[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] Atlantis II: Beyond Atlantis (1999)

How:
Got it on GOG after playing the first Atlantis game.

Pros:
- Gorgeous visuals, decent voice-overs
- Really gives a sense of adventure
- Lots of zany characters
- Great music

Cons:
- Tons of obscure puzzles
- Unclear and confusing exploration
- Lots of pixel hunting
- Frustrating action scenes
- Boring and confusing new age story

Quetzalcoatl was a joy to see.

Lo Pan with long nails and everything!

[PC] The Feeble Files (1997)

How:
Read about it on old videogame magazines. Got on GOG during sales.

Pros:
- Graphics are a mixture of amazing pixel art and low-poly 3D renderings
- Lots of cut-scenes
- Relaxed, humorous mood throughout the entire game

Cons:
- Horrible (in some cases, completely broken) Italian translation
- Very slow movement without the possibility to skip
- Some truly obscure puzzles, the cosmic date one is possibly the toughest I have ever encountered
- Way too long
- The inventory quickly packs up with useless items

The Omnibrain guard looks like a Norm from Normality!

[PC] The Inner World (2013)

How:
Got on GOG during a point and click sale.

Pros:
- Soothing, relaxed atmosphere
- Well-balanced puzzles
- Nice voiceovers and characterizations
- Cute graphics and animations reminding of Edna & Harvey
- Just the right length

Cons:
- Some interface glitches

[FM-Towns] Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders (1988)

How:
Heard about it since Amiga times, got on a GOG summer sale.

Pros:
- Nice puzzles, some have multiple solutions
- Nice graphics
- Some ideas will later appear in Monkey Island (e.g. the cannibals in MI1, the mazes in MI2, the two-headed squirrel, the monkey wrench, ...)

Cons:
- Too many dead ends
- Too many mazes, which are also very difficult to map
- The need for money for traveling makes the game unnecessarily difficult

[Amiga] Maniac Mansion (1987)

How:
Played as a kid on the Amiga.

Note:
Finished with Razor and Bernard.

Pros:
- Great, clean graphics
- Nice puzzles, some can be solved in multiple ways
- Relaxed mood

Cons:
- Walking dead scenarios
- Many red herrings

[PC] Fallout 2 (1998)

How:
Got during a Fallout series giveaway at GOG.com.

Pros:
- Limited items and money make resource management useful
- Well written and darkly fun dialogues
- Great graphics, fitting dark ambient / industrial music
- Lots of nonlinearity and side quests

Cons:
- Cumbersome and annoying inventory management
- Using items can be confusing, the "use" functionality is not always the correct way
- Brutal difficulty encourages save scumming
- NPCs keep getting in the way
- Several glitches and bugs

[PS4] Heavy Rain (2010)

How:
Heard of it on Adventuregamers, got on a PSN sale in a bundle with Detroit: Become Human.
Endings:
Saved the kid, the father, the FBI investigator; also had the FBI investigator die.
Pros:
- Excellent graphics and very immersive mood
- Cool FBI investigation mode
Cons:
- Terrible, awful controls
- Several gameplay and graphics glitches
- Annoying camera movement
- Gameplay is mostly reaction-based movie watching
- Too serious and self-aware tone

[PC] Gabriel Knight 2: The Beast Within (1995)

How:
Heard of it since Amiga times, got on GOG during a Halloween sale.
Pros:
- Relaxing gameplay, nice mysterious atmosphere
- Good acting with authentic German speakers
- Some nice puzzles
Cons:
- Many puzzles are just a matter of going back and forth talking to people
- Overly slow cutscenes
- Extremely tedious arcade sequences
- No subtitles
- Some aggravating pixel hunting
- Handwritten letters have keyboard-specific typos, completely ruins immersion

Ending scene, with my tiny 679/679 score in the top-right.

[PC] Anna's Quest (2015)

How:
Got it from a GOG winter sale.
Pros:
- Very nice graphics and smooth in-game animations
- Some nice cutscenes
- Quite lengthy with nice variations and quite adventurous feeling
- Overall good puzzles
Cons:
- Annoyingly naive main character
- Very bad and unfair ending towards Winfriede
- Several open threads are never explained (e.g. who's the fox?)

The chapter with Winfriede as a playing character is actually better than the rest of the game. Also, this explores the connection between magic and science!

[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] Thimbleweed Park (2017)

How:
Got from a friend's Humble Bundle.
Note:
I got the repair kit from the hotel room by exploiting a bug that would leave the door open, without having the ghost zap the electric lock.
Pros:
- Nice graphics
- Several references to classics in the form of puzzles (e.g. the sheet of paper flying away)
- High degree of (at least perceived) non-linearity
- Nice multi-character puzzle design
- Memorable clown character
- Too many red herrings
- Nice puzzles
Cons:
- Music doesn't loop well and is a bit repetitive
- The in-game radio is terribly annoying
- Unskippable dialogues
- Some unresolved threads

The navigator's head makes an appearance!

[PC] Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar (1985)

How:
Got it for free on GOG.
Notes:
I solved the game almost entirely on my own, except for the dungeon maps.
I never found and used the silver horn to bypass the 100 daemons guarding the shrine of humility. I instead fought all of them.
Pros:
- Heavily dialogue-based, makes exploration interesting and rewarding
- Some convenient interface changes, also easier and quicker fights
- You can ask people to join the party
- Very non-linear
- Battles take place in several different environments, allowing for some strategy
- Food depletes slowly, is shared within the party, and is not a hassle anymore
- Finally, enemies have no diagonal movement (still diagonal attack though)
Cons:
- No music in the original PC version
- Combat can be very slow when many characters are involved
- Getting a ship is still a pain in the ass
- Ships can be destroyed even when parked, forcing you to find another one
- Wind when sailing is still a HUGE pain in the ass

My final character stats.

Only 91,682 turns!

An Indiana Jones reference!

Encounters on bridges involve trolls. Nice touch!

Gazers - another type of beholders (strictly speaking these are all called "beholderkin").

[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] I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream (1995)

How:
Read about it on videogame magazines at the time, bought it on GOG during a winter sale.
Pros:
- Very cool graphics
- Six different settings with cool story, cool characters, great dialogues, and nice puzzles
- Amazing mood overall
- Different ways to do things
- Very good voice-overs
Cons:
- Some glitches and dead ends. I had to resort to a walkthrough to get the correct sequence of actions to finish Garrister's episode (even though I did the same things on my own, but in a different order).
- Some showstopping bugs
- The MIDI soundtrack is a bit neutral

Cool Alien-ish prehistoric mood

[PS3] Beyond: Two Souls (2013)

How:
Read about it on Adventuregamers.
Pros:
- Stunning graphics and settings (snow, underwater, guerrilla, etc.)
- Engrossing and captivating storyline
- Diversified gameplay throughout the story, mixing different genres
Cons:
- Limited interaction, mostly just a matter of following instructions
- Some annoying timed reaction moments with confusing mechanics
- No puzzles
- 90% sad / depressing mood

[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] Fallout (1997)

How:
Got during a Fallout series giveaway (which means FREE!) at GOG.com.
Note:
I got lucky and got the alien blaster by chance quite early in the game.
Pros:
- Great isometric graphics
- Very cool atmoshpere, setting and lore
- Combat can be unforgiving, and detracts the player from pure grinding
- Well balanced economy, you never have too much money
- Nice turn-based combat system
- A limited but cool arsenal and set of items to use (including drugs)
- Cool lore
- Non-linear gameplay and quests
- A nice variety of death animations depending on the weapon used
Cons:
- Sometimes difficult to control in occluded areas
- Can't reach areas that the main character cannot see; this makes moving in towns very tedious
- Some possible walking dead situations
- Music is a bit forgettable
- Few side quests
- There is a lot of content which is never explored because of the unpredictable outcome of choices
- Carry weight is fairly limited
- Very few companions, with almost no control over them
- Some obscure puzzles (connect a radio to a computer in order to control force fields?)

[PC] Edna & Harvey: The Breakout (2008)

How:
Got during a Daedalic Adventures sale at GOG.com.
Pros:
- Incredible amount of interaction, the developers thought of everything and provided unique responses
- Very good voice-overs
- Nice humour
- Good puzzles
- Some nice cut-scenes (although too few)
- Nice game mechanics (tempomorphing and skills)
Cons:
- Some minor path finding glitches
- Some game breaking bugs in the English version
- Underwhelming finale

[PC] The Cat Lady (2012)

How:
Read about it on Adventuregamers.com, got with a Flash Deal discount at GOG.com
Pros:
- Excellent voice-overs
- Simple controls and immediate gameplay
- Captivating story with a deep meaning
- Simple but nice puzzles
- Very good dialogues
- Weird etherogeneous graphical / animation style, which surprisingly works
- Some jumpy moments
- Immersive mood
Cons:
- The rock songs kill the mood