Space, snaps, and stolen identities

Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun/Behaviour Interactive Inc./Keepsake Games/Annapurna Interactive

RPS Advent Calendar voting remains an esoteric and mercurial process, even to those of us who practice in it. If two games get the same amount of votes, which goes higher in the list? Did Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor technically release in 2025 or 2024? These are questions most of us dare not ask, and those that do often vanish mysteriously overnight. Until January 3rd or so, when they come back from holiday.

One thing’s for sure: I had a bunch of games that no-one else voted for. Don’t be sad, games. I still like you.

It Has My Face

Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun/Behaviour Interactive Inc.

I’ve seen the ‘Kill someone in a busy place’ aspect of It Has My Face – previously known as DoubleWe – attract comparisons to Hitman. Fair enough. Except here, you’re not a genetically enhanced master assassin but a random schmuck, forced to arm yourself with scavenged bats and shitty one-shot revolvers, and your target isn’t milling about in a glass-bottomed hot tub dangling over a cliff. They know who you are and why you are here, and are actively hunting you back, ready to charge through a throng of civs if it means shanking you before you shank them.

This relative power balance makes for some deliciously tense rounds of hardcore hide-and-seek, as does the effectiveness with which It Has My Face cranks up the paranoia. Crowds are often thick enough to obscure a rushing target, and your only means of identifying them in the open is to pull out a mirror and check your own reflection (they have your face, y’see). Between regular mirror reminders, the sketchy movements of NPCs lookalikes, and the uncomfortably long time it takes to unlock a weapon crate, It Has My Face skilfully splits your attention away from the actual threat, often right up to the point they’re raising the knife. And the only feeling stronger that that boiling nervousness is the relief that comes from being faster on the draw.

It’s only launched in early access, so the full story mode and multiplayer features aren’t in place yet, but I’ve very much enjoyed having my nerves shredded by It Has My Face in its current state. There’s a Steam demo to try, if you’re unsure.

Jump Space

Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun/Keepsake Games

Oh no, it’s another early access game, and - in contrast to the intentionally low-fi It Has My Face - one whose unsanded edges are visibly covered in potential splinters. Jump Space’s Sea-of-Thieves-but-you’re-in-space is prickly with thorns. Repetitive mission types. Rubbish (though allegedly placeholder) AI voices. Jukeboxes that occasionally bug out and start sounding like they’re blasting rock tunes not just from outside your spaceship’s rec room, but from outside the ship itself.

All the same, I keep coming back to Jump Space, as much for its goofy charm as the gunslinging rocketship adventures that form its central fantasy. This is a game where plans fall apart and vital instruments explode, but usually in slapstick, non-punitive ways that give the impression that the developers are in on the joke. A teammate stumbling their way off a cliff in, say, Left 4 Dead, can ruin a whole run; here, when you round a corner to see the entire bridge engulfed in flames, the unaware pilot this-is-fine-ing their way into the crosshairs of another enemy gunship, it’s just... funny.

Jump Space isn’t a dumb game, mind. Some of its raid types can be quite clever in how they spread out objectives to effectively split your team up, raising the stakes by forcing ground teams to fight without backup while a skeleton crew stay in the ship to ensure it isn’t blown out of the sky in the meantime. This joining of flight and on-foot action is something that several space games have attempted, but few have realised so seamlessly, and I’m keen to see what else Jump Space can achieve as it continues to build up and outwards.

Lushfoil Photography Sim

Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun/Annapurna Interactive

I can’t remember why Graham (RPS in peace) asked me to review Lushfoil Photography Sim; maybe he’d been looking at my SSD pictures and thought "Christ, this guy needs to learn about focal length."

Well, learn I did, because this is a simulator and a teacher both. That’s no small achievement when the subject matter is as thickly plastered with jargon as photography is, but Lushfoil patiently and effectively demystifies all the F-stop and ISO gibberish, then puts you and a camera in front of some of Earth’s finest scenery for some practical lessons. The result: wowzers, I actually understand what my DSLR’s buttons and switches do now. Would anyone hire me for their wedding? Probably not. But I’d argue I can be trusted to take photos more than someone with twelve hours in iRacing could be trusted with a Ferrari.

Let’s not gloss over just how picturebook-spectacular those locales are, either. If simulating photography is Lushfoil’s first priority, and teaching it the second, then the third is surely celebrating Mother Nature in all her wild, snowy, leafy, sunny, sweeping splendour. It’s easy to become so ensconced in these mountains and forests, all of them built to capture the wanderlusty spirit of real-life counterparts, that you end up forgetting to take any photos. You should, though. You might learn something.