Echoes presents an intriguing mystery through a gorgeous progression of graphical styles, albeit with little to do besides clicking through dialogues and finding the occasional hidden piece of information and making subtly impactful choices.

Clearly meant as a love letter to VGA space adventures of yesteryear, the very short and simple Orbital Cargo Division may succeed more in making you fondly recall your time with those titles rather than giving you a new favorite to reminisce about.

It’s much the same as fans will remember, but the Brothers remake pairs an already wonderful game with a stunning graphic overhaul and co-op multiplayer option.

Farewell North’s beautiful Scottish setting pulls you in with its canine star and cozy gameplay, then immerses you in a touching story about loss and letting go that’s well worth seeing through to the end.

Immortality is within reach for this stylishly produced noir detective thriller about the misery of eternal life, but limited world-building and player agency prevent Nobody Wants to Die from becoming a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Cosmic Void succeeds in delivering another compelling mystery, as the frights in Devil’s Hideout challenge your courage and puzzle-solving skills in this short but spooky point-and-click occult adventure.

A casual hidden object game mixed with a relentlessly wordy visual novel story, Crime O’ Clock is enjoyable enough with its beautiful illustrations, peppy music, and a ton of personality packed into its art, but only in small doses.

Puzzles for Clef endearingly blends plentiful puzzles with an intricate fairytale world and quirky characters. Like its teenage heroine, it's a little gawky and awkward in places, but it's also charming and full of heart.

Looking Up I See Only a Ceiling is an extremely short but nightmarishly eerie micro-experience. Its manga stylings and sensible puzzle design make it enjoyable to play, though even with its post-game replay options, it feels like a ton of potential for expansion was simply left unexplored.

Riven is not a game, it is an experience. It’s a demanding, puzzle-intensive experience that isn’t for everyone, but with its gorgeous setting and a web of interconnectedness never seen before in free-roaming 3D, be prepared to make this remastered edition your world for a long time before you come out the other side, even if you’ve played the original.

Bent Oak Island’s budget limitations and lack of polish certainly hold it back, but you can get some good fun out of its twin protagonists’ sibling banter while trying to prevent a summer vacation from ending in disaster.

Move aside, Laura Bow. Nancy Maple is the reigning queen of retro-styled murder mysteries in The Crimson Diamond, a clever, engaging, and satisfying tale that is sure to entertain fans of Sierra’s text-driven EGA classics while being accessible to adventurers new to this style of game.

Autopsy Simulator’s puzzle elements may be dead on arrival, but the well-researched autopsy cases presented in the unsettling atmosphere of an isolated coroner’s office injects enough thrills to give the game some measurable signs of life.

Once a Tale more than compensates for some rough edges with gorgeous stop-motion animation, solid puzzle-platforming gameplay, and a strong finish.

Like a Sherlock Holmes investigation at the bottom of the sea, there are many compelling secrets to be unveiled in the gorgeous underwater scenery of Thalassa’s titular sunken ship.

If you’re used to a simple point-and-click interface, Tachyon Dreams Anthology might take some getting used to, but its humor-filled sci-fi story is a wonderful homage to the text parser adventures of the 1980s.

Packed with many hours’ worth of puzzles to solve, secrets to uncover, and plenty of jokes, Bilkins' Folly finds the sweet spot that combines a light and humorous presentation with a compelling gameplay loop of tricky treasure hunting that has deeper layers than you might expect.

Skeler Boy is a beautiful micro-sized horror adventure filled to the brim with scares and quirky challenges throughout its short runtime, though it ultimately feels like a compilation of homages that never manages to find a voice of its own.

Though not without its rough edges, Creepy Tale: Some Other Place is a series high point that moves beyond previous entries’ shortcomings with well-designed puzzles, a wickedly spooky atmosphere, and a more confident, less derivative art style.

Story fans should probably steer clear, but if you enjoy a good challenge, pick out your favorite musical playlist and settle in to explore Island of Insight’s gorgeous puzzle-lover’s paradise. Just be sure to pack accordingly, as you could be there a long, long time.

It’s Grim Up North’s first (and so far only) chapter puts a comedic twist on the concept of alien body snatchers in Yorkshire, delivering a fun but flawed point-and-click adventure/turn-based RPG combo experience.

Light on gameplay but rich in atmosphere, the short but sweet stories that make up Makoto Wakaido’s Case Files are full of entertaining misdirection and unique subversion of perspective.

Backfirewall_ is a unique and interesting look at the anthropomorphized inner workings of a phone, with fun gameplay, humorous dialogue and bright, colorful environments.

Cranking up the difficulty and empathy in equal doses, Road to Elysium threads a needle that most DLC expansions can only hope for. While a few of the challenges edge a bit into overly difficult territory, it’s an extraordinarily well-crafted and generous helping of brilliant puzzles and lovely emotional payoffs. One of the best puzzle games ever just got one of the best expansions around.

The Anchor of Memory, like all Isoland games, is a unique experience that will appeal to a player's quiet, thoughtful, poetic side. Light on story and heavy on bizarre puzzles, this game lives up to its predecessors in every way, making it a solid addition to the franchise.

Rauniot is the full post-apocalyptic experience, for better and worse. The story is slight but delicately layered, the detailed isometric graphics are gorgeous in a very monochrome kind of way, and the soundscape really rams home the feeling of remote isolation. The characters too, in their quiet endurance and occasional dark humour, are more affecting than if they had screamed or sobbed. The practical challenges you face are also reasonable and logical, even if finding the items you need can be tricky. If you're a fan of Fallout or Mad Max-style sci-fi, though, and you're interested in something a little off the beaten track, it could be exactly what you're looking for. Just be sure to pack plenty of dog food and watch out for tripwires!

After a long hiatus, the perennially youthful Nancy Drew is back in Mystery of the Seven Keys. The pendulum has swung back from the greater focus on story and character interaction in the previous installment, but fans of the classic series will doubtless welcome the renewed emphasis on puzzle solving this time around.

With its unique presentation and hybrid role-playing elements, Midnight Margo maintains the perfect balancing act between serious themes like depression and social acceptance and self-deprecating humor that makes it so much fun to play.

The Chinese Room’s Still Wakes the Deep sees man’s greed and hubris bring an unknowable disaster down upon an offshore oil rig in a tense, highly effective horror outing.

The Curse of Grimsey Island brings some interesting ideas to the table but struggles to make the most of them, with a sci-fi murder mystery still sorely in need of refinement and better connection to the gameplay.

The Mildew Children tells a great witch story with impressive lore and tricky dialogue challenges wrapped up in a beautiful side-scrolling presentation, though the endless roaming and long conversations are likely to take their toll on your attention span.

Focusing more on the story than the spooks (though the spooks are good when they materialize!), An English Haunting is a solid, user-friendly paranormal tale with strong production values, even if it lacks the compelling characters and dialogue of the best horror fiction.

Duck Detective: The Secret Salami is just a ton of fun. It’s a perfect replacement for a family movie night, with two funny and endearing hours of lightly challenging mystery and engaging story.

Bloated dialog bogs down what’s otherwise a fun search for a missing cat in the lightly humorous Scott Whiskers in: The Search for Mr. Fumbleclaw.

Lil’ Guardsman is a silly, high-fantasy take on Papers, Please that mixes deductive gameplay with goblins and wizards – what more could you want? Well, a tighter story with more consistent quality would have been great, but the end result is still very much worth playing for comedy fans.

With no story or any real puzzles to speak of, Path of Kami’s prologue will hold little interest for more hardcore traditional adventure game players, but the beautiful graphics and music do create an interesting world to explore at your leisure, if you think that alone will be enough to keep you interested for a couple hours.

Skaramazuzu’s strange, gray world and creepily adorable characters look and sound fantastic, but it’s hard to stay interested when it gives players so little of interest to think about or actually do.

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.

It would be nice to focus solely on how the bleak setting is intriguing, the stealth missions often feel cool, and the characters are at least entertaining, if not quite appealing—but it’s tough to do that when Sunday Gold is simply overrun with punishing turn-based combat and related RPG-style skill mechanics, and the adventure side of this genre hybrid is consistently minimized.

Even without this small wish list of things I would have preferred to see implemented, Botany Manor packs a powerful punch as an exploration of its protagonist’s life, coupled with some engaging and well-designed puzzles along the way that even the most gardening-averse in real life can master. Best of all, it manages to deliver all of this with a gentle, light touch, with beautiful sights and sounds you can relax to even as you solve its conundrums. It’s not the most aggressively difficult puzzler out there, nor is it the longest, but it certainly makes a great case for quality over quantity. It seems like a true passion project that reminds us that, sometimes, it’s important to slow down in our busy lives to stop and smell the roses.

Submachine: Legacy asks a lot of the player: a lot of attention, a lot of time, a lot of thought, and a lot of travel. In return, though, it has an incredible amount to offer. The narrative is both intriguing and unobtrusive, allowing you to take or leave as much as you want while you get down to puzzle-solving. The puzzles themselves are almost uniformly excellent, while the art and music are perfectly suited to the aura of mysterious foreboding that infuses each chapter. This is not a game to be approached casually or without the full complement of one’s faculties, but the subnet contains such an embarrassment of adventuring riches that it’s no surprise people have spent so many years jumping at the chance to vanish there.

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.

Based on Tove Jansson’s popular book series, Snufkin is a cozy, beautifully presented adventure that’s fairly short and light on challenge, but will surely please fans and newcomers alike who are eager to take a pleasant stroll among the natural wonders and quirky characters of Moominvalley.

If you enjoy side-scrolling puzzle-platformers, Unleaving is a fun afternoon snack. The esoteric narrative is too clumsy for its own good, but the team at orangutan matter is incredibly talented, and they’ve earned their stripes when it comes to gameplay and design.

Harold Halibut is a curious fish, using its retro-futuristic, painstakingly handcrafted world and cast of weird but relatable characters to tell a heartfelt but ambling, puzzle-free story that’s (in the best way) more soap opera than space opera.

Afterdream is a chilling side-scrolling adventure that combines a variety of rather easy, engaging puzzles with a creepy yet surprisingly poignant story about loss, all wrapped up in the developer’s distinctive art style.

Cluttered level design and a lack of polish somewhat mar this episodic series debut, but they don’t stop Twogether: Project Indigos from being a fun and clever prison escape with its endearing telekinetic and telepathic leads.

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.

Big Loop Studios’ pedigree in the puzzle box space shows through in Boxes: Lost Fragments, a brief but fun foray into a world of creativity and sheer imagination.

It may have a few minor malfunctions, but Between Horizons launches players on an exciting and branching interstellar detective journey, looking for clues, questioning suspects, and maybe saving the remnants of humanity in the process.

There’s potential here for a good time, but Pendulo and Microids have failed rather miserably at giving Hergé’s beloved character the game he deserves. Riddled with bugs and shallow gameplay that is all over the place, Tintin Reporter: Cigars of the Pharaoh is a disappointing experience that even a diehard fan of the series will have trouble enjoying for long.

A charming atmosphere, puzzles that are just right, and bonus secrets are all waiting to be unlocked in the fantastic escape room adventure Escape from Mystwood Mansion.

Reveil takes you on a thrilling nightmare journey through one man’s memories of life at the circus on a quest for truth (and missing loved ones) that will keep you on the edge of your bleacher seat.

A Highland Song is a beautifully frustrating journey into the Highlands, Scottish history, and the life of a troubled teenager. Showcasing both the marvels and the menace of that rugged land, it offers a powerful sense of place, memorable tales, and a big heart.

Not all aspects bridge the decades-long gap seamlessly, but as a modern re-imagining, Alone in the Dark is at once a comprehensive love letter to the venerated original and hands-down one of the best forays into Lovecraftian horror yet.

Conrad Stevenson’s Paranormal P.I. forces you to be patient and follow procedures to the letter, but once you get the hang of exploring haunted environs in search of ghosts, figuring out whose spirit is still lingering and finding the right way to get them to move on can be highly rewarding.

Playing with anthropomorphic stickers on a sticker book using stickers to solve sticky situations is a can’t-miss premise. While A Tiny Sticker Tale will surely be too simple to appeal to everyone, and the story could have been more robust, younger kids should love it and it has enough charm and satisfying puzzles to ensure a joyful few hours for just about anyone.

Despite the occasional patience-testing puzzle, CLeM’s inventive gameplay and exploratory style make this quirky hand-drawn “Psychotic Adventure” worth a peek.

Champy the Useless Vampire is a very short and easy adventure game that won’t pose any challenge to the experienced gamer, but its charming cartoon presentation and cozy gameplay might mesmerize their kids enough to try out the point-and-click adventure genre.

Even with a bit of open exploration, Saltsea Chronicles is essentially a visual novel – a character-driven, story you read on screens of charmingly beautiful backgrounds. It’s a stress-free piece of interactive media that invites players to help write the unfolding tale, but those looking for deeper gameplay won’t find any swashbuckling, seafaring action in these calm seas.

Aspyr has done an excellent job preserving three of the most important, and timeless, examples of early 3D gaming. Tomb Raider I-III Remastered may largely be a greatest hits set for existing fans, but it’s a comprehensive bundle whose new visuals and updated control schemes are nice options to introduce the original series to the uninitiated.

Although quite different from its predecessor, Another Fisherman’s Tale is another brilliant game from InnerspaceVR that combines a vibrant world, moving story, and reality-bending mechanics. An instant classic for both fans of virtual reality and narrative games.

Like a bingeable TV show, American Arcadia is slickly presented and tightly paced, resulting in a charismatic and entertaining theme park ride of an adventure, even if the simple characters and somewhat unfocused approach to gameplay doesn’t foster much lasting impact.

Questioning and confronting suspects in Chronique des Silencieux can be very fun if you’re a patient reader willing to ignore the often faulty English translations and some technical issues to really appreciate this intricate detective story set in 1970s France.

The Adventures of the Black Hawk succeeds at copying—and I mean copying—the aesthetic that made the early LucasArts games so successful. While the copy doesn’t shine quite as brightly due to some inconsistent localization and general lack of polish, it is a consistently amusing and challenging adventure worthy of being in the conversation.

Flake: The Legend of Snowblind is a captivating cartoon adventure in a fun, intricately crafted setting, though its considerable charms are complicated by the fact that it feels more like a substantial first chapter than a full game in its own right.

Snowman Story isn’t your typical Christmas tale and the singular puzzle type does it no favours, but it tells a gripping and emotional tale, in a delightfully vivid pixel art style, of a snowman trying to escape his inevitable springtime thaw.

Bramble's action elements might prove challenging for those used to relaxed adventuring gameplay, but with its main focus on platforming, stealth and boss battles, this stunning and terrifying survival horror game artfully weaves Scandinavian folklore into its dark but gripping narrative.

With its lack of relevant story progression until a rushed finale, MADievals won’t make a lasting impression, but its eccentric characters, plethora of anachronisms, and straight-up weirdness keep this fantasy medieval romp entertaining in the moment.

It’s not about seeing the story through to the end or solving complicated puzzles—version 2.0 of Colossal Cave in VR faithfully retains the flaws of the original groundbreaking game but is otherwise a delightful interactive experience that feels like an actual genuine adventure.

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.

Delivering everything series fans should expect by this point, Dead Drop is another soothing romp with Carol Reed through Swedish countrysides and dilapidated buildings, elevated by a fun hook and some decades-old KGB intrigue that helps to make up for the more humdrum moments.

Other than the odd puzzle frustration, The Will of Arthur Flabbington offers plenty of nostalgia, laughs and a gauntlet of inventory-based brainteasers that is sure to stretch your creative thinking when glued to your screen and keep you thoughtfully pondering when away from it.

Cute characters, great story, beautiful soundtrack, STAT! Fall of Porcupine may lack in the gameplay department, but it’s impossible to not fall in love with this charming character-driven tribute to our underappreciated health care workers.

While Slay the Princess comes in a deceptively simple package, it contains what feels like a whole universe of horror, humor and humanity; it takes the visual novel format and pushes it as far as it will go, with a story that changes and adapts to every decision you make without ever forsaking its central themes of identity, eternity, and the nature of life and death.

Hill Agency is a stylistically gorgeous game and a refreshing futuristic representation of Indigenous people, but otherwise this detective noir game is too hampered by bugs and a lack of real investigative work to make the experience worthwhile.

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.

Superfluous Returnz isn’t superfluous at all, as its not-so-super hero’s bumbling (and occasionally credibility-defying) antics offer an all-too-brief breath of fresh country air.

With its beautiful scenery, heartfelt characters, and the weirdest wolves you’ve ever seen, The Night Is Grey is as close to a psychological thriller as an adventure game can get, worthy to be called an interactive cinematic experience.

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.

OU deserves enormous credit for its superb art and its distinct, ambitious style of storytelling, providing a memorable high-concept experience only slightly hampered by questionable design choices.

Time loop mysteries require a delicate balance of challenge while rewarding players for both their successes and mistakes. In Orten Was the Case, the play control and action elements can upset that balance at times, but the twelve-minute puzzle itself hits all the right beats and proves to be quite satisfying.

The Season’s Greetings DLC views Lake‘s world through very different eyes, offering reassuring familiarity while shaking things up just enough to make them fresh again. Retaining the same slow, puzzle-free style and relatable characters, it’s not for everyone but will surely feel like the perfect gift for fans of the original game.

Don’t let the cute cartoon style and adventure game humour fool you: in its brief play time, Last Christmas deals with some of the darker elements of the season in a horrifying yet compelling way.

Golden Idol Mysteries: The Lemurian Vampire serves up a fitting conclusion to the elaborate and electrifying mystery started in The Spider of Lanka, making that game’s satisfying story feel even more complete. Rarely do mystery games make observational deduction this much fun.

Desolatium is an unapologetically old-school node-based adventure in the vein of turn-of-the-millennium cult classics like Dracula. Its mix of wildly different art styles doesn’t work as well as it could, but those who don’t mind a bit of pixel hunting will likely enjoy its budget presentation, generally solid puzzle design and atmospheric story.

It’s fun to exercise one’s brain cells in Scene Investigators’ assorted collection of engaging mysteries that pull no punches when it comes to challenge and are immensely rewarding as a result.

If an hour-plus playing politics with The Expanse’s Chrisjen Avasarala sounds like your idea of a good time, “Archangel” is a match made in heaven. For all others, it’s merely an undercooked diversion that adds nothing new to the main storyline.

Vlad Circus is fun and scary in all the right ways. With locked doors, monsters, a mysterious circus director and a hallucinating main character, it may not be the greatest show on earth but has plenty to entertain unsuspecting visitors.

Based on the 1964 hard sci-fi novel of the same name, The Invincible tells a mature, thought-provoking story about a research team’s discoveries on a distant planet. While the gameplay isn’t much to write home about, the smartly presented experience is nevertheless out of this world.

A strong contender for champion of League of Legends spinoffs, Song of Nunu is fairly lightweight but presents a charming, beautiful 3D platforming adventure for franchise veterans and newcomers alike.

Windy Meadow uses the visual novel format to tell a moving, thoughtful story about growth, decisions and community in a gorgeously realized setting. While not a modern classic on the scale of the original Roadwarden, those who go in with the proper expectations will find it a solid, rewarding narrative adventure.

A rare sequel that fully capitalizes on the potential of where its predecessor left off, The Talos Principle 2 elegantly makes space for genius puzzle design and captivating characterization to tell an extraordinarily unique, gripping, moving, and surprisingly funny story. A masterpiece for the ages.

Midnight Girl looks and sounds like a slice of ’60s cool, drawing you into its atmospheric world and keeping you moving. Your life as a burglar doesn’t always match the glamour of the movies, but it’s still a lively if all too brief escape.

While there are certainly aspects that work in Hauma’s graphic novel-styled exploration through Munich to unearth a mystery about an ancient relic spanning the ages, the game’s pacing and finicky inventory puzzles demand some patience to get to its best stuff.

Though it doesn’t quite reach the heights it aspires to, Jusant is a lovely mountaineering adventure that makes for a refreshing change from the norm in both axis and pace.

It might feel bewildering at first, but deciphering glyphs to discover more about the vibrant and mysterious tower with its culturally divided people makes Chants of Sennaar a highly engaging and ultimately rewarding framing for the inventive language-based puzzles.

Monolith earns science fiction cred with a witty sidekick robot, a beautifully drawn alien world and many clever puzzles relevant to the genre, though an uneven story, shaky dialogue, and poor characterizations may turn off players less willing to endure them to get to the good parts.