Three episodes in, Legacies offers a highly scaled-back version of the familiar cops-and-lawyers formula that doesn't do the intriguing storylines full justice.

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.

Metal Dead is an impressive first outing by a new developer that hits all the right notes and delivers a funny, touching, and well-made take on the zombie apocalypse.

This contributes to the overall feeling that A Stroke of Fate: Operation Valkyrie is exactly what it is: about half of a game. It's got pretty good writing, a decent aptitude for historical authenticity, and entirely okay art design, but it's wrapped up in a very bland package that lacks ambition, depth, length, and a single moment of tolerable voice acting.

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.

For those wishing to concentrate solely on a story you have some influence over, the experience may prove worthwhile during the few hours it takes to complete the first time through (with diminishing returns on each replay). For those seeking a playable challenge to go with the tale, however, there isn't a whole lot here to get your blood pumping.

Dead Mountaineer's Hotel is almost a case study of what an adventure game shouldn't be, which is all the more unfortunate considering its immense potential.

To the Moon is an unassuming game that does an unbelievably good job of evoking emotion. It tells a sweet, sad story in an unconventional way, and it shows a lot of promise for Freebird Games.

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.

As you play through a wide range of well-integrated puzzles and discover a variety of fun facets of Nancy's life and the not-so-humdrum town of River Heights, you'll have a great alibi for at least ten-plus hours of sleuthing fun.

As much as I like NCIS, if this game were a cup of coffee Gibbs would spit it out and throw it in the bin.

Aside from some of the underwhelming additions, Professor Layton and the Last Specter is yet another extremely competent puzzle-adventure game.

This basic story unfolds in less than three hours, not including the bonus chapter, which clocks in with a little over another half hour. Despite its brevity, Drawn: Trail Of Shadows is a gorgeous game that raises casual adventures to new artistic heights, and feels quite unlike any other game available (except its own predecessors). Its world of imagination is wondrous, filled with equal parts hidden dangers and flights of fancy, and with a variety of fun puzzling to solve, you'll easily be drawn into its charms.

At nearly 4GB, The Book of Unwritten Tales isn't small in size or scope, and provides a huge amount of entertainment from start to end.

With a little more challenge and visual polish, this could have been a truly great adventure, but instead settles for being another solid supernatural mystery.

Overall, Beyond Reasonable Doom is a fitting finish to a strange but enjoyable trilogy.

While the drastically different artwork and settings of this debut make a puzzle of the ghostly theme at times, its diverse gameplay, eerie soundscape, and a wide range of imaginative imagery make Age of Enigma: The Secret Of The Sixth Ghost one conundrum you'll really want to try to solve.

For the most part, Senseless Acts of Justice is more of the same great material we saw in the first episode.

Bigger fans will probably get a kick out of visiting Emily's world, particularly those who haven't played games like this before. For the rest of us, there are better puzzle games out there to choose from.

It is much, much easier for me to recommend the game as a free browser-based Flash game than as a commercial product.

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.

Releasing for a budget price doesn't excuse mediocre puzzle design, heavy repetition and a story with so little coherence.

It's certainly not a bad game, just a decidedly mediocre one, so unless you're in the mood for a fairly lightweight puzzle-adventure, a purchase is not so elementary this time.

The setting is inviting and the puzzles are solid, but unless you're a devoted series diehard, desperately seeking something new for your Wii, or have friends to join you in multiplayer, I suggest you consider leaving Mystery Case Files: The Malgrave Incident to gather dust on the store shelf.

Well, it's a good game, at times even great, but it functions better as Back to the Future: Part Four than as an adventure game.

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.

As it stands, Red Johnson's Chronicles feels more like a showcase of style over substance: a demonstration that more adventure games can be made on the PS3 with QTEs and popular CSI-style investigations.

Like its heroine, The Rockin' Dead may be pretty, but beauty is only skin deep, and to find any substance below the surface here, you're definitely going to need glasses.