More personal family drama than superhero extravaganza, The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit packs most of its punch in the quiet emotional moments that make it well worth a couple hours to play.

More choice-driven visual novel than pure adventure, the first half Herald‘s four parts is admirable in many ways, with memorable characters and a slow-burning story that sucks you in and successfully tackles heavy topics without losing its charm.

Very self-aware of being a prequel to a bestseller, Before the Storm puts fan service and farfetched melodrama above cohesive storytelling, resulting in a superficial and disappointing experience.

Done Running is a strong opener for Clementine’s final story, successfully exploring the theme of motherhood while providing the usual dose of zombies and human drama.

Unless you're already a die-hard fan of Myst clones, RHEM 2 is probably not the game for you.

Despite a promising hook and a convincing immersion into 1940s Italy, Martha Is Dead caters to a tiny audience willing to put up with disturbing themes, game-crashing bugs, and little sense of adventure.

More an incoherent collection of jump scares than a horror game, Layers of Fear occasionally spooks but doesn’t make much of a lasting impression.

The Detail sets out to provide a memorable police thriller with visual flair, but can’t quite seal the deal in either storytelling or gameplay across its three-part narrative arc.

Everything just falls all to pieces in the execution, specifically every element of character interaction (which is 80% of the game). It's frustrating to the point of bafflement at times, to want to care so much about the story, but feel so stifled by the atrocious dialogue and unfriendly interaction system.

Similarly to its predecessor, a striking presentation is not enough for Layers of Fear 2 to overcome a jumbled menagerie of cliches, jump scares, and overwrought writing.

If you're looking for a really great graphic adventure game, give "Circle of Blood" a try, but resist the temptation to pick up its sequel. Like the game's title implies, it’s all smoke and mirrors, and very little substance.

The production values place Erica in good company as an FMV psychological thriller, but with a near total absence of gameplay and a plot that struggles to consistently thrill, what’s left is an underwhelming choose-your-own-adventure tale that leaves a poor lingering impression.

Regardless, the gorgeous look and feel of the game is poorly served by bad design decisions and ultimately fails as an enjoyable experience.

Fans of CSI-type games may find it makes the grade, but for everyone else, there’s just not enough here to warrant much of a look.

With its five episodes now complete, Song of Horror’s obtuse puzzles, meandering story and frustratingly unintuitive gameplay result in an experience that’s rarely scary but often exasperating.

Twin Mirror is DONTNOD’s attempt to do something outside of their usual wheelhouse, but its poorly executed story, tedious investigation process and excruciatingly uninteresting main character prevent the game from meeting the standard of quality audiences have come to expect from the studio.

As the first commercial installment in on ongoing series, Rusty Lake Hotel comes with both story and gameplay reservations for newcomers, and only escape-the-room fans should bother checking it out.

Perhaps best left locked in the past, The Silver Case is not worth looking into unless you REALLY like visual novels and Suda51 and have a lot of patience.

The many Nancy Drew fans and DS adventure gamers may be interested in this title, but I can’t really recommend it to any audience. Even for a younger gamer, the repetitive gameplay will likely get boring before the end, and the tedium will quickly be felt by a more seasoned adventure gamer.

Mysterious Cities of Gold faithfully recreates the look of the television show, but its shallow, repetitive, and unimaginative gameplay should have you prospecting somewhere else.

Releasing for a budget price doesn't excuse mediocre puzzle design, heavy repetition and a story with so little coherence.

Vane manages to successfully present an intriguingly surreal world, but its aimless story and execution keep players from deriving much satisfaction from visiting it.

Unless you're a glutton for punishment, avoid 15 Days. There are much better adventure games-or interactive stories, for that matter-to be played.

Perhaps devoted casual game fans will have some tolerance for this type of hollow experience, but ultimately The Tiny Bang Story's pieces just don't add up to a fulfilling adventure in the end.

The Sundew is very nice to look at and attempts to use its cyberpunk setting to cover intriguing thematic ground, but its story, gameplay and presentation come up short in just about every other way that matters.

A positive late-game change in design ethos and cute atmospheric graphics can’t save Tales of the Neon Sea from a lack of story coherency, tedious gameplay, and poor writing.

Fans of the show will enjoy it as a quick diversion; hardcore adventure fans will definitely not get their money's worth.

Play this game if you enjoy feeling hopeless and frustrated or are just plain curious as to how a game would specifically seek to bring about such a feeling. Otherwise, you'd be wise not to bother.

What Happened is an abstract first-person acid trip through a troubled teenaged mind that is impressive both visually and aurally, but it has very little gameplay and fumbles the delivery of its narrative with barely anything new to say through the entire second half.

Although Freakpocalypse – Part 1: Hall Pass to Hell ends a little prematurely, this pun-packed and polished traditional point-and-click series debut should appeal both to fans of the Cyanide & Happiness web comic and genre aficionados looking for a fun cartoon-styled adventure.

The puzzles make an effort to redeem Last Labyrinth, but with its already unsatisfying narrative stretched even thinner by tedious pacing and unnecessary repetition, it’s best to avoid the trap of playing this one.

With minimal storytelling, characterization or interaction, little direction and even less feedback, TARTARUS will only appeal to a small subset of players who would appreciate a DOS-like command line experience in their first-person sci-fi adventures.

The highly unpolished Dream tries to straddle the line between a puzzle-solving and exploration game, but ultimately doesn’t succeed at either.

The Inpatient sounds amazing on paper, but the terror is watered down so quickly and to such a large degree that it manages to make three hours feel easily twice as long, and not in a good way.

While the offbeat humor will likely hold a certain charm for select audiences, Ferris Mueller’s Day Off lacks a substantial gameplay experience to go with it.

Spirit of the North may look as nice as it sounds, but it’s largely disappointing and unforgivably boring, offering only a superficial story and sorely lacking interesting exploration.

This contributes to the overall feeling that A Stroke of Fate: Operation Valkyrie is exactly what it is: about half of a game. It's got pretty good writing, a decent aptitude for historical authenticity, and entirely okay art design, but it's wrapped up in a very bland package that lacks ambition, depth, length, and a single moment of tolerable voice acting.

A long-winded Myst-like puzzle game that will likely appeal to the hardcore gamer only.

Memoranda is visually stunning with an inviting atmosphere, but the lack of both plot and puzzle logic is too great to overcome.

Generally a frustrating and unrewarding game, with the ultimate anti-payoff. I can't even sincerely recommend it to even the most ardent Ripper historian.

Bloodshore delivers what it advertises: as a true interactive movie, it provides some decent schlock here and there, but ultimately its narrative and characters come up lacking.

Fort Solis is a bland sci-fi adventure that sacrifices interesting gameplay in its attempt to provide a cinematic experience.

Next Life is fairly lengthy, probably 15+ hours of playtime, but it's not quality time because of the abundance of backtracking and slow animations.

In spite of all the similarities, Miami Law turned out to be a better game than Jake Hunter: Detective Chronicles—but not by much. Miami Law has higher production values and a more ambitious scope, but overall these games share a surprising number of pitfalls, which leaves me wondering who they were designed for.

There's some real scares to be found, but illogical puzzles and a confusing plot make Anna a different kind of horror to play.

Although much more playable on standard PCs, Alice is a great idea lost amid mountains of technical issues in VR. If you have endless amounts of patience and like Lewis Carroll a whole heck of a lot, this is your game. Otherwise, you probably won’t find it your cup of tea.

A potentially interesting exploration of depression let down by poor storytelling and dearth of gameplay, Into A Dream is more likely to put you to sleep than rivet you.

Despite its few moments of levity, however, the surreal nature of the storyline remains a little too odd throughout, and the repetitive nature of the gameplay makes Flower, Sun and Rain more of a slog to play through than it is enjoyable.

The Great Perhaps has a lot of good ideas yet fails to devote enough attention to them, raising lots of questions but not answering many. While the artwork and music are highlights, they’re not enough to balance out what is otherwise a disappointing experience.

No evolution here; just a splicing of new and old, resulting in more frustration than fun.

There is just too little done right throughout its 5-8 hours of play time (or much longer if you don't save regularly or have to replay minigames excessively) to recommend to anyone.

The Preposterous Awesomeness of Everything only half lives up to its name, wrapping a clever bit of satirical absurdity up in a self-confessed underwhelming adventure game experience.

Series fans may get a mild kick out of the latest case for Lindsay and the gang, but few others will find the point of exploring these Crimes of Passion, as there’s just not enough of significance to seek out here.

With decent art and sound design, as well as simple and generally straightforward gameplay, the news certainly isn’t all bad, but Detective Hayseed falls far short of the grand Hollywood standards it espouses. If you’re really in the mood for some crude humor (that’s actually funny), you’d be better off picking up an old copy of Leisure Suit Larry instead.

The game has its moments and a few interesting ideas, but the experience as a whole is so irritating, with its constantly grating voices, bad writing and dull gameplay, that you barely register the positive.

Although it is possible to overlook the somewhat pre-dated graphics, poor elements in both plot and puzzle design taint what could otherwise have been an excellent game. With its short length and $20 price point, I simply cannot recommend The Arrangement.

Agatha Christie was obviously a masterful author, and The A.B.C. Murders could have been an engaging interactive companion to one of her most famous works. It's too bad the gameplay is so atrocious that even a good story couldn't make up for it.

It's easy to pick up and play in short bursts, which does suit a handheld if you're looking for a budget time-waster, but in the end, this body of evidence should steer most people away from a game that's guilty of sucking all the life out of its own potential.

Angelo and Deemon attempts to pay homage to the classic age of adventure gaming, but outside of a promising early premise it fails to deliver on its potential. Between frustrating puzzles and an exasperating translation, there are few reasons to travel down this highway to hell.

Kate Walker’s latest expedition to save the hapless Youkols is fraught with development missteps on multiple fronts, making Syberia 3 a mammoth disappointment.

Overall, Dead Reefs offers plenty of atmosphere that teases with its potential, but really suffers from its make-shift story and weak gameplay, made worse still with poor controls.

Apart from a few pulse-pounding moments in an otherwise generic haunted house story, the weakest link in Silver Chains is that it’s just not very scary or engaging enough to survive as an adventure game otherwise.

A muddled adventure game with little inspiration, even though it pretends to be Hitchcock-inspired. Lacking any depth or real intelligence, The Final Cut deserves to be left on the cutting room floor.

Although it delivers an abundance of horrifying imagery, the indiscriminately gratuitous Lust for Darkness falls short of delivering a truly engaging Lovecraft-meets-sex-cult experience throughout its brief three-hour play time.

With three chapters down and one to go, the Doorways series still lacks the kind of compelling story or gameplay needed for a successful horror game.

Eleusis starts off promisingly enough, but well-appointed graphics can’t make up for the lackluster story and generally poor gameplay.

Try MOTD only if you are willing to put up with rude character dialogue and idiotic puzzle solutions. If not, wait for House of Tales to release "The Moment of Silence."

Even so, while the tragic backstory is worth seeing through and the cell phone concept is novel for a while, all that’s left beyond that is a poorly-paced exploration in the dark, punctuated by a series of startling yet repetitive ghost encounters. So unless that’s your idea of a good time, this is one number that’s probably not worth picking up.

As a first-person platformer, Unknown Fate has some interesting ideas; as an adventure game it is ultimately a frustrating experience.

With a retail price of $19.99, this game is being billed as a budget title, but it's still the shortest DS adventure game out there, and it's not worth the price.

There is very little about CSI: Fatal Conspiracy that would appeal to non-fans of the series.

NightCry is confusing mess of a game that nevertheless manages to provide a bit of schlocky B movie horror fun, particularly for those with fond memories of Clock Tower.

While the story and entertaining characters will keep you engaged until the end of The Uncertain: Light at the End, you will still need to wait for the next episode to (hopefully) discover who wins the battle between humans and robots.

More often than not, though, it ends up being the most painful, soul-destroying, stressful, rather-stick-a-rusty-nail-in-my-eye excuse for an adventure game I have ever played.

Of Bird and Cage is an experimental music album that pairs interactive elements with the songs to create a unique experience. However, the game is plagued by bad mechanics and a story that is uninteresting and devoid of nuance.

All told, it took me a little under eight hours to finish Undercover: Dual Motives, which would have been an acceptable length in a better game. As it is, the meagre storyline, uninspired puzzles, and limited exploration already seem stretched at such a modest play time, and even fans of Operation Wintersun will find this handheld successor a shallow and unrewarding experience.

While it remains an innovative and highly laudable idea which I hope will one day be put to better use, in Jazz and Faust it fails to be more than a misguided gimmick. The ‘two adventures in one’ angle fails because even with this feature, the game is extremely short.

Beyond KURSK‘s virtual tour of the ill-fated titular submarine, this self-proclaimed “adventure documentary” works as neither a compelling adventure game nor a fact-based documentary of the mysterious disaster.

Monumental feels like an homage to the heyday of bad Myst clones that no one should be particularly nostalgic for.

9 Elefants effortlessly copies what should have been a successful formula on paper, but a lack of puzzle variety and story relevance causes most redeeming qualities to get lost in translation.

Possibly the worst adventure game of 2003, guaranteed to piss off both adventurers and twitchers.

Like a vampire out in the midday sun, Dracula 4 is a short-lived and painfully weak episodic prelude that should be consigned back to its coffin until the series develops some real bite.

Instead of a labor of love, Forever Worlds plays more like a last-minute, pieced-together disaster. A waste of time and money guaranteed to disappoint adventure gamers with its complete lack of depth, user-friendliness, and sincerity.

Various puzzles of seemingly frustrating insignificance litter the entire experience.

Artematica’s video game adaptation of Morbus Gravis is underdeveloped, unbalanced, and borderline unplayable. Only the most dedicated of Druuna fans need subject themselves to the game’s insurmountable frustrations.

Go home, watch the show for free, and save your money for much, much better games.

Full Pipe's initial charm and intriguing concept soon give way to a tedious and frustrating gameplay experience. It has its moments, but if the complete lack of story doesn't alienate most adventure fans, the poor quality of puzzles mostly likely will.

In summary, CSI: Deadly Intent is an entirely lacklustre game. The return to traditional form will please those put off by the casual surprise of last year, but even that enthusiasm won’t last for long.

Heaven may be a beautiful place to visit, but there's not nearly enough to do here to fill its few hours, let alone an eternity.

The DS is capable of better, and even diehard fans of the show won't miss much by passing on this game.

In all, it took less than an hour to complete this episode. Hardly anything has happened so far in this king's tale, and it's hard to tell if the series is going somewhere or not.

With its barest of storylines, over-simplified gameplay, and lack of creativity overall, this beautiful game shimmers superficially before evaporating into nothingness.

As much as I like NCIS, if this game were a cup of coffee Gibbs would spit it out and throw it in the bin.

Dead Mountaineer's Hotel is almost a case study of what an adventure game shouldn't be, which is all the more unfortunate considering its immense potential.

The Jolly Gang's Spooky Adventure focuses neither on the gang nor on the spooks, and offers at best a couple hours of lighthearted but linear, generic casual adventuring.

If you love solving puzzles you may enjoy One Against All, particularly if this is your first Red Johnson adventure, but this sequel is overrun with flaws, and if you're in it for the story and characters, look elsewhere.

Alone in the Park offers a different approach to treasure hunting, though it’s anything but a pleasant, annoyance-free afternoon stroll.

Dream Chamber feels like a game born out of good ideas that lost their way and were abandoned halfway through, leaving a curious collection of ill-fitting pieces in the opening installment.