New game: "Dispatch"!

New game!

I've heard so many good things about Dispatch, but even if I hadn't, I was definitely going to play this game. I'm a Marvel fan, and Dispatch is basically an interactive animated superhero series. Just a couple of seconds into the trailer I knew this would be great, and preferably to be played on a big screen, so cinematic are the scenes.

This guy's in for a beating!

And two hours into it, having finished two of eight episodes or chapters, the game has proven itself. I just love it. Can you really call it a game? Well, there's definitely gameplay to it, though most of it feels more like a visual novel. You play as Robert Robertson, former superhero Mecha Man, who has retired after losing a fight with a villain which led to his suit to be destroyed, and who gets recruited by the SDN, the Superhero Dispatch Network, where he becomes the man in the chair, dividing up heroic jobs amongst the available superheroes and sending them around the city, sometimes needing to hack something to help them out of a bend.

I'm calling bullshit!

During the cutscenes, you also have to make dialogue choices, which shapes Robert's personality and steers the narrative into a certain direction, and perform QTE's during action scenes which give the game a bit more interactivity (though you can choose to simply watch those scenes without needing any player input). 

My hero!

Of course there's an obvious love interest in the form of one Blonde Blazer, who actually recruits you for the SDN. But this isn't the only relationship which is fun to watch develop. There are also Roberts co-workers, and of course all the villains-turned-heroes he needs to get on his side so they'll listen to him better and successfully complete their missions.

The dispatching part will take some getting used to...

Personally I have a hard time looking at Dispatch as a real game, let alone a point 'n click game (I've actually traded in the mouse for a controller, since it still required the WASD-keys for some sequences, which are counter-intuitive on my Azerty-keyboard) but I'm simply enjoying the heck out of this animated series. And so far, the dispatching sections (I've only done two of them at this point, though) are less difficult than I had imagined. So far there aren't any real puzzles: there's the hacking mini-game, and of course which hero is best suited for which job. It's more about the story, and with each episode about an hour long, is a great chance from passively watching some television show.

On to episode three, now!

My Adventure Game Top Ten of 2025

My top 10 of 2025!

Here are my top ten adventure games of 2025. This list is based on my personal enjoyment of all 28 games I've played this year - not all point 'n clicks, but one and all great narrative experiences! We had a crazy year and it's actually impossible to make a ranking like this, because all these games are SO good in their own field, it really just comes down to how much fun I had playing them. So even the lower ones are still top notch!

10. Slender Threads

The nightmarish journey in Slender Threads isn’t for the faint of heart, but those with a morbid sense of humor will love the fun of unraveling the delightfully quirky goings-on in the strange town of Villa Ventana. 

9. Rosewater

Its obstacles may not put up much of a fight, but Rosewater’s sharpshooting lies with its wonderful production value and freedom of choice in this character-driven Western, earning itself a big “Yeehaw!” for fun and replayability.

8. The End of The Sun

Exploring the magnificent mythological world of The End of the Sun rivals any vacation you could ever take deep into Central Europe yourself, especially when travelling through time to uncover the Slavic valley dwellers’ intimate personal stories.

7. Blue Prince

The immense puzzle game that is Blue Prince is so multi-layered, it keeps you busy for well over 100 hours as almost every detail matters in one way or another. You're in the position to inherit a huge mansion, but its rooms change daily and puzzling your way to the grand prize is no easy feat! I still haven't "really" finished it, and I'll probably never will...

6. Kathy Rain 2: Soothsayer

Our hopes for a wonderful sequel have come true, as Kathy Rain 2: Soothsayer balances a great dialogue-based serial killer mystery with entertaining puzzles in another sublime point-and-click pixel art adventure game. 

5. The Drifter

The Drifter is an action thriller with supernatural elements, and the game does an excellent job to translate that into an interactive experience, where we put in a sense of urgency which makes the game feel extremely fast-paced. 

4. Dispatch

Dispatch is an interactive animated superhero series filled with dialogue choices and mission management. You play as Robert Robertson, former superhero Mecha Man, who gets recruited by the Superhero Dispatch Network, where he becomes the man in the chair.

3. The Séance Of Blake Manor

The Séance of Blake Manor is one big investigation game where you have to make deductions and decisions and choose how to spend your time. The initial nervousness quickly made place for elation and the accompanying adrenaline rush, causing the search for a missing young woman in supernatural circumstances to become quite addictive.

2. Foolish Mortals

Foolish Mortals  is going to be right up there with old classics. It features beautiful artwork filled with small animations, excellent voice-overs and straightforward inventory puzzles. The story is very engaging, with lots of characters and great dialogue combining background information with clues to the puzzles.

1. Old Skies 

If you are a fan of Wadjet Eye Games, your zeal will be transformed into divine adoration after playing Old Skies. This is just instant classic to me, and it should be instant buy for anyone who's serious about playing adventure games. It doesn't feel like a game; it feels like a work of art. It's entertainment of a whole other level.

My "Dispatch" job is done...

I had this weird "bad girl" fascination with Invisigal...

Dispatch is a tough game to take screenshots from. Since it's basically an interactive animation series, every scene has the potential to spoil stuff. And usually I was also too busy actually playing the game to hit the screenshot button. So I stopped taking screenshots after episode four. And now that I finished the game, I won't comment too much on the story, either.

The hacking mini-games could be quite tricky

But what an amazing story experience it was! The first two episodes were chill, but after that I was bombarded with several difficult choices, even some I regretted later on and I'm of a mind to restart those respective chapters to see what the different outcomes would be. I let myself be influenced by the events too much, I think. I had a clear goal in my head, but then I got tempted to go the other way. Which is often the case in real life, as well...

The dispatching jobs still hold some mysteries to me...

I was sorry to notice there weren't that many QTE's after the first episode. There was one scene about halfway through but it didn't have the same feel to it. I did feel like I got better at the dispatching job itself, even though lots of missions still failed because I had a hard time matching their descriptions and criteria to the correct hero characteristic, and the hacking mini-games could get tough as well. I also noticed that I was so busy concentrating on the dispatching that I missed tons of dialogue; looks like I really can't do two things at once... 

There's no "I" in Team!

Each episode follow the same formula: first a couple of scenes where you make dialogue choices, then a dispatching session, a mid-scene with dialogues, a second dispatching shift, and then a final scene with dialogue choices. There's an overarching story which is great, but sometimes I wished the dispatching game would last longer, but then again perhaps it's a good enough balance because who knows, it might get boring if you do it for too long. Thankfully, the final episode had a lot more dispatching jobs to get through. It suddenly brought back the QTE's in full force as well, which without decent training throughout the rest of the game, went a bit rough...

The cool hero shot...

So while Dispatch isn't a regular adventure game, and definitely nothing like a classic point 'n click, the sheer amount of fun I had with it grants it a place in my top ten.

And now it's finally time, after four recent releases, to go back to a replay of one of those classics point 'n clicks! Just let me grab my fedora...

Classic time: "Police Quest 1: In Pursuit of the Death Angel (VGA)" playthrough

New game! And showing off my big box ;)

I’ve started playing “Police Quest: In Pursuit of the Death Angel” and I’m 1 hour into it!

 

This is one of the first adventure games I ever played when I was a teenager, probably the first Sierra game too. I remember back then I was stuck for ages in the hotel room, because I didn’t know the number to call a taxi. Apparently you need to call Information, which is 411, a well-known number in the United States, like 911 for emergencies, but living in Belgium I had absolutely no idea. I replayed the game, scouring every corner of very location for any sign of a phone number, but without luck. It was only years later, when the internet came and online walkthroughs, that I could finally complete this game.

 

So I started another playthrough! As a beginning adventurer, I always liked this game because of its linearity, where you just have to follow orders, go where you’re told to go, there’s not much exploring involved, not much actual puzzling either. Of course later I progressed to more elaborate adventure games taking place in larger worlds, but replaying “Police Quest” is like watching a favorite cop movie, it only takes a couple of hours.

Ah, the driving interface! Crank it up to 55, then manually brake just in time to 35 before you take the corner, otherwise the game automatically lowers it to 30.

 

I’m Sonny Bonds, and I start my shift at the Lytton Police Department. First I have to go change in the locker room. It’s amazing how many times you have to change clothes and take a shower in this game… Then I attended the morning briefing. Apparently there’s a huge problem with drugs in this city (like everywhere in the world…) and we have to be on the lookout for suspicious activity. Then I’m send onto the streets, but not before I notice a notice on the noticeboard stating I can request a transfer from Traffic to Narcotics. Since drugs seems to be the theme in this game, I decide that’s a good decision, so I fill out a form before heading outside.

Deanna's very lucky that pole was there...

So I’m driving around when suddenly I get the call there’s been an accident somewhere. I look up where I’m supposed to go on the paper map that came in the big box of the game, and find the victim of a drive-by. The case is quickly taken out of my hands by my superiors, though, and they send me to continue my patrol. It doesn’t take long before dispatch reminds me I’m supposed to meet Steve at a Café somewhere. So I go there, chew the fat with Steve, until I get a call informing me of the identity of the drive-by victim, which turns out to be a low-level dealer.

Oh, you know how it is, Steve. I showered, I changed, I drove around some...

Then it’s back to the streets. While I wait for dispatch to send me somewhere, Sonny automatically slams on the brakes when a red convertible shoots past a stop sign right in front of me. I flick on the siren and start the chase. The woman driving tries to flirt with me, but no cigar, here’s your ticket, ma’am! I’m one who writes out imaginary tickets in real life as well, noticing all kinds of traffic inflictions, so yeah, warnings my rear bumper!

Two against one, eh? That calls for the extendable baton! Oh wait, it's the 90s, the medieval-like "nightstick" then...

After letting her yell at me some, I get back on the streets when suddenly Carol, the owner of the café where I met Steve, calls in a complaint. Turns out some bikers park their rides right in front of her door, so I seek them out and gently persuade them to move. After they’re gone, I chat a bit with Marie, who was some info on the local drug trade as well though she can’t really recall the correct names. Looks like she meets LOTS of men, can’t expect her to remember all their names…

Looks like he's here for comic relief or something. Where I live, a drunk driver just killed two cyclists. And he was already driving without a licence even; they'd revoked that a while back for a previous offence...

Anyways, back on the streets, I encounter a drunk driver, who I take in to jail. I have to resort to the newspaper that came with the box again, with all the penal codes I need to register him. Turns out I’m called back to the station after this, where Lieutenant Dooley, whose office is being vandalized by a chicken, tells me my shift is over. So I go change, again, and drive to another bar for the birthday party of another colleague. The guy is depressed, however, and he tells me he thinks his daughter is on drugs.

I never had such a girl dance on any of MY birthdays...

Okay, I get it now. Drugs are bad. And this game is all about finding and stopping the people responsible for getting it out there.

 

One of my other colleagues at the party suddenly tells me I promised I’d take over his shift, so it’s high time to return to the station and try to keep the streets safe! I wonder if they already processed my transfer request…

You can find the Police Quest Collection here!

Classic time: "Police Quest II: The Vengeance" playthrough

New game!

I've started my replay of Police Quest II: The Vengeance, and I'm 1 hour into it!

It's been a year since officer Sonny Bonds helped take down a notorious drug trafficker and murderer known as The Death Angel. The city of Lytton has returned to its old days of relative peace and quiet. Sonny remains at the job steadfastly, coming in every morning to take on the bad guys, chatting with his colleagues, and keeping his target practice scores up to snuff.

Let me try to aim for that headshot...

One of those mornings, however, the station is in an uproar when the news comes that Jessie Bains, The Death Angel, has escaped from jail. Sonny and his colleague Keith jump into their car to investigate. During this first hour of my playthrough I learned that Bains is holding a jailer hostage and that he took the poor man's car; that he then switched cars at a local mall parking lot; that he got rid of the jailer at Cotton Cove Park; and that he vamoosed to the airport.

Too bad you can't drive yourself in this game...

Police Quest II isn't a point 'n click adventure game but instead uses the text parser the early Sierra games were famous for. If you haven't played a text parser game (in a while), it takes some getting used to (again). You can't simply click and look at something you see; you need to describe the hotspot and hope it fits the programmers' descriptions, like you would in a text adventure (without graphics). My strategy is to first look around in a new environment. Normally you then get a list of all points of interest. Then you can look at those in detail and thus find items or information. Though often the game relies on general knowledge. To give a simple example: the game starts with Sonny sitting in his car in the police station's parking lot. Looking around will only tell you he's in that car, it won't give a description of the interior. So you have to realize the car has a glove box, and that there might be something important in there...

Ooh, a witness!

Walking around can be a bit clunky, especially when you have to maneuver around obstacles. At one point I had to restore my game because I had wandered into a phone booth (do young gamers today still know what that is, a phone booth?), but my partner Keith was following me and effectively blocking the way when I wanted to get back out, and the silly git just didn't move out of the way.

Something seriously spooked that jogger...

It's a pretty fast-paced game. At the start I was wandering around the police station for a while because I didn't have anything to do, just basically waiting for that call to come in about the escape. Then the ball gets rolling at quite the brisk pace. You drive from one location to another, getting call after call through dispatch whenever you try to return to the station thinking you've finished. Then you encounter what I guess could be called an action sequence at the park, where it's very possible to die in more ways than one.

This creepy scene is basically a pixel hunt...

These old Sierra games work with a point system, awarding you when you've done something right. Doing the necessary actions to "win" the game amounts to a huge percentage of the total points, but there are also hidden achievements, so to speak, which don't really matter in the big picture or the further course of the game but awards you those final points you might otherwise be missing in the end. I'm never playing to get a perfect score, anyway, just going through the general story...

A free space so close to the entrance? No way!

I left the game after one hour of playing and being stuck at the airport. I discovered Bains got rid of the gun he took off the jailer, then bought a ticket, but I don't know where to and I'm having some trouble handling the text parser to ask the right questions, it seems. At least I can't get anyone to tell me what ticket he bought exactly, so I'm not really sure what it is I'm missing, or what I have to do next. But so far I feel like this game is more worthy of the subtitle In Pursuit of the Death Angel than the first game was. I feel like I'm always going to be two steps behind this guy for a long time...

You can find the Police Quest Collection here!