Midnight Saturn combines futuristic sci-fi and film noir sensibilities in a short but perfectly okay detective case that is best described as average in just about every respect.

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

A worthy detective game in the vein of Sherlock Holmes or Hercule Poirot (but with animals), Last Train to Clawville is a compelling murder mystery visual novel that is easy to grasp and will keep you wanting to know more.

With only a little interference to enjoyment, Radiolight‘s one-man production offers a supernatural 1980s mystery well worth exploring in a gorgeously detailed yet solidly creepy woodland setting.

No frustrating time-loop antics in the wonderfully designed The Posthumous Investigation, just a deep but fast-paced unraveling of who might have killed Rio de Janeiro’s most influential resident.

With an engaging array of suspects, fun trial mechanics, and some surprisingly emotional moments, The Real Face of a VTuber is worthy of that other famous visual novel courtroom series that inspired it.

Once Upon a Puppet is an often delightful, sometimes frustrating, digital puzzle-platforming puppet show that engages with its premise in smart ways. The world built here is truly something to behold, and with just a little more rehearsal, this would have been a must-see performance.

Its puzzles may leave something to be desired, but Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss legitimately feels like one of Lovecraft’s dark stories experienced first-hand.

D3AD HAND gives a satirical twist to the Cold War, presenting players with the chance to save the world from nuclear annihilation through a fun mix of point-and-click puzzling and crafty feline wiles.

The Lightkeeper’s great visuals and sound design are the strongest points of this short, tightly paced experience, making up in eerie atmosphere what it lacks in actual gameplay.

Life Is Strange: Reunion is a fitting capstone to the story of Max and Chloe started years ago, providing a welcome feeling of closure and satisfaction that this tale was worth the wait.

Out of Sight is a brilliant, and at times touching, take on classic survival horror, mixing stealth, environmental puzzling, and even the occasional chase sequence into its thrilling escape mission. It’s short and maybe a bit on the easy side, but the excellent pacing and terrific storytelling will keep players gripping their teddy bears with delight.

Shuten Order breaks up the traditional visual novel experience with a gameplay conceit or two you’ll love, plus a few you’ll likely just need to deal with, to tell a compelling sci-fi mystery with a unique take on the genre.

Thief’s Shelter pulls you into a beautifully eerie mansion to investigate a strange, supernatural mystery full of fun puzzles, yet its limited freedom of exploration to solve the case yourself can be a bit frustrating.

Its emphasis on mini-games over traditional puzzles may not appeal to everyone, but Apopia: Sugar Coated Tale is a delightful and surprisingly poignant journey of self-discovery that isn’t always as sweet as it looks.

After years of incremental improvements, the final release of SpaceVenture is a fairly entertaining experience tailored especially for Space Quest fans that’s still plagued by a significant number of unfortunate caveats.

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.

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

The follow-up to NAIRI: Tower of Shirin is too self-referential to make waves with anyone not already familiar with the series, but longtime fans will find more of what made them just that in Rising Tide: adorable talking animals, a ton of dialogue, cozy point-and-clicking, and a jarring cliffhanger that leaves room for the next game.

Escape Simulator 2 is another winning set of fun rooms with a promising future for much, much more, bolstered by major improvements. It’s a great time experienced solo, but especially some of the best multiplayer puzzling around.

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.

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.

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.

The Berlin Apartment feels less like a traditional game and more like an interactive story, but it’s the everyday personal moments that make experiencing its shared place and the lives shaped by history more powerful.

The equally stunning sequel to Planet of Lana takes the series a few steps forward, a few steps back, finishing largely where it started.

Labyrinth of the Forsaken is a highly successful blend of classic point-and-click adventure and survival horror, expanding on the Deep Sleep freeware trilogy with interesting new mechanics, immersive environments, and a compelling mystery at the heart of it all.

With the look of a Pixar film and the wit of Monkey Island, SOPA: Tale of the Stolen Potato is a creative combination of heart, charm, and genuine laughs that is sure to satisfy the whole family.

CARIMARA: Beneath the forlorn limbs is an attention-grabbing introduction to a strange and original fantasy world that features an engaging spin on the detective genre, but our time there is so brief that it’s hard to come away fully satisfied.

Run TavernQuest smartly turns the text adventure conceit on its head with its choice-based selections and removal of players from the starring role to explore free will and existentialism with a comedic backdrop, leaving one contemplating what it means to be alive.

You’ll certainly speed through the experience with no real gameplay slowing you down, but it's more than just a compelling survival tale. The live-action presentation is highly immersive and the game’s killers provide a tense creep factor without going full-on slasher flick frightening. While the instant do-or-die decisions could provide more clues as to what the right option is, it’s in the choices about who Zanna is as a person that the game finds its most meaningful moments, culminating in a heartfelt outcome that is both surprising and satisfying. It’s not much of a gaming workout, but The Run is at times poignant, at times metaphorical, and at times an experience sure to get the blood pumping.

Fun enough while it lasts, Confidential Killings gets in and out a bit too quickly with its tightly paced plot and lack of much challenge, all wrapped up in the glitz and glam of 1970s Hollywood.

Among the Whispers: Provocation took the issues of its predecessor and improved on all of them to deliver a lengthy, scary and highly realistic ghost-hunting simulator with more active gameplay in solving puzzles and figuring out the spirits’ identities.

If you can get on its distinctively weird, oppressive wavelength and stay there, you’ll find Mateusz Skutnik’s Daymare Town second to none in terms of atmosphere, aesthetics, and ability to keep you clicking just to find out what the impossibly imaginative setting will show you next.

The Last Case of John Morley transitions from a film-noir mystery into a psychological horror that reveals just how fragile the human psyche is, prioritizing atmosphere over detective work in its short run time.

The Curse of the Last Reaper is a triumphant finale to the acclaimed Golden Idol saga as we know it. Beyond being the best expansion chapter of the series, this is one of the best pieces of DLC out there, period.

Wednesdays is a short, beautifully designed, thoughtful treatment of a heart-wrenching subject that is anything but a simple walk in the park.

The Jester and the Madman is a wonderful homage to 1990s-era slideshow adventure games. The script can be a little stilted and the plot a bit too convenient, but the overarching story and breadth of clever puzzles and challenges make it engaging from start to finish.

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.

Tarsier’s REANIMAL isn’t just Little Nightmares reskinned, with a new start, a new name, and a few welcome surprises added to an already winning horror adventure formula.

In every sense of the word, Shadows of the Afterland is a spirited point-and-click adventure that weaves together a gripping post-mortem mystery into an ironically lively setting with a lot of heart.

There’s nothing dishonest about Penelope Pendrick and the Art of Deceit. As advertised, it’s an homage to the classic Nancy Drew series, both a masterful emulation and an exciting evolution. Featuring challenging puzzles and a gripping mystery, you won’t need a magnifying glass to see that the era of a new girl detective has begun.

While it teeters on the brink of succumbing to genre pitfalls at times, Riddlewood Manor is a delightful series of ghostly escape rooms tied together with a playfully macabre tale about spirits and dark magic.

The Dark Rites of Arkham is another compelling thriller from Postmodern Adventures, blending Lovecraftian influence, retro-styled production and classic adventure gameplay into a beautifully eerie, wonderfully written murder mystery.

It’s not as open-ended as other narrative RPGs and lacks a believable ending, but Rue Valley has an appealing graphic novel aesthetic and engagingly human time-looping story that avoids becoming too repetitive or frustrating each time it resets.

Earth Must Die revels in its comedic, over-the-top adult sci-fi insanity while delivering a genuinely great adventure game experience starring a power-hungry megalomaniac. Never before has it been so much fun to be the arbiter of your own species’ destruction!

Station to Station is as worthy a follow-up to the brilliant original Perfect Tides as anyone could have hoped, continuing Mara’s story with the same insight, compassion and immersive writing while deepening and expanding its narrative through interesting new mechanics.

Its unrelenting vagueness surely won’t be for everyone, but with TR-49 inkle expands on the growing investigative deduction subgenre with another polished and rewarding title, its added audio component providing a particularly compelling extra layer of intrigue.

Helping a little stop-motion mouse escape its hand-crafted maze prison in Éalú will warm your heart like a cheese fondue on a cold winter evening.

The House of Tesla’s biographical elements are very well integrated into the numerous puzzles in this beautifully designed mechanical puzzle lover's bonanza.

After two stellar Golden Idol Investigations spinoff DLC chapters, The Age of Restraint falters a bit under the weight of its complicated conspiracies, though it still manages to mostly deliver the goods. If only it wasn't so blisteringly hard to deduce its secrets.

It will likely leave you praying for more, as Scholar Adventure: Mystery of Silence takes you on a very short and simple but intriguingly eerie mission in a mysterious abbey teeming with secrets.

Thank Goodness You're Here! is an absolute triumph of comedy. It’s not a classic point-and-click adventure game, but every single aspect of this self-described “slapformer” combines to make it a genuinely funny game that will have you in stiches with its absurdity and cartoon-like atmosphere.

Everything works effectively to build tension over the course of s.p.l.i.t’s grim hour-long campaign, though the learning curve in the role of a rogue hacker may be a bit much to ask for some gamers.

Scott Whiskers: The Search for the Golden Cat takes you on an entertaining point-and-click jungle adventure that improves significantly on its predecessor in a number of important ways.

Draped in darkness and gothic Irish trappings, The Séance of Blake Manor makes the most of its eerie atmosphere and mysterious cast of characters in this detective's race against the clock with satisfyingly smart gameplay.

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

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.

The Supper: New Blood has the right recipe for a darkly delicious cartoon adventure, though repetition and limited gameplay opportunities work against its sinister premise, and its campy but fun B-horror shocks elicit diminishing returns long before its last course.

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.

A dreamy Italian getaway packed with charm, mystery, and minigames, On Your Tail is the cozy escape you didn’t know you needed.

While not flashy or revolutionary, with the occasional questionable narrative choice, Casebook 1899: The Leipzig Murders offers exactly what it says on the tin: a solidly entertaining collection of murder mysteries designed specifically with lovers of good ol’ classic point-and-clicking in mind.

Sips and Sonnets is an engaging, melancholy visual novel about an elderly woman with an impressive past career, operating a tea shop in her dotage and providing useful advice to her customers.

Splittown’s retro spy adventure charms you with its pixel art presentation, humor and puzzles, though uncovering all of its optional content and background information requires quite the deep infiltration.

More of a cinematic, highly polished visual novel than a full-fledged adventure game or even a strategic superhero simulator, Dispatch makes being the proverbial “guy in the chair” a delightful experience well worth hopping into.

No, I’m not a Human is a masterclass in suspense that revels in the paranoia it creates. Some of the magic is lost when trying to unearth specific outcomes for this tale of cosmic horror, but for a single playthrough it’s a deeply disturbing experience where everyday traits of average people are twisted into a mine field.

An upgrade in some ways and a step back in others, the remastered Syberia doesn’t quite measure up to the classic work of art that was the original, but its melancholic trip through an entropic Europe filled with automatons is still splendid enough to delight new players to the franchise.

Simple but short, stylish, and surprisingly comfy, The Blackinton Curse turns a traditional whodunnit into a bite-sized mystery adventure with the feel of a visual novel and a hint of old-school JRPG flair.

Within its subset of casual adventures, True Fear: Forsaken Souls stands out due to its stalwart dedication to delivering peak camp-horror charm. Its story gets a bit wobbly, but after a long delay, the final part of the trilogy largely succeeds in giving some closure at last.

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.

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.

Beautiful, unexpectedly emotional, but frequently frustrating, Simon the Sorcerer is back in an intriguing if uneven series prequel reboot.

Foolish Mortals is an absolute triumph. The love and respect for what makes an adventure game great is on full display in every expertly crafted scene, puzzle, piece of dialogue and quality-of-life user option throughout. If you consider yourself a fan of the genre, this is one ghostly journey that cannot be missed.

The methodical gameplay and occasional difficulty spikes of Bye Sweet Carole won’t be for everyone, but for those who crave an old-school stalker horror with a remarkably poignant story tying everything together, there is nothing else out there quite like this incredibly gorgeous, genre-defying gem.

Necrophosis creates startling scenes of cosmic horror and meshes existentialism with religion, yet repetitive item hunting and a lack of sustainable tension dilute the potentially potent core of the experience.

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.

Ghost on the Shore guides you on a beautiful island hike with a spectral companion while hunting for long-forgotten family secrets that continue to live on.

With a supremely old-school gameplay format, Neyyah evokes the best aspects of Myst and Riven in a way we rarely see anymore. While it’s somewhat bound by its faithfulness to what's come before, the heart and soul behind this game shines a bright, cyan-tinged glow.

The Biggleboss Incident swerves past snark and satire and charges headlong into farce, tackling everything from office supply shortages to Big Brother. Light on plot and puzzles, it's a breath of fresh air in these cynical times.

More of a narrative-driven game than a traditional adventure, Two Falls (Nishu Takuatshina) offers a uniquely immersive, emotional and compelling experience, exploring a culturally intriguing historical time and place.

Bold, beautiful, brilliant. Lee Petty and Double Fine have done it again. It’s a keeper, all right.

Mutants Ate My Carrots suffers from an unfortunate lack of polish, but the fun factor of running around a raunchy cartoon fantasy world as a butt-kicking angry rabbit makes up for its (easily fixable) shortcomings.

A wonderfully surreal and heartfelt narrative adventure, to a T delightfully reinforces the important message that regardless of our perceived personal limitations, we are all “the perfect shape.”

Combining a slick presentation, unsettling vibes, and an impressive list of talented actors, Dead Take is a solid FMV thriller with a unique Hollywood spin that would benefit most from an alternate ending.

The expanded world of Agatha Christie – Death on the Nile might feel a bit TOO big at times, but the new playable character does add to the story and nothing gives a greater sense of accomplishment than solving a mystery as Hercule Poirot.

Herald is light on gameplay but tells a complex, well-written adventure story that takes players on a journey both literal and emotional, through themes which, though based on historical events, are still incredibly resonant today.

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.

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.

Gloomy Eyes is a dark but lovely fairy tale, revived from its previous VR-exclusive short film form and given new life with a welcome if fairly shallow layer of gameplay.

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.

While Tiny Terry’s Turbo Trip could’ve given players a bit more to do, its uniquely whimsical style and wacky sensibilities make it a memorable and fun cartoon platforming adventure.

One of the best free games you’re ever likely to play, Poco is a short but beautiful adventure that will pull you in with its undeniable charm while keeping you guessing with its surprisingly deep mysteries.

For better or worse, depending on your perspective, Vlad Circus: Curse of Asmodeus trades in the survival horror gameplay for more straightforward adventure game puzzling. But even toned down, it’s another creepy-fun installment in the lives of these twisted, tragic carnies.

With a little light puzzling and lots of dialogue, the retro-styled Carnival will give you goosebumps when the masks begin to come off of Venice’s seemingly charming, tradition-loving citizens.

Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical is a dazzlingly executed take on familiar stories that breathes new life into old legends. There’s very little gameplay to speak of, but it’s an emotional story and a must-play for musical theater fans and those who are invested in Greek mythology.

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.

Wanderstop is a cozy game of tea-making, featuring quirky customers and a protagonist who, amusingly, would rather be sword fighting than stuck here, making tea. In general, if you enjoy farming/crafting games and admire a bit of a narrative kick, you’ll enjoy it.

You’ll be tempted to stay home to finish Mindlock: The Apartment in one go, as it’s a funny-creepy story packed with great gameplay and wrapped up in impressive production values.

Though it would have benefited from more restraint, Hyperdrive Inn is a wild, multidimensional journey through a kaleidoscope of the possible and the impossible alike, with so much to see that you’ll need multiple playthroughs to experience the fullness of it.