It is absolutely comical the depths that the game stoops to in order to hold your hand.

Sadly, the largely static emotion of the narrative and the inconsequential nature of the puzzles don’t flesh out the story to great effect, turning this game into just an average game, rather than a great one.

For those wishing to concentrate solely on a story you have some influence over, the experience may prove worthwhile during the few hours it takes to complete the first time through (with diminishing returns on each replay). For those seeking a playable challenge to go with the tale, however, there isn't a whole lot here to get your blood pumping.

When it sticks with its legendary Arthurian title characters, Dance of Death: Du Lac & Fey has some charming moments, but the rest of this Victorian England hunt for Jack the Ripper is a tedious, barely interactive slog.

This unique blindness-themed side-scroller may be worth a look for fans of puzzle-platformers, but Another Sight ultimately just can’t stick the landing.

More a series of escape rooms than a full-fledged adventure, Vile Matter is a short, simple and uninspired psychological horror game that is nevertheless perfectly playable and offers a few brief moments of suspense.

Whilst a pleasant diversion, the lack of story and immersion-breaking gameplay will likely make the memory of Sea of Giants sink without trace after finishing.

A lighthearted distraction that may be more appreciated by the younger crowd, Tick’s Tales has a degree of charm but never really delves into anything more substantial or interesting.

Its over-reliance on tedious shooting creates an uneven balance of storytelling and gameplay, stymying Liberated’s otherwise thoughtful interpretation of the interactive comic.

With its surreal atmosphere and a deliberately ambiguous story that leaves many questions unanswered, Magnus Imago may reward those willing to delve deeper with plenty to think about, but it doesn’t provide much challenge or narrative resolution as a reward for your efforts.

It's certainly not a bad game, just a decidedly mediocre one, so unless you're in the mood for a fairly lightweight puzzle-adventure, a purchase is not so elementary this time.

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.

For everyone else, there’s some mild point-and-click fun to be had, but this is one adventure that’s simply too paper thin.

Indie sci-fi adventure Sol 705 is a bit of a curate’s egg: packing too many ideas into too little time, the result is charmingly odd but frustratingly undercooked.

As it is, unfortunately the game can't maintain a proper serious tone long enough to really be engrossing, and ultimately comes off as another substandard adventure with—ironically enough, considering the country of origin—a lack of polish.

Oh, the story. It promises so much, yet delivers so little.

Night Lights is a cute side-scroller with a quick pace and unique gameplay that unfortunately is a bit too buggy and ends way too soon to stand among the better puzzle-platforming adventures.

So if you’re feeling nostalgic for the bygone days of Shadowgate, or simply like your content dark and deep and don’t mind slogging through a world of hurt to get to it, Theresia may just warrant a look.

Hypnosis HD offers quite a few hours of mild entertainment, but its shallow story and awkward mixture of classic adventure and casual gaming mechanics make this lite adventure a disappointment.

Whilst its exciting plot twists are sure to have you dizzy with surprise, Vertigo ultimately fails to stand up against the weight of expectation brought about by its own name.

NeonLore’s overall quality is inconsistent, and for every beautiful vista there’s an equally awkward graphical anomaly. Yet, for all it lacks, the game’s thesis does come through, and it will undoubtedly appeal to cyberpunk fans interested in exploring a frozen moment in the terrifying world of tomorrow.

Mazovian Adventure’s rough localization and glitchiness aren’t enough to stop the occasional sparkle of fun from shining through in this throwback to Sierra-inspired comic medieval adventuring.

Whispering Willows has an engaging story and superlative production quality, but fails to build on its strengths, eventually becoming an exercise in drudgery due to its insipid quests and irritating game design.

The first commercial adventure in the Reversion series expands the storyline slightly but continues to feel insubstantial instead of ramping up either the action or the tension.

Kraken Academy!!’s strengths are largely skin deep, let down by the lack of focus and care put into its gameplay and story. Amusing, quirky characters may keep you going for a while, but this isn’t a game you really want to be stuck in as time loops repeatedly.

While the Freelance Police are just as funny and sound as good as ever, a reliance on VR gimmicks and underwhelming gameplay prevent This Time It’s Virtual! from being a notable entry in the beloved Sam & Max franchise.

While this episode still hints at the underlying brilliance of the Chapman Brothers, it ultimately mucks about in too much pre-adolescent nonsense to carry much weight or ever feel very engaging.

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.

Adventure Boy Jailbreak salvages some of the charm of its predecessor with better-quality art and music, but it’s missing some of the details that made the earlier story and gameplay experience richer.

Unfortunately, there are too many translation problems and story gaps that leave players guessing why things are happening or have come to be. Along with the poor sound quality and invisible gameplay triggers that hinder your progress unnecessarily, the end result is a promising game that never manages to rise above its modest station.

While mildly entertaining at times, Moebius is disappointingly light on the charm, intrigue, and ingenuity that marked Jane Jensen’s earlier work.

Supposedly Wonderful Future feels a bit like a cross between a heady sci-fi visual novel and a social experiment, focused on recording players’ choices when faced with moral dilemmas. Unfortunately, none of these are implemented in a way that serves the story in a meaningful way, making the experience, while unique, ultimately flat and unfulfilling.

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

Here They Lie seems like a game made for a very specific type of player who values experience over challenge or even clarity, and thus will leave many gamers cold and nonplussed at its exotic design decisions.

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.

While this episode still hints at the underlying brilliance of the Chapman Brothers, it ultimately mucks about in too much pre-adolescent nonsense to carry much weight or ever feel very engaging.

Detective Case and Clown Bot’s fun plot and interesting characters get obscured by uneven and potentially offensive jokes, one-trick gameplay, and poor audio quality.

The Magnificent Trufflepigs offers a gorgeous stroll through the English countryside which sadly gets muddied by some weak story choices and repetitive gameplay.

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.

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.

Even a lowered difficulty wouldn't be that big of a deal — sometimes I want a game so hard that my head hurts, and sometimes it's nice to relax with something simpler. But when challenge is replaced by backtracking busywork, it becomes very tedious very quickly, especially considering the game's 8 to 10 hour length.

The Blind Prophet has an appealing graphic novel aesthetic and an interesting premise, but it’s not enough to compensate for a poor translation and bland, frustrating gameplay.

The side-scrolling SAMUDRA has an admirably strong environmental message and some lovely deep-sea art, but that’s not enough to overcome the unimaginative gameplay and vague storytelling.

The highly erratic Soul Axiom is a love-hate kind of game – you’ll love it until you hate it, and vice versa. If only it knew when enough was enough.

The poorly designed game logic, lackluster characters and frustrating pixel hunts are flaws that can’t be ignored. Only dedicated fans of the Miami-based show might find this title worth the price of admission.

Sable is a visually interesting game with a unique concept and setting, but uninspired gameplay, sparse characterization and a staggering number of technical issues prevent it from realizing most of its lofty goals.

An incredible success in virtual tourism — truly brings the island of Capri to life, allowing the user to wander a real-life location at will. Far less successful as a coherent, playable game.

The Starship Damrey is a short but enjoyable space mystery that could have been so much better if it allowed you to puzzle through the enigma yourself.

As far as Double Visions goes, its pervasive blandness makes it the weakest of the series to date, and with yet another trip to Hill Valley's past, it's hard not to feel like we've been here and done all this before.

Like most Mondays, Randal’s Monday is too long and tedious; it has its moments but falls way short of being a cheeky entertainer with engaging 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.

We. The Revolution’s striking looks and memorable moments are all too often overshadowed by myriad gameplay mechanics and a constrained, confusing plot.

An ambitious sequel to 2006’s Dreamfall, Chapters is worth playing to see how the saga ends but doesn’t hold up as a standalone adventure.

Not only is there a huge amount of territory to cover and explore — a real surprise in an indie game like this — there are a lot of puzzles to solve. None of which I would call easy.

There isn't much glitz or glamour in James Noir's Hollywood Crimes, a puzzle-adventure with low production values and repetitive puzzles that even an interesting murder mystery can't overcome.

Secret Files 3 replaces romance with rocket science, but its convoluted premise, simplistic puzzles, and slapdash resolutions make it the weakest link of the trilogy.

A faltering sequel that borrows even more liberally from well-worn horror tropes than its predecessor, Outlast 2 ends up a middling entry despite its high production values and some shining moments of found footage fright.

Episode two is a definite improvement over its predecessor, but the AR-K series still has a ways to go to fulfill its potential.

House of Caravan successfully builds an eerie atmosphere of darkness, but the bare-bones story and lack of character empathy largely squander the opportunity.

Creepy Tale 2 successfully carves out a visual identity of its own without its predecessor’s troubling reliance on external influences, but it takes giant steps backward with regard to its story, puzzles, and atmosphere.

Despite embarking with a sound plan for another beautiful globe-trotting adventure, Lost Horizon 2 suffers from weary execution and assorted technical limitations, eventually losing the way to greatness and ending up in the land of the average.

Keyword: A Spider’s Thread is an ambitious light hacking game that is rough around the edges and highly implausible, but should still provide several hours of entertainment for fans of the genre.

Feeling more like Layton-lite than heavy-duty Holmes, Mystery of the Frozen City is for those who enjoy casual puzzling enough to overlook a nonsensical story.

Conspiracy! is an extremely short, moderately diverting research-based brain-teaser whose muddled attempts to satirically comment on current events never amount to much of substance.

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.

PataNoir is an amusing wordplay game that doesn’t live up to the uniqueness of its premise.

Wales Interactive has its fans (rightfully so), and they will know what they’re in for here. But for the uninitiated or those looking for a cheesy, goofy adventure story that satisfies, Mia and the Dragon Princess ultimately fails to deliver the goods.

Like its heroine, The Rockin' Dead may be pretty, but beauty is only skin deep, and to find any substance below the surface here, you're definitely going to need glasses.

Nevermind represents a worthy concept and provides an unsettling atmosphere that fans of thrillers will love, but by the time you’re starting to wonder where the story is going, you’ll realize you actually completed the game twenty minutes earlier.

Murdered: Soul Suspect is the newest addition to the small field of triple AAA adventure titles and offers some pleasant new surprises but an uneven storyline, poorly developed characters and unfocused gameplay keeps this game from rising above mediocrity.

An action-laced side-scrolling puzzler with just a hint of enigmatic story, 7th Sector’s clever and varied challenges are more fun than not, but it can be artificially difficult to reach an ending that still doesn’t provide many answers.

Alterity Experience has some really great moments of tension, but they’re tempered by a lack of any real story or character development outside of the desperate attempts to defend your home from invasion.

City Quest offers a pixelated trip down nostalgia lane but its uninspired sense of humor and lack of challenge make for a somewhat disappointing homage to golden era classics.

For Sherlock fans, I’d rank this as more of a Basil Rathbone than a Jeremy Brett on the Holmes-o-meter; somewhat enjoyable but wildly inaccurate. And for DS fans simply looking for a good adventure, I’d largely recommend holding out for better mysteries than this.

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.

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.

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.

While the puzzles are genuinely decent, only the most die-hard puzzle fanatics will likely be willing to play Dark Room a single time through, let alone all three times it will take to see everything it has to offer. For most gamers, the negatives will vastly outweigh the positives in the lackluster first episode of this horror/sci-fi adventure series.

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

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.

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

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.

It’s based on a fun idea and setting, but Jerry McPartlin isn’t nearly ambitious enough or committed enough to its humor to leave any lasting impact. What a drag.

The superficial use of Asian motifs and a playable dog protagonist aren’t enough to flesh out the universal themes of life and death in the stylish but extremely short Don’t Disturb.

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

Magnus Failure has an interesting setting with a fairly decent little set of partly illogical puzzles to solve, but really not much more than that.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

Cheeky thrills and the occasional picturesque vista can’t mask the fact that Museum: Volumes I and II feel more like incomplete sketches of a game, and not a complete picture. Each can be diverting for the very short time they last, but neither ever really fulfills the promise of what could have been.

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.

“Planet of Aping Better Movies” might be a better title for Last Frontier, a beautiful but barely interactive “us vs. them” tale whose simplistic choices negate the benefit of experiencing the conflict from both sides.

Lone McLonegan has all the throwback trappings of a Golden Age point-and-click adventure with a welcome Wild West setting, but lacks an understanding of what made those classics work, resulting in a pointless, tedious outing.

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