citizen Sleeper, you are a human mind implanted in an android body, on the run from the corporation that leased you. Stowing aboard a commune on a drifting space station, you must build your life anew, make new allies and navigate your alignments. This unique RPG space odyssey launches on PC, Xbox and Nintendo Switch May 5.