2025 has been a big year for point and click adventure games - a miniature renaissance of sorts. We've had The Drifter, oozing with John Carpenter influences; the return of detective Kathy Rain in Kathy Rain 2: Soothsayer, the brilliant Old Skies, and the nostalgic and spooky Foolish Mortals, just to name a few.
Thinking about supernatural mysteries, I remember watching and reading Goosebumps as a kid, and then, growing up watching Ghostbusters and The Shining - stories with the ability to draw you into a world on the periphery of life and death. But there's a limit to how involved you can feel - however good the movie or book.
That's where Ghost Town comes in. You're put in the shoes of a medium, to witness the deathly chill in the air with your own eyes; a spooky artistic immersion that can't be replicated outside of virtual reality without spending millions on physical sets.
My new series, Late to the Game, is where I visit past titles of any age that I've missed or interest me. This time, in preparation for my own Game of the Year coverage, I'll be reviewing a puzzle game from earlier this year, The Roottrees are Dead.
Goodnight Universe asks you what you'd do if you were a hyper intelligent baby with super powers. Would you sit and watch your family struggle? Or intervene at the risk of exposing your powers to the world?
All homes are private places - away from watching eyes - where we forge most of our memories. The Berlin Apartment inverts this notion of privacy by asking the question, what have the walls seen over the last century? Allowing us to embody the past tenants of one apartment and live through their memories.
If someone unfamiliar with Dispatch saw a non-interactive cutscene, they'd find it hard not to mistake it for a television show, when the animation quality, although a different style, is on par with a high quality Amazon Prime show like Invincible. As an admirer of both unique superhero stories and animation techniques, and when combined with excellent writing that makes tonal shifts effortlessly, Dispatch has a lot going for it - it's no surprise Dispatch already surpassed one million sales in ten days.
2025 has been a fantastic year for great video games, and Foolish Mortals is another one to make that top 10 best games of year list even more difficult to decide. It's already been an extraordinarily strong year for classic and interactive narrative adventure games with the phenomenal, The Drifter by Powerhoof, and the so far, excellent Dispatch by AdHoc. Also, it's heartening to see classic franchises Syberia and Simon the Sorcerer get new releases. But unlike those two, Inklingwood Studios have lovingly created a brand new intellectual property in Foolish Mortals. Upon first seeing it during its Kickstarter campaign, I had a feeling it could become something to watch. So, let's see what makes it so great.
American studio Sucker Punch Productions follows up the well-reviewed, Ghost of Tsushima - a tale of samurai Jin Sakai who is at odds with betraying his honourable ways to save his island from Mongolian invaders - with Ghost of Yotei, a more focused but equally engrossing tale of vengeance.
After the release of the continuation of Raz's story in the superb Psychonauts 2, Double Fine return with the smaller scoped, Keeper. Developed under the direction of Lee Petty, Keeper is a vastly different beast. Out now on Xbox Series, PC and available on Game Pass, Keeper is a mostly linear adventure with light platforming and simple puzzles to solve.
Growing up playing LucasArts classics Grim Fandango and the Monkey Island series, and others like The Longest Journey and a local favourite in the Broken Sword franchise, I will always have a fondness for point and click games. Every so often I make a point to check what upcoming games are releasing in this overlooked genre and I'm certainly glad I do.
Everyone can agree that 2025 has been an excellent and jam packed year for video games, and before we start thinking about the Game of the Year or this year's hidden gems, December still has a few more releases up its sleeve for us to look forward to before Christmas.
It's time to look ahead at some of the most interesting games coming in November. Looking back on September and October, it's been a busy few months for new game releases, and November isn't bucking the trend.
