A pulp adventure thriller – A murdered drifter awakens. Seconds before his death, he is back to life. Help him unravel a crazy web of conspiracies in this fast-paced point-and-click adventure. Steam


Language: Australian English with German subtitles

It's not hard to understand why The Drifter is being hailed as an adventure revelation: the game IS good, the puzzle chains are easy to follow, and even I, as a complete puzzle noob, hardly needed a walkthrough.
The story is very good in the first third, but then drifts too far off course in the last chapters 8 and 9, even if the player is spared another “enemy becomes friend” twist – crazy scientists, fine, but at some point it became too unrealistic for me. Even the nature and origin of the monsters can only be guessed at best.

The characters are very stereotypical, especially the unfriendly German Dr. Klein, who was once again very exaggerated.

The many deaths you could die were annoying, and I experienced them all – in the crypt, even in several variations. If you want to achieve the nine lives achievement, you'll have to save frequently. Why I didn't get the achievement “A Cup of Tea for Everyone” – I have no idea.

Conclusion

A fast-paced story that unfortunately drifts too far off course at the end. Given the murder and torture, the age rating of 12 is too low.

The Drifter: 8.5/10. Difficulty level:4/10.

~7 hours fast-paced p'n'c B-movie horror game.

It's the game I was most excited about this year. And it delivers.

Pros:
- It has a great atmosphere and style. The music and art are both great. I especially liked the lighting and hard shadows.
- The plot starts off strong. You don't have to wait for 90% of the game to start for creepy stuff to happen. You're thrown into the deep end from the beginning.
- I usually don't care about VO. But this time, the MC's narration adds a lot to the atmosphere. It's emotional and intense when it should be.
- The puzzles are logical and fun to solve. They're a little on the easy side. There is also a heavy emphasis on timed puzzles. I think they're a double-edged sword. On the one hand, they give rise to a feeling of danger and are awesome to solve on your first try. On the other hand, they can be frustrating if you get stuck on them multiple times, and some people may feel defeated when they finally beat them.
- Awesome flawed MC. He's not your standard beautiful, competent, strong character. Rather, he's a deeply flawed average Joe who gets thrown into serious trouble and desperately tries to survive. He is somewhat like John McClane, beaten time and time again, yet manages to come out on top in the end. For me, this is more badass than a character who effortlessly punches hustlers on street corners.

Cons:
- The game frequently fades to black, providing only narration of what is happening. I guess it's because of budget restraints, but I found it jarring, especially in contrast with the insane production value of the rest of the game.
- The game is divided into chapters. This means that every hour or so, the locations and items reset. Which makes the game easier than I would like it to be. At a few points, it feels more like a visual novel.

I played it back in July...

Finished "The Drifter"
7.7hrs on Steam
I really enjoyed the game.
It has a great story with some spicy language and violence (although it fades to black for some of the scenes), the pixel graphics are great.
Puzzles are fine, mostly the usual inventory and dialogue so make sure to talk to everyone about everything and use items on everything (usually it's pretty logical)
Voice work is excellent and I especially liked that the descriptive narrative is VERY dramatic.
Only thing I didn't like was that some of the puzzles are like Old Skies earlier in the year. Fast and dramatic but you will die and repeat if you get the puzzle wrong or slowly
Overall 4/5

It will be difficult to beat The Drifter for my personal Adventure Game of the Year.

The game frequently fades to black, providing only narration of what is happening. I guess it's because of budget restraints, but I found it jarring, especially in contrast with the insane production value of the rest of the game.

I see a lot of modern point-and-click games do this and it annoys the piss out of me. I get that time constraints and efforts sometimes means that you can't animate every single thing that happens on screen, but sometimes games just do it out of nowhere, even when nothing is happening that would require an animation.

Unpopular opinion, and still early in the game so not yet final, but so far:

  I find the game too easy. This is a huge red flag for my adventure game tastes. All of my favorite point and click games had puzzles I got stuck at for a good while... and the satisfaction of solving them eventually was beyond rewarding. Being stuck in a puzzle also gives you more time to dive in and immerse into the atmosphere of the places you visit.

Puzzles here seem uninspired and easy -just in the way of the story-, sure the story and atmosphere is good. But without good puzzles the experience resembles more that of a netflix series.

At least they were actual puzzles and not just a series of conversation trees...

Unpopular opinion, and still early in the game so not yet final, but so far:

  I find the game too easy. This is a huge red flag for my adventure game tastes. All of my favorite point and click games had puzzles I got stuck at for a good while... and the satisfaction of solving them eventually was beyond rewarding. Being stuck in a puzzle also gives you more time to dive in and immerse into the atmosphere of the places you visit.

Puzzles here seem uninspired and easy -just in the way of the story-, sure the story and atmosphere is good. But without good puzzles the experience resembles more that of a netflix series.

I found the Drifter to be a similar case to the Darkest Dungeon.

Both are fun, engaging games, but they are elevated to legendary status by their production value. However, the actual gameplay is the weakest part of those games.
Without the narrator, excellent music, a great art style and some of the best sound effects in video games, The Darkest Dungeon would be forgotten by now.

The same applies to The Drifter. If the same puzzles and gameplay were in a game with an average looking art style, I don't think it would be nearly as highly praised.

Unpopular opinion, and still early in the game so not yet final, but so far:

  I find the game too easy. This is a huge red flag for my adventure game tastes. All of my favorite point and click games had puzzles I got stuck at for a good while... and the satisfaction of solving them eventually was beyond rewarding. Being stuck in a puzzle also gives you more time to dive in and immerse into the atmosphere of the places you visit.

Puzzles here seem uninspired and easy -just in the way of the story-, sure the story and atmosphere is good. But without good puzzles the experience resembles more that of a netflix series.

I found the Drifter to be a similar case to the Darkest Dungeon.

Both are fun, engaging games, but they are elevated to legendary status by their production value. However, the actual gameplay is the weakest part of those games.
Without the narrator, excellent music, a great art style and some of the best sound effects in video games, The Darkest Dungeon would be forgotten by now.

The same applies to The Drifter. If the same puzzles and gameplay were in a game with an average looking art style, I don't think it would be nearly as highly praised.

 Highly agree with this

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By contrast, Thimbleweed Park hits the nail in the head on every aspect. You may or may not like the ending, but its just as perfect as it gets for how a classic point and click adventure should be. I feel it is vastly underrated right now but time will rightfully crown it as the perfect renaissance for the genre. Lots of indie devs have been inspired by it but the vast majority absolutely lack the puzzle craftsmanship that gave thimbleweed and classics their depth.