Adventure Games
'The Signifier' Aims at Noir Psychodrama, but Ends Up at Remedial Psych
An intriguing premise and a clever idea for a visual style go badly wrong in this ambitious but clueless sci-fi murder mystery.
'Kentucky Route Zero' Pays Off on Nine Years of Hope and Doubt
A masterful exploration of shame, debt, magic, and capitalism comes to its surprising conclusion.
Watch a City’s Politics Shift Through the Rear View Mirror of Your Cab in ‘Night Call’
It's not much of a detective story, but 'Night Call' does have some great mysteries.
Work Is Hell and the Dark Comedy 'Yuppie Psycho' Revels in It
Come work at Sintracorp! The coffee is awful, the workplace is toxic, and you don't really have much choice.
'Unavowed' is an Urban Fantasy That Gives Me Hope for the Genre
The genre has never been my favorite, but Wadjet Eye's adventure has me seeing it with new eyes.
This Frog Detective Game is Great Small-Scale Comedy
'The Haunted Island: A Frog Detective Game' is sweet, funny, and frustration-free.
This Buddy Cop Adventure Game Shows That You Can Do a Lot With a Little
'The Last Time' blends the vignette game with a classic adventure, with excellent results.
'Thimbleweed Park' Knows Why People Like Me Give Up on Adventure Games
In its casual mode, 'Thimbleweed Park' offers a blissfully frustration-free adventure.
How 'The Red Strings Club' Sabotages Its Hopeful Cyberpunk Vision
The new game from the creators of 'Gods Will Be Watching" has bold, refreshing ideas about future sex—but also a pitfall into transphobia.
How Sierra and a Disgraced Cop Made the Most Reactionary Game of the 90s
In the wake of the 1992 Los Angeles riots that ruined his reputation, Daryl Gates found himself in a point-and-click professional afterlife.
Parsing the Secret History of Adventure Games and Sierra
A new paper takes aim at our assumptions about Sierra On-Line and what the adventure game genre looked like in the 1980s.