Ashwalkers

This adventure effectively takes on the challenges that many survival games face -- pacing, decision-making, believable lore, and interesting environmental design. Ashwalkers triumphs over the mistakes that other titles like it have made, but its greatest accomplishment is rising to the challenge of creating moral choices that are truly difficult every time. As a result of the shorter playtime and numerous endings, it's very easy to want to play again and again. Players also won't encounter all of the accessible areas in their first run either, making just one run feel like you've only played a part of the game. Overall, there's a remarkable balance between pacing that's slow, but not too slow, lore that's deep, but not exclusionary, and a gameplay experience that's challenging, but not frustrating. If there's one con, it's that some of the scenery is on the bare side, meaning that the longer stretches of travel in the game can drag on just a bit. But this doesn't interfere with gameplay in a major way.

In addition, there are also multiple options in terms of how players want to experiment with the story's formula -- they may be curious to see what happens when favoring one decision-making strategy over another, or they may want to play with a friend or family member and talk through all of the foreseeable consequences. This wealth of options leads to an engaging and enjoyable experience that also provides the chance to practice the problem-solving and decision-making skills that teens should be improving as they age.