"Lost & Found: A This Bed We Made Story", my Adventure Game Hotspot review!

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Excerpt: "Snooping in adventure games has always been a favorite pastime of mine, and Lost & Found certainly scratches that itch once again. While it only takes a couple hours to explore all the cabins on board the Orpheus, I was completely immersed by the beautiful cinematography of the cutscenes and the performances of the voice cast. There’s not much challenge in catching this high seas thief, and it’s a shame that any choices you make, or even how well you clean the cabins, doesn’t really seem to matter in the end. But the story is certainly well-written and the main puzzle is a rewarding little deduction exercise. Whether or not you’re already a fan of This Bed We Made, this is a short but fun encore that will make you wish it was a much longer cruise and leave you eager to see where Sophie Roy could end up, as teased in the finale."

"Venice After Dark", my Adventure Game Hotspot review!

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Excerpt: "I spent nine hours taking the vaporetto from one beautiful location to another and back again, encountering several eccentric yet loveable, well-voiced characters to help me uncover the mysteries of Venice After Dark. The supernatural elements kept the journey interesting, and I even had fun performing those visual and hearing tests. I wish I could have selected my own inventory items instead of Aiko automatically doing it for me, and I wasn’t fully sold on the abrupt late-game change in direction and final ending sequences. But the developers clearly put a lot of heart into this game, filling it with fun characters, a fair amount of puzzling, and a story exploring the pros and cons of using artificial intelligence in our society today. Overall, I enjoyed my time in this cartoony version of Venice, so much so that it succeeded in rekindling my desire to visit the city myself one day."

"Lost On Cow Island", my Adventure Game Hotspot review!

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Excerpt: "While at first I noticed only the many, many flaws and gruelling design decisions in Lost on Cow Island, pretty soon its virtues grabbed me. Between the gorgeous backgrounds, the fitting voices, and searching through dark corners with that candle, I found myself having fun almost in spite of the puzzles’ attempt to thwart my progress. Even if not everything makes sense or fits well together when you stop and think about it, that familiar old-school adventure game feel is definitely there. There is a lot to do and many inventory items to collect, with plenty of funny conversations in between. Actually using those items in the “correct” way, however, isn’t so much a matter of pushing your brain cells to the limit as resorting to puzzle experimentation until something randomly works. That too can be entertaining for a while, but in tossing out the last forty years of genre evolution, the game might just leave you twitching and disoriented like a mad cow yourself."

"Solis", my Adventure Game Hotspot review!

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Excerpt: "Despite offering only an hour of “gameplay,” by the time the credits rolled Solis had grown on me. The unique graphical style and unusual choice of soundtrack had come together nicely to make quite a beautiful whole, though it is certainly an acquired taste. The story pulled me in as well, and I was able to relate the information Billie discovered to the technological evolution we currently live in ourselves. But that’s why the game’s unexpected ending just when things were becoming interesting felt like such an uppercut. Perhaps the option to make different decisions provides some replay value, but for those like me who prefer single playthroughs, the experience is too linear to offer enough incentive to return for another night. I would, however, be interested to see what comes next if the story of Billie and her shady corporate overlords were to continue in a bigger, fuller installment later on."

"Elroy and the Aliens", my Nice Game Hints review!

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Excerpt: "Elroy and the Aliens is one of those traditional adventure games with a conventional interface, inventory puzzles and lots of dialogues. It’s a cartoon comedy that sees no need to reinvent the genre. It was very fun to play through, with a loveable cast in a cool story. It’s a game with plenty of heart, though perhaps with too easy puzzles for some, and featuring enjoyable minigames if you like that sort of thing."

"The Tragedy at Deer Creek", my Adventure Game Hotspot review!

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Excerpt: "Even without every question answered, the story behind The Tragedy at Deer Creek will compel you to keep slowly uncovering new layers by solving puzzles and finding documents and diaries left by the vanished nineteenth-century settlers. While the user interface feels a bit old-fashioned, and the challenge level might leave some gamers wishing for more, the presentation is beautifully bleak and pulls you immediately into the sadness of the story. I very much enjoyed my few hours spent in this ghost town, and my heart fell when I had to leave, wanting to find out more about its history and the people who once lived there, and the events that followed the tragedy that befell them. But my job there was done, and I guess some mysteries are better left buried in the past."

Shout out for my least viewed review posts

Once in a while I check the popularity of the games I have reviewed on this blog. Here are a couple of games I feel deserve a bit more attention.

The Legend of Skye (2024 - Point & Pixel Adventures)

The SCUMM-style interface and some poorly clued objectives might not appeal to modern players used to easier games, but for old-school genre fans, The Legend of Skye provides a wonderful dose of nostalgia, transporting you back to the golden days of point-and-click classics. 

Enypnion Redreamed (2023 - Sinking Sheep)

Experienced adventurers can probably cruise through Enypnion ReDreamed in their sleep, though some of the logic puzzles might be responsible for a few nightmares. Overall, though, it’s a short but charming little journey through the subconscious that may just remind you of your own childhood nighttime fantasies.
 

This Bed We Made (2023 - Lowbirth Games)

This Bed We Made sacrifices some snooping freedom and player challenge for a more linear narrative, but there are plenty of thrilling discoveries to unpack in this compelling Hitchcockian mystery.   

INDIKA (2024 - Odd Meter)

INDIKA is an eclectic mix of graphic styles and gameplay about a young nineteenth-century Russian nun that will keep you glued to your seat with its challenging but mature reflection on faith and human morality. 

Sanya (2024 - helpnode) 

Sanya’s very simple gameplay won’t challenge anyone over the age of its young protagonist, but even for adults, this quaint, lovely side-scrolling adventure is like a nostalgic trip back to childhood.  

Twilight Oracle (2024 - Cosmic Void) 

Twilight Oracle is a nostalgic ride through a zany fantasy world, though even its witty banter can’t hide the fact it’s a short story with a simple plot only good for a single afternoon’s fun.

"Cult Vacui", my Adventure Game Hotspot review!

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Excerpt: "Cult Vacui is a valiant effort to present a point-and-click survival adventure with a time management system, but I must admit I was expecting more. All the puzzles are very straightforward, it’s obvious what you have to do to prepare yourself for an optimal defense against the attack of the cult, and it’s hard to miss anything important. Hard, but not impossible, because the fairly strict time restriction doesn’t allow for much leeway in your sequence of events. Thanks to the manual save system, though, you can easily go back a few steps and do things differently, resulting in a game that takes less time to finish than I took writing this review. It still lacks some polish, but the pixel art graphics are a joy to behold, the haunting music will keep you on the edge of your seat, and the story is suspenseful enough to keep you going. You’d think that defeating an evil cult might require a little more time and effort, but all in all, it’s a tidy bit of business for a couple hours of work."

"Whirlight: No Time To Trip", my Adventure Game Hotspot review!

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Excerpt: "If you love point-and-click adventures with loads of stunning locations, interesting characters and many hours of engaging gameplay, you’ll find Whirlight: No Time To Trip a joy to play. Its unique graphical style, combining almost photorealistic backgrounds with slanted architecture and more cartoonish characters, depicts many gorgeous settings in various time periods to explore at your heart’s desire. Hector and Margaret’s antics in the past, present and future provide both fun gameplay and a captivating story, reminding me how much fun time-traveling adventures can be. I would have preferred some better signposting at particular times, and it’s a shame that shortcuts were taken with inventory animation. But ultimately these are minor blemishes in a game that will delightfully suck you into its thoroughly entertaining time-hopping vortex."  

"Radiolight", my Adventure Game Hotspot review!

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Excerpt: "If you can’t get enough of weird 1980s supernatural fiction, Radiolight has it all: dark woods to explore, a mystery to uncover, and strange radio signals messing with the physical world. Graphically stunning for the most part, with realistic sound effects, a great voice cast and a highly atmospheric soundtrack, it’s good for five or so hours of exploration spent being stunned by so many strange encounters. It’s a bit too linear here and there, but that didn’t stop me from forgetting the actual world around me and getting completely lost in this fictional one. It might have its generic elements, but I thoroughly enjoyed myself as I sat on the edge of my seat the entire way. Not everything was resolved when my quest came to a close, but the ending is a Twilight Zone/Outer Limits type where your own imagination is triggered and challenged to come up with theories for what happens next. If you enjoy supernatural mysteries and are a fan of first-person exploration games with intriguing narratives, you definitely don’t want to miss out on this thrilling hiking trip. Just don’t forget your radio!"

"The Posthumous Investigation", my Adventure Game Hotspot review!

 

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Excerpt: "Time-loop games aren’t usually my thing. Too much repetition, too much trial and error, too much effort needed to change that one detail in order to get the perfect outcome. Not so in The Posthumous Investigation. This mystery lets you hunt for lots of information, and with fourteen murder suspects, every run keeps offering something new. I found it amazing how very unique every single loop still felt, even after more than 40 of them, totaling almost twelve hours of sleuthing. Yes, there is still some repetition, particularly towards the end, and even with some shortcuts after having done things for the first time, there’s still room for improvement in that regard. But with such compelling writing, it’s a joy to read through the dialogues and uncover all the suspects’ connections to the murder victim. Add in the beautiful noir-steeped monochrome setting of Rio de Janeiro in the 1930s and the era-appropriate jazzy soundtrack that perfectly tie together a great investigation game, and I loved it all to death."

"D3AD HAND", my Adventure Game Hotspot review!

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Excerpt: "Lasting at least a puzzle-filled four hours, the two standalone chapters now collectively comprising D3AD HAND are a welcome diversion and some much-needed laughs in our war-plagued real world, gently poking fun at the Russian military machine. Especially in the larger “R3D STAR” update, the ongoing switching between human and cat brings greater gameplay diversity, and overall the combination of humor, wonderful pixel art, exciting music and variety of puzzles make you wish for an even longer game. Instead I’ll look forward to Duck Made Of Wood’s next game already in progress, as D3AD HAND is such a promising debut for a developer that shows the potential for stardom."

"Thief's Shelter", my Adventure Game Hotspot review!

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Excerpt: "The unusual point-and-click interface doesn’t take long to get used to; it’s the game design itself that limits the experience. Many times I wanted to go places I couldn’t or look at items I couldn’t pick up for no apparent reason. And that’s a shame, because the story here is intriguing enough to keep you going, and the old mansion environments look excellent in the dim, eerie lighting. I had a lot of fun figuring out the puzzles and only wish there were more of them. At times I felt like a real sleuth searching for clues to solve the mystery behind Thomas Malcott’s death and its connection to the mysterious Red Order seemingly behind it all, though I never really had to put two and two together myself in solving the actual mystery. It seems there are still some secrets left hidden on Highburn Street, but while Thief’s Shelter is a solidly enjoyable game, after two playthroughs I’ll leave it to more persistent completionists to seek further shelter at this feverish Birmingham mansion."

"Cantaloupe Chronicle", my Adventure Game Hotspot review!

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Excerpt: "For a game that promotes its innovative article-writing system, Cantaloupe Chronicle focuses more on character interaction and inventory puzzles like a traditional point-and-click adventure. It allows only a little freedom in the writing itself – except for the final article – but even with its limitations, I appreciated the chance to let my creative juices flow. Being a writer myself, I definitely had more fun trying to be a journalist than traipsing all over town exploring every location repeatedly to find elusive items that are only accessible after you’ve been given the task to find them. Thankfully the puzzles themselves are quite logical and fun to solve, and I never had to call the in-game hint line. Personally I would have appreciated the game better with voice acting and a more appealing visual style, but the relaxing atmosphere and the genuine small-town feel were cozy reasons to escape the real world’s unsettling news stories for a few hours of creating my own."

"Among the Whispers: Provocation", my Adventure Game Hotspot review!

 

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Excerpt: "Not only does it provide another hauntingly eerie environment to explore, Among the Whispers: Provocation is a more active game than Conrad Stevenson’s Paranormal P.I. and I can only applaud that development. While patience is still a factor, and you might get frustrated when a ghost spouts unintelligible gibberish in your quest to find out who they are, it’s a much faster-paced title that also adds puzzle elements to the gameplay. And while the general setting is the same, each night is different thanks to the game’s randomization. Coupled with slowly unlocking more rooms, more tragic deaths and more ghost hobbies, and the historical mystery of the Magnificent Drive mansion to uncover through all kinds of collectible documents, what might otherwise have been a repetitive procedural is elevated into a fun, exciting and mysterious story as well, which will no doubt give even the bravest of ghost hunters some sleepless nights."

Earth Must Die! - my Nice Game Hints review!

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Excerpt: "Earth Must Die! is pure escapism. Developer Size Five Games - probably best known for the Ben and Dan point ‘n clicks and the Lair of the Clockwork God adventure platformer - makes us forget all the problems of the real world by having some silly, foul-mouthed fun with gratuitous deaths and sexual references. And even saying that, I’m sure it’s still too vanilla for some."

"The Dark Rites of Arkham", my Adventure Game Hotspot review!

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Excerpt: "As much as I love books, there’s almost no need to read the original Lovecraft stories when there are amazing developers like Postmodern Adventures creating such well-crafted interactive stories based on them. The gorgeous pixel art here brings both the city and its residents to life, and even without voice acting, the writing pulls you forward along its fairly linear tracks, tapping your foot to the raspy tones of the jazzy soundtrack as you go. With plenty of locations to explore, characters to question, and items to find and puzzle around with, The Dark Rites of Arkham is a very traditional yet utterly enjoyable point-and-click adventure that proves there’s no need to reinvent the wheel. As long as the ride takes us to the darkest reaches of our world and beyond, I’ll gladly spend eight hours of my life on grisly creations like this one!"

"Rue Valley", my Adventure Game Hotspot review!

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Excerpt: "Despite some rough edges and shortcuts in terms of technical production, and a disappointing ending that leaves much to be desired, I enjoyed playing through this forty-seven minute time loop over and over again, partly because it very much guides you along the necessary path. Of course there’s repetition, but it’s not frustrating repetition, where you have to do the same tasks over and over again, just a tad differently to get a slightly alternate outcome as I have often experienced in similar games. Here you’re not aiming for that perfect run, you’re looking for all the pieces of the story puzzle, and when it comes to that, Rue Valley’s gaming experience and stylish presentation definitely succeed."

"Éalú", my Adventure Game Hotspot review!

 

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Excerpt:"Éalú is a wordless brainteaser good for a couple hours of pure puzzling to escape a maze filled with mechanical obstacles, its stop-motion technique bringing a real wooden toy mouse to life working wonders. While I’m usually no fan of labyrinths in games, the sheer ambition of the developers actually handcrafting each room, then photographing each step the mouse makes, results in an impressive production that heightens the cuteness factor as well as the empathy you feel for the little fella. I wanted the mouse to make it to the end, hated each time it died, and thus tried to avoid it for the rest of the experience. And of course I cheered when I finally succeeded and saw my little rodent friend leave the labyrinth in an endearing final cutscene. With such a short play time, there’s no need to rush, taking your time to savor the experience. After all, the early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese."

"Scholar Adventure: Mystery of Silence", my Adventure Game Hotspot review!

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Excerpt: "While I would have liked a bit more meat on this bite-sized narrative and a little more challenge to its puzzles, Mystery of Silence definitely scratches that weird and creepy short story itch that lends itself so well to point-and-click games. At only an hour and a half long, the tale moves at a fast pace and the discoveries you make as you get closer to the truth are sure to chill you. The eerie soundscape makes it easy to forget there are no voices (or indeed, much dialogue at all in a game where most characters never speak). Here’s hoping new games in the Scholar Adventure series, which the developers hope to continue, are more substantial than this, but as a first commercial game, they have put together an enjoyable dark tale that makes me yearn for more."