CAT AND MOUSE

At the beginning of the game, Mae’s laptop is swamped with adware, rendering it useless. Angus gives her a software fix on a USB stick. It also contains a game, a top-down, retro-style dungeon crawler that Mae can play when she’s not checking for messages from Bea or Gregg. It’s a simple confection, but surprisingly absorbing and a decent challenge, too. You’ll face a variety of enemy archetypes with an animalistic twist, from skeletal cats to beaked wizards, with nothing more than a sword and a dash move to dodge incoming attacks. You’ll need to ensure your health is topped up before facing the bosses: the first is easily polished off, but the second is a brute, capable of demolishing much of your life gauge with a single whack.

Such moments of levity are the perfect counterpoint to an undercurrent of darkness that grows steadily more pervasive