Reviews
Rocco’s Island: Ring to End the Pain
Rocco’s Island: Ring to End the Pain gets points for having an interesting story, colorful characters, and beautiful artwork that would have made a great animated movie. Unfortunately, it fails on pretty much every possible level as a game that doesn’t know quite how to be what it wants to be.
Mozart Requiem
Finally localized in English after being released in Dutch and French over a decade ago, Mozart Requiem is so unpolished it’s still not ready for prime time release, seriously undermining its fine protagonist and a story full of intrigue and adventure.
Pentiment
Pentiment is a captivating Renaissance adventure that challenges players to unravel both a murder mystery and the many enigmas of history.
Edengate: The Edge of Life
Edengate teases a thrilling tale of a town overrun by otherworldly events, but both its story and gameplay are so threadbare that it ends up falling far short of the mark.
Paper Ghost Stories: 7PM
Paper Ghost Stories: 7PM makes the most of its very short length, providing players with a casual yet ominous experience strengthened by a lovely paper cut-out aesthetic.
Jennifer Wilde: Unlikely Revolutionaries
The stylish Jennifer Wilde: Unlikely Revolutionaries will grab you at first but the pace quickly slows, as will your interest, feeling like a missed opportunity.
The Plague Doctor of Wippra
While not much in the way of a challenge, The Plague Doctor of Wippra represents, in miniature, everything that adventure games do best: It transports you into a fully realized world, using a limited set of resources (time, puzzles, graphics) to effectively deliver an historical, emotional gut punch.
Unusual Findings
If you have a healthy tolerance for 1980s fawning and the occasional frustrations of early point-and-click adventures, Unusual Findings is a reasonably fun experience with great graphics and music—as long as you don’t find the more obvious aspects of its referential nature to be too excessive.
Whateverland
It’s got a few glitches and flaws, but Whateverland serves up an enjoyable dose of both gloom and quirk in a charming adventure where your choices determine your fate.
BROK the InvestiGator
With a surprisingly deep story set in a dystopian world of diverse animal cartoon characters, BROK the InvestiGator successfully melds the arcade and adventure genres in a unique and extremely enjoyable way.
A
- AI: The Somnium Files – nirvanA Initiative review – Spike Chunsoft’s sequel is a tale of two halves
- Alfred Hitchcock: Vertigo review – Suspenseful thriller a dizzying array of compelling plot twists
- As Dusk Falls review – Gripping narrative adventure elevated by real player choice
- Azazel’s Christmas Fable review – A slice of devilishly festive fun
B
- Beyond The Edge of Owlsgard review – A hoot of a pixel art animal adventure
- Blood Nova review – Lore-filled sci-fi that’s hard to fully love
- Born Punk review – Cyberpunk point-and-click isn’t able to fully deliver on its abundant promise
- Boxville review – Pleasing Machinarium-style puzzler with a can-do attitude
- BROK the InvestiGator review – A knockout blend of cartoon fighting and detective adventure
- Burnhouse Lane – Another searingly powerful Rem Michalski horror adventure
C
D
E
F
I
J
L
M
N
- New Tales from the Borderlands review – Sequel might have been better left in the vault
- Nightmare Frames review – Retro point-and-clicker a cheesy 80s horror movie buff’s dream
- Nine Noir Lives review – Gorgeous cat-themed mystery has most of its contemporaries licked
- NORCO review – A down-to-earth, highly refined narrative adventure
P
R
S
T
- Tails: The Backbone Preludes review – Intimate branching animal anthology is a winner
- The Case of the Golden Idol review – Brilliantly executed deduction game like Mad Libs meets Return of the Obra Dinn
- The Entropy Centre review – Energetic physics puzzler largely measures up to its inspiration
- The Excavation of Hob’s Barrow review – Richly atmospheric mystery a slow climb to a great finish
- The Gallery review – Dual-era FMV hostage thriller displays potential not fully realized
- The Past Within review – Rusty Lake presents a short, surreal co-op puzzler
- The Plague Doctor of Wippra review – Short but infectious medieval slice of life adventure
- The Quarry review – Loads of camp thrills dug up in Supermassive horror
- The Rewinder review – Ancient Chinese side-scroller is not to be overlooked
- The Whispering Valley review – Atmospheric mystery largely plateaus as a middling thriller