At first the unusual art style and uncanny hand-animated world of The Many Pieces of Mr. Coo feels uniquely captivating, but delve a little deeper and its raw mechanics and unclear puzzle design make for a gameplay experience as fragmented as its protagonist.

Sailing through the Slavic- and Icelandic-influenced world of Selfloss is often a breathtaking sensory experience, but unengaging puzzles, buggy features and an ill-conceived final twist mean its pleasures are largely limited.

Cantaloupe Chronicle is too uneven to make the front page news, but there is some relaxing fun to be had with chasing news stories and overcoming small-town inventory obstacles.

Fans of Firewatch are likely to enjoy this similarly designed walking simulator set in the northern wilderness, though Arctic Awakening’s story fails to bring enough tension or wonderment to match its acclaimed predecessor.

Wormventures: Barrier 51 is a funny point-and-click comedic adventure with challenging puzzles that will surely charm players but can also frustrate with some tedious pacing and lack of polish.

Open Roads is a short but emotionally stirring character drama that is, fittingly, more about the journey than the destination, without so much as a speed bump challenge to slow you down in the latest narrative adventure from the creators of Gone Home.

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.

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.

While Supermassive’s formula is starting to need a bit of a punch-up, and the H. H. Holmes Murder Castle is surprisingly less compelling than the earlier anthology settings, The Devil in Me is still a solid slasher story for horror fans to enjoy.

Paws of Coal is a cute and fun little animal detective mystery, featuring some intriguing deduction puzzles and a whole lot of brilliant writing to read, though it is difficult to overlook the fact that it is just a prelude to a larger adventure and not a complete game on its own.

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.

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.

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.

Rendezvous offers cyberpunk with a distinctive Indonesian flavour. Its awkward combat and simple puzzles may soon be forgotten, but its gritty story and pungent atmosphere will stay with you.

Don’t Nod spins a thoughtful yarn about friendship and trauma, but Lost Records can’t find the right tonal balance to guarantee a hit.

Caravan SandWitch is a calm, atmospheric journey that’s pleasant to play, but held back by repetitive tasks and a lack of momentum.

Hercule Poirot: The London Case is a mixed bag for fans of Agatha Christie and adventure games. They will be thrilled to put the little Belgian detective through his paces once again, but the mystery itself doesn’t fully satisfy.

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.

Ashina: The Red Witch isn’t an ambitious game, but as a short and simple retro-styled narrative adventure, it is fun and functional enough for a mild recommendation to those who enjoy this style of anime fantasy.

The Last Worker offers an intriguing blend of gameplay elements, but it labours under some dodgy mechanics and questionable design decisions.

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.

A little too unrefined with a bare-bones narrative, After You is nevertheless packed with engaging and demanding puzzles, some of which inspire creative thinking.

Some very pretty and impressive visual production values can’t disguise the fact that Neon Blood’s narrative and gameplay feel far too anemic.

Three Minutes to Eight is a fun game to look at with all kinds of style, though the inherent repetition of time loops is not helped by unfortunate design choices that make it likely this cool experience will wear out its welcome long before you uncover all its mysteries.

The Centennial Case is one of the more ambitious FMV games in years, telling a century-spanning mystery while putting the player in charge of investigating several whodunits. Unfortunately, despite a solid production, there is very little to engage the player and the uneven acting performances fail to make up for it.

Copycat’s linear cozy feline simulator is a far too tame to measure up to its own in-game wildlife ambitions, though its playful yet emotional story might purr its way into an animal lover’s.

The idea behind this quirky anthology of four very distinct anecdotes is commendable, but its blink-and-you-missed-it brevity does not pair well with its already limited chill factor, leaving The Creepy Syndrome feeling not particularly worthwhile.

Centum is full of memorably horrific imagery and atmosphere, but enjoying them means putting up with uneven writing, poor design choices, and a truckload of obscurity for obscurity’s sake.

Cat’s Request is a lovely, imaginative science fiction fever dream that spreads itself a bit too thin but is nevertheless an enjoyable gaming experience over the course of its too-brief two-hour runtime.

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.

The strong visual aesthetic and tranquil atmosphere help elevate Pine: A Story of Loss, but the slow, repetitive pacing and simplistic gameplay limit the game’s appeal primarily to those who can draw from their own experiences to reflect more deeply on the emotional themes of moving on from heartbreak.

LOW has enough surprising moments and weighty themes to warrant experiencing this BrokenLore debut, but an array of minor irritants leave plenty of room for improvement in what will hopefully become a more regularly rewarding franchise.

Don’t let the bright cartoon world and cute animals fool you: Magret & FaceDeBouc, with its poop jokes, blood and snarky characters, is definitely not for children. But if you’re okay with that, and the occasional bug, it packs a twisty tale and some satisfyingly old-school puzzles into its brief runtime.

Path of Ra is a fun little ancient Egypt-themed tile-swapper that provides a decent challenge for puzzle fans looking for an atmospheric diversion, though a lackluster story that provides little more than a basic framework seems like a lost opportunity.

Hello Stranger has solid FMV production values and fun performances, but it feels like a short and forgettable Creepshow episode with a thin story that just doesn’t merit the tedium of more than a single replay.

Summer Daze: Tilly’s Tale is a pleasant but undemanding little visual novel. Fans of Quest for Glory and Hero-U will enjoy spending time in the Coles’ universe again, but those who want the same kind of intricate gameplay might be disappointed.

In telling its tragic story against a striking (and swampy) Louisiana backdrop, Intrigue at Oakhaven delivers the short atmospheric experience it promises, but structurally the adventure feels less like playing a well-rounded game than it does listening to a two-chapter novel with a brief intermission to bang out some familiar puzzles.

Using multiple personalities to examine everything can be entertaining until it becomes tiresome, so you’ll need to take your time if you hope to succeed in the Spanish point-and-click comic adventure Ramas’ Call: Twisted Timing.

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 stylish Jennifer Wilde: Unlikely Revolutionaries will grab you at first but the pace quickly slows, as will your interest, feeling like a missed opportunity.

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.

Despite its obvious surface similarities, don’t go into Letters of War expecting an emotion-wrecking Valiant Hearts-like experience, but rather a simple hero story and WWII history lesson wrapped up in unfortunately repetitive gameplay.

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.

It’s nice to finally have ASYLUM in our hands after so long, but while it has the makings of an interesting story at its center, the vast size and emptiness of its namesake hospital overwhelm everything else about it, and it never gets a handle on how to balance narrative and gameplay or to deliver the horror it promises.

WILL: Follow the Light’s ambitious mix of sailing, character drama and puzzle-based adventuring shows plenty of promise but often results in choppy pacing and rough implementation.

Its premise is as easy to connect with as its charming presentation, but Aarik and the Ruined Kingdom never quite capitalizes on its potential, choosing instead to walk the path of a rather simple and woefully short puzzler aimed at casual or younger gamers.

While Unwording succeeds in creatively introducing the mental health concepts of cognitive distortions using wordplay, the surrounding game is simply too short and too shallow to make a lasting impact.

Don’t Nod’s visual novel Harmony is an awkwardly balanced mix of gorgeous but limited production values, clumsy choice mechanic, and an intriguing story whose best parts you never get to experience yourself.

While sporting an intriguing alternate timeline, a decent cast, and a variety of gameplay features, most players will find something to dislike in Dustborn, an epic action-adventure that fails to evoke excitement and sentiment over an excessively long playtime.

The gritty, realistic urban setting is stunning, but the story of The Safe Place is so drearily centered on poverty, crime and abuse that succeeding in cracking the more difficult inventory puzzles becomes more of a struggle than a pleasure just to progress and see more misery unfold.

The Empty Desk is a supernatural whodunit with components of conspiracy theories made into an average game with some serious shortcomings.

There’s nothing about Edengate: The Edge of Life that’s inherently broken or neglected: the voiced dialogue is serviceable, the music fades into its atmospheric background, and navigating the town of Edengate works well enough despite having so little to do. It’s more a case of a game that desperately needed one of its core elements – be it story, puzzles, or creepy mood – to take charge and step into the foreground, putting a definitive stamp onto the overall experience. Instead, everything is accounted for but nothing makes any waves, so the game ultimately just fizzles out and fades away in a forgettable thud rather than a memorable bang.

It’s an okay survival horror game that doesn’t do enough to capitalize on the franchise’s appeal, so if you haven’t seen A Quiet Place and only played The Road Ahead, you’ll probably wonder what all the hoopla’s about.

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.

Tape: Unveil the Memories is a creative indie adventure that does its best to appeal to suspense lovers whether they prefer stealth or story, but a middling narrative and inconsistent puzzles make it feel like more of a chore than a thrill.

NoseBound starts off as a graphically intriguing, gritty detective noir investigation, but quickly leads you by the hand on a linear and (currently) unpolished path towards a bewilderingly strange conclusion.

Though pretty and painless, The Adventures of Zomboy is so brief and bare-bones that it can neither be called a reimagining of the free Flash original nor a sendup of the zombie genre, despite its potentially interesting premise.

The second short standalone game in the BrokenLore series, Don't Watch has some merit with its dive into the fears and threats facing a young social recluse, and there's promise in its varied gameplay mechanics. It’s a shame, then, that it’s too inconsistent in almost every way for a truly impactful, worthwhile experience.

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.

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.

The short and overly surreal Undying Flower shows signs of what a talented group of designers can come up with artistically, but don’t go in expecting much in terms of gameplay, clear-cut storytelling or lasting emotional connection.

Intruder in Antiquonia‘s pleasing aesthetic and rural charm with flashes of something deeper aren’t quite enough to compensate for the hurried storytelling and pedestrian puzzles.

While charming in delivering a somewhat heartwarming story, Petit Island is ultimately rather dull in its delivery, with boring implementations of activities like fishing and bug catching. In essence, it’s an uninspired effort in a familiar game style that others have done in much more interesting ways.

Finally localized in English after being released in Dutch and French over a decade ago, Mozart Requiem is so unpolished it’s still not ready for prime time release, seriously undermining its fine protagonist and a story full of intrigue and adventure.

With only two of five planned Backrooms-inspired liminal spaces to explore, Dreamcore tries so hard to avoid stimulating the player that playing it feels less like an experience and more like a chore to navigate its endlessly maze-like environments.

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.

CollectorVision’s dedication to recreating an authentic nostalgic experience is clearly evident on every screen, but whenever Dead Tomb goes out of its way to make the experience as cumbersome as possible, this jaunt to Ancient Egypt will leave you parched for a more robust experience.

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 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.

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.

The hand-drawn world is beautifully remastered and the story hints of promise, but Detective Hayseed: The Cloning Madness is riddled with illogically designed puzzles, poorly written characters and misplaced attempts at comedy.

Shines Over: The Damned is immersive, and even a bit scary, for the very brief time it lasts. However, its underdeveloped gameplay and narrative will leave players with more a sense of bewilderment than awe.

While its colourful graphics and lure of a good mystery may be enticing, Arthur & Susan: Almost Detectives falls short of its promise in most important ways.

Wasting a promising idea, Blood on the Thames is so bug-riddled and poorly executed that the actors working on it were clearly having more fun than you ever will.

Unless you are either a die-hard fan of puzzles or analog horror, and really don’t mind a lackluster and increasingly tiresome version of both, there are far better and spookier games out there than Amanda the Adventurer.