Heaven's Vault (PS4)

Sometimes a game comes along that makes us feel like actual scholars, and somehow that's not boring at all. Heaven's Vault Limited Edition for PlayStation 4 is a Strictly Limited Games exclusive, individually numbered and limited to just 900 copies worldwide. It includes a colorful game manual and the disc-based game in a proper case.

Set in the Nebula, a network of moons linked by rivers flowing through space, Heaven's Vault puts us in the shoes of archaeologist Aliya Elasra. Alongside her robot companion Six, we explore ancient ruins, sail space rivers aboard the Nightingale, and decipher a fully realized hieroglyphic language that Inkle Studios created specifically for the game. We're talking around 3,000 words, each one feeding into a branching narrative that remembers our choices, our translations, and our mistakes. Get a translation wrong and the story doesn't just stop. It goes somewhere else entirely.

The art style alone makes this worth displaying. Hand-drawn 2D characters moving through 3D environments give the whole game a look that sits somewhere between graphic novel and watercolor painting. Critics noticed too, with Game Informer calling it "ambitious and beautiful" and Wired naming it one of the most enthralling narrative adventures they'd played.

Each playthrough runs 18 to 20 hours, and the translation puzzles expand with every run, revealing new secrets and alternate paths. For PS4 collectors in the disc era, having a physical copy of something this singular feels right. Nine hundred copies is a small number for a game this well-regarded. The shelf presence is understated, but the game inside is anything but.