Adele Chapline Smith

“Helldivers 2” (Sony Interactive Entertainment), the long-awaited follow-up to the franchise’s 2015 kickoff, is a third-person shooter that gets adrenaline pumping and registers as both exhilarating and intense.

The folktale-style narrative of the turn-based tactical game “Howl” (Astragon) harkens back to the medieval era. But instead of Gothic cathedrals or towering castles, the plot recalls the many illnesses that beset the Middle Ages.

“Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora” (Ubisoft) is an open-world action-adventure game that takes place concurrently with the movies. Its narrative, however, tells a standalone tale. While the experience as a whole is safest for grown-ups, it may also be acceptable for older adolescents.

Back when Stan Lee created him in 1962, everybody’s favorite web-slinger was one of the first superheroes to whom adolescents could relate. More than six decades later, that theme continues to be highlighted in “Marvel’s Spider-Man 2”

Like its classic source, “Lies of P” encourages players to ponder what it means to be human as well as the ethical status of deception.

First-person shooter games don’t often involve fantasy. But the visually pleasing “Immortals of Aveum” (Electronic Arts) — which also boasts a talented voice cast and quickly paced action — combines these elements to good effect.

Greek mythology continues to fascinate both the producers and consumers of modern-day entertainment. Its many tales and characters seem perpetually fresh, and their re-use tethers us to a rich literary past. Gamers will find a case in point in “Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical” (Humble).

Some fairy tales have a dark side and are thus better suited to grown-ups than to kids. The narrative that unfolds in “Bramble: The Mountain King” (Merge) is one example of this.