Captain Disaster in Death Has a Million Stomping Boots is a lighthearted and enjoyable point-and-click adventure with a good story and plenty of humour to help overcome the modest presentation and a few noticeable weaknesses.

Although The House of Da Vinci is slightly marred by persnickety mechanics and the occasionally frustrating puzzle, exploring the mind of a genius by reverse engineering his inventions will pull you into a gorgeous Renaissance world and keep you challenged throughout.

While not flawless and more focused on narrative than puzzles, SIMULACRA manages to be a fun experience by offering more player agency than its lost phone contemporaries, throwing players into an ongoing missing persons investigation – with a supernatural twist.

Presented as a mockumentary, The Mind of Marlo delivers a short, hilariously down-the-earth story despite the wildly absurd nature of its premise.

Although modestly designed, A Tale of Caos: Overture does many things right, including some that aren’t easy to pull off, offering some genuinely funny moments as well as some truly head-scratching puzzles.

Its interesting story and characters are the highlights of The St Christopher’s School Lockdown, though a lack of polish and some questionable design decisions prevent them from shining quite as brightly as they might.

A challenging but fair science fiction adventure, Tardy’s unique look, direct inventory manipulation mechanics, and interesting story and characters easily overshadow a few interface and localization issues.

Earthworms is a solid point-and-click adventure across the board, although your appreciation of it will surely depend on your reaction to its utterly surreal nature.

Hostil feels like the bare-bones outline of a survival tale in an alien landscape. There’s enough effort and polish to demonstrate a legitimate attempt at a serious narrative, but it’s disappointingly hamstrung by its own brevity to really be effective.

The Painscreek Killings is an engrossing, complex, challenging murder mystery that makes you feel like a real investigator. Dig out your notepad; it’s time to uncover the secrets this sleepy, abandoned town is hiding.

STAY is a game that requires dedication, both to its digital protagonist and its puzzle solving, and features the kind of narrative that’s best digested via discussion with others who’ve played it. Eccentricities aside, it provides the kind of fodder that transcends the superficial and is recommended for anybody willing to face a slice of real-world drama.

Just like its predecessor, MIAZMA or the Devil’s Stone provides a lot of charming B movie-type fun, with a story that will keep you engaged all the way through. Even though its ending is rushed and has only an English dub, FMV mystery fans should definitely give this one a try.

Stonewall Penitentiary offers an interactive thriller of murder and paranoia in an atmospheric setting filled with the tortured ghosts of its past. It looks fairly dated and certainly doesn’t tread any revolutionary new ground, but it succeeds at what it sets out to do: to be a satisfyingly entertaining experience from beginning to end.

A linear experience where you’re told what to do almost every step of the way, Devil in the Capital still manages to offer a brief bit of fun for those just looking to point-and-click their way through a rarely-explored cultural setting.

Tequila Works delivers again with The Invisible Hours, giving players an intriguing voyeur role in a genuinely interesting mystery populated by an unforgettable cast. Doing it all in VR is just the icing on the cake.

Consistent enjoyment of AntVentor is hindered by its gameplay frustrations, but its charming main character and gorgeous visual design make for an interesting first stepping stone for the rest of the trilogy.

With a lot of gimmicky, trial-and-error-based audio puzzles connected by a bit of light exploration, Lisssn has little to recommend it save for those who like poking and prodding things just to see what happens.

Short and sweet, The Search’s slideshow-style adventuring isn’t particularly challenging on the puzzle front but may leave you contemplating your own creativity after the experience.

Code 7’s thoughtful combination of hacking sim mechanics and modernized text adventure set the stage for a compelling sci-fi drama. If future installments are as good as the free prologue and first commercial episode, Code 7 is one cyberpunk indie you won’t want to miss.

Shrug Island is a short but scenic getaway with a tropical sorbet-flavored design that provides a relaxing experience of gentle puzzling fun.

For fans of Escape Rooms, the puzzle-centric The Initiate does an excellent job of scratching a hard-to-satisfy itch for many hours, and does so in a fair way that hardly ever feels cheap.

Although still lacking much challenge beyond working through its more confusing story, Dead Secret Circle is a longer and more diverse game than its predecessor with the same creepy, immersive atmosphere introduced in the series debut.

The Birdwatcher makes for a somewhat enjoyable walking tour of Norrköping, but the detachment of story and gameplay makes for a surprisingly disengaging mystery.

Much like its shorter predecessor, the magnitude of negatives outweigh the positives in Red Comrades 3. It has its amusing moments, but eventually the gameplay just feels like a slog and the story doesn’t provide much reward for sticking with it to the end.

Destination Primus Vita‘s shallow puzzles are buoyed by lush, creative visuals and a thoughtful story to make for a fun exercise in exploration and discovery in this first-person, character-driven narrative through a high-tech ethereal dreamscape.

Lovers of point-and-click adventures should enjoy the funny and compelling first installment of tiny & Tall: Gleipnir, providing you can overlook some broken English and perhaps the occasional glitch.

Arkhangel offers some fascinating lore for those with the patience to see it through, but obstructing enjoyment are a number of unfortunate shortcomings.

Despite its weighty subject matter, Sagebrush keeps from tipping over with a sophisticated balance between environmental storytelling and eerie desolation.

There’s some interesting background teased here, but Rogue Quest is way too short, starts unexpectedly in the middle of the story, and doesn’t really maintain interest even throughout its extremely brief length.

While it falls a little short of wowing with its story or conclusion, Blind brings a compelling atmosphere and enough interesting ideas to the table to make it an intriguing proposition among VR puzzle thrillers.

Although it sports some incredible artwork and a few interesting plot twists, Repentant doesn’t come close to achieving the heights of its predecessor, Little Kite.

Unapologetically aping Ridley Scott’s Alien, the debut installment of The Outpost Nine seeks like-minded fans who yearn for a bygone era of sci-fi. The devotion to a tried-and-true formula ultimately steals away a lot of potential, though a decent foundation is constructed for future episodes to improve upon.

Despite the vagueness of its larger mystery, for players who love disaster thrillers, especially those with maniacal killers in them, The Long Reach offers plenty of twists and scares.

With the right expectations, The Cabinets of Doctor Arcana can provide some solid gothic puzzling fun for several hours, though not much has been done to deviate from the same types of challenges we’ve seen a thousand times before.

At under an hour, Shiver is a budget horror title through and through, but even by casual standards it is bound to disappoint. While the suspenseful early build-up shows some promise, it soon becomes apparent that there was never much behind the misleading facade.

Although short and fairly easy, Yeli Orog achieves its goal of providing an interesting journey for the senses that melds an appealing real-life location with a surreal exploration of a fictional world.

Uniquely enigmatic but occasionally tedious, Path to Mnemosyne creates a dizzying world of alluring visuals to fill with a generally gratifying collection of puzzles based on observation, memorization and timing.

The few complex puzzles in Without Escape tease a more involved room-escape adventure with greater potential, but as it stands, there’s simply no escaping the fact that it isn’t much fun.

The Express Killer’s eagerness to entertain is a breath of fresh air at first, but its relentless surrealism and some unnecessary pixel hunting soon undermine its creative mini-games and plot twists.

A point-and-click adventure based heavily on history’s greatest tango singer, Tango benefits from excellent production values and a promising story premise, though it turns out to be merely an abbreviated introduction with very little challenge so far.

More than a little buggy, easy to finish, and short on characterization, The Way of Love: Sub Zero is a rather empty-feeling adventure offset just enough by its premise and backdrop to give it a quaint bit of charm.

Short and sweet, Abha: Light on the Path is a visual treat, though some more narrative depth would have been highly beneficial.

Stylish to look at but short on substance, Lovecraft Quest: A Comix Game has a few fun puzzles to beef up its brief story, but too much repetition stops it from becoming a Great One.

CINERIS SOMNIA‘s dated controls and punishingly slow pace often make it a very difficult adventure to enjoy as much its memorable story and atmosphere deserve.

A fantasy tale with charming artwork, music and a wide spectrum of adorable characters, NAIRI combines a visual novel and point-and-click puzzle elements into a heartwarming adventure that isn’t fully finished just yet.

With its brain-bending puzzles, delightful story, and all around impressive fairy-tale-ness, Beyond the Sky is a point-and-click adventure not to be missed.

Although light in puzzle complexity and narrative depth, the side-scrolling Lupus in Fabula delivers a memorable experience that has much to delight. Its characters, panoramas and irreverent, absurdist comedy come together to create a farcical adventure that is quite distinct and helps it stand apart from other offerings in the marketplace.

Though it suffers somewhat from a lack of polish, Nelson and the Magic Cauldron is a fun, if not necessarily funny, inventory-filled point-and-click experience.

The shine of Moon Castle’s complex and challenging puzzles is tarnished by its glitchiness and lack of polish.

The mystery takes a while to catch up to the intrigue of its captivating Swedish locales, but once The Fall of April rises to the occasion it provides another highly entertaining entry in the Carol Reed series.

The second Initiate outing replicates much of what made the first game so enjoyable, this time with three playable protagonists sharing the spotlight. But the vague nuggets of narrative still fail to deliver, and are once again easily eclipsed by the satisfaction you’ll get instead from cracking the many puzzles.

The best game yet in the series, The Room Three is the first to really qualify as a full-fledged puzzle-adventure game, with varied areas to explore, an assortment of new challenges to overcome, and a continuation of the intriguing storyline established in earlier games.

Easy and colourful, She and the Light Bearer should appeal mostly to younger children, although the drawn-out nature of the dialog may strain their patience.

Though it doesn’t quite disguise the lack of variety in puzzles and locales, Tick Tock: A Tale for Two offers a fairly novel collaborative two-player approach to problem solving.

If a unique and lengthy visual novel is what you’re craving, WILL: A Wonderful World could fill that particular void. So long as you can accept its rapid tonal shifts, constant despair, and uneven writing, the fate-shaping wordplay delivers something fresh and enticing.

Yorkshire Gubbins is a short and easy but hilarious escapade through a small town filled with memorable characters and quirky puzzles. It won’t pose much in the way of difficulty, but its biting British humour makes it hard not to keep playing, just to see how it all turns out.

A loving homage to the Myst series, Myha: Return to the Lost Island has everything that characterized its iconic inspiration: lovely locales, a world of depth and complexity, and puzzles that will tax the little grey cells.

Short but surreal, 103 presents an intriguing exploration of a dreamlike series of corridors that you can practically complete with both hands tied behind your back.

Essentially five short games in one, Photographs presents a series of dark, disturbing, and above all compelling tales of woe interspersed with their own diverting puzzle minigames ranging from easy to challenging.

The Mystery of Woolley Mountain is a heaping helping of quirky farce, whose occasional foibles are easily atoned for by the eccentric puzzles and general good humour.

3 GEEKS had the potential to be a fun comical romp, but with its near-incomprehensible English translation, clashing art styles, occasional technical hiccup, and patience-testing gameplay, the end result falls far short of its promise.

While The Fall of Lazarus is light on puzzles and blandly produced, its story packs a punch in dealing with relevant real-world issues that will leave you thinking about the game long after you have finished.

Like a trip through a prop-filled haunted attraction, The Witch’s House MV captivates with preset scares and gory imagery, an onslaught of retro-imbued horror, inventive puzzles and a surprisingly whimsical attitude toward the protagonist’s frequent death.

Along with a number of rough edges, Elea’s attempts at surrealism on a spaceship prevent this first-person explorer from delivering a compelling narrative experience in its episodic debut.

It’s a little rougher around the edges than Michalski’s previous masterpiece, but if you’re looking for a coming-of-age story with an edge that laces the banalities of a troubled life with pure elements of horror, then don’t be afraid to enter Lorelai’s nightmare.

An attempt to right the wrongs of a terrible second game goes wayward, as Lucius III misses the mark in nearly every way.

Evoking the feel of classic Sierra games but without their sudden deaths and dead ends, Sumatra: Fate of Yandi is a fun, enjoyable tale of survival in a lush rainforest, only marginally brought down by a weak ending.

STARDROP is a nice little sci-fi adventure for those who prefer story and solitary exploration over gameplay.

Although light on actual gameplay, ZED is a quirky, beguiling exploration of character where fragments of memory spawn an imaginative journey through the haunts and grottos of the mind.

Despite an underwhelming ending, Harvester of Dreams’s strong start, intriguing main setting and attention to little details makes this an enchanting journey to embark on.

Smile For Me combines an engaging story with fresh gameplay ideas, a relatable and quick-witted cast of characters, and an impressive sense of style in a memorable experience that is worth any adventure gamer’s time.

Taking the retro look to a whole new level with its distinctive 2-bit(ish) graphics, The Land of the Seazogs is a fairly fun and challenging little science fiction point-and-click adventure.

It’s a short and simple point-and-click adventure, but Clam Man is so packed full of grin-inducing jokes that it’s bound to brighten up your day.

It requires a great deal of patience and perseverance, but those who enjoy exploring and can embrace the nonsensical and peculiar should appreciate the surreal charms of Strange Telephone and its journey into the unknown.

As its title suggests, Yet Another Hero Story is a very by-the-numbers point-and-click fantasy adventure, but it’s generally a good one with great characters, a funny story and a compelling visual design.

Though it lacks the strong narrative underpinning of its better inspirations, there is a lot to like in Epitasis for those who enjoy the gameplay of The Talos Principle, The Witness and similar exploratory puzzle games.

Another quality addition to the stable of games in the Black Watchmen universe, NITE Team 4 puts players on the hot seat of an elite hacker of a clandestine organization. Although some elements could have been executed better, the main game’s 25-plus hours of cyberwarfare goodness alone make this a must-have for existing Alice & Smith fans, and a great way for genre newbies to try their hand at some pretend hacking.

Unlike its renowned predecessor by Sierra, Gold Rush! 2 fails to strike it rich. A historically interesting, slightly educational narrative can’t save the experience from its mind-numbingly easy puzzles and poor presentation in every respect.

A lush, expansive, genre-bending adventure, Golden Treasure is worth seeking out for a fresh new experience, even if not all of the game’s ambitious elements fit together snugly.

The Idiot’s Tale is just a fun game to play, with a sarcastic, irreverent humour that permeates everything and lovingly throws shade at classic adventure titles. There are a couple of potentially serious negatives, but these are completely overshadowed by the enjoyable overall experience.

While the short, casual room puzzler The Tower of Beatrice has an intriguing premise and interesting recipe potion mechanic, they simply don’t make up for the nearly non-existent story, poor English translation and largely generic gameplay.

The Black Widow is an interesting reflection on the real life case of Louisa Collins, the last woman hanged in Australia, but doesn’t provide enough depth or any surprises to make it truly memorable.

Bear With Me‘s DLC prequel episode The Lost Robots is an entertaining addition to the Paper City universe, with plenty of stylish laughs surrounding an intriguing whodunit.

Adventures of Isabelle Fine: Murder on Rails provides a fresh take on the detective investigation but gets sidetracked by overly repetitive puzzle sequences and an extraterrestrial storyline that’s not as stimulating as its human subplots.

The Subject tries to take the helpless cat-and-mouse horror of games like Amnesia and meld it with player-guided puzzle solving, but doesn’t push either angle as much as it should. The result is a middling mix of both, though a welcome casual mode implemented post-launch at least puts the focus on gameplay over survival.

Dr. Doyle and The Mystery of the Cloche Hat presents a captivating murder mystery with a fantastic old-time aesthetic and an interesting if slow-paced take on standard adventure game staples.

The five-part Odysseus Kosmos and his Robot Quest sets up an interesting sci-fi story with a beautiful pixel art presentation, but it has a number of flaws that create an uneven experience overall.

Too short for its own good, The Artifact has some fun and interesting game mechanics but the experience is over before it can leave a lasting impression.

When it isn’t bogged down by overly long conversations and cutscenes, Neofeud presents a compelling vision of the future clearly influenced by science fiction tropes of the past.

Trails and Traces is an easy, modestly designed but enjoyable little comedy about pirates, detectives and megaphones, but it ends before it’s able to fully find its footing.

As a Saw-inspired escape room adventure, Play With Me is a concept that works well on paper, but too many design choices inevitably stack up to an unsatisfying slog through one keycode puzzle after another.

Where the Bees Make Honey throws half a dozen different gameplay types at the wall, but with such an abbreviated play time very few of them are able to stick.

Player agency may be minimal throughout, but for those willing to work through all the reading, Lightstep Chronicles provides a gorgeous and compelling story of Artificial Intelligence gone horribly wrong.

Firewood is effective in its creepiness, but it’s hobbled by a confusingly disjointed story, overly simple puzzles and a brutally short playtime.

An intriguing, beautiful mystery with a deep and memorable lead character, Jenny LeClue – Detectivú delivers in just about every way.

Bad Dream: Fever rises above its predecessor due to several design improvements. While staying true to the nightmarish concept and the leaps of logic that entails, the sequel offers more solid footing for those willing to take the plunge into the surreal.

Forgiveness features a few memorable puzzles and its presentation is top-notch, but inconsistent design choices and the promise of a story that never materializes render it frustratingly unfulfilling.

The Antidote is a charming and brain-teasing throwback to the weirder adventure games from a bygone age. Its focus on abstruse puzzles might be a turn-off for newer fans of the genre, but its tightly written script and peculiar visuals offer a memorable experience that should be worth a classic adventure fan’s time.