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.

Despite its weighty subject matter, Sagebrush keeps from tipping over with a sophisticated balance between environmental storytelling and eerie desolation.

The Gardens Between is a lovely time with a neat puzzle mechanic that takes place in a breathtaking world, packing an impressive amount of effort, creativity, and TLC into an experience that sadly won’t last more than a couple of hours.

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.

Lake Ridden‘s spookiness is slightly undone by its attempts to appeal to horror, puzzle, and drama fans alike, but the end result is still worth the trip.

Arkhangel offers some fascinating lore for those with the patience to see it through, but obstructing enjoyment are a number of unfortunate shortcomings.

Lovers of point-and-click adventures should enjoy the funny and compelling first installment of tiny & Tall: Gleipnir, providing you can overlook some broken English and perhaps the occasional glitch.

Destination Primus Vita‘s shallow puzzles are buoyed by lush, creative visuals and a thoughtful story to make for a fun exercise in exploration and discovery in this first-person, character-driven narrative through a high-tech ethereal dreamscape.

Much like its shorter predecessor, the magnitude of negatives outweigh the positives in Red Comrades 3. It has its amusing moments, but eventually the gameplay just feels like a slog and the story doesn’t provide much reward for sticking with it to the end.

Done Running is a strong opener for Clementine’s final story, successfully exploring the theme of motherhood while providing the usual dose of zombies and human drama.

Many of State of Mind’s ideas sound great on paper, but as an interactive thriller it fails to establish proper stakes, with virtually no challenge, a world with few likeable characters, and a story sparse on purposeful events.

The Birdwatcher makes for a somewhat enjoyable walking tour of Norrköping, but the detachment of story and gameplay makes for a surprisingly disengaging mystery.

Although still lacking much challenge beyond working through its more confusing story, Dead Secret Circle is a longer and more diverse game than its predecessor with the same creepy, immersive atmosphere introduced in the series debut.

With a great cast of characters, Unavowed is a stylish urban supernatural fantasy that is touching, funny, endearing, replayable and above all, fun.

For fans of Escape Rooms, the puzzle-centric The Initiate does an excellent job of scratching a hard-to-satisfy itch for many hours, and does so in a fair way that hardly ever feels cheap.

Shrug Island is a short but scenic getaway with a tropical sorbet-flavored design that provides a relaxing experience of gentle puzzling fun.

Code 7’s thoughtful combination of hacking sim mechanics and modernized text adventure set the stage for a compelling sci-fi drama. If future installments are as good as the free prologue and first commercial episode, Code 7 is one cyberpunk indie you won’t want to miss.

A side-scrolling vehicle adventure with a platformer’s stylish detailing, FAR: Lone Sails is a simple but charming little ride that gradually builds up momentum and never loses its way.

Short and sweet, The Search’s slideshow-style adventuring isn’t particularly challenging on the puzzle front but may leave you contemplating your own creativity after the experience.

The founding family of Quest for Glory has returned with an all-new unofficial entry that proves worthy of its predecessors’ legacy yet still manages to distinguish itself entirely on its own. Existing fans will be thrilled to see all the classic design staples make a return in Hero-U, while newcomers can enjoy a witty, substantial (if somewhat bloated) adventure-RPG experience.

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.