Easy on both the eyes and ears, Chook & Sosig: Walk the Plank uses its clever meta premise to provide a great time hanging out with an eclectic group of anthropomorphic friends – some alive, some not, but all of them delightfully fun.

Golem is fun little puzzle-platformer with a top-notch presentation both in sound and art direction. It’s not particularly challenging, but it’s an extremely well-made side-scrolling adventure about an unlikely but delightful friendship.

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.

Draugen offers plenty of shocks and chills set against a unique, scenic backdrop of rural Norway, but is sadly let down by some jarring dialogue and a confusing conclusion.

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

Close to the Sun is a decent enough exploratory mystery, but it misses the boat on substantial gameplay or any real horror by settling for cheap thrills over suspense.

A VR tale that’s both wonderfully light-hearted and solemnly mature, the modest Ghost Giant may not be the type of game to dwell on the why or how behind its supernatural premise, but with a game as well-crafted as this one, that’s more than okay.

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.

Chock-full of gorgeous, great-sounding set pieces and characters, the hilarious Irony Curtain: From Matryoshka with Love presents a witty commentary on Cold War era politics within a story and gameplay that anyone can enjoy.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Nupixo’s debut offering Detective Di: The Silk Rose Murders is a brilliant introduction to one of ancient China’s most famous investigators that does just about everything right.

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.

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.

Players looking to tackle Pode on their own will experience a cute, fun puzzler with at least a few moments of challenge before the end. But those who bring a friend or significant other will arguably reap the greatest reward in this short but sweet wordless tale of love and friendship.

Hilarious, intricate, and touching, Hypnospace Outlaw is a surreal, loving tribute to a younger, more innocent Internet as well as a compelling detective game.

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.

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.

Though it takes a while to find its own identity and the puzzles are all too simple, Guard Duty is a nostalgia-laden charmer that shows nothing but love and respect for the classic point-and-click titles it most resembles.

The detailed landscapes, engaging plot and intriguing premise of a completely fictional ancient language to decipher make Heaven’s Vault a game for which it’s worth getting lost in translation.

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.

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.

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.

Clifftop Games and Faravid Interactive show no sign of a sophomore slump with Whispers of a Machine. This futuristic murder mystery with some innovative gameplay, flexible puzzles, and built-in replayability should be enough to pique any adventure gamer’s interest.

If you’ve followed The Walking Dead all the way through, this tight and powerfully executed finale will be sure to satisfy. Get those tissues ready.

There’s a fair bit of fun to be had sneaking about the workplace in this first-person fixed-time thriller at first, but The Occupation ends up overstaying its welcome due to some clumsy implementation.

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.

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.

It’s hard to find much fault with Spirit of Justice. Dramatically improving upon its predecessors’ storytelling and varying the familiar gameplay elements, this game gives the trilogy – and series, for now – a more-than-polished conclusion that engages the brain as well as the heart.

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

Based on true events and inspired by actual refugees, Bury me, my Love is not just one outstandingly written story of hope and tears, it is many.

Reveling in its own eccentricity, Trüberbrook’s quirky characters, stunningly vivid backdrops and engaging dialogue for the most part make up for some flaws in its ambitious but rushed narrative.

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.

A polished, immersive trek through a world so alluring it’s a shame it doesn’t actually exist, Eastshade is a must-play for anyone with the heart and mind to devote to this art- and craft-themed adventure.

The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince just lands on the right side of average; a bit too easy and a bit too slow, its distinctive aesthetic and several unexpected late-game highlights nevertheless manage to deliver that happily-ever-after feeling every fairy tale deserves.

Rainswept bites off more than it can chew with its ambitious story of love, murder and loneliness, but within the sometimes confusing narrative strands there’s an involving game with a beautiful soundtrack to discover.

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.

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.

Seeing (and hearing, and playing) is believing, so do yourself a favour and check out Illusion: A Tale of the Mind, a flawed but wonderfully immersive and inexplicably-unheralded little 3D platforming adventure.

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.

Detective Pikachu is a bolt of brilliance. It’s funny, charming, and the titular star is a wonder. If you can overlook its simplicity, you’ll have a great time solving its many mysteries.

Mage’s Initiation is like a modern-day Sierra On-Line gem, an extraordinarily polished adventure game. If the battle sections were improved and the RPG elements better integrated, this would be a near-perfect experience, but it’s still a game that should cast a spell on any genre fan.

It’s a bit too straightforward to offer much challenge with its puzzles, and not spooky enough to sustain a haunted house thriller, but Torn will win players over on its own terms, providing a highly-polished, scavenge-heavy VR mystery.

Although the idea of blending role-playing elements with traditional adventure gaming sounds intriguing, The Council doesn’t do anything particularly interesting with either of them after a very strong introductory episode.

Although thin on tangible story, Pavilion’s first of two planned chapters succeeds as an engaging puzzler with an interesting game mechanic and superb production values that help atone for some troublesome technical issues.

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.

With a compelling fraternal relationship at its core and a challenging journey ahead, Roads is a positive and promising evolution for the Life Is Strange franchise.

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.

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.

Ghost of the Dusk is likely not going to help much putting Jake Hunter on the map in the West. For every step forward its main story takes, the side cases negate with dull and drawn-out sessions of tap-the-screen, making them feel more like padding that will try the patience of even devoted visual novel fans.

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.

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.

In the cyberpunk world of The Red Strings Club, player agency takes a backseat to a complex story teeming with personality and impactful moments, generating challenge through moral dilemma rather than gameplay.

Telltale’s second Batman season packs a punch with its action, audio and morally questionable main villain, but falters when it comes to making the most of its plot or detective gameplay potential.

Detroit: Become Human looks and sounds great, and includes key player choices throughout, though it could have benefited greatly from a tighter script. While it’s commendable that Quantic Dream tried to cover hot-button issues in a big-budget video game, it works better when focused on the personal character moments than the bigger themes that don’t dig deep enough to make a meaningful impact.

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.

Though more action-oriented than adventure gamers might be used to, Moss is that rare game that delivers exactly what it promised, delivering a lovely bonding experience with an adorable companion while solving puzzles and having a great time exploring a magical fairy tale kingdom.

‘Tis the season to be seriously creeped out and yet equally enthralled by the religious themes and beautiful, imaginative world in Gray Dawn.

Iris.Fall emerges from the shadows with challenging puzzles and beautiful art direction. Its streamlined gameplay may not always match the impeccable quality of its presentation, but this is unquestionably an adventure that deserves to be undertaken by puzzle fanatics.

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.

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 different kind of casual game from the norm, My Brother Rabbit is a charming, beautiful fantasy adventure whose scavenger hunting gameplay successfully dangles the proverbial carrot on a stick for the short time it lasts.

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.

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

The large number of puzzles and colourful range of environments make Lucid Dream a worthwhile experience for those who care more for problem-solving and exploration than narrative.

By its very nature, OneShot‘s persistent world experience is incredibly difficult to distill into words accurately, but those who dig quirky or emotional tales and don’t shy away from something completely different should seriously consider taking this particular plunge.

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.

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.

Wet Dreams Don’t Dry is an excellent addition to the Larry brand. Fans of the original games will not be disappointed, and newcomers will find a solid series introduction playing the lovable loser updated to present day.

The Franz Kafka Videogame offers a highly surreal taste of the renowned author’s works in a linear puzzle-oriented experience, but lacks enough depth to truly do them justice.

TSIOQUE’s late game story machinations are a bit of a pill to swallow, but they aren’t enough to overshadow what is otherwise an enjoyable, gorgeous fairy tale adventure.

An intellectual and aesthetic delight, Return of the Obra Dinn is a morbidly fascinating logic puzzle disguised as a minimalist nautical adventure.

The Shapeshifting Detective is a unique game that provides a solid mystery with a creative twist on the usual means of information gathering.

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.

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.

Whimsical visuals, charming characters, and a wide assortment of activities are weighed down by clunky controls in the one- or two-player co-op adventure 39 Days to Mars.

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.

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.

Horror fans, heed the Call of Cthulhu and plunge yourself into an expertly produced Lovecraftian mystery in a finely paced, hybridized adventure/RPG package that, while mostly linear, delivers more depth than its contemporary genre rivals.

Conarium’s story is a fine addition to the Lovecraft universe, but doesn’t make for a compelling gaming experience, so only the acclaimed horror author’s devotees will likely find much of interest.

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.

Although disappointingly short on actual gameplay, the funny yet surprisingly touching STONE is one of the most engaging and enjoyable bite-sized adventures of the year.

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.

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.

My Memory of Us cleverly tackles dark subject matter with a heavy boost from its beautiful production values, but falls short when it comes to offering consistently engaging gameplay.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

Combining a story-based exploration of a mysterious virtual hotel with an interesting colour-based, Portal-esque puzzler, The Spectrum Retreat doesn’t quite add up to the sum of its disparate parts.

Well-versed in early 1900s Viennese culture, The Lion’s Song practically plays itself, so the main draw of this four-part interactive anthology is its beautiful sense of time and place.

Solo offers a mesmerizing world to explore, as well as fun and challenging puzzles to solve while contemplating the importance of love in your life. For anyone who’s experienced the emotional rollercoaster of romance, this game might just offer the comfort you never knew you needed.

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.

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.