A co-op crime solver may sound like a dream come true for mystery fans, but although Mark & Lara: Partners in Justice ticks the right boxes, it’s far too simplistic to fulfill its potential as an enjoyable two-player investigative game.

Its stealth mechanics are basic and its hand-holding puzzle design doesn’t provide much of a challenge, but Sanity of Morris’s world, characters and story are certainly thrilling enough see this creepy X-Files-esque conspiracy through to the end.

Part noir thriller, part rumination on the human condition, and part ... something else, Backbone is stylish through and through, presenting more questions than answers but brimming with vibrantly realised characters.

The World After is a beautiful FMV adventure set in the French countryside with a fresh sci-fi take on a global pandemic, though it falls short in too many areas to make the most of its own concept.

The time, thought and care put into bringing Papetura to life is obvious on every screen of this short but very sweet journey through a vibrant papercrafted world.

The Long Gate offers a unique and beautiful way to learn electronics, and it’s still evolving, but in its current state it’s likely to be a confusing slog for many.

A gorgeous visual style, an emotive heroine, and a modern time-looping take on The Wizard of Oz with a dash of Little Red Riding Hood thrown in make Scarlet Hood and the Wicked Wood an endearing fairy tale treat.

Fast paced, fabulous looking and full of opportunities to wreak havoc, Overboard!’s endlessly entertaining choice-driven story of murder and deceit aboard a 1930s ship will have you falling hook, line and sinker.

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.

With excellent writing and a rich, surreal atmosphere, Strangeland provides a polished and imaginative experience that any point-and-click fan should enjoy, so long as you’re in the mood for its relentlessly bleak setting.

A solid addition to the puzzle box/escape room subgenre, Machinika Museum may lack the sleek polish of its more acclaimed inspirations, but it more than makes up for its modest production values with satisfying puzzles and an engaging sci-fi story.

A wild ride full of bizarre anecdotes, cryptic characters and gorgeous drives, Hitchhiker – A Mystery Game offers up more than the average road trip, though the dense dialogue and the finale’s sudden ending prevent it from reaching top gear.

Though it’s over far too soon, Repressed offers a satisfying series of challenging yet fair puzzles throughout a unique visual journey that tells a heartbreaking but surprisingly hopeful story of a wounded soul.

There are promising aspects of Don’t Forget Me, like its choice-based storyline and thought-provoking gameplay concepts, but clunky writing, poor localization and flawed puzzle implementation keep it from realizing much of its potential.

Although the titular character is disappointingly all but absent from the affair, fans of Petronella Osgood and the Weeping Angels should enjoy this voyeuristic journey through the misplaced phone of a series extra in Doctor Who: The Lonely Assassins.

The Awakening proves that the twenty years that have passed since Riddle of the Sphinx first released are but a drop in a bucket. With improved visuals, a great soundtrack, and quality-of-life improvements bolstering this tough-as-nails puzzle lover’s dream, the Toblers’ impressive archeological adventure has nicely stood the test of time.

Genesis Noir’s gorgeous graphics may be mostly in black and white, but its cosmic journey through Earth’s past is anything but, though at times it’s a little too convoluted to be as ingenious as it could have been.

Mundaun is a gripping and unique horror adventure with an immersive portrayal of rural Switzerland and a distinctive visual presentation that only gets more uncanny the longer you look at it.

While seasoned adventure gamers will have surely visited the lost city of Atlantis many times before, and this latest excursion does include a few missteps, if you have the VR hardware to play Ryte: The Eye of Atlantis, you’ll find it worth your time for its fresh take on this age-old story.

With the same charming aesthetic and just as many laughs and quirky paranormal phenomena as the first season, The Darkside Detective: A Fumble in the Dark is definitely worth playing for the comedically inclined.

The Dark Side of the Moon may be worth a look if you’re able to enjoy a low-budget interactive movie full of sci-fi silliness, but the experience is let down by the relative lack of interaction and challenge.

What it may lack in polish, Internet Court more than makes up for in the warmth and wackiness of its writing and off-the-wall premise.

In a fun and fascinating take on the future, Mutropolis offers a compelling point-and-click sci-fi experience that proves the classic adventure formula is as potent as ever.

Dripping with atmosphere, the sights and sounds of a lost end-of-the-world Nazi installation make up for a lack of interaction in Paradise Lost.

Tiny Room Stories: Town Mystery will blow away any cerebral cobwebs with its onslaught of fun, addictive brain-teasers to solve, even if their difficulty will leave some of the most seasoned puzzle solvers seriously scratching their heads.

Every moment of NUTS is surprising and delightful; its first-time developers have created a world you’ll want to spend even longer in to explore more deeply, full of fantastic design choices and an intriguing story that gets better and better as it goes along.

After surviving the first Chronicle of Innsmouth, Lone Carter returns in Mountains of Madness, which attempts to ambitiously expand its predecessor’s narrative scope but is unable to successfully scale that particular peak. There’s a lot to like and a noticeable graphical improvement, but ultimately this entry will go down as the weaker of the pair.

Mørkredd’s mechanics of staying in the light while shadows abound are engaging and fun, especially with a partner, but a focus on manual dexterity and lack of story and characters won’t appeal to adventure game purists.

Devotion’s tale of fractured memories and buried secrets provides a dark, compelling look into the depths of human frailty and desperation. It doesn’t quite reach the heights its developer achieved with Detention, but it’s a well-crafted first-person journey to a strange and unexpected place.

The lovely Lost Words has some interesting ideas and presents a well-written, authentic tale of a young girl’s grief, but uninspired platforming drags the experience down.

The cat’s out the bag: with its amusing dialogue, entertaining cast of characters and engaging plot, Inspector Waffles is a delightful pixel art romp that’ll leave you “feline” very good.

Though its short play time is almost devoid of challenge and occasionally suffers from pacing issues, Voyage is an enjoyable one- or two-player cinematic side-scrolling experience with an intriguingly cryptic story told through its lovely animated visuals.

Its visual presentation is decidedly modest, but solid brain teasers, a quirky sense of humour, and engaging computer hacking elements make Alien Function a lot of fun to play even without any prior knowledge of the Sir Typhil series.

Though a bit of puzzle repetition has begun to creep in, this fourth entry into Fireproof’s excellent The Room series otherwise continues to innovate with inventive challenges and interesting locations, all contained within a single dollhouse.

During the hacking portions, you’ll feel smart and invested in your detective work. During the story/chat portions, you’ll likely find yourself often bored, distracted, and wondering how much longer you’ll have to keep smashing random buttons on your keyboard. GREYHAT is a game with a great concept and many good ideas that needs to de-emphasize its weak parts and focus on the well-realized fun of hacking into other people’s computers.

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.

A lost-memory crime drama told through a unique take on the classic text adventure, unmemory is a slightly derivative yet incredibly compelling story that creates a vividly nostalgic atmosphere with its excellent writing and graphic design sensibilities.

What it lacks in challenge or stylish graphics, Clarevoyance makes up with its light resource-management mechanics and conversation-heavy gameplay to provide a fun diversion into the local history of its unique maritime Canadian setting.

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.

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.

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.

It’s more of a slicker rehash of its predecessor than a sequel with all-new ideas, but Little Nightmares II successfully delivers big thrills in a game so eerily atmospheric it feels like it could have been ripped straight from the subconscious mind of a terrified child.

Shady Part of Me offers an interesting and entertaining take on the light/shadow dichotomy used as a puzzle mechanic, though the lack of a strong narrative to bind it all together (when one is clearly hinted at throughout) does raise a single but important warning flag.

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.

A few technical issues can’t mar Dragon Audit’s heartwarming fantasy tale of two people from different species and different worlds coming together in humourous and unexpected ways.

TOHU serves up a charming little sci-fi narrative in a lovely cartoon style, but outside of one particularly egregious arcade sequence, its true strength is in its variety of interesting puzzles.

While certain areas of Sarawak are more developed than others, the end result is a well-crafted, beautiful mystery adventure with a uniquely literary feel that’s cleverly enhanced by an inspired interface.

Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Heart of the Forest is an impeccably written story that dynamically reacts to player input and choice. Though it presents no real challenge, fans of both visual novels and the World of Darkness tabletop game will find it a captivating and highly replayable role-playing experience.

What A Painter’s Tale lacks in cohesive presentation and substantial gameplay, it more than makes up for with a memorable story of a lovely little town facing enforced relocation. Plus, you can even learn a little bit of real-life history from it.

Henry Mosse and the Wormhole Conspiracy blasts off for a fun classic-styled space adventure across two beautifully diverse galaxies with only a couple of bumps on re-entry.

What it lacks in its limited characters and locations, Tell Me Why makes up with a personal, intimate narrative that nicely captures the essence of everyday life and offers a much-needed examination of the human condition, all wrapped in a beautiful presentation in true DONTNOD style.

ENCODYA’s occasionally clunky mechanics and obscure puzzles are more than compensated for by its intricately created cyberpunk world, gorgeous aesthetic and array of interesting characters.

The Medium creates a nightmarish limbo for untethered souls in which players must evade, outwit and even aid its horrific inhabitants, but the strong atmosphere and effective scares aren’t enough to completely atone for a poorly constructed story and one-dimensional protagonist.

The Longing uses isolation, open space and freedom of choice to send players on a year-long exploration of loneliness, identity and meaning in real time. It won’t be to everybody’s taste, but those who commit to seeing it through will find a surprising, poignant and rewarding experience unlike anything else out there.

Despite a few irritating technical issues that detract from the experience, The Button Witch is an otherwise enjoyable adventure full of fantastic puzzles, wrapped up in a cutesy package with a fitting, chilled soundtrack.

Despite some notable interface limitations, the unique LOVE: A Puzzle Box Filled with Stories succeeds in delivering an interwoven anthology of heartwarming personal tales in the style of an apartment-sized Rubik’s Cube.

Orwell’s Animal Farm is a very good reimagining of the famous novel, staying true to the spirit of the dystopic Republic of the Animals. Though it lacks the kind of puzzles and gameplay to make it a full-fledged adventure, it’s a must-play for those who would enjoy a well-executed exploration of a classic novel.

Though not as polished as its famed inspirations, Krabat and the Secret of the Sorbian King does a good job of evoking the spirit of LucasArts and Sierra classics.

The frustration of one or two ambiguous puzzles can’t dampen one’s spirits for The Hand of Glory, a love letter to traditional point-and-click adventure games with its own sense of fun and wit.

A mystery-laced vision of Sweden during the pandemic, Quarantine Diary provides an engagingly resplendent journey for Carol Reed fans and newcomers alike to undertake.

Oniria Crimes introduces a welcome variation on mystery adventure conventions in an intriguing, attractive futuristic noir world with a rich backstory to be discovered. While some aspects could be improved, it’s definitely worth a look for players seeking out something different from the usual kind of detective game.

While its story relies on well-worn clichés, Call of the Sea is an otherwise compelling supernatural tale of self-discovery that will dazzle your eyes, delight your ears, and delightfully rack your brain.

With such finicky, problematic controls, a bit of third-party key-mapping magic may be your best bet to bring out the fun, colourful, puzzle-solving romp through ancient ruins at the heart of An Interesting Journey of Monsieur PAF.

A brief, simple point-and-click adventure set in a child’s dream, Enypnion is beautiful and charming while it lasts but without enough depth to truly be memorable.

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.

Sporting improved visual and audio quality, the remastered Sam & Max Save the World lovingly updates the episodic classic, though a few tweaks and changes may leave it just shy of being the definitive version for some longtime fans of the original.

Though its puzzles are simplistic, Nine Witches: Family Disruption is both an audio-visual retro treat and an amusing supernatural WWII romp that is bound to be a winner for those who can handle a little combat in their adventures.

Its bold mixture of traditional adventure with a turn-based RPG combat system means The Girl of Glass won’t be for everybody, but those who are open to its genre-bending experimentation and exploration will find it a beautiful, captivating experience.

Monkeys & Dragons tries very hard to put players in mind of LucasArts classics, but its poorly designed puzzles, buggy gameplay and underdeveloped story demonstrate little understanding of what made those games work.

Visage drapes over you like some ghastly blanket, smothering you with unsettling ambiance and high-quality scares. Though it fumbles a certain stretch of gameplay, its otherwise meticulously designed structure, head-scratching puzzles, and creative manipulation of level design more than pick up any slack.

Just Take Your Left is a skillfully animated wacky cartoon adventure that will frustrate as much as it entertains due to its bugs and poor player feedback.

Controlling a pair of robots step-by-step through a series of manual dexterity challenges may not qualify as an adventure, but the charming Biped is a fun diversion, especially in co-op mode.

The simplistic gameplay can be underwhelming, but I Am Dead is a beautiful, well-written adventure that approaches the subject of death with warmth and compassion in what is really a celebration of life.

Rallying in its final third to finish on a high note, Sense – A Cyberpunk Ghost Story just manages to overcome its earlier humdrum sections with a multilayered tale of deceased souls.

Ann Achronist: Many Happy Returns is a game brimming with colorful art and characters, well-crafted puzzles, and brilliant ideas, though the execution of some of its loftier ideas is uneven in both writing and gameplay.

A Hand With Many Fingers sets a creepy tone with its dimly lit CIA archive environment and ominous sound design, but its drab visuals, dry story, and simplistic gameplay loop fail to spark much interest.

Eternal Hope is a side-scrolling platforming adventure about love, death, and tragedy in a fantasy postapocalyptic land that is as fun as it is gorgeous.

If you like Leisure Suit Larry games, you’ll love Wet Dreams Dry Twice for hitting every mark you expect from the series, accompanied by a strong story and modern-day identity all its own.

With colourful hand-drawn animation and plenty of dino facts to learn for kids and adults alike, Zniw Adventure excels in providing a fun ’90s-tinged trip down memory lane, though it includes certain outdated mechanics that would have been best left extinct.

It’s a bit too relaxed at times, but Carto is full of heart and almost impossibly cute, sending players on a warm, fuzzy journey into the not-so-wild blue yonder to discover what it means to be far from home.

Transient deserves recognition for seamlessly concocting a stunning blend of sci-fi and Lovecraftian horror, but it deserves more space to fully come to fruition than what it’s afforded here.

While it doesn’t do anything new and even scales back its pure horror atmosphere, Little Hope greatly impresses in other ways with a more intriguing narrative and incredibly tense – and fun – interactive sequences. If you’re new to Supermassive’s games, this may be the best jumping-in point so far.

Those who enjoy a solid murder mystery with well-written humour and charming characters will find all that packed into a single room in Star Seeker, a short but sweet LGBTQ+ friendly pixel art adventure.

Hiveswap: Act 2 can be a little slow in places and doesn’t take us very far in the overall story, but it’s nevertheless a charming and beautiful point-and-click adventure set in a fully fleshed-out, intriguing alien world.

Nordlicht is a heart-warming tale of young girl and her father as they embark upon their annual sea voyage to the icy polar north, buoyed past its somewhat shallow gameplay by its lovely, hand-crafted art and soulful narrative.

Forsaking both challenging gameplay and a traditional narrative structure, The Norwood Suite is a welcome odyssey into oddity that will more than satisfy those craving strangeness or just another piece of the delightful Off-Peak universe.

While Krystopia: Nova’s Journey has better puzzle variety and greatly expands on the narrative introduced in the series debut, the ending will once again leave you wondering where things stand.

Shut In is a short but intensely atmospheric side-scrolling pixel art horror adventure that nicely builds dread, tension and intrigue whilst also cleverly exploring the everyday difficulties that living with depression and anxiety can bring.

Lucifer Within Us shows a lot of promise, with a creatively imagined setting and a unique take on its subject matter, but this tale of daemons and detective work seems so determined to cross its own finish line that it never feels fully realized.

Other than falling fowl of having too many unnecessary mini-games, Chicken Police intrigues with its eye-catching visuals, superb voice acting and peck-uliar film noir-style story.

An investigative adventure that actually makes you feel like a detective, Paradise Killer blends surreal world-building, vibrant art, clever writing, and rock-solid open-world gameplay to create an experience you won’t soon forget.

Transference is a solid, polished experience that plucks equally at your tension wires and heartstrings. Though it seems to end almost as soon as it has begun, it makes the most of its quick pace with some impressive production values and an intriguingly atmospheric narrative of a troubled family.

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.

A short and sweet journey through a wintery landscape and Celtic temples, Solas and the White Winter would be even shorter and sweeter without its long, empty travel intervals.

A little less toilet humor would have better suited its otherwise serious story, but Oneiros is an adventure that both seasoned veterans and genre newcomers can enjoy thanks to its well-crafted gameplay and gorgeous art.

The quest for a pilsner in Oslo in Dude, Where Is My Beer? boasts a charming aesthetic and beer-themed puzzles that will make you think; unfortunately the simplistic story fails to deliver much satisfaction as it remains unfinished for now.

Krystopia: A Puzzle Journey will keep you busy largely solving laser-redirection and pattern-matching puzzles on an intriguing alien planet, but fatigue may eventually set in when facing the same mechanics over and over again.

Although neither as scary as the original nor as disturbing as SOMA, Amnesia: Rebirth is a more personal, emotional tale with plenty of horror to spare.