I am yet to grow tired of grabbing my sword and spell tome and setting off on some fantastical RPG adventure, but I still feel relieved when a new RPG drops and it offers something different. Rue Valley is a break from epic journeys and goblin-slaying: a contemporary RPG set around a desert motel, featuring a protagonist who's the product of their personality, not a bunch of ability scores.
Developer Emotion Spark Studio and publisher Owlcat Games—known for its massive, numbers-heavy RPGs like Pathfinder and Rogue Trader—had me right away with their pitch of Disco Elysium-meets-Groundhog Day. But playing it reveals that, for all that it shares with its inspirations, there's just as much that makes it distinct: an RPG that is very much doing its own thing.
