Developer: Colossal Order Ltd

Publisher: Paradox Interactive

Year Made: 2015

Platforms: PC, Mac OS, Linux,

Price: $29.99

Content Areas: Social Studies, Engineering, Math, Geography

Suggested Age Level: Middle School, High School

Play Length: Infinite

Number of Players: Single Player

Difficulty Rating: Medium

Review:
The highest praise that can be given to Cities: Skylines is that it makes municipal zoning fun. It is no small feat that it can take such a ubiquitous and yet abstract idea and get the player to dig in and begin considering what policies to enact in a burgeoning village or thriving city.  As educators we have to acknowledge when games can outshine the classroom experience in making concepts and ideas more tangible to students. Cities: Skylines is an example of this as the player builds the city of their dreams but also zones, sets municipal policies, and tries to make the buses run on time.

Developer: Lucas Pope

Publisher: Lucas Pope

Year Released: 2013

Platforms: PC, iOS (iPad), Mac, Linux

Price: PC - $9.99, Apple Store - $7.99

Content Areas: Social Studies, English

Suggested Age Level: Upper High School

Warnings: M Rating - Strong Language and Sexual Themes (Nudity can be turned on/off in settings)

Play Length: 5 hours

Number of Players: Single Player

Difficulty Rating: Hard

Review: 
So many games give the player the chance to take on the role of a soldier in a heated border battle, but Papers, Please gives a unique perspective on the aftermath of conflict. In the game, available on both PC/Mac/Linux and iPads, the player assumes the role of a border document inspector tasked with deciding who enters the Grestin checkpoint into the nation of Arstotzka. Armed with a daily bulletin, rulebook, and your trusty “Accept” or “Decline” stamps, the player’s mission mission is simple: Collect immigrants’ and nationals’ documents, hear their stories, and review the rules and regulations to determine if their information and rationale add up. If not, they get sent back to the Kolechian side of Grestin until they come back with the right documentation. That is, unless you’ve had them detained, arrested, or worse…

Developer: Greenheart Games

Publisher: Greenheart Games

Year Made: 2012

Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux

Price: $9.99 (there is also a free demo)

Content Areas: Math, Technology, Job Skills

Suggested Age Level: Middle School, High School

Play Length: 7 hours

Number of Players: Single Player

Difficulty Rating: Easy

Review:
At the start of the year, I asked my students what their goals were and what they wanted to do after high school.  The most popular industry choice involved video games.  Students wanted to design video games, review video games, play video games, and write video games.  In Greenheart Games’ Game Dev Tycoon, players get their wish as they build their own company and lead it through the evolution of video games and growth of the industry.  Players create games, research technology, and manage their company as it grows into a multimillion and even billion dollar company over the course of 35 years of gaming history.

Developer: Valve Corporation

Publisher: Valve Corporation

Year Made: 2007

Platforms: PC, Mac OS, Linux, Playstation 3, Xbox 360

Price: $9.99 (occasionally free via Steam)

Content Areas: Science, Technology, Engineering, Math (STEM)

Suggested Age Level: Middle School, High School

Play Length: ~10 hours/Infinite with the level editor

Number of Players: Single Player

Difficulty Rating: Medium

Review:
Portal is more than just fun. It has the perfect mix of wit, challenging puzzles, crisp gameplay, and physics. The key to what makes Valve Corporation’s Portal one of the most critically acclaimed games of all time is how seamless it all blends together.

Developer: Double Fine

Publisher: Majesco Entertainment

Year Made: 2005

Platforms: PC, Xbox, Xbox 360, PS2, PS3, OS X, Linux

Price: $9.99

Content Areas: English Language Arts

Suggested Age Level: Middle School, High School

Play Length: 13 hours

Number of Players: Single Player

Difficulty Rating: Easy

Review:
Psychic secret agents, telekinetic bears, and doorways into people’s minds are a few of the things you’ll find in Double Fine’s beloved game Psychonauts.  As an acrobat named Raz, run away from the circus, break into a summer camp for future psychic secret agents, and harness your abilities to save the day from a mysterious person bent on stealing your friends’ brains.  Ten years after its release, Psychonauts continues to entertain and inspire audiences with its inventive plot, creative characters, and quirky humor.

Developer: Firaxis Games

Publisher: 2K Games and Aspyr

Year Made: 2010

Platforms: PC, OS X, Linux

Price: $29.99 or $49.99 with all DLC

Content Areas: Social Studies

Suggested Age Level: Middle School, High School

Play Length: 4-over 12 hours

Number of Players: Single Player or Multiplayer

Difficulty Rating: Medium

Review:
Games like Sid Meier’s Civilization V from Firaxis Games, 2K Games, and Aspyr that give me the chills at the possibilities of game based learning.  Civilization V pulls players into dozens of civilizations led by their greatest rulers and gives one task: be the greatest civilization in the world.  Players can accomplish that task in several ways: a domination victory, scientific victory, cultural victory, and diplomatic victory.  From the ancient Babylonians to America itself, players can don the mantle of a number of civilizations and build, battle, and barter their way to being the greatest civilization.

Developer: 11 Bit Studios

Publisher: 11 Bit Studios

Year Made: 2014

Platforms: PC, OS X, Linux

Price: $19.99

Content Areas: Social Studies, English

Suggested Age Level: Upper High School

Play Length: 7-8 hours

Number of Players: Single Player

Difficulty Rating: Medium

Warning: Violence, Drinking and Smoking, Profanity, Mature themes (see the review for details)

Review:
Some of the most popular video game franchises glorify war and let players become heroic soldiers fighting off terrorism/zombies/Nazis/all of the above.  In 11 Bit Studios’ game This War of Mine, the tables are turned and players are left nearly helpless in the face of war. Inspired by the plight of civilians caught in the Bosnian conflict, This War of Mine is a simulation and survival game that puts players in charge of a ragtag group of survivors that have banded together with one goal: survive until peace is reached.  By day, the survivors fortify their home and craft items from what few resources they have.  By night, they risk their lives as they scavenge, trade, and raid to avoid certain death.

Developer: Dejobaan Games and Popcannibal

Publisher: Dejobaan Games

Year Made: 2014

Platforms: PC, OS X, Linux

Price: $14.99

Content Areas: English, ESL

Suggested Age Level: Middle School, High School

Play Length: Infinite

Number of Players: Single Player

Difficulty Rating: Easy

Review:
Some games are rather obvious choices for their subject areas.  Dejobaan Games and Popcannibal’s Elegy for a Dead World is the epitome of using games in an English Language Arts class.  Inspired by the works of the great poets Shelley, Keats, and Byron, Elegy for a Dead World puts players in the role of an astronaut sent to three dead civilizations where he or she is tasked with recording what became of these once powerful civilizations.  Players explore worlds that look like the love child of Romantic poets and science fiction writers and create their own version of events to be edited, published, and read by players across the world.  It is a game that places story before action and lets the players themselves decide what happened. 

Developer: The Fullbright Company

Year Made: 2013

Platforms: PC, Mac OS, Linux

Price: $19.99 (Note: If the price makes you nervous, Steam often has extensive sales on their games.  This is the pre-sale price.)

Content Areas: English Language Arts

Suggested Age Level: Middle School, High School

Play Length: 2-3 hours

Number of Players: Single Player

Difficulty Rating: Easy

Review: 
Every now and then, there is a game that redefines what a game can be.  Gone Home is one such game.  Gone Home, developed by The Fullbright Company and designed by Steve Gaynor, tells the story of Katie as she comes home to an empty house after a year abroad.  Perhaps more accurately, the game tells the story of Katie’s family through the things they have left behind.  The player walks through the house, listens to music, and examines everything from scraps of paper to notes on the fridge in order to find out where her family is and what happened to them.  

Gone Home has a story that players will want to share notes on with each other as soon as they finish.  While the main storyline focuses on Katie’s sister Sam, the game is filled with several subplots for the player to discover and experience.  It is truly a game where how much you put into it is how much you get out of it.  Every family member has their own story to tell and if the player takes the time to examine everything they see, they can peel back each layer.  Gone Home is also a prime example of a game’s environment being just as important as the gameplay itself.  A torrential storm outside the house provides little more than background noise with occasional interruptions from a TV left running.  Every now and then, the player can play tapes and listen to songs.  The scarcity of the tapes means that every song is treasured just as much as one of Sam’s journal entries.  The punk rock anthems of the 1990s, the desperate voicemails from parents, and the echoing footsteps in an empty house all add to the compelling mystery of Gone Home and the immersion a player feels as they step into the lives of the family they never meet.

The gift of Gone Home’s gameplay can also sometimes be its curse.  There were times where I found myself getting antsy over the amount of time I walked in silence down hallways and examined useless things in the hope of finding something worthwhile.  Other players have not had the same experience, but it could be a struggle at times for students who have difficulty focusing or waiting for the payoff of finding another story installment.  The only other problem that could arise comes from the nuances of the storylines and how some communities and students might react.  Along with the LGBT issues in one storyline, there are also hints in another storyline of abuse, which could be triggering if a student has experiences something similar and picks up on those issues.  As with any game or other piece of media, I strongly suggest that you play through it if you are interested in using it and make the best choice for your students and community.

Gone Home’s focus on developing a story about people the player never meets is perfect for an English class studying mood and tone and highlighting how elements such as setting influence mood, tone, and even plot.  Students sometimes struggle to make the larger connections in how various literary elements contribute to an overall mood, but Gone Home makes it a necessity to understand in order to really know the family.  Language Arts educators could also pair Gone Home with short stories like “The Things They Carried” to give students a familiar entry point into more classic literature.  Beyond the basic facts though, Gone Home teaches something even more important in our globalized and diverse world: empathy.  Through these developing stories, players empathize with people they have never even met and watch as a love story unfolds.  The game opens for a larger discussion about how we see people and come to understand them.  In a world where students are almost guaranteed to work with people from different backgrounds than their own, this skill is more crucial in being career and college ready than ever.

The Fullbright Company’s Gone Home creates a unique opportunity for players to develop empathy for others, not through the people themselves, but through the items they leave behind and an environment that tells just as much of a story as the missing family does.

Educational Rating:  4/8 
(Classroom Tech Friendly, Motivation, Concrete Learning, Additional Skills, Feedback, Difficulty, Accessibility, Extension)

Overall Rating:   6/8 
(Immersion, Environment, Storyline, Replayability, Entertainment, Gameplay, Originality, User Control)