[PC] Return to Monkey Island (2022)

How:
Got it through GOG for my birthday!

Pros:
- Several genuinely funny moments
- Great music, colorful graphics, several cutscenes
- Great voice-overs in general, with some misplaced accents
- Solid puzzles, although a bit on the easy side

Cons:
- Inventory grows fast pretty soon, although it does not get too confusing
- Some very sad vibes
- Some graphics are a bit below the bar
- Could have been longer

A small cameo of the purple tentacle from Day of the Tentacle (on the table).

[PC] The Legend of Kyrandia - Book One (CD-ROM version) (1992)

How:
Read about it since Amiga times, got on GOG.

Pros:
- No explicit actions: just one click for everything, which works surprisingly well
- Great pixel art graphics and smooth animations
- Good voice-overs overall
- Fast movement, can skip dialogues
- Autosave

Cons:
- Can get into an unwinnable state without knowing
- The game structure and puzzles feel like a King's Quest 1 remake
- Basic inventory puzzles and lots of trial and error
- Too many useless mazes and random items
- Limited inventory slots

You transmute into a pegasus!

Mixing potions time! This is completely random and I created all possible potions.

[Mac] Enchanted Scepters (1986)

How:
Found while browsing a book on adventure games.

Note:
Credited to be the first point-and-click adventure game. Actually, it seems like "La Souris Golotte" came first.

Pros:
- Nice challenge with some almost unfairly difficult puzzles

Cons:
- Too much randomness
- Fights require no skill
- Some very crude graphics
- Weird mixture of typing and mouse commands

This might also be the first appearance of a talking head in an adventure game.

I finished the game with experience 3950 and wealth 1356, no idea what that means.

[PC] Eric the Unready (1993)

How:
Got on GOG.
Pros:
- Nice puzzles overall, not too easy

- Robust parser

- Some nice memorable music

- Fun text and dialogue, akin to Terry Pratchett's humor

- Light-hearted and enjoyable text adventure

Cons:
- Quite short, each part is just a few screens and puzzles

- Inconsistent artwork

- Very rushed ending

Amusing example of the game's humor: this character replaces all the R's with W's, hence you must interact with the room by using the same rule... "look at dwawing"

[PC] Goblins Quest 3 (1993)

How:
Heard about it since Amiga times, got on GOG with a Gobliiins pack.
Pros:
- Some quite challenging puzzles
- Fun and silly fantasy setting
- Quirky graphics, sounds and overall atmosphere
- Nice connection with the previous game
Cons:
- Some weird puzzles promote trial & error attitude
- The story is not easy to follow
- Game-breaking bugs at the chessboard level where you get items in the inventory before actually finding them

An amusing moment in which you play from inside a crystal ball.

Transformed into a werewolf!

[PC] Gobliins 2 - The Prince Buffoon (1992)

How:
Heard of it since Amiga times, got on GOG with a Gobliiins pack.
Pros:
- No more energy bar
- Nice challenging puzzles, with some interplay between the two characters
- Nice graphics and silly humor
Cons:
- Some annoying, illogical puzzles
- Some very annoying control issues

[PC] Lilly Looking Through (2013)

How:
Got from GOG during a summer sale.
Pros:
- Gorgeous graphics, animations and mood
- Nice puzzles
Cons:
- Very short
- Slow movement

[PC] Ultima III: Exodus (2012 VGA upgrade) (1983)

How:
Got with a Ultima I+II+III sale at GOG.
Pros:
- Finally with music!
- The tactical turn-based combat adds a new dimension to the series
- More items and weapons than the predecessors
- Magic is an important and fun part
- Not a grindfest for the most part
- Dungeon crawling is actually fun and useful
Cons:
- Still no diagonal movement / attack (although the enemies can)
- Wind in the world map is super annoying and makes you waste frigate turns for no reason at all
- The 5s timer for turns is very stressful, especially during combat
- Monsters are not visible in the dungeons, they just attack out of nowhere
- Food is a real pain, and can be drained (unfairly) by invisible gremlins in the dungeons
- Boats spawn very infrequently
- Still a lot to grind

I managed to teleport without boat into the water.

The disappointing ending with my final party.

[PC] King's Quest VII: The Princeless Bride (1994)

How:

Got it from GOG during an Activision Quests sale.

Pros:

- Great animations and backgrounds
- Some nice puzzles
- Some nice settings (e.g. Ooga Booga)

Cons:

- Excruciatingly slow gameplay and animations
- No subtitles, with lots of badly recorded / over-the-lines voice acting
- Uninspired music

The goblin enjoying the romantic moment is amusing.

[PC] Ultima II: The Revenge of the Enchantress (2001 EGA upgrade) (1982)

How:
Got it with a Ultima I+II+III sale at GOG.
Pros:
- Exploring the world across time and space can be fun
- Better monster sprites in the dungeons
Cons:
- No diagonal movement (while monsters can)
- Progress is achieved by randomly talking to all characters and slaying innocents (e.g. prison guards) in order to access otherwise unreachable areas. This kills role playing completely.
- The game is basically a long, unrewarding, extremely tedious grinding fest.
- Everything must be obtained with money, which is obtained by grinding, or by random drops by killing thieves. I did not visit other planets because the fuel drop was too rare.
- Overworld monsters are too rare
- Still no music
- Planets are useless
- Too many ingame jokes

My final character.

That L-shaped piece of land is Italy. I am passing Gibraltar strait with my frigate.

I made a bridge with boats.

[PS3] Diablo III + Reaper of Souls (2012)

How:
Got as a present with the PS3 by my brother.
Note:
I finished the game with the witch doctor (male) with 4 dogs, 1 gargantuan, and lots of spawning fetish minions.
Pros:
- Immediate, fun gameplay
- Very cool playing characters with character-specific lore and equipment. Lots of cool monsters.
- Great graphics and environments with changing whether conditions. A lot of attention to detail.
- Environments are destructible and include traps
- Lots of cool spells and equipment
- Amazing cinematics
- Cool story and lots of lore
- Great voice acting, sound effects, music
- Some cool side quests
- Large world with lots of dungeon types including open spaces
- It has its sense of humor
Cons:
- Way too easy and forgiving. Most demons (including bosses) are affected by buffs such as confusion, slow, panic. Getting a strong character is just a matter of patience.
- Few side quests
- After a while, it is just more of the same. I had little interest to keep playing in adventure mode after finishing the main story.
- Would have been very cool to have small illustrations accompanying the demons lore

[PC] The Whispered World (Special Edition) (2010)

How:
Read about it on Adventuregamers.com, got during a Daedalic sale at GOG.com.
Pros:
- Awesome background drawings and in-game animations
- Puzzles are quite clever in general
- Very nice music, although a bit monotonous
- Nice, relaxing mood for the most part
- Quite lengthy and adventurous
- Nice unconvential puzzles to be solved using Spot's transformed versions
Cons:
- No wide screen, a real pity
- Stuttering animations, usually at the beginning of each scene or location
- Glitchy sound in the dialogues
- A couple of annoying puzzles (e.g. move around rooms in the Asgil's city)
- The main character is unlikable, unhearable, and depressing for the most part of the game
- Some puzzles can be solved by accident, destroying continuity
- The clock puzzle in the oracle's hut was automatically solved for me without me asking for it
- Lots of pixel hunting
- Some game-breaking bugs (e.g. character stuck in the background, door does not open, etc.)
- The cinematic parts among chapters do not live up to the rest of the game

[PC] The Book of Unwritten Tales: The Critter Chronicles (2012)

How:
Got with a Gem Promo sale at GOG.com.
Pros:
- Awesome background graphics
- Excellent music and voice-overs
- Nice puzzles overall
- Simple, yet engaging story
- Amusing dialogues and writing
Cons:
- Some graphical glitches
- At times you are left without knowing why you are solving a particular puzzle
- Very few locations to visit

The critter disguised as purple tentacle from Maniac Mansion.

At one point in the game you get to use the blue and orange portals from Portal!

[PC] Fahrenheit (2005)

How:
Heard about it on Adventuregamers.com, and got at a Holiday sale on GOG.com.
Pros:
- Excellent voice acting and dialogues
- Well worth playing just for the story and the cinematic presentation; keeps you in front of the screen to see how the story unfolds
- Excellent animations
- Great original score by Angelo Badalamenti
- Cool multiple character interaction
- Some truly memorable sequences (e.g. the hypnotization sequence with Agatha)
- Some nice, dynamic, and well animated sequences (e.g. basketball one-on-one match, fighting on a ring, bugs attack)
Cons:
- Frustratingly irritating controls and camera movements
- Some very annoying arcade sequences
- Almost no puzzles at all
- One reaction sequence actually requires you to NOT do it correctly (interrogation scene in the office), but I only found out by reading a walkthrough after finishing the game
- Timed dialogue system is just annoying and gives you no time to ponder about choices; a true pity one cannot explore the whole dialogue tree
- Cannot explore all dialogue options, and some of them are ambiguous; picking the right or most informative answer is mostly chance

[C64] Halls of Death (1983)

How:
Searched for other C64 rpg's on CRPGAddict master game list after enjoying Sword of Fargoal.
How to play:
"/" : down
":" : left
";" : right
"@" : up
"+" : use stairs
"p": spells
Movement can be made faster with F1.
Spells: Sleep (1), Teleportation (2), Lightning (3), Fireball (4).
Levels:
I was proclaimed: Apprentice Bumpkin, Yokel, Trainee Warrior, Warrior, Swashbuckler, Seasoned Adventurer, Hero, Dragon Slayer, Champion, Necromancer, Sorcerer, Superhero, Guardian.
Pros:
- Cool first-person view animation on the lower right
- Spells can be used to destroy walls in the dungeon
- The game forces you to take careful choices, because:
   1) a successful game sees you going back to the surface (i.e. you need to backtrack or teleport)
   2) stats grow with items found in the dungeons, and decrease with enemy encounters, traps and magic spells
   3) game ends when any of the three stats (Strength, Psionics, Constitution) falls below zero
   4) using spells consumes both Strength and Psionics, is not always successful and becomes mandatory at the deeper levels (vs wraiths)
   5) Strength and Psionics points can be transferred to each other with a 1:3 ratio
- Gameplay can get addictive and very tense especially during the ascent phase
- Successful ascents are very rewarding
Cons:
- Fight success only depends on the strength and magic levels of the PC
- Grinding is possible only to a limited extent, as it depends on what items you find in the dungeons and the outcome of encounters
- There is no use for the collected treasure
- No sound
- The time you can spend in the dungeon is only dictated by luck, since Constitution depletes as you fight and it can only be recovered by finding Stamina, which is rare

This is as far as I got. Getting the Lord of Light rating is a matter of grinding for treasure, perhaps one day I'll do it.

[C64] The Sword of Fargoal (1982)

How:
Read about it on CRPGaddict, bought C64 Forever and played it right away.
Note:
Apparently this is the first game ever with random dungeons.
Pros:
- Simple, yet addictive quasi-roguelike gameplay
- Some interesting game mechanics (proximity sounds, pit traps usable as stairs) and magic spells (beacons, teleport)
Cons:
- Dungeons are quite repetitive
- The game gets almost unplayable from level 15 down
- Very few types of monsters
- Waiting at the temple to heal the character can take a lot of time

Actually, of those 8:54 hours several were spent regenerating health while doing something else.

[Android] The Lost City (2012)

How:
Read some review on Adventuregamers after explicitly looking for more Android games to play.
Pros:
- Beautiful graphics and very fitting animations
- Nice, well-balanced puzzles
- Fitting music
- Immersive atmosphere
- Nice game for some relaxed, light-hearted adventuring
Cons:
- Music is a bit repetitive, could be much better with a different theme per season
- Underwhelming, almost non-existing finale
- The overlaid text is too much in the way
- Essentially a back-tracking game, can get tedious
- Some mechanical puzzles can be solved before the PC has a way to find the solution, but the game does not accept the solution even if correct (e.g. combinatorial puzzles)

[PSP] Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together (2011)

How:
The game was frequently mentioned on review websites and forums, bought it for 5€ at Gamestop as a first game for the PSP for long trips.
Pros:
- Huge replayability value with loads of extra contents
- Extremely non-linear
- Can be very challenging
- Epic final battle
- Some very good in-game graphics and special effects especially near the end
- Very good character portraits
- Can revisit past events and undertake new paths to get different outcomes
- A lot of different classes, skills, magic spells, items, and so on
- Many special moves that gradually unlock with experience
- Economy works well
- The game records all previous events, dialogues and cut-scenes
Cons:
- The story is very contrived, full of difficult-to-memorize names, and dialogues that are extremely hard to follow
- Sometimes when action happens at the borders of the screen, you cannot see who's aiming at who and what's the induced effect (you only know a posteriori)
- Music is boringly epic
- Some of the game mechanics are too tedious to be actually usable (e.g. recipes, beast hunting)
- Some character classes cannot use certain magic spells for no apparent reason, even if the spell can be learned and the character has the right magic skills
- Not being able to see the map/enemies before entering the battle field greatly reduces the strategic value of the game (e.g. entering a map full of undead without bringing someone able to exorcize them)
- Grinding new characters for experience can be very difficult as the game progresses, since enemy strength is balanced with the player's strength

[PC] King's Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow (1992)

How:
Often heard of it as one of the best adventure games ever, got on Gog.com with the King's Quest 4+5+6 pack.
Points:
I managed to finish the game with 228/231 points without using a walkthrough (I actually needed a walkthrough just to open the ink bottle...). The only puzzle I missed was feigning death in front of the black cloaked man, since I got the correct lamp by trial & error. Still got the best ending possible.
Pros:
- Some memorable and diversified music
- Generally good voiceovers
- You get to ride a black winged horse to the realm of the dead!
- Direct references to previous episodes of the series
- Rather lengthy, with a great amount of optional content
- The second half of the game is amazing (realm of the dead + castle)
- Very nice and logical puzzles
- Great graphics and cool cutscenes
- The possibility to die or get dead ends makes gameplay more exciting
Cons:
- Some super-fast animation glitches
- Some audio glitches (sometimes the music volume covers the narrator's voice)
- Using an item or using an item on the main character give different results only with some items (e.g. the ink bottle must be used directly on Alexander to open it)
- The Isle of Wonder seems more like the deus-ex-machina of missing inventory items
- Once again a final love ballad
- Some tedious backtracking required
- Trial & error required to solve certain puzzles
- Dead ends (usually quite clear though)

[PC] Dragonsphere (1994)

How:
Promoted on Gog.com as a freeware game, got it without knowing anything about it. Played it after reading hg101 review.
Additional comment:
Not quite as short as most reviews mention (I think I needed around 10-11 hours from start to finish). The slow movements might have contributed.
Pros:
- Very good graphics and excellent in-game animations
- Very good (sometimes creepy) music
- The game has a very immersing, serious atmosphere differentiating it from most other adventures in similar fantasy settings
- Great dialogues and overall very likable characters
- A very deep and intriguing story with cool ideas thrown everywhere and a dramatic turn of events
- There are some rather challenging (but fair) puzzles
- Some puzzles can be solved in multiple ways
- Death is automatically undone, with no need to reload
- Lots of interactive elements, with long text descriptions
Cons:
- Movements are rather slow and unskippable (e.g. when climbing the mountain)
- Mediocre voice acting, thankfully it can be turned off
- Perhaps too many red herrings (both useless inventory items and misleading puzzle solutions, e.g. the poems)
- The story can be "broken" in a couple of ways (e.g. by going to the Spirit Plane without knowing about the Soul Egg)
- The interface can be confusing as some objects have item-specific default actions, e.g. a hidden button on the wall has "Activate" as default action, and "directions" can also be examined (this is especially important towards the end of the game when a door must be examined to reveal the symbol of a crown)