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Call of the Sea feels like a mix between a puzzle game and a 1930s pulp novel. It blends these varied genres to mixed success; the puzzles are largely solid but you can find yourself banging your head against the wall in frustration for some, and the writing can be a bit campy but is carried by brilliant voice acting. While the game is decent, the visuals, the acting, and the setting are top notch. If entered with the right mindset, The Call of the Sea can be a good companion for an evening in.

Gris is art in motion and arguably the most gorgeous game I’ve played this year. It dons the cloth of a puzzle platformer, although focusing on just that part means missing the point. That’s because all its pieces, from the absolutely gorgeous visuals and music to the poignant way in which the world gives you the pieces to build the girl’s story, create a delicate whole and an experience that’s well worth jumping into.

Technical hiccups aside, Blues and Bullets is a raucous and relentlessly entertaining inaugural entry into the episodic adventure genre. The deft melding of historical characters and neo-noir stylings, together with a hefty dose of artistic license and appealing sleuthing gameplay mechanics all accrue to make Blues and Bullets one of the best surprises of the year so far.

Randal’s Monday gets so much right it’s depressing that it gets the crucial gameplay part wrong. The voice acting, story, dialogue, graphics, music, humour, modern adventure game mechanics, that’s all impressive and lovely. Then a couple of hours in it’s like Nexus Game Studios lost their book titled “How To Create Good Adventure Game Puzzles”. The puzzles are illogical, obtuse, require far too many steps to get even basic items, expect the player to just magically know that things will happen or objects will be somewhere, and often don’t have any sort of satisfying payoff. Quickly the joy of Randal’s Monday became a chore and all the good characterisation in the world couldn’t hide that. Plus the constant fourth-wall-breaking and unsubtle referencing got overbearing fast. You’re great at everything else Nexus, just get the gameplay right next time please? Your homework assignment: play all the LucasArts adventures again and take notes on puzzle construction. A+ for effort, F- for paying attention. - See more at: http://www.gamewatcher.com/reviews/randals-monday-review/11596#sthash.WJLJ5olG.dpuf

In its current state I have a hard time recommending AR-K to anyone. Sure, the humour is good and the world it creates is pretty interesting, if lacking in detail, but the technical and presentation issues really hamper the first crucial moments. If the developers can upgrade the first chapter with the same improvements they’ve made in the second then I’ll change my mind, but this is still too early to recommend a purchase.

Which is what it suggested here: Play on easy. While it does have problems in relation to its original difficulty, some of the situations presented here are just too unique to pass up. Nearly the whole of Gods Will Be Watching relies on your ability to act within situations, but when these situations feel so limited it’s annoying to not be able to express yourself freely. This makes the game immediately frustrating as its premise, intention and art set the experience up for something incredible. But the badly designed and unnecessarily hard game design stop your actions from really ‘meaning’ something. Gods Will Be Watching is not necessarily frustrating in its difficult, it’s that it really didn’t need to be. - See more at: http://www.gamewatcher.com/reviews/gods-will-be-watching-review/8707#sthash.4f3Dczi1.dpuf

I suspect there’s going to be good number of folks out there who’ll dig this game. It’s cheap, it controls fantastically, the graphics are slicker than an oily fox, and it’s a genre which has been gagging for a good makeover. Plus, if you actually get a group of people to buy the game then you’ll most probably have a great multiplayer experience. But personally I wasn’t quite convinced, particularly by the lack of depth. If it’s a choice between this and a 25-year-old Super Nintendo game then sign me up for the retro experience.

As one of the ‘chosen few’ Summer of Arcade titles, it’s easily to come away from Deadlight more than a little disappointed. There are sparks of inspiration here and a beautifully realised setting, but beneath that veneer of intrigue lies gameplay that just doesn’t cut it with the best. There’s just about enough to enjoy in this broken version of 80’s Seattle, just expect to be frustrated in digging out the treats.

I had hopes for Yesterday, but they were beaten out of me during its absurdly short playing time. I got actively angry at the game at several occasions just because of the leaps of non-logic I was supposed to take. In the heyday of adventures this would’ve been rightfully mocked, and in a year that contains The Blackwell Deception (one of the finest adventures I’ve ever played) and the upcoming Double Fine Adventure it’s just as unacceptable now. For £20 you’re getting a 3-5 hour adventure with a nonsensical story, poor characterisation, and ridiculously obtuse puzzles with bad signposting. Do you want that? I didn’t think so.

The Next Big Thing, then, is not exactly what it says on the tin - but we still got plenty of laughs out of it. If you’re on the prowl for a point-and-click adventure, this will easily tide you over until the next Telltale title comes knocking. Never before has a game produced a character who was so… disconcerting.