The Steam Sale started a few days ago and people have been doing their recommendations. The Adventure Games Podcast has a nice page with their recommendations, Miri Teixeiri has a good recommendation thread on bluesky, but now I want to do one because that’s what blogs are for. As usual, I also think you should consider buying games on Itch.io but they’re not doing a sale right now. I’m also missing a ton of stuff because I can only write so much, so if you enjoy these then keep looking around. Despite the occasional discourse about it being dead, there’s constantly new games coming out and I even wrote a post a few weeks ago about all the releases this year. So in no order really, here’s a list of recommendations that are more focused on recent releases.

Of course I have to start off by recommending Cyan’s remakes of Myst and Riven. I already loved those games and I think the remakes are an improvement on both. Riven was already a masterclass in world building in video games but I think the remake does a lot to make the game easier to get into. Just make sure the FMV option for the first game is turned on.

Wadjet Eye Games is one of the best modern point-and-click adventure game developers and they keep getting better with each game. I strongly recommend their two most recent games. Old Skies is a time travel story and Unavowed is an urban fantasy thriller that feels a lot like a Bioware game minus the combat, where you build a party before going on missions.

Speaking of Wadjet Eye Games, The Excavation of Hob’s Barrow is a horror adventure set in rural Victorian England and developed by Cloak and Dagger Games, another adventure game developer I’m a fan of.

Grundislav Games is another adventure game developer that I think should come up when people talk about folks doing great stuff and keeping the genre alive. Lamplight City is a steampunk detective adventure and Rosewater is a western set in an alternate 19th century world. Both games are in the same world but you do not need to play them in a specific order.

Perfect Tides is a point-and-click adventure about being a teen in the year 2000 by Meredith Gran, creator of the comic Octopus Pie.

The Crimson Diamond is a mystery adventure game inspired by Sierra’s Laura Bow series with an EGA color palette.

If you’re looking for something that will challenge you, Lucy Dreaming and Will of Arthur Flabbington are both nice choices and remind me of 90s adventure games from a difficulty level standpoint.

Don’t Escape: 4 Days to Survive is interesting because it should be something I hate. You can softlock yourself into a bad ending and you constantly have to make tough choices to survive but it works! Unlike a lot of old adventures where I put an asterisk next to the recommendation because it’s good despite those things, it’s an intentional part of the game’s design and that’s actually a good thing.

NORCO has some of the best writing in a video game in recent years and was my favorite game overall in 2022. It’s a sci-fi mystery set in an alternate southern Louisiana.

Return to Monkey Island is the most recent game in the Monkey Island series and I think it’s some of that crew’s best work. The game does some really interesting stuff mechanically to update the genre that I hope we keep seeing in other games, and I think the writing (yes, even the ending) are top notch too.

Some adventure games I’ve really liked playing with my kids are the dinosaur themed Zniw Adventure, Amanita’s Chuchel, and Frog Detective.

Thaumistry: In Charm’s Way is a great fantasy comedy text adventure made by an Infocom alumni. I’d recommend this one if you’ve never played a text adventure before because it’s very friendly to new players.

Kentucky Route Zero is one of my favorite games ever. It’s described as “a magical realist adventure game about a secret highway running through the caves beneath Kentucky” and the vibes and writing are perfect. If you do play this one, I really recommend playing it slowly over a sequence of nights for maximum vibes.

Cosmic Void is another adventure game dev I’m a fan of. I recommend their sci-fi space opera Blood Nova and horror adventure Devil’s Hideout.

Beyond The Edge Of Owlsgard reminds me so much of 90s adventure games but is very much doing its own thing too and features some great animation and pixel art.

Midnight Scenes is another series with great pixel art. The games are self contained horror adventures that can be played in a single sitting.

The Shapeshifting Detective is a murder mystery where you are able to shapeshift into various characters to get clues from people who will react to you differently based on who you are. It is a game packed with FMV, which has always been cool.

Immortality also uses FMV to have you investigate what happened to a missing actress through viewing clips of three unreleased films.

Hypnospace Outlaw is another favorite. You explore a 90s alternate internet and enforce moderation rules.

The Forgotten City is a mystery adventure where you find yourself in an ancient city and try to find out what’s going on through a timeloop and repeating the day.

Case of the Golden Idol has you solving deaths through a really unique interface where you gather clues and build a theory to what happened.

Phoenix Springs is an adventure I’ve praised a lot on social media. It’s a very surreal mystery adventure and I think the game mechanically does some really interesting stuff by using memories and thoughts as inventory items.

Darkside Detective is a series of very goofy supernatural point-and-click adventures.