[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!

[Browser] Radio Silence: Survivors (2014)

How:
Part of the Point and Click Jam (read about it on Gnome's Lair).
URL:
GameJolt link
Pros:
- Cool retro graphics and nice setting
Cons:
- Very short and inconclusive

[PC] Primordia (2012)

How:
Heard about it on WadjetEye website, got during a Flash Deal at GOG.com.
Pros:
- Excellent voice overs, dialogues and writing
- Nice graphics
- Likable characters and humor
- Very good puzzles, some of which can be quite challenging
- Multiple puzzle solutions
- Fitting music (although very derivative of Blade Runner and the like)
- Cool atmosphere and deep in-game history
- An awesome audio scene in which you communicate via a radio transmitter with a voiceless robot named Gimbal
- A very engaging plot
- Some nice (although sparse) cut-scenes
Cons:
- Mediocre character animations
- Characters retain high resolution when they decrease in size, spoiling the old-school look & feel
- Awful final song (as usual with WadjetEye)

On our way to Metropol. Cut-scenes are nice, but short and rare.

[PC] Space Quest V: The Next Mutation (1993)

How:
Got with the Activision Quests sale at GOG.com.
Pros:
- Music and sound effects are much better than the previous episodes, and a pleasure to hear
- Very good graphics and animations
- Gameplay is relaxing and offers some variety. Even just sitting in the spaceship giving orders is fun and rewarding.
- You visit several locations
- Interesting, slowly unfolding story
- Cool comic-style cutscenes
- Nice puzzles
- Fewer dead ends and sudden deaths make the game much more enjoyable
- Cool climatic ending
Cons:
- You spend very limited time in each location

Alien references are my favorite!

[PC] Space Quest IV: Roger Wilco and the Time Rippers (CD-ROM version) (1992)

How:
Got with the Activision Quests sale at GOG.com.
Pros:
- Very nice graphics and animations, the best of the series so far (as much as I love EGA)
- Amusing idea of time-traveling across the previous and future episodes of the game
Cons:
- The high-pitched music can get quite annoying
- Cannot have voice and subtitles at the same time, had to play with no voiceover
- Two out of five possible actions have no use whatsoever
- Several frustrating trial-and-error arcade sequences
- Not many puzzles and not many locations to visit, the story just drives along on its own

You can visit SQIII if you input the correct code - which I did on my first random code trial!

My final score. This time I didn't play the Astro Chicken game in the arcade.

[PC] Space Quest III: The Pirates of Pestulon (1989)

How:
Got with the Activision Quests sale at GOG.com.
Pros:
- Very nice, consistent graphics and smooth animations
- Nice, rewarding puzzles as usual
- Less dead ends than previous installments
- Nice mood and some tense moments (e.g. fighting with the killer robot)
- Amusing close-ups and cut-scenes
Cons:
- Very abrupt ending, passed from a score of 308 to 598 in a matter of minutes
- Many unused inventory items
- I finished the game without playing Astro Chicken and thus without deciphering the help message within the game. This means I solved puzzles blindly without any clue regarding the plot (except for what I gathered from the manual).

My final score. This time I had absolutely no idea what I missed before reading a walkthrough.

The mini-game you get to play at the burger place...

...looks strangely similar to Joe Galaxy (Italian comic).

[PC] Space Quest II: Vohaul's Revenge (1987)

How:
Got with the Activion Quests sale at GOG.com.
Puzzles:
As in all Sierra games I played until now, I never cheated by setting game speed to "low" in any occasion.
Pros:
- Genuinely fun to play, with some funny scenes (hopping on the keyboard when miniaturized!) and funny commentary from the game itself
- Amusing ways to die
- Some quite challenging puzzles and red herrings
Cons:
- The parser does not improve much upon the previous episode
- Some illogical puzzles (give the Cubix Rube to the beast?)
- Not much of a plot
- Less climatic ending than in the previous episode (just push a button, enter a pod and sleep)

An amusing Alien reference - if you get kissed, a baby alien will eventually come out of your stomach!

Final score, and Alien ending!

[Amiga] Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis (1992)

How:
Played the PC (CD) version but never finished it, finally got to play it again with ScummVM amazing support for Amiga files.
Endings:
Out of the three possible paths, I finished the game in the "collaboration" mode (with Sophia), both bad and good ending.
Pros:
- Multiple ways to solve puzzles and multiple game modes increase the game's longevity noticeably
- Excellent graphics, animations, and fitting music
- Marvelous, immersive sense of adventure
- Just the right amount of comedy one would expect from an Indy movie
- Likable, well outlined characters with custom animations
- Nice, well-balanced puzzles
Cons:
- No sound effects in the Amiga version

In an attempt to make Sophia run away from the cage, I managed to trap a crab inside with her.

My final score after finishing it the first time on Team mode.

[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] Beneath a Steel Sky (1994)

How:
Played the Amiga demo as a kid, finally got it for free on GOG.
Pros:
- Excellent graphics and animations
- The Virtual Teathre engine retains all the good points from Lure of the Temptress and hugely improves upon them
- Voiceovers are so good and enriching that this is probably the first time I leave them on when given the option
- Amazing, compelling story with a great pace
- Very good and moderately challenging puzzles with some well placed red herrings
- Memorable characters and lines
- Some very humorous parts (e.g. the trial)
Cons:
- People tend to get in the way (especially Joey)
- Music quality could be better
- Some bugs and crashes

[PC] 11-11-11 (2011)

How:
Probably heard about it on Adventuregamers.com monthly freeware feature and downloaded it right away.
Pros:
- Very cool graphics and cutscenes, in general very good production values
- Nice story
Cons:
- Way too dark
- Just a few puzzles
- Very few interactive items
- Some interface glitches

[PC] Annie Android: Automated Affection (2009)

Pros:
- Very nice graphics and animations
- Simple and effective music and sound efx
- Short and fun
Cons:
- Environments are a little too empty
- Maybe too short

[PC] Machinarium (2009)

Pro:
- Grafica, animazioni e musica stupende
- Enigmi e mini-game divertenti e non troppo semplici
- Storia semplice e simpatica
- Incredibile attenzione al dettaglio
Contro:
- Troppo corto
- A volte l'interfaccia è poco responsiva