[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 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

[PC] Normality (1996)

How:
Got on GOG during winter sales.

Pros:
- Nice puzzles overall
- Several cut-scenes
- Cool old school 3D graphics
- Overall good, carefree mood even during the darker bits

Cons:
- Repetitive music
- Confusing controls and interface, easy to miss stuff
- Bad field of view

A Gigerish corridor in a very brief game section!

[PC] Atlantis: The Lost Tales (1997)

How:
Read about it on Adventuregamers, got on GOG during a promo.

Note:
I played the "extended cut" version, which is an unofficial patch that fixes some bugs and adds back some unused music and dialogue.

Pros:
- Just the old school graphics I like
- Great atmospheric music
- Lots of cutscenes

Cons:
- Lots of bugs and glitches, even with the patch installed
- Annoying action scenes to complete via trial & error
- Unfair, obscure puzzles

At one point you dress up like a woman, and the character even makes a falsetto voice.

[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!

[PS3] Life is Strange (2015)

How:
Found by randomly browsing PSN, bought the season pass on a sale.
Pros:
- Very good graphics contribute to setting the mood
- Very fitting, moving soundtrack
- Great storyline and characters
- Several choices make for a very nonlinear game
Cons:
- Gives a misleading sense of urgency that doesn't allow to calmly explore
- Impossible to backtrack and visit locations as desired
- Camera handling can be a bit tedious
- Some distracting graphical glitches
- Gameplay is often just limited to watching the story unfold

[PC] Edna & Harvey: Harvey's New Eyes (2012)

How:
Got from GOG together with the first game in a Daedalic sale.
Pros:
- Creepy atmosphere
- Nice puzzles
- Super powers
- Some mini-games including a turn-based battle
Cons:
- Annoying music
- Some glitches
- Limited interaction with the environment
- Too much talking

[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] Call of Cthulhu: Shadow of the Comet (1993)

How:
Read about it on Hardcoregaming101, bought it on GOG during a winter sale.
Pros: 
- Cool creepy atmosphere and story
- Some nice puzzles
- Very nice graphics
Cons
- Spooky but very repetitive music
- Unintuitive interface, sometimes you must Use items, sometimes you just need to have them in your hands in the right place at the right time
- Easy to lose bearings in town, and understand which locations are accessible
- Slow dialogues
- Possible dead-ends
- Too much trial-and-error towards the end

The game comes with a separate mini-game called "Lovecraft Museum".

[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 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] Tex Murphy: Under a Killing Moon (1994)

How:
Had the title in my head since forever, found and got it from GOG.com.
Pros:
- Cool sci-fi / noir atmosphere
- An interesting unfolding story of conspiracy and mystery
- Some nice puzzles, including optional ones
- Amusing dialogue system, where you get to choose a "way" of saying things rather than the specific sentence
Cons:
- The sloggy movements make me feel nauseous after a while
- The game takes a while to kick off (at least the entire Day 1)
- Commands can get frustrating, especially adjusting the motion speed with the mouse
- Basically the first 3 days take place in the same few locations
- A few time-based puzzles

An amusing Alien reference. The little beast here is referred to as a "geigger".

[PC] Deus Ex (2000)

How:
Played the demo when it came out after finishing Half-Life. Didn't like the game, expecting it to be a shooter, came back to it out of curiosity with a Steam sale.
Ending:
I played through all three endings.
Pros:
- Very cool graphics, just the kind I like
- Amazing music
- Very fine dystopic sci-fi story with surprising turns of events and cool characters
- Excellent voice-overs and acting for the most part
- Exploration is rewarded
- Game difficulty and length depend on the way it is played (stealth vs shooter)
- Taken in small doses, the game offers a unique, fun and rewarding experience
- Plenty of optional content and highly non-linear
- The game offers several possible ways to reach objectives and do things. For example, I couldn't enter an area due to a game-crashing bug, but I took an alternative (more difficult) path and still made it.
Cons:
- Several graphic (collisions) and sound (music / sound efx balance) glitches
- The game is extremely dark 90% of the time
- Ending cut-scenes are underwhelming
- Some conversations are not logged
- If you attack or otherwise damage a character and do not kill him, everyone instantly knows where you are
- Not many cut-scenes
- The game is excessively long, more like a game and its sequel
- Some showstopping bugs (I couldn't enter Canal Road in HK without losing all inventory and crashing the game - had to take the difficult path)
- Enemies do not give the alarm if they see a door opening, a dead fellow, or other suspicious events
- The game misjudges your behavior with no good reason. Some NPCs (Carter, Navarre) described me as a naturally born assassin even though I didn't kill anyone, but Navarre did as a consequence of me being spotted by the enemy.

One of the three endings. Here I merge with Helios AI.

My final skill set.

My final set of augmentations. I mostly used the subdermal radar transparency, silent running, and the spy drone. Auto-healing also helped in the final chapters.

[PC] Hector: Badge of Carnage - Episodes 1-3 (2011)

How:
Heard about it on Adventuregamers as a iOS exclusive, then got it with the Humble Weekly Sale: Telltale Games.
Pros:
- Nice puzzles
- Very good voiceovers
- Smooth animations and graphics integrating well characters and background
- Cool cut-scenes
- Some amusing characters and situations
- Lots of humor
- Nice music fitting well the different areas and situations
- Surprisingly lengthy
- Overall fun, colorful and well balanced
Cons:
- Perhaps exceedingly rude at times (e.g. fill used condom with pee)
- Some glitches
- Some annoying characters (the DJ in the last episode, the kids in the park)

[PC] Back to the Future: The Game - Episodes 1-5 (2010)

How:
Read about it on Adventuregamers.com, bought the series during a Steam sale.
Pros:
- Very nice in-game animations
- Excellent voice acting
- Great writing, dialogue and characters
- Well-balanced puzzles overall, with some fun semi-arcade parts
- Some very good humour
- Compelling story and nice setting
Cons:
- Occasional graphics, sound, gameplay and camera glitches break the game flow
- Facial animations are of alternating quality
- Music, sound effects and voice overs are out of balance
- The movement mechanism is sometimes annoying and rather buggy
- Feels a bit isolating at times
- The built-in hint system gets too much in the way (can be disabled though)

[PC] King's Quest IV: The Perils of Rosella (SCI version) (1988)

How:
Bought the 4+5+6 bundle on GoG during sales after finishing King's Quest II.
Pros:
- Very nice graphics and fluid animations
- Nice, short music punctuates the main events
- Very logical puzzles, some of which are rather challenging
- Some lightweight creepy moments and night scenes
- The game changes to zoomed-in visuals in interiors
- Very likable main character
- You get to play as a frog!
Cons:
- It's sometimes hard to see where is the main character due to screen clutter (e.g. when appearing behind a tree), and it's easy to get stuck
- No sound effects
- Some extremely annoying arcade sequences (e.g. the usual narrow paths and climbing the whale's tongue)
- Some dead ends
- Unpredictable random events make puzzles more difficult than they should be (e.g. cupid taking a bath in the pool, the cave monster appearing at times)
- The parser is sometimes very strict (e.g. play sheet music), sometimes very forgiving
- Unnecessary items have just the standard description

[PC] King's Quest II: Romancing the Stones (AGDI remake) (2010)

Pros:
- Beautiful drawings and scenery
- Very good puzzles, with different solutions (changing the final score of course)
- Nice story full of humorous takes on fantasy clichés with an original twist
- A great attention to detail all throughout
- Full voice-over with a great narrator
Cons:
- Need to pixel-hunt to exit screens
- Bad speech-music volume ratio, music turns out to be really disadvantaged
- Quality of the voice acting (both the recording quality and the actors themselves) has highs and lows
- The final song is a bit embarrassing

[PC] Monkey Island 2: Special Edition (2010)

Pros:
- Beautiful graphics and music
- Can play both versions at any time with a cool transient effect
- Much more fluent and swift than the original
Cons:
- Can't skip dialogue
- Music is not given proper weight, buggy transitions
- Guybrush seems floating when walking towards the screen
- New graphics and voiceovers kill much of the creepiness and goofiness of the original game
- The last part needs a very quick hand