The voice work and graphic design are both well done, if a bit utilitarian, but the dialogue and story need polishing to create a strong immersive atmosphere that a game like this really requires.

Worth playing through for the story, but questionable design issues prevent it from being nearly the classic that comes bundled with it.

A brief reboot of the cult classic series, Black Mirror does well to pile more richly atmospheric doom and gloom on the Gordon family, but is hobbled by creaking mechanics and poor design decisions.

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.

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.

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.

The puzzles make an effort to redeem Last Labyrinth, but with its already unsatisfying narrative stretched even thinner by tedious pacing and unnecessary repetition, it’s best to avoid the trap of playing this one.

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

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.

Decay: The Mare may fall foul of overused horror tropes, but its occasional impressive flourishes and ability to build atmosphere help raise it above its clichéd premise.

Despite a few glaring deficiencies, The Watchmaker is a solid game. It offers firm value at its retail price and for the length of gameplay, approximately 20-30 hours, as well as for the degree of difficulty in its puzzles.

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.

A solid, unexceptional adventure and a potentially engaging diversion. Unfortunately the plot, for all its intricacies, fails in what should have been a primary objective; holding the gamer’s interest.

Face Noir is a genuinely entertaining adventure for fans of private eye mysteries, and a solid debut for a promising developer, even if it’s only half of a story.

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.

Ultimately, although it definitely suffers for its extremely ill-conceived finale, Alter Ego shows significant improvements on some of the problems that plagued Future Games' previous projects, and in fact is probably the best game the developer has produced to date.

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.

The highly unpolished Dream tries to straddle the line between a puzzle-solving and exploration game, but ultimately doesn’t succeed at either.

An uneven game of kaleidoscopic highs and somber lows, N.E.R.O. rewards patient exploration, connect-the-dots plot analysis, and an appreciation for nature’s surreal beauty.

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

While Crystal Key II does have its charms, none of them are strong enough to save it from being average and lacklustre.

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.

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.

Sometimes infernally frustrating and plagued with inconsistent design, the deeply morbid Lucius nevertheless contains some diabolical fun for those with loads of patience and a strong stomach.

If you cherish piecing together clever, dramatic plot fragments and don’t mind lots of backtracking while rummaging through dimly-lit locales, then you owe it to yourself to play Empathy: Path of Whispers.

While the offbeat humor will likely hold a certain charm for select audiences, Ferris Mueller’s Day Off lacks a substantial gameplay experience to go with it.

A unique mix of genre blends, Master Reboot doesn’t always come together cohesively, but there’s plenty of heart in its Soul Cloud.

If you've got the machine to run it, and the patience to endure some of its quirks, then this is definitely a game to check out.