Once the novelty of its promising premise and fun environmental puzzles have worn off, Lifeless Planet’s repetitive scenery and gameplay drag the experience back down to earth.

A short, easy game that unfortunately lacks the characterisation and depth that could have made it more interesting to a wider audience.

Roadwarden takes a page out of the choose-your-own-adventure playbook, incorporating combat, role-playing, and diplomacy into its visual novel trappings. Although surviving its world can be stressful, there is plenty of worthwhile adventuring to be had.

As a relatively short and very quirky journey into the minds of a distinctly unique development team—who are improving with each new release—Magnus Positive Phototaxis has many elements to recommend it. Its lack of a logical gaming structure with no really challenging puzzles means that it might not suit those looking for a more complete adventure gaming experience.

Planet RIX-13 doesn’t offer much from either a puzzle or narrative perspective, but it does provide a constant sense of progress while exploring an interesting alien setting. It’s the kind of casual game that could perhaps best be described as a guilty pleasure, though with its short runtime, there’s actually very little to even feel guilty about.

The Academy can be frustratingly clunky and limited at times, but at its best it’s energetic, likable and packed with puzzling goodness.

More a psychological thriller than pure horror game until the final stretch, Blair Witch won’t scare you so much as drive you barking mad (in both good ways and bad).

In The Case of the Golden Idol, the mystery-solving is quite engaging up to a point. But overall, the narrative is frustratingly executed and the presentation is unremarkable.

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.

A touch of noir to Leprechaun Shadow breathes fresh life into Sir Typhil’s fantasy adventure series, though a long, unpolished RPG portion can be a bit hard to swallow.

If all you're looking for is the comforting, familiar feel of a Nancy Drew game with a wide variety of engaging puzzles and an entertaining supporting cast, you'll feel right at home in The Captive Curse, but if you're looking for a truly suspenseful game with a lot of exciting exploration, you may have to look elsewhere for your happily ever after.

Agent A is a little amuse-bouche that should somewhat whet your appetite for the next tale in this hopefully ongoing iOS spy series.

Although light on actual gameplay, Alone With You is an interesting and worthwhile third-person exploration game overall. Those with an interest in science should absolutely play this; those looking for the publicized romance visual novel will be disappointed.

While The Sacred Rings has plenty of familiar gameplay to offer puzzle lovers, the absence of original ideas and creative spark means the game will have a limited appeal.

Returning visitors to Rusty Lake’s particular brand of quirkiness will find The White Door to be a more focused and serious game than previous outings, while newcomers are welcome to jump right into a standalone adventure that strikes an even balance between psychologically interesting and weirdly off-putting.

Overall, the game is a fairly fun little ride thanks to its variety of gameplay and nicely designed cartoonish environments, but the puzzles are often too simple, making for a very short game.

Okay, so: few improvements over the first game, a convoluted overarching storyline, painfully simplistic gameplay.

A passable game in a fascinating, unique sci-fi world, Cradle is fine to explore but constantly reminds you how much more it could be.

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.

Although let down by poor storytelling, The Minims is easy to get into and serves as a fairly fun distraction for a few hours.

While The 13th Doll never quite equals its seminal inspiration, fans of The 7th Guest will find much to enjoy in this fan-created, puzzle-centric follow-up. Those new to the series, however, will probably feel left behind.

It’s short and easy without much variation, but there’s just enough charm and humour in Gomo to make it a worthwhile experience for fans of Machinarium clones.

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.

A modest but oddly compelling adventure steeped in perpetual darkness, the surreal side-scrolling Distraint is a low-cost exploration of the high price of selling one’s soul.

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.

Reperfection is unlike anything you've played before and Volume 1 shows promise, but its highly streamlined gameplay and short length will make it too shallow for some.

Freud’s Bones is a decent game: a unique premise brought to life by well-executed graphics, music, and interface. However, the monotonous puzzles could frustrate players.

It's enjoyable to play, but feels, at least at times, like playing basketball with a bum knee might. You have fun, yet the pain prevents you from playing at your full potential. Similarly, this game has lost some of its potential within the framework of its annoyances.

If nothing else, this game is destined to be divisive, and whilst it’s certainly not “Still Life: Part 2”, it does – just barely – do enough good things to deserve to be called Still Life 2.

Baron Wittard may have failed in his bid to create a real Utopia, but he did manage to leave behind a haunting legacy that many will find worth exploring in its own right.

Although an endearing tribute to classic first-person horror adventures, The Curse of Shadow House collapses under the weight of too many concepts that lack strong implementation, creating an uneven experience.

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.

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.

The graphics, characters, cinematics and other high points are unfortunately pulled down by an over-reliance on busy work gameplay and a shortage of fun challenges. The end result is a great game that might have been.

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.

There are certainly some positive elements in Insecticide that make it worth a look, mainly in the classic "adventure" half of its action-adventure gameplay. The trouble is, that’s only half of what is only half a game to begin with.

In the end, this is certainly not a bad game, but it feels cheaper than a Jurassic Park game should, and the gameplay is sure to be divisive among adventure fans.

Adventurezator‘s heart is in the right place, but for all its charm and potential, neither the game itself nor its built-in user creation system is quite there yet.

There is much to be commended about this game for such a small first-time development team, but overall I couldn’t help but be disappointed with Rhiannon: Curse of the Four Branches.

Twilight Path offers a wonderful but far too brief VR experience of being the magical savior of a kingdom in ruins, solving lots of puzzles along the way. Unfortunately, we will need to wait for the next chapter to (hopefully) see how things turn out.

The Dreamcatcher is a mysterious and at times thrilling stroll through gorgeous scenery with a lot of passing ideas that may stimulate your imagination, though don’t expect this surreal exploration of the subconscious to always make a lot of sense or offer much to do along the way.

Packed with puns but short on plot or perplexing puzzles, Her Majesty’s SPIFFING‘s intense Britishness will either amuse or confuse, but either way it’s more of a teatime crumpet than a regal banquet.

All in all, Everlight is a generally pleasing experience, though it could have been much better with a bit more spit and polish.

It's a promising start that offers a few hours of decent entertainment, just one that never unearths much imagination along the way.

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

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.

Maize cobbles together a solid adventure from its surreal premise, passive storytelling and labyrinthine environments, but those who enjoy offbeat humour will reap most of the rewards.

With clumsy controls and a focus on codes and combinations, Catsperience leaves little room for life as a feline.

A slightly above average sci-fi adventure; recommended for those who don't mind slideshow adventures.

On Your Tail has atmosphere, fun mini-games, and beautiful craftsmanship, but such pleasures are undermined by its uninspiring story and tedious detective mechanics. A decent starting point for a hopefully more cohesive adventure to come.

As a game it’s not unpleasant but as an add-on it’s anything but essential.

This haven for my eyes and ears was also an unrelenting obstacle course for my brain. Though it often left me frustrated, I know there are puzzle-patient adventure gamers who will relish this unusual combination and just might find themselves elatedly over the moon.

The first three-part “season” of Supreme League of Patriots wants to be super-funny but ends up leaving too many opportunities unexplored to maintain interest.

It will tide you over until "Phoenix Wright 2" comes out, but it's nothing special.

It has a wonderful premise, but rain too often neglects its gameplay in this otherwise honest, heartwarming tale of childhood solitude and trust.

A combination of the eponymous Inquisitor’s acerbic charisma, a compelling story and ambitious production quality overcome a plague of minor gameplay issues to keep you interested in the first episode of this four-part series.

The story of The Raven continues to entertain, but the second chapter fails to reach the heights of the first, with a much shorter run time and a detour from what made the opening chapter so good.

I thought the idea of working with a storm chasing team was a great premise, but not enough was really done with it to hold my interest throughout the game.

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.

An enjoyable murder mystery with many excellent elements, but it is let down by sloppy implementation and inattention to detail.

With stunning visuals, solid sound and music, and nuanced worldbuilding that many adventure games would kill for, it’s unfortunate that Lamplight City is lacking in the one area that distinguishes games over other storytelling media: interactivity.

Fans of the original will no doubt persevere and get to experience the worthwhile moments of the second half, but others may find its slow development too boring, its story a little too lost for its own good.

The Awakened is a very uneven game, ranging from very poor to rather good, and the only consistent quality is its creepiness. It's worth considering if you need your horror fix, but Cthulhu will certainly forgive you if you decide to skip it.

The adrenaline-laced interactive sequences of Smoke & Mirrors are fun to play, but in between the gameplay is far too sparse and linear, and its story loses some story momentum in the process.

Nancy Drew: Midnight in Salem trades in brainteasing puzzles for a greater focus on an interesting story and a large cast of characters, but is hampered by rough edges that even four years of development couldn’t smooth.

In cramming a time-looping murder mystery into the confines of a small inner-city studio apartment, Twelve Minutes offers much to appreciate, though the execution suffers somewhat from the limitations such a premise inevitably brings with it.

The Cinema Rosa is moody and atmospheric and succeeds admirably as a mix of retro-theater nostalgia and supernatural exploration. Its story is never delivered with clarity, but it’s a brief experience worth having, especially if you have any love for classic film.

Far more hardcore than most casual games, Pahelika: Revelations is enjoyable as a collection of puzzles in a fantasy setting, but the story is needlessly hard to follow and ultimately forgettable.

With a whole extra case, better written stories and somewhat more varied analysis tasks than the last game, CSI: Unsolved! is certainly a step in the right direction, but the repetitiveness of the activities means it still isn't a great game.

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 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.

Mystery fans will enjoy unraveling Tomb of the Lost Queen's puzzle-filled expedition in the desert, though the lack of dynamism and interaction cause the atmosphere to noticeably atrophy.

Summit of the Wolf tells an emotionally heavy story that tackles difficult issues in an honest, unflinching way, but it’s hurt by the many production corners it seems to have cut along the way.

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.

Lost Ember’s animal body possession provides some fun moments but the lack of anything substantive to do with it makes for a beautiful but surprisingly empty experience.

Murder in the Abbey is ultimately one of those games that is fairly enjoyable to play through yet leaves you with the feeling that something is missing.

While there are plenty of familiar puzzles to keep players occupied, Subject 13‘s mediocre plot and characterization can’t elevate the experience to the well-rounded adventure it had the potential to be.

Belladonna is a very short but engaging diversion for people more interested in reading than actual adventuring.

While the problems that exist in Alida are unfortunate, the game is still recommendable to die-hard first-person adventure devotees, especially those who don’t mind rolling up their sleeves and getting down and dirty with puzzles.

If you like seeing stories from various personal angles, Virtue's Last Reward offers many hours of value, but you might feel betrayed by the storytelling grind of this longwinded horror adventure.

SCARF is a lovely 3D puzzle-platformer with a pleasing blend of genre elements, though the further you get, the more it starts to fray at the seams.

Feeling more like an expansion than a complete game, Nelson and the Magic Cauldron: The Journey refines the series’ technical aspects and continues the comically absurd adventures of its eponymous hero for those already initiated to his world.

It’s got an interesting gameplay construct and some gorgeously animated locations to explore, but some clumsy moments with controls and unclear leaps of puzzle logic mean that Maquette’s tale of whirlwind romance only flutters rather than flies.

Gibbous: A Cthulhu Adventure looks amazing and will make you laugh, but its inability to tell a coherent story prevents this comedy cosmic horror adventure from fulfilling its abundant potential.

Its polished presentation and unusual premise make for a promising start to Metamorphosis, but the shallow gameplay and increasingly abstract direction prove to be something of a buzzkill.

The puzzle structure, iffy dialogue, and subject matter make this a hard recommendation to a general audience. As the score indicates, unless you’re a hardcore horror/adventure fan, it might be wise to first play the demo, or await a price-drop.

Hadr’s literal disappearing act is intriguing for the mellow hour or so it takes to complete, though the lack of puzzle complexity makes the game’s great concept seem somewhat underutilized.

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.

The Extended Edition of Anna is a definite improvement over the original, though there’s still nothing that really jumps out for horror fans (except for the now-dangerous poltergeists).

A charming yet unassuming adventure through the pantheon of Swedish folklore, Oknytt is good enough to warrant your attention, though it won’t blow you away.

Finding Teddy sucks you in with its imaginative charm and atmosphere, but beware the sound puzzles don’t spit you right back out again.

The inherent weirdness of exploring a person’s memories and an ever-evolving mystery help make up for some obtuse gameplay and a lack of proper resolution in The Signifier.

A good, very well-written, snack-sized adventure for fans of Laura Bow games and Jane Jensen's writing—but only those who can tolerate a heap of casual game elements in their adventures. Don't bother otherwise.

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.

The side-scrolling Creepy Tale offers a captivating journey through the dark woods of imagination, but a short playtime and an overly-derivative visual style make it hard to enjoy fully.

The Turing Test gets a high passing grade for its many engaging puzzles, but marks deducted for a storyline that never fully connects.

Despite its interesting philosophical concept, Pneuma ultimately doesn’t do anything to elevate itself above being an average first-person puzzle-based adventure.

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.