Last month, 52,200 game developers, journalists, and video game professionals descended on the Los Angeles Convention Center to attend this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), the premier trade show for game companies to unveil upcoming products.

As video games continue to grow in popularity and diversify in content, it is becoming increasingly important for Christians to pay attention to events like E3. But it’s a daunting task—this year’s show featured more than 1,600 games.

To help you separate the wheat from the chaff, we have compiled a list of 10 games worth watching for. They’re not necessarily Christian games, but they relate in some way to a Christian worldview. Inclusion in this list is not an endorsement but rather a snapshot of the ways games are grappling with some of life’s most important themes and questions.

ABZU

ABZU is an epic descent into the depths of the sea that puts players in control of a nameless diver in a nameless sea. The game refuses to tell players what to do and instead allows them to freely explore and experiment with different ways of interacting with the game’s environment and animal life. Players can summon schools of fish to swim with them, and ride larger fish, sting rays, and sea turtles. The deeper players dive into ABZU’s aquatic world, the more wondrous and mysterious it becomes. ABZU is restful, playful, mysterious, and beautiful, illuminating the majesty of God on display in the sea: “O Lord, how many are Your works! … There is the sea, great and broad, in which are swarms without number, Animals both small and great” (Psalm 104:24-25). In a sea of bombastic, loud games at E3, ABZU was peaceful and utterly enthralling.

Platforms: Playstation 4 and PC Release date: first half of 2016

Cloud Chasers

Cloud Chasers tells the story of Fancesco and Amelia, a father and daughter on a desperate journey in hopes of a better life. The world is a barren desert, and water has become its most valuable commodity. But water can only be harvested in the clouds, which are heavily monitored and guarded by the wealthiest, most powerful people in the world. Players use Amelia’s glider to soar through the clouds harvesting water on their way to a better land. In between the glider segments, players must make moral decisions in narrative events inspired by the real-life stories of immigrants. Programmer and game designer Tabea Iseli said she hopes her game challenges players “to see immigrants as human beings rather than numbers or political props.” No matter their position on immigration, Cloud Chasers has the potential to remind Christians immigrants are their neighbors, made in the image of God.

Platform: iOS (iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch) Release date: TBA

No Man’s Sky

Not even Sean Murray and his team at Hello Games, developers of the forthcoming No Man’s Sky, are entirely sure what players will find when their first game launches later this year. In No Man’s Sky, players use space ships to race to the center of a massive, procedurally generated universe. Hello Games created the universe by making an algorithm and plugging it into a computer that randomly generated the world. No one fully understands what the game is or how it works, but No Man’s Sky looks to be the largest game world ever created. Murray claims it would take players 5 billion years to reach every planet in the game if they spent 1 second at each planet.

Unlike the real universe, the planets of No Man’s Sky are not cold and dead but teeming with procedurally generated life forms that players can discover and even name for all other players. There are also multiple ways the game can be played. Players can be peaceful, mining and selling resources as they explore, or they can pick fights with other players, raid space stations, and exhaust planetary resources. If No Man’s Sky is half as big and detailed as Murray claims, it is not only a stunning achievement, but a game that echoes Psalm 19:1—“the heavens declare the glory of God.”

Platforms: Timed exclusive on Playstation 4, will release later on PC Release date: TBA

Soma

The playable demo of Soma at E3 placed players in a dank, futuristic underwater research facility that has malfunctioned, forcing them to search for an escape route. Soma is the latest project of Frictional Games, makers of Amnesia: The Dark Descent, one of the most terrifying games of recent years. Thomas Grip, the game’s creative director, described it as a slow burn, high concept game about consciousness and death. Grip warned me his game isn’t conducive to the flash and bang of the E3 show floor, and yet, my short time with the game was one of the most memorable experiences I had at E3.

While watching people play survival horror games, Grip noticed most players weren’t particularly bothered when their character died. By the third or fourth time their character dies, “they're laughing, and feeling relief,” he said. In contrast to most survival horror games, where death becomes repetitious, Grip claims that in Soma, “death is not final but takes the player closer and closer to a very disturbing state of being.” While this may sound grim, it’s important to acknowledge that, apart from Christ, death is a bitter enemy (1 Corinthians 15:26). It remains to be seen exactly what Grip intends to say with Soma, but it is refreshing to hear about a game that sets out to take the cost and concept of death seriously.

Platforms: Playstation 4 and PC Release date: Sept. 22

Tacoma

In Fullbright’s Tacoma, players take control of Amy Ferrier, a technician sent on assignment to the space station Tacoma. When Amy arrives, she finds the station completely abandoned and must try to piece together what is going on by searching the belongings of the space station’s crew, reading their digital messages, and watching 3D holographic recordings of events on the station. Steve Gaynor, co-founder of Fullbright, said the game explores the “baggage that comes with being a small group of individuals who have been thrown together into an isolated situation.” Unlike the standard hyper-violent action fare of E3, Gaynor claims Fullbright set out to tell a more humane story: “We’re giving you all this access to build this portrait of who these people are as people, and so when you don’t know if they’re okay, you actually care about that.”

Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux, and Xbox One Release date: 2016

The Last Guardian

The Last Guardian, a game by game designer Fumito Ueda, has been in development since 2007, so long that many gamers had given up hope of ever playing the follow-up to two of gaming’s most critically acclaimed titles, Shadow of the Colossus and ICO. But at E3, Ueda not only announced a 2016 release date but also showed a brand new extended segment of gameplay. On its face, The Last Guardian is about a young boy and a giant bird/dog-like creature, Trico, who work together to evade guards after them both. What stood out in the exclusive footage shown at E3 was the nuanced relationship the young boy has with Trico. Both seem wounded, broken in some sense by the world around them, and yet they seem to have found security and maybe even hope in one another.

Platforms: Playstation 4 Release Date: 2016

Narcosis

Narcosis has been described as a “slow meditation on what it must be like to slowly die alone.” In the game, the player is an undersea miner cut off from the surface and any support, struggling to survive. Players must manage their oxygen use and a limited number of flares to navigate a flooded out mining base deep at the bottom of the sea. As the player character struggles to survive, he begins to lose his grip on reality. Despite how bleak that sounds, David Chen, one of the game’s developers, said he hopes players will not give in to despair but feel empathy for the game’s main character and his predicament. Narcosis asks players to respond to the predicament of a man who has no hope of survival and consider whether they will they give up or fight for life.

Platforms: PC Release date: later this year

Super Mario Maker

There is, perhaps, no video game character more iconic and more loved than Mario. Thanks to Super Mario Maker, this September, Wii U owners will be able to create their own Mario levels using the very same tools used to create the original games. Players also can post their levels online for other players to enjoy. This isn’t the first time a platforming game has made its toolbox available to players, but it is the first official time for a Mario game. Rather than merely relying upon nostalgia, Super Mario Maker provides an opportunity for long-time fans of the series to unite with new fans in a creative community.

Platform: Nintendo Wii U Release date: Sept. 11

Gang Beasts

Games are often accused of being socially isolating experiences. But games like Double Fine’s Gang Beasts, where up to four players huddle around a single TV, challenge that assumption. Gang Beasts is a battle royal where players are placed in precarious situations: on Ferris wheels, near industrial grinders, or on top of semi trucks on a highway. The goal is simple—knock your opponents off the level. The game’s violence is comical rather than visceral and players can grab on to any part of the levels as they begin to fall. It’s almost as comical to watch as it is to play. The game’s controls are easy to learn, making it accessible to people with little-to-no experience with video games. This, coupled with the goofy suits the characters wear, makes for a hilarious experience with friends.

Platforms: PlayStation 4, PC, Linux, PlayStation Vita Release Date: Early access game now available on Steam, a release date for the final version has not yet been announced

Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End

If you can imagine what it would be like if Michael Bay made an Indiana Jones movie that could be operated with a controller, you have an idea of what Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End is like. The demo at E3 showed the game’s protagonist, Nathan Drake, jumping across roof tops, driving jeeps through fences and into ditches, and being dragged through the mud while holding onto a rope attached to a truck. It’s not a particularly deep game and highly unlikely to leave players pondering death like Soma or thinking on the ethics of immigration like Cloud Chasers. But players will find one of the most meticulously designed, beautiful game worlds ever created.

Platform: Playstation 4 Release Date: March 2016