The 2025 Adventure Game Hotshot Awards

• Features by Adventure Game Hotspot staff
• Published:
• Page 4/6

The Hotspot Hightlights

With so many great adventures to celebrate, not every game can earn one of our main Hotshot Awards, but some are worthy of a little extra attention nonetheless. The Hotspot Highlights focus on those games that might have cleaned up any other year but in 2025 fell just a little shy of the prize. Still, they represent either the best of their very specific (though more limited) fields, or shining examples of all-around excellence without triumphing in any one aspect in particular. No mere participation ribbons, these are discretionary acknowledgements to honor tremendous achievements not to be overlooked.

Best Cozy Games – Strange Antiquities, Wanderstop 

In 2022, Rob and John Donkin of Bad Viking delighted players with Strange Horticulture, a shopkeeping game that felt addictively cozy despite its dark occult nature. Three years later, the brothers returned us to the eerie town of Undermere with a standalone sequel, Strange Antiquities. The formula is much the same, only this time instead of identifying strange plants for curious customers, your task as the assistant to the absent thaumaturge owner of the eponymous store is to help patrons fulfill whatever baffling and bizarre problems they might have by finding a solution from amongst your many occult artifacts, with help from your ever-expanding encyclopedia. You’ll interact with each visitor from the comfort of your nice little shop, alongside your adorable pet cat Jupiter (yes, you can pet him). In between you can examine the store’s inventory with all of your senses, adjust the shelf display to your linking, and even solve layered puzzles hidden within the shop itself. Sure, there’s a terrible story unfolding outside your doors as the villagers try to resurrect an evil god, but it’s all so very chill inside. Dark mysteries, strange knickknacks, rich puzzling goodness and a calico cat – what more could you want out of a cozy game?

Well, perhaps a spot of tea. There are few things cozier than finding a comfy place to sit and chat with a friend at tea time. But what if everyone you meet wants a cup, and you’re the one who needs to make it? That sounds less relaxing, but it’s still very much a way to unwind in Ivy Road’s Wanderstop. This is a much different sort of game than co-creator Davey Wreden’s The Stanley Parable and The Beginner’s Guide, but every bit as compelling in its own way. Its goal of feeling cozy is built right into its premise, as heroic fighter Alta must learn to settle down when her strength abandons her. And so, under the tutelage of the good-natured Boro, Alta must go about planting and tending seeds, collecting ingredients, interacting with patrons of Boro’s tea shop, and consulting her Field Guide for making just the right teas to satisfy their requests. Some of it’s busywork, to be sure, but this is no grindy farming sim. It’s varied enough to stay fresh, with no time pressure as you scavenge the delightful low-poly woodland environs, and the act of making tea is a pleasant minigame of its own. With each successful concoction you’ll uncover the personal stories of your customers, and it’s always worth brewing enough for two, as each time you make Alta drink, she’ll muse about her own life in an enlightening process of self-discovery. Suffice it to say, Wanderstop might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but if you’re open to the experience, it’s sure to warm you inside and taste good going down.

Other recommendations: Arcane Investigations, Boxville 2, Duck Detective: The Ghost of Glamping 

Best Deduction Adventures – The Roottrees Are Dead, The Séance of Blake Manor

Tracing the lineage of The Roottrees Are Dead is a puzzle in itself. Originally designed by Jeremy Johnston as a Game Jam entry in 2023 with a much more limited scope, 2025 saw Robin Ward collaborate with Johnston to rework the title into a commercial release. This updated version features the same addictive deduction-board gameplay, as players research and fill in the many branches of a complex family tree, but an unexpected surprise was the addition of an all-new second major case to sleuth our way through that’s even more devious than the first! Having to sift through faux websites, newspaper clippings, online articles, and digital gossip rags to dig up dirt on the heirs apparent of a wealthy business dynasty is never not engaging, and a little voyeuristic to boot. The deduction game subgenre is growing fast, but few do it as wonderfully, immersively well as this game. Except for one, as…

Spooky Doorway’s The Séance of Blake Manor brilliantly melds deduction-based gameplay with a full supernatural detective experience set in 1897 Western Ireland. As investigator Declan Ward, players roam the halls of a gothic manor, question guests and staff, and snoop through letters, journals, and nightstand drawers to uncover the truth behind the disappearance of séance guest Evelyn Deane. As clues are gathered through observation, interrogation, eavesdropping, research, and reading, evidence is mapped across satisfyingly detailed webs of connections. To uncover the truth, evidence must be synthesized into hypotheses that will guide you to the ultimate culprit. With over twenty suspects in the manor to investigate, each hiding their own secrets, uncovering every unique mystery is a detective’s delight. Combined with a ticking clock mechanic that makes every in-game minute count, the expertly crafted gameplay system rewards careful, thoughtful play that deduction game enthusiasts will revel in. We weren’t sure what to expect when the creators of The Darkside Detective went in such a different direction, but The Séance of Blake Manor earns this accolade for seamlessly integrating a first-person narrative mystery with evidence collection and analysis that feels vital to its story.

Other recommendations: Casebook 1899: The Leipzig Murders, Duck Detective: The Ghost of Glamping, Mind Diver

Best Narrative Adventure – Dispatch

Dispatch KA-POWS the opposition! Created by AdHoc Studio, a team comprised of former Telltale Games staff, this game managed to take a similar formula and produce a gripping choice- and narrative-driven experience that goes toe to toe with the likes of all-time heavyweights The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us. While there is some strategic gameplay involved, story and character interaction are at the forefront here, as protagonist Robert Robertson is not in his armored Mecha Man suit fighting on the frontlines but rather the one left behind as the man in the chair. Your initially-not-so-super team members interact organically when out in the field or back at HQ, with adversity bringing out their best and worst, the dialogue deepening as their relationships develop. It’s funny, it’s violent, and at times emotionally powerful, with player choice seamlessly blended in no matter the circumstances or outcome. Seeing your ragtag group of ex-villain misfits coming together in a believable way is both endearing and engrossing, and the immediate ravenous fan desire for a second season is a testament to how invested we all are in this amazing world. 

Other recommendations: Cabernet, Mythwrecked: Ambrosia Island, Without a Dawn, Rue Valley

Best Puzzler – Blue Prince

In many ways, the genre-blurring Blue Prince feels like one giant puzzle made up of many smaller, interconnected ones, all of which take their time to reveal themselves as you build (and rebuild!) the enigmatic Mount Holly Estate many times over. While the experience can initially feel like navigating roguelike elements of efficient pathfinding, lucky card draws, and deciding whether to conserve or risk your limited resources, the experience gets distinctly more adventure game-y the deeper you get, with a wide gamut of honest-to-goodness brainteasers (mathematical, logical, linguistic, code-breaking, item combining, and much more) elegantly woven in on top of the unorthodox structure. Many puzzles can be encountered in each day of the game, which increase in challenge and complexity the more times you solve them. Others are spectacular one-offs that affect all future runs, and even alter some of the underlying systems and routes of the estate. Some are mechanical challenges, while some involve finding clues spread throughout the entirety of the property across many in-game days of sleuthing and architectural drafting. The sheer variety and ingenuity on display – including some jaw-dropping, epic-scale concepts in the late game areas – invite amazing, brand new ways of thinking that we’ve never seen before, earning the game’s puzzle-centric design our highest recommendation.

Other recommendations: The Roottrees Are Dead, Neyyah, The House of Tesla, Riddlewood Manor

Best Kept Secrets – SOPA: Tale of the Stolen Potato, Cat Detective Albert Wilde

If it looks like a Pixar film, charms like a Pixar film, and delivers family-friendly laughs like a Pixar film but happens to be an adventure game, it must be Studio Bando’s Latin-American themed SOPA: Tale of the Stolen Potato. Sadly, without the pedigree and marketing prowess of Pixar behind it, not nearly enough people have played it. The Pixar similarity is no accident, though, having been inspired by Coco, alongside other classics like Spirited Away and The Little Prince. Here young Miho’s nana is making soup and needs him to bring her a potato from the back of the pantry, but a frog of questionable moral standing absconds with it first. The only thing standing between you and dinner is recovering the stolen spud by pursuing the thief through a portal into a magical-realist South American rainforest full of talking toads, man-eating fish, and a down-on-his-luck radio repairman. The characters are creatively kooky and the vibrant visuals are as deliciously inviting as the soup, but don’t let the childlike charm fool you into thinking this is just for kids. The solid inventory puzzles require some thought and the script is surprisingly funny, even evoking a bit of Monkey Island-style wit. SOPA may be a bit on the short side, but this under-the-radar gem serves up one heaping helping of feel-good, home-cooked comfort food.

Players may not have known what to make of Cat Detective Albert Wilde, by beyondthosehills, but it turned out to be one of those rare games that manages to balance wildly different ideas and still feel completely cohesive, as immersive as it is delightfully absurd. On the surface it presents itself as a classic noir mystery, full of shadowy streets, cynical narration, and a detective scraping by in a grim urban world. Yet beneath that façade lies a game that confidently blends dark storytelling intrigue with surreal humor, anthropomorphic animal characters, and an unexpected venture into science fiction, creating an experience that feels both familiar and refreshingly original. The writing captures the tone of traditional noir while also poking fun at it, delivering a steady stream of witty dialogue and self-aware commentary. With a striking black-and-white presentation that perfectly complements the atmosphere of a rain-soaked detective story, the game is constantly surprising and succeeds because it embraces its unusual premise wholeheartedly. Rather than choosing between parody and sincerity, it commits to both for a distinctive, entertaining adventure that needs to be played to be believed.

Other recommendations: Carnival, Éalú, Arcane Investigations

Best of the Rest – Rosewater, Slender Threads, Elroy and the Aliens 

After six years of anticipation for the follow-up to Lamplight City, Grundislav Games didn’t let us down with Rosewater, taking us on a rewarding journey through the Old West (or at least, the world of Vespuccia’s version of it) in pursuit of a lost fortune. As Harley Leger, you join up with a ragtag band of comrades-in-arms for you to freely invest your time in – or not. While very much a point-and-click adventure, the amount of roleplaying here is truly impressive. Not through combat or stat-building, but narratively as players decide what kind of person Harley will be and whom she chooses to befriend. Rosewater is filled with randomized, sometimes personal side quests depending on how you treat your diverse and dynamic companions. These branching storylines even have multiple puzzle solutions and ways to overcome obstacles to make replays just as compelling. Wrap all this up with stunning pixel art and animation, excellent acting giving voice to the wonderfully written dialogue, and ambient yet immersive cinematic music, and you end up with an authentic-feeling western that’ll leave you shouting “Yeehaw!”

Slender Threads missed out on being a major Hotshot contender by only the slimmest of margins, in just about every applicable category. It’s a terrific point-and-click adventure by Blyts that skillfully blends a surprising macabre storyline with a charming sense of whimsy that belies the dark undertones. It’s practically Burton-esque, with its offbeat characters (both human and otherwise), unusually exaggerated puppet-like character designs, and creepy-cute scenarios that will leave you laughing… nervously. This is the story of out-of-town writer Harvey Green’s descent into madness as he tries to unravel why the inhabitants of Villa Ventana keep dying in gruesome ways before his eyes, only for their heads to appear mounted on a wall in his nightmares. The stylized hand-drawn artwork is beautiful, the voice acting great, the orchestral score excellent, and the puzzles are just challenging enough, with a hint system and hotspot highlighter to help out, among the other modern creature comforts on offer. The ending might be a little controversial, but that only adds to its allure, so be sure to check out this impressive game that manages to pull all the right strings.

Blending together heartfelt family drama and literally out-of-this-world wacky alien hijinks, Motiviti’s Elroy and the Aliens is another fantastic point-and-click sci-fi adventure with beautiful hand-drawn animation throughout. Its alternate-universe 1993 is filled with fun puzzles, great characters, and a stellar soundtrack that would have been right at home in a 1980s blockbuster film, further elevating the titular engineering geek's search for his long-missing father with help from an eager reporter. It’s a wondrous journey from the bustling downtown streets of a fictional New Mexico city to continually surprising locales beyond – far, far beyond, including an uncharted ghost town, the backstage (and mainstage) of a dubious theater production, and ultimately the whimsically bizarre homeworld of a race of intergalactic aliens, each packed with fun details. Between its zany cartoon antics and some shockingly emotional moments, at times the experience is funny, at other times quite dramatic, and sometimes both at once. It’s all just so enjoyable, and while this may be a story about an alien encounter, it’s the humanity of it that makes it really special. 

Other recommendations: The Beekeeper's Picnic, THE BRiLLiANT COUP, Koira, Splittown

Next up: Best Modern, Classic-styled Adventures. The Hotshots are...

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