Californium is what I would call a mix between Stanley Parable (kinda) and Jazzpunk (kinda), but it is very much its own game. Unique, surreal and almost psychadelic at times. It tells a story of Elvin Green, an author with a writer's block. If I said anything more... well that would spoil the game. The game has an interesting art design where the world is 3D but the characters are creepy 2D cut-out dolls. It makes the game feel even more surreal than it already is to begin with. The soundtrack is good, although some parts of the game are too quiet for my liking. Something that is well done despite the small amount of actors is the voice acting, it definitely does parts of the game. I definitely recommend this game, I had a good time with it and it really stands out.
TOHU is a cozy-looking puzzle point n click game with an art design reminding me of Hollow Knight and Don't Starve. It got various interesting puzzles and environments with a story of saving the world. While some puzzles might be hard and not very logical, I'd say it's still reasonable and eventually solveable. The soundtrack is good and the narrator fits well. I do recommend this game and it would be nice to see similiar games from the dev studio in the future.
Down in Bermuda is a fun and enjoyable puzzle game, made by the devs behind Agent A: A Puzzle in Disguise. The gameplay kinda reminds me of those shovelware hidden object games you can find on BigFish (and GOG these days), but this is actually high quality. You play as... yourself? Helping an old stranded pilot to leave the Bermuda triangle to get home to his family. To do this, you solve various puzzles on various island and that's about it. It's relaxing, a bit tricky at times but most of all; it's actually pretty decent. While you're on the island things aren't too linear, you can do as much as you'd want (minimum requirement to continue to next island or 100% every island) without really losing much. If you enjoy hidden object and/or puzzle games you'd definitely enjoy this, especially if you had fun with the previous game from the devs. I hope to see more games in the future from this studio!
Carto is a cozy and cute puzzle game with a wholesome story, great graphical design and relaxing soundtrack! It's very enjoyable, split up in chapters allowing you to take your time playing through the game. You play as Carto, a young girl getting lost from her grandmother. The main goal is to find her, but along the way you explore various areas and meet new friends. Each chapter is a new area and it gives you new challenges, making the puzzle system not getting too repetetive. Speaking of the puzzle system; the main one is related to maps - you move around map pieces to move around and to solve various puzzles. It's quite refreshing and I haven't personally seen anything like it before - at least not in this type of game. If you are to play this game on PC I do recommend using a gamepad for the best experience. I recommend this game if you love wholesomeness, interesting puzzles and just a great indie-title! I hope we'll see more games from this studio :D
Detective Grimoire is a high quality point and click adventure with amazing voice acting, great art style and wonderful background music! While it doesn't have hard puzzles as your typical point and click, it is more in the genre of Ace Attorney where you interview suspects, examine areas for clues and put two and two together to finally find the culprit! The story is enjoyable, the pacing is good and there really isn't a moment where you feel like you get stuck. The only issue that I had with this game is the way you move between scenes, but I can understand why they did it that way. It's not bad as it can be annoying when you forget about the "feature". This is game definitely gets a huge recommendation from me!
TSIOQUE is a beautifully hand-drawn point n click games that takes inspiration of the old school adventure games of LucasArts, Humongous Entertainment and the like. It does a good job in mixing an interesting story with good pacing and not too hard puzzles - which in turn makes it enjoyable to play. I had a great time with it and recommend it to fans of the genre!
The Curse of Monkey Island is the third game in the Monkey Island series, and to be honest it's probably the best yet. With a coherent story, great characters, voice-acting and a neat graphical design you're getting a great adventure which even could have worked out as a cartoon series at the time. Guybrush is back again, escaping the weird ending that Ron Gilbert left us at the end of LeChuck's Revenge. The story this time is more of the same in the sense of "Get a boat, find the treasure, save the girl and oh yeah LeChuck is there" but it executes it all pretty well and for the first time the ending is actually not a cliff hanger!!! Definitely a recommendation to play if you enjoy the Monkey Island series and other LucasArts games!
The Dig is a cult classic among the LucasArts games, mainly for being so different in storytelling and spirit compared to other games. You can definitely see that the story is made for the Big Screen, but it makes perfect as a PC game as well. Using a big name (especially at the time) such as Robert Patrick, who made a great VA for the main character, definitely makes the game even better in quality. I enjoyed it a lot and would definitely love a remaster of it! But despite lack of a remaster, it holds up and is worth playing!
Full Throttle is definitely point n click at its finest from LucasArts and DoubleFine's remaster does it well. The story is more on the serious side compared to LucasArts games in general, but that doesn't mean it loses its charm. The gameplay is more or less similiar to previous games, there's a few sequences that could be seen as annoying (the bike fighting scenes, the demolition derby, etc.) but they are more repetitive than anything. Perhaps not a big fan of the "action wheel" at it is at times unclear what each option means (had this issue with Sam & Max as well). Overall, great game with GREAT soundtrack! They just don't do 'em like that anymore, recommended for all fans of point n click to play.
