Shock, dread and yakuza: games not to miss in 2017

The title implies yet another foray into video game action-horror, but the miseries you encounter here are of a different class. College dropout Mae Borowski returns home to find an impoverished American community that, through industrial decline (Possum Springs is a former mining town), has lost its hope and identity. Societal issues are expressed via individual symptoms in mental illness and depression. Illustrator Scott Benson's animation gives the game the texture of a luxury hipster fairytale book. It cannot disguise its dark, intimate, melancholic core.