Hi everyone,

I'm a solo developer from Austin, Texas, and I wanted to share a project I've completed called > Terminal.

It's a technological horror interactive fiction game that takes place entirely within a command line interface. It follows a young woman isolated during a frozen Midwest winter. Her computer is taken over by an unknown entity with access to her deepest secrets, speaking to her through the terminal.

The genre is something I call "Prairie Futurism," blending themes of technological isolation and identity erasure with a pastoral, snowy setting.

The full game is releasing soon, but the free demo is available on Steam now if you want to try it.

Steam Page 

Project Website

I'd love to hear what you think of the atmosphere.

Thanks, 
Dustin

One section of the old AG website that I really loved was the user reviews. Since I can’t find a similar section here (aside from the comments), and because I adore the Monkey Island series and have so much to say about what is, so far, the last game in the series, I’ll just leave this here.


Ron Gilbert, Dave Grossman and Tim Schafer created undoubtedly one of the best adventure game series of all time.  More than thirty years after the first game, Ron faced the extremely challenging task of returning to the canon - despite not being involved with the three Monkey Island games that followed Monkey Island 2.

So… how good is it?

THE GRAPHICS

Let’s start with the graphics. They’re not what I hoped for - but honestly, they haven’t been since Monkey Island 3. The style feels a bit too new-agey, and at times even cheap. That said, it does have a very distinctive look - almost like paper dolls or children’s drawings - highly stylized and far from bad. When the game was first announced, I openly criticized the art direction, but after finishing the game, I can’t really do that anymore, because it is undeniably unique. And when you think about it, every Monkey Island game had its own very different visual identity anyway - the first two were pixel art masterpieces, the third was Bill Tiller’s amazing hand-drawn take on the series, the fourth landed right in the middle of the 3D craze, and Telltale put its own spin on it in the fifth game with their recognizable engine. What's interesting is that graphics in RTMI even resembles the canceled and infamous Monkey Island movie style, with its sharp edges and a hint of cubism.
What I can criticize, though, is that the game doesn’t fully reach the potential of the style it chose. In some places, the colors feel bland, with little shading or depth, giving off a Flash-game vibe. The character models, too, could have used more detail and polish.

SOUND

Voice acting is another story. Dominic Armato once again does a fantastic job as Guybrush. To me, he actually sounds better here than in the Special Editions - he doesn’t rush his lines, every pronunciation is clear, and every joke lands exactly as it should. The rest of the cast is solid as well. Earl Boen was still alive at the time of production but had already retired, but fortunately, the replacement actor does a good job as LeChuck.
The music brings back those happy Caribbean vibes and instantly puts a smile on your face. The new themes aren’t as catchy as the ones we all know, but there are still moments where you’ll hear familiar melodies, reworked and remixed, that really fill one's heart with nostalgic joy.

STORY

The story is framed as an older Guybrush telling his son about his search for the Secret of Monkey Island, very much mirroring the search for Big Whoop in Monkey Island 2. In fact, the whole game feels very similar to MI2, mixed heavily with elements from the first game - both in story structure and overall design. You start on Mêlée Island, “Secret” becomes the big buzzword just like Big Whoop was on Scabb Island; you need to acquire a ship one way or another to reach Monkey Island, and then things spiral into more twists and turns as you travel freely between islands. This time, instead of Phatt and Booty, we get Terror Island (with echoes of Blood Island and its volcanic chaos), Scurvy Island (greener and more cheerful), and Brrr Muda Island, which has a nice touch of Norse mythology. Once the game opens up, you hit that golden-age Monkey Island feeling: dozens of locations, total freedom, and a noticeable spike in puzzle difficulty.

GAMEPLAY

Speaking of difficulty-the puzzles are mostly excellent, classic inventory-based brain teasers. I haven’t been reminded this much of Day of the Tentacle’s inventory madness in a long time. It’s not that you’re carrying an insane amount of items, but you’ll constantly be digging through your inventory, re-examining things, and mentally placing them back into the logic of the world until that little green light finally clicks on in your head. Only the best games in the genre pull that off. Even the maze sections are done like in the original game. On top of that, Return has one of the best hint systems the genre has ever seen - easily comparable to Keepsake. It feels organic, like a good friend who already finished the game is sitting next to you, gently nudging you in the right direction when you’re stuck. It’s not an overly difficult game, but I honestly dare anyone to finish it without using hints at least once. Some puzzles - especially the final one - are so delightfully devious that I could practically imagine Ron devilishly smiling while concocting them . Only once did I feel like the game didn’t give me quite enough clues, which is pretty acceptable for a game built on twisted logic like this.

The classic Monkey Island humor is definitely here, and it feels like a blend of comedy styles from all the previous entries. I found myself chuckling constantly, wondering where they even come up with this wild stuff - ghost chickens and ghost chicken feed aboard a ghost ship, skulls that play musical notes, an island literally covered in limes to fight scurvy, and so on. At several points, I was laughing out loud and literally applauding the writers.

WHAT COULD BE BETTER?

That said, the game does stumble in a few areas. Elaine is present, of course, but while it’s true that she’s not exactly in the spotlight -especially compared to the new villain, Captain Madison, who gets far more screen time, or even Carla as the new governor - she feels oddly unnatural. Almost too agreeable. The usual spark and character dynamic feel slightly off, and it’s hard to explain without touching on the game’s controversial ending. Yes, she’s actively pursuing her mission of battling scurvy, but she just doesn’t feel quite like the Elaine from earlier games. The same goes for Murray. Ron was in a tough position here - trying to realize his original vision while still acknowledging the three games made without him - and to his credit, he chose to incorporate characters and events from those titles. That deserves respect. Still, Murray is criminally underused. A character that became iconic among fans is basically on autopilot here. He appears briefly as an inventory item and then spends about 95% of the game as a ship ornament, barely reacting to the world or the story. Aside from a few funny threats toward Guybrush, he’s largely silent. It honestly feels like he’s only included because he has to be, while the Hint System itself feels more alive and context-aware than Murray does. As for LeChuck, it’s only by Chapter 5 that he truly starts to feel like the untouchable, menacing villain we know. For much of the game before that, he simply isn’t as intimidating as usual. The rest of the supporting cast is a mixed bag - some hits, some misses. Overall, the game feels a bit less “piratey” than the first two entries (though it’s not without its buccaneer merits) and leans more toward Escape from Monkey Island in terms of lore and tone.
Another issue is that some islands feel underdeveloped in terms of explorable locations - Scurvy and Terror Island especially. Many places are reduced to clickable hotspots like “Waterfall” or “Rock,” where you can’t actually go there, only trigger a comment. There are also fewer characters to interact with, which makes these islands feel less alive compared to the bustling social atmosphere of Mêlée Island.

THE ENDING

And then there’s the ending.
It didn’t surprise me, and it didn’t bother me either - though I know it did for many players. Honestly, I’d be more surprised if it did shock anyone who already finished LeChuck's Revenge. What it offers is a thoughtful, philosophical angle - one that adventure gamers can sit around a metaphorical campfire (preferably on Scabb Island) and debate for years. It deals with perspective, the passage of time, and nostalgia, all tangled together. And really, life itself is often an intersection of those very things. In that sense, I think the ending fits perfectly. To quote Ron and Dave themselves from the Scrapbook:

“The game is a goofy pirate adventure, the same as always, but also it’s a story about trying to recapture the past, with all its alleged youthful strength and glory. Guybrush will both succeed and fail at this. He will sort of get what he wants, but it won’t be what he expected.
I predict the same for us.”


My score is 79%, mainly because I’m comparing it to some of the best games ever made (Monkey Island 1, 2, and 3), which in many ways shaped my life.

Very chill individual.

Considering that both Ryan and I regard Broken Sword 1 and 2 as virtual masterpieces of point-and-click adventure history, we’ve never really given the following two episodes a fair crack of the whip.

I first tried Broken Sword 3: The Sleeping Dragon on its original release, but never got very far. A combination of blocky 3D graphics, awkward camera angles, and frustrating controls saw my attempts to thwart the Sleeping Dragon quickly ebb away until, eventually, I stopped playing altogether. When Broken Sword 4: The Angel of Death arrived a few years later, I didn’t even bother to check it out... the memory of the third episode had been that disappointing.
Now, with a few more years behind me and a shift in focus from player to player-creator, I decided it was time to give it another go. The fact that it was on sale on GOG didn’t hurt either...

So, twenty-odd years later, I finally finished the game. Below are my thoughts.

---

What a shock to the system those basic 3D models were back in 2003. With the benefit of a couple of decades, however, they’re not quite as bad as I remember. Well… not quite anyway.

The first thing I noticed this time around was the silky tones of Rolf Saxon, once again providing the personality of our everyman hero, George Stobbart. Nico Collard, unfortunately, didn’t enjoy the same continuity. In this instalment she’s voiced by Sarah Crook, who nonetheless does a good job of injecting her with some much-needed personality. With our leads established, the game can begin — but first, let’s head back to those graphics.

I actually liked the 3D model for George. His face and expressions felt like a strong 3D interpretation of his classic 2D look. He emoted well, and even his stubble was nicely handled (especially when contrasted with the higher-resolution but oddly worse face model in Broken Sword 4).

Nico, however, was not so lucky. Leaving aside for the moment her massive, sealed-at-the-end nostrils, there were so many issues with her arms and legs that I started to suspect she’d once been involved in a locomotive crash and escaped hospital before being properly discharged. Hands twisted at impossible angles, a neck that seemed only loosely attached to her head, and even her 90s flared trousers couldn’t contain those janky feet. It was obvious far more care had been taken with George’s model, something that extended to most of the supporting cast (Petra especially). None of this is game-breaking, the comfortable cushion of “playing an old game” helps a lot, but it reminded me exactly why I wasn’t impressed the first time around.
Thankfully, the game itself tells a solid story spanning several continents, as you’d expect. I enjoyed poking around a hugely empty Glastonbury (if only the real Glastonbury was as easy to get around), where I felt some of the game’s best puzzles lived, and the Congo sections had a nice overall feel, injecting a bit of classic Indy-style exploration. Puzzles that required both characters to work in tandem were a great addition, and I particularly liked the tiled floor puzzle in the Omega Temple section.

However… crates.

With the success of Tomb Raider and other 3D adventure games, a lot of time here is spent pushing crates backwards and forwards. I mean, really a lot. At first it was a novelty, “Okay, this is new for a Broken Sword game.” Eventually, though, every time I entered a new area and spotted a crate, I would tense up and expect the worst. If I approached one and no interaction icon appeared, it was a genuine moment of relief.
It was too much. Far, far too much. I’d happily have accepted the game being an hour shorter if it meant never dragging another crate. The same goes for the climbing, shimmying, and jumping. Aside from their average execution, these sections felt like traditional puzzles had been cut and replaced with the drudgery of a very slow action game. There was rarely a point to them beyond making progress harder... usually through boredom.

The sneak mechanic fares no better. Some of the most frustrating moments involved sneaking around armed guards in a temple, timing your movements to avoid getting shot while inching your way across the screen. Worse still, once you finally reached the other side, the game often sent you back to do it all again to solve the next part of the puzzle. Frustration levels steadily rising…
If I had to single out my least favourite element, though, it would be quick-time events.
I hate them. Sorry, I really do. They weren’t especially difficult, none took more than a couple of attempts, but their very presence was off-putting.

On a more positive note, I enjoyed the villains, all of them, and the late-game twist was nicely handled. It was good to see recurring characters and so many call-backs to the original adventure, while the new characters felt very much in classic Revolution style. Plenty of cheeky winks and one-liners pop up throughout the dialogue, raising both smiles and memories, which I have absolutely no problem with.

As I’ve mentioned before, the fixed camera angles could work against you, particularly in tighter spaces, and more than once I only accidentally discovered that there was more to explore in an area than first appeared.

The GOG version replaces mouse or controller input with keyboard controls. This worked reasonably well most of the time, but could lead to some awkward input errors during sneaking sections or quick-time events. Not game-breaking, but definitely annoying.

It doesn’t sound like I liked it, does it?

Yes, Broken Sword 3 has plenty of problems, and yes, a lot of frustration comes from the design choices the developers made. But for the time, it’s understandable. Revolution were clearly trying to appeal to the growing 3D action-adventure crowd, for better or worse, and assumed borrowing those mechanics was the way to do it.

Overall, though, there was enough here to keep me playing right through to the end. It was genuinely enjoyable following another chapter in George and Nico’s story, and the overall narrative of this instalment holds together very well. Not everything worked... but enough did to make it a worthy addition to the saga.

If I were to be so arrogant as to rate it, I’d give it a 6 out of 10. If I were that arrogant.

Now, on to Broken Sword 4: The Angel of Death. I’ve heard mixed things about this one, and knowing in advance that George and Nico wouldn’t have any new adventures for quite a few years afterwards doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence. Still, only time, and gameplay, will tell.

Has the game always been this bad? There are some things that should be kept as fond memories and never touched again.

You click and click and click just to get Kate to move a little bit. Even on paths where you can only go forward, sometimes twice in quick succession. And then there's the endless road in the village...

If I don't stop now, I'll get mouse arm. If I ever get my hands on a Steam Deck or a controller, I'll try again, but not before then.

In this video myself, Jack and many of our staff pour out our soul offering a heartfelt thank you while looking back on the genre in 2025. 
I focus on th incredible contributions from our incredible staff. Jack looks back on the games of 2025 while Johnny, Micah, Sean and Sam gush about their experiences in adventure gaming in 2025. 

Lets spread the love in this thread. 

What are your favourite 3 games of all time, from any genre?

I'll kick off:

Recent: The Witness

Older: Shenmue

Childhood: Captain Blood (on the Amstrad CPC)

Surely a strange question from someone who doesn't have a favorite food, color, or anything else. (I believe that all things have their place and are too different to rank.)

What were your favorite adventures and games in 2025?

Mine were The Drifter and The Lost Crown, and even though I see The Drifter in the lead.

Best games: The Drifter, Herdling, and Winter Burrow, with Herdling at the top of my list: But as I already wrote: You simply can't compare the games

Is "Best adventures / games, you have played in 2025" oder Best adventures / games, you  played in 2025" right? I am not sure.

The word “pastime” should only have one T. 

Did we miss any? We'd love to hear your games and the order in which you'd have ranked them.

https://adventuregamehotspot.com/feature...-2000-2025