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It’s always intriguing when an adventure game is willing to experiment with unique gameplay mechanics, but using those unique mechanics well tends to be a different story. Fate of Kai is fun as a semi-interactive comic book with nice art and clever time-shifting puzzles, but some frustrating late-game sequences and an incredibly short play time […]

If you think playing a game themed around dying doesn’t sound like an appealing idea in 2020, I don’t blame you—but I Am Dead is a wonderful example of an adventure that treats the concept of death with intelligence, honesty, and compassion. Rather than addressing mortality as something to be feared, this indie title focuses […]

It’s impossible to discuss Gamedec without mentioning Disco Elysium, the 2019 detective adventure-RPG that launched to critical acclaim for its rich world and combat-free gameplay. In many ways, what I’ve seen of Gamedec so far reminds me of a cyberpunk take on Disco Elysium’s formula, which is certainly not a bad thing. You play as […]

The term “Lynchian” frequently gets thrown around to describe any weird or unconventional media, but the first volume in the Tales from Off-Peak City anthology series truly does deserve the label. Used to describe the very particular eerie surrealism of a David Lynch film, it’s a concept that’s difficult to put into words, but easy […]

In talking about Paradise Killer, it is easy to get caught up in the details of its wildly imaginative world and its story of regenerating islands, dead alien gods, and a gruesome mass murder. Within this surreal, fantastical backdrop, however, is something even more impressive: a rock-solid detective game with vibrant art, clever writing, and […]

When a game comes along with a premise as charmingly absurd as “an undead Viking can remove and reconfigure his limbs at will to solve puzzles in Viking Hell,” you can only hope that the actual experience will live up to even a fraction of that promise. Helheim Hassle isn’t perfect—not every joke lands, controls […]

Humor can be hit-or-miss, and for every classic comedy adventure like Day of the Tentacle or the Leisure Suit Larry series, there are a hundred misfires that would take far too long to list. Even the best comedy games might not work for everyone, but I’d be surprised if Later Alligator doesn’t at least make […]

An enigmatic point’n’click where you wake up, lost on a mysterious shore. You’ll have to discover your whereabouts and find out who’s leaving these notes everywhere… Do you really want to discover the upsetting truth?

  Towards the end of The Almost Gone, a narrative puzzler with a minimalist isometric art style similar to Monument Valley, you must use a series of tubes to send a canister towards different objects in an abandoned hospital—objects that can’t be reached normally. The interconnected tubes stretch from room to room, occasionally wrapping around […]